Verity Class
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The Verity-class heavy explorer is a large, multi-mission starship geared towards workhorse roles as command ships and logistical support vessels. Verity was an alternative prototype for the Odyssey-class, built around solid, existing systems with few large leaps past the Sovereign-class other than scale. While Odyssey was selected as the premier deep-space explorer of the last decades of the 24th century, Verity also saw a small production run of its own during the Romulan Evacuation Mission, as they were much faster to build than their sisters. In practice, Verity-class ships serve as able local flagships and all-rounders, handling missions too important for an Excelsior II-class, but not needing a more advanced ship. They are also routinely sent on exploratory missions and scientific surveys.
Science and Exploration
Verity-class starships have similar scientific capabilities to the Sovereign-class exploratory cruiser: a full complement of specialized and mission-configurable laboratories that allow them to perform a full range of scientific studies. As with the Sovereign, these ships do not have the long bands of mission-configurable lateral sensor pallets that are found on the Galaxy and Odyssey, and instead concentrate the majority of their sensing systems in the planetary sensor dome on the underside of the interconnecting hull, a strip of forward-facing sensors on the saucer section, and long-range equipment connected to the main deflector. The practical result is that mission-specific equipment can generally only be installed at a starbase. There is ample space for visiting science teams, and the types of studies this ship is most suited for are biological and social sciences that don't require extensive use of space-borne sensors.
Members of this class have been used for traditional deep space exploratory missions, and though they are geared for logistics roles, they can be an appealing choice when a mission can be handled by a smaller crew than an Odyssey but still needs a large starship's extended range to accomplish. More often, they perform charting missions while in between other assignments. Thanks to their crew size, they are very capable at handling planetary survey missions and have surveyed thousands of planetary bodies within and near Federation space.
Diplomacy
With ample space and speed for diplomatic missions, Verity-class vessels frequently see similar assignments to Obena-class or Ambassador-class emissaries, such as handling mid-level trade negotiations, accession talks for minor worlds, and multi-party diplomatic summits. Their interior accommodations are of a similar standard to the Obena—luxurious but not as ostentatious as the Odyssey. Their facilities are much more restrained than their sisters: they have plenty of reception suites and conference rooms, but there's not an onboard promenade or concert hall. While a superior diplomatic platform to any cruiser-sized vessel, they are not as flashy as their sisters.
While these ships don't often have the occasion to perform accidental first contact missions, they are sometimes selected to make contact with worlds that have been under observation. Their scale alone is a sign of the Federation's technological capabilities, which makes it a delicate balance between the desire to impress a new world and the desire not to intimidate them, so they are generally sent to worlds which have peer or near-peer technological capabilities to the Federation.
Engineering
Sharing the same overall arrangement as the Odyssey, the Verity has a saucer section that connects through an interconnecting hull to a stardrive section. Unlike the Odyssey, the saucer section of the Verity is circular in shape and has a lower overall volume. It also lacks any faster-than-light propulsion systems, like the independent warp coils on the Ross-class or the warp field sustainer system on the Odyssey, which simplifies construction and operation. The propulsion systems are scaled-up versions of the warp and impulse drives designed for the Sovereign, achieving the same performance at a larger scale. With four large thruster quads on the saucer, four impulse engines, and two secondary impulse thrusters in the nacelle pylons, the Verity was designed for impressive sublight maneuverability—useful for both engineering and tactical missions. Warp speed is also impressive, as her powerful engines have less mass to move than those on the Odyssey, even though they are of a more conservative design.
Verity-class starships have well-known maintenance profiles and benefit from lessons learned aboard the Sovereign to require fewer personnel than their peer heavy explorers. However because these ships are often used to coordinate logistical and construction missions, they still have a large engineering crew on board. Many of these ships are home to Starfleet Corps of Engineers detachments. Like the Odyssey, they have industrial replicators and large cargo holds in their present configuration—though these spaces were initially used to house refugees in the 2380s.
Tactical
Verity-class starships are more heavily armed than Odyssey-class starships, especially in terms of their torpedo loadouts. The primary forward launcher is a torpedo turret adapted from the Sovereign and integrated into the primary sensor dome. Additional torpedo coverage is provided by two forward-facing burst-fire launchers under the deflector dish. A deck below, there is a module containing two aft-facing burst-fire launchers. These four launchers share a central magazine which arms torpedoes directly from the ship's primary antimatter containment pods. There are also two aft-facing burst-fire launchers between the interconnecting dorsals on the dorsal side of the secondary hull. Phaser coverage is comprehensive with the same type-XII phaser arrays designed for the Sovereign. Shield coverage is provided by upscaled regenerative shield generators typical of ships of this design era—powered by the ship's large warp core, they provide the ship with substantial defenses.
While the ship has fewer secondary armaments compared to the Sovereign, it is a very capable tactical vessel, should the need arise. These ships can be found on patrol missions on occasion, but they are better used at the center of a fleet rather than on their own. During the 2390s, squadrons of one Verity-class vessel with a handful of Sovereign-class or Inquiry-class ships supporting them were used for deterrence missions, especially near the Romulan and Klingon borders. In the early 25th century, these ships are often used to head up ad hoc battle groups to marshal local defense forces, even though their armaments are no longer considered state-of-the-art.
The embarked escort allows for tactical flexibility, but the Verity is not equipped with MVAM capabilities. If the saucer is separated during combat, this is a manual process.
Auxiliary Craft
Auxiliary craft facilities on the Verity are more limited compared to other ships in this design lineage. The ship has a single large shuttle bay in the saucer section, approximately equal in size to the main shuttlebay aboard Galaxy-class starships. This facility is still quite capable, and the Verity can hold a substantial complement of shuttles, but the lack of secondary bays does reduce the ship's overall launch and recovery capability per hour. The stern has a docking cradle identical to other ships in the Odyssey-family with the capability to embark an Aquarius-class escort. For vessels not equipped with an escort, a module can be inserted into the docking cradle that serves as a second shuttle bay, allowing for a further 6 shuttles and 2 runabouts to be carried. This class does not routinely embark fighters.
Shipboard Life
While other ships in the Odyssey family often feel like mobile starbases or cities in space, Verity-class starships feel more like traditional starships—albeit very large ones. Even with a standard crew of 1,500 and up to 2,500 for some mission parameters, the ship has proportionally more lounges, holodecks, and other facilities than the Sovereign, so it doesn't feel too crowded. Accommodation standards are nearly identical to the Sovereign: shared quarters for enlisted crew and small apartment-style quarters for junior officers, with increasingly larger quarters provided by rank. On the other hand, without the elaborate concert halls and other venues found aboard the Odyssey, they don't have the same feeling of open space that makes you forget you're on a ship. These ships routinely return to port for crew recreation and resupply, so this isn't usually a morale dampener, but crews on longer missions do report homesickness at a greater rate than on other heavy explorers.
Medical facilities aboard the Verity are larger than the crew needs, as a remnant of their earlier use moving refugees, but they don't quite reach the scale of the hospitals found aboard Odyssey-class ships. Two primary sickbay modules are located in the saucer section, and a third is located in the secondary hull.
While Verity-class ships are most often used for workhorse roles, they do sometimes get sent on more critical missions, especially when they are the most capable vessel in range. In those situations, their crews must rely on their ingenuity and problem solving skills to handle emergent situations without the massive set of tools and resources available to the larger Odyssey or the specialization found aboard smaller vessels.
Verity-class History
Following the Dominion War in the mid-2370s, the Advanced Starship Design Bureau was already contemplating options for successor designs to the successful Galaxy and Sovereign-class explorers, with the intent to incorporate the best aspects of two radically different schools of thought into the next generation of large starships. The first version of this successor design was the Ross, essentially an upgraded Galaxy with Sovereign technology. Lessons learned on this class would lead directly to the Odyssey—features like a warp-capable saucer section and other bleeding-edge features were taken to a larger scale for a design that was meant to be put into service at the end of the 2380s. A competing design team at Antares Fleet Yards, however, proposed a stripped-down version of the Odyssey that was much more conservative in its design, dispensing with some of the most innovative aspects of the Odyssey such as its huge diplomatic and recreational facilities and saucer warp core in favor of being easier to build. The proposed Verity was also more heavily armed.
Some corners within Starfleet Command were in favor of going with the Verity, while others needed further convincing that a compromise design would still be worth building at such a large scale. It was decided that both Odyssey and Verity would be built, to test the merits of both designs. Both designs were revised to ensure commonality in structural members and other components that could be built centrally, and both ships went into construction at Utopia Planitia in 2379 alongside a second, unnamed Odyssey-class ship that would eventually become the Enterprise.
When it was learned that the Romulan sun would be destroyed, Starfleet ordered the still incomplete Odyssey and Verity to be launched incomplete in 2381 with most of their internal volume fitted with habitat modules. Verity served as Admiral Picard's flagship, without most of her scientific and tactical systems ready. While Odyssey was more advanced, Verity was given an emergency production order for several other vessels in similarly rushed configurations. To avoid interfering with the construction of the rest of the rescue armada, these ships were built at the Beta Antares Fleet Yard, alongside the second Odyssey-class ship—a decision which ultimately saved both classes from destruction in 2385.
When the evacuation mission was canceled in 2385, Verity and her sister ships returned to dock to be fully completed to their design specifications. They proved successful in their initial service, but Starfleet was even more pleased with the Odyssey design. Lessons learned from the Verity led to improvements in the Odyssey, and it was ultimately decided by the end of the 2380s that the Odyssey would be the variant to enter full production. The last Verity-class starship left the shipyard in 2391 and the lines were switched fully to Odyssey-class vessels. It was contemplated that the designs could be merged and Verity-class vessels rebuilt as Odyssey-class ones, but the Verity was recognized for its different utility as a workhorse.
In the 2390s, Verity-class starships routinely served as flagships around Federation space and made a name for themselves doing the bread-and-butter work of Starfleet's core defensive, humanitarian, and diplomatic roles, and it is predicted that they will remain in service for at least a century.
Verity-class In-Play
- If the Ross is "Galaxy class but Sovereign" the Verity is "Odyssey class but Sovereign" both in styling and technology. While the Odyssey and Yorktown are cities in space with expansive recreation facilities and every possible scientific tool available to them, the Verity is (just) a larger version of the Sovereign with some more advanced features (like the embarked escort) but isn't the type of ship that has a solution to every single problem at hand. Indeed, Odyssey-class ships being a little too capable is what gives some writers pause about using them. The Verity is meant to give you a large, capable ship that still might need help from time to time without being invincible.
- These ships make excellent flagships, as do all heavy explorers, and they are reasonable choices if you’re encountering an NPC squadron (within the lore guidance) that might see a Verity as its command ship. Similarly, they’re good choices to lead your own personal unit, as they incorporate many Odyssey-class features while not outshining the ships around them so significantly.
- The youngest ships in this class were launched in 2391, so they will likely have had one minor refit since then, but won't be factory-new.
- While they were pretty heavily armed when launched, they're outclassed by the newer Yorktown and other tactically-oriented designs of the 2390s and 2400s.