A Closer Look: The USS Garuda

To everything there is a season. Recently, two ships have come to the end of their seasons and two more have merely begun theres. One of these ships has included the Galaxy Class Starship, the USS Garuda.

The USS Garuda is, as mentioned before, a Galaxy Class ship. While not brand new, she is a post-Dominion ship, which means that she’s more advanced than the Enterprise-D. She houses state of the art laboratories and the advanced technologies available for scientific exploration and research. Compared to the Mercury, she has stronger shields and certainly more firepower. This will aid her as she explores deeper into the Menthar Corridor than her predecessor and will help protect the crew and civilians aboard.
The purpose of the USS Garuda is the same as the Mercury’s – to seek out new life and new civilisations and to boldly go where no one has gone before! That’s just what she’s going to do to. The Garuda’s first mission is a First Contact with a new alien species called the Kubarey. According to Tony, the mastermind behind Captain Egan Manno, “the Kubarey are unique in the new species the Menthar Corridor mission has encountered in that they’re technologically matched with the Federation; they’ll serve as recurring antagonists or allies, depending upon the situation.” This, of course, opens up a whole new world of possibilities, especially in territory with such tense relations.
Captain Egan Manno also let me in on another tidbit of what’s to come for the Garuda. At one point there was an Ancient Alliance, a group of powerful races that lived within the Corridor a thousand years ago. Whether they coexisted, subdued, or even allied with other races – well, perhaps we shouldn’t really get into too much detail. Some surprises are good after all.
Thanks to the mountain of work that must be done on the Mercury, all of the staff have been transferred – most to the Garuda. While some of the Garuda officers were merely reassigned, others have suffered demotions to make room for those coming in from the Mercury. What will this mean as officers have to work together? Will there be resentment? Or can they let it go? Only time will tell. Welcome to the fleet, USS Garuda!