Headlines Stardate 20401.01
HEADLINES
First Ferengi Captain Prepares to Assume Command!
Today, Star Fleet promoted former Commander Himbog to the rank of Captain. This marks the highest rank any other Ferengi has achieved. Capt Himbog will assume command of the USS Sheridan, a destroyer built by the Andorian Industries shipyard orbiting Andoria Prime. Star Fleet Public Affairs reported that the Sheridan will be starting its maiden voyage within the next few weeks.
Pengar II
Srunal, Pengar II (Federated Press) — A hush passed through the Federation embassy on Pengar II today as the news spread through the building. Within fifteen days, the people who have made their lives here are going to be forced to leave. Pengar II made a stunning announcement earlier when they declared that the planet was terminating its membership in the United Federation of Planets in reaction to the recent Borg invasion. They cite in their grievances that they were under protected and mostly ignored both during and after the attacks.
Star Fleet public records confirm their grievance, revealing that the first Federation ships to come to the system were several mining ships sent to restart deuterium mining.
In a personal interview, Alton Nejar, Star Fleet Information Service commander, stated that he didn’t know where the breakdown occurred. “We were trying to get someone out to all of the effected worlds.” He went on to point out the immense scale of the operation, requiring the concerted effort of the entire Federation merchant marine just to reach the some of the member worlds. “We’ve just barely begun to reach places on the near borders, such as Bajor or Sherman’s Planet. The infrastructure to do this is just not there anymore.”
The merchant marine was, if anything, hit even harder than Star Fleet was. Out of the 3000 cargo ships and 900 light escorts that were in service before the invasion, only 800 cargo ships and 75 escorts are left.
After the announcement of Pengar II’s withdrawal from the Federation, there was a chain of announcements from other periphery worlds. Septimus III and Irula VII, near the Cardassian border, were just two of the dozen or so that followed Pengar II’s lead. The news of this has brought the Federation Council into an emergency session, and has not come back with a decision at this time. They have scheduled a press conference for 3 PM, Earth Pacific Time, and we await more information at that time.
Federation President Speaks!
Paris, Earth (Federated Press) — Today marked the beginning of what could very well be a new era in the history of the Federation, and era begun by the President in her speech broadcast quadrant-wide earlier today.
"In recent days," said UFP President Cynthia Moran, "we have been abandoned by many of our beloved brother and sister worlds. However, we will not so easily abandon them." She went on to say that the Federation "will not stand idly by as it is accused of violating the good faith with which we have always spoken to our members, the good will which we have always extended to our friends and allies. Let them know that we will be back to show them that friends don't abandon friends like this."
When asked specifically how far the Federation would go to hold on to the seceding systems, she replied simply "By whatever means neccessary." Star Fleet refused to acknowledge our comms today, although a lower functionary informed us that the Joint Chiefs were meeting to discuss this new turn of events, and were unable to speak with us at the current time.
The aggressive form of control now advocated by the President marks the first departure from the policy of allowing members to choose their own destiny in the two hundred and thirty years of Federation history. While no member world has ever attempted to secede from the UFP, the government has always dealt kindly and benevolently with all worlds, including those which were in arms against the Federation, such as the Maquis worlds in the former Demilitarized Zone.
The Prime Minister of Pengar II issued a counterstatement, saying that "We of Pengar II will resist this new Federation tyranny with all of our might." Other worlds are expected to make similar statements later this week, and Star Fleet has called a press conference scheduled for later today.
Federation Space History Contest!
Today kicks off one of our short story contests. It’s been some time since we’ve done one of these and I’m looking forward to reading the entries. The guidelines follow:
Word Limit: None (Warning: Long doesn’t always equal good.) Due date: 28 February 04 Topic: Open, but must be set within the Federation Space timeline/history. (No TNG/DS9/Voyager/TOS/Enterprise stories) Topic for those that can’t pick topics: The Kobyashi Maru scenario all cadets face has changed from the standard battle test to a personalized experience designed for each cadet. Describe your character’s Kobyahi Maru experience at the Academy.
Awards:
1st Place = 600 pts 2nd Place = 400 pts 3rd Place = 200 pts
Judges: Former Capt Lanael and FAdm Beckett will judge this competition.
Short Story Contest!
In addition to the fiction contest, I am going to offer a “Write Federation Space History” contest. That’s a bit of a misnomer though as you won’t actually be writing the history, you will be adding to it. What I am looking for is more details in our history. As an example, let’s take the first Klingon/Mirak war. In our current history, it only says that fighting was bitter and inconclusive. There are no details. So, you might, in your submission, add some details about battles that were fought during that war, or something about people involved in that conflict.
Points for this contest will vary between 50 and 300 points. It’s probable there won’t be one winner for this contest. I’m imagining a scenario where we combine the results of 2 or more entrants with all submitters getting points.
Yearly Award Winners!
I am pleased to announce the annual award winners for the 2003. Let me just say I was very pleased/surprised with the level of participation from all site members throughout the nomination and voting process. Thank you all for making this happen. I’d also like to pass along a special thanks to Cdr Mormel, Lt avarQ and Lt Jal for coming up with the idea for this program. Without further ado, here are the annual winners:
Commanding Officer of the Year: Cmdr Thrawn First Officer of the Year: Cdr Godard Department Head of the Year: Cdr McDade Player Character of the Year: Lt avarQ Non-Player Character of the Year: Kwalin (Gage) Game Moderator of the Year: GM-28 Sub-Plot Writer of the Year: Gage Academy Instructor of the Year: LCdr Reth Joker of the Year: Capt Syntranos CINC’s Award: Capt Otlan
I’d like to personally congratulate all of those selected for awards! Some of these categories came down to a single vote to determine the winner. No points will be awarded to the winners in these categories. However, each award winner will be denoted on the board by a special graphic under their name. To allow for that, I had to open up an option on the board that allows everyone to display graphics. Let me just make it clear right now, the only one authorized to display ANY graphics are the yearly award winners. In addition, a set of medals, for each category will be added to the medal list and those names above will have them entered into their service jackets. Again, congratulations to those who won awards today.
Division Heads!
I’m pleased to announce the addition of two new division heads. Cdr Jacobs, a medic, will now become the head of Star Fleet Security. LCdr Meor will become the head of Star Fleet medical. Their NPC heads will be named soon. If you have any security or medical concerns, these are the two you need to talk to.
The Year in Review!
Where we’ve been
This has been an up and down year for Federation Space. Several, good, players left the site for various reasons. Several good players came through the Academy to replace them. I considered, for a brief time, closing down Federation Space due in no small part to the turmoil that plagued the site this year. Clear headed advice from friends and displays of support from some unexpected sources caused me to reconsider. I’m glad I did. Through all the tribulations this year, I believe the writing on the site has gotten better, despite the loss of some excellent writers. In short, excellent writers both old and new to the site stepped up to replace those that left. This year, we recommissioned and decommissioned the Yoritomo and Agincourt. We withdrew the Gettysburg from active duty and moved her crew to the newly commissioned USS Drake. Though the Getty is currently inactive, there are plans in place for the sub-plot focused around her as well as concrete plans for her return to active duty. We also commissioned the USS Sheridan. Several players reached the milestone rank of Captain this year, including: Leeot, Himbog, Syntranos, Godard and Dramar.
Where we’re going
We are going to continue placing new members on existing ships in lieu of starting any new ships. Once I feel we’ve got a strong base of players on each of our ships, we’ll look at spinning up a new ship. The first ship to spin up will be the Gettysburg. Our current CO candidate is Cdr Godard. The ship she’ll be assigned to as CO is yet to be determined, though it won’t be the Gettysburg. Within the next few months, we should see some admiralty milestones reached. Capt Otlan should make Commodore and Commodore Gage should be hitting Rear Admiral as well.
This month will mark the official beginning of two back stories that you’ve seen rumblings of in the past. The Federation back story titled “Fires of Resurrection” and the Klingon back story titled “A Return to the Old” will be kicking off in full force this month. A back story is a way to run a site wide plot without involving every ship in the game at the same time. Certain ships will see missions that will interact with both back stories, but other ships will not see any missions connected to the back stories. There will be subplots that derive from these two back stories that should impact every player on the site, one way or another.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about how Star Fleet officers are paid. As we've already ruled, the Federation, within the Federation Space game, does indeed use money. The link below will give you an idea of the monthly wages a Star Fleet officer makes based on rank (Left Side of Table) and time in service (Top of the table) You will note that the pay rate flattens out at certain rates based on time. For instance, a Ensign will not see any increases after the 3 year mark. That's a good way to know you've been at that rank too long...
Captain Otlan mentioned us going into year 5. Traditionally, our anniversary has always been March 1st. However, for ease of remembrance for everyone, our official anniversary is going to be January 1st. So, this day marks our 4th anniversary going into our 5th year.
I was pretty tired by the time I finished the newsletter last night and forgot to add a goal I wanted to achieve in the coming year. One of the biggest things I'd like to see happen on the site is a change from event centered fiction to character centered fiction. Now, I know I probably just confused some people, so let me explain. The Borg war that we wrapped up some time ago is an example of event driven fiction. It was more about the event than the characters (your characters) reactions to the events. What I'd like to see is a flip-flop of that. Have an event, but then focus on the characters perception of that event rather than the event itself. Hopefully that clarified it for those with questions, if not don't hesitate to ask. However, in order to turn this into a character driven site, it's going to require your participation. Turning the site into a character driven fiction site is not something I can make happen. It's something that each of you has to make happen by changing your writing perspective from the event to your character. That means some of you are going to have to get to know your characters a little better than you do. If you haven't updated your BIO in a while, you might want to look at doing it. GM's are going to be going through BIO's looking at ideas specific to your character. (Your FO's should already be doing this.) If you don't have any meat in your BIO to provide some ideas, don't be surprised if your CO asks you to add something to your BIO to help facilitate that.
It's my firm belief that our stories should be about our characters. I'd like to see real relationships written about. To use a Star Trek example, I'd like to see character development like McCoy/Spock or Geordi and Data... I don't believe we're seeing a lot of that right now. Again, though, this is something we ALL have to work together to achieve.
Federation Space Meet 2004!
Our tentative date for this Meet will be the last week in June. (I want to say, off the top of my head, that’s the weekend of the 26th.) We will be meeting in Las Vegas at a site yet to be determined. However, it’s likely we’ll meet at the Las Vegas Hilton as that’s where the Star Trek Experience is located. Again, that is tentative. I will be getting with LCdr Tei, who lives in Las Vegas, to start working out further details. Our biggest goal will be to keep it affordable for those that make it out. It’s likely this will be a two day, three night event starting Friday night and ending Sunday afternoon. Attendance for all three days is completely optional but I wanted to give a little bit larger window as there are some from the UK that are talking about jumping the pond to come out here for the meet and I wanted to give them a better chance of enjoying everyone’s company! More words to come. It would help if we had an idea about who was seriously planning to attend. Then we can get a better idea of what rooms might run for the night. The more people we have, the better discount we are likely to get.
