Pointless speculation v.2.1: K'Vort Battlecruiser

Earth Year 2293, the klingon industrial moon of Praxis is destroyed, with it, most of the shipyards in t he Qo'noS system, including the Empire's primary shipyard for the production of capital level vessels. this destruction and the subsequent emergency that encompassed a disaster that in the end killed over 2 billion Klingon civilians and savaged the 'brain trust' of Klingon ship design and fabrication also destroyed much of the Klingon Navy's reserve fleets, leaving only the active 'border' fleets and a few vessels that were in transit for various reasons and missions.

Knowing this, planners in what remained of the Klingon High Command, in an act of desperation, gave the blue light to a crash programme to bulk up the remaining fleet and provide a (slightly cheaper) vessel to fill the ranks of the Cruser command.

The requirements were simple: the vessels had to be able to be produced in large numbers from prefabricated parts at any yard capable of handling corvette or larger vessels.

the prefabricated parts, in turn, needed to be simple enough to build using civilian, or even repair station level manufacturing.

the ships had to be functional, and they had to integrate known factor technologies while providing adequate firepower and versatility to cover several roles that more specialized vessels, vessels no longer available to be produced with the loss of Praxis, were filling prior to the disaster.

Finally, hte designs had to be moved from drawing board to flight test in under six months-the estimated period before three of the Empire's critical fleets would need to begin refits that were no longer possible until new heavy yards could be constructed.

there was no 'trials period', because there was no time for extensive testing, there would be only a review of proposals and an issuance of funding to produce prototypes-the prototype that passed the Imperial Navy's abbreviated review first, and could be put into production most quickly, would be the design that would be adopted.

the requirement for this stopgap cruiser would include a shorter service duration, as planners assumed the Empire would be able to construct yards capable of handling the Kamarag design (which had just completed phase one trials and was slated for second phase testing prior to the explosion), thus placing that advanced ship into production and obviating the need for the ersatz replacements.

The K'Vort was never meant to serve as long as it did.

[to be continued]