To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

ClawClawBite · Mar 22, 2017

Given the build up of member world fleets in the expanse, particularly the Apitia and Amarkia, I could see sending Nash to be Ainsworth's Liaison officer with those fleets.

Night · Mar 22, 2017

Is this an Omake? (yes) Do I even care? (maybe) Let's call it...

Licorication, Part 1

Stardate 25574.9
FLASH FLASH FLASH
FROM: SFC
TO: ALL COMMANDS
RE: War Warning

Gaeni/Licori summit failure, representative ships engaged in hostilities. State of war exists between Arcadian Empire and Illuminated Technocracy of Gaen. This message is to be considered a War Warning. Hostile acts by ships of AE may take place without warning. Take all necessary measures consistent with the protection of your command.

RoE Warning Yellow: Partial Release. Mentat operations may be engaged without warning at discretion of OTC. All other AE ships and installations do not engage unless fired upon. Report hostile acts via Flash Traffic.

MESSAGE ENDS

"Now...Cadet Buthelezi, seeing as how we are a Starfleet installation, what does this order require of us?" It at least made for interesting class problems, living in interesting times.

"The chances of a Mentat actually reaching the Academy are quite low, sir, and SFS would handle it in any case. We would add a general image of a Mentat to the duty officer standing orders like we do local criminals, with the same notation to call it in." Buthelezi, human, careful, aware of his limitations, with a tactical specialty that was very focused on getting into a runabout squadron. He was not afraid to consult others with specialized knowledge or greater talent and delegate tasks when placed in a command position. He'd make some Petty Officer used to reigning in lunatics fresh out of the Academy very happy when he graduated.

"Cadet Ston, assuming a Mentat were on-campus, why would they be here?"

"Sir. Mentats are known for their extreme intelligence. A Mentat would only enter a Starfleet facility, given our known rules of engagement, out of need. As the Academy will not offer them access to another destination, this must be where they intend to conduct their experiments. If I were to examine the situation from the Mentat's perspective, the one thing that can be found here and not somewhere less secure is a high concentration of young adults from every Federation and affiliate species. Logically the Mentat is here to experiment on the student body." Ston, Vulcan, who was both more and less rigorously devoted to pure logic than most Vulcans. Logical analysis required the acknowledgement of the emotional elements present in others, and their actions could only be understood by accounting for their emotions. Dual specialty as was common to Vulcans; a very untraditional psych and the traditional pure math.

"Given Ston's evaluation, Cadet Branwen, what do you think the correct course of action would be in that situation?"

"Standard procedure in the event of a campus security threat is to go into lockdown, but in this case, sir, that'd probably expose them to more danger. Ideally the cadets should be evacuated." Cadet Branwen was older than the average, having qualified as a Yan-Ros Huntress and spent six years in that role on her homeworld before coming here. Despite the fact she knew more about security operations than half the instructors and would be the Academy unarmed combat champion if she had bothered to compete formally, Branwen had absolutely no interest in the security track. She didn't want to learn something she already knew; instead her courseload would have suited her for a helmswoman or starship ops. Rumor had it the instructors intended to make her take the security-track finals every year anyways, just to make sure her expertise was formally documented for whatever command she ended up in.

The instructor nodded. "Your points are all cogent. Except I'm sure Cadet Brawen has already caught something, so, if you would?" Buthelezi groaned. They always called on Brawen last in security-related questions for exactly this reason.

"Well, sir, now that you mention it..." Branwen smiled faintly in Buthelezi's direction. Not his fault really. It was a perfectly valid answer for anything besides 'the people know for large-scale mad science and/or terrorism by mad science' having shown up. "Cadet Ston's point that Mentats are smart means that if one of them bumps into a group of cadets on night patrol, they didn't plan for it. The patrols are fairly regular, so something unusual probably happened. Because of their intelligence, a Mentat is at their most dangerous while executing prepared plans. Ideally, one cadet on the team should call it in, but the other two should probably rush the Mentat. With any other kind of intruder withdrawing would be right the call, but disrupting or delaying a Mentat as much as possible is vital for the safety of the Academy and all its cadets." The night patrol schedule was really meant to make it hard for students to sneak out of the Academy dorms more than to actually spot intruders.

Also for Branwen to get co-opted into the security drills and terrorize senior cadets with her Huntress gear. And they'd fail the drill, so they'd have to schedule another drill, until somebody passed...it was a vicious cycle. But the chance for firsties to give back some of the oppression they usually got from upperclassmen appeared to amuse the instructors.

chriswriter90 · Mar 22, 2017

[X][REPAIR] "We can bump NCC-1665, a Miranda, from San Fran Berth A."

It's just a Miranda. We can afford to bump it.

24 Hours of conversation to up on, Go!

pheonix89 said:
Honestly, I'd really prefer to put an EC ship on point for any anti-Licori mission because there's a 100% chance of the enemy force attempting to weaponize esoteric science bullshit, and we need our own bullshit weaponizers there to counter it.

Agreed.

OneirosTheWriter said:
Please note the new reply banner.

"Weaponise the biophage" and similar comments will incur 24-hr threadbans. This is not an empire quest.

And it's about time to!

Simon_Jester said:
[reads combat log]

...Huh.

Headcanon:

The Gaeni tech-frigate engaged in bullshittery of the 'reconfigure deflector dish to emit bullshittium radiation pulse that kills crew' type and managed to lethally irradiate a third of their own science officers in the process- but they just yoinked themselves a Licori ship in exchange.

Gaeni:

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you think you were the craziest scientists in the galaxy?"

Simon_Jester said:
Gaeni Techs, Preparing Flesh-Disintegrating Energy Wave:

"This is going to void the warranty on our deflector dish, but the look on your face will be- oh wait, you won't HAVE a look on your face! MUAHAHAHAAA!"

[Gaeni captain, scoring competitive maniacal laughter contest, holds up a 9/10 card]

Yeangst said:
I'm curious about the Licori: do they not use any computers? Like do they do accounting with pen and paper, or use crazy, suicidal ,mad-scientists to do their taxes?

They're based on Dune. If anyone knows how Dune does it, it would be nice to share.

Briefvoice said:
EDIT: You know, if we weren't tied up in the Gabriel Border Zone, Starfleet would crush the Licori as an afterthought.

SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Great Bird of the Galaxy, how the fuck are we up 87C in the GBZ and an Excelsior in every BZ plus our two largest home sectors?

It just kind of happened.

tryrar said:
I definitely support a Starbase at Collie for repairs, especially once we get the Forward Defense tech that allows repairs of Capital Ships up to a certain percentage.

There's research for that!

OneirosTheWriter said:
2310s Starbase Design - Repair
For helping further developments in the large installations that support your operations.

0 / 100 Outpost Ship Repair Facilities I (Outposts can repair 1 Escort of any damage level)
0 / 150 Starbase Ship Repair Facilities I (Starbases can repair 1 Cruiser of any damage level)
0 / 150 Starbase Ship Repair Expansions I (Starbases can repair 2 Ships at a time)

...... ...... ......

Leila Hann said:
"Neroth, sir." The Indorian bowed his head again, as best as he could while clinging to the scaffolding. "I will work more quietly."

"Its alright, Ensign Neroth. Just, what was that, exactly?"

The Indorian cocked his mostly bald, gray head at her. "Just an echo of the Enterprise's shade, sir. It's much clearer than I expected."

Samhaya's eyes narrowed. "Shade?" She paused for a moment, until the cultural briefing came back to her. "Your people's artifact-spirits?"

He shook his head. "Not my people's, no. The Enterprise came from Earth, once."

She bit back a culturally insensitive comment before it could pass her lips. "Ah. My...I heard someone I know hum that song, once."

"Of course. You must know her well, Captain."

"Yes. Yes, we're rather close, or at least we used to be." She still wasn't sure how this shade business was relevant, but her question was answered. "Sorry for the interruption; keep up the good work."

Ensign Neroth looked confused, but wordlessly returned to his work on the turbolift. As the doors swished shut again, Samhaya wondered where and when this green ensign could have possibly met Nash.

Leila Hann said:
I know. Ensign Neroth could have heard the song from someone who heard it from Nash. Or, Nash could have actually heard it from somewhere else and forgot about it until it resurfaced in her dream (this has actually happened to me, with songs).

The main reason I wrote this is because I established in some of my own omakes that the Indorians believe in spirits that inhabit artifacts, and it just now occurred to me how well that fits with your "Dreams" series. Even if the ship spirits aren't real, I could very easily see some Indorian crew members adopting your anthropomorphized Enterprise as a local goddess.

Godwinson said:
Ships having souls wouldn't even be in the top twenty weirdest things to exist in Star Trek.

SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Psychic impressions are a thing in ST. I can buy it.

Kantai Collection, Star Trek edition when!?

Godwinson said:
We really need to get that tech to let outposts and starbases handle repairs.

Agreed.

Simon_Jester said:
Hm. I think maybe Sulu is actually the kind of guy who does his best work when he has a boss to tell him "no, this is going one step too far, you'll break the system if you try this."

Notice that of the Enterprise command team, he was the only one of the established officers to completely lose the plot when the polywater infection knocked out their inhibitions in The Naked Time. Spock was cracking up, Kirk was cracking up, but Sulu? Brandishing a sword and storming the bridge.

Fast forward to his TBG days, and it's clear from the dialogue that he vetted his idea about seeking Klingon reinforcements for Kadesh with Starfleet Command ahead of time. Those wild and wooly Explorer Corps operations he got up to in collaboration with Starfleet Intelligence? He was pushing it; he could have got in serious trouble had they been revealed to the public, or if something had happened to Enterprise like what happened to Courageous a few years later. He was at least a little lucky there. And his idea about assembling a Sixth Fleet out of the anti-Syndicate task force during the Kadak-Tor incident? That was an example of him going a bit too far, and Kahurangi had to yank on his chain.

However, Sulu is extremely creative, talented, and effective, as well as being kind of erratic. That combination makes him a marvelous subordinate when he's being tasked with carrying out some specific duty, because he'll use all his brilliance to achieve the duty as well as could be expected. Since he's got buckets of charisma, that includes tasks like "Persuade Councilor Smith of the wisdom of getting a starbase built in the Zabriska system" or whatever.

Thing is... that's actually more like Diplomacy than it is like Politics. It's more about Sulu using his personal charisma to persuade an independent entity of something, and less about Sulu working well within a power structure.

The Explorer Corps has an... effect on people. It changes them. They either go mad or become legends. They could explain all the insane admirals/commodores who kept showing up in canon.

Goat said:
Estimated Cardassian Forces (could be out of date as it is from an Intel report close to a year old - and could have been wrong in the first place):

2 Kaldar (Combat Cruiser)
6~7 Jaldun (General Cruiser)
7~9 Escort Grade (No break down on what types present)

Hull numbers favour us but only just - 19 vs 18.
Our Capitals are statistically superior to their Kaldars
Connie-Bs trade roughly 50-50 with Jalduns, hopefully the support from the Queens/Briecas will help with their numbers.
Our Escort wing is strong - and Stingers are particually nasty.

Just eye-balling it, in a general all-in fur ball, statistically we should win - but it is not guaranteed and I fear our repair crews are going to reach 'Blooded' status
On that subject, anybody tracking how any fights some of our ships have been present at here, because I'm wondering if some of Miranda-As/Connie-Bs might reach 'Blooded' status by the time this is all over?

Here are the theorized stats for known Cardassian vessels. We don't know about refits or new designs.

UbeOne said:
Cardassian
Hiroshi ???-??? [???m, 298k t]
C2 S1 H1 L2 P0 D1
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]

Isamu ???-??? [???m, 591k t]
C4 S1 H2 L2 P1 D2
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]

Takaaki (General Purpose) ???-Now [285m, 712k t] (note: might not have been built)
C3 S2 H3 L3 P1 D2
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]

Takaaki (Combat) ???-Now [285m, 740k t]
C4 S1 H3 L3 P1 D2
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]

Takaaki (Science) ???-Now [285m, 750k t]
C1 S5 H2 L3 P1 D2
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]

Takaaki (Courier) ???-Now [285m, 717k t]
C2 S1 H3 L3 P3 D3
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-?, E-?, T-?]

Jaldun ???-Now [405m, 1.2m t]
C4 S3 H4 L4 P3 D4
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-3, E-4, T-3]

Kaldar ???-Now [405m, 1.5m t]
C5 S3 H4 L4 P3 D5*
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-3, E-4, T-3]
* stats are estimated from intel reports

*Kadak-Tor 2307-2310 [405m, 1.5m t] (unique, officially destroyed, unofficially captured by Starfleet)
C5 S3 H4 L4 P3 D5* Cloak No (Formerly Yes, General Chang's prototype)
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-3, E-4, T-3]*
* stats are estimated from intel reports

Lorgot ???-Now [???m, 1.8m t]
C7 S3 H3 L5 P? D5
Cost [???br, ??sr, ? Years], Crew [O-6, E-6, T-3]

...... ...... ......

AKuz said:
I wonder if we could chuck about EC ship into the GBZ at this critical time. I know of one pretty lady on that side of the Federation that has the biggest stat block we've seen...

We really need to look into having Enterprise arrive on the scene.

"New ship entering the battlezone!"

"Cardassian?"

*boggles in wonder*

"No Sir... it's the Enterprise!" *airhorns*

*Cardassians flee the field in terror*

Simon_Jester said:
Enterprise:

"Ooh can I can I can I please?"

[spacetime shakes a little as 2.28-megaton explorer bounces up and down at cruising warp speed]

KanColle Intensifies!

Finagle007 said:
No, we play around with time travel.

Save the whales!

tryrar said:
No we don't. Time travel is banned

Except to save the whales!

random_npc · Mar 22, 2017

Night said:
We were smart enough not to do it again.

The Licori aren't.

This is pretty much it. Humans do get up to crazy shit from time to time, but they tend to error on the side of caution when calculating minimum safe distance, and will drop avenues of research that prove too dangerous.

OneirosTheWriter · Mar 22, 2017

Nix said:
The Gaeni didn't get any of our tech bonuses, neither the damage bonus from comms nor the shield regen bonus. Apparently things like that aren't shared with advanced affiliates. Neither side had any damage bonuses against the other.

They will both be using the same approx. doctrine, a Tech-Ship doctrine. Given I haven't finalised it, no bonuses have appeared, but it left things even between them, so I was okay with running them as blank fleet data.

SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Great Bird of the Galaxy, how the fuck are we up 87C in the GBZ and an Excelsior in every BZ plus our two largest home sectors?

I'm clearly not keeping you people busy enough!

SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Wouldn't be surprised if that was a failed Hard diplo event

It was.

aeqnai said:
Spoiler: Construction 2314Q4

Love your work with the infographics!

Btw, you also have USS Saratoga in one of the Apiata shipyards being repaired. Edit: Berth A, Hive of the Irrizizza, 2313.Q4 - 2314.Q4

aeqnai · Mar 22, 2017

OneirosTheWriter said:
Btw, you also have USS Saratoga in one of the Apiata shipyards being repaired.

Her ETR was listed for Q4, and the GBZ deployment on the front page has her there the same quarter, so I moved her.

ClawClawBite · Mar 22, 2017

chriswriter90 said:
They're based on Dune. If anyone knows how Dune does it, it would be nice to share.

Dune Mentats don't have a limited life, and tend to be rather long lived, as the Spice Melange, which helps unlock their mental abilities, also extends lifespan significantly. However, Dune Mentats are living computers without a super-science bonus.

Dune is a no computers at all setting, but in addition to Mentats, there are other organizations and training grounds of exceptional training and some unusual abilities. The Dune Navigators Guild use prescient Navigators who successfully predict if the target of the space-fold drive is safe. There was also an order of social engineers with limited ancestral recall, torture resistant doctors, and some really bad-ass swords-masters.

I expect due to all of that, it is an inspired by, not a close analog of...

I really should have made Gaen the 9th moon out in honor of Ixians from dune.

random_npc · Mar 22, 2017

OneirosTheWriter said:
They will both be using the same approx. doctrine, a Tech-Ship doctrine. Given I haven't finalised it, no bonuses have appeared, but it left things even between them, so I was okay with running them as blank fleet data.

ohh sounds interesting. Given who seems to be using it I'm guessing it comes with either drawbacks or increased volatility? Thus explaining why Starfleet and it's fleet of high S ships don't consider using it?

Questara · Mar 22, 2017

[X][REPAIR] "We can bump NCC-1665, a Miranda, from San Fran Berth A."

SynchronizedWritersBlock · Mar 23, 2017

OneirosTheWriter said:
I'm clearly not keeping you people busy enough!

Mind you that's only if nothing bad happens between now and 2315.Q2/Q3, a full year from now.

Night · Mar 23, 2017

random_npc said:
ohh sounds interesting. Given who seems to be using it I'm guessing it comes with either drawbacks or increased volatility? Thus explaining why Starfleet and it's fleet of high S ships don't consider using it?

Deflector Death Beams, I'm guessing.

Briefvoice · Mar 23, 2017

The Tech-Ship doctrine provides a % combat increase when your fleet has more Science than the other side, increased chance of shield burn-through, and allows periodic reroll-and-take-the-best during combat turns.

The only drawback is a small chance your ship randomly explodes. A tiny chance! Minuscule!

Steven Kodaly · Mar 23, 2017

Simon_Jester said:
When they built a new ship, someone (possibly civilian politicians) wanted to keep the hull number, in defiance of normal procedure. It was a way of saying "This isn't just a ship NAMED FOR the legendary Enterprise. This STILL IS the legendary Enterprise, reincarnated."

Much like Kirk's demotion to captain, I suspect it was a deliberate insult to the Klingons, in response to their saber-rattling over Genesis.

Finagle007 said:
Why exactly are we so hostile to the Licori again? Don't we get up to equally insane shit?

Genesis and the M-5 Incident were both colossal screwups on the part of their backers in Starfleet and the Federation government, but the Genesis Project only really went off the rails once it had been hijacked by Khan. Prior to that, it looked like Carol Marcus and her colleagues were taking deliberate, measured steps in scaling up their superscience; this included getting help from the professionals at Starfleet to properly survey potential test sites for the deployment of the full-scale Genesis device.

As for the M-5 Incident, well, there's no defending the chain of events leading to that. At least, apart from ensuring that one of Starfleet's own computer specialists was in position to evaluate the test model.

nocarename · Mar 23, 2017

Steven Kodaly said:
As for the M-5 Incident, well, there's no defending the chain of events leading to that. At least, apart from ensuring that one of Starfleet's own computer specialists was in position to evaluate the test model.

Important safety tips for ship automation:
1) If the computer is going to be based on an individual brain, make it a sane individual.
2) Test beds should vapourizable.
3) Who authorized this again? Didn't we learn anything last time?

chriswriter90 · Mar 23, 2017

nocarename said:
Important safety tips for ship automation:

1) If the computer is going to be based on an individual brain, make it a sane individual.

So most of our Explorer captains are right out?

Who do we use when designing the M-6? Spock or McCoy?

UberJJK · Mar 23, 2017

chriswriter90 said:
Who do we use when designing the M-6? Spock or McCoy?

Using, an image of, Spock's Brain to run a computer leads to stupid places.

OneirosTheWriter · Mar 23, 2017

With effectively two wars now on the border, and the potential for other confrontations or boilovers, it's pretty clearly time to rearrange Starfleet Operations. The question is: how much input into the new structure do people want? Are there any particular concerns people want addressed?

I don't imagine anyone cares much about components of Ops like Logistics Command, more for the fleet command structure, but if there are, I'm happy to listen.

With the Arcadian War now boiling, and the likelihood of Federation involvement, this will all be practically encouraged by the Council to allow for proper command and control. The amount of oversight for sectors is at a hilarious all-time low, after all, and with a the explosion in area covered, that's a concern that the Council will be starting to feel acutely.

Goat · Mar 23, 2017

If I am understanding correctly, we are going to be taking the current Ops organisation and splitting it into more departments? So multiple new Vice/Rear Admiral positions with sub-ordinate roles.
How many departments? Core, Spin, Tail, etc? One for each Border Zone and one or more for the Internal Sectors? One for each Sector (might be overkill)?

chriswriter90 · Mar 23, 2017

OneirosTheWriter said:
With effectively two wars now on the border, and the potential for other confrontations or boilovers, it's pretty clearly time to rearrange Starfleet Operations.

We clearly can't fight both at once with our current forces.

The Licori share a border with the Romulans right? Do our diplomatic or intelligence departments know what the relationship between the two nations is?

Briefvoice · Mar 23, 2017

OneirosTheWriter said:
With effectively two wars now on the border, and the potential for other confrontations or boilovers, it's pretty clearly time to rearrange Starfleet Operations. The question is: how much input into the new structure do people want? Are there any particular concerns people want addressed?

While I appreciate the level of player control given in ship assignments, I would like to see more back-and-forth between Starfleet Operations and Starfleet Tactical on the potential risks and benefits of any given posture.

Tactical often seems like the forgotten cousin of Starfleet Command, occasionally stepping in to give a piece of advice on a particular situation but not in any continuous, organized way. It would be good to get their thoughts on, "Here are the dangers of over-committing to the Gabriel Expanse," or "Here is what you really need to hold back the Licori if they lunge at the Federation." Ideally Operations should concentrate on getting things done, but Tactical should be giving a lot more risk/benefit analysis.

In particular, you as the voice of Tactical have a much better idea than we do about Member World fleets and how much we can depend on them as a backstop if Federation space is invaded and where they're patrolling when a crisis is not happening.

Briefvoice · Mar 23, 2017

chriswriter90 said:
We clearly can't fight both at once with our current forces.

Bah. If the Council declared it was a true wartime SOE rather than just a play-war, we could easily peel enough ships off garrison duty to seriously fight the Licori in conjunction with the Gaeni. The problem only comes if the Council wants us to:
1. Fight a war of choice in Gabriel with member fleets helping only if they feel like it.
2. Fight a war of choice with the Licori with member fleets helping only if they feel like it.
3. Maintain peacetime garrison levels like nothing exciting is happening.

We can do two of the three, but all three is too much, and I hope Sousa can explain that to the President.

Night · Mar 23, 2017

If we go to war with the Licori, I fully expect the Council to vote us an actual war declaration to use.

cast2007 · Mar 23, 2017

To be honest what's really needed for Starflert Ops is two things:

1. insert a Theater/Over sector level (Vice Admiral billet, numbers to be determined probably at least three) to serve as an intermediary between Stafleet Operations and the Sector Commands.

2. Reorganize the Sector chain of command to take into account the possibility of multiple Starbases in a Sector

example

Sol Sector

Commander, Sol Sector (Rear Admiral)
->Commander, Starbase One (Commodore, or dual billet of Commander, Sol Sector)
->Commander, Starbase X1 (Commodore)
->Commander, Sol Sector Mobile Fleet (Commodore)

ClawClawBite · Mar 23, 2017

I think recent events show that we could really use a central repair coordination command, likely a rear admiral under Ops. Or possibly a Field Engineering Operations that does repair coordination, and engineering ship management.

Simon_Jester · Mar 23, 2017

chriswriter90 said:
Kantai Collection, Star Trek edition when!?
...
KanColle Intensifies!

Actually, all that is basically a reference to my (so far) four part omake string Dreams, which IS based on the idea that ships have souls- but that idea is thousands of years older than Kantai Collection.

[Alternatively, the entire thing is the chronicle of Nash ka'Sharren having four extremely vivid dreams induced by exotic hypnotic phenomena (the first) and intense stress (the other three)]

To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

Mad Engineering!

Widow Null

Cabal Core Commander

Nerdy Homu

Mad Engineering!

Widow Null

Cabal Core Commander

Widow Null

Mad Engineering!