The Federation Tribune - February 2006

[Rob Versteegt]

                  ==== The Federation Tribune ====
                         ==== February 2006 ====


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Chief Editor's Notes:
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And hello again! Welcome to the second newspaper of 2006! There aren't a lot
of articles here, but that doesn't mean that this newspaper is boring! Enjoy
the February newspaper, and... I look forward to your articles for the next
newspaper!

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USS Calhoun Status Report, January 2006, by Adrien Rodd.
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STARDATE 2392.07.09
LOCATION: Docked at Starbase 32.

Episode 26: "The Mirror Crack'd" (starting today)


The surviving members of the away team on the planet have been retrieved
safely, albeit seriously wounded for some. Doctor Foster was confined behind
a forcefield in Sickbay, both to quarantine him for fear of contagion, and
to detain him pending charges for his crime.

Now, two months later, Foster has left the ship, and the Calhoun is back at
Starbase 32, delivering new supplies and personnel to the station. The ship
will remain docked for four days, to give the crew some R&R. Unbeknownst to
them, however, Starfleet officers from the Parallel Reality are preparing to
infiltrate the ship and replace their counterparts, in a bold attempt to
seize the transwarp vessel to assist in the war plaguing their universe. . .

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USS Odyssey Status Report, January 2006, by Rob Verlinden.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Stardate:  2392.04.25 - 2392.04.26

The staff meeting was over fairly quickly. Denebris decided not to allow
Harmondale's team to investigate the anomalies with a shuttle yet. The
launch of the shuttle was postponed until the drain of power would be
acceptable. Shortly after midnight the shuttle Danube was launched with
Harmondale, Davis and Nerell as her crew. They inspected the ship for damage
and found a subspace rift near the ship.

Commander Nerfertii was released out of Sickbay and questioned the alien
together with Cmd. Denebris and Ensign Healey. The latter remained with the
alien to study him further and found out the aliens were hurt by transwarp.
At 0057 Captain Janssens appeared on the Odyssey's bridge. In that same
moment the anomaly in the warpcore vanished and it was possible to get main
power back online. The shuttle was recalled and with modified transwarp the
Odyssey returned towards Pandora Station.

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USS Valkyrie Status Report, January 2006, by Jon Hardy.
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(] Stardate [)

2392.04.26

(] Location [)

In orbit of Zon IV

(] Summary [)

The Valkyrie's engineering and operations departments have managed to get
the vast majority of systems up and working again.  While the repairs crews
worked, the subspace aliens sent Captain Bennek - of the USS Odyssey - to
the Valkyrie, instead of returning Commander Maiek. Moments after Bennek's
arrival on the Valkyrie, the subspace rifts closed, without any visible
indicators that they ever existed.

Lieutenant Schofield and Ensign Alvarez were rescued from the surface of Zon
IV, after the Brunhilde's self destruct sequence was disarmed and the flyer
brought back aboard.

The Orion pirates, who had at one point held Schofield and Alvarez as
prisoners, have departed the region.

Captain Bennek has opted to leave Lieutenant Commander in command of the
Valkyrie, until receiving orders from Starfleet to the contrary.

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Pandora Station Status Report, January 2006, by Rob Versteegt.
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===============
Location:
===============

Still in orbit of Pandora II, as always.

===============
Stardate:
===============

2392.04.25 and 2392.04.26.

===============
Summary:
===============

A lot happened, since the subspace rifts decided to open fire at Pandora
Station. It was established that the rifts were also trying to communicate,
so the Pandora crew did everything in their power to continue communicating.
However, the rifts did not reply. Not even when a way was thought up to send
out images to invite the hologram-aliens back. Nothing.

Even though the rifts didn't show anything, there was something coming out
of those rifts: a probe. Or a torpedo, actually. In fact, it was a modified
torpedo. Once it was tractored in and transported to a science lab, it was
quickly discovered that there was someone *inside* the modified torpedo!
Upon further examination, this person was discovered to alive! It was
Klingon Ambassador Kregel, who explained that he had been a volunteer to get
shot out of the Valkyrie in this modified torpedo to talk to the subspace
aliens who had to be controlling the rifts. Unfortunately, his mission was a
failure, and he would have died, were it not him appearing near Pandora.

At 0057 hours, on 2392.04.26, something strange happened. Not only did the
subspace rifts suddenly start to vanish, a flash of light also appeared at
Main Ops, after which Captain Torn of the USS Atlantis stood there! The
aptain explained that he, like the other Captains and the Admirals, had been
kidnapped by subspace rifts.

A call from the Atlantis soon came: Captain Sarin, who had appeared on the
Atlantis together with Captain Kane, called to tell Pandora to warn all
Transwarp ships now to engage Transwarp, since that was why the subspace
aliens had kidnapped the Captains.

---
The following hasn't been roleplayed, but just assume that it has happened.
:P
---

Of course, it didn't take Starfleet long to come up with a solution to solve
the Transwarp problem. The Pandora Crew quickly managed to modify all
transwarp engines of all transwarp capable ships, which meant that if
everything was working well, no more aliens would be killed by Transwarp.

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USS Atlantis Status Report, January 2006, by Ben Versteegt.
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Stardate:
- 2392.04.25
- 2392.04.26

Locations of the (crew of the) USS Atlantis:

- While he was first trapped inside some subspace prison, Captain Torn
subsequently found himself on Pandora Station, in the Pandora System in the
Alpha Quadrant.
- The rest of the crew found themselves in and later outside of a subspace
distortion nebula near a star system with a Class A blue star, apparently
inside Dominion space, in the Gamma Quadrant.

Summary:

- 2392.04.25/26

The unstable compromise between the Atlantis and the Vorta continued to
last. Jem'Hadar were brought on board to make sure the crew wasn't spying on
the Dominion nebula they were in, while the Vorta continued to talk to
Lieutenant Andersson, who was posing as Captain in Torn's absence. This gave
Commander Velden and the rest of the crew the time they needed to think of
an escape plan, just in case the current compromise failed for some reason.

Hiding inside the nebula, repairs were coming along slowly, and the
Jem'Hadar, as well as Volnaran (the Vorta) grew more impatient with each
passing hour. Finally, a device hidden inside Volnaran's pocket began to
count down to something -- a "firing exercise", as the Vorta called it. He
demanded that the Atlantis left the nebula at once, despite the ship's
unfinished repairs, and despite the fact that the starship would be no match
for the dozens of subspace rifts, which were still waiting outside of the
nebula for the Atlantis to appear.

This time, no compromise could be made: Volnaran and the Jem'Hadar beamed
back to their ships, after which three of the five Dominion vessels towed
the Atlantis towards the edge of the nebula. Apparently, the Dominion didn't
want the Atlantis and its crew to be in the nebula when the mysterious
countdown ended.

Going outside of the nebula meant certain death, because the subspace rifts
would launch their torpedoes again and finish what they started when they
attacked the Atlantis earlier. Staying inside the nebula, however, meant
fighting five Jem'Hadar vessels. In its damaged state, the Atlantis would
barely be able to take on one hostile ship, let alone five. Still, it was
deemed that fighting the Dominion was preferable to fighting the subspace
rifts...

...So the Atlantis fired the first shot. Taking out the Dominion's tractor
beams, the crew hoped to elude the Jem'Hadar long enough to escape in the
sensor-masking clouds of the nebula. Lieutenant Rofellian even brought an
experimental, future Romulan device on line, which made the ship temporarily
invisible on enemy sensors.

The Jem'Hadar, unfortunately, didn't need sensors to hit their target. This
left the Atlantis in quite a bad shape, as the Dominion forced the ship
closer and closer to the edge of the nebula. Ultimately, the Atlantis raced
out of the nebula, planning to turn around immediately and fly back in, but
the subspace rifts were too fast: they fired large amounts of torpedoes at
the ship. None of those, however, hit the Atlantis; instead, they were aimed
at the Dominion ships, which quickly made a run for it.

The Atlantis was subsequently briefly surrounded by the subspace rifts, but
only for a short time: they disappeared again when they had delivered
Captains Sarin and Kane to the Bridge of the starship.

A few moments later, Volnaran's countdown ended. A strange blue light lit up
the nebula from within, but the exact source was unknown. It was clear that
the Dominion were doing something inside that nebula, but it was far from
clear what exactly that something was. Unfortunately, the Atlantis was in no
shape to investigate, and Captain Sarin, now in command of the Atlantis,
reluctantly ordered the ship to return to Pandora Station.

Meanwhile, Captain Torn was released from the subspace nightmare as well,
only he ended up on Pandora Station. When Sarin on the Atlantis contacted
Pandora Station via subspace, things quickly became clear. Now, the ghastly
truth is known not only to the COs, but also to the crews of the
dutystations in the Frontier Fleet: the COs and Admirals had been held
captive, because the transwarp they had been using had been killing the
subspace aliens.

While elsewhere in the fleet, work quickly began on a way to modify the
transwarp engines so they won't have harmful effects to the subspace aliens,
the Atlantis limped home at warp two. Its crew, tired and battered by recent
experiences, leaves the nebula behind with mixed feelings: on the one hand,
they are glad they have survived, but on the other, they know that they were
unable to learn of the Dominion's secrets in that nebula.

Secrets that, in a worst case scenario, could have very alarming
repercussions...

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Public Relations Status Report, January 2006, by Rob Versteegt.
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The new year started with about as many signups as the old year ended: in
January 2006, we had 7 signups. Of course, that's 2 more than in December
2005, but still, it's not a lot. Maybe we'll have more next month. You can
help, you know. And you all know how: by voting! Go to
http://www.frontierfleet.net/comm/vote, and vote for Frontier Fleet! ;-)

And after this advertisement, let's continue with the status report. Where
did these 7 people find us?

1: Voting site.
5: Surfing on the net / search engine.
1: Unknown.

And that's it for this month. So come on everyone! Tell your friends about
Frontier Fleet, vote, and make sure that there are more signups next month!

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SF Academy Status Report, January 2006, by Rob Versteegt.
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==================
Active Instructors: (5)

Chief Instructor Sedaq, played by Adrien Rodd
Instructor Vivienne Creenan, played by Rob Versteegt
Instructor Argl, played by John Hardy
Instructor Liz Bronson, played by Laura Elliot
Instructor Sophie Jaune, played by Rob Verlinden

==================
Instructors on LOA: (2)

Instructor Joran Moore, played by David Susman.
Instructor Miranda Winter, played by Ben Versteegt

==================

Leaving Instructors: (1)

Instructor Randy Orsolo, played by Dennis Church. Dennis, you will be
missed. Thanks for all your efforts.

==================

Cadets lost: (2)

Cadet Alexic Freeotha, played by Timothe Lethe.
Cadet Jorrell, played by Tessa Niles.

==================

New Signups: 7. Three of them entered the Academy.

==================
Individual Cadets: (5)

Cadet Megan Richards, played by Stephen Clark (Laura)
Cadet Jessica "Jess" Drake, played by Ramon Vos (Bobby)
Cadet Frederik Benjamin, played by Frederiek Bogaert (Adrien)
Cadet Scott Brown, played by Andrew McNeill (Laura)
Cadet Zach'ry Kru'nech, played by Daniel Clamp (Adrien)

==================
Graduates: (1)

Cadet William Masters, played by Donald Draper => ACONN Ensign Masters, USS
Valkyrie.

==================
AcadCM's Comments:

Well, not a lot has changed since last month... the Academy seems to be a
bit quiet. Not to worry though, we'll have more Cadets graduation soon, I
hope!

See you next month!

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Legendary Posts, by Rob Verlinden.
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There was a time that nobody had ever heard of T'afek Sarin, Dizzel the dog,
the USS Atlantis, the word 'uhuh' or pink bunnies. But then Merijn Donders
stepped into Frontier Fleet and changed all that. When he was FO of Pandora
Station, he introduced pink bunnies in the following post, which later
turned up in numerous silly conversations.

Subject: NPC: Crewman Matt Krewmann

(USS Solstice - Deck 2, Some corridor - 2391.03.06, 0932)

There it was again... Matt couldn't believe his eyes, but for the safety of
this ship and all on her, he quickly pursued the fierce creature. He
suddenly stopped and stood straight against the wall.

~There he is.. ~, he thought, taking a glimpse around the corner, but
something scared him.... there were now two of them! ~They're multiplying..
~ They looked like they were planning something and Matt tried very hard to
read their lips, but his attempts very futile. He sighed and slowly moved
around the corner as the two creatures started to move along again. He
wanted to contact security, but Krewmann knew that if he would try such a
thing, the creatures would overhear him and attack him in an instance, even
before he could finish his sentence... there was no doubt in Matt's head.

The sake of the ship and all her crew was now resting on matt's shoulders
and the weight was even more then if he would have his mother-in-law crawl
on his back. A wicked grin appeared across Matt's face and his eyes
narrowed, he knew that he could now save the ship... he would become a
hero... a hero !!! And then his mother-in-law finally has to accept the man
that her daughter married. He looked around for a security locker, but there
was none....

~I would give all my Captain Picard action figures for one phaser.. ~, he
thought.

They were on the move again and the operations crewman quickened his pace to
keep up. He had to figure out what these ferocious beasts were up to .. no
matter what. But then something startled him.. a door opened not far from
his position. Matt made his position safe by getting up close to the wall as
much as possible, but the newly arrived person would face imminent doom if
he were to do nothing.

Krewmann noticed that the beasts seemed very occupied and calculated his
chances of survival.

~They're prolly planning something ... I need to act now !!~, he thought and
he wasn't done thinking it yet, or he walked up to the person from behind.
He startled her no doubt, but that was the price she had to pay for her
life.

As he put his hand in front of her mouth from behind, pulling her back
around the corner, he noticed who she was... the counsellor..

"Shhhh," he whispered to her, "Don't scream .. don't make a sound... or
you'll die for sure.. ", and he could see the fear in her eyes.

(reply Mishbano)

"They're everywhere... ", he whispered again..

(reply Mishbano)

"You didn't see them ?!!", he said a little too loud, startling himself.
Matt too a peek around the corner and saw that the two beast hadn't noticed
anything yet. He sighed, "We're safe... for now.."

(reply Mishbano)

"Them", he whispered, "Those.... those...  beast !!"

(reply Mishbano)

"What they look like ?..", Matt looked in the eyes of the counsellor.. "Pink
bunnies... They're everywhere !!!!!!!", he almost screamed. Matt quickly
covered his mouth with his hands and now he knew for sure that the beasts
had heard him ...  "RUN !!!!!!!!!!", he screamed and he started running for
his life..

(reply Mishbano)

(reply Mishbano, any)
(Posted by Merijn Donders)

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Promotions in January 2006, by Rob Versteegt.
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>From Cadet to Ensign:

Cadet William Masters, played by Donald Draper => ACONN Ensign Masters, USS
Valkyrie.

Other promotions:

Mark O'Bannon (Alastriona de Troyes) from ACSO to CSO, USS Calhoun.

Congrats! More promotions next (this!) month!

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Posting Stats January 2006, by Rob Versteegt.
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Calhoun players:

Adrian Rodd: 43 (Cal: 33, Panda 8, Atly 2)
Kelley MacKinnon: 24 (Cal 24)
Laura Elliot: 18 (Cal 18)
Mark O'Bannon: 11 (Cal 11)
Jake Hanlon: 2 (Cal 2)
Angelic Noble: 5 (Cal 5)
Neil Langston: 12 (Cal 12)
William Rayner: 4 (Cal 4)

USS Odyssey players:

Rob Verlinden: 8 (Ody 8)
Dennis Church: 3 (Ody 3)
Martin Miller: 9 (Ody 9)
Dawn Johnson: 0
Abby Leib: 0
Daniel Balding: 4 (Ody 4)
Jovan Gegov: 6 (Ody 6)
Jonathan Healey: 4 (Ody 4)
Matt Huffman: 3 (Ody 3)

USS Valkyrie players:

Brandon Allard: 1 (Valk 1)
Jonathan Hardy: 16 (Ody 1, Valk 14, Atly 1)
Richard Clogston: 39 (Valk 39)
Ann Montague: 8 (Valk 8)
Nick Bartkowiak: 12 (Valk 12)
Ruben Hilbers: 36 (Valk 22, Atly 14)
Don Draper: 6 (Valk 6)
David Lowbridge: 1 (Valk 1)

Pandora Station players:

Bram Peeters: 22 (Ody 3, Panda 14, Atly 5)
Rob Versteegt: 54 (Cal 8, Ody 5, Valk 13, Panda 19, Atly 9)
Sussie Andersson: 2 (Panda 2)
Gael Imaddedine: 0
Scott Rick: 10 (Panda 10)
Amber Maberry: 1 (Panda 1)
Matthew Baldwin: 0

USS Atlantis players:

David Susman: 3 (Atly 3)
Ben Versteegt: 12 (Ody 2, Panda 2, Atly 8)
Alonzo Soban: 7 (Atly 7)
Hanna Brunefeldt: 26 (Panda 6, Atly 20)
Patrick Buidin: 13 (Atly 13)
Morgan Kadar: 5 (Atly 5)
Andre Thomas: 6 (Atly 6)

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Fleet Wide Report January 2006, by Bram Peeters and Rob Versteegt.
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(] Current episodes [)

The Fleetwide Mission has ended and all dutystations are starting (or about
to start) new episodes. This means I can't list their current locations and
times yet, because not all of them have started their new episode yet. You
won't have to wait long for that though, because February is a short month
<G>

(] Crew Statuses [)

Note: in the player counts, only active SPCs are counted. Active are SPCs
that posted in the month that this report is about.

USS Odyssey

Players (12): 9 PCs (3 LOAs; 1 of them indefinite) + 3 SPCs
PCs (9): CO / FO / 2O/STC / CONN / CMO* / ASTC / ACONN / ACOUNS / ACMO
Vacancies (6): CSO / ACSO / CEO / ACEO / ACOUNS / AOPS
Posts: 43 (+3)

USS Valkyrie

Players (9): 8 PCs + 1 SPC
PCs (8): CO / 2O/OPS / CONN / ACONN / ASTC / ACEO / CMO / CSO
Vacancies (8): FO / AOPS / STC / CEO / ACMO / COUNS / ACOUNS / ACSO
Posts: 116 (+2)

USS Calhoun

Players (8): 7 PCs + 1 SPC
PCs (7): CO / FO / 2O/CONN / ACONN / ACMO / ACOUNS / ACSO
Vacancies (9): OPS / AOPS / STC / ASTC / CEO / ACEO / COUNS / ACMO / ACSO
Posts: 115

Pandora Station

Players (9): 6 PCs (2 LOA/Busy) + 3 SPCs
PCs (6): CO / FO / 2O/CMO / COUNS / OPS / ACMO
Vacancies (11): CSO / STC / CONN / HN / CEO / ACEO / AOPS / ASTC / ACOUNS /
ACONN / ASCO
Posts: 62 (+1)

USS Atlantis

Players (12): 7 PCs + 5 SPCs
PCs (7): CO / FO / CONN / ACONN / ASTC / ACMO / ACMO
Vacancies (9): OPS / AOPS / ASTC / CEO / ACEO / COUNS / ACOUNS / ACSO / CMO
Posts: 93 (+6)

Academy

Instructors (7): 5 active, 2 LOA
Cadets: 5

Frontier Fleet total

Players: 37 PCs, 5 Cadets
Vacancies: 43
Posts: 429 (85.8 average per dutystation, 11.6 per player)

(] New Players [)

Donald Draper, who plays ACONN Ensign William Masters, USS Valkyrie

Academy: 3 new Cadets (out of 7 signups)

(] Departing Players [)

Jake Hanlon - Time constraints
STC Commander Lorvok, USS Calhoun

Michael Calcagno - Removed for inactivity
ACONN Ensign Droge, USS Valkyrie

Aaron Delay - Removed for inactivity
CEO Commander Ambrose Harris, Pandora Station (on loan from USS Calhoun)

Academy: 2 Cadets lost

(] FFC Report, by Rob Versteegt [)

First of all, the FFC has been talking about what the FFC should be, do,
etc. In other words, the FFC was being created. Should the FFC be exactly
the same as the FCT, or should it be different? It was decided that the FFC
should be a council of us three, which would decide amongst each other
either by unanimous vote, or majority vote. (the latter if that's the only
way: we prefer the former.)

Also, the FWM needed to end, and the FFC needed to bring that to an end. The
FCT already decided that it should end at February 1st, real time. The FFC
decided to bring back the COs back to the (wrong) dutystations at
2392.04.26, 0057, ingame time. This plan was discussed with HQ, and later
announced at the Command list. The plan was executed, and no big problems
occurred when implementing this.

The ending of the FWM also didn't give any major problems, although the FFC
needed to find out if all the dutystations had a new mission ready. Most of
them did, although the Atlantis' and Valkyrie's new missions are not known
to us, as of yet. However, we'll look into it. ;-) [Note: Valk mission
outline has been sent to the FFC after this report was written. Also, the
Atlantis mission outline has been sent to us. The FFC has agreed with both
of those missions.]

Another thing which the Council has looked into, is the question of Scott
Rick, who plays OPS Arquette on Pandora Station, about his new species.
Clare has brought that to our attention, and we decided that it's okay for
Scott to play this species: it can be part of the STFF continuity, so to
say. However, we still have to inform Scott about that. (We'll prolly do
that soon.) [Note: This has already been done when this newspaper came out]

The FFC has also found out that a member had put a link to another PBEM in
her signature. Adrien asked that player to remove that link, and she has
done that indeed. This made us think though: it might be best to adapt the
rules, to show that we don't want links to other pbems in posts or nrpgs.

One other important thing the FFC has discussed, are the Admirals. Since the
FCT is no longer in command, the FCT admirals cannot be used either. We
decided that it was probably best to just put one Admiral in command, which
might be followed by another one. The Admiral in command (Admiral Khatibi, a
NPC created by Adrien) can be used by all COs to receive orders, etc.
However, Adrien can play that Admiral, if necessary. Also, whenever someone
else takes over the Academy (we haven't talked a lot about that, but we
will) I will probably let Baine join Admiral Khatibi as part of her staff.

And that's about it. The FFC has also discussed Neil's (ACMO Foster, USS
Calhoun) 'resignation' from Starfleet, and his plan to, after a mission or
so on Pandora, go back into Starfleet. We allowed it, although we made it
clear that Foster would of course be carefully watched by Starfleet. One
can, of course, not just resign and then take come back, without any
consequences. Another thing we've done is talking about the Odyssey's
mission idea, which we allowed as well.

[There were some things which we still had to do, but at the time of writing
of this newspaper, all of that has been done already... ;-)]

=====