How about some 'official' Orion national ships? The main one I am thinking off would be the GCA, an obvious variant of the WCA just as the DD is a direct upgrade of the WDD. I can see the design being made, but the question is if it would be a NFP or UNV.

Also:

Goverment Cruiser (OCA): A design based on the WCA/GCA upgraded to full GW technology. This would be more of an idea for a fully independent Orion nation.

Civilian Salvage Cruiser (CSAL): A Salvage cruiser without the 'pirate' mods. A civilain Tug based on the one in R9 would go along side this. This would be set along with the OCA.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 01:00 am: Edit

The only Orion government ship published so far is the DD in R8.

It's also their police ship; the Orions police their own space, the normal Fed police forces have no jurisdiction in Orion space, apparently.

They also have the DV, which is a DD modified to be a police carrier.

The DD isn't based off of the Pirate designs.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 09:41 am: Edit

I know that Mike. I was proposing some other (built and mostly unbuilt) designs to go alongside the DD. I do have Y1 and R8 (and pretty much every other SFB product), so I know the history.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 02:52 pm: Edit

I think the CSAL has been proposed before.

The Orions might have built the OCA after they went 'neutral', but I don't see them doing it before (or after).

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 04:09 pm: Edit

I do not think "Official Orion Government Police/National Guard Ships" would necessarilly look anything like Orion Pirate Ships. The original destroyer did not, and there might have been something that the government built to support the destroyer. It largely only matters for Piracy (even the Orion province is subject to piracy). The ships would have no effect on Federation and Empire, because they would not leave the province, would surrender when the Klingons appeared, and probably be destroyed by the Klingons before they retreated (to keep the resurgent Federation from trying to force the Orions to be more active in the war).

You can think of the Orion National Guard/Police forces as the ships of France (NOT AN INSULT TO FRANCE HERE), i.e., the British Navy wound up attacking the French Navy after the fall of France to keep them from falling into German Hands, and the American Navy wrecked the Jean Bart (battleship) when U.S. Forces invaded France's North African possessions in 1942.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 07:09 pm: Edit

SPP:

I think you might look at the history a bit closer, the Jean Bart managed to survive the war, and was commpleted (if you beleive the link: http://www.answers.com/topic/french-battleship-jean-bart ) in 1955.


Note the French sister Battleship to the Jean Bart was overhauled in the US during the War.

Using the pattern you suggested, the Federation (to follow the analogy) would repair and upgrade a number of Orion National Guard/Police Force ships to "help the war effort!"

The US repaired and rebuilt and number of ships and port facilities in North africa after the 1942 invasion... and upgraded and renovated the Aircraft Carrier Bearn if Memory serves me correctly.

Even better... if any wrecked Orion ships were discovered in the Orion Cluster after the Coalition retreated... it might be possible that "brothers of the Anarchist" might include some Orion hulls in Federation Service.

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 07:54 pm: Edit

I think Orion ships in Fed service would make a pretty short BoA article: Replace photons with, er, photons.

I'm not sure what the Feds would upgrade in the war or why. They wouldn't have time to do anything between Day 1 and the Orions going neutral, and if there's anything left when the Klinks leave in what, Y180?, it'll be obsolete and not worth upgrading.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, January 11, 2008 - 05:02 am: Edit

I think the best Orion defense unit was probably their PF/INT flotilla's....

Non-Pirate versions, of course...

SPP: He's saying that the OCA would be 'inspired' by the old Orion WCA, just like their DD was 'inspired' by the old WDD.

By Reid Hupach (Gwbison) on Friday, January 11, 2008 - 10:03 am: Edit

Dosen't the Orion history claim that the Orion pirate ships were originally the Orion military ships that went "independant" when the Orions joined the Federation.

So therefore Orion National guard ships may closely resemble the Pirate ships in design, but not Neccisarily in operating systems.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, January 11, 2008 - 11:59 am: Edit

Actually, the 'original' Orion Pirate ships were government YDD's.

The YCR/YLR showed up later after the 'mutiny'; the Orion government never used any ships based off the YCR/YLR hulls.