Deep Space 2
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Deep Space 2 is a Unity-class Federation starbase currently assigned to Fourth Fleet. Starfleet uses the base primarily to maintain the Federation's borders with the Gorn Hegemony, deploying a small, outdated fleet of vessels that constantly patrol between Deep Space 2 and the Cestus system.
Design & Layout
Operations
Promenade
History
Deep Space 2 is one of the oldest stations in the Federation's history in terms of location and longevity. The moniker has been passed on several times. However, the station itself has been replaced several times over the years through modernization programs.
The Original Station
The first Deep Space 2 was built shortly after the founding of the Federation in 2172 in orbit of the uninhabited, M-class fourth planet of the Tormerac system. It was notable at the time for being only the second starbase, only after Deep Space 1 itself, built outside of the core Federation territories of the four founding members. It indeed encapsulated the moniker of a 'Deep Space' station at the time by being a far-flung frontier station. The original design mirrored that of many of the early starbases and was part of the Tucker-class starbase line.
After its commissioning, the station went on to be heavily involved in exploration along the much more expansive Klingon border. Deep Space 2 was the primary resupply station and the last safe haven for many Starfleet vessels departing for the great unknown beyond the safety of Federation space. Additionally, the station also found itself under siege numerous times over the years by various enemies of the Federation and continued to repel those aggressors.
However, as the Federation continued its expansion, by 2204 Deep Space 2 was no longer a frontier starbase resupplying deep space vessels but was rather a bastion of Federation strength in the area of dozens of blossoming colonies.
The Replacement
By the time the Fleet Standardization Program of the 2260s began, Deep Space 2 was already nearly 100 years old and in a tactically unsound position due to its age. The decision was made to sunset the station and use it for raw materials to build a new Deep Space 2 directly next to it as a Watchtower-class station, one of the latest designs of Starfleet at the time.
Construction on the new Deep Space 2 finished in 2267, just in time for the official first contact between the Federation and Gorn Hegemony at Cestus III. Following first contact, retaliatory raids for the Federation settlement of Cestus III took place all across the Federation-Gorn border. Deep Space 2 was in a prime tactical position to deploy and supply several task groups of starships along the Federation side of the border and drive back Gorn incursions. Expecting the potential for a large scale assault of the Gorn into Federation territory, Starfleet also reassigned the USS New Jersey and USS Yorktown to assist in patrolling the border. Starfleet believed that two Constitution-class starships within the task groups at the border would show the Gorn that Starfleet was serious about any threat that the Gorn may pose.
After a few years of stalemate, it became clear that the Gorn threat was exaggerated within the halls of Starfleet, likely due to the heightened tensions across all Starfleet borders. The allotment of starships dwindled to a more peacetime-appropriate deployment patrolling along the border. As the years became decades, and direct conflict with the Gorn seemed more and more unlikely, Starfleet continued to redivert assets assigned to operate out of Deep Space 2. The station remained important to Starfleet's humanitarian, economic, and political interests in the entire area, but its importance as a bastion of Starfleet's tactical prowess and strength continued to diminish.
Nearly a century later, the ever-aging Watchtower-class Deep Space 2 continued to be present as Starfleet turned its attention to the conflicts with the Dominion and Borg Collective, far from the reach of Deep Space 2.