MU Fleet Captain's Uniform

The description to follow is a second continuation of the historical background I came up with for a new version of the Terran Empire, the villainous, tyrannical Mirror Universe counterpart of the Federation of Planets and the amoral antagonists of my “Star Trek” multiverse idea.

The next miraculous serious of events would not occur until 2233, and it is a Mirror Universe version of the events documented in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” feature film. It also draws selected inspiration from the video game “Shattered Universe,” William Shatner’s novels (which postulate the existence of the Borg in the Mirror Universe) and Diane Duane’s novel, “Dark Mirror,” in which the Terran Empire was not reformed and conquered but continued to exist into the 24th century. Far in the future, in the year 2387, the Hobus supernova destroys the planet Romulus, the homeworld of the Romulan Republic, causing Nero, a Romulan mining ship captain and president of the miners’ guild, to go criminally insane.

In this reality, the mirror Spock had been assassinated back in the 23rd century. Therefore, he would never have been on hand to offer to use the ‘Jellyfish’ pod or Vulcan red matter technology to attempt to save Romulus. However, I am also going to postulate that the discovery of the red matter technology was a big enough event that word of it eventually made it to the Terran Empire’s neighbors anyhow. The Empire, however, willingly allowed Hobus to go supernova and consume Romulus before making plans to use the red matter technology to extinguish it, figuring that it would be a most expedient removal of a hated rival power.

Angry that the Empire refused to move a finger to help save his people, Nero flew his ship to a secret base where the Romulans had been experimenting with Borg technology in case they would need it in a future conflict with the Terrans. Completely refitting and encasing his ship in Borg-style enhancements, Nero instigated a massive conflict with the Terran Empire. During the battle, the Terrans loaded an experimental warp pod codenamed ‘Jellyfish’ with the red matter technology the Vulcans had developed, determined to shut down the supernova before it could encroach on their territory as well. Nero’s Borg-modified starship, the ‘Narada,’ by now a monstrous vessel composed of his original ship, Borg technology, and assimilated pieces from every ship it had destroyed, pursued the pod, but both vessels fell into the black hole caused by the ‘Jellyfish’s’ red matter torpedo that was intended to swallow and contain the Hobus supernova, getting sucked back into the past.

‘Narada’ emerged in 2233 where she immediately attacked the Terran survey cruiser ISS ‘Kelvin,’ causing the premature birth of the Mirror Universe counterpart of James T. Kirk. Furthermore, the ‘Kelvin’ had scanned the massive future vessel before she was destroyed, and her surviving crew brought what they had learned back to Earth. Starfleet, horrified that enemy warships could cross through time to strike at them seemingly with ease, and curious about this new technology, immediately began to reverse-engineer what the ‘Kelvin’ survivors had learned, dramatically accelerating its shipbuilding program in attempts to field larger, more powerful, and even more technologically advanced warships to counter any further ‘incursions.’ Its efforts paid off 25 years later in AD 2258, when the ‘Jellyfish’ emerged in the present time and the ‘Narada’ struck again, attacking planet Vulcan itself. In the ensuing incident, the Romulan-Borg hybrid vessel and the Terran Empire warp pod were both destroyed after a confrontation with the Imperial Starfleet, led by the new flagship, ISS 'Enterprise' NCC-1701, but not before further scans had been taken by 'Enterprise's' crew, led by none other than the adult James T. Kirk, who seized command from the previous captain, Christopher R. Pike, after assassinating him for "high treason."

(Pike had been captured by Nero and forced to divulge the command codes for Earth's defenses by use of a Centaurian slug. Although he had only given the codes when put under the parasite's control, the ambitious young Kirk nonetheless used the incident to justify assassinating him as a "traitor to the Empire" when he encountered Pike onboard the 'Narada.' )

These developments proved to be a true providence to the Terran Empire; with amazing stocks of new technology to explore, and further proof of the plausibility of travel between time and relative dimensions in space, it seemed only a matter of time before its plan to invade and conquer its counterparts would become reality.

(To be continued...)

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The sketches featured on this page are designs for one particular class of line officer uniform in the diabolical Terran Imperial navy. This costume is a very restricted type of outfit, issued only to captains that have been appointed to the rank & position of “fleet captain” and assigned command of one of the Terran Empire’s massive expeditionary battle groups, the war fleets that it sends to other universes to destabilize, attack, and eventually conquer its counterparts in those universes. One of the primary villains in my ‘Star Trek’ multiverse is the Mirror Universe counterpart of the Delta-universe’s Captain M. Tobias Sun. This megalomaniacal naval leader is the commanding officer of one of these groups, which he oversees from a juggernaut-class vessel known as the ISS ‘Britannia.’ (The enormous juggernauts are named for historical and fictional empires, and this one is named in honor of the Holy Britannia Empire from the anime, ‘Code Geass.’ )

An earlier version of this costume can be seen in my previous submission, where it’s the design in the lower right-hand corner. It is much more ornate than most of the uniforms issued to officers holding lower enlisted and line ranks, and consists of a jacket with a stand-up collar bearing command division colors (white) and flag command insignia (one bar on each side of the neck for Fleet Captains), divided into two main “sections” by red piping: a blue/gray yoke covering the shoulders and upper chest and the remainder of the jacket, which is a sort of smoky obsidian in color; this was done on purpose, to evoke the early beginnings of the look that would carry into the next century’s uniforms. Although I never got around to designing uniforms for the admiralty, the idea of a differently colored yoke would have been present on their costumes, as well. The choice of making the costume mostly black with red piping was also purposefully done; it is a sinister “mirroring” of the fact that the uniforms of the Prime universe Starfleet(s) are red with black piping.

Of particular note here is the delta shield insignia featured in the Beta-universe Starfleet uniforms. If you look closely, it seems to be ripped in two. This is an idea that I like to refer to as the “shattered delta,” and it is a motif that reappears throughout the uniform system of the Imperial Starfleet. It represents, among other things, militarism, viciousness, and the warlike, violent nature of the Empire; its promise to itself to never remain still, and never be satisfied with peace or compromise but to always move forward and keep conquering anything in its path – a shocking, twisted version of the optimism that drives the Federation in the Prime universe to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” The sword that pierces the shattered delta that is found in most Imperial badges is another homage to Diane Duane’s novel “Dark Mirror;” on that book’s cover, the images of the Prime and Mirror versions of Jean-Luc Picard are separated by a picture of a 2366 communicator badge with a sword overlaid on top of it.

Most of the rank insignia used on this and other Imperial uniforms is unchanged from the ones that I chose to use for the Delta-universe Federation Starfleet uniforms in order to emphasize that they are supposed to be two deviating versions of the same organization. The rank pins used in both universes come from a source known as the “Federation Reference Series.” However, in accordance with the Terran Empire’s imperialist, blatantly militaristic nature, I’ve added metal epaulettes to the duty uniform jacket and cloth shoulderboards to the overcoat.

The overcoat itself is a sort of optional formality designed to further emphasize its wearer’s authority; in reality, it’s an extra touch I threw in when creating further embellishments on my original concept doodles. I was always very pleased with the way it looked, and didn’t want to neglect it even though I was having trouble finding a good way to use it.