By Richard Woodcock

The USS Fortitude has a long history, in story telling she has been at the fore-front of play in my days writing in Play by Email and in later years I moved the ship and the Character to Star Trek online when it came online many years ago and her and the Captain have Served proudly and I have let my imagination run wild.

In the last year I have rekindled my love of writing stories and thanks to an old friend I have decided to return the fold and start writing the tales of what I fondly think of in my head as “Star Trek: Fortitude”.

So where did the Fortitude begin?

The First Vessel to Enter Service was the USS FORTITUDE NCC-121021 and was commanded by Captain G. Saracen. She was attached to the 21st Marine Tactical Fighter Wing (Later the 21st Marine Support Squadron) Commanded by the then Lt. Col Miles Llewellyn as their carrier support vessel.

Un-happily the vessel was badly damaged and brought out of service and retired after the Battle of Cordra.

After the Battle of Cordra, the then COMSFE RADM. Sara Pritchatt decided to Honour the 21st Marine Support Squadron after the loss of the original Fortitude and her original Captain to commission a new vessel. The USS Fortitude NCC-121021-A.

This vessel was state of the art and was the largest vessel in operation within Starfleet. She was the Hannibal Class Carrier or (Super carrier) as the class in fondly known as.

The vessel was to be commanded by Miles Llewellyn who was now promoted to the rank of Captain. He was Captain to a vessel that contained 250 Typhoon Fighters and carried a light Corvette class vessel. The Ship herself operated within HDF and Carrier Group Three.

However the vessel, only one of four built was seriously damaged after only 3 months of operation during the engagement at the Cordan Expanse and more so during the Battle of Centerpoint Two where the bravery of Carrier Group Three and importantly more so of the crew of the Fortitude helped evacuate all Starfleet people and equipment from Neffen. The vessel was solely responsible of downing many Horvaukan vessels and herself made the retreat to Ansolon-one under her own power.

The Vessel now stands at Ansolon-one where she is to be restored and turned into a shrine to the memory of the people that died during the retreat.

After the Battle of Centerpoint Two and the loss of the Fortitude-A the name Fortitude had become a legend within Starfleet, such as the Enterprise.

It is with that ironic nature of the universe that the new COMSFE Adm. Littleton commissioned the USS Fortitude NCC-121021-B. The reason this is ironic is due to the Fortitude returning to service as a Frigate in the form of a re-fitted old Constitution Class space frame (As is seen in the above picture).

However the technology on this vessel is very much state of the art and is capable of multi-role assignments, such as Escort duty to Minelayer operations.

The vessel is still commanded by Captain Miles Llewelyn and it is hoped that the Fortitude-B will remain in service for some time and continue her famous voyages.

From here time moved on and we had the Churchill Class USS Fortitude, NCC-121021-B

From those writing days we got the USS Fortitude, NCC121021-C. She was a Heinlein Class Starship.

This is where time and you could almost say things get interesting, you could almost say that was one reality and we switched to a new reality and Star Trek online came into play. We moved to the Sovereign class USS Fortitude, NCC-121021-C

The Fortitude continued in a new reality and she served as an Odyssey class years later as the NCC-121021-D when the Odyssey Class Starship was released into Star Trek online and later become a Lexington Class refit after the battle of Sol.

After an intense battle with the mirror Borg and the evacuation of Deep Space Station k-42 the Fortitude while passing  thru the sector for scheduled maintenance intercepted the distress call of the station  and moved to assist despite not being with her Carrier group she and her crew held the line while the evacuation was expedited. The Fortitude tackled three mirror borg cubes with just herself, her carrier wing and 3 Plymouth class Starships that where assigned to the station.

The station was evacuated with minimal losses to civilian life but at great cost. Admiral Llewellyn fought a broadside battle and using her phaser lance and main deflector dish as a particle weapon destroyed two cubes and crippled the third cube. However the explosion of the two cubes meant wreckage collided with the Fortitude ripping her Port side nacelle and wreckage tearing thru the secondary hull and forward saucer.

The Fortitude was deemed to damage to be restored to front line service however the valiant fight and bravery of her crew and Captain earned the Fortitude a place in the Fleet museum.

This brings us to the New Fortitude, NCC-121021-E.

Admiral Miles Llewellyn was giving his choice of assignments but true to form he only ever wanted to be a Captain. Before the Fortitude’s untimely end Miles had been reviewing new Starships designs and had a Soft spot for the Exeter Class Starships, which where modern takes on older ships and remind him of the Older Ships names Fortitude.

So forever a dreamer at times Miles took command of a Exeter class Fortitude.

So the voyages of the Fortitude moves unto a new chapter, “let’s see what’s out there!”