Fleet Four Report - April 2001 (or, "Everything you really didn't want to know about Fleet Four but were afraid to ask.")
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Regrettably, this term's EOT report didn't come off as well as the last one. I'm sure everyone who has to read it is cheering at that. In any case, it did give me an opportunity to get a look at most of the fleet, and I hope you will appreciate this glimpse inside the minds of the Fleet Four Faithful, or at the very least the fact that you only get this glimpse once every eight months. Onwards!

When we last saw our heros, the fleet had just learned of the coming of Darth Vader and his huge planet killing something-or-other. Over on Starbase 202, Captain Temple had reconsidered his opposition to allowing the two brown-robed figures, Obi-Enne and Ouija, to contact their associates. After speaking with Commodore Bligh, he gave them access to the communications array, and they sent a single signal on a wide broadcast: Dum, dum, dum, da, da-dum, da,da-dum. Satisfied, they left Ops on their own. The station's counselor and CIO followed to try and coax them into talking, with limited success. Meanwhile, Science and Security have been investigating the SS Otana, the supposedly unmanned alien freighter that docked at the station on automatic control. They've found nothing of interest, but the two guards they posted outside the ship have disappeared. A little while later, two figures entered the Brig, holding a prisioner between them.

The Asimov, having been contacted by the Seetha NE, agreed to speak to the Seetha government. The Seetha government, however, was not so wild about the idea. Darth Sussudio was rather annoyed at being disturbed, but under the circumstances has no choice but to deal with Starfleet, and the Asimov. The object, however, vanished. Sensors indicated that it was using something similar to transwarp, but not quite the same. The probe picked up the signal several light years away in an unexplored system, Mu Iota. Deciding that it was a bit far, Captain Thwayya contacted Fleet Captain Field on the USS Montgomery, which at last report was in the Mu Theta system with the Columbus.

The Columbus and Montgomery, meanwhile, had actually made progress. The assault team to the stardrive section was able to start a fight, and several of the slave aliens were killed or maimed. Controllered XO Se'rah ejected the warp core to keep the stardrive from being useful to Starfleet. The Columbus saucer, meanwhile, had located the signal of the Force Generator and beamed it off the ship... directly into the path of the ejecting warp core. The two collided and exploded. Of course, that meant that Se'rah and Syian, the two Controllered officers, were now freed, and the four Palpitine on the ship were quickly captured. The slaves on the Malencar Slave ship were also freed, and barely a minute later the ship exploded. Both crews are investigating the cause as we speak. The Columbus saucer has redocked with its stardrive, but without the stardrive warp core getting anywhere is proving to be a challenge.

In another part of the galaxy, the Alliance had cornered the SS Falcon in an asteroid field. Shuttles were sent in to track the rogue freighter down, but one was damaged and forced to return, and another was attacked by a large asteroid slug. The ship was forced to take the computer simulation offline temporarily to spare CPU cycles for the replicators in order to make a dose of bolian tea for Ensign Nunzio, who was suffering from severe withdrawl, and the Falcon was lost. The ship is currently moving to try and rescue Lt. Dalgety from the giant worm, while rebuilding the simulation to find the Falcon.

The ship has a great sense of community, the crew interacts exceedingly well with each other, and they function great as a team. They have gelled well, and have become a steady core group of individuals. In the past 8 or so months, we have maintained a very high standard, both in posting frequency, and posting quality. When the odd lull in sim activity occurs, there are guaranteed to be some sort of side sim going on. The crew are very creative, are a credit to the ship, and they are all very strong roleplayers. After surviving our last mission, we have been lucky to have been given a brand new ship, which no doubt Larry will help put through it's paces, engaged in mad bubblewrap popping sessions, which believe me were lots of fun, and now are back on patrol at the Seetha border, to take part in a mission which should prove interesting.

Security was having a regular turnover of what used to be the dash positions, for some reason, we were unable to keep any of our new recruits for very long in this department, and for a time I was beginning to think we were cursed or something. However, thankfully, that is not the case anymore.. we have had a steady department for a few months now, which contains a mixture of experience and new raw recruits. The whole team functions well under Ryan's leadership, he has more than filled the boots left when Izzy departed, and he has a few things that he wants too implement, which should add a bit of variety.

Medical, well what can I say here, the department is.. what's a polite word.. crazy? :) Not that I'm one to talk, but they are nuts, and the CMO is the worse culprit (Hi Ash :-) ). But they can't be all bad, their fatality record is pretty normal, and you can always rely on them to provide some comic relief, and the EMH.. no we won't go there.. but don't worry, whoever convinved me to let a psycho swedish muppet chef onboard will pay dearly! When Ash was forced to take a LOA for a couple of months, it was still able to function exceedingly well under Mack's care, showing just how well the department is constructed. Otherwise the department is very stable, that is, baring any of Ash's mad fits.

The Science department is probably the most important one on the ship, considering that is our main role. The department is run superbly by Jonathan, and has managed to get us out of more than one tricky situation. They are always able to provide answers, solutions, whatever we need to get out of the scrapes Larry seems to put us in :)

Engineering, well they have been keeping the ship running, but as it's a new one, it hasn't had too many problems..that's a good thing, right? :) Nick seems to be somewhat accident prone, and has been keeping sickbay busy with his broken legs. They are currently trying to shut down one of Ash's little programs, that is running rampant on deck 3.. fun fun fun :) Engineering has been lacking, in some regard though, and with Robert having to step down as CE for real life problems, the search is on to get the department on par with the others.

All in all I have some very good DH's, that handle their departments expertly, I'm impressed with each one of them.

I still haven't learned the art of mastering technobabble or really understanding it, but luckily I have a good crew around me that seems to know what they are doing, so we are sorted in that regard. I do have a tendency for not cleaning the roster all that often, and maybe a spring clean and a spot of polish and stuff might come in handy, definitely something I can work on ;)

Would I promote me..probably not, I'm fine just the way I am atm :)

I would have no qualms about leaving the Asimov in Sherrie's more than capable hands, she is a good leader, experienced, and now having her own command, the Asimov would be well looked after.

As far as the fleetwide goes, I'm actually enjoying it, seeing the little twists and turns that are happening throughout the fleet, if nothing else it makes some interesting reading, but it's also enjoyable, and that is probably due to the fact that Larry is more or less GMing the entire thing, like I said earlier, he knows where this is going, and is probably what you need to make a good fleetwide, although I am no expert :) Larry is a great GM, very creative, and talented, and always has something to pull out of his sleeve or hat.

However, he's always busy, and should maybe find some time to chill, if for nothing more to regather his strength so he can cause more mayhem :) Larry also seems rather too keen to give my chocolate cake away.. which is just not on dagnabbit.. I'm going to have to change the lock to my store room :)

I feel that my roleplaying and grasp of the sim is within acceptable limits, although to my FComm's demise I have lingered near the AWOL limit a bit too much than I should. I have no one else to blame than myself, as certain matters are just more important than STF.

I am proud to XO the Columbus, even though the ship has got quite an overhaul since I joined it, a special word goes to Sinéad who also managed to hang onto the ship! Something that I can't claim I am proud of is the lack of input I gave during Ralf's period. Where he got into an argument with crewmembers, which lately ended in the departure of a handful of DH's. I sometimes wonder if my part in such an argument should be a soothing voice, rather than just telling both parties to settle in-between themselves.

The crew work together very well, as well as seemingly enjoying each others' company. It is a genuinely pleasant environment, and as a consequence it's rare to see officers go for more than 3 days without posting; there is almost no AWOL activity, and the little that there is can usually be explained with some kind of computer downtime. New crew members are welcomed and quickly incorporated into the plot. In short, the ship performs the function it is designed to perform - to provide a fun environment for internet role playing.

At the same time, the Columbus is not a terribly serious ship. The tone is lighthearted (without being as ridiculous as, say, the Constellation in fleet 2), and whilst all players perform in character very realistically, there are often spirited discussions OOC (with tongues held very firmly in cheek, I assure you!) about the place of New Zealand in the scheme of things, American/Candadian one upmanship, and other vitally important areas of intellectual mastication.

To be honest, at this stage I am not sure of anything that could improve the quality of a ship or crew this good. Perhaps in a few months this might be different, but for now I'd say that I'm happy right the way it is.

On the plus side of the ledger (read: Why have I not just given up and killed my character in an unfortunate accident involving an echidna), I think my main strengths are found in years of highly developed people skills. I believe that I do manage people skillfully, and I enjoy dealing with new friends. The crew seems to enjoy the [deliberately] warm and encouraging nature of Captain Ridley, and respond well to his frequent praise. For this reason I'm confident that I will soon be a lot more effective.

If it were my decision, I don't think I'd be promoting myself just yet. As a captain, I lean more toward the "potential" side of the equation rather than the "actuality" side. Let's see what happens in a month or two more.

I've already mentioned what a support he is, and how much I appreciate his contribution to the Columbus. He is polite and proper in his dealings with both crew and Captain, and he is never averse to a little bit of the old "sweat equity" (i.e. work!). In fact, for the first two weeks of my captaincy, it was really Linus mostly handling all the details of the roster and the MOTD whilst I tried to figure out which direction was up. That said, he has still been able to relinquish control once I found my feet - he's no control freak. He's good at reminding without nagging, and he shows himself to be an able and experienced roleplayer.

If I were to drop dead tomorrow, not only would he be able to run the ship, it's possible he'd do it better than I'm currently doing it! That's faint praise at this stage, of course, but the fact remains that I have some chasing to do in order to come up to the standard of my crew. All in all, it is very much due to Linus that my first month or two as Captain have been so pleasant.

All told, I'm very pleased to have him as XO, although in some ways I think he deserves better for a CO. As a result, I'm working very hard to be the CO he deserves!

As a Fleet Commander, Larry is brilliant. He is always punctual, he is quick to acknowledge the achievements of those around, and he keeps a mean MOTD (when he gets the time to update it!). He is a good administrator, and whilst I'm the sort of person that administrators will spend their lives with when they go to hell, I've never known him to complain about it. Well, not seriously at any rate.

As a GM, I'm still a bit of a Larry fan, although I do not believe he is as good a GM as he is a commander. To be fair to him, he is shouldering a large amount of the GMing burden of Fleet 4, which would make it rather difficult to be effective. I find, however, that his storylines can be a little inflexible. His love of the ST canon is commendable and obvious, but I find that sometimes his adherence to the former can be slavish. There are times when I believe the fun of the sim gets compromised for strict ST accuracy, and whilst this is Larry's choice and his right, I would go in the opposite direction, all things being equal. Nonetheless, he is a clever and inventive writer, with a ready wit, and whilst he's not perfect, I am more than pleased to have him as GM for my ship. Incidentally, I'm not surewhere this fleetwide is going, but I am enjoying it.

All told, I think Larry's doing a great job, and the only way he can possibly improve is if he lightens up a bit.

In any case, 8 months ago the Columbus had been released from intensive care but was still on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, just when it appeared that it would make a full recovery, XO Kyrs Bromilow was forced to resign. Just as I had sort-of figured out how to deal with that, CO Paul Jones was forced to resign. Ralf Steen came aboard, and I had high hopes for him, knowing what a stellar RPer he is. Then, just as it seemed Ralf was settling in, three new DHs that Paul had brought on board mutinied, started grandstanding, and finally resigned. When the ship finally managed to put itself back together from that, Ralf was forced to resign. This ship is harder on COs than the Montgomery is on XOs, I swear. Come on, guys, I'm running out of CO candidates!

With a finally-stable command staff, months of the same GM, and a little help from its brothers (literally) over on the Montgomery, the Columbus is indeed on an upswing at long last. Unfortunately, what it needs right now is a break for some R&R and recouping, and what I can least give it right now due to the fleet wide plot is time off, due to its importance to the plot. Ralf, if you're reading this, you have the right to say "I told you so", but only once, and it expires at the end of the week. I've decided that I will be taking the Columbus out of the main plot for the time being, as soon as I can get the Montgomery to pick up its threads and move on. Hopefully, I will be able to bring it back in towards the end, as I don't want them to have to miss all the fun and flying bodies. :-)

Linus has done a fine job to date. Johno's IC abilities are without question wonderful. He is still getting used to the job, though. He seems to have a desperate desire to hold meetings, and is a bit slow in the red tape department. I expect him to improve on both counts, however, as time progresses.

I believe the most important thing about the Montgomery is that we have lucked out with good, solid crew members in every department (except for our consistent failures in medical which I think will end with our current CMO who I have great faith in). Whenever one leaves I seem to be lucky enough to have someone of good skill ready to step up to the plate and takeover, even when the shoes are hard to fill such as those of our recently departed Chief Science Officer Jen Schubert who was with the Monty as long as I can remember. However, the Montgomery crew always seems to adapt. My only problem is that we have yet to have a really good GM, and I think that hurts this ships potential a lot. To remedy this I intend to seekout a GM who has no Monty experience but has good ideas, as that is exactly what the Montgomery needs.

If it was up to me, would I promote me? That is an interesting question, I'm a Fleet Captain and consider that to be plenty :)

Rating the FComm. I think Larry is a bit too ambitious, and I can say I understand as I did the whole "GM a fleetwide" thing when I started Fleet 4, but Fleetwide sims tend to drag on terribly, and I fear that is where this one is headed. I would like Fleet 4 to become a "normal fleet" a some point, because at this point it has extensive background on its own, enough to fill our own little "fleet 4 database" of sorts. It is almost like a different universe. On the FComm end of things Larry does a good job, even with people like me who don't like to do these reports on time.

Overall, I think Larry does a good job doing a difficult task, and am happy with his work, even if he is still borrowing my Fleet. I expect I shall have it back with interest one day ;)

And, one complaint, he never lets me blow up the Monty. It's not fair :)

SB202 needs a lot of work, still. Roleplaying on a starbase is necessarily very different from that of a starship. For example, a whole host of roles and orders do not exist (e.g. helmsman, navigator, laying and setting courses), but there are extras such as civilians. To that end, I think we need to encourage the development of a civilian population (shopkeepers, bartenders etc.) to provide a more diverse RP environment and speed things along.

Everyone has, however, been trying hard to engage with one another and with the sim; commitment is high. There are some good friendships forming, and this, combined with some new personnel in civilian roles, should help create a happy and engaging environment which is both challenging and fun.

The station is not the best ship in the fleet, but it is far from the worst. It's healthy, and stable, albeit a little slow, and for that I can take much of the blame. Keeping everyone in sync with the fleetwide is proving as difficult as always. If I had any complaint, it would be that no one on the station seems to have ever seen the Star Wars movies, and so they are ALL completely missing the plot parallels. :-)

There has been change.. the Columbus has been through quite a few command changes and crew changes of late, but is finally stabilising, posting has picked up greatly from the level it had been at, the sim is progressing, albeit slowly at one point, but at least the stardrive section has been found and reattached, yay! The Montgomery has been roped into help, and the two ships are currently embroiled together in the action, with the Montgomery, keeping to tradition and loosing it's bridge. The joint sim between both ships has improved posting, and quality, and has brought a closeness, and a need for crew, and cross crew co-operation, which has been pulled off extremely well. Starbase 202 has a very fun and friendly atmosphere, posting levels keep increasing, and the sim is progressing well, what with ghost ships, missing crewmembers, and what can only be classed as Jedi Masters lurking on the promenade... just many of the normal things that happen around there. The Asimov has very much remained how it was last time around, ship and crew are in good shape.. the border patrol is going well, and is probably going to come up against some large nasty 'spacestation' thingy, and get badly damaged.. but lets look on the bright side, we're still all in one piece at the moment :) The Alliance has had a few problems, but the crew keep soldiering on, and have coped well with their GM disappearing on them on occasion, but they are continuing to close in on the SS Falcon through the asteroid field. Which has meant Larry is more or less GMing the entire thing, which is no small task. The fleet overall is strong, has lots of character, is flourishing and most importantly is fun :)

That said, I am going to pledge to have the fleetwide over before the next presidential term and round of End Of Term reports. I will also be stepping down as GM of all but one ship in the fleet, at most, so GMs, you will be able to harass COs for jobs soon enough. :-) I think the fleetwide has gone decently so far. Most people seem to like it, although some parts of it are slower than I or the crews would like. My cohort in crime, Chris Ashley, is GMing the Alliance but has been touch-and-go due to school. I've had to fill in for him a few times, which I really don't like doing as it's my own ship. I GMed my own ship for a year, that's enough for me. :-)

As I said above, I will be pulling the Columbus out of the main plot(s) for now, both for the ship's sake and for the fleet's sake. They've put up with me for long enough, now if only they would hurry up and move the threads over to the Monty so that I can give them a break.

I am not burned out. Not quiet yet. I expect I will be by the time this is all over, which is why I'll finally be giving other GMs a chance. Even with the stress of micromanaging the fleet, I believe I have managed to do a decent to good job of it, although I would not have been able to without the support of my stellar AFComm and solid command staff. And I'm going to reward them, too. No, I'm not getting rid of the fleet reports, but I am going to try and scale them back some. Yes, they're getting to be too much work, even for me. :-) I'm not sure exactly what will be changing just yet, I plan to let the command staff give input on that one, but hopefully when next we meet, you will have less to read.

My long term plans for the fleet are to finish the fleetwide, publish the fleet history that I've been working on for Sisko-knows how long, and let things go back to normal. Or rather, as normal as they ever can be. Even with all threads tied up into a neat little bow, Fleet Four will never be the same as other fleets. There's just too much history here, and it is something that I will be requiring future GMs to keep in mind, even if the main story is over.

Before I close, there is one last thing that I would like to mention. Although I am often given the credit (or blame, depending on your point of view) for Fleet Four, I can't accept it completely. Jeff Field deserves much of it. Jeff's the one who started the fleet, and the whole Ewoks/Star Wars take-off. I picked it up, ran with it, and kept building it, but the inital inspiration was his. In fact, it was a year ago or so that Jeff asked me if he could "borrow" the Overlords (who we now know to be the Palpitine) for the Columbus mission, and pitched an idea or two at me. It was from that conversation that the last Asimov mission and nearly everything in the past year has come, modified, enhanced, and otherwise tweaked along the way. I tend to think in bursts of inspiration, and as far as Fleet Four is concerned the really big ones have come as much from Jeff as they have from me. Jeff, thank you. (Or it's all your fault, take your pick.)

"Appology accepted, Commodore Garfield."

Report signed: FComm-4 Larry Garfield 20 April 2001

Page authored by FComm-4 Larry Garfield < fcomm-4@star-fleet.com >
Last updated: 20 April 2001
Version: 1.00a