Keldon-Class Cruiser

The Keldon-Class Cruiser is a Cardassian Union starship class, of the cruiser type.

History

Dating back to the Federation-Cardassian Border War of the 2350s and 2360s, the Keldon-class was developed originally to replace the Galor as the backbone of the Cardassian fleet. Serving as both a replacement ship and a potential upgrade path for existing Galors currently in service, the class looked promising to the Central Command, and the prototype was expedited.

Unfortunately, as the Keldon came online, it soon became clear that as designed, the cost was simply not worth the improvements that were offered. This issue mostly came about due to the requirement that it all needed to be compatible with the existing Galor, and as such this limited just how much the Keldon could do. While a few ships were built as Keldon from the ground up, the project was eventually shelved, as the conservative Central Command favored more Galors as weight of numbers rather than expending more resources on a marginal improvement.

After the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole and the Dominion, the Obsidian Order joined with the Tal Shiar to perform a pre-emptive strike on their homeworld. Needing a ship with exceptional capabilities, the Obsidian Order took the plans for the Keldon and remade them, incorporating newer technologies by abandoning the idea of upgrading existing ships. These “advanced” Keldon-class ships were completely destroyed in the Omarion Nebula, but the Central Command took notice of the ships they had illegally created.

There were those who wished to take the designs and build them to serve the Union, but these plans were scrapped when the Klingons attacked, and were forgotten during the Dominion War and its aftermath. Eventually, in the build-up prior to the First General War, these plans were dusted off and the Keldon-class officially took its place in the fleet of the Cardassian Union.

Recommissioned after the Central Command returned to power, the Keldon is not as prevalent as the ubiquitous Galor class, but nevertheless receives periodic upgrades and is a formidable opponent on the battlefield, often anchoring Cardassian fleets as a command ship or serving as the center of a detachment with Galor and Hidekis alongside.

Specifications

Specifications
Type:	Cruiser
Length:	500 Meters
Beam:	300 Meters
Height:	90 Meters
Mass:	approx. 900,000 Metric Tons
Decks:	15
Crew Compliment:	Standard: 100 Officers, 400 Enlisted Emergency: 750
Warp Speed:	Type: 1 Main Warp Engine (Unknown Type) Cruise Speed: 6 Sustainable Speed: 8.2 Emergency Speed: 9.6 (12 hour automatic shutdown)
Impulse Engines:	Type: 1 Main Impulse Engine, 1 Secondary Impulse Engines Speed: .9 C
Defensive Systems:	Standard Cardassian Shield Generator (MSG-1 Equivilant)
Armament:	Phasers: 8 Spiral-Wave Disruptors (4F,4A) Torpedoes: 4 Launchers (2F,2A) Payload: 100 Photon Torpedoes
Other Capabilities:	Cloaking Device (Non-standard; not found on all observed ships)
Computer System:	Cardassian Military Computer, Possibly Type 7-A (2400 development)
Tractor/Repulsor:	2 Main Tractor/Repulsor Beams, 8 Docking Tractors, 3 Shuttle Tractors
Shuttlecraft:	1 Bay: 15 Fighters
Sensors:	Corolnar Technologies Type 8 or equivilant