Star Trek: Death of the Federation

[Hadrianvs]

That's not even slightly what I was going for, but I'll take it and make the best of it. Thank you for taking the time out to make something. And I mean it honestly. I don't know how to express a feeling of gratitude yet disappointment without it being somewhat snarky sounding.

[LadyTevar]

Havoc? Can you give me some details on the other planets/objects in the Nivoch system? A gas giant, asteroids, anything else that we might be able to mine/break down for replication parts. Comets, cupids, donners or blitzens? Anything that could lessen the damage we'd do to Nivoch's planet.

[General Havoc]

Havoc? Can you give me some details on the other planets/objects in the Nivoch system? A gas giant, asteroids, anything else that we might be able to mine/break down for replication parts. Comets, cupids, donners or blitzens? Anything that could lessen the damage we'd do to Nivoch's planet.

Gladly.

Nivoch is a stable, main sequence Class K0 star, with a planetary system of seven planets. Only one, M-class planet Nivoch 4, is inhabited. Nivoch 1 and Nivoch 2 are barren Class-D rocks, with no atmosphere and no known mineral wealth. Nivoch 3 is a supermassive terrestrial planet, class-K, with an atmosphere of sulfur dioxide and argon. It has two airless moons. Nivoch 4, like 1 and 2, has no natural satellites.

Nivoch 5 is a brilliantly-green Class-J Gas Giant, roughly three quarters the size of Jupiter, with twenty four moons orbiting it. Its atmosphere is primarily hydrogen mixed with ammonia and sulfides, and it sports two interlocking ring systems comprised of ice and dust. One of its moons, Nivoch 5d, is a small (Pluto-sized) ball of what appears to be water-ice coated with dust and snow. Nivoch 6 on the other hand is a small planet in an unstable orbit due to Nivoch 5's gravity field. It is constantly being tidally flexed, and erupts with violent vulcanism periodically, spraying molten iron mixed with trace elements into space around it. It is constantly thus surrounded by a dense cloudlike atmosphere of particulate metals. Nivoch 7, far out near the edge of the solar system, appears to be a rogue planet captured by the star's gravity. Its surface is unblemished frozen methane, but there is some evidence of a liquid ocean beneath it. Nivoch 7 has never been studied in detail.

The system has no asteroid belt, but many thousands of small and less small asteroids orbit the star at random intervals, varying in size from pebbles up to seven hundred kilometers in diameter. There are at least six large dust and water-ice comets at various stages of their orbit, one of which is colloquially called "Phoenix" from the luminiferous plasma that it emits when approaching the Nivoch star (derived, it is thought, from some kind of internal reservoir of hydrocarbons).

[Hotfoot]

While it's hardly a state secret about my crew, as of right now I've not told anyone, nor has anyone apparently put that together, done a deep scan, etc.

Moreover, right now only the living currently inhabit my ship.

Let's please keep the in-game and out of game knowledge separate, if we could please.

[rhoenix]

I used OOC info without thinking. My post has been fixed.

[Cynical Cat]

While it's hardly a state secret about my crew, as of right now I've not told anyone, nor has anyone apparently put that together, done a deep scan, etc.

Well, to be technical, I did back when you first showed up and I was deciding whether or not to torpedo you. But I haven't shared that tidbit with anyone else.

[Hotfoot]

[LadyTevar]

Well... A gas giant with ice/dust rings would hand our water problems nicely. the "Pheonix", if it's in an orbital position to get caught, could be used for the hydrocarbons, which could be used to make pre-fab housing for those on the planet. Having a roof over the head always make people feel better.

[LadyTevar]

I am still not sure if I'm doing the fighters correctly.
I'll accept any tactical suggestions and aid from those more experience with space battles.

[rhoenix]

I am still not sure if I'm doing the fighters correctly.
I'll accept any tactical suggestions and aid from those more experience with space battles.

Good lady, I would suggest checking out Freespace 2, if you haven't already - it does an fairly good job of showing space combat in scale.

My suggestion more to the point though is to assign the uncloaked ones priority of point defense (shooting down missiles fired by the Cube at other ships), and subsystem neutralization, wherein they basically shoot at priority targets on the Cube - a tractor beam emitter emplacement, a cannon turret, a shield generator.

[General Havoc]

Permit me to disagree with Herr Rhoenix in this regard.

Point defense is a perfectly valid employment for fighters, as is harrier and pinpoint strikes, but while fighters will fill a tactical role in this game, but there is a reason that they are generally rare in ship-to-ship combat. A Borg cube possesses shields of immense strength, more than capable of repelling any and all weapons even conceivably mounted on a fighter. Spreading fighters all over the Cube and expecting to pick it apart will flatly not work. The firepower required to hammer through a Cube's shields is measured in the scale of battlecruisers, not fighters.

Now, that being said, the same is not true of all Borg ships. A concentrated assault by a formation of bold fighters could well simply tear an Exterminator Frigate apart, perhaps even a Sphere, by overwhelming its defenses and striking vital points. A Cube that has its shields torn down by some means is potentially very vulnerable to the sorts of attacks Rhoenix described, sneaking in close and flinging microtorpedoes into something useful, etc.

Fighters are viable weapons, it's just that the sheer scale of a Cube makes it an incredibly difficult opponent to overcome.

[Hotfoot]

My apologies for not posting lately, I had a really terrible few days.

Post will be inbound shortly, I'll try to cover as much as I can.

[frigidmagi]

Nitram, huh I said to fire on the sphere not the cube.

[SirNitram]

Nitram, huh I said to fire on the sphere not the cube.

An honest mistake. But in any case, the plasma torps are gonna be a nasty wake up to the Cube now.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Captain's Name: Blentarith
Captain's Species: El-Aurian
Captain's Background: Born in the Delta Quadrant at what would translate on Earth to October 9th 1776 (making him approximately 622 years old). Blentarith is ancient by most species standards. He was a musician on Aurian 7 for the first 100 years of his life. He grew bored with attempting to use the instruments provided for him by his species past and sojourned to the stars to encounter new forms of music. Spending almost 100 years traveling around the Delta Quadrant he learned to take care of himself quite well, becoming handy at most repairs on-board a starship.

A skilled linguist and diplomat he mediated peace through talk like most El-Aurians are easily capable of. He migrated to the Beta Quadrant around the year 2000, exploring the music and tones of so many new cultures. He then decided quickly after encountering the Orion Syndicate's nanescent form and accidentally providing them with warp drive, to be much more careful in his explorations of cultures and music. In 2162 he was on Earth for the first time, happening to also be there at the time of the signing of the Federation Charter. This was the time he first encountered Guinan, and fast friendship formed. Soon thereafter they headed together back to the Delta Quadrant only to find their civilization destroyed entirely by the Borg. Escaping as best they could they were caught in the Nexus and Blentarith became inescapably linked to it.

Joining Starfleet soon after in 2300 he kept his species and history secret from his superiors. He saw Starfleet as a safe way to explore the galaxy. His specialty at the academy was Xeno-Anthropology, Xeno-Linquistics and Xeno-Biology. He intentionally held himself back as to not attract attention to himself. Serving aboard a myriad of Starships between 2300 and the beginning of the Dominion War, it was quickly figured out that he was not the human he claimed to be. Confronted by Starfleet command, he revealed his nature and his age only under duress and potential charges. Serving out the majority of the war on the sidelines on Earth he was almost killed in the Breen raid on Starfleet Command. Achieving the rank of Captain shortly after the war ended. After the return of Voyager from the Delta Quadrant he became concerned. Even with the destruction of the Unimatrix and the Queen, Blentarith was frightened. He knew something was afoot. His sixth sense of "Something is wrong here" that he had developed over his then 600 years of life told him the stink-o-meter was off the chart. He brought his concerns to Starfleet command. They dismissed him. Repeatedly he returned, each time louder and stronger in conviction. Each time the dismissed him and began to believe him a paranoid fool. His voice went unheard.

Unheard and disgraced he was assigned to a backwaters assignment aboard a station along the Tholian border. His assignment was as the first contact specialist for the sector and the official diplomatic link between the Tholians and the Federation. It was a dead end assignment. Then the cubes came. He watched in horror as the Borg descended over his new home of the Federation. Destroying everything in their path the Borg made him weep tears of fury. He was on a forgotten post in the middle of nowhere. The station was in line for a Borg attack and the only way out was the USS T'Kumbra which had docked there for a Baryon Sweep (See ST: TNG Season 6 Ep "Starship Mine"). Evacuating the 205 station personel onto the T'Kumbra along with the crew of the ship after the Captain of the T'Kumbra (Jah Meltan, an unjoined Trill) beamed aboard and prematurely ended the Baryon Sweep.

Blentarith took command of the T'Kumbra, which had been the testbed of a new hyper efficent, non-subspace damaging and higly powerful warp drive system prototype. Blentarith ordered a full retreat at maximum warp away from the incoming Borg fleet and back towards what remained of the Federation. Over the years since the fall of the Federation and Starfleet, Blentarith has had to replace over 47% of his crew with survivors of other ships and colonies he has come across. The T'Kumbra has been outfitted with several odd upgrades since then as well thanks to his Chief Engineer Rodney Melhorn.


Ship Name: USS T'Kumbra
Ship Class: Nebula-class Light Cruiser (upgraded to testbed new warp drive system)
Crew composition: 827, 440 of which are former Starfleet officers, the rest are castoffs and survivors from many places. This number does include a group of Tamarians (3) and six pairs of Binars. The Binars are apart of the team that keeps the special warp drive running.

Special Systems and other Acquisitions:
1: Testbed HVIWDFS: Stands for Hyper Velocity Integrated Warp Drive Flight System. Allows the T'Kumbra to propel itself for 10 days on end at Warp 9.99999 without having to stop and cool down as well as achieve such a velocity. Its power efficency and power production levels are off the charts.
2: Enhanced Ramscoop Tech: The ramscoops on the T'Kumbra have been upgraded to increase efficiency 765% to assist in the use of the HVIWDFS.
3: Enhanced Sensor Suite: All sensor range and detail is increased thanks to the Binars by a factor of two.
4: Mining Probes: 7 specially retrofitted Type 11 shuttles designed to use their phasers to dig holes in asteroids and planets then specially re-calibrated transporters to beam out the needed minerals. The transporter on each is then able to store up to 300 metric tons of material (non-organic) and bring it back to the T'Kumbra.
5: Special Replicator Factory: Four (as opposed to standard 1) industrial replicators are aboard the T'Kumbra, allowing her to fabricate almost anything needed to repair systems on any major class of ship with ease at the drop of the hat almost.
6: Enhanced Transporter Systems: Allows the USS T'Kumbra to carry almost 90,000 metric tons of non-organic material in an effective suspended animation state for a nearly unlimited time frame

Ship's Weakness: A total lack of upgraded weapons and or defenses, she is more of a transport vessel and flying factory/command center. She has had to replace one of her fore and one of her aft torpedo launchers to fit the enhanced transporter storage buffers. Her phaser relays are in dire need of replacement so much so that her phasers operate at 60% efficency and could blow if used too intensely but the crew has yet been unable to find a particular un-replicateable mineral required for the job.

Service history to-date:
Comissioned 2352
Assigned Cardassian Border Patrol 2353 to 2373
Served Dominion War 7th fleet 2373 to 2375
Brought to Utopia Planetia to serve as a testbed for new Warp Drive System 2375
New Warp System Install Complete 2387
Fleeing to Bajor 2389

[Charon]

Well. I am immediately suspicious of anything that has lived for more than a century, but on the other hand, it is certainly an interesting species to see reacting to a borg invasion.

[rhoenix]

I'm kind of shocked.

No offense Firewalker, but I read over your post three times, looking for wank. I was very surprised that there's no hidden OMG Beam hidden somewhere, honestly.

That said, we need a fleet-tender, and a highly mobile one is very, very useful. You obviously put time and thought into the character, ship, and background of both, going more for story than awesome. I find myself impressed - I find no flaws with the character concept as posted.

[Cynical Cat]

I'm kind of shocked.

No offense Firewalker, but I read over your post three times, looking for wank. I was very surprised that there's no hidden OMG Beam hidden somewhere, honestly.

Then you missed it. Here, let me show it to you.

Its power efficency and power production levels are off the charts.

I don't have a problem with a fast, powerful engine, but Warp 9.999 (if you go by the Warp 10=impossible speed chart) for ten days sustained, no fuel problems, and "off the charts" shouldn't fly. A Borg cube produces a lot of power, but its not off the charts. The language is vague and Firewalker might not intend anything too obscene, but that puppy does have to be nailed down.

[rhoenix]

Ah, good catch Cyn.

In that case, I'd suggest removing the uber-powercells and technobabble drive, and just give it a transwarp engine.

[Jason_Firewalker]

I should have phrased that as in comparison to other Starfleet technology, basically its a warp core that produces 3x the output at 5x the fuel efficency for 9 times longer then comparable sized models

[frigidmagi]

I got a few questions in addition.

2: Enhanced Ramscoop Tech: The ramscoops on the T'Kumbra have been upgraded to increase efficiency 765% to assist in the use of the HVIWDFS.

I am assuming this is akin to the ramscoop in the Bussard ramjet

Jason... What does that even mean? 100% efficientcy would mean that you scoop up hydrogen atom in range with no loses as you convert them into fuel for the fusion event. 765% means.... That your scoop creates hydrogen atoms? Can we dial it down a notch? Say to double digits?

5: Special Replicator Factory: Four (as opposed to standard 1) industrial replicators are aboard the T'Kumbra, allowing her to fabricate almost anything needed to repair systems on any major class of ship with ease at the drop of the hat almost.

Anything we need, at the drop of a hat? How about we dial that bit to? I mean why does a test bed (which honestly wouldn't be running about the edges of Feddie space but in the interior where it's performance can be observed) need a damn all purpose factory on board anyways? This basically means all of our weaknesses are now fixable (well... most of them).

The rest of it, barring what Cat brought up I'm okay with. It's an interesting ship and much different from the rest of us combat monsters. Still are you gonna be okay playing the tender Jason? I honestly mean no offense but keep in mind, everyone else will be getting the glory in combat with the borg and you'll be... following up behind. It may get boring for you.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Alright to answer frigid here...

The 765% efficiency increase means that it is able to collect atomic particles of different kinds at a larger radius, the way I have always understood the Bussard ramscoops to work is they are like magnets, pulling in particles from a distance and bringing them into the ship for conversion into fuel as well as other such applications as radio-therapy for patients, conversion into nessecary meds, or use in different parts of the ship where gas particles may be needed. Basically what I am saying is if a normal ramscoop collects at range X, using power Y to do so, I can collect at range 765X at power use Y instead.

As for why it was out on the Fed border was a test of its endurance flight capabilities, basically how long could it go at max speed before needing to stop, well they figured out that it was more then halfway across the Federation before it needed a cooldown period. It was part of the testing.

As for the industrial replicators I was envisioning it that the factory onboard could turn out 4 to 6 Type 11 shuttles in 10 hours interms of general complexity and mass.

Also as a note Frigid, since my break about a year ago, I realized that I am really really good at playing the cleric in DnD, the tender, the healer, the support character. I realize that I need to get good at that role as to work on my humility as a human being. I had a bravado I did not deserve. This role I feel would be perfect for me to learn to reign myself in in my roleplaying. I am trying to not be a Roll-Player/Power-Gamer, I am going for role imersion here, real role-playing rather then power

[Cynical Cat]

With a triple output engine he isn't a tender. He's can run every combat system at max potential all the time. Full engines, max shields, and full power phasers all the time. Remember the climax of the Final Reflection? One D-5 versus three D-4s. The D-5 and it wasn't luck or incompetence by the D-4 Squadron Leader. And the difference between the D-5 and the D-4? The D-5 is a D-4 with a new more powerful warp engine. Sure her phasers are shot, but since he can just make new ones that just means he won't be a power house the first fight.

Marcao also has a supped up engine. Which allows him to increase one system, a single system not the overall ship power, by up to 40% with a chance of negative consequences.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Alright I think I need to work out what I mean even more in-depth about the output of the engines, basically I am going for fuel efficiency of the ship, the ability to run longer and faster then anyone else. Its pure speed power. Its not any better at generating actual power, it just generates warp speed several times better. Sorta like the difference between a gas guzzling SUV and a Toyota Prius, but this Prius is an F-15 in terms of speed and the SUV is a C-130.

[Cynical Cat]

Alright I think I need to work out what I mean even more in-depth about the output of the engines, basically I am going for fuel efficiency of the ship, the ability to run longer and faster then anyone else. Its pure speed power. Its not any better at generating actual power, it just generates warp speed several times better. Sorta like the difference between a gas guzzling SUV and a Toyota Prius, but this Prius is an F-15 in terms of speed and the SUV is a C-130.

You can't. You run on antimatter. The Bussard collectors do collect mass for the impulse engines and for use as warp plasma (that's a medium, not a fuel) but that's not important. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. You could store it in tanks, crack water for it, skim gas giants, whatever. It's just easy with Trek's technology to use Bussard collectors. It's only fuel for the impulse engines and that's small fry stuff for the starship.

Antimatter, on the other hand, requires massive amounts of energy and industry to create and that's how you generate power. A triple power engine is a gas guzzler because you don't get something for nothing. Your car isn't a Prius, its a gas guzzling Italian sports car.