- Location
- Someplace USA
@OneirosTheWriter please tell us if I'm being overly paranoid, I have a chem test tomorrow and I will end up staying up to argue on the internet, please think of my future! plz
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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- 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?
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
I think as a minimum, we need to task the local Oberth and Starbase to scanning for outside interference, communication, or shipments of weapons.
It is one thing if this is a local affair, but if someone is trying to get at our allies via a proxy war, that a clear different matter.
It is one thing if this is a local affair, but if someone is trying to get at our allies via a proxy war, that a clear different matter.
- Location
- Australia
I suppose it rather depends what you want it to do.
A member coordination office gets Starfleet a say in what the member worlds are making. For Earth, Vulcan, Andor and Miracht, that's not such a big deal. However, with Amarki and Betazed now joining, Caitians just pending the end of their war with the Dawiar, and Rigel not far away it probably becomes more serious. It becomes your gateway to pass your designs to the new factions, to share or determine their doctrine paths. Also for sharing shipyards.
In terms of the exact mechanics it means that several options get added to each Shipyard Ops turn to control/coordinate the member fleets.
Algalon
Herald of the Titans
- Location
- Celestial Planetarium
Holding off my vote for now, but almost guaranteed to vote allow.
The Caitians invited us to serve as mediators between them and the Dawair. This was the sensible and peaceful option.
Then the Dawair opened fire, at a diplomatic meeting no less. The Polaris was destroyed, but a significant number of Crew was saved thanks to the Caitians.
Now, what would the other powers do?
They would fuck the Dawair up so hard people in the future will ask "Dawair? Who's that?"
The Klingons take their honor very serious. This includes oaths, and there is no oath more sacred than the one of parley, which the Dawair just spat upon.
The Romulans are paranoid and xenophobic, but they are also reasonable and intelligent. They understand the importance of being able to meet on neutral grounds and talk without fear of hostilities.
Neither of these two would begrudge us for helping the Caitians, or even enter this war ourselves (assuming the Dawair don't consider us already in).
Now, what is important are the rest of our affiliates and potentiaries. A close affiliate, pretty much a full member already, asked the Federation to mediate a dispute between them and a foreign power. Then the foreign power opens fire, destroys a ship, and the Caitians save part of the Crew.
There are already questions and doubts flying around, if Starfleet can protect them. How do you think they will react if they see us refuse to repay the Caitians' ship, after it saved the Polaris' crew?
They likely don't expect us to go guns blazing and crush the Dawair, but they sure as hell are expecting the Federation and Starfleet to make their promises good and support the Caitians. Be that diplomatically, economically and if need be militarily.
The Caitians invited us to serve as mediators between them and the Dawair. This was the sensible and peaceful option.
Then the Dawair opened fire, at a diplomatic meeting no less. The Polaris was destroyed, but a significant number of Crew was saved thanks to the Caitians.
Now, what would the other powers do?
They would fuck the Dawair up so hard people in the future will ask "Dawair? Who's that?"
The Klingons take their honor very serious. This includes oaths, and there is no oath more sacred than the one of parley, which the Dawair just spat upon.
The Romulans are paranoid and xenophobic, but they are also reasonable and intelligent. They understand the importance of being able to meet on neutral grounds and talk without fear of hostilities.
Neither of these two would begrudge us for helping the Caitians, or even enter this war ourselves (assuming the Dawair don't consider us already in).
Now, what is important are the rest of our affiliates and potentiaries. A close affiliate, pretty much a full member already, asked the Federation to mediate a dispute between them and a foreign power. Then the foreign power opens fire, destroys a ship, and the Caitians save part of the Crew.
There are already questions and doubts flying around, if Starfleet can protect them. How do you think they will react if they see us refuse to repay the Caitians' ship, after it saved the Polaris' crew?
They likely don't expect us to go guns blazing and crush the Dawair, but they sure as hell are expecting the Federation and Starfleet to make their promises good and support the Caitians. Be that diplomatically, economically and if need be militarily.
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- Location
- Someplace USA
Very well reasoned and I agree but we need to let this play out more, this is a cluster fuck and doing anything one way or another when we don't absolutely need to is risky, it might just be a formality but their is a difference between a close affiliate and a full member.
- Location
- somewhere
Pretty much exactly what I expected. No reason to push our designs on the Amarki when theirs are actually better. Not urgent.
- Location
- Someplace USA
But we can steal from them! They likely have better weapons which means we can upgrade without having to push for a weapons R&D team.
Omake - A Queen's Thoughts - random_npc
- Location
- madison
A Queens Thoughts
excerpts form the diary of a high queen.
excerpts form the diary of a high queen.
I worry about the future of my people. so far the Cardassian have contented themselves with skirmishing, and driving us away from resources, but I fear that this will not last. They seem determined to extend their reach into our region of space, and while we are too small to fight them, we are strong enough that they will likely find our continued independence near their borders a threat. From what little we have been able to work out about their culture they seem to hold all other species in contempt, though they make at least token efforts to hide it. Life under them would be unpleasant, though I fear we may one day soon be forced to chose between life under their rule or extinction.
Well our position seems to have changed, Izzidiera reports having made first contact with another large power. They showed up in a warship the size of our largest queenship and chased of a Cardassian cruiser. They call themselves the Federation and seem to be a multi race alliance, it seems their are 4 full members and a number of "associates". Their first contact packet was incredibly forthcoming, though it appears to be painting an idealized picture. Izzidiera's report indicates that they seem sincere, but just because they are telling the truth as they know it doesn't mean they are presenting an accurate picture. We've met more than a few Cardassians who honestly believed we would be better off with their boot on our neck. Still, even in the worst case where the Federation is just as bad as the Cardassians our situation has improved, if nothing else we can play them off one another for a better deal.
Izzidiera seems to have interpreted my order to find out more about them rather personally. She has gotten herself attached to the Federation's flagship "enterprise" as a diplomatic envoy. Her report put significant emphasis on having no personal reason for going herself, and spends considerable time both waxing poetic about the captains exotic beauty, and insisting she is utterly insufferable. Ah, young love.
It seems the Cardassians are taking the Federation seriously, they tried to frame them for destroying a number of foragers. When their duplicity was uncovered they claim not to have destroyed our ships themselves, and for the sake of avoiding war the council has chosen to pretend to believe them. Damn them, hundreds of our people are dead for a transparent political ploy! The union has consistently shown it places no value on the lives of other species, I shudder to think of the atrocities they would commit in open war.
Meetings with the Federation diplomats officially began today, they were not what I was expecting. I had expected talks of high ideals in public, and typical political maneuvering in private. The public talk of high ideals was present, but the only thing that changed in private was they started discussing specifics. As a probe I started hinting about asking for help in a fictional disputes with the Indorians, I had to get rather blunt before he realized I was not looking for fair mediation. He reacted like i'd asked him to serve me his child roasted, it took hours to get the talks back on track. It has to be an act, no one is that naïve.
it's not an act.
Its official, we are throwing our lot in with the Federation, with hardly any bargaining or subterfuge. Izzodia is immensely disappointed, she'd worked so hard on all sorts of ploys and schemes to play them of the Cardassians to get a better deal. It would have been immensely useful if the Federation didn't seem allergic to normal politicking. Still it works out in our favor, even if i'm starting to worry about their ability to protect us if war actually breaks out.
It looks like the Federations claims of being a post scarcity society is a bit of an exaggeration. Particularly complex or large goods such as starships or industrial equipment remain at least somewhat scarce. What they actually are is a post poverty society, though how it actually works is somewhat beyond me, despite Chozzia's many and enthusiastic attempts to explain it. The gist of it is that every Federation citizen is given an allotment of resources that allows for a comfortable standard of living, with them being able to request more for certain projects. Chozzia was adorably exited about the approval process used to prioritize these requests. So far the closest thing to a down side to this is that it seems their is a lot of bartering and Zizzon trading at the lower levels if someone wants something they can't requisition. I have just been informed at length that such behavior is not a downside, it in fact encourages citizen to pick up various skills they can barter with, that my summary is grossly misleading and that someone needs to stop reading over my shoulder unless they wan't to sleep in their own room tonight.
Well today's incident only reinforces my view of the Federation, good and bad. One of their affiliate members is moving up to become a full member, with all the rights and responsibility that entails, only for some most likely scaly murder to try and bomb the diplomats. The Federation's response has been... somewhat weak. On one hand that it is possible to become a full member of the Federation is heartening. A path towards being more than a client state, even a well treated one is welcome, on the other hand that their reaction has been so limp wristed only further drives home the point that they may not be as skilled protectors as the seem. The last big threat they dealt with was some strange disease, apparently it gave them some trouble. I've sent Izzodia to investigate the quarantine zone, I'll miss her but getting a first hand account of the Federation on a war footing would be invaluable for knowing how much we can lean on them. In the meantime i'm going to have to look into becoming a full member, now that I know its possible.
Well I think I've finally found the hidden barb in the syrup comb we've all been looking for. It was in plain sight the entire time too, they won't let us join until we make drones workers and queens equal under the law. Looking back at it, it's rather blindingly obvious, of course a bunch of aliens who don't have proper queens would have strange ideas about workers. They know that's against our very nature! But apparently when pressed they made noises about self determination and sapient creatures being able to rise above! Broken hive its a biological imperative! Not a moral failing! Still,if a compromise could be reached... full membership would be quite the prize. Hopefully they would be satisfied with just our laws conforming to their crazy demands, I don't think getting the actual customs to conform would be possible. I miss Izzodia, she's good at the kind of twisty thinking we need now.
I think I've seen a light at the end of the tunnel. We were visited by a defective human. Or at least the closet thing they have. Apparently he runs a freighter transporting goods. It's an elegant solution, someone who wasn't able to fit in among society now works a job where he is both useful and largely removed from it. I think we could use a similar solution, most of the mainstream arguments against giving the drones and workers representation fall apart if their is somewhere they can head off to. Simply leaving for another part of Federation space would be would be near perfect for that, it gives them somewhere pleasant to head out to, removes disruptive elements, and neatly sidesteps the paranoid fear of some colony of defectives waging war on us. I'll have to run it by Chozzia to see if insisting anyone who wants to leave gets their travel requisition fast tracked would be feasible, but if so I think we might be able to pull it off. Yet more good news, I got a subspace message from Izzodia saying she's on her way back.
Izzodia is perhaps the strongest drone I know, I consider myself lucky to have her. I've seen her walk though hell unprompted because it was necessary, I've seen her play the bloody game of knives in the dark because it was the only way to keep me safe, and I've seen her meet blackest atrocity with coldly calculating retribution. Today I saw her terrified. She barley kept composer until we where alone in my chambers. She refused to give anything but the most clinical and dispassionate summary of the biophage, and frankly that was enough. Federation ships burning civilian transports out of space, ships self destructing as soon as they were touched, a people burning their own homeworld, gods what did I force her to see? Per Izzodia's strong insistence I've began distributing the vaccine as widely as possible, and having our admirals draw up a worst case scenario plans. We knew their were monsters in the dark, but this, this thing was beyond our wildest nightmares. No wonder the Federation doesn't seem to be taking the Cardassians seriously, if that abomination was is the sort of thing they are used to dealing with.
I've shared izzodia's findings with the rest of the high queens, fears of Federation not being able to protect us are both reduced and heightened. On one hand getting a better understanding of the Federation capabilities on a war footing was reassuring, on the other hand we now know their are things out their far far worse than the Cardassians. A proposal to petition starfleet for more resources to bolster our defense fleets was put forward, I don't think anyone voted against it.
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- Location
- Australia
If it would help you out, I can put you on a 12hr reply ban? (Actual good faith offer to help out, not threat/sarcasm)
- Location
- somewhere
Full tech sharing is already in effect, it's just that the council won't let us use their designs without expending political will, and they aren't that much better either.
- Location
- Someplace USA
Ya, gives an excuse to apply self discipline and fucking sleep *he says as he drink from a Soda at midnight*
Thanks for the answer.
Mmmm. @Nix, I am reluctantly forced to admit that this can probably wait a turn or two. Revised plan:
- Request new SR mining colony at (I forget location name) - 8pp
- Request new Starbase - 20 pp
- Request Start of Renaissance class project, receiving one-off boost of Research Points and go-ahead for some projects, 20pp
- Request Science Academy Expansion, 20pp (Gain +1 Techs throughput)
- Request Academy Expansion, 35pp (Gain +.5 Officers/Enlisted/Techs throughput)
- Request new Skill 2 ONA Research Team, Shipyard Construction Spec & ????, Tech Team to be added to your Ship Design Bureau, 10pp
- Request new Skill ?? Weapons & ???? Team (from my omakes), 10pp???
- Request expansion of Lor'Vela Orbital Construction Facility, 10pp (4 turns, gain 1 new 1m t berth) x 4 = 40 points (36 pp after discount)
- Request focused Diplomacy on a potential member species (Seyek), 10pp
- Request focused Diplomacy on a potential member species (Yrillians), 10pp
- Request focused Diplomacy on a potential member species (Caldonians), 10pp
- Request focused Diplomacy on a potential member species (Indorians), 10pp
(Personally I'd drop the Indorians and only do three diplo pushes, but it's been made perfectly clear I'm not going to win that argument.) This is exactly 199 points. If no Betazed entry bonus, drop the Aacdemy expansion and use the extra 10 points for the Research colony, I guess.
- Location
- Australia
@Briefvoice, @Nix - Out of curiosity, what sort of abilities were you looking for out of such an office?
[X] Allow (Will occupy UP Berth B for 6 months, +15pp, +10 Relations with Caitians)
More than all of that? the Caitians are Close Affiliates(nearly full members by this point I believe), that means they're the equivalent of a Partail Member already, which means they're one of us.
that's no reason to not render aid, we are still Starfleet, we are better than the Cardassians, let's show the galaxy that. If they see how our ships stack, so what? they would find a way to do that later anyway.
As an advocate for not going down the early TNG path for Starfleet, let me lay out my side. If we can resolve this without fighting, that's awesome, but there has to be a line in the sand. We got off lightly with that ship, we could have and should have lost a lot more with how the Cardassians are acting, the Enterprise survived through dumb luck. There is no way we can be neutral in this, Cardassia is trying to get our allies out from under us, and your gonna let them do it? There's already murmurings of the Federation not being able to protect it's affiliates, and the Cardassians will spread every lie and ruse they can to make it all the more convincing, this is just anouther way to do it.
More than all of that? the Caitians are Close Affiliates(nearly full members by this point I believe), that means they're the equivalent of a Partail Member already, which means they're one of us.
- Location
- somewhere
These are the sorts of things I was expecting:
I still wanted to get it eventually, just not with any particular urgency.
- Location
- madison
[x] Allow (Will occupy UP Berth B for 6 months, +15pp, +10 Relations with Caitians)
I'd be a lot more interested in appearing neutral if the bastards hadn't just blown up one of our ships under a flag of truce. Like holy shit what the hell? how is that even remotely a thing they are willing to do.
I'd be a lot more interested in appearing neutral if the bastards hadn't just blown up one of our ships under a flag of truce. Like holy shit what the hell? how is that even remotely a thing they are willing to do.
- Location
- UTC -6
[X] Deny
We might need the berth to fix our own vessels, particularly since Earth is building an explorer in one of our berths. And even with the PP reward I worry about what assisting the Caitians will signal to other potential members. On the other hand Starfleet has used affiliated shipyards in times of crisis, should we encourage this practice? The missive shows that the Caitians consider it an emergency. On the gripping hand, I want the head of Starfleet to kick this can down the road a bit. Our newest members should get the chance to yell about this for a bit in as neutral a situation as can be managed.
It would be satisfying to hang over the conflict and suggest that the Dawier accept peace terms. Having the Betazoids convinced it was their idea would make some things go smoother.
We might need the berth to fix our own vessels, particularly since Earth is building an explorer in one of our berths. And even with the PP reward I worry about what assisting the Caitians will signal to other potential members. On the other hand Starfleet has used affiliated shipyards in times of crisis, should we encourage this practice? The missive shows that the Caitians consider it an emergency. On the gripping hand, I want the head of Starfleet to kick this can down the road a bit. Our newest members should get the chance to yell about this for a bit in as neutral a situation as can be managed.
It would be satisfying to hang over the conflict and suggest that the Dawier accept peace terms. Having the Betazoids convinced it was their idea would make some things go smoother.
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
[X] Allow (Will occupy UP Berth B for 6 months, +15pp, +10 Relations with Caitians)
Algalon
Herald of the Titans
- Location
- Celestial Planetarium
Thank you for your compliment. I'm not arguing for military intervention or full support to the Caitian war effort right away. I'm all for trying to re-establish contact with the Dawair right away. What I think is a must, is to make a clear and firm public statement right now. "The Federation and Starfleet WILL resolve this conflict, one way or another. Ideally this would be diplomatically and without further bloodshed and conflict. However, should the worst come to bear and the Dawair prove unreasonable, then Starfleet will fully stand behind the Caitians." A promise we intend to hold. The Federation is a peaceful organization, however, this does not mean we will allow ourselves be bullied. Especially by an overly aggressive minor power that is used a catspaw by the Cardassians.
Remember that we're the only peaceful major power in the alpha quadrant. The Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians are all militaristic and either aggressive or xenophobic to a degree. Showing weakness could, especially in regards to the Klingons and Cardassians, prove disastrous as they'll stick to low-level bushwars, slowly bleeding us but never causing enough to trigger open hostilities.
Staying neutral is okay if we're completely uninvolved in a conflict. In this case however, the Dawair fired the first shot. At us nonetheless! During a diplomatic meeting! We're not a neutral party anymore, not after the Polaris was destroyed. We can do our best and try to reduce bloodshed to a minimum and hopefully reach a diplomatic solution. What we cannot do, is wash our hands off this and stay neutral. It would hurt our credibility, our standing with our affiliates, perhaps even full members, and only embolden the Cardassians as they see how unwilling we are to commit.
Also, Good Luck on your exam
!
- Location
- somewhere
The Rigellians just finished their Turtleship so their berth should be available in an emergency.
- Location
- Australia
You know, I do feel that this has the potential to be very good and very interesting, but it could really benefit from things like fixing up a number of "there"/"their" mix-ups, capitalisation issues, and things like that.
Was the decision to lower-case the names of drones deliberate?
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
You know, I'm wondering if spending pp on a diplomatic push with the Dawair would actually be beneficial to ending the war? I mean, mechanically, it's supposed to be how we bring other nations into our sphere of influence, but I don't see how, fluff-wise, it can't be bent towards Starfleet taking an active hand in trying to encourage de-escalation, and peaceful negotiations. This serves two benefits: one, it plays into the peace-nicky nature of the Federation, and two, any effort spent trying to usher in peace sooner, is an effort towards formally integrating the Caitians sooner as well.
Admittedly, there are reasons to not want to integrate them yet, but solving things by talking is one of the Federations, and therefore Starfleets, values, so may as well give it a try, right?
Admittedly, there are reasons to not want to integrate them yet, but solving things by talking is one of the Federations, and therefore Starfleets, values, so may as well give it a try, right?