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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Maquis







Here are some images of Monograms Maquis Raider "Val Jean" from Star Trek Voyager. From Memory Alpha" The Val Jean was a small raider-type craft operated by the Maquis during the early 2370s. The impulse engines of Val Jean were originally built in 2332.

In 2371, while under the command of Chakotay, the Val Jean was pursued by the Cardassian warship Vetar, Gul Evek's flagship. Chakotay ordered the ship into the Badlands to try to escape the Cardassians.

After eluding pursuit, the Val Jean was scanned by a coherent tetryon beam and transported into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Once there, the crew was abducted and subjected to medical tests to determine their biological compatibility with the Caretaker. One of the crew, chief engineer B'Elanna Torres, was removed from the others and sent to the surface of the Ocampa homeworld.

The Maquis raider was a type of light starship originally designed under Federation auspices and later commonly used by the Maquis in their fight against the Cardassians. They came in varying sizes. The smaller variant had a small cockpit with seating for two, and a cargo area in the aft section. The larger version had a separate and much more spacious cockpit which held four stations, and larger crew facilities in the aft sections. These raiders have been in use for a long period of time, some using 39 year-old rebuilt engines.

In late 2370, Ro Laren used one of these ships to mount a staged "raid" against the USS Enterprise-D in order to obtain medical supplies for her Maquis cell. (TNG: "Preemptive Strike")

In 2371, Chakotay's Maquis cell fled Gul Evek's ship in a similar raider, the Val Jean. The raider was no match for the Galor-class vessel and took refuge in the Badlands. While there, it was scanned by a tetryon beam and catapulted to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker entity. The ship was later destroyed after it rammed and destroyed a Kazon-Ogla vessel in order to protect the USS Voyager. The Maquis were transported aboard Voyager and forced to join the Starfleet crew for the trip home. (VOY: "Caretaker")

In 2372, Kasidy Yates's freighter, the Xhosa, rendezvoused with a Maquis raider inside the Badlands. And in 2373, several ships of this type participated in the Maquis offensives against the USS Malinche, the USS Defiant, and Quatal Prime. (DS9: "For the Cause", "For the Uniform")


In order to recover his missing crew member, Chakotay reluctantly joined forces with Starfleet captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager, who had been sent to capture him but had instead been pulled into the Delta Quadrant as well. The cooperation proved successful, and both Torres and Voyager crew member Harry Kim were rescued.

Subsequently, both Voyager and the Val Jean were engaged in a dogfight by a small fleet of Kazon-Ogla warships, including a massive Kazon carrier vessel. Because the Kazon vastly outgunned both Voyager and the Val Jean, Chakotay chose to perform a ramming maneuver to destroy the much larger ship and "take some heat off Voyager's tail." The ramming was successful; the carrier was destroyed after colliding with the Caretaker's array, and Chakotay was beamed out of the cockpit in the nick of time.

Following the destruction of their ship, the Maquis crew were accepted as members of the Voyager crew and given temporary Starfleet commissions. Although they came from hostile backgrounds, the two crews would have to work together to survive in the Delta Quadrant and return home to Earth. (VOY: "Caretaker")

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