By Nathan Warner
A Federation patrol responds to an attack by unidentified assailants on a colony in the Gamma Quadrant
Two Defiant class starships swooped down through the turbulent atmosphere of a newly colonized world in the Gamma Quadrant on their way to defend a joint Federation/Klingon colony from an unknown attacker on the planet’s surface.
In the years following the Dominion War, the Federation acted on the lessons learned from that costly conflict by passing the Deterrent Directive. Clearly, walking softly had not “deterred” some very real threats in the galaxy. Starfleet needed to begin carrying a bigger stick—wising up from its “golden age” before the conflict, but without compromising its charter of peaceful exploration. Admiral Allard Hayes was given the mission of assessing the fleet to determine the best method of meeting Starfleet’s defense goals. He began by analyzing the extensive data on ship performance during the war.
Trade studies of existing Starfleet vessels revealed that the Defiant class had the highest combat value for its size and build, by a factor of 2. The ship was selected for the role and underwent a valuable refit program, putting it into full production.
Their mission parameters were that they would serve in small two-ship squadrons as escorts for weaker capitol ships navigating through disputed territories and dangerous terrain—as well as rapid emergency responders and "scramble" defense forces on the Federation frontier. Being smaller ships, without all the capabilities for extended missions, they were assigned to operate out of Starbases.
In this way, the Defiant class served an invaluable role in reviving a new golden age for Starfleet, and they became a common sight patrolling trade routes, investigating reports of suspicious activity, and escorting civilian ships through dangerous regions of space.
The crews of these “Wolf Packs” shared a unique loyalty to each other as their camaraderie was forged in the heat of combat, and they bonded between missions over Holo-adventures back at their Starbase posting. To the Klingons, they became known as the “North Wind,” as their arrival on the battlefield chilled even a heart of fire.
