Courageous High Res

Description
It is 12 years since the end of the Federation / Dominion War.
Starfleet and the Klingon Empire, even with their newest allies �" the Romulans, had realised that if any further threat were to emerge against their infant alliance, that only a mere fraction of vessels present during the previous struggle, could possibly mount any opposition.While manufacturing efforts were still thrown into rebuilding the next generation of combat vessels, heavy weapons construction and major planetary defences, all parties were privy to the fact that smaller, more compact vessels were needed during this time to fill the short-fall of their respective fleets. With this in mind, all three powers were invited to participate in a practical exercise to produce a cheap design that would only require a small compliment of crew but that could equal, and repel the firepower of some of the remaining large battleships still in service.

The Klingons presented their newest additon to their fleet �" the K’Voragan �" a vessel of considerable power �" measuring some 420mtrs �" but was quickly deemed as too expensive crew-wise to mass produce. The Romulans, while producing an smaller ship was later discovered to be too heavily overpowered and less effective than the existing Defiant-class

Relying on the hugely successful Defiant class that had proved such strong opposition against Dominion forces, Starfleet pursued a similar concept but even more ferociously powerful than its predecessor. A line that the Federation and Starfleet had normally abstained from due to diplomatic reasons.
The Courageous-class starship - the first being the USS Courageous NX- 92413 (later re-registered NCC after trials) was a vessel that quickly impressed all observers during trial runs. Her shear aggressiveness and devastating firepower in such a compact design was once commented as being ‘obscene’ according to a renowned diplomat of Vulcan origin…..

Consisting of four heavy forward pulse phasers, 2 four and 2 aft photon/quantum torpedo launchers and 360 degree coverage type XII phaser arrays, the Courageous was awarded the contract. The Klingon Empire, however, still produced the K’Voragan in limited numbers, while the Romulans abandoned their ill-fated design in favour of the new Type-C class warbird.