Reposted with permission from The Black Campbell Review.

An oddball design I’ve always loved for the VOY/LD period.

This design’s been floating around since at least the early aughties. If took a bit of digging to find the page for the guy, Atlom, on DeviantArt . He had a habit of taking strange shapes and crafting unique designs. This one, the Chariot-class, broke the mold by flipping the traditional long horizontally-oriented secondary hull and flipping it vertical. The result — to my eye — is magical.

The Chariot-class was an attempt to get back to an exploration-focused fleet. With an unconventional hull design more centrally-placed warp nacelles, and better positioned center of mass, these ships were designed to be maneuverable, with a wide placement of sensor pallets to allow for better, high-resolution scans. Dual-environment cabins and locations, coupled with extensive redundant systems were aimed at more representation of member races aboard ship, and to improve survivability of the spacecraft; the addition of an emergency medical hologram likewise the survivability of the crew. Modular laboratories allowed the ships to pivot their focus as needed.

Designed as a multi-role explorer, Starfleet did not ignore the increasing severity of the threat landscape. The Chariot carries the latest phaser arrays the 360 degree coverage on all axes, plus photon torpedo systems upgraded to fire either photon or quantum torpedoes.

Auxiliary craft include 6 Type 6A or Type 11 Shuttlecraft, 6 Type 9 shuttlecraft, and 10 workbees.