USS Arcturus

Odyssey-class • NCC-84000 • Fourth Fleet

The starship Arcturus bears the legacy of the vaunted Galaxy-class explorers that came before her as the ultimate expression of the maximalist design principles of the Utopia Planitia Design School. One of the newest of the Odyssey-class heavy explorers, Arcturus entered service in 2399 with hardened and redundant deep space exploration equipment to prepare her for a long mission in the Delta Quadrant under Commodore Elizabeth Hayden. That mission only lasted a few months before Arcturus was called back to serve against the Breen in the Alpha Quadrant, then came the Klingons at Arcanis in the Beta Quadrant, followed by the ancient mystery left by the T’Kon back in the Delta Quadrant. The next year, she was at the front lines of the Stormbreaker Campaign, the Sundered Wings Campaign, and the Blood Dilithium Campaign. A ship designed after the Dominion War to herald in a new era of peaceful exploration, Arcturus has spent most of her service life with the Fourth Fleet as a bulwark against the forces that lurk in dark corners of the galaxy.

Now in 2401, with the Lost Fleet Campaign behind her and her captain now elevated to the rank of fleet captain, Arcturus remains to hold the line along with her squadron. With a diverse and exceptional crew, the story of the Arcturus is one of ingenuity, camaraderie, and love overcoming the worst instincts of the galaxy. To paraphrase the ship’s dedication quote: fate may have some ideas for us, but where we go is up to us.

Command History

Commodore Elizabeth Hayden (December 2398–March 2399)
Captain/Fleet Captain Michael Lancaster (March 2399–Present)

Stories associated with this command may include up to the equivalent of a 222 on the RPG ratings scale, and are intended for mature audiences.

A note on the manifest: Arcturus operates with a larger operational crew than other Odyssey-class starships to support a four-shift rotation and reduce crew fatigue on long journeys. Because of this, her organizational structure differs from other large starships. The division heads (Senior Officer of the Watch, Chief Science Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Captain of Engineering, Captain of Medicine, and Strategic Operations Officer) are considered the core senior staff. All of the department heads report to one of the division heads.

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Arcturus Wayfinding Squadron

Arcturus Wayfinding Squadron is an elite exploratory unit that specializes in finding new ways forward for Starfleet. Distinct from navigation, which is plotting a course based on the precise knowledge of exactly where one is in the universe, wayfinding is a more general word that refers to the process of orienting oneself in regard to space, place, objects, and peoples. Wayfinding was practiced by the Polynesian and Norse voyagers of Earth in the ancient past, as they used landmarks, the stars, and their relationships with other beings to find their way across the seas. While Arcturus Squadron engages in traditional surveying and charting missions, its mandate is also to use whatever tools it can to find the way forward, whether through diplomacy, acquiring or developing new propulsion methods, or, when necessary, mitigating threats to Starfleet’s exploratory mission.

Currently, Arcturus Squadron is based out of Olympia Station at the rimward trailing edge of Federation space in the Alpha Quadrant.

USS Arcturus

Odyssey-class Heavy Explorer
NCC-84000

USS Achilles

Echelon-class Light Cruiser
NCC-97409

USS Antares

Intrepid-class Light Explorer
NCC-74601

USS Apollo

Duderstadt-class Fast Cruiser
NCC-90769

USS Arondight

Reliant-class Frigate
NCC-86407

USS Buran

Rhode Island-class Scout
NCC-81711

USS Hokule’a

Aquarius-class Escort
NCC-84000-/1

USS Nellie Bly

Challenger-class Light Cruiser
NCC-57588

Olympia Station

Spacedock-class Station
DS-20

USS Pallas

Vesta-class Explorer
NCC-83723

USS Renown

Akira-class Heavy Cruiser
NCC-79655

USS Saturn

Sutherland-class Research Cruiser
NCC-91807

USS Theseus

Gagarin-class Heavy Escort
NCC-97931

USS Thomas Paine

New Orleans-class Frigate
NCC-65530

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Crew Manifest

Recent Stories

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15 September 2024

1. The Roots of a Strange New World

USS Arcturus: The Beast at Tanagra

Captain’s Log, Stardate 2401.11   Following over two months of work, today is the day that I will be able to certify Zeta Olympiae IV—what we’re calling Mytikas, after the highest peak on Mount Olympus—as suitable for habitation. All of the crews across Arcturus Squadron have been [...]

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12 March 2024

03. Physician Heal Thyself

USS Arcturus: All Hands, Bury the Dead

In 2385, Luca Sheppard was a second-year nursing student at Starfleet Academy. Right at the end of his second year, the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards were destroyed by the rogue synth attack and Mars was set ablaze. Sheppard and his fellow cadets were pressed into emergency service as orderlies as [...]

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12 March 2024

02. Breaking Point

USS Arcturus: All Hands, Bury the Dead

Arcturus held her position at the outer edge of the debris field left from the ill-fated Outpost C-91, a brand-new station that had been shattered into a hundred thousand fragments alongside the starships Rocinante and McCoy over a week prior. A remote border post, C-91 had been intended to make [...]

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12 March 2024

01. Fleet Captain's Log

USS Arcturus: All Hands, Bury the Dead

Fleet Captain Michael Lancaster’s Personal Log, Stardate 2401.8 During my time in command of Arcturus, I have been remarkably lucky. Through numerous battles, I have only lost seventeen crew members. Given our average crew levels reaching up to 2,500, this is a casualty rate of only 0.68%, which [...]

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