Newsletter/September 2006

Newsletter for September 2006, Star Trek: Freedom

To see the old newsletter, visit The Archive

News from the Front

• USS Nimitz: The Nimitz is currently helping Starbase Geneva deal with a major threat. Both the Base and the Nimitz is now under a lockdown and the station as had to enforce martial law -- Posted by Jono Bradley

• USS Boudicca: The Boudicca is chasing one of Doenitz's battleships in a search and destroy mission. They have just discovered there is a saboteur aboard. Will they find him/her in time or will the ship be disabled?

• USS Spectre: The Spectre is on the trail of Rondar Nell, the Federation President at the time Doenitz's took over the Federation.

• USS Dennison: The Dennison's Crew has stopped the saboteur, though she got away. They are currently welcoming aboard a few new crewmembers, as well as holding a memorial service for departed Lt. Ryan Maines. What awaits the crew of the Dennison next...stay tuned to find out. -- Will Banowsky

• USS Hades: About to be commisioned. Much of the crew has not yet transferred to the Hades and so are still on the Mystique. A saboteur has caused at least 4 explosions aboard the docked Mystique, one of which was the ship's computer core. Where is the intelligience that had joined with the ship named Pattia? What would she know about this? -herbalsheila

• USS Champlain: Has just launched from Starbase Geneva towards the Eta Scorpii System in the Beta Sector to examine the destroyed colony on Ivor Prime. -- JPB

• USS Paladin: Beginning to deal with a planetry epidemic. All the departments are pulling together to join the effort. -- Posted by Jono Bradley

Ship Changeover

by herbalsheila

The USS Hades will be replacing the USS Mystique on Star Trek: Freedom. Jono Bradley, a younger player on ST:F who plays Ash Physioc said, “As a player I think the Hades is going to be good for the game, and for the 52nd fleet as a whole. I can already tell by some of the people on the ship that its going to be a lively place to be and to post in. I look forward to getting onto the USS Hades and helping the ship venture forth.”

Charles Gatling, who plays the Vulcan Captain Saleke as well as a supporting character Commander Gralen Holis the new Betazoid Chief Science Officer, had this to say. “I have been blessed with an excellent group of writers and PBEM gamers for the maiden voyage of the Hades and will do my very best to challenge, stimulate and entertain this excellent crew. I consider it an honor to be CO of this ship and am looking forward to a very fruitful and fun future on board her.”

The newer Prometheus class ship is built for enhanced fighting with stealth capability and a heavier armament and can be described as an enhanced deterrence explorer and a tactical interceptor craft. The total crew will number about 575, although with automative technology it can be run by as few as four crewmen. Offensively, it can pack a wallop with four phasers on the saucer and four phasers on each of the two engineering sections. This spiffy new ship also has two fore saucer section pulse fire photon torpedo locations with a quantum complement of 400.

Defensively, the Hades has primary, secondary and tertiary shielding with standard Type II navigational shields. Its double hull is armored with heavy duranium and tritanium plus 18 cm ablative armor and has advanced tactical programming. Charles is very proud of his new ship and his crew as are the rest of his players.

The USS Mystique crew will be transferring to the new Prometheus Class ship USS Hades after a wedding between two characters, a Bajoran, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vren Marto played by Marilyn Work, and a human character who was raised by a Klingon family, Chief of Ops Travis Keswick. The enemy hate group called Humans for Humanity is expected by all the players to raise its ugly frightened head somewhere nearby soon and cause trouble in the current adventure “Port of Call.”

Sal Hammond, playing a Cardassian-Bajoran character named Ensign Ammon Ranae, is a newer player, but an old hand at PBEM role playing and came to us out of the Federation Gaming Network. She said, “I like the crew very much. I'm glad to be back with old buddies and making new ones. They all seem most friendly and receptive. I hope we have a lot of interesting and exciting missions.”

Top 10 Questions

Top Questions for a member to answer Top Ten Ten things you never knew about...

Who is the best looking CO? (based on character picture)

• Sash - Kevin Schram
• Davis- Will Banowsky
• Straton- VulcanTrekkie45
• Oh geez, I forgot about the female CO's... I change my vote - Kevin Schram
• Wolfe- Jono Bradley
• As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I repectfully decline to answer! -herbalsheila
• Straton - Liz Geuken
• Davis - Ash Divay

Who is the best looking FO? (based on character picture)

• I haven't seen them all - Kevin Schram
• Can I vote for myself??;)- Will Banowsky
• Not all of them have pictures, so I can't say - VulcanTrekkie45
• As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I plead the 5th Ammendment! -herbalsheila
• You know you want to vote for me herbalsheila, admit it. JK- Will Banowsky

Will the game become more or less active during the winter?

• More active. -Kevin Schram
• Have to agree. More active unless *everyone* lives in Austrailia! -GC
• I dunno, maybe, ussually spring is my more active time, but who knows. -Will Banowsky
• I'm going to be posting more, I can tell you that. So, I think it'll be overall more active since most players are in either the US, Canada, or Britain. -VulcanTrekkie45
• Our game will probably become less active due to the fact that we have college students, teens, and teachers, all who are beginning to go back to school to do what they do. -herbalsheila

Is it cold where you live in the winter?

• Yep - Kevin Schram
• Sure is. Isnt the arctic, tho - GC
• I live in the American Southwest(Oklahoma) and grew up in Texas. We get snow once a year and get some cold temperatures...but on average I can wear shorts in winter.- Will Banowsky
• In the dead of winter, it can get to around 5 or 6 below Farenheit, about 15 below Centigrade. So you tell me. We also get buried in snow. A Massachusettsism is that 6" of snow is considered a dusting. - VulcanTrekkie45
• Oh yeah! It feels like the middle of the Artic when the wind blows and it slices through you. -herbalsheila
• Sometimes. But more often it seems to be damp and chilly rather than downright cold. But then again give us 2" of snow here in the UK and everything grinds to a halt. Because after all, why on earth would it SNOW in WINTER??Liz Geuken
• I would think something was wrong if it wasn't cold here, in the winter...and 4 feet of snow is normal, besides we really need it to make our igloos, though I wish it was a mild 70 all year round. canuck Ammon Ranae USS Hades

In your opinion, what is one of the better wiki articles here?

• 52nd Fleet - Kevin Schram
• I like the Civil War stuff, mainly as theres a lot of info in there - GC
• The main Civil War article, I think. (PS: I was the first to use Federation Civil War was what to call this thing on the wiki. Check my article on Joran.) - VulcanTrekkie45
• I have to say I like The Horta Report! he he he! But yes we need more articles and I like the story of the Sevant family murders, which gives a better background to the Civil War. -herbalsheila
• I would have to say 52 Fleet - Jono Bradley

Have you ever wanted to play someone else's character?

• Yes, I wanted to play Dru Tagon baddly. Khran has a few of his character elements. - Kevin Schram
• I borrowed a lot of personality of Jewort Trewe in my character Oliver Montague but So far i haven't found a character I'd like to... acquire.- GC
• No. The majority of my characters are based on different aspects of me, or aspects of people I know. - VulcanTrekkie45
• Nope, but I have some neat ideas for others that I want to play eventually! -herbalsheila

Do some people's characters know too much about the 20th century? (in character)

• Probably - Kevin Schram
• Maybe. Then again, i doubt they know enough about the 24th! - GC
• My character does, he knows quite a bit about 20th and 21st, due mainly because its his favorite hobby and has a vast amount of holodeck programs on the early 21st century. Dunno why, he just does.- Will Banowsky
• No, but my character loves early 21st century literature. - VulcanTrekkie45
• Yes - but then that's a mistake I make myself sometimes. It's very easy to forget that the 20th century is to the 25th (we're in 2407) what the 1500s are to us. Distant history. - Liz Geuken
• Mine does, but she watches a lot of 20th century vids Ammon Ranae/Hades
• Ensign Ash Divay knows about Weapons of 20,21st Century amd Military History as he studied those in Star Fleet Marine Corps. - Ash Divay

Do you like big long NRPG discussions that span 20+ e-mails?

• Sometimes - Kevin Schram
• no. Sometimes it can be a bit Spammy - GC
• No, I prefer short and to the point, unless it's the old "I'm not evil" joke we have on my ship when somebody new comes on. - VulcanTrekkie45
• Depends on the discussion - Liz Geuken
• There's always the delete button. Ammon Ranae

No, cause I'd rather be playing and doing RPGs than NRPGs. -herbalsheila

Do you wish you could play a canon Trek character sometimes? (despite being against the rules)

• Not really. - Kevin Schram
• No fun there - GC
• No. It would be interesting to have them on the peripherary like in the New Frontier novels. - Vulcantrekkie45
• Depends on how you define canon. I define canon to include the Star Trek novels, particularly those written by Diane Duane. She was one of few writers that descibed with some detail different non-humanoid races, both serving on board the Enterprise and in the rest of Starfleet. I'd rather play another one of the species she portrays as another character on ST:F. -herbalsheila
• No. I prefer my own creations. You can be more creative ;) - Liz Geuken

Will sunglasses still be worn in the 25th century?

• I don't even think there will be a sun in the 25th century. - Kevin Schram
• probably, but nothing like we think they will be like - GC
• Yes. Cool shades will never go out of style. - VulcanTrekkie45
• Sure, but they may get a lot more high tech. -herbalsheila
• All I am gonna say is, the sun never sets on cool....ya thats it.-Will Banowsky
• No, they'll all have built in 'transition' lenses in their eyeballs -Ammon Ranae

Old News!

The first ever mission I can remember dates back to the USS Spectre and 1997, I have this clear memory of my character, Remae Ktell heading down to Bajor while waiting for the new USS Spectre to depart from Starbase 968. Somehow, and I can't remember the details anymore, we eneded up with a stowaway on our party, none other than an Ensign Aragorn, played by Adrie, later to become Captain Aragorn, CO of the Nimitz.

I can remember not trusting this Aragorn and for some reason, however it happened, Remae ended up with a Bajoran Orb stuck in his chest which connected him to the Prophets.

We started that mission eventually on the Spectre and as was the custom of the CO at the time, the Spectre flew directly through Starbase 968 under her phase cloak, passing through the base and of course getting a clear shot of the inside of the station as it passed through... I always thought that to be a little creepy! -- Anthony

The Use Of The Common Day Transporter

A transporter is a machine which can dissasemble particles and then reassemble them at a destination point which is entered into the console. Most Transporter technology is available up to 40,000 kilometers. This field size can be decreased by thick layers of rock.

Starfleet transporters are usually installed with several systems such as one that can detect and disable a weapon mid-transport and a bio-filter which can remove contagious microbes or viruses from an individual in transport.

Also the transporter can be used as a tactical resource, to do such things as transport a grenade or even a photon torpedo into an enemy encampent before detonation.

Although transporters can't usually transport antimatter, there has been some research into the project.

Written by Jono Bradley

A thought on Transporters

For example, say a Character got beamed down from a ship onto the planet surface. This character is disassembled and then later the molecules are reassembled to create a "new" version of the character.

My question is this: is this version of the character the "real" character or a copy of the character? And if its the latter answer what happens to the original character?

-- Jono Bradley

It is my thought on the subject is more like cutting and pasting on a word document, and not so much copy and pasting. Basically taking the orginal and pasting. That is what I think the transporter process is like.

-- Will Banowsky

Iwo Jima Class Aussalt Ships have transporter system designed to transport a whole Company(About 120-140 Armed Marines) of Federation Marines onto enemy Ship or station in one go .However the shields of the enemy ship or station should be down.

-- Ash Divay

Website Secrets

Any more secrets to share? -- Kevin Schram

• Is it just me, or is Captain Wolfe posted on two different ships on the site roster? - Vulcantrekkie45

• He's the FO of the Nimitz for her current mission, once that mission is finished he'll be promoted and sent to the Champlain, while the Champlain has already started posting in the future with the promoted Wolfe, at least thats what I understand. Maybe Jeff can confirm this. Sounds like a Predestination paradox to me. ;) - Kevin Schram
• Schram has it right. We need to finish off his pending Nimitz storyline, which is about a month or so behind the Champlain. This is a relatively normal occurance. There are two Janeways for the same reason too. - JPB

• I like going on the website to take a look at the alien race database. It is however, woefully short, and does not include my character's race, as well as many others from the alpha quadrant. How can I help with that? -herbalsheila

• Feel free to send me any information and photos of any characters you want updated and I will take care of it... eventually! -Anthony

Finally

I suppose I'll change it on the 25th of September or HOWEVER you should spell that month. My birthday is the 26th. William Shatner was roasted tonight on Comedy Central, I wonder if it was funny, I forgot to Tivo it. I'll catch it again, Comedy Central replays things 100 times. -- Kevin Schram