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DEDICATION
PLAQUE
HISTORY FILE
The original Federation
Starship USS Thunderchild, NCC 63459 was commissioned in 2370 AD as one of
the first Akira Class starships. It was named for the H.M.S.
Thunderchild, a fictional British warship from H.G. Well's clasic novel
The War of the Worlds. Construction took 1.7 years, and on Stardate
48512.5 the ship was commissioned under the command of Captain Samik.
The Thunderchild's first mission was one of exploration - an information
gathering mission, in the area near the Delta-Alpha border. The
Thunderchild was recalled to Starbase once every three years for crew
evaluations and transfers. Durinig one of those callbacks the ship was diverted to assist in Earth defense during the Dominion War. Following the war, over the next twelve years after the
Dominion retreat, the Thunderchild had two Captains, first Captain Tarmac,
and then Captain Storm Jackson and was utilized in maintaining the treaty with the Dominion in Operation Peacekeeper. Turnover in crew averaged 35% per
three-year period, over the twelve years of Operation Peacekeeper.
The Thunderchild was returned to the alpha quadrant upon completion of the
fourth rotation as a member of the Peacekeeper Fleet in 2387, and
reassigned to Blue Fleet's Saladin Station. In July of 2392, in defense of the
Federation colony of New Westhaven, the Thunderchild was destroyed by
Orion renegades. All lives were lost, but the Thunderchild had
managed to last long enough to destroy six Orion ships before being
brought down; and the battle lasted long enough that Starfleet was able to get
reinforcements into the system in time to save the New Westhaven colonists from
enslavement.
In May 2393, the Federation Council decided by simple majority, in
recognition of the outstanding service to Federation principles and in
recognition of the sacrifice made to uphold those principles by the crews
of the USS Thunderchild NCC 63459, that Starfleet should always have a
Thunderchild in the active fleet. Starfleet decided to honor the
memory of the original Thunderchild with a recreation of the ship in the
Akira class, with the same registry as the original ship, NCC 63459.
The new Akira, a faithful recreation of USS Thunderchild NCC 63459, was
completed in February 2397. All internal systems were state of the
art for 2394 technology, but the external skin and deck layouts were
faithful to the original Akira designs.
Her first Captain when the 25th Century Thunderchild left Utopia Planetia
in February 2397 was Commander Pavel Milanovic, whose tenure lasted the
trip from Utopia to Starbase 249, where the Thunderchild met her new
Captain Arkana. The THUNDERCHILD assigned to Bluefleet, Captain Arkana was
the commanding officer of the USS Thunderchild until 2403, succeeded by Captain
Viktor Ramius, who was Thunderchild Captain from 2403 to 2411. During
these years, the Thunderchild was sent on many important Blue Fleet missions in the
Neutral Zone. Due to the frequent missions to Romulus, Captain
Ramius was honored by the Romulans, and became one of the first Starfleet officers
to also hold an honorary rank of Sub-Commander in the Romulan Star Empire. The Thunderchild's current
Captain is Captain Sherdrick 'Ced' Gatewood, and the ship has served Starfleet until their disappearance on April 7, 2412.
In late 2411, the USS THUNDERCHILD was redeployed out of BLUE FLEET and
assigned to ODGREEN FLEET, Special Projects Division. ODGREEN FLEET was based
out of Starbase Kenai, and Special Projects Division is headquartered in Paris on Earth.
In early 2412, the THUNDERCHILD was sent back to Utopia Planetia Shipyards in orbit of Mars,
for a complete refit, to accommodate the new assignment to the demands of serving the Special Projects Division. The ship disappeared just 3 million kilometers from Earth on April 7, 2412. StarFleet has investigated the disappearance for the last seventeen months, with no answers as to what happened. The investigation is still open as of November 10 2413.
In September of 2413, StarFleet Command began consolidation of two Fleets - GREEN FLEET and ODGREEN FLEET. By November 1, 2413, the consolidation was complete.
While the investigation into what happened to the THUNDERCHILD continues, the work of ODGREEN DIVISION continues.
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