Raptor’s Wings: A Bravo Fleet Relaunch Event

Kara took a moment to take in the room as she stood at the back of the presentation area with her attache, a young Bolian officer, in equal measures of eager and annoying. There were literally hundreds of officers, top brass, and political representatives from various member and nonmember worlds gathered at various seats, tables, and standing space further to the back within the large open conference room on Starbase Bravo. These officers in front of her were about to be formally updated on her senior staff’s work and achievements over the last several months working towards this moment, the moment Kara had been waiting on for nearly 14 years.

Standing on her left was her Executive Officer for Task Force 93, Commodore Juliet St.Clair whom she couldn’t have operated 93 without over the last few years, building a strong working relationship and personal relationship with the smaller lady. Task Force 93 was not only spread pretty thin but had a large area of operations to cover and support. Kara and Juliet had taken a two-pronged approach with Kara directly overseeing everything West of Deep Space Six, focusing on the fallout since the Romulan Supernova while Juliet had overseen the East of the Task Force, dealing with the more “stable” elements of the Task Force. On Kara’s right was Vice Admiral Robert Dowd, a larger, older man who was Bravo Fleets Director of Communications whom Kara had spent the last 6 months working closely with on their announcement today and strategic planning on the follow-up.

As Kara’s gaze caught the eyes off her husband, Captain Roman Valdez at the back of the room standing next to his colleagues and close friends, she remembered his advice over breakfast ‘find me, focus on me and remember you have been getting ready for this moment longer than we have been married’ allowing herself a brief smile before being motioned by her attache as he stood upon the stage to her immediate right and leaned into the microphone on the podium “Everyone, Vice Admiral Kara Thrace, Commanding Officer, Bravo Fleets Task Force 93”

Raising her hand to silence the various chatter and conversations going on around the room coming, Kara activated her auto-cue and monitors behind her and began to address the room “My fellow officers, as you know, Task Force 93 has taken the brunt of the fallout from the supernova that occurred in the Romulan Star System 12 years ago, under-resourced and at times, fire fighting throughout the various sectors and systems” Kara paused to pour herself a drink of water from the flask sitting on the podium “I would like to take the opportunity now to thank all of you, every single member of this fine Task Force for all their hard work, dedication, and resource-fullness in not only operating the Task Force but getting it ready for the future” pausing to allow the room to follow in her lead of applause for every officer within the Task Force past and present to be recognized for their hard work before taking a drink from the glass in front of her.

“Now” she began motioning to the screens behind her showing a flyby image of Devron Fleet Yards “as you know, Devron Fleet Yards was contracted to aid in our rescue effort with the Romulans, following the tragic incident at Utopia Planitia and the canceling of those plans, we had the mammoth task of not only finishing construction of the newest yards in the quadrant but also taking it with ramping up our construction and resupply efforts to support our rebuilding effort” as the image of the flyby changed to show actual vessels docked or under construction within 2 of the largest structures at Devron “I am pleased to announce to you all today that the yards are now operating at 90% efficiency with efforts well underway to have that to 100% by the end of the month, many of you here will be traveling to the Devron System in the coming weeks to take one on of these fine vessels yourself and I look forward to meeting you there”

As Kara tapped a few commands into the panel on the podium, the screens again changed, this time to displaying the logo of the 3 separate Romulan States “I would like to remind everyone about the classified nature of this briefing as we are about to cover off the latest intelligence to date we have on the 3 key Romulan factions; the Romulan Star Empire, The Romulan Free State, and the Romulan Republic. Relations with all three separate powers within what was the Star Empire is tenuous at best however I can confirm just for this room that our preferred focus on building a future relationship is with the Romulan Republic, based out of New Romulus, the Republic is the most democratic of the 3 major factions within the former empire and one that has signaled to us that they do not wish to pursue hostilities, starship commanding officers are encouraged wherever possible to continue to build on this relationship informally” Kara paused for another drink to wet her now extremely dry throat, clearing her throat before continuing “The Romulan Free State, as far as we know have set up shop on the planet T’Met, close to the former Romulan system, the Federation has official treaties in place with the Free State specifically focusing on their captured Borg Cube within their space known locally as the artifact. Our current relationship with the Free State must be protected as best as possible to secure our work on the artifact liberating former Borg drones” As the image on the screens changed from the deactivated Borg Cube to that of the logo of the Tal Shiar “we know that the major supporter of the Romulan Free State is the Tal Shiar, how have spent, to the best of our knowledge, the last 6 years rebuilding their fleet which is putting pressure on our ability to maintain cordial relations. Lastly for consideration is the Romulan Star Empire, a direct replacement for the original Empire, still lead by the exact same Praetor at the time of the supernova, largely due to the support of almost the entire Romulan Navy, granted they have not had the resource to build newer or more modern ships like the Free State, this force is still large enough and hostile towards the Federation that it would give any starship commander, cause for concern if they encounter one”

Completely draining the glass of its entire contents and tapping a few commands into the console of the podium “I have just sent a packet to each of your with Starfleet Intelligence latest data on all 3 however I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone in this room that the Treaty of Algeron is in full effect with all Romulan factions and should be upheld wherever possible, Starfleet or the Romulans cannot afford a major conflict in the region. Bearing this in mind, you must use your best judgment when it comes to the smaller rogue or pirate factions throughout Romulan space, particularly within the former neutral zone. These rogue factions have not adopted the Treaty and are in open rebellion against each other and the three major factions” Kara punched her last set of commands into the panel as she was coming to the end of her part and she could finally relax and enjoy the rest of the launch initiatives “which brings me to my last point of consideration and awareness” she said as older style Romulan Birds of Prey were show on the screen, engaging in a hit and run attack on the USS Excelsior “the Fenris Rangers, operating mainly out of Fenris on minimal resources, the Rangers are trying to protect any inhabitants within the former Neutral Zone on both sides of the coin, the rangers, however, are not recognized or supported by the Federation. We have discovered over the last several months to not underestimate the rangers lack of more modern technology as their resourcefulness is second to none and should be approached with the same caution that was used with the Maquis of the 2360’s and 70’s.”

“Thank you for your time this morning, If I can take a few questions?”

The Event

Many of you participated in the Osiris Initiative pre-launch event (including the excerpt of fiction from above!) which was to help build up some excitement for the relaunch and update everyone on some 2399 canon. Now with the relaunch, we welcome you to the first official Bravo Fleet-wide event (Fleet Action) titled: “The Raptor’s Wings”. This event will be three (3) separate phases of varied competition events, each a single week long, with a week in between each, for a total of five (5) weeks long!

You may be wondering what a “Fleet Action” is! In our new world, a Fleet Action is basically a Bravo Fleet wide event that will take place at least one, but preferably (and probably), multiple times per year which will contain a centralized story, competitions, team-based events, and event-long competitions. This very first event we want to go light to get everyone acclimated to the process before we go all-in on things like offering battle plan competitions and event-long cooperative run-ons.

The Story

The year is 2399 and Starfleet is beginning to branch out into the galaxy again led by the illustrious Fourth Fleet, codenamed “Bravo Fleet”. Bravo Fleet operates several task forces all throughout the galaxy, but galactic politics have been focused on the Romulans for over a decade. Following the Romulan supernova which destroyed the twin worlds of Romulus and Remus, the former Romulan Star Empire collapsed, leaving the Romulan people fractured and broken. Within Romulan space exists three main factions: 

• The Romulan Free State, backed and defended by the Tal Shiar. They also possess and largely operate out of the former Borg cube known simply as “the Artifact”.
• The Romulan Star Empire, still clinging to life with support of the bulk of the former Romulan Star Navy, are operating largely the same ships from a decade previous, and led by the same praetor who was running the Star Empire during the supernova a decade prior. The Romulan Star Empire operates out of Rator III.
• The Romulan Republic, supported by a democratic ideological shift, and led by former members of the Romulan-Vulcan Reunification Movement. The Romulan Republic is defended by a smaller portion of the former Romulan Star Navy, who operate mostly newer, smaller ships that take a direct design lineage from the past. This is the preferred faction of the Federation. The Romulan Republic operates out of New Romulus.

Within Romulan space, in between the big three factions vying for domination of Romulan space, are minor drug lords, crime bosses, and self-anointed mini-emperors. Some of these are tolerated, some embraced, and some battling with the three larger factions depending on the situation. 

Officially the Federation does not recognize any of the three main Romulan factions as the head Romulan state; however, the Federation is not shy in its embrace and preference of the Romulan Republic, but does “embrace” all 3 factions in some type of working relationship.

Scoring

Each individual will earn five points per event they participate in towards their overall score for The Raptor’s Wings event. Participation is defined as a valid submission for an event. Simply signing up for an event or uploading an unqualified submission will not count. You have to put in the effort in order to receive the reward.

Additionally, the top three individuals in each event will earn placement points. First place will earn three points, 2nd Place will earn two points, and 3rd Place will earn one point. Events will have modifiers based on their perceived difficulty/level of effort required: modifier for fiction will be 3, modifier for gaming will be 2, and no modifier will be added to puzzle and trivia events.

Grading formula: (Placement Score * Event Modifier) + Participation = Event Score

At the end of the competition, the individual scores for all three weeks will be added up, and the top three individuals will earn stars.

The task force with the most points earned by its members will also receive a prize, and of course, bragging rights.

Phase One

The first week, just as the other two weeks, of The Raptor’s Wings will have 7 competitions per week. The first phase will run from April 25, 2020 until May 2, 2020. The competitions for phase one are:

• Jigsaw
• Tal Shiar Logo (Graphics)
• The Romulan Bad Guy (Fiction)
• Trivia
• Romulan Mythology (Fiction)
• Slither
• Word Search

To submit to a competition simply click the “Submit to Competition” button and have fun! So far we’ve had an overwhelming, strong rate of participation and we want to keep that momentum going! Good luck to all participants!

Phase Two

• More Jigsaw
• Romulan Archive
• Creation
• Six Degrees of Wikipedia
• The Agar
• Crossword
• Poetry

Phase Three

• The Search For Jigsaw
• Word Scramble
• Kobayashi Maru
• Human Archive
• The Worm is Back!
• Which Task Force?
• Poetry (Again!)

This page will be updated from phase to phase of The Raptor’s Wings, so check back often!