Task Force 21

August 31, 2024

In my last report, I mentioned that we were beginning to turn the wheels on a long-awaited endeavor of ours: a new task force. So, without further delay, I present to you Task Force 21.

Task Force 21 is a Task Force that has a long, rich, and storied history within Bravo Fleet that dates back very close to the founding of Bravo Fleet. Task Force 21 was my first “home” when I joined Bravo Fleet back in 2001, and has always had a place close to my heart. Task Force 21 was one of the most popular Task Forces for years in Bravo Fleet up until it closed back in 2009, during one of the many splits that were very common back then. Its last Task Force Commanding Officer was, ironically, the current Bravo Fleet Executive Officer, David. Since then, almost every historical Task Force from Bravo Fleet’s past has been restarted in one form or another. Task Force 21 has always been one of the few exceptions… until now.

Flash forward to 2024 and the new Task Force 21 is here!

Task Force Mandate

The mandate of Task Force 21 is one that isn’t too far in the distant past for Bravo Fleet. When Task Force 9 closed a while back, we lost a really neat and interesting concept for a Task Force’s mandate that we had hoped to someday bring back. TF21 is that opportunity with its own unique spin.

Task Force 21 is a forward-deployed unit of the Fourth Fleet assigned to frontier exploration and colonial support operations. Specifically, Task Force 21 surveys regions of space close to Federation territory to identify sites for new colonies, outposts, and resourcing operations, while also identifying and mitigating threats to the Federation’s most distant and vulnerable assets. Its objectives are to:

  • Defend Federation and unaffiliated planets on the frontier from potential aggressors.
  • Expand the Federation’s diplomatic reach to secure additional allies, protectorates, and member worlds near the frontier.
  • Reinforce and construct additional stations, starbases, outposts, and other defensive assets along the border to secure the Federation’s interests.
  • Promote peaceful scientific exploration in the areas within and beyond Federation space.

With that mandate in mind, I wanted to set up Task Force 21 to have the ability to tell different types of stories. That led to a splitting of the Task Force into two major areas:

Task Force Assets

One of the coolest parts of my job as the inaugural Task Force 21 Commanding Officer was picking the Task Force Assets for members to use! As part of the mandate, I thought long and hard about how the Task Force should be set up. In the end, I decided to split the Task Force assets into the two major “areas of operation”.

  • Starbase 21 — a new, modern Unity-class station on the outskirts of the Izar system. Starbase 21 serves as a launching point for colonization missions in the area but also serves as a defensive bastion against Breen or Kzinti aggression. This area is very familiar to us as its been highlighted in a lot of recent stories, including The Lost Fleet. Starfleet has a lot of interest in this area, so its served by a lot of modern starships and gets a lot of resources.
    Ships assigned to this area are:

  • Starbase 611 — an older Jupiter-class station in orbit of Cestus III. Originally built for scientific research, the station was repurposed to support colonization along the Federation-Gorn border. Along with Deep Space 2, it serves as an anchor point for ships that patrol the Gorn border. The station is far inferior for the work that it has been given and is overstretched and underresourced. This area has been largely “forgotten” by the Federation. The Gorn haven’t gone on breeding runs against the Federation in decades and this area has remained relatively quiet other than the usual piracy on the fringes of Federation space. Most of the ships patrolling this area are antiquated at best, and Task Force 21 is forced to work with what they have.
    Ships assigned to this area are:

  • USS Emden, a Constitution III-class explorer, and the Task Force flagship. The Emden can be in either area of operations or anywhere along the frontier.

Inaugural Members and Command

Picking the right team to command a new Task Force is a difficult decision. We had an original plan in place, but unforeseen circumstances required us to pivot very sharply away from our comfort zone. Because of that pivot, I will be the inaugural Task Force Commanding Officer. Joining me as Task Force Executive Officer will be no stranger to the position. Annex, the current 17XO will be sliding over to Task Force 21 to be XO. The plan is that as TF21 grows and stabilizes, I will step back and Annex will be able to seamlessly take over as the new TF21CO.

We also asked for 1 volunteer from each current Task Force to become the inaugural members of the new Task Force — now obviously Task Force 21. In that call, we did get a volunteer from each Task Force! I’m happy to announce the inaugural Task Force 21 members as:

As you can see, there are some well-experienced Bravo Fleeters in this group who can help establish the culture of TF21 and foster growth in new members as they come in.

For the time being, we are going to filter all new joins to Bravo Fleet into TF21 and will adjust as necessary over the next few weeks. In coordination with that, we are also going to be running a few ad campaigns so look for an influx of new people! One final note on the topic of the logistics of TF21/a new Task Force: we are also implementing a freeze on transfers into Task Force 21 for the foreseeable future. The plain and simple truth is that the last time we opened a new Task Force, Task Force 47, we had such an influx into 47 that it completely unbalanced the entire fleet and it took nearly a year to sort itself out. I don’t want that to happen again and to the detriment of all the other Task Forces. This is why we only asked for one volunteer. In a few months, when things have stabilized across the fleet and TF21 has come into its own, we will look at opening up TF21 for people to transfer in at a controlled pace. We need to let that New Task Force Smell wear off a bit, first! This policy does not apply to people who AWOL’d out to the Reserves and are freshly coming back; if you are one of those people, BFMS will keep you from transferring back in but if you contact a member of Bravo Fleet Command we can manually transfer you into Task Force 21.

Teylas Ramar Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer
Fleet Command Task Force 21