Deck Listing
ISS Steadfast – When the Imperial Starfleet's 29th Fleet and other survivors of the "Great Downfall War" reorganized into the Terran First Order in 2290, the nascent order's fleet consisted of classes such as the Constitution, Excelsior, and Miranda classes. At the time of its founding, these classes served the First Order well, especially in its campaign to secure its territory. However, as the decades went on, and both Klingon and Cardassian technology advanced, the order's ships were quickly outclassed. Sixty years after its founding, the Terran First Order recognized the need to upgrade its fleet, and turned to the alternate universe first discovered by the crew of the ISS Enterprise NX-01 in the 22nd century, and whose meddling had led to the First Order's predicament. So, it was only fair for the Order to do some meddling in return...These earliest infiltrations of the United Federation of Planets were rather sloppy, and as a result, the Order lost quite a few infiltrators to the Federation, but those who managed to come back had done their Order a great service; recovering plans for a class of Federation starship known as the "Amabassador class" that was more powerful and advanced than anything the Order had in its current fleet. When the first warship based on these designs, the ISS Resolute, was pressed into service, First Order leadership was most pleased by the results.
As the Order undertook more missions into the "Prime" Universe, their methods became cleaner: Soon, it was no longer enough to simply pose as one's "Prime counterpart", as leaving the counterpart alive greatly increased an infiltrator's chances of being discovered and ratted out. As such, the first objective of any infiltrator became locating and "disposing of" their "counterpart." If a Starfleet officer of the "Prime" Universe experienced a sudden, unexplained personality change, it became highly likely that the officer native to the alternate universe was already gone, and a Terran First Order infiltrator had taken their place.
In 2365, First Order infiltrators brought back a set of schematics for a class of Federation starship called the "Galaxy Class", at the time in use as Starfleet's premier starship class, with the Federation's flagship, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), belonging to the class. While the theoretical power of the Galaxy class was impressive, the sheer cost of building, crewing, and fielding the class was hard to ignore. After an exhaustive survey of how best the Federation's "glorified cruise ship" could possibly be reverse-engineered into a fieldable warship, the Galaxy class was deemed too "needlessly wasteful" for the Order to produce, and for the time being, the design was shelved.
Fifteen years later, however, First Order infiltrators would bring back a most interesting curiosity: Discarded plans for an upgraded version of the Galaxy class, tentatively titled the "Galaxy X Class." While the proposed dreadnought cruiser would serve the Federation no purpose, for the Terran First Order, it was a godsend. The addition of a third engine nacelle greatly increased the ship's capable speed, but what the First Order was most interested in was the ventral phaser cannon located under the saucer section. For decades, the Terran First Order had sought the capability of ultimate retribution: The ability to destroy entire planets. And now, the proposed phaser cannon brought their dream closer to reality, and development on the "Axial Superphaser" became one of high priority.
Following the successful recovery of the plans for the "Galaxy X-Class", the First Order authorized construction of these new warships, classed as "Star Destroyers", under the codename "Thrusting Spear." An illusion to the final name chosen for the class: "Galaxy-Xyston," combining the name of the original class with that of the upgraded class' lead ship, the ISS Xyston.
Construction of the first prototype, NCC-52180, began at the First Order-controlled Kuat Ship Yards. Despite some setbacks in implementing advances in First Order automation technology to field a ship of that size with a reduced crew compliment than what the plans originally called for, the prototype was completed by early 2382, and began testing later that year.
The new Star Destroyer was received favorably by the test crew, comprised of a mix of First Order personnel from both their older, slower legacy ships as well as those based on newer stolen designs from the Federation. The Axial superphaser was tested on a dead moon at a low power setting, causing catastrophic damage to the moon. As one captain put it: "If the Axial superphaser were used at full power, this ship may very well be able to break a planet, if not destroy it completely." The ability of the ship to split itself into two smaller vessels via a process called "saucer separation" in the plans, was also well received, and the tactical advantage it offered was also noted.
Following conclusion of the testing, the prototype was toured by members of the First Order Central Command for final inspection and delivery, which saw the Terran First Order take formal possession of the vessel, as well as authorization to construct future vessels of the class. NCC-52180 was shortly thereafter pressed into service as the Imperial Starship Xyston. The first of the Terran First Order's wonder weapons to launch the order's bid to reclaim the rightful throne of Terra and a monkey wrench in the plans of the young Terran Empire.