Okay but the Bradley fighting vehicle development sequence from that movie is kiiinda a stretch. Like, ignore the stuff about 'battle taxis' that are meant to get soldiers close to the front, drop them off, and run away. They had the M-113, and they weren't happy with doing that. TOW missiles give it serious anti-tank punch, so it doesn't need to run away at the first whiff of armor. Of course it blows up when hit by an anti-tank round, there's no way it won't, and the test organizers knew it would blow up. They weren't trying to cover the fact up, they knew it was outside what the thing was designed to protect against. So they have to resort to caricature to make the project out to be a Big Fail, when the real crisis point of it's design history is it's brief cancellation in 1977, not the installation of the two-man turret with the gun and missiles. It's also skeptical of the kind of self-guided munitions that would prove so revolutionary in how the US fights it's modern wars. I don't know what that Paveway sequence is on about, but the original bomb, developed in the 60s, was pretty effective right out of the gate.
Like Uber showed, it isn't even completely insane. A "Yeah, a few ships will probably break down and some crew will maybe die and you can even lose a ship, but the chances are not that high and when it works it works good" argument is somewhat sensible. Such is a price for an almost-golden age product. And if megacorps benefit from it more, well, nothing wrong with that, really, it'll all trickle down anyway.
Captain's Log, Stardate 27440, USS Courageous, Captain Zara Ka'Athnon
We have returned to visit our Bolian friends!
I had intended to top up Courageous's raw feedstock reserves before we returned to deep space, but it occured to me that instead of this being a one time trade, we could instead set this up as a permanent deal between Starfleet and the Bolians!
I'm just going to call up the recently arrived FDS delegation and see what they think.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27442.1, USS Torch, Captain Nalae Veraniss
My lovely Torch is in the process of putting the finishing touches on an uneventful survey of the Yalangis-552 System.
While this is not the most strenuous of duties, it has given me the opportunity to drill the crew in matters other than military. My officers have already become refamiliarized with the intricacies of Gorn seating arrangements, Licori matters of address, Amarki military orders, and today we will be working to memorize Klingon battle rites.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27443.4, USS Suffrage
We've had a pleasant encounter with a passing Sydraxian ship conducting a survey of the systems along the outer edge of the Sydraxian Border Zone.
Her captain came aboard Suffrage for a proper lunch and introduction to my officers, and I returned the favour for dinner.
Captain Xecht has challenged us to a bit of a competition, to compare our surveys of the local systems, looking for accuracy and time taken.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27444.8, USS Torch, Captain Nalae Veraniss
It was a near run thing, I was rechecking the survey work with Ensigns Tholi and R'rura, helping to familiarize them with survey archival procedures when Tholi noticed a discrepancy between several of our scan profiles while admiring the beauty of our scans of the moons of the fourth planet.
It seems that some sort of photon stream passes between the moons of said fourth planet on a regular, if infrequent, basis.
My Torch is moving to give those moons a closer pass.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 247446.1, USS Defiant - Captain Mica zh'Halron
Something of a challenge has been sent our way, courtesy of the Caitian government. Another magnetic cosmozoan like the one discovered by Captain Taggart on stardate 26696.8 was discovered in an asteroid field near Pygmalion 337. As the first specimen discovered near Merfara proved helpful for asteroid miners, Starfleet has been asked to help relocate this one to Ferasa's own outer belt.
The process...will involve creating an expanded warp bubble between ourselves and the swarmer CSS Melrass and using it to tow the asteroid that the organism is currently hunkered in about nine light years.Theoretically, the cosmozoan will remain dormant during the trip due to the magnetic pulse emitters embedded around the entrance to its crevice.
I trust this operation about as far as I can throw it, but Lt. Commander T'Lammas and the Caitian science team both say the theories are all sound and the individual parts well tested. There's a lot that can go wrong, though. Especially given the timescales involved, as the size of the rock will limit us to low warp while we keep the field in place.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27446.5, USS Suffrage
Well, it seems that Captain Xecht was indeed the better surveyor. Not only did he manage to complete more surveys than we did, he was able to point out several errors in our own charts. Nothing major, some minor odds and ends here and there, but our pride as Starfleet Officers has been severely wounded.
[No reward]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27447.1, USS S'Harien - Captain Demora Sulu
It isn't just Starfleet that wants a slice of the pie at Ruby-Eyes' Folly. Some enterprising caitian traders have gotten those hishmeri in touch with the Ashidi, and are trying to map out a trade route between those places. The area directly rim of the Ashidi is well mapped thanks to the S'Harien and Atuin's last five year missions, but there's a stretch between the mines and STO space where things aren't as well mapped.
The Ashidi frigate Force of Will is going to be blazing a trail for the convoys, and we're going to be giving them a hand. Captain Shaxeth is probably the least guarded ashidi I've met so far. He even tried some of the kimchi I made with that gorn pickling solution. From what he's been telling me though, not many of his people are thrilled about depending on the Federation to secure their trade routes. Most ashidi spacers realize the needs that their position puts them in, but from the sound of things the political class have been loathe to admit it. This mission will hopefully give us a chance to prove our dedication.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27448.3, USS Torch, Captain Nalae Veraniss
Commendations are in order for Ensign Tholi!
On closer inspection it seems that an exotic interaction was occurring between several Dilithium and Sulundrium deposits that was giving off quite the light show from the right angles. While not large enough for full scale mining, the deposits are a nice windfall for the shipyard operations division. We will however attempt to preserve the delightful aesthetic qualities of the moons' surfaces wherever possible.
[Gained +10sr from Deposits]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27450.4 USS Courageous, Captain Zara Ka'Athnon
It is… day ten of negotiations.
There is a delegation from Courageous, one from the FDS, one from the External Trade Commission, one from the Bolian government in general, one from the Trade Ministry in specific, one from the Aerospace Guard, one from the Bolian merchant's guild, and one observer with voting powers appointed by the Bolian legislature.
I suppose that the longer we take here, the more solid the results will be!
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27451.6, USS Defiant - Captain Mica zh'Halron
This is not exactly what I would call operating within safe margins. Maybe there's no better way to go about this, but...there have been some unforeseen fluctuations in the warp field when we.and the Melrass began acceleration. There's nothing wrong with the equipment, so the geologist on the Melrass concludes there must be something deeper inside the asteroid that's interacting unpredictably with the warp field. Or, as Miss T'Lammas put forward, its the creature itself.
We've dropped out of warp for the time being. This operation is not going forward until we know what's going on.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27455.2, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
Our long range sensors have detected a cluster of warp signatures of various kinds in a nearby system.
I have ordered a course change to investigate, I have also ordered Engineering to make sure that our shields are charged and ready to raise instantly.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27456.0, USS Defiant - Captain Mica zh'Halron
We tried realigning the warp fields of the two ships, and the instant the field came online the organism emerged from the far side of the asteroid and began laying into the Melrass with a natural particle beam weapon. We were forced to wound the creature with our phasers to make it release the Caitian ship, only...it proved more delicate than the xenobiologists' estimations.
We have killed an otherwise harmless life form after our attempts to exploit it without adequate knowledge fell through. Disappointed miners aside, I'm not sure I, this ship, or this crew have ever let down Starfleet or the Federation's ideals this badly.
[Lost -10 pp, Caitian swarmer damaged (2 qrtrs)]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27456.7, USS Frontier
We are responding to a worryingly truncated distress call from the Honiani transport ship Auroria Valus reporting a mutiny among the crew.
Frontier is responding at high speed, and our main Security response team under Lieutenant T'sen are currently in a refresher briefing on War Plate, just in case.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27457.2, USS S'Harien - Captain Demora Sulu
We have an unidentified signal coming from just off of our course, rimward. Based on the inverse square readings, its coming our way. Cryptography hasn't had any luck; it's not like any language on record. I've advised the Force of Will to hold position with us and wait for the new contact to arrive. Captain Shaxeth seemed to approve of that decision.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27457.4, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
Our shields are currently up and security teams are standing by.
This system is filled with a variety of small ships, little better than a quarter Tarrak's mass, most of them similar to the small, almost crab-like assemblages of tubes, spires, and cylinders that was the ship that attempted to board us a few months ago. However at the moment they are are not only acting in a non-hostile manner but they are inundating us with a flurry of hails offering goods and services of all kinds.
We are currently moving into a loose powered orbit of the ramshackle space station that seems to be the focal point of activities in this system.
Our shields will remain up.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27457.4, USS S'Harien - Captain Demora Sulu
They accelerated as soon as they detected us stopping. Three contacts, matching the configuration of the self-replicating drones destroyed by the USS Dryad last year. Shields up, disruptors charged. We tried the torpedo trick that Captain Martinez used, but they aren't taking the bait. Two drones inbound for S'Harien, one for the Force of Will. An Excelsior can outrun these berserkers, but an Ashidi frigate can't.
We're taking the forward position and locking all weapons onto the third drone. We need to take that one out quickly, and our shields will need to hold against the other two until we do.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27457.5, USS Frontier
We've taken the Auroria Valus under tow, and are preparing to board, but seems that our preparations were misaimed: the ship's loyalist crew are currently fighting off what can be tentatively identified as Red Claw agents.
We have no time to recalibrate our strategy however, the loyalist crew reports that the Red Claw have cut life support. T'sen will have to storm the Auroria Valus via shuttles as the Red Claw have set up transport inhibitors in the main cargo bay.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27457.8, USS S'Harien - Captain Demora Sulu
The berserkers have been destroyed. Unfortunately, the sensor ghost trick we tried to throw them off didn't work, and while we were destroying the unit attacking the Ashidi the other two managed to destabilize our shields enough for one to slip through and attach its tentacles to our stardrive section. By the time we could neutralize the last drone and lower our shields to let the Ashidi target the one attached, it had overwhelmed our SIF and punctured the outer hull, causing an EPS breach that flooded a section of decks 19 and 20. Thirty-one of my crew are dead.
It's just a short trip the rest of the way from here, and thankfully main engineering's inner shielding held up. The Ashidi, Caitians, and STO will have to decide how to secure this route from those devices, although now that we can recognize their transmissions the next ship might have better luck against them. We've also received what I think are heartfelt condolences from the Ashidi government for our loss.
[Gained +30 Too Good to Be True with the Ashidi (45/500); USS S'Harien in repairs at Rethelia Starbase (1 qrtr, 15 br, 5 sr, 1E explorer corps crew), USS S'Harien is now Veteran]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27458, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
I have just returned from a half day aboard "Deepport Station" where I made formal first contact with representatives of what I will charitably call "the local government".
I have never been more grateful for a security escort than today, Deepport station is a lawless place filled with many different varieties of unsavoury sorts, as well as a large population of unfortunate slaves.
Long story short, Deepport station is a combination pirate port and Mercenary base for a major faction of a long lost, pre-institute, branch of the Gaeni who call themselves "The Unbound"
My Gaeni crew don't even have legends of long lost cousins, but they do admit the their history being rather fragmentary at times.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27458.3, USS Frontier
Situation has been resolved to my maximum satisfaction.
I don't think the Red Claw were expecting such a rapid response from Starfleet, as Lieutenant T'sen and her people cut through the unprepared Red Claw agents to disable the transporter inhibitors within seconds of hitting the deck.
We were able to immediately beam out the loyalist crew. With no worries about collateral damage, Lieutenant T'sen was able to storm the Red Claw command centre in forward life support via an improvised hull breach event and was able to capture the entire team of Red Claw mutineers alive.
While the mutineers continue to refuse to speak to us, due to the speed of T'sen's raid we were able to recover a great deal of evidence from Aurora Vale. It seems that the Red Claw had planned to take the Auroria Valus and use it in an attack aimed at a last ditch setting back of Honiani (and thus Yan-Ros) membership in the Federation.
Thanks to the bravery of a young Honiani comms rating and our own rapid response, we managed to save nearly the entirety of Auroria Valus's crew and prevent a Terrorist attack.
[Gained +20 pp]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27459.0, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
We are remaining near Deepport station for the next few days as we gather information about the locals and nearby space.
Captain's Log supplemental:
Since our arrival in-system we have fielded the following hails:
-73 solicitations to buy or sell slaves
-12 Offers of work of a military nature by local merchants.
-11 Offers to perform work of a military nature on our behalf by local mercenary bands.
-522 Offers to purchase samples of our technology
-92 Offers to sell us a variety of starship grade technologies
-2 Offers to outright purchase Tarrak
-13,213 resumes from "mercenaries" looking to ship out on Tarrak and inquiring as to our prize division scheme.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27463.9, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
These long lost Gaeni cousins almost seem to be outrageous parodies of the Gaeni that I personally know and serve alongside.
They take the mild cyberneticism of our Gaeni and take it to wild extremes, with highly respected individuals being more machine than flesh; a collection of dozens of competing systems attached to the same body. Any and all advantages are sought no matter the costs.
Our scans have also determined that most -if not all- of these Gaeni are clones, with the youngest and least modified treated as little better than slaves themselves.
We have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that our new contact are Gaeni without any ethical restraints and an explicitly ruthless survival of the fittest mentality where life is cheaper than technology.
They call themselves the Unbound and, as their ideal is a life free of the constraints of morality or good sense, I can only find it an appropriate moniker.
I am… disturbed. To put it lightly.
At the moment, however, Tarrak's impressive size and armament seems to be enough to overawe our hosts and we have established a level of respect with these Gaeni.
Captain's Log, Stardate 27465, USS Courageous, Captain Zara Ka'Athnon
The temporary deal for Courageous's feedstock is finalized, and a Commissioner for External Trade assures me that the permanent deal is entering the final stages.
Just a few more months of effort on his end and Starfleet will have permanent refuelling rights in Bolian space!
Very exciting!
[Gained +3BR, +10 Bolian Relations from negotiations]
While their culture is less stable, I suspect their individuals are more stable than Mentats. If only because they wouldn't use so much cyberization if it had the effects it does on Licori Mentats, particularly the reduced lifespan.
They accelerated as soon as they detected us stopping. Three contacts, matching the configuration of the self-replicating drones destroyed by the USS Dryad last year. Shields up, disruptors charged. We tried the torpedo trick that Captain Martinez used, but they aren't taking the bait. Two drones inbound for S'Harien, one for the Force of Will. An Excelsior can outrun these berserkers, but an Ashidi frigate can't.
We're taking the forward position and locking all weapons onto the third drone. We need to take that one out quickly, and our shields will need to hold against the other two until we do.
Well. We have a storm coming. The berserkers are escalating in numbers and capability. I suspect we're looking at a mobile swarm that is currently moving into our space, we've just caught the outrunners.
Captain's Log, Stardate 27458, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
I have just returned from a half day aboard "Deepport Station" where I made formal first contact with representatives of what I will charitably call "the local government".
I have never been more grateful for a security escort than today, Deepport station is a lawless place filled with many different varieties of unsavoury sorts, as well as a large population of unfortunate slaves.
Long story short, Deepport station is a combination pirate port and Mercenary base for a major faction of a long lost, pre-institute, branch of the Gaeni who call themselves "The Unbound"
My Gaeni crew don't even have legends of long lost cousins, but they do admit the their history being rather fragmentary at times.
Captain's Log, Stardate 27459.0, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
We are remaining near Deepport station for the next few days as we gather information about the locals and nearby space.
Captain's Log supplemental:
Since our arrival in-system we have fielded the following hails:
-73 solicitations to buy or sell slaves
-12 Offers of work of a military nature by local merchants.
-11 Offers to perform work of a military nature on our behalf by local mercenary bands.
-522 Offers to purchase samples of our technology
-92 Offers to sell us a variety of starship grade technologies
-2 Offers to outright purchase Tarrak
-13,213 resumes from "mercenaries" looking to ship out on Tarrak and inquiring as to our prize division scheme.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27463.9, USS Tarrak, Captain Larai Leaniss
These long lost Gaeni cousins almost seem to be outrageous parodies of the Gaeni that I personally know and serve alongside.
They take the mild cyberneticism of our Gaeni and take it to wild extremes, with highly respected individuals being more machine than flesh; a collection of dozens of competing systems attached to the same body. Any and all advantages are sought no matter the costs.
Our scans have also determined that most -if not all- of these Gaeni are clones, with the youngest and least modified treated as little better than slaves themselves.
We have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that our new contact are Gaeni without any ethical restraints and an explicitly ruthless survival of the fittest mentality where life is cheaper than technology.
They call themselves the Unbound and, as their ideal is a life free of the constraints of morality or good sense, I can only find it an appropriate moniker.
I am… disturbed. To put it lightly.
At the moment, however, Tarrak's impressive size and armament seems to be enough to overawe our hosts and we have established a level of respect with these Gaeni.
So a Rennie fails a S test. Nobody is really surprised.
+10pp total - factor in the last log and it is +5pp for the quarter so far.
Some rep gains, lost a crew unit, one EC and one member ship a bit dinged up.
Another EC Excelsior hits Veteran - just in time for us to start considering downgrading them ....
Poor Zara. She just wanted to make refueling an easier task in the future, not get stuck in bureaucratic hell for a month. This is probably second only to the Excalibur in her most disliked actions as an EC captain.
Thanks for the feedback and information, @Simon_Jester, @Leila Hann, @AKuz. I'll play around with it for a while, see if I come up with something I'm happy posting.
Re the most recent logs: I think this is the first time I've seen the diplomacy tags be split like that (five levels of slavery, each of which must be resolved before advancing beyond 100 points, if I read it correctly). I already liked the new diplomacy approach, but this adds mechanical flexibility that makes it even better. Kudos to whoever designed it.
It also basically guarantees that we aren't going to touch a lot of those races. 5 100pt tags will take a good sized TF likely 4+ years to clear. Not getting a single Affiliate roll or Push boosting will make clearing those tags very annoying, as there will always be someone else easier to grab.
It would seem better to make 2 100-pt tags and a 300-pt tag, since we can actually tackle the issues that way, but w/e.
It also basically guarantees that we aren't going to touch a lot of those races. 5 100pt tags will take a good sized TF likely 4+ years to clear. Not getting a single Affiliate roll or Push boosting will make clearing those tags very annoying, as there will always be someone else easier to grab.
It would seem better to make 2 100-pt tags and a 300-pt tag, since we can actually tackle the issues that way, but w/e.
I point out that the map could easily grow if needed, and the very next quarter there is indeed stuff to put on the map that requires expanding it. Seems like it actually needed saying.
Still not quite enough info to narrow Ruby-Eyes Folly down to the subsector and it sounds like the precise location could be very plot relevant.
So the Feds have the Cardassians & co to one side, Romulan spies, replicating drones, dark mirror Federation, and slaving mad scientists on the others. As always I suspect we lack enough ships or stations to cover 2/3s of these problems. Time to find a spunky captain with a firm friendship with their XO and stuff them into a flagship.
Well. We have a storm coming. The berserkers are escalating in numbers and capability. I suspect we're looking at a mobile swarm that is currently moving into our space, we've just caught the outrunners.
Yikes! The Unbound are only one step above an actively hostile civ. If there are rolls to determine a new civ's disposition, than this time we got near the bottom of the list. Still, good on Leaniss and the Tarrak for establishing some kind of positive relations with them. They might show up in some events despite their distance like the Gorn have, but if our luck holds out we won't face anything worse from them as a whole than another long-term diplomancer project.
...I'm not sure they even have ships that don't count as pirate ships. Chaotic Neutral taken too far!
I wouldn't worry too much about the Unbound scientifically yet. They seem...less interested in such pursuits. They do predate the Institute system after all.