USS PHAETHON

The S.S. PHAETHON (Later rechristened as U.S.S. when the United Federation of Planets was formed) was built a year into the Romulan War, pushed into service to help the Coalition fight off the Romulan Star Empire. Captain Wayland took command of the ship and immediately joined Starfleet in several actions against the Romulans.

Wayland proved to be a very competent tactical captain, though, it was noted his diplomatic and social skills were a little rougher around the edges. Normally, such things would prevent someone from obtaining the rank of Captain in Starfleet- but he was the perfect fit for the kind of war Starfleet was in.

Wayland tended to use aggressive, brute tactics against the Romulans who enjoyed cloaking and long-range assaults. Wayland jumped his ship in at close range and brawled with the Romulans, something that put his ship at great risk but also played against Romulan ship doctrine. Due to the vast number of phase cannons and torpedo launchers aboard a Poseidon-class, he also tended to burst-fire both of these weapons across space in an attempt to hit and detect cloaked vessels.


In the opening engagements it had, the Phaethon served in five engagements before taking crippling damage, which forced her back to drydock for almost four months to undergo repairs. In this time she assisted in taking out around fourteen Romulan ships and had personally destroyed six herself.

When the ship was repaired, it went right back into action participating for about a year before it was brought on emergency orders to the other side of United Earth space, away from the Romulan conflict- towards the former expanse where the Xindi resided. PHAETHON was made aware of a starship that went missing near the border of the expanse, the S.S. Phobos- a fellow Poseidon-class ship. Originally, it was believed the ship was captured and brought to Xindi space. This was further believed to be true when Xindi ships attacked the Phaethon shortly after entering the former expanse. However, when Captain Wayland demanded the return of their stolen ship- the Xindi Captain expressed outrage and confusion- stating their missing ship had bombed one of their colonies and was a prelude to invasion. Realizing something was wrong, both sides stopped fighting and attempted to figure out what was going on.

It was revealed through sensor records given to the Phaethon by the Xindi that the S.S. Phobos had conducted a nuclear bombardment of a Xindi reptilian world around seven hours after their disappearance. They bombarded the most populated settlements and specifically targeted bio-control centers to asphyxiate those who managed to survive the initial attack. Between the life support failure of the biospheres, explosions, fire, and radiation- survivors were low. Relaying this information back to Starfleet, the Phaethon was ordered to bring the S.S. Phobos back to Earth so they could do their own investigation.

With escort from several Xindi Ships, the Phaethon made their way through the remnants of the Expanse, attempting to locate the S.S. Phobos, when they intercepted a distress call from another colony. Upon arrival, they found the Phobos bombing the colony with nuclear-spatial torpedoes, typically reserved for Daedelus-class starships. When the Xindi ships moved to engage, they were suddenly disabled by a series of photonic explosions coming from their aft- as they had already received significant shield damage from engaging with the Pheathon prior. Multiple torpedoes had been laid around the S.S. Phobos as a sort of makeshift minefield. The Phaethon, being further away, received relatively minor damage and began to transmit to the S.S. Phobos.

The Captain of the Phobos, Captain Yasmine expressed strongly that the Phaethon does not interfere. Explaining that her mission was to get vengeance for the seven million people killed during the Xindi probe attack on Earth. Wayland attempted to reason with Yasmine- bringing up how dragging Earth into a second war when they were already struggling with the Romulans was a bad idea.

Yasmine did not respond and continued to bombard the colony. Seeing no choice, and knowing lives were being lost every moment, Wayland ordered the Tactical Officer to open fire on the Phobos. There was a brief protest before Wayland sternly stated that the Tactical Officer would be removed from the bridge if he did not follow the orders given.
The Phaethon fired several Phase Cannon shots at the Phobos, hitting their starboard impulse engine and warp engine. Having already exhausted much of their Polarized Hullplating from previous fights, their warp engine took some serious damage and began to vent plasma into space and their starboard impulse engine began to malfunction.

The Phobos began to sink into the atmosphere, still firing weapons. Rapidly, the Pheathon moved into position underneath the Phobos to both block further attacks and so it could knock out their weapons. Several hails were made, attempting to contact Yasmine but all of their requests were denied. By this point, the Phobos began to fire upon the Phaethon, who had to endure a barrage of weapons fire while attempting to delicately knock out each weapon. After taking serious damage, the Phaethon managed to knock out all the weapons on the Phobos, blasting off every phase cannon, and cutting off the torpedo pod on the ship.

Realizing that they had no other weaponry, the Phobos finally contacted the Phaethon, claiming they wished to surrender. Yasmine pleaded for her crew to be spared, as most had no idea what was going on- and it was only main engineering and the bridge who knew the full extend of their treachery. Captain Wayland took note of how Yasmine's speech pattern altered during this exchange, using run-on sentences, being overly wordy, and asking several times for him to restate things as if there was interference. Fearing that this was some kind of deception, Wayland silently ordered for tactical to prepare for a potential engagement.

Then, suddenly, the Phobos took off at high speeds over the oceans of the planet- having made partial repairs to their damaged impulse engine. The Phaethon followed, Wayland questioning Yasmine as to what she was planning on doing given she lost her ability to go to warp. She explained she wasn't planning to escape- and the Science Officer informed Wayland that the Phobos was plotting a course to the dark side of the planet, a major city that had managed to avoid much of the bombardment.
Yasmine was going to crash her ship through the city.

Seeing no other choice, Wayland ordered full power to weapons. Again, his Tactical Officer protested. Wayland said that if he couldn't bring himself to fire, to step aside- that this had to be done. The Tactical Officer stepped aside, and Wayland took command of the tactical console. The ship flew overhead the Phobos, positioning itself so all ten phase cannons had target lock on the Phobos.
Yasmine, briefly, yelled for the Captain not to interfere. To not let her crew die in vain. To let them avenge their families and friends who were lost to the Xindi. Wayland stated one sentence before firing.
"You let them down, all of them. You turned out no different than their killers."

Wayland fired all ten phase cannons, rotating them around the bridge of the Phobos- decapitating the ship's bridge and killing the entire command staff. A second set of phase cannon blasts scuttled the impulse engines. Finally, the Phaethon partially rammed into the top of the ship, sending it down into the water where she crashed and sank. There were no survivors, and the ship was later recovered by a Vulcan ship on behalf of United Earth, where she was scuttled due to being too damaged to repair.


An official tribunal was held post-humanously for the command crew of the ship, as well as Wayland himself given he fired upon an allied ship. Some were critical that Wayland was too quick to pull the trigger, blaming his raising as a military captain and that it was proof that Starfleet was losing its way since the Romulan War started. Wayland defended himself and his crew, stating it was a difficult call but one he made to save lives. And boldly claimed the Starfleet Command staff in question that they wouldn't understand what it was like to make difficult choices on the field when they sat in their ivory towers from the safety of Earth. (Of which, he was thrown out of the court hearing for contempt).

Eventually, in a 8-7 vote, Wayland was not found guilty and was allowed to stay at his post. But this mission proved costly for furthering his career, and it tarnished the reputation of Wayland- while the rest of his crew managed to escape this controversy relatively unscathed.
Yasmine and her command staff were given posthumous dishonorable discharges from Starfleet, while the regular crew were not tried as their willingness to participate was questionable.

This event further fractured the already incredibly tense relations between Humanity and the Xindi, further pushing them into isolationism. Furthermore, the Phaethon was once again back at Drydock for another three months to be repaired, and Starfleet lost a Poseidon-class ship which was costly and time-consuming to produce. This event aided in the ultimate decision that Poseidon-class ships were simply not feasible to maintain in large numbers, pushing Starfleet towards the mass production of the Daedelus-class instead.

The rest of the Phaethon's war-time record was far less eventful. It participated in many more engagements, was almost destroyed twice more, and was one of the few Starfleet ships to survive the war. When the Romulan Neutral zone was established, it was ordered to patrol this zone day after day until the listening stations could be completed. Afterwards, Starfleet considered attempting to pressure Wayland into retiring, but this was ultimately scrapped and Wayland was given patrol and minor exploration missions near the Neutral Zone and other contested areas of space.