The Meridian Fleet Report - December 2020

USS Viking

Commanding Officer: James Harrison

Crew Posting Level: 7
Senior Staff Posting Level: 7
Overall Ship Health: 7

Ship Status: Members of the crew have been disappearing, as well as entire pieces of the actual ship. Sensors are down, and without any clear evidence as to what is going on, the acting Captain has ordered the crew to abandon ship. Meanwhile at the Starbase, some new crew are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Viking only to be told that the arrival has been postponed and they would be given new information shortly.

Behind the scenes, I will have our new XO on the roster here very soon and I am pleased that Luke Hung has agreed to be our new GM. I anticipate his new sim for us to begin in January sometime.

What was my favorite moment/post? - https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf5/viking/posts/114193/
I really have been enjoying this interesting side sim Jim has been writing out for his character as he brings this particular character to and end and will be starting with a new one

One thing I’d like to improve - I want to get everyone active and engaged again and really start some good character development going on

Spotlight - No one specific to spotlight, as with my last report, everyone has been patient and keeping up with me as we make our transition.

Spotlight:

Vacancies: JO’s in all departments

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Executive Officer: No report submitted

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Gamemaster: No report submitted

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FComm’s Comments: I am excited to see the Viking starting to turn around and for next month’s reports we will have Sam and Luke fully onboard and ready to start moving things into a healthier direction. Over all for where she was she is healthy and showing improvement. Good luck James, Sam, and Luke!

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USS Brian A. Olinski

Commanding Officer: Sidney Parker

Crew Posting Level: 7
Senior Staff Posting Level: 7
Overall Ship Health: 7

Ship Status: I was sure I submitted this report. All these holidays blend together and get me lost sometimes. Plus a few other events that through me off. At any rate the ship is doing really great. Lots of posting and the new sim is exciting.

Spotlight: Kenson for a great start to the new sim. Luke Hung for stepping into the XO role with his tried and true Balfor Kolar character.

Vacancies: CMO again and again. I wish we could get someone to stay in this role. I know its not from lack of giving them things to do. It just does not seem this role is the most exciting to rpers on the Olinski.

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Executive Officer: No report submitted

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Gamemaster: Kenson Koh

Crew Posting Level: 8
Senior Staff Posting Level: 8
Overall Ship Health: 8

Sim Overview: The Olinski has been sent to give support to the USS Santiago which has engaged fighting Tholians and Breen in the Agol system. The USS Radical has also been dispatched. On reaching there, they find the Santiago damaged due to weapons fire and the Tholians warning them not to interfere. A ‘spook’ version of the ship was projected between the fighting parties. The Tholian ship moves away from the Starfleet ship with the Breen in pursuit. However the ships seem to be moving towards the Agolian homeworld. A team has been sent to help the Santiago and another team beaming down to the Agolian homeworld just in case. However, the Tholians warp away with the Breen following. Deciding that aid to the Santiago has a higher priority, the CE is sent to help in repairs. With critical repairs done and the threat to the Algol system seemingly gone, the CO of the Olinski decides to see if they can track the two battling parties.

Spotlight: Whilst all the crew members have contributed much to the sim, I have to name the CO (Sidney Parker) and XO (Luke Hung) who have contributed very much to the sim. Special mentions should be given to the CE (Jake Ridgley) and CoS (Sam Pennington) who led the away teams who have kept the time lines very much coordinated during the sim.

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FComm’s Comments: The Olinski is one of the stalwarts of the fleet and in constant good repair. I am sad we didn’t get a report from the XO this moth but it looks like everything is otherwise happy and healthy.

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USS Chernov

Commanding Officer: Travis Good

Crew Posting Level: 6
Senior Staff Posting Level: 6
Overall Ship Health: 6

Ship Status: We are nearing the end of the SIM. I’m still unconscious, the XO made a real life changing decision that most of the personnel do not like and the Department Heads are struggling with getting the ship not only back online but in order.

Spotlight: Commander William Grey has stepped up his reasoning and critical thinking skills and has made a few people rethink their decisions. Well done.

Vacancies: Needs JO’S in all departments

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Executive Officer: Timothy Frogue

Crew Posting Level: 6
Senior Staff Posting Level: 6
Overall Ship Health: 6

Ship Status: The ship posting limits when down during the holidays, but that was to be expected. We are slowly making it through our sim (which I thought would be over by now). All-in-all, we are doing pretty good.

Spotlight: None this month.
With the holiday break, no one really had a chance to shine.

Vacancies: JO’s, our ship could use all the JO’s we can get. The problem what we have is the lack of cannon and that many people don’t like the JJ Trek. So, for us to gain new players is harder than for other ships.

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Gamemaster: Sam Pennington

Crew Posting Level: 5
Senior Staff Posting Level: 6
Overall Ship Health: 6

Sim Overview: The USS Chernov was suddenly pulled out of warp. Her helmsman took a security officer’s sidearm and shot himself. A mental parasite came onboard to cause chaos, and it entered the Captain last. The parasite was pursued by ghostly bounty hunters, who promised to save the Chernov as long as no one gets in the way. Now the final chase is on between these bounty hunters and the parasite…

Timothy Frogue as XO Michael Sideman was the top contributor to sim progression this month

Spotlight:

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FComm’s Comments: The Chernov has had its up and downs over the last few months but is otherwise happy healthy and stable coming out of the holiday break. There are no major issues that I feel need to be addressed at this time.

Huge shout out to Timothy and Travis for all of their help and responsiveness to my questions over the last couple of months.

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USS Odin

Commanding Officer: Steven Sigle

Crew Posting Level: 5
Senior Staff Posting Level: 5
Overall Ship Health: 5

Ship Status: The USS Odin implemented the relaxed posting option during the holidays which resulted as the crew taking much needed time to enjoy the holidays. This means the posting rate for the month of Decemeber was lower than other months but typical for the month of December. I am confident the crew will be back to posting with thier typical enthusiasm and vigor in the new year.

The main sim continues to move along with Kenson giving a great story for the crew to post to. Right now the away team on the surface is trying to make contact with the individual modifying the starfleet equiptment popping up in the market. On the bridge, Calin has sent the XO and Lt. Commander Carisi to investigate a ship that might hold the anwers to what brought them to the colony.

Spotlight: USS Odin

=/\=Commodore Calin=/\= Jessica smiled at the man. =/\=I heard congratulations are in order.=/\= While space was vast, news always traveled fast.

Calin smiled at the young woman as he sat up in his chair as he looked at the screen. “Thank you, it’s been a long time coming it felt but we are excited. How can I help you Commander?=/\= Calin asked as he took a sip from his warm mug of coffee, a delicacy his Chief of Security had recently gotten him addicted to.

=/\=I am relaying you a data packet. There is something we have been tracking on long range sensors heading your way.=/\= Depressing a key on the console, the information immediately was relayed to the USS Odin. Bringing the data she had acquired up on a screen for Calin to see Jessica began to explain. =/\=At 0120 hours the USS Atlantis picked up an unidentified flying object on her long range sensors. It appeared to be moving at unprecedented speeds hitting every planet, colony, ship and moon in its path. From there it moved into the scanning range of the USS Manhattan which detected nine life signs but again due to the speed, the Manhattan could only confirm that it was targeting everything in its path. We were ready for it and picked up what sounded like a communication signal that was bells ringing before it disappeared off our sensors. It’s trajectory should place it on your long range sensors in the next thirty seconds. As you may have guess it is causing quite a clatter that command wants to know what is the matter.=/\=

=/\=Good luck to you, Jessica nodded at the man on the screen and keep us posted as to what you found. Commander Teller out./\=

Vacancies: All JOs

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Executive Officer: David Shotton

Crew Posting Level: 5
Senior Staff Posting Level: 5
Overall Ship Health: 8

Ship Status: Many of the crew took a much needed break over Christmas, and as a result our posting from many dropped as a result. This was expected, it was a heck of a year. Now, onwards to greater and better things!

Spotlight: Everybody on the ship. Thank you for your time and efforts in 2020. I know that for many it was a challenging year in many, many ways that most of us do not even realize. The world is so much bigger than our little corner of the internet and I appreciate all of you who make time to be a part of the community we have on the Odin. Thank you all, and I hope 2397 brings you happiness and joy far in excess of what you deserve!

Vacancies: The Odin has vacancies for all JO positions and will consider Swing applications on a character by character basis.

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Gamemaster: Kenson Koh

Crew Posting Level: 4
Senior Staff Posting Level: 4
Overall Ship Health: 4

Sim Overview: After rescuing a freighter, the Odin pursued what seemed like an unregistered Romulan ship. The Odin reaches a strange cluster of ships in a system that is not claimed by any major power. The ‘colony’ is an independent group of people from various systems and do not answer to any power. When the CNS tries to read the people who answer their hails, she discovers that she cannot read them, in a similar situation like the Ferengi. A meeting is set up where two representatives from the ‘colony’ would board the Odin to negotiate. One is a Ferengi male and the other is a female which looks human but is unreadable like a Ferengi. The CO meets with them and negotiates entry into the system to look for the perpetrators.

Two away teams have been sent down to the colony, which is actually a small planetoid. A suspicious person was seen and pursued. The away teams have cornered the young man, Wiz, who admits to trading with Starfleet equipment. He reveals that he is part of the crew of the ship that has been stealing from Starfleet freighters. The officers offer him some immunity to talk to them, but he is rather unwilling to betray his friends. At the same time, the ship has disabled a ship trying to depart, and are ready to board it.

Spotlight: Due to the relaxing of the posting requirements, the sim has slowed down tremendously. Thus, I cannot really name the biggest contributor.

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FComm’s Comments: The Odin is another one of those ships that I rarely worry about. It seems to have seen some of the usual holiday slow down and I feel confident that Steve, David, and Kenson have it well in hand but Katy and I are ready if any help is needed.

Otherwise she looks healthy

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USS Saracen

Commanding Officer: David Shotton

Crew Posting Level: 5
Senior Staff Posting Level: 5
Overall Ship Health: 8

Ship Status: Continued from the Odin, if you want to see the beginning of this Christmas Story, track back from there

The door to the turbolift slid shut behind Dante as he stepped onto the Bridge. The call had come urgently, a message from another Starfleet ship, Priority One he had been told. It had meant slipping out of the Christmas Party he had thrown for the crew of the Saracen, but sometimes being a Captain meant putting family time aside more often than not.

Walking quickly to his chair, Dante sat down and flicked on the Comm screen in the same movement that he hid the bottle of lagavulin in his hand out of sight. “Captain Knight here,” he acknowledged the call.

=/\= Captain Knight, pleasure to hear from you.=/\= Calin said as he smiled as the comm screen lit up. =/\= I hope all is well for your crew.=/\= he said as he looked over at the data that his team had compiled as he wondered what Dante would think of this one.

=/\= Calin,=/\= Dante answered, surprised. =/\= Very well thank you, we’re in the middle of our Christmas Party. I wasn’t expecting a social call right now, something on your mind?=/\=

=/\= Good to hear, sadly not much of a social call for now as we have something I need to send your way. What started as an alert from the Atlantis has turned into a big mystery. Some…thing… is zipping cross our Galaxy. Right now we have gotten enough readings to narrow it down to 10 lifeforms, one human for certain. The other 9, not quite certain on. One of them though is emitting large amounts of luminous energy in the red spectrum. I am sending you the data as they should be hitting your long range sensors in 10 minutes. Starfleet wants as much data as possible, grab what you can and track it’s movement.=/\=

=/\= A Q? =/\= Dante asked, raising one eyebrow then shook his head. It wasn’t Q’s style. =/\= Thanks for alerting us, we will take a look and see what we can find out about it.=/\= With a final nod, he added a final =/\=Congratulations, by the way.=/\= and then grinned as he switched off the comm. Looking over the data that was appearing on his screen, he glanced up at the Helm Officer. “Plot an intercept course, lets go hunting.”

10 minutes later of long, drawn out silence and Dante had reviewed the file, gaining no further insight into the mystery of Christmas Eve. The blip appeared on sensors and he raised both eyebrows this time. It was fast, very fast and the Saracen would have a very short window to close and scan the object, and it was heading directly towards Earth.

“Captain! It’s changing course to intercept US!” The warning came from the overly muscled, short haired Tactical Officer who had followed quickly behind him from the party on the lower decks.

“Move to Red alert, bring the Phasers online and arm the Torpedoes,” Dante answered automatically, the lights on the Bridge falling to the familiar dark red in moments. “Give me a target lock and scan the object.”

“I….. can’t,” the muscled man replied. “I can’t get a lock Captain. Something is interfering with our sensors, some kind of luminous energy coming from the lead lifeform.” Dante’s jaw clenched, his brow dropped. “Manual targeting!”

“Dante,” Natasha said coming up beside Dante, their son Oscar cradled in her arms. “What is going on? If your idea of a red alert was to make the place more festive I am cutting you off from the lagavulin.”

“Sir the object is still closing,” the comm officer spoke in a clipped tone. He had been on the bridge crew long enough to know that when the Captain’s wife was off duty, she did not care about rank and file.

“What object,” Natasha let out an annoyed groan. Turning her attention to Dante she hiked the baby on her hip and raised an eyebrow. “Dante, how is there an object. Hmmm? I told you to take a left at the nebula and park it there because it would hide us from calls, sensors, and objects but no apparently you had to go right? Why can’t you ever listen to me when I am giving you navigational directions?” While the words in the conversation differed, the topic of men not listening or asking for directions while driving had continued from the first outing out of the caves to streaking amongst the stars. “Now we are gonna have to stop and talk to whatever this is? If you make Oscar spend his first Christmas in a first contact situation I will kill you.”

Dante blinked again in innocence. “Honey why do you think I’m arming the torpedoes and phasers? I’m thinking ahead, love.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but maybe there was more truth there than he would admit.

Oh daddy what did you do, Oscar said, staring wide eyed. His dad was in charge but only mommy was not using that tone. Maybe you should kiss her neck until she giggles. That worked the last time she got grumpy. Mommy is much happier when you make her smile.

Dante turned and looked at his wife and son, and something in his son’s big, round eyes stopped him. There was something in those eyes, a soft innocence and understanding that caused Dante to check himself. It was gentle and full of joy, happiness and peace. Love.

“Hold your fire,” Dante ordered, causing the man with the muscles to blink in confusion. “Stand down Red Alert, put us back in the Green and Hail the object.” With that order the lights came back up and the comm system clicked on. For a moment there was nothing, then… everybody on the bridge looked at each other. Bells.

“Here it comes!” One of the crew stated, and Dante flicked the controls to put the object on screen. He blinked, and reached out to hold Natasha’s hand. As if in reflex, he flicked another switch opening the live visual and audio feed to the other ships that had relayed and tracked the anomaly through the expanse around them.

“It breached our shields!” One of the officers whispered, “like they weren’t even there, just sliced through like butter.”

“Dante…” Natasha held onto Dante’s hand with her mouth opening slack jawed. “I think we need more lagavulin.” Her tone was slow and full of disbelief at what she just saw. Her husband would not have gone to this extreme just to get her and Oscar up here. Whatever it was had to really be something but that something was too fantastical to accept. It had to be the booze or a psychotic stress breakdown….or the booze.

“Ohhh ohhh ohhhh,” Oscar happily clapped his hands as he caught a glimpse of what his parents saw.

The sound of their son trying to say Ho ho ho but instead excitedly sucking in air to produce an oh oh oh sound made Natasha break out in a smile. Laying her head down on his arm, she let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know how you do it and I am not going to ask but damn baby you did not leave out one detail for Oscar’s first Christmas.

In the hangar bay, the Captains large Asian Monitor Lizard, Bruce, who had escaped the disappointing party that the crew of the Saracen had thrown was sulking around the large empty space. It was his quiet place, a place he loved to think and relax when he escaped the confines of Dante and Natasha’s quarters. Now though, a sound reached him through the comm system piped through the ship. Bells.

Right outside the hangar bay shields something flew past close. Something fast, being towed behind a number of many legged animals. Something red. There was another thing also. Through the hangar bay shields flew a small, round object. Also bright red, it bounced three very deliberate and slow times, before rolling to a stop right at Bruce’s feet. A bright red rubber ball with the words Ho Ho Ho written on them. Looking back up, the lizard’s tongue flicked out once at the departing mystery. What that tongue flick meant was clear. Thank you.

And as the object retreated and flew out of sight, the Captain’s heard him exclaim… “A Merry Christmas to all and to all…… a darn better 2021!”

Love, Kate, James, Steven S and Dave S

Spotlight: Many of us on the ship took a much needed break over the Holiday period. Instead of a spotlight for anybody in particular, I’m going to say a big thank you to the whole crew. Thank you for being a part of the Saracen and having your wonderfully eclectic mix of characters, and being a part of a fun and relaxing RP community on our ship. I appreciate all of you, and hope the New Year brings you rest, enjoyment and many, many ideas to throw at your characters in 2397.

Vacancies: The Saracen has JO Vacancies in all departments, and may consider a swing character for a capable writer.

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Executive Officer: No report submitted

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Gamemaster: James Harrison

Crew Posting Level: 7
Senior Staff Posting Level: 7
Overall Ship Health: 7

Sim Overview: December there has been a considerable slow down, I am hoping due to the holidays. I am hoping to get picking back up in January. Not much progress has been made since my last report.

The ship is currently in orbit of the planet, trying to determine the best course of action. They’ve managed to receive a very distorted and choppy transmission, but it appears whoever is on the planet is asking for assistance. Meanwhile, SARAH is in the main computer interacting with what seems to be a little girl, some type of anomaly in the computer, but its origin is still unknown.

Spotlight:

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FComm’s Comments: I have to admit that Dave’s status has me chuckling.

It seems the slow down hit the Saracen as well but we suspected as much since the AWOL enforcement was relaxed. I am expecting things to pick back up later this month and as of the filing of the report things are already beginning to look better.

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USS Sentinel

Commanding Officer: No report submitted

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Executive Officer: No report submitted

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Gamemaster: Robert Archer

Crew Posting Level: 5
Senior Staff Posting Level: 4
Overall Ship Health: 5

Sim Overview: Let me just say first, sorry I lost the questions that we were expected to answer with from the previous months and my efforts to email for help have born no fruit. So my report will not be in line with that. Sorry!

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Things are slow on the Sentinel, due in part to the holiday slump as well as life hitting a lot of the formerly active crew. Despite the awols/loas present my hope is this clears up soon now that the holidays are over. Currently the ship’s crew are in a briefing going over information for the Sigma III mining colony disappearances and possible murders.

Spotlight: Despite being AWOL at present I really want to spotlight the ship’s CO David Eads. He’s really trying to get the ship on track despite the struggles he is facing.

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FComm’s Comments: Life has indeed hit the crew hard. I am glad to see Joe back active again, he is a strong role player and a good member of the club. Dave has been hit with real life but but I am hoping that January brings life back.

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Due to real life issues this report is late and not as detailed as they usually are. The fleet was hit pretty hard by the slow down but I think it isn’t anything that can’t be recovered from. The Viking and the Sentinel will be getting most of my focus for the next little bit

Geoff Joosten