[Blaster]

Asteropax's last post kinda got me stuck for ideas. Any suggestions on a next post?

[WelshAvenger]

Asteropax's last post kinda got me stuck for ideas. Any suggestions on a next post?

Go get the fighters prepped for CAP once the hostage rescue is underway? There's some great opportunities for fleshing out the squadron's mechanics and engineers. (Think the Rogue Squadron novels if you've ever read them).

[Asteropax]

Asteropax's last post kinda got me stuck for ideas. Any suggestions on a next post?

Sorry about that.

Go get the fighters prepped for CAP once the hostage rescue is underway? There's some great opportunities for fleshing out the squadron's mechanics and engineers. (Think the Rogue Squadron novels if you've ever read them).

You can do something like this for character development.

You could also follow R'Turan and Teriir into the Captain's Office in preparations for a introduce Tess to the Captain chat. I'm planning on holding off on writing more mission posts for a bit while someone else adopts R'Turan's character for the discussion. I'm hoping to have that conversation be a summary of recent events to make sure I didn't miss anything important while I was on my LoA. Although I've read through everything, it's a lot to read all at once. I'm normally fine with keeping track of things but, as I was away and unable to read things as they were coming in, I could use the help to keep everything straight.

[LogicalLeopard]

No takeovers; it's your show. 100% honesty; I wasn't even sure how to go about including the assault on the island as I was spending a lot of time figuring out how we would go about exposing of the traitor on the Ares.

My thoughts on your plan, the timetable speedup for the hostage rescue is great since our characters are likely very eager to get going on taking the Nausicaans down following the shuttle crash. The cave fight sounds really interesting and I like the idea of the Runabout, but why don't we have the Fighters handle the diversion? Having everyone involved in the Island Citadel assault is really good, as is having it follow the rescue. Perhaps the diplomacy could be used to stall the Nausicaan leadership while Phoenix Team performs its halo jump?

Sounds good to me! Actually, I had forgotten - having the fighters handle the diversion is the original plan. I thought I might have to shift things around if the fighters were still occupied with the rescue mission, but there's no reason why they can't do both. They might actually be done by then.

And I'm fine with your running the Phoenix part of the operation, it'd be nice to see a different perspective. But I do understand if you're going to have your hands full with other things. It's totally up to you! I'll have another cave post soon.

- - - Updated - - -

There are a few possible "true" masterminds we could work with. Perhaps Ensign Barron is working for a reborn "Maqui" group of Federation colonists following the Dominion War? Or a corrupt Bajoran Official, hence the smuggling in of the Bajoran extremist group, doesn't feel the Cardassians have suffered enough for the Occupation? There are plenty of things we can figure out for down the road and have plenty of time. As of right now, this is the "detective reveals foe's motives after capture" along with some plot guidelines towards/at the end of the current chapter.



Speaking of the chapter's end, I mentioned a while ago in a story post that we're going to have some additional officers join us to finish filling up the ship's roster, (additional scientists, engineers, couple family members who didn't join at DS9) from the Lakota and a space station.

I love the great ideas going around. I do like the idea of a vast conspiracy that has many parts, and many motivations.

It seems to me that you've got four pretty different groups at play here, Nausicaans, Orions, Bajorans, and Starfleet. But their different motivations can have them all and up the unlikeliest of bedfellows.

I would think that the war has been VERY good for business for the Nausicaans and Orions. The Dominion would have likely left Nausicaan pirate ships alone to play havoc with Federation shipping that couldn't always be protected by Starfleet. And outlying colonies, as well. As far as the Orions, piracy was also good, and the slave trade, but most importantly, the Syndicate was able to expand its reach. I see Nausicaans more like street gangs and Orions like the Mafia. Need protection from raiders during the war? Call the Orion Syndicate. You'll just owe them a little money and favors later. Imagine if you're a planetary governor that needs to make sure your colonists get medicine? Call the Orions. Theyll charge you a protection fee for an escort for your supply ships, but all they're really doing is not raiding you themselves. Starfleet isn't looking and you want a little get-back with your mortal enemies? Call the Orions. They will hire the Nausicaans for you, who pillage your enemies for you, and the Orions get paid for contracting them.

Starfleet has been dealing with the Cardassians for decades, and there are captains and personnel who are thoroughly sick of them. And the Bajorans. They're in that same "Let them die" position that Kirk and many Starfleet officers were in during Star Trek VI. They can't strike directly in most cases, so using Orions and Nausicaans as go betweens makes sense. It isn't going to be really looked at as suspicious if a weakened Cardassian Union ultimately succumbs to bandits and even internal fighting by rogue elements of Starfleet Intelligence and or Section 31.

It could go deeper than that, with elements of Starfleet trying to use the Ares mission to gather information on allies, to strengthen the Federation and resist another catastrophic war.

By the way, I have a secondary diplomat character I'm working on, that would be junior to Sam. I don't envision him as a bad guy, but he's from a family of politicians and diplomats, so he could be used as a pawn later down the line.

[Josh Broughm]

Sam's in his office, going over a letter from Akyv & Terrir might get a transmission from the closest Starbase to inform him of a visiting diplomat. This also will contain a 'gift' from Akyv's father in the form of a promotion.

Max, I think is setting up the gassing in the cargo bay.

I'll post something up for Max later today. Been buried in Smash Ult for.....YEAH.

[LogicalLeopard]

Asteropax's last post kinda got me stuck for ideas. Any suggestions on a next post?

Biiqs just sent a crewman to find you after you're done on the bridge, or if you choose to rp something afterward, whenever you're finished with that.

[Asteropax]

. . . I'm hoping to have that conversation be a summary of recent events to make sure I didn't miss anything important while I was on my LoA. Although I've read through everything, it's a lot to read all at once. I'm normally fine with keeping track of things but, as I was away and unable to read things as they were coming in, I could use the help to keep everything straight.

I'm going to skip the summary as I've been working on something behind the scenes for the roleplay for the past several days which has made me re-read everything a whole lot.

[Asteropax]

As Blaster brought up in the most recent story post, another space battle is imminent.

This one's going to be a bit more frantic so I'll overview what's going to be happening.

1) Just as we locate the Nausicaan Destroyer our Orion prisoner told us about, our ship's sensors detect an attack group of fighters and get ready to face them.

2) A round of infighting will occur within the Nausicaan leadership and their overall leader will decide to take the Destroyer from its landing site to lead the rest of their fighters into battle as a second wave.

3) The Ares will launch fighters and use a tactic to disrupt the Nausicaan fighters' formation. They'll scatter and be picked off by the combined efforts of the ship and our fighters. Upon the attack group's defeat, we'll notice the Destroyer's group closing in.

4) Our Fighters will break off and go after the Nausicaan's Mountain Base. With the Destroyer and remaining fighters distracted trying to attack the Ares, it's the perfect time for a "counterattack" to cover the rescue mission. A diversion within a diversion. The evac shuttles would come from the Main Settlement to pick everyone up.

5) The reason for why we sent our Fighters on ahead to the rescue mission shows up, assisting in defeating the Destroyer and fighters.

Attachment 9248

Anyone have any thoughts on this as we're going to be getting going on it very quickly.

[Blaster]

Anything we should do next. I did my bit. XD

[WelshAvenger]

Wow, I go away for two days, come back to catch up and we're having a space battle? That certainly came out of the blue.

If you need anyone from sick bay, as KaiserKirk hasn't come back yet, go ahead and use any medical staff from the rosters already posted or from previous posts, just don't hurt or kill any of them.

[Asteropax]

Wow, I go away for two days, come back to catch up and we're having a space battle? That certainly came out of the blue.

If you need anyone from sick bay, as KaiserKirk hasn't come back yet, go ahead and use any medical staff from the rosters already posted or from previous posts, just don't hurt or kill any of them.

I'm afraid KaiserKirk hasn't been online in almost 8 months. Due to this being a major absence from the UFP as a whole, I feel we can say that your character is now the Chief Medical Officer of the Ares and that you have inherited the Medical Staff Roster. We'll make things official near the end of the current chapter.

For story reasons, we'll explain it with Angus Hems, the current CMO, getting transferred to a new post, along with a few other officers. More officers will arrive on a ship at the end of the chapter to bring along replacement officers, namely the ones who were going to be introduced at Deep Space 3. With your character being the next most seasoned medical officer aboard the ship and everything he went through during the survival mission with Jei, he inherits the role of Chief Medical Officer. Remind me to have a promotion ceremony for a new Lieutenant Commander during our 'wrapping up the chapter' phase.

[Blaster]

BTW Asteropax, how many fighters do you want? I'll wait before my next post.

2nd, I'm not gonna add anymore from a Nausicaan side apart from occasionally being Grakan. Just because I don't want to mess something up....

[Asteropax]

BTW Asteropax, how many fighters do you want? I'll wait before my next post.

2nd, I'm not gonna add anymore from a Nausicaan side apart from occasionally being Grakan. Just because I don't want to mess something up....

The Ares has a complement of 8 Adrestia Class Fighters and I’d like all of them to take part in this. If you were referring to the total number of Nausicaan fighters, we’ll keep the total count at 25. We’re currently up against 15 so that means 10 fighters will be with the Destroyer.

The Lakota won’t be bringing fighters due to its smaller hangar bay being dedicated to shuttles.

[Blaster]

Okay thanks, I meant the fighters for ours BTW>

[LogicalLeopard]

Okay thanks, I meant the fighters for ours BTW>

Per your last post, you might want to adjust that back to 15 fighters. The other 10 haven't been seen yet.

I had to revise my last post because I forgot that the Destroyer and possibility of reinforcements had already been mentioned! *L*