Admiral Agatha Drake (2205-2266)
Admiral Agatha Drake, C-in-C Klingon Command, 2258-2259. An accomplished explorer and fleet commander, Drake suffered from the curse of overpromotion; her skill at the fleet level did not transfer to competence as a theatre commander, where she struggled to delegate properly.
Drake was an accomplished explorer and regional commander by the time of the Klingon War. She, like many of her peers, had earned her spurs as a combat commander during the Klingon conflicts of the 2240s, fighting both at Axanar with Kelvar Garth and in the Archanis sector in the aftermath of the massacre. Her work leading a squadron of cruisers in this period and afterwards marked her out as a capable and inspiring commander to her peers and superiors, who supported her steady rise through the ranks. With the death of Admiral Anderson at the Battle of the Binary Stars, she would become C-in-C of the gutted 2nd Fleet. Despite the heavy losses throughout the conflict and the litany of disasters across the entire front, Drake's reputation would survive the war relatively intact; 2nd Fleet fared better than many of the ad-hoc formations thrown into the line from the 5th, 7th and 9th Fleets, arguably due to her tactical strengths and instincts. By the end of the war, she was the ranking flag officer along the main front, and took an active hand in absorbing the remaining formations in the region into a newly reform 2nd Fleet. Her strengths and reputation as Second Fleet commander excelled in the early post-war months as she raced around the frontier putting out fires and providing neccesary support to colonies and neutral worlds. It was these successes that convinced Lutheth,Shukar and Nogura to appoint her as Commander of the newly formed Klingon Border Operations Command - Klingon Command. Despite her strengths as a leader, this decision was most likely to her (and Starfleet's detriment). Drake was an excellent commander - but her style meant she had to lead from the front. As such, she failed to properly grasp the strategic and operational requirements of her new command, leaving logistics behind as she continued to fight fires herself, only managing to cause more difficulties in the meantime. She also did very little to fix the chaotic overlapping of operational areas, and even added to the gordian knot of jurisdictions with her prodigious use of Mendez Columns. Drake also failed to understand how political her new position. Faced with managing both civilian political leaders in the region, and a jumble of disparate and disagreeable junior commanders underneath her, she failed to manage either of them. As officers bickered with each other over who was senior, Drake took matters into her own hands when it would have been more prudent to leave to a subordinate. Her handling of the Suliban Crisis and later Operation Singapore are testament to her inability to grasp the big picture, as she drained 2nd and 4th Fleet of vital vessels and support craft in a botched attempt to extend Starfleet jurisdiction deep into the The Triangle. An overly complicated battle plan, combined with a shaky logistics system and poor recconassiance resulted in her Task Force's decimation by 2nd and 5th Klingon Fleet Groups between the 12th and 14th of September. In the aftermath of First Caleb IV, she was fired as KLICOM and replaced by Vaughan Rittenhouse. A short period as CO of South-Western Command was followed by four years as CO of the Reserve Fleet. In 2266 she was enroute to Starbase 4 when her shuttle was lost in an Ion Storm. |
InformationFull Name: Agatha Rosa Drake
Born: 8th November 2205 (Chicago, Earth) Died: 7th December 2266 (Deep space near Alpha Carinae) Affiliation: United Federation of Planets Branch of Service: Federation Star Fleet Commands:
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Excerpt From "The Edge of Midnight"
Agatha Drake had been the obvious choice to take command, with her experience as a field commander in the Klingon War meaning she knew the territory well. However, despite her accredited knowledge, Drake’s command style was making management of her assets difficult.
The Admiral was at heart a field commander, preferring to fly her flag from a Starship (usually the Nimitz Class USS Andrew Cunningham) instead of from a Starbase. While this would have been preferable with a smaller command, with a whole theatre to control, it created logistical and communications headaches for everyone involved. While nominally, Klingon Command and its staff were based out of Starbase 19, Drake was very rarely there, and information and situation reports had to be passed on to the USS Andrew Cunningham through an increasingly wonky chain of subspace relays and long-range message torpedoes.
As much as face-to-face conversations with Captains were useful, they made the work of co-ordinating a strategy across over a dozen sectors or more impossible. Drake was also no good at the game of politics that area commanders must tend with – her decision to maintain the convoy system “until further notice” invoked the collective ire of the Department of Interstellar Affairs, The Federation Merchant and Marine and the Union of Federation Commercial Interests (UFCI). While the decision was undoubtedly the correct one, Drake handled the fallout badly, refusing to ameliorate the concerns of the shipping magnates and merchant mariner unions and allowing their resentment to build. Her promises of more shipping protection and new Starbases rang as hollow to merchant skippers as the Presidios’ promises of more resources did to her, but that didn’t stop the promises being made.
The Admiral was at heart a field commander, preferring to fly her flag from a Starship (usually the Nimitz Class USS Andrew Cunningham) instead of from a Starbase. While this would have been preferable with a smaller command, with a whole theatre to control, it created logistical and communications headaches for everyone involved. While nominally, Klingon Command and its staff were based out of Starbase 19, Drake was very rarely there, and information and situation reports had to be passed on to the USS Andrew Cunningham through an increasingly wonky chain of subspace relays and long-range message torpedoes.
As much as face-to-face conversations with Captains were useful, they made the work of co-ordinating a strategy across over a dozen sectors or more impossible. Drake was also no good at the game of politics that area commanders must tend with – her decision to maintain the convoy system “until further notice” invoked the collective ire of the Department of Interstellar Affairs, The Federation Merchant and Marine and the Union of Federation Commercial Interests (UFCI). While the decision was undoubtedly the correct one, Drake handled the fallout badly, refusing to ameliorate the concerns of the shipping magnates and merchant mariner unions and allowing their resentment to build. Her promises of more shipping protection and new Starbases rang as hollow to merchant skippers as the Presidios’ promises of more resources did to her, but that didn’t stop the promises being made.
Despite the aspirations of both Perry and Singapore (as well as the incredible production rates at the Axanar and Terran Fleet Yards), Klingon Command remained worryingly short of vessels – especially the hard-hitting Heavy Cruisers that were desperately needed to counter the D6 and D7 battlecruisers. Analysis by the Combat Planning department of Starfleet Tactical did not paint the Eaves-Beyer Class I Starships like the Hoover or Nimitz class in a good light, with little evidence that they were any sort of match for their Klingon opponents. The Perseus and Constitutions were simply not available in enough numbers, and most of the former were detached to the 3rd “Blue” Fleet along the Kzinti-Tholian border region: even the Larson and Saladin Class Destroyers weren’t available in the numbers that Drake had hoped.
Templeton, for obvious reasons, refused to release a single ship to Drake for the operation, citing their necessity for Space Lane patrol and sentientarian needs. It wasn’t like the Border Patrol and Triangle Squadrons were formed from state-of-the-art vessels either – the most advanced ships Templeton had available were Saladin and Hermes class, whose Single-nacelle designs were incredibly unstable at the high war speeds necessary for Singapore. Undeterred, Drake and her staff began rapidly scouring the region for available ships. Suggestions that older capital ships like the Bellau Wood and Horizon class could be reactivated from mothball yards in the inner core were rapidly shot down by Starfleet Operations, who couldn’t guarantee that any of these vessels could sustain above warp four or take modern weaponry without compromising their engines. Ch’Shukar also still refused to release the Ranger Class for action. Drake’s junior commanders – Captains Vr-Melloc, Bavv-Mellen and Palmquist – suggested she delay the operation until Anti-Piracy operations near the Azure Nebula finished, which would allow 11 vessels (including A Marco Polo class Sensor ship and 3 Burke Class Frigates) to join the operation. Drake refused, and ordered them to “find what they could”
The resulting patchwork of ships included several prototype vessels (including three Miranda Class conversions still undergoing tests) as well as several aged craft such as Anton and Valley-Forge Class ships that had been lying in Mothballs. Most of the fleet, however, was composed of the 2230s-40s built Eaves-Beyer types that had been relegated to light duties since the armistice. While some had undergone limited duotronic upgrades and weapons refitting, most remained in their pre-war outfitting and were realistically no match for any of the modern Klingon vessels. Some of these vessels were not as suspect – the Avenger, Detroyat and Loknar classes had never been deemed fit for Trinary conversion and had strong service records from Burnham’s war, but they were still underpowered and lacked significant deuterium storage for long-range service with modern weaponry. They were what Drake had to deal with, and they were quickly hauled from their convoy duties and marshalled together, often with Giant and Derf tenders having to run Warp-One refuelling manoeuvres along the Argelius-SB10 route – a move that could not be conducted with the Eaves-Beyer ships, who were forced to crowd around tenders at Starbase 10 “like milk cows” as one engineer put it. If they had to face combat without a refuelling stop – or worse, were caught refuelling – it would be a disaster.
Templeton, for obvious reasons, refused to release a single ship to Drake for the operation, citing their necessity for Space Lane patrol and sentientarian needs. It wasn’t like the Border Patrol and Triangle Squadrons were formed from state-of-the-art vessels either – the most advanced ships Templeton had available were Saladin and Hermes class, whose Single-nacelle designs were incredibly unstable at the high war speeds necessary for Singapore. Undeterred, Drake and her staff began rapidly scouring the region for available ships. Suggestions that older capital ships like the Bellau Wood and Horizon class could be reactivated from mothball yards in the inner core were rapidly shot down by Starfleet Operations, who couldn’t guarantee that any of these vessels could sustain above warp four or take modern weaponry without compromising their engines. Ch’Shukar also still refused to release the Ranger Class for action. Drake’s junior commanders – Captains Vr-Melloc, Bavv-Mellen and Palmquist – suggested she delay the operation until Anti-Piracy operations near the Azure Nebula finished, which would allow 11 vessels (including A Marco Polo class Sensor ship and 3 Burke Class Frigates) to join the operation. Drake refused, and ordered them to “find what they could”
The resulting patchwork of ships included several prototype vessels (including three Miranda Class conversions still undergoing tests) as well as several aged craft such as Anton and Valley-Forge Class ships that had been lying in Mothballs. Most of the fleet, however, was composed of the 2230s-40s built Eaves-Beyer types that had been relegated to light duties since the armistice. While some had undergone limited duotronic upgrades and weapons refitting, most remained in their pre-war outfitting and were realistically no match for any of the modern Klingon vessels. Some of these vessels were not as suspect – the Avenger, Detroyat and Loknar classes had never been deemed fit for Trinary conversion and had strong service records from Burnham’s war, but they were still underpowered and lacked significant deuterium storage for long-range service with modern weaponry. They were what Drake had to deal with, and they were quickly hauled from their convoy duties and marshalled together, often with Giant and Derf tenders having to run Warp-One refuelling manoeuvres along the Argelius-SB10 route – a move that could not be conducted with the Eaves-Beyer ships, who were forced to crowd around tenders at Starbase 10 “like milk cows” as one engineer put it. If they had to face combat without a refuelling stop – or worse, were caught refuelling – it would be a disaster.