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.
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.
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.
Commanding Officer
Commander, Arcturus Squadron
Staff Captain
First Officer
Captain of Engineering
Second Officer
Chief Flight Control Officer
Chief Science Officer
Chief Counselor
Chief Medical Officer
Chief Operations Officer
Chief Security Officer
Chief Diplomatic Officer
Chief Tactical Officer
Chief Intelligence Officer
Chief Communications Officer
Chief Engineering Officer—Propulsion Systems
Chief Engineering Officer—Internal Systems
Chief Engineering Officer—Structural Systems
Head of Social Sciences
Head of Stellar Sciences
Head of Nursing
Assistant Chief Security Officer
Head of Archival Services
Attending Physician
Head of Planetary Sciences
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
Deputy Head of Computer Systems Engineering
Head of Cetacean Ops
Gamma Shift Flight Control Officer
Delta Shift Flight Control Officer
Charge Nurse
Deputy Head of Botanical Sciences
Deputy Head of Xenobiological Sciences
Captain Lancaster's Yeoman
Armory Specialist
Plowman's Tap Manager
Demolitions Specialist
Deputy Commander, Fourth Fleet
Flag Officer
Flag Officer
Fourth Fleet Command Staff
Fourth Fleet Command Staff
Mission Commander's Yeoman
Former Executive Officer
CO, USS Antares
XO, USS Achilles
CMO, USS Achilles
Security, USS Achilles
Former Chief Medical Officer
OPS, USS Achilles
Former Captain of Engineering
Olympia Station Engineering Officer
Olympia Station Communications Officer
Olympia Station Security Officer
USS Pallas Chief Science Officer
USS Pallas Operations Officer
USS Pallas Tactical Officer
USS Pallas Counselor
USS Arondight Science Officer
USS Arondight Tactical Officer
CO, USS Thomas Pain
CO, USS Buran
XO, USS buran
15 September 2024
1. The Roots of a Strange New World
USS Arcturus: The Beast at TanagraCaptain’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 [...]
12 March 2024
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 [...]
12 March 2024
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 [...]
12 March 2024
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 [...]