Bravo Fleet
‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles,’ mused Admiral Beckett.
Because the admiral was staring out his office window, his adjutant got away with rolling her eyes. ‘Yes, sir,’ said Lieutenant Dathan, voice more controlled than her expression.
‘But it’s meaningless for the Fourth Fleet to have ships in every corner of the galaxy, surveillance outposts on a dozen borders, field officers liaising with every major power, without truly knowing our assets.’ Beckett turned in his chair, gaze cold.
Lieutenant Dathan realised he might have noticed her irritation, and tensed. ‘We have personnel records from all Task Forces, the latest assessment of each task group -’
‘I want more,’ the Admiral said flatly. ‘Take our best analysts off the foreign desks and have them put together a full dossier on the Fourth Fleet as if we were an enemy force. Strengths and weaknesses. Ships and officers and infrastructure. Before we can even begin to turn our eyes outward, I want to know where we stand.’
‘Sir -’
‘All command staff, every ship, Lieutenant.’ Beckett extended the PADD with his orders and met her gaze. ‘Or I’ll find more Sun Tzu quotes to… bore you with.’
He did not sound amused.
Welcome to our Operational Readiness Protocols, a month of competitions presented by the Lore Office, with a focus on your characters and your ship! We have three competitions for you that will run throughout December:
- Captain on Deck! Write a biography for your Primary Character
- All I Ask for is a Tall Ship: Write a flash fiction about your Avatar Ship
- This Fine Crew: Create images and introductions of your bridge crew
Bravo Fleet has changed a lot in 2020. We’re no longer just a gathering of disparate sims, where the BFA and the TFCOs supervise and support GMs running the games for their players. Our structure is now about every member, from the newest fic writer to the seasoned STO gamer to the experienced sim GM.
That means you – every person reading this – have an important place in the Fleet. You can engage with the Fleet however you want, but your starting point should be with yourself – and with your dossier, where all your achievements in the fleet are recognised and stored.
Every player has a primary character listed on their dossier who’s a ship commander – or soon will be. Every player who reaches Lieutenant Commander (that is, every player who’s been consistently active for a few weeks) gets that ship. Those ships, those primary characters – those are Bravo Fleet, more than the sim or the fiction or the STO game. IC, those are the commanding officers and the starships of the Fourth Fleet and its Task Forces. OOC, that’s your starting point to launch off into any activity in the fleet you choose.
To recognise and highlight the importance of the dossier, of your primary character, of your ‘avatar ship’ (even if it’s only a dream to come, for some!), the Lore Office is running a month of competitions revolving around these parts of Bravo Fleet membership.
And in 2399, Admiral Beckett, Director of Fourth Fleet Intelligence, has cast a keen eye on his own records of the fleet and found too many questions for which he demands answers…