Hey, Everyone! We have a new member on the ship!

Her name is Anna, and she will be playing Ensign Sarah Blackhart, Biologist.

Anna, we all look forward to writing with you. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to contact myself or Karen (Katahlia Ohra's player), and we'll be more than happy to help out.

Welcome aboard, Anna!

Stick a fork in it, Mission 2.1 is complete!

Mission 2.2 - Walk Through The Fire now begins.

Harmony got away from us, but she didn't get away completely unscathed. However, she is nothing but a persistent, creative little A.I., and she's not likely to make this an easy mission. She might just abandon Harmony Station completely and take over a freighter, and she might end up landing on an inhabited planet and turning the entire population into minions. Anything is possible.

There's going to be plenty of stuff to do for everyone.

Shuttle/Runabout/Fighter recon missions and lots of them for both senior and junior staff members in the attempt to find Harmony Station.

Science and Engineering are going to have to work their pants off to find ways of coping with Harmony's next-level technologies.

Security, Tactical, Strategic Ops, the Marines and the Fighter Squadron are going to be brainstorming and drilling to find the best ways to take Harmony out.

Does your character's alternate self exist? If so, do they wear a goatee?

"There's got to be some kind of way out of here," said the Doctor to the Crew. "There's too much confusion here, and I don't know what to do!"

Side-plots. Just have fun, folks.

We've been lulling for several months now, but I know we can come back and show the sort of brilliance that made this ship the bastion of writing excellence that it has been for so long and so consistently.

Let's write.

Alright, we really are in the final stretch here, people. There are things brewing around Harmony Station and we just need to finish up a few JP's before our intrepid hostages can make good their escape. Observant characters might notice the following details:

Captain Ohra and Dr. Morris have disappeared.

There's a second starship out near the Polaris. It's a Sydney class transport of the kind that Scotty was trapped aboard in "Relics." Its designation is the U.S.S. Perth. It's the POS transport ship that was commandeered by Starfleet Tactical to get out to Harmony Station.

A few things are going to happen fairly soon. These are major plot points that will make the upcoming escape possible.

Jason and Dusky are going to take out the emitter that prevents the Polaris from doing anything.

James and Ralus are going to return to base with news of having discovered a shuttlebay with a dozen or so functioning shuttlecraft.

Jason is going to return to base with SCPO Browning in tow...

Once the Polaris is no longer disabled, they're going to take out Harmony's main transporter array and they're going to be firing probes into the Station superstructure to try and find the crew. I think we're maybe going to do one massive JP like the Vignettes from a few months back, wherein everyone gets to describe how their characters get out. There are two ways to get out; get to the shuttlecraft, or get near enough to one of the probes that the Polaris can detect you and beam you out.

Anyone who has left the sim will be written off as having caught a shuttlecraft and moved out of transporter range before the Polaris flew out.. Anyone who expressed interest in creating/introducing a new character -- this would be the opportunity to do so. The new captain will be bringing his own elite crew aboard, and there is the possibility of other non-starfleet personnel being rescued from the station (There are the Romulans aboard the diplomatic courier that was captured, and any number of observers that might have been brought in to witness the opening of the station).

Once the crew has escaped, Harmony is going to open up her transdimensional gateway and try to make good her own escape. The Polaris is going to follow, naturally

Bonus note - Maybe a few of you caught my mention of Browning up above... It's not a mistake, Kevin's back and raring to go! Please give him a warm welcome back.

USS Polaris
Mission Report 2 - Fortnight ending 28/3/10

Captain’s Report

I just quickly want to thank you all for embracing this mission so far. I was hugely grateful to see that all the JPs I delegated were set up and have been worked upon steadily without my input, it shows we're off to a great start. Please remember to contact me if you get lost at any point or want a bit of direction. I'm still here to keep us all on the same page.

- Karen


Executive Officer Report

Ferengi, Romulans, Changelings, lend me your ears.

Alright I don't have anything good to follow that opening so how about I just move on to the report and we pretend I wrote something witty? Thanks! :D So not a lot has happened since the last report, which was to be expected given the current nature of the mission. My hopes are that this posting lull will soon be blown out of the water when all the wonderful JPs you've been working on appear in a mad rush to fight for supremacy over our readers. Mine and Karen's is progressing fairly well considering we've not been able to get online at the same time for a week or two, so unless you've let us know otherwise, there should be no reason why your posts aren't even further ahead. Seeing as how ours involves the CO and XO both Karen and I thought it best to hold off posting for a little while anyway, so by the time some of you have posted we should be ready as well.

If for some reason your JPs aren't going as well as I'm expecting them to, remember that Karen and I are here if you need us for anything. Real life can slow progress, so if you just think you need a little longer then let us know and we'll tell you to hurry up. :p I'm kidding of course; we're pretty lenient! The outlook for my week is unknown as I have to ring a man about a job but I know for a fact that our illustrious Captain is now on school holidays (sorry Karen :D). Busy or not I try to reply to PMs or e-mails in a timely fashion so don't inundate Karen when you could also contact me.

That's probably enough on that front so how about we move onto awards? In the last month or so since we changed the system there haven't been as many award nominations as I'd like. One or two of you are great at it! I'm sure you know who you are. But maybe the rest are still just a bit unsure what to do or when to do it. With the old system we would wait until each mission wrapped up and then Karen and I would dish out the awards we felt people had earned during that time. Nominations were taken into consideration, and from time to time we even invented new awards simply to acknowledge an interesting event or person. Now however we don't have a restriction on when you can nominate. If someone has written a post you think deserves an award then you can go straight to the nominations section of the SMS and tell us. Please make sure you give a good explanation of why because it not only helps us know why but it allows the writer to see what people like most about their work.

Getting an award doesn't mean that you can slack off though, because in my experience we're always learning and developing our techniques and styles. Not receiving an award also doesn't mean you're not doing a good job! Chances are it means that enough people aren't nominating more than anything else. Remember: this system is your best way to thank your fellow writers for their efforts so please use it!

Okay it doesn't take a genius to see that I've rambled on a bit there so I'm going to hand things over to Karen and Dusky, who have prepared the remainder of this report, and just once more remind you to keep up the level of writing we've grown accustomed to around here.

Thanks,
Brian

Lt. Commander Russell Ditko
Executive Officer
USS Polaris, NCC - 78705


Crewmember of the Fortnight Report – Ensign Dusky Holt

Each fortnight will feature a ‘report’ from a member of crew. This is just a chance to have a bit of fun, make suggestions, give your summary, tell us a bit about your fortnight, share something funny that you’ve found; the sky’s the limit since this is just supposed to be a way to interact. It doesn’t have to be ‘for serious’.

"You are not alone." At least not now that your twenty minutes of enforced quarantine are up. To be honest, I wasn't alone to begin with; I was in the Deck Ten Lounge having lunch with Gannon Morris, and beginning to think I wouldn't be alone in a completely different manner before I got kidnapped. Now, I'm spending quality time with a napping flyboy and a too-polite Romulan in a blanket. (Is there such a thing? A too-polite Romulan, I mean, not a Romulan-in-a-Blanket. I thought Vulcans were the ones who were too polite... Aren't Romulans supposed to be all fiery and passionate and dangerous -- kinda like a more civilized version of Klingons? Next question: Did I just insult every Romulan and Klingon in the universe? Whoops! There goes my diplomatic immunity.)

In any case, I'm happy to be here... wherever 'here' is. I have lots of data about Harmony X with me. Did you know that it was supposed to be the answer to the quadrant's political issues? Yeah! Just like Babylon One through Four were. And you remember what it got them, right? My, aren't we looking forward to some fun now! (Oh, wait... I'm mixing up my genres now. Hold me back!)

I'd just like to say that being on board Polaris ... (erm... Harmony X...?) with y'all is a blast. This is my first true simm, so it's been an entertaining and educational experience. I look forward to torturing ... um... writing Dusky Holt with each and every one of you. This has got to be the greatest ship in the fleet! (In my NOT so humble opinion.) Thanks for being here!

- Ensign Dusky Holt


New arrivals/Departures

Lt. Shark will be on his way out.


Awards

I think a couple might have gone out but, to be honest, I've forgotten. Brian will correct me if needs be. Please refer to his report at the top of this for more information on awards.


Plot Update

Well now here's a thing! Harmony X is apparently a truthful computer, at least when it comes to her time allocations because, as promise, the crew have been released from their holding cells, which have now turned out to be small bedrooms, but though the computer has technically released them it could be argued that being stuck inside a much larger room isn't much improvement at all. Discovering that they are not, as it happens, alone, the crew have wound up in groups of three, enclosed within a small living space which has only one exit that seems temporarily unhelpful in the opening department.


Crew Objectives

Stage 1
For the next fortnight, the focus will be on establishing the group as a whole and doing a little more exploration, something that will require a two-step approach and which may take us a little longer than the fortnight if necessary. Hunter and his group are going to figure out a way to get the intercom working and will also trip the doors so that we can all reunite for tea and crumpets. This will all take part as one massive JP that may wind up a little scripted, I apologise in advance for that. Therefore, Stage 1 is a whole group JP. During this JP, we will:

- get the intercom within the habitat working
- get the doors open
- share a group hug
- establish the plan of action that will lead to the following groupings
- Kate might get a boo-boo

Stage 2
After that, I feel it will be time for the crew to try to establish what the situation is to the best of their ability. This will mean breaking up into groups again and I'm going to give each group a specific focus. Again, we could find that this stretches out a little longer than a fortnight and may require more than one JP per group. I'm not starting the rotation of people that Harmony is stealing to conduct her test on until the NEXT lot of objectives and our zombie friends will not be showing up just yet, so don't panic. We're just setting the scene at the moment.

At this point, since they know virtually nothing, I'm going to assume they proceed as if there is a threat. They've been kidnapped, after all, and there's no sign of the station crew. This explains the somewhat battle tactics of the objectives I'm giving each group.

The new groups are!:
• Kate/Hunter/Summers - Are staying behind in the complex to see what information they can dredge up. Of particular interest will be establishing what systems we can get control of and what information we can get about the Polaris. There is a dampening field in affect that has nullified all pulse-weaponry so we might want to investigate what has to be done to shut that down though we won't be shutting it down ourselves yet. I want that to be a group objective for later. Just so we remember, the complex looks like this and the central blue bit has a few computer terminals with decent access on a normal day. This is a habitat module, they would be designed to be isolated if necessary.

• Russell/Aani/Drake/McKay - Scouting Party 1. You guys are being sent to the armory to secure weapons for the group. Keep in mind that phasers aren't working currently so you might want to get creative with what you pull out though don't ignore phasers. Fill your pockets, boys and girls.

• Cervini/Dusky/Lhaes - Scouting Party 2. You guys are being sent to establish the layout of our immediate vicinity including all access points. Figuring out how to secure our perimeter, what we might have access to without having to travel too far, that kind of thing. I'm utilizing Cervini's marine training here and Dusky and Lhaes both have experience enough that this kind of reconnaissance should fall sensibly on their shoulders. You guys are basically making sure that we can batten down the hatches and defend ourselves if we have to.

• Gannon/Sefton/Thomas/O'Bryan - Scouting Party 3. Surprise, surprise, you guys are being sent in search of medical supplies. You have the disgruntled pilot as your first line of defense and he has permission to hit something if you find it keeps him quiet. He'll have to wait for shooting something though, unless he's developed lazors for eyes. Whilst the Captain herself possibly needs something for her poor head, this will be predominantly a case of preparing the habitat. Maybe I'll injure Kate during the mass JP to give added reason to require proper medical supplies. Injuring COs is fun.

All groups are obviously expected to observe what they can along the way. Up until now, we've never finalised what actually happened to the station crew so I will determine that most are dead, however there will be very little evidence of struggle because though our cannibals are likely already on board and have done away with the crew, Harmony has aided them by rounding the crew into the cargo areas so we won't see signs of carnage until we have a reason to stumble into the cargo bays. We will assume that these nasties tend to sleep a long time after they gorge themselves.

Possible things you might encounter, however, are:

- poor lighting
- uncooperative doors
- weird sounds
- random bursts of Barry Manilow over the comm. system
- inexplicable forcefields
- maybe a lost and frantic pet or two stuck inside vents to provide that pivotal anti-climactic moment
- any other way you can think that Harmony X might try to mess with you. She's not going to be outright violent but she's a creepy little minx and seems to be enjoying playing with her rats and their maze.

I can write Harmony X for you but I'm likewise not going to be a Nazi about it. At this point, for these JPs, you're all more than capable of narrating her yourselves if you want her to actually talk to you.

Email me with any queries.



Quotes

Every report will contain quotes from the fortnight, complete with captions to make them even funnier. This week’s have been done by Ensign Dusky Holt. If you’d like to do them in future, please drop me a PM.


Biggest Whopper Told This Week -

"Don't worry, you're not alone." -- Harmony X


Winner of the Disgruntled Pilot Award

"'One more mission' she said. 'I just need a pilot' she said. 'What's the worst that could happen' she said." -- Lt. Casey O'Brien


Best Emotive Comment

"What the..." -- Lt. Kyle Thomas


Most Apropos Statement of the Week

"We spend a tremendous amount of time devoted to preparing ourselves for possibilities that we often hope will not occur..." -- Marine Captain Jason Drake


Most Appropriate Comment Made by a Romulan-In-A-Blanket

"Ow!" -- Lt. JG Lhaes Sommers


Sarcasm, Just Another Fine Service He Offers

"...I believe this to be an abduction, and assuming I, or this recording get out of this situation in one piece, it is my formal request that Starfleet kindly chew these nice people a new orifice." -- Lt. JG Gannon Morris


Still Waiting For an Answer

"Computer - define 'if' factor for this greeting." -- Chief Warrant Officer 1st Class William Hunter


Previous Experience Required

"I've never been kidnapped this politely before..." -- Ensign Cristobel Sefton



Sim. Stats
Current crew: 15 (All active, though several seem to be on unofficial LOA.)
Current monthly post count: 51
Overall mission post count: 16 posts.