The Federation Insignia-class starship is a Cruiser with a modular design, allowing it a great deal of mission flexibility and preparedness. One of the newer starship classes within Starfleet, its initial goal was to surpass the warp-speed limitations of the 2370's. While it's design process took it away from that goal, it is still one of the most impressive ships in the Federation.
First commissioned in 2366, the Insignia-class was expected to be a replacement for the Galaxy-class starship. This expectation was cut short as the Insignia's design was abandoned in favor of the more robust Excalibur and Sovereign-class starships for Galaxy-class replacements. That did not mean that the Insignia was without her strengths, however. While the final design of the Insignia was rejected at this phase, the core design lived in.
Transferred to a new R&D team, the Insignia was given a new life. Focusing their efforts on making her faster and more flexible than before, the team began equipping the Insignia class with the best engines and warp cores, and fine-tuning the modular design that had intrigued so many of their peers. With the interchangeable modules and Variable Geometry Warp pylon designs, news of this new class spread like wild fire, and before long the requests to begin building the ship were approved.
The Insignia had two maiden ships, the USS Insignia and the USS Firebrand. Both ships saw some time in action during the Dominion War, but it was minimal. They predominately served as guard vessels around key, strategic planets.
Once the war slowed, and finally ended, the Insignias were allowed to start venturing out and getting into trouble. With their extra-fast speed, and high powered systems integrated into the ship, the vessels quickly became popular in Starfleet, and three more were commissioned.
The Insignia has become a staple in the Starfleet line up, providing versitility, strength, and agility to the mix in ways that only a small ship can.
The eight wedge-shaped sections around the front of the ship can be "hot-swapped" at an orbital dry dock in order to allow the ship to take on a specialized focus (i.e., Medical, Marine, Engineering, etc) to fit the needs of its mission. This is a time consuming process, however, sometimes taking up to a week, so most of the time, the ship is laid-out with a Starfleet standard load out, leaving it generally ready for anything.
| Deck | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Main bridge, Captain's Ready Room, Observation/Conference Room |
| 2 | CO's quarters, XO's quarters, VIP quarters, Captain's Mess, XO's office |
| 3 | Diplomatic Offices, Meeting Rooms, Transporter Room 1, Diplomatic Mess, Diplomatic Quarters |
| 4 | Holodecks, Gym, Training Areas, Lounge, Officer's Quarters, Escape Pods |
| 5 | Astrometrics, Chief Science Officer's Office, Hydroponics Garden, Labs, Primary Air Reclamation, Officer's Quarters |
| 6 | Medical Bay, Upper Shuttlebay Maintenance (Shuttlebay 1), General Quarters, Primary Power Relays |
| 7 | Primary Shuttle Bay, Upper Cargo Bays 1-5 (port), Upper Cargo Bays 6-10 (starboard), Pilot Alert Room |
| 8 | Lower Shuttlebay Maintenance (Shuttlebay 1), Auxiliary/Hazzardous Cargo Containment, Upper Shuttlebay (Shuttlebay 1) Workshops, Transporter Room 2 |
| 9 | Battle bridge, Primary Computer Core Access, Ops Offices, Primary Transporter control, warp core ejection controls |
| 10 | Upper engineering, secondary computer core access, warp core ejection couplers, engineering workshops |
| 11 | Main engineering (upper ring), Warp core controls, work stations, warp core, primary dilithium reactor |
| 12 | Main engineering (lower ring), Primary warp and power controls, Chief Engineers office, Primary engineering monitoring |
| 13 | Lower engineering, warp core maintenance access, warp core ejection couplers, engineering storage. |
| 14 | Primary Dilithium storage, warp exhaust tubes, Quarter Masters office, Personal weapons storage, torpedo storage. |
| 15 | Cargo bays 1-4 (port), Cargo bays 5-8 (starboard), Dorsal shuttle bay storage racks, Flight Deck Workshop |
| 16 | Security, Tactical Operations, Sensor Control, Sec/Tac Training Facilities, Transporter Room 3 |
| 17 | Brig, Officer's Quarters, Lower Mess, Observation Lounge |
| 18 | Marine Office, Marine Barracks, Marine Training Facilities, Marine Mess |
| 19 | Personal Armoury, Primary Torpedo Storage, General Quarters, Secondary Power Relays |
| 20 | Waste Processing, Secondary Air Reclamation Center, Secondary Sensory Node, General Quarters, Escape Pods |