Stardate 0309.14
TNG Era:
Captain Farrell reports picking up a Kazon-Oglamar warship on extreme long range scanners. At its present velocity, it would be due to arrive at Oblissa Three in two days. Ambassador Endara Khan reports that she has been working with Kazon-Ogla First Maje Jabin on ways to approach the Kazon-Oglamar.
Captain Murphy reports disturbing details of a major Romulan operation with the aim of incorporating alien biotechnology into their soldiers using genetic engineering. The operation has branches in the Alpha Quadrant and the Delta Quadrant, and suggests that artificial planets like Jibalia III might stretch into territory closer to home. Captain Murphy is also investigating the possibility that the Romulans have found a way to travel through the Durandal wormhole covertly and in both directions.
There have been confirmed reports that the Klingon High Council and Chancellor Martok have normalized relations and restored all peacetime contact with the Federation following secret meetings at an undisclosed location.
Galaxy Class USS Sternbach reports no evidence of the USS Yorktown that disappeared in the Coramonde system more than a week ago. It did report a sudden ongoing spike in neutrinos that didn't seem to be related, but could also not be readily explained.
USS Archer and USS Arizona have been released from patrol duty in the Archanis Sector following the thawing of relations with the Klingon Empire.
TOS Era:
There has been no progress in moving Starfleet ships to reinforce the USS Xerxes at Archer Four. In the meantime, there is still no contact from the nearby MZ-5 outpost.
The USS Magellan reports that the Barzan system is bathed in neutrino emissions. There is still no clue to the disappearance of the USS Coramonde in the area, and the ship's transponder signal is no longer being detected in that system.
ENT Era:
Challenger NX-07 left communications range on its mission to circumnavigate Romulan space. In his last transmission, Captain Carpenter reported several nebulas along Challenger's projected course.
A Tellarite long-range cargo hauler reports finding hull plating that initial reports say might belong to the EX-01 Roddenberry, an experimental science ship on a mission towards the center of the galaxy. The hull plating was found in a previously uncharted system. Two Sloane-Class light cruisers were dispatched to investigate.
Command College
"What Are Your Orders, Captain?"
(Ent Era) "Out Of The Frying Pan..." Resolution
As the starship emerged from the asteroid field, a Kzinti heavy cruiser hailed them and ordered them to surrender. Apparently the heavy battlecruiser that Challenger had fired on earlier managed to transmit sensor data before it was destroyed. The Kzinti recognized Challenger and wanted revenge. While Carpenter regretted aiding in the destruction of their ship, he wasn't prepared to surrender to a proven hostile force. He ordered Challenger into an evasive course that led to the distant outer cometary cloud at the edge of the system. Kzinti forces followed, firing missile after missile as the ship dodged frantically. Finally passing through a shower of ice shards, the NX-class ship found itself in open space and jumped into warp. But their problems didn't end there. Before Challenger escaped into warp, the pursuing ship beamed a hit and run squad aboard. MACO troops on Challenger defeated the invaders, killing five of the six enemies. Captain Carpenter thinks that by returning the bodies of the dead as well as the survivor, it might be possible to reconcile with the Kzinti before things escalate. Should he:
A) Return the Kzinti prisoner and casualties and hope to quickly reconcile, or:
B) Take all six Kzinti to Starfleet and hope the diplomats can reach an agreement. Keep in mind that while the diplomats might be better skilled at making peace, a quick gesture by Captain Carpenter could impress the Kzinti.
Captain Carpenter decided that the Kzinti were unlikely to allow him to get close enough to make a peaceful gesture, so he altered course for Earth Base Alpha to drop off the Kzinti.
(Ent Era) "The Fleeting Phenomenon"
On the way, however, Challenger's sensors pick up an energy source that Carpenter finds hard to ignore. Waves of subspace displacement are detected, coming from an unidentifiable spot more than a lightyear away. The ship's science officer, Commander Cholena Janeway informs him that despite the obvious power behind it (it is at least a hundred times more powerful than the Challenger's warp drive), the source of the waves are dying and may vanish before another ship can be dispatched. It would take approximately thirty minutes to divert to investigate, but several hours to thoroughly scan. If they do not investigate, the potential scientific loss would be indescribable. Carpenter is concerned, however, that endangering the Kzinti prisoner and corpses would endanger the chance of a peace with them. Should he:
A) Risk the ship and crew (and Kzinti on board) to investigate the fleeting phenomenon, or:
B) Hope that another ship will someday discover another such phenomenon.
Choose A or B, or a third course of action, and write a brief summary.
(Moderator's Note: There are no predetermined right or wrong answers. Feel free to discuss the challenge with other players. Every player who submits an entry receives a "Command College Point". Ten of those equal an experience point. The most popular solution will be included here.)
Captain's Log
(From last week)
"...scattered across space..."
(I'm taking a bit of a shortcut this time around, using a log entry written for the storyline and incorporating the line provided. The weekend, such as it has been, has been exhausting, and lots of admin work has been done as well)
(TNG Era)
USS Guadalcanal Galaxy Class Heavy Cruiser
The problem presented by the crew of the RIS Decuis has been solved to a degree. The absence of any kind of permanent Federation or Romulan authority in the Delta Quadrant means that we'll have to make decisions as best we can and hope they work until a better solution can be found. Since the wormhole is, for the moment, one-way, and there are no Starbases to take the Romulan crew to, I ordered engineering teams, backed up by Hazard Teams A and B, to board the Romulan vessel and remove its weapons and cloaking system. We also installed field constrictors on their warp nacelles that will limit them to warp one. That should keep them from bothering anyone and keep them from running too far away. It's nowhere near a perfect solution, and the Romulan Commander was spitting mad, but short of marooning them on a planet and destroying their ship, I don't see an alternative that isn't cold-blooded murder. This does very effectively point out the need to establish a bureaucratic authority in this quadrant, and I intend to forward that advice to Starfleet Command as soon as possible.
Once the Decius was completely secured, we scanned the surface of Oshionian Six and found ten Romulan power signatures. Closer examination showed them to be campsites. After determining that there were no Romulans left on the surface, I ordered full survey teams sent to each site.
We found tragedy at each site, as well as another mystery. The Romulan corpses found at each site were mutilated. More precisely, we discovered that the Romulans had incorporated some of the alien biocircuitry (of the same type lining the interior of Jabalia III) into members of their crew. Biocomponents from the alien technology attacked the Romulan cell structure and killed them almost instantly. Closer examination of the campsite logs as well as a thorough examination of the Decius's computer core download revealed that the Romulans were indeed trying to intentionally incorporate the biocircuitry into their soldiers, with the goal of creating genetically engineered cyborgs. Sort of like a home-grown Borg. The Decius's computer made reference to ten other warbirds assigned to the Delta Quadrant on similar missions, and some still in the Alpha Quadrant on related assignments.
Not only are the Romulans launching a major covert operation that stretches from places back home where they're not allowed to the Delta Quadrant. And I'd say they've been here longer than we have. But somehow that isn't the worrying part. How many of these hollow artificial computer-component planets have been scattered across space from Earth to the Delta Quadrant? Despite all that we've explored, there's so much more that we haven't.
For Next Week:
(Expand the following into a log entry of at least 100 words. Members post answers to the yahoogroup or the 'comment' feature on the blogsite. Lurkers feel free to leave comments on the blogsite)
"...our orders are clear..."
Developer's Diary:
A relentless RL work schedule has delayed this summary, just like last time. But I've also managed to get quite a bit of administrative work done on Fantasy Trek. The STD library is now into three sections, for each Trek era covered. I also moved the 'armor' from the internals list to just above the 'hull' area on the STD. This way it actually acts like armor, protecting the hull once the shields are breached. For the Enterprise era Starfleet ships, that armor will become hull polarization. And I'll probably only allow it on Federation ships in the TNG era. That will create enough difference between the ships of different era's without having to totally rewrite the STD's. I'm also considering creating some different STD's for ships that are roughly equivalent but still dramatically different in some ways. For example, I'm classifying the Achilles Class as a Heavy Cruiser, which makes it roughly equivalent to a Galaxy Class, but the Achilles has that wicked bank of autotracking torpedo launchers running along its spine. The Achilles was also built during the Dominion War, at least ten years after the launch of the Enterprise-D. So while they fit into the same basic category, they are still dramatically different. That won't be necessary for each and every different ship in the same class, but in some cases it really should be done.
I tweaked the heavy combat rules to include rules for HET, 'hero points', and other changes, and I even updated the link on the blogsite. The changes to the STD's, Heavy Combat template has been cleaned up but not posted. Anyone can either copy and paste from my posts or request a clean copy and I'll email. I'm including some at the bottom of this so you can see what I mean. I also did a bit of poking around the archives from September of 2008 for the month that I spent on the multilevel campaign, because there were lots of simplified combat incidents that weren't recorded. I added the incidents that were recorded and added them to my own service record. Not that I'm too worried about jumping from 'Experienced' to 'Veteran', but since I put so much work into that month, I should document and take credit for it. The way that fleets were moved around and coordinated was one of the real fun moments in the development of this game.
I added Captains to all of the ships in the Ab'Qaff Battle Group, and I've even created a Romulan ship. That was prompted by the realization that every time I've gone into battle against a Romulan, the Romulan has lost. So I created a Romulan Heavy Cruiser and a fleet. The ship is the D'Shoanna, and the fleet is the D'Shoanna Lin'veel Fleet. Obviously named after a very kind and classy lady, Joanne Linville, who not only played the Romulan Commander from TOS "The Enterprise Incident", also played the first woman in charge of three ships on Trek, but was also extremely kind to me at a convention a couple of years ago. Anyway, I'm running a heavy combat session between the D'deridex Class RIS D'Shoanna and the Akira Class USS Entebbe. And I'll start a TNG storyline centered around the Romulans.
I'm also getting ready to start a storyline involving the Vulcans, possibly time-travel, and a secret they don't want to let out.
First Round of Heavy Combat Between RIS D'Shoanna and USS Entebbe
A) RIS D'Shoanna RCA D'deridex Class
B) USS Entebbe FCA Akira Class
....1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
1__________________________________________
2__________________________________________
3__________________________________________
4_______B__________________________________
5__________________________________________
6__A_______________________________________
7__________________________________________
8__________________________________________
9__________________________________________
10_________________________________________
11_________________________________________
12_________________________________________
13_________________________________________
14_________________________________________
15_________________________________________
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italiced = cloaked
A) Roll [10]
A) Helm: Position/Movement[2,6 /Speed2]/[Course 045]
A) Countermeasures/Reinforce shields/Cloak/Tractor/Repair: [ECM/ECCM6(3)+retained][Reinforce shields()+retained]Cloak[on]Tractor[pts] Repair[]
A) Tactical: Target[B] Target Bearing[135] Target Range [3] Fire weapons [plasma-charge 1/4(x)+ FWD disruptors(x) AFT disruptors(x)]
A) Auxiliary Craft: Shuttle[ , /Speed]/[Course] Target[] Target Bearing[] Target Range[] Fire weapons [(x)]
B) Roll [11]
B) Helm: Position/Movement[ 5,4 /Speed3 ]/[Course045]
B) Countermeasures/Reinforce shields/Cloak/Tractor/Repair: [ECM/ECCM8(4)+retained][Reinforce shields()+retained]Tractor[pts] Repair[]
B) Tactical: Target[] Target Bearing[] Target Range [] Fire weapons [FWD Phasers(x)+FWD Photons(x) AFT Phasers(x)+AFT Photons(x)]
B) Auxiliary Craft: Shuttle[ , /Speed]/[Course] Target[] Target Bearing[] Target Range[] Fire weapons [(x)]
Results:
Damage to A:
Damage to B:
Fleet Action. Head-To-Head Bare Knuckles Naval Combat. Boarding Party Action. Solid Interactive Storytelling Like No Commercial Game Can Offer. How Much Star Trek Can You Handle?
Fantasy Trek. Not Just a Game. It's a Star Trek Experience
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