I thought this was an interesting note, by the way. It appears that a lot of these "rogue mentats" are literally that, scientists who got a hold of the mentat process "outside of normal channels" (which is to say the black market). It suggests that even under the best of circumstances we may never fully be rid of rogue mentats as long as the knowledge of the process is out there. There will always be individuals willing to trade life for glory, even if it's legally forbidden.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
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- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
I thought this was an interesting note, by the way. It appears that a lot of these "rogue mentats" are literally that, scientists who got a hold of the mentat process "outside of normal channels" (which is to say the black market). It suggests that even under the best of circumstances we may never fully be rid of rogue mentats as long as the knowledge of the process is out there. There will always be individuals willing to trade life for glory, even if it's legally forbidden.
We can, however, "ask" (demand) for the houses' support in confiscating and turning over the equipment that makes full mentats and enforcing a ban on said practice. Just because people can technically do something doesn't mean it still can't be disallowed through enforcement.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Spock also has a very understated sense of humor - case in point, the continued existence of Leonard McCoy. If anyone would hide behind a veneer of 'logic' while chuckling into his sleeve, it's Spock. Are you sure he wasn't messing with you and Jim Kirk?
But I want more diplomats to throw bodily at our problems.
aeqnai
Nerdy Homu
- Location
- Laniakea Supercluster
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Plan Diplomats and Starfleet Engineers
-[X] Starfleet Engineering Command (5pt from Starfleet, to deploy will require 2 cargo ships and 2 freighters to be sourced from member worlds)
-[X] Shorc Xurth Resource Combine - Heavy Industry (5 Cost to Tellar, gain Heavy Industry asset)
-[X] Retired Vice Admiral Heidi Eriksson - Doctrine Specialist (5pt Cost to Starfleet, gain Doctrine Specialist)
-[X] Generate Generic External Diplomacy Team from United Earth (10 Cost to Starfleet, 5 Cost to Member World, gain External Diplomacy Team)
-[X] Starfleet Engineering Command (5pt from Starfleet, to deploy will require 2 cargo ships and 2 freighters to be sourced from member worlds)
-[X] Shorc Xurth Resource Combine - Heavy Industry (5 Cost to Tellar, gain Heavy Industry asset)
-[X] Retired Vice Admiral Heidi Eriksson - Doctrine Specialist (5pt Cost to Starfleet, gain Doctrine Specialist)
-[X] Generate Generic External Diplomacy Team from United Earth (10 Cost to Starfleet, 5 Cost to Member World, gain External Diplomacy Team)
Forgothrax
Not Going Gently
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Starships are, however, rare and expensive. Even if we can't forbid people from becoming Crazytats, we can keep them contained.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It occurs to me that we need to consider what will happen if someone successfully cooks off a star, inducing a supernova. What is Starfleet's plan of action?
- Location
- Austin, TX
[X] Plan Diplomats and Starfleet Engineers
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Mass evac, wide area broadcast of who did it, and hopefully time travel antics to undo it.
I figure the best bet is something like what they did in 2009 Star Trek, actually. FTL past the blast front, try and neutralize it as close to the source as possible. Red Matter or some other science bullshit. After that, invest in planetary shields and hope there's no weird fuckery.
This is assuming, again, it's a regular supernova and has no FTL effects from aforementioned fuckery.
According to Google, a (real world) Super Nova blast front was measured at 8 miles per second (12.8 km/s for most of the world). This is roughly .004% of light speed.
Outside of the Stellar system where the event occurred, they have decades/centuries to protect/evacuate systems in the way of the blast front.
The only real troubles would be from a non-FTL high population world in the blast area - then it depends on how the Prime Directive gets implemented.
That assumes real world propagation speed though. This quest is set in Star Trek, where subspace shenanigans are a common occurrence, so if it does occur, I'm expecting the GM to rule that the blast front is at least high partial C, or even low FTL (if it is high FTL, then we have probably lost everyone in the affected area).
Outside of the Stellar system where the event occurred, they have decades/centuries to protect/evacuate systems in the way of the blast front.
The only real troubles would be from a non-FTL high population world in the blast area - then it depends on how the Prime Directive gets implemented.
That assumes real world propagation speed though. This quest is set in Star Trek, where subspace shenanigans are a common occurrence, so if it does occur, I'm expecting the GM to rule that the blast front is at least high partial C, or even low FTL (if it is high FTL, then we have probably lost everyone in the affected area).
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I'm not sure if that's the radiation pulse, or if that's just the ejecta getting kicked out of the star. The hazard isn't the random crud being thrown out of the star. It's the intense pulse of high energy subatomic particles (by definition relativistic), gamma rays, and so on... which is directly associated with the supernova event itself, the part that releases planet-boiling energy levels when the entire contents of the star fuse at once.
Constructing a planet-sized umbrella might actually be a practical move for some of the planets affected. Not sure what a supernova wavefront has in the way of radiation but it may be more blockable than you'd think.
Building shelters in place is almost certainly going to be easier than evacuating populations, simply because a bomb shelter is so very much cheaper than a starship of equal carrying capacity. But we might do *both,* evacuating colonies and bunkering up on homeworlds.
Enterprise:
"I've known Spock for nearly sixty years. I am... almost sure he hasn't known I existed for the past forty-eight or so of them, without ever trying to reach me. I hope you're mistaken about that, because it'd mean..." [looks downcast] "He never thought to try. I'd rather believe he thinks I'm a figment of Jim's imagination."
"Rigel does have a strong defense mechanism. It is protected by an energy shield, which is generated from the nearby forest moon of Not'Endor. The shield must be deactivated if the supernova remnant is to destroy Rigel."
SYNDICATE WARS EPISODE SIX: RETURN OF THE SHODAR
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hobus is one particular case where you should consider STO higher canon than the movies. Because Iconian Superweapon explains that pile of crazy quite nicely.
- Location
- Australia
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Random Orion Goon, Brought Into Briefing As Per Evil Overlord Rule #12
"Uh... boss? I'm pretty sure that's not an energy shield. That's a meter-thick slab of rock fifteen thousand kilometers wide. How do we deactivate a rock?"
EDIT:
My first thought was that something like this would be unthinkably heavy, but if the shield really were 'only' a meter thick, it would have volume of pi*(7500^2)*0.001... About 177 thousand cubic kilometers, corresponding to a stony asteroid or moonlet about 35 kilometers in radius. So given years to work on the task with Star Trek technology you probably COULD conceivably build such a thing. It wouldn't even be massive enough to collapse under its own gravity, I suspect.
More rock means more work, but this is actually something you could do in principle if you had enough time, which is better than I thought of when the idea "how do we deactivate a rock" popped into my head.
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- Location
- Australia
Out celebrating with the wife at the moment. Should make a Captain's Log post later tonight, still.
This vote should close in about five hours.
I know things are a bit dull with the SoE voting atm, but the stakes should be going up very soon.
All the other powers have been waiting to see what happens with the Federation, so a lot of things should go nutty quickly.
This vote should close in about five hours.
I know things are a bit dull with the SoE voting atm, but the stakes should be going up very soon.
All the other powers have been waiting to see what happens with the Federation, so a lot of things should go nutty quickly.
The Cardassains are going to charge Ainsworth, aren't they
. After all, we have nothing left to reinforce the GBZ with. The Romulans are going to be watching the entire War to evaluate how much it weakens us
. Probably with whatever the Romulan equivalent to pop corn is, on their cloaked bridges.The Klingons are going to seeing if we fight with 'Honour' (and how much it weakens us)
Q is going to ... do whatever Q does.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
If Q were that sympathetic to species that behave like the Licori, she wouldn't have given President Oyana the kind of talking-to she did... Unless she's critting the hippo really, really hard.
The Cardies attacking Ainsworth is a distinct possibility, although unless they have vastly reinforced the Gabriel Expanse we should be able to stop them. I think. Especially if we can get some measure of inter-allied coordination.
The Cardies attacking Ainsworth is a distinct possibility, although unless they have vastly reinforced the Gabriel Expanse we should be able to stop them. I think. Especially if we can get some measure of inter-allied coordination.
The Cardassains are going to charge Ainsworth, aren't they
On the plus side, repaired ships are streaming back into the GBZ every quarter. (And we actually are shooting one new build her way.)
- 2315.Q1 - 1 Excelsior (6) [Avandar], 6 Constitution-B (30) [Korolev, Defiant, Exeter, Saratoga, Republic, Valiant], 4 Miranda-A (8) [T'Kumbra, Agile, Bantam, Clarion] = 48 C.
- 2315.Q2 - 2 Excelsiors (6) [Avandar, Kumari], 7 Constitution-B (35) [Korolev, Defiant, Exeter, Saratoga, Republic, Valiant, LOCF Build], 1 Constellation [Challorn], 4 Miranda-A (8) [T'Kumbra, Agile, Bantam, Clarion] = 59 C.
- 2315.Q3 - 2 Excelsiors (6) [Avandar, Kumari], 7 Constitution-B (35) [Korolev, Defiant, Exeter, Saratoga, Republic, Valiant, LOCF Build], 1 Constellation [Challorn], 7 Miranda-A (14) [T'Kumbra, Agile, Bantam, Clarion, Fidelity, Bon Vivant, Shield] = 68 C.
The Romulans are going to be watching the entire War to evaluate how much it weakens us
The Klingons are going to seeing if we fight with 'Honour' (and how much it weakens us)
Oh no, they're not going to be 'watching'. This will be the signal the the Federation is as distracted as it's going to be. Time for the Romulan/Klingon War to finally kick off.
Yes, well a two front war is pretty damn distracting.
I'm probably not remembering the wording quite right, but from B5, a Mollari quote:
Only an idiot fights a two front war. Only the King of Idiots would fight a seven front war!
Let's keep it to the idiot stage, and not upgrade to royalty, please.
Omake - Devas and Asuras Pt 2 - Simon_Jester
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
DEVAS AND ASURAS
Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Recommended Listening: Selection from Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7
USS Republic
Six Light-Minutes off Deva IX
Stardate 25152.7
"Engineering, give me main phaser conduit status."
"Holding; some heating, but we can sustain this output level for- I'd estimate forty to sixty minutes."
"Good, but try to improve that."
There wasn't much room to put more tubes on the torpedo-heavy Constitution-A. But there'd been room to run a dedicated EPS tap up through the neck, straight from the warp core to the forward phaser banks. The old-style banks, with deep battery rooms and rugged circuits, overbuilt for their era and with more than their share of potential for overcharging. Those were Republic's real teeth, now.
Switching that tap on had been one of the first moves Sulu'd made, after Kumari and Endurance jumped into position. So long as power burned straight from the antimatter furnace to the cruiser's main beams, they couldn't escape into warp- but anything that crossed Republic's bow would know it had been kissed.
There they go again! The chaotic turning battle was a madhouse. Sulu was a child of the early '90s Academy, a tactical tradition focused on the classic single-ship actions of the 23rd century. Only occasionally had they practiced a surprise jump to Axanar or Caleb IV or the sort of crazy dogpile Dad might come up with. But they had practiced those. And a good thing too, at Kadesh, when all the old admirals were out of the picture. It had been the laughing wild child from the Academy class ahead of hers that took command, then, used that training, and did the new generation proud.
Sulu felt a thin, dauntless twist of her lips coming on, something close to a smile. She didn't particularly care for the dizzying brawl the Sydraxians were trying for, with threats on every side. But she could cope, and she could fight her ship, trying to impose shape on the fight. Hasques swooped around to trap Kumari in a crossfire; Republic and Korolev's forward phaser banks pounded the Sydraxian escorts back with brilliant, flickering, summer-lightning beams.
The Sydraxians returned fire, their escorts' chin guns blazing before breaking off the swooping attack runs. Republic's reinforced shields shuddered under the hammer. But combining their attack with Kumari's crack gunners, the Starfleet cruisers wove a net of death the Hierarchy ships couldn't escape, despite the baffling grace with which even their heavy units slipped out from under Starfleet sights. The Mirandas, with the broad firing arcs of their turret phasers, did their best to corral the enemy back into the cruisers' path, but it was a long, long way from easy.
And once in a while...
"Ma'am, Endurance is relaying their next target. I have a lock on them."
Once in a while, old 'Uncle Pavel' brought the artillery. "Tactical, arm torpedoes. Stand by to fire a spread, impact immediately after Endurance's birds. Helm, bring us around; put that cruiser at relative bearing eighty mark sixty. Tactical, main forward phasers, full fire."
Answering Sulu's word, the sleek Constitution yawed and pitched her saucer upwards, giving the main phaser banks full play. M'Rasha seized her moment, the heavy phasers lancing out to put ripples in the heavy cruiser's shields as the forward tubes whumped, sending a pair of blazing missiles downrange.
And then it happened. For far from the first time during the scrambling ship to ship dogfight, the Sydraxian cruiser seemed to slide in a direction no engine burn or maneuvering blast could properly explain, piloted with an effortless grace. Despite the Kalindrax's almost explorer-grade size and bulk, she seemed almost leisurely as she out-danced six torpedoes from Endurance. The flaming scarlet bolts of destruction tracked towards their target, but too late- perhaps blinded, perhaps simply outmaneuvered, four detonated dozens of kilometers off their heavily shielded target's bow, barely affecting it. Two more lit up the cruiser's shields to minimal effect, most of the gamma ray burst rolling off into space in a shower of crackling, dissipating energies.
Sadly for the Hierarchy, Endurance's phasers tracked them through the turn, drawing shield power off to that flank- just as their helmsman's evasive turn brought them squarely into the path of the pair of torpedoes from Republic, on crossing trajectories artfully laid in by the Caitian tactician. Antimatter erupted, spraying broad patterns of shield scatter where the expanding bubble of gamma rays met the hard-held dome of force covering the Sydraxians' broadside. The heavy, armored ship reeled under the heavy blow.
"Reading their shields at just over thirty-five percent, ma'am!" M'Rasha called with satisfaction.
"Good work, Guns-" Damn. The Mirandas were starting to fail to keep back the more numerous enemy escorts. Again. If Kumari got caught in a nutcracker like the one Republic and Endurance had set up for the Sydraxian heavy hitter for any length of time, the whole battle could fall apart!
Sulu had cut herself off in midsentence to issue the next round of orders. "Helm, bring us around on a reciprocal course; Tactical, plot a firing pattern that will force those warbirds to go full evasive." Settling the enemy cruiser's hash would just have to wait. But they could do it. Sulu felt a bit of a smile twitch at the corners of her mouth. They were doing it!
That was when all six Sydraxian ships pitched up and over and unloaded a sudden, massed barrage of weapons fire at USS Endurance.
Heavy Cruiser Skafladrax
Six Light-Minutes off Deva IX
Conductor Rexasodie's ships wheeled and whirled and danced, lines of death and power stitching out across the eternal night. The moment came, she judged, watching nervously as the Federation ships exploited their formidable beam weapons. Even so, there were moments of greater and lesser pressure. And this was the moment to carry out the commands she'd already issued.
"Strike!"
Trusting, her captains executed her orders without delay. Six ships swirled, still taking the brunt of Federation weapons on their wavering shields as they twisted around. The full firepower of six million tons of solidly built warships came to bear on that lone, sharpshooting Excelsior, so far out on the edge of the battlezone.
The scarlet flame of massed disruptors struck Endurance's shields like a blowtorch. Her frigates' axial cannon snarled and tore at the dreadnought's defenses. Sheaves of torpedoes blurred across the gap, and she awaited their arrival tensely. This wasn't safe, might not be wise- but it was the only way to do more than inconvenience that lone enemy ship. And that, they had to do; Chekov's sniping fire, guided by the the massive dreadnought's sensor suite, was more than her ships could take while fighting fang and claw against Kumari and her little sisters.
Even under overwhelming attack, Chekov's practiced crew clearly knew their business. The entire torpedo spread from the frigate Tintreax suddenly veered aside, the little ship reporting that somehow the Starfleet wizards had hacked their fire control telemetry. Then another spread, from another frigate- the same fate, but still the remaining missiles closed in. Three more vanished in a sudden gulp of inverted, devouring un-space, something her own CIC chief couldn't even analyze except as "SPACETIME ANOMALY," with a hasty note about deflector dish adjustments.
That still left a great many torpedoes running straight and swift, and though the range was long, the Sydraxian barrage had finally crossed it.
USS Endurance
"Good work!" Pavel Chekov shouted encouragement to the quiet, dry woman at the comm console, not that she needed it. Whatever trick she'd used probably wouldn't work on Sydraxians in any other battle, not unless they were outstandingly stupid- but it had done wonders to ease their troubles here and now. So would that burble of warp field Commander Kole had managed to coax from the main deflector. But as For the rest...
"All hands, brace for impact!"
Sparks of induced fusion ripped through metallic hydrogen as the Sydraxian torpedoes reached their target. Already abused and thinned, the explorer's shields flared blue, then burst like a soap bubble. Crackling arcs of disruptor fire ate into Endurance's starboard nacelle and stitched lines of fireballs across half the saucer. The great ship rocked, power surging and faltering, propulsion offline while the crews down in Engineering scrambled to bring backups into operation.
Heavy Cruiser Skafladrax
"Its shields are down!"
The flagship rocked fiercely, jolting her against her seat restraints. That felt like a blast had penetrated the weak shield bubble entirely and scarred Skafladrax's armor. The fleet's emergency batteries would help with that soon, but even so this battle wasn't going well. Maybe, maybe she could turn the tide before minor damage started to add up beyond what her squadron could survive to tell the tale. Not that she was looking forward to her after-action lay, even in the best possible case.
But, having lamed Endurance, it remained to finish it. Keeping up concentrated fire much longer would doom her command as the rest of their squadron reacted. On the other hand-
The Hierarchy had never yet had any joy of a clash with Federation in deep space. They'd harried blasphemous Miracht in vain. They'd raided, they'd attacked fortress-stations. In vain. They'd ambushed- still in vain. But face to face, in personal combat? Nothing Starfleet had ever accomplished had given the Sydraxians much reason to fear them. Close up, no longer wrapped in millions of tons of steel, all the advantages of alien superscience would be neutralized. That was a fight they could win.
The Hierarchy's cruisers were built like fortresses. They could keep up full power on, say, their ventral shields- and still flicker down the opposite side to beam commandoes onto the alien dreadnought. They could do it. For a while, at least. If she used the reserve batteries.
"All ships, emergency supercharge to the shields. Cruisers are to break away from the enemy main body, reinforce shields facing the main body, and prepare to beam boarding parties over to the Endurance. Tintreax is detached to support the boarders and act as staging nest for boarding operations. All other ships, keep up full fire on the enemy main body; they may try to exploit our vulnerability."
Her ships were stretched cruelly thin by the enemy's superior weight of metal, but maybe, maybe she could stretch this out into a win of some kind, or at least force the enemy to withdraw and leave her one of the huge "explorers" as a prize. That would be a Hierarchy victory worth more than a little price in blood and steel...
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In case anyone has forgotten which battle Simon_Jester is writing up, I believe it is the first battle of Deva
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
There was a particular place in the combat log that caused a lot of comments when analysed, and Simon_Jester has always favoured a interpretation that the Syndraxians employed boarding tactics.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
There was a particular place in the combat log that caused a lot of comments when analysed, and Simon_Jester has always favoured a interpretation that the Syndraxians employed boarding tactics.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yes. Hence 'Devas' in the title and 'Six Light-Minutes off Deva IX' in the "location" headings.
Also, quite frankly, the story of a desperate stand against better-equipped and alarmingly competent alien boarding parties in the corridors of the Endurance makes a much, much better story than "one of the enemy's shots scored a critical hit and flooded a quarter of the ship with poisonite gas and 200 people died instantly"
The REST of Devas and Asuras, much of which is already written, focuses on the defense of the Endurance rather than the battle as a whole. Much more up-close-and-brutally-personal, as a result.
Also, quite frankly, the story of a desperate stand against better-equipped and alarmingly competent alien boarding parties in the corridors of the Endurance makes a much, much better story than "one of the enemy's shots scored a critical hit and flooded a quarter of the ship with poisonite gas and 200 people died instantly"
The REST of Devas and Asuras, much of which is already written, focuses on the defense of the Endurance rather than the battle as a whole. Much more up-close-and-brutally-personal, as a result.