USS Skofnung
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- "Some defeats are only instalments to victory."
- —Jacob Riis
USS Skofnung (NCC-77448) is a Saber-class Federation starship currently assigned to Fourth Fleet's Task Force 47. As part of the Ascension Emissary Division, her missions focus on policing and coast guard actions on behalf of both Starfleet and the unaligned governments that they support throughout the Thomar Expanse.
Service History
Launched in 2382, Skofnung's construction saw a number of improvements over earlier waves of Saber-Class vessels following review of their performance in the Dominion War and improvements rolled out following Voyager's time in the Delta Quadrant. With partial bio-neural circutry and refitted sensor systems to improve narrow band sensor facilities and exotic scanning capabilities, Skofnung was launched with the a focus on hunting, trailing and securing fugitive starships within Federation territory.
Her early service only proved her modifications to be beneficial and Skofnung became a favourite of Starfleet Security in pursuing fugitives operating near the Cardassian Border and the Former Demilitarised Zone. Her hardy construction and high manuverability allowed her to continue pursuits into locations where bigger or more delicate vessels may need to turn back, and she regularly received missions within the Badlands and the largely unmonitored and densely packed asteroid fields that are the preferred hideout for pirate activity.
In 2402, Skofnung was transferred to the Ascension Emissary Division as part of its efforts to develop local support throughout the Thomar Expanse. Their work is now focused on maintaining order in the region as more and more previously unaligned planets begin consider joining the Federation, the first step of which is accepting their laws.
Configuration
Fitted with additional narrow band sensor palettes and a number of standalone bio-neural circuitry processors, Skofnung can quickly assess large amounts of narrow field data for ships that may be hiding in plain sight. Over time, this has also developed into a number of sensor modifications tailored to spotting the tell tale signs of older cloaking devices which now threaten to filter onto the black-market following the dissolution of the Romulan Star Empire. The installation of the Skyhold section has necessitated a reduction in Skofnung's long term storage, reducing it's deployment length even further. Within their field of operations, however, they are rarely seperated from larger supply vessels and stations and the reduction was considered acceptable.
Skyhold
Located at the rearmost portion of Deck 1, in a space normally reserved as a cargo bay, is Skofnung's secret weapon. Several rows of bio-neural processing units surround a dedicated secondary computer core with a single purpose, to comb through the volumous sensor data from her modified sensor palettes for any trace sign of fugitive starships. This computer core receives a copy of data gathered by the ship's systems but is entirely dedicated to processing this data without compression, taking advantage of the complex network of bioneural circuitry to filter data in a fraction of the time of the ship's single standard computer.
Crewed by several expert technicians with specialities including starship propulsion, cloaking technology and electronic countermeasures, Skyhold is the high tower from which Skofnang might scour the skies.