Bajoran raiders were lightly armed sub-impulse powered starships used by the Bajorans. The Bajoran engineers who designed the craft built them without comfort in mind, offering cramped quarters and requiring occupants to bend their knees to fit in the seats. Although capable of achieving a high-altitude orbit, these vessels were most effective in atmospheric altitudes. These vessels were armed with dual phaser emitters and were equipped with fire extinguishers under the seats.
The Bajoran Resistance readily used these vessels during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. Although these ships were substantially inferior to Cardassian vessels, the Bajorans still managed to annoy the Cardassians enough to achieve many missions. The Bajorans managed to store a few sub-impulse raiders underground at the Lunar V base before the Cardassians hit the camp.
In 2370, while attempting to prove the Cardassians were behind the coup of the Bajoran Provisional Government, Kira Nerys opted to take a raider from the Bajor's Lunar V base to Bajor in order to avoid capture by Alliance for Global Unity influenced Bajoran Militia. With the assistance of Jadzia Dax, whose previous host Tobin Dax had experience with phase coil inverters and sub-impulse thrusters, she was able to locate a stored raider, which she hoped to use to fly to Bajor.
Despite its antiquated condition, much less its malfunctioning navigational sensors and inoperative phaser locks, the ship was able to achieve a high-altitude orbit over Bajor's moon before being intercepted and fired upon by two Bajoran impulse ships. Attempting to even the odds, Kira flew the raider into the atmosphere of Bajor where it engaged the two interceptors at thruster speeds.
The raider was able to shoot down one of the interceptors before weapons fire from the second ship hit a plasma conduit. The raider lost all thrusters and was forced to jettison its plasma tank moments before it crashed landed in the forests surrounding outside the capital city. (DS9: "The Siege")
Appendices
Appearances
Jim Martin sketch of interior
Bajoran raider studio model
Studio models
The Bajoran raider or Bajoran fighter as it is sometimes referred to, was the first spaceship design by Jim Martin after his promotion to senior illustrator on DS9. As he recalls,"I did a Bajoran fighter that Kira and Dax crash. There were a few ships in that episode; there was a Bajoran transport and a small Bajoran fighter. I remember something really ridiculous about that ship. We intended to re-use these old windows that we had found for the set of the interior, so the windows I designed for the exterior needed to match. I kept trying to come up with a way to incorporate the window frames into the ship design. Then we ended up not using them, but they are still on the miniature!"(Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 13, page 22)
The design was converted into a physical studio model at Tony Meininger's model shop Brazil-Fabrication & Design making its debut in DS9: "The Siege".[1] For its appearance as a Maquis raider in TNG: "Preemptive Strike", the model was slightly modified in order to match the canopy with the interior set.
As part of one of the last batches of existing studio models being transformed into CGI models, a CG version was built at Digital Muse for DS9: "Shadows and Symbols", but was not used there. It was later used, unmodified, as an unknown alien ship in VOY: "Drive". The CGI model was redesigned and appeared as various ships belonging to various species (Xantoras and Human -2x- respectively} in ENT: "The Breach", "Twilight", "Storm Front, Part II".[2]
The physical model, known as Lot #486, being part of the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction, estimated at $3,000-$5,000, was eventually sold on 6 October 2006 with a winning bid of $4,800 ($5,760 including buyer's premium).
Technical Manual
The following specifications, which describes this vessel as a Bajoran impulse ship, comes exclusively from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual :
- Production Base: Bajoran Militia Secured Factory #5.
- Type: Strike Fighter.
- Accommodation: Two flight crew.
- Power Plant: One microfusion impulse system (fighter); Coanda-cycle chemical/air-ram system (raider).
- Dimensions: Length, 33.10 meters; beam, 33.17 meters; height, 11.23 meters.
- Mass: 108.96 metric tonnes.
- Performance: Maximum delta-v, 15,600 meters per second.
- Armament: Six or more phased polaron beam weapons; possibly other weapons.