Federation Century Class

## History

Representing a high degree of refinement of a number of systems first introduced in the 2370s, the Century-class is a fast, efficient successor to the Galaxy-class explorer that she has supplanted. Compared to her cousins the Sovereign and the Odyssey, the Century is the smallest of the three modern explorer classes being built by Starfleet, in terms of both size and crew complement, but is the one most closely-aligned with Starfleet’s core exploration directive. They are a rare sight within the Federation, as they are almost always sent on long-duration exploration missions on the fringes of known space.

Construction on the USS Century began construction in mid-2377 with the keel laid down at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. Construction of the vessel was slow and steady allowing room for trial and error to install and properly configure all the automated systems associated with her design. Since no Starfleet vessel beforehand was geared towards such high automation, and many of the ship’s vital systems were tied into this method, precision was necessary to ensure the ship functioned without a critical error after launch.

What would have been a standard production timeline for a prototype of the Century’s nature was significantly extended, due to needing to test and re-test these systems before being brought fully online. In late 2378, the ship’s computer came online, and in a matter of months had become self-aware. With the assistance of the automation protocols in place, the rest of the construction and outfitting continued unabated. The high level of automation cut an estimated six months off the outfitting and construction process.

In mid-2379, the class’ namesake and prototype had finished construction and outfitting. The plaque was put in the place of honor, and a crew was selected for the shakedown cruise. With such lofty goals as had been put in place for this new class, the criterion for the cruise were extensive. In addition, the Admiralty wanted to ensure beyond a shadow of a doubt that the automation systems installed wouldn’t cause a cascade system-wide failure.

The Century performed admirably, and exceeded all of the Admiralty’s expectations, though the full shakedown of the prototype took the better part of two years. In 2382, the USS Century was officially commissioned, and another Century class vessel, the USS Constitution, was put into production. Eventually, by 2385, Starfleet Command was satisfied with the overall performance, automation and computer systems of their two Century-class vessels and ordered a batch of six starships to begin production in 2386 with others to follow.

Full-scale production of the Century-class called an end to production of the Galaxy-class design, with the last one leaving McKinley Station in 2385. With the Sovereign-class and Odyssey-class ships also in production as more specialized vessels, production was set at a ratio of three Century-class ships to two Sovereign-class ships to one Odyssey-class ship in the 2390s, setting the Century up to be the leading explorer for the 25th Century.

After the destruction of the *U.S.S. Enterprise-F* in 2419, Starfleet Command began consideration of her replacement. Due to the circumstances of her destruction, command of this new Enterprise would not be offered to Captain *Va'Kel Shon* who faced an inquiry into possible negligence regarding the destruction of the Enterprise-F.

The *Starfleet Board of Inquries* found several design flaws in the Enterprise-F which could have attributed to the ship's destruction and it was decided to return to a simpler design, as a result the Century-Class was chosen to be serve as the class for the new *U.S.S. Enterprise-G* and was launched in late 2420.