Change of Post

A door slide open with the typical loud whoosh, Jayce, Lissah and L’Ran stepping off the lift and traveling down a busy hallway bustling with many people garbed in pale white jumpsuits. They wormed themselves through the hallway till they reached a door labeled “Conference Room” on it. Jayce reached out and pushed a button on the door, the doors popping open before them. Inside, the three where greeted to a large conference room housing a large table surrounded by many chairs. At the back of the room sat a large panoramic type view of Mars, the large red orb slowly turning in the background. In front of the large window stood an older gentleman in an admiral’s uniform, his back turned to the door. The three enter into the room, the door sliding behind them, all three standing at attention.

“Honestly expected you several days from now, Jayce,” the Admiral said as he turned to the group.

“Sorry Admiral, if you wish, we could jump back in and head over to Risa for a few more days,” Jayce responded, replying with a smile. The Admiral laughed some, motioning over to the chairs at the table.

“No no, that is ok, but understand that we are not exactly prepared for you, but we’ll double our effects to minimize the downtime,” the Admiral responded, sliding a data pad across the table to Jayce.

“Not a huge deal Admiral Cortland, we have a month correct? Seems like more than a enough time to get whatever needs to be done, done.” Jayce responded, activating the pad and reading it.

“Not quite Jayce, sorry to have mislead you but we had to scramble the line so much on this it was virtually impossible to tell you the whole truth. You’ve been with the Tethys for a while now, and it is true that she’ll be undergoing an overhaul to activate several new systems, but unfortunately for you and your command crew, you’ll be advancing on to another ship…the phase 3 ship…” Cortland spoke, a large grin on his face.

“Phase 3 ship is ready already? We’ve just barely broken the Tethys in…” Lissah spoke up, obviously not too grateful of being jumped ships so quickly.
“Indeed it has. However there is a difference here that you should consider first. One is that the Tethys, when you all took command of her, had many dry runs and training missions. This phase 3 ship has just been completed, and has not even left the shipyard yet. She’ll be a lot more rough..” Jayce stroked his goatee in thought.
“What about the secrecy? I had figured a classified transmission would be more than adequate to convey this news,” Jayce pondered out loud.

“Perhaps, but we decided to error on the side of caution. If news of the prototype ship was leaked, we could see ourselves facing down infiltrators or a fleet of ships waiting just outside the system waiting to turn our new ship into scraps. We made the collective decision to mislead you till we could bring you here, and then tell you the truth.” Jayce, Lissah and L’Ran slowly nodded at the Admiral’s words, while misleading in the first transmission, it was well worth it to ensure the prototypes and programs were not harmed. “Enough of that though, the situation stands that the command crew of the Tethys will be moved to the prototype, and the remainder of her trails will be handled by another crew. You all will start trials of prototype starting immediately.”

“And what of the James Cook and her mission?” Lissah piped up again. The Admiral nodded several times.

“The mission shall not change, she and her command crew are being briefed as we speak of the change. As soon as the James Cook has finished her outfit, you both will be redeployed to deep space. But we’ll worry about details later, if you don’t mind. For now, how about a tour of our latest creation shall we? “ Admiral Cortland spoke, standing and opening a hand to the door. The three stood up, following behind the Admiral out into the hall way.

“One question though Admiral, if you may, “ Jayce questioned, “What is the new ship’s name?”

“Her code name was Dione, however the build crews gave her another name that grew on her, till we decided to use that as her ship name, instead of Dione. Aegir. NX-978888.”

Captain's Log - 86317.9

The Tethys and James Cook have returned to Earth under order of Starfleet Command. The crew of the Tethys will be put on extended shore leave while the Tethys herself has a warp core overhaul. I was instructed by Lieutenant Commander L'Ran of a possible defect in our warp core and would need to return to space dock for a complete overhaul. Initial estimates put the overhaul at one month. I'm hoping that it takes much less, being away from the wide open spaces of space will be far too long...

This opportunity has Captain Amosia of the James Cook happy, the extended time at Earth will allow some necessary upgrades to the James Cook to help it during it's tour with us in deep space. Captain Amosia has mentioned the scheduled upgrades will include a new impulse system and a streamlined set of nacelles that should allow the James Cook to obtain a higher warp factor for a longer period of time, a problem we have noticed during our extended tours. Captain Amosia is acting like a child waiting for her presents on her birthday, the excitement hard to contain.

This will be my last official log entry for one month while I go on personal leave with the rest of the crew. Jayce out.

Starfleet Classified Transmission - A57C11U

Classified Transmission From : Rear Admiral Cortland
Destination : USS Tethys, Captain Jayce Arygos

Body:
Captain Arygos, I'm giving you a priority one order to returns to the Sol System immediately to under go a comprehensive refit of the USS Tethys. We have been receiving Lieutenant Commander L'Ran's continual updates of the Tethys, and many overhauls have been prepared to be applied to the USS Tethys. The current estimation is that the overhaul will take no longer than a month.

We are asking to keep this information quiet for now, as the refit will be utilizing many new and experimental Federation technology, most that is currently classified. This entire refit has been is heavily classified as directed by Starfleet Command. Once you have arrived to the Sol System, you'll dock with Earth Space Station and drop off all but your essential crew. There we'll tow the USS Tethys to Utopia Plantatia to begin repairs. There I'll brief you and your crew on the improvements.

I do hope you haven't grown use to the Tethy's look however, as she will be getting a face lift during this refit as well. And before I forget, the Tethys will now be refereed to during the refit as the Aegir. We felt this was a fitting name. God speed Jayce.

Bringer of Fire - Chapter 1: Albatross

Captain’s Log Stardate 86176.2.

The Tethys and her companion the USS James Cook have entered a largely unexplored sector of the Alpha Quadrant known as the Quori Sector. The sector lies just outside of the last Federation colonies and outposts, and the feeling of truly being out here alone is starting to sink in. This is the crew’s first voyage so far from home aboard the Tethys, but so far crew morale is high. I only expect the best from them.

At 03:17 this morning, the Tethy’s long range scanners picked up several warp signatures from an early warp civilization that other Federation explorers had catalogued 52 years ago. The civilization was evaluated as being a potential ally and possible Federation member when first contact is able to be made, and Captain Amosia and I have both agreed to divert course to greet this species as they embark amongst the stars.

Several things weight on my mind however, and the most being how quick this race has achieved warp technology. The reports about the Yuppai indicate that they were in an early technological development, and reports guessed another 100 to 200 years of natural development before early warp technology would be developed. The Yuppai as a species average around 3 meters tall, skinny with long arms, legs and necks that have been developed upon a class M planet. The Tethy’s early readings of the warp signatures seem to indicate the ship being capable of at least warp 5. It could be likely we have picked up a ship passing by, or we might have underestimated the Yuppai, but we shall see.

End log.

Jayce sat down this data pad after entering in his log, stretching slowly. He scanned around the bridge quickly, noting the hustle and bustle of the different crewmen as they carried about doing their duties.

“Something wrong, Captain?” a familiar voice cut across the bridge, Jayce looking to his right to see Lissah standing over him, eyebrow quirked in a uniquely Vulcan expression than the zhen Andorian managed to pull off. Jayce cocked a smile up at her.

“Not really, it will be my first contact as a captain though. Suppose I’m getting a bit of butterflies…” Jayce responded, grasping his short coffee cup and taking a quick sip.

“And what our sensors have picked,” Lissah blurted out, seeming to fill in the blanks to Jayce’s dialogue. The two had had such a close friendship for many years, it was not uncommon for her to do such a thing.

“Perhaps. Maybe our evaluations were off…but that seems like a very large difference,” Jayce said more quietly now, pondering the facts in his head. “The faster we get there the better in my book, wouldn’t you say Lissah? Helm, what is our ETA to the Yuppai system?” Jayce called, looking to the Tethy’s helm chair. An aquatic young lady by the name of Siirioui turned around in their chair, smiling brightly towards Jayce.

”Captain, the USS Cook had a small influx in their port warp nacelle and we had to slow down to Warp 7.2 roughly 10 minutes ago, but we should arrive in the system in 30 minutes,” Siirioui explained, soft feather like gills waving slowly around her neck.

“Very well, keep me informed,” Jayce explained, Siirioui nodding her head and turning back to her console. Jayce looked back up to Lissah, scoffing slightly. “Well, guess it’s time to wear a hole in the deck plate as we wait…”

---

The USS Tethys and USS James Cook came out of warp near the Yuppai sector, the relatively tiny system closing upon them as they moved closer. Jayce quietly watched the monitor as they moved forward, taking in the details of it.

“Jorur, status report. Give us a run down of the system here…” Jayce barked, leaning head against his arm, scanning over the image.

“Of course, Captain. The star of this system is an aging K0 star. Scanners pick up 2 class K planets, 1 class M, 1 class T, and 3 class J planets. There appears to be a gas cloud surrounding one of the class J planets, sensors indicate it was struck by a rather large object many hundreds of years ago, knocking much of the gas giant into space. Other than that, a fairly unremarkable system,” Jorur ended, nodding her head a bit.

“Unremarkable is not necessarily a bad thing, what about the Yuppai planet?” Jayce responded.

“The planet is surrounded by 17 smaller moons, much of them very tiny. Would appear at one point the planet was struck by a large mass, knocking a good deal of the planet up into space. Average temperature is around 17 C. I’m also picking up several rudimentary space stations circling around the planet, 3 to be exact. They do not appear to have artificial gravity.” Jayce cocked and eyebrow and looked to Lissah, who was milling over the information being provided on a separate screen.

“We are picking up the warp ship though docked to one of the space stations. It matches in similar materials used to construct the space stations,” Lissah reported, looking over to Jayce. Jayce sat for a second, thinking on the information.

“Lissah, hail the Cook, get them on screen,” Jayce ordered, the image of Captain Amosia appearing on the screen.

“You see the same things we do Jayce?” Amosia responded immediately, knowing just what Jayce was hailing for.

“We do, something is not right… What do your sensors tell you?” Jayce asked. Amosia looked to something off screen for a second and began to recite some information.

“The culture appears to be where it should be from our last reports, no major technological changes that would be apparent of warp 5 technology. There has clearly been some tampering by another civilization here.” Amosia said, looking back up to Jayce. Jayce rubbed his chin a bit.

“Well, regardless of the tampering, we should make contact with them. We do not suspect them to have conventional communication devices. Do you believe you have something aboard the Cook to establish communications with them with?” Jayce questioned. Amosia nodded her head.

“Already ahead of you Captain, we’ll begin to try to establish communications. Should we move closer to the planet? We could establish orbit along side the space station that houses the warp ship.”

”Good idea,” responded Jayce, “We’ll follow you in. Jayce out.” Jayce sat back in his chair a bit, still rolling the facts around in his head. “Siirioui, follow the Cook and establish orbit around the planet.”

”Aye Captain,” Siirioui responded, punching in the necessary course corrections to keep with the Cook.

“Let’s see what questions we can find out from you, you little albatross…” Jayce whispered.

Captain Jayce Arygos

Full Name: Jayce Alexander Arygos
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: December 5, 2380
Place of Birth: Naxos City, Greece, Earth
Affiliation: United Federation of Planets / Starfleet
Current Rank: Captain

Physical Description
Height: 5 feet, 11 inches
Weight: 200 lbs.
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue

Family
Parents: Stephen and Adelpha Arygos
Siblings: Daria Arygos
Marital Status: Single

Starfleet Academy Records:
Attended 2399 - 2403
Degree: Major in Intelligence Operations and a minor in Alien Studies.

Career:
Previous Assignments (oldest to newest):
Operations Officer aboard the USS Redwood (2403 - 2408)
Operations Officer aboard the USS Nebraska (2408-2409)
Captain of the USS Saturn (2409-2409)
Currently Captain of the USS Tethys


History:
Jayce Alexander Arygos was born to parents Stephen and Adelpha Arygos on December 5th, 2380 in Naxos City Greece on Earth. Both of Jayce's parents owned a small grocery store in the Naxos City, content to live a much simpler life than the hustle and bustle of the galactic one. During his early childhood, Jayce worked inside of the store, but his mind constantly wandered about the unknown, hearing stories from his grandfather, a retired Starfleet captain.


After his primary education, Jayce enrolled at Starfleet Academy where decided upon a degree program of Intelligence Operations, but his natural curiosity of the unknown and different species made him sneak in several Alien Studies classes. During his Warp Theory class at the Academy, Jayce was paired up with an Andorian zhen named Lissah for a midterm project. The two forged a friendship that would carry outside the class and through their Academy years, Lissah becoming Jayce's trusted friend and Advisor.

After graduating from the Academy, Jayce and Lissah were split up and stationed on different ships. Lissah was stationed aboard the USS Nebraska as a Science Officer and Jayce aboard the USS Redwood, a Nebula class star ship, under Captain Urg'v as the ships Operations Officer. After 5 years aboard the the Redwood exploring deep space, Jayce requested a transfer aboard to the Nebraska, as word had reached him that she was in need for a new Operations Officer. Jayce took over the Operations position aboard the Nebraska, Lissah had thus been promoted to Tactical Officer.

While exploring the Klingon neutral zone, the Nebraska came under attack by several bird of prey, intent on capturing the Nebraska as a trophy. The bridge was the main target, severally damaging it and injuring almost all of bridge officers during the initial attacks. Jayce, barely escaping harm during the attack, initiated a transport off the bridge to the medical bay, however a hull breach mid-beam out caused most of the bridge officers to be lost, including the captain and first officer. Lissah, luckily, was able to be beamed out, however in severe condition. With the help of the remaining crew, Jayce was able to repel Klingon borders and establish control over the ship from the battle bridge, battling and defeating the remaining Klingon before escaping to warp.

After a lengthy limp home back to Earth, Jayce and the crew of the Nebraska spent quite some time in the dry docks as the Nebraska was pieced back together. During this time, Jayce meet a former crewmen to his grandfather, Rear Admiral Cortland, who took a hunch with the young man and took a risk. He transported Jayce to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards to view the construction of several ships under the Saturn Project, a set of advanced deep space fleet escorts. Rear Admiral Cortland expressed his desire to bring Jayce to the Saturn Project to help test these new prototype ships, in which Jayce happily agreed, knowing the honor and prestige to be the captain of a prototype ship. After several months of briefings and training, Jayce was given the command of the first Saturn Project prototype ship, the USS Saturn. To fill his crew, Jayce selected some of the brightest scientific minds to man her, and to a surprise to no one, assigned Lissah to the USS Saturn's first officer.

During the shakedown tour of the USS Saturn, Jayce experienced many issues with his new ship. Several critical design flaws caused the operation of the USS Saturn to be severally hampered, enough so that after a length talk with his chief engineer and ship designer, Lieutenant Commander L'Ran, the ship was recalled back to Utopia Plantia for reevaluation. This reevaluation, however, did not go well for the USS Saturn, and was decided to scrap her entirely in hopes that the future phase 2 ship would have better results.

After a few months of downtime, the USS Tethys, Saturn Project's Phase 2 ship, was finally commissioned and assigned to the Jayce, in hopes that he would have better luck with this ship. A little leery with this ship, Jayce was pleasantly surprised at how efficient and improved the second ship was. After a quick stress test, Rear Admiral Cortland assigned the Jayce to take the USS Tethys to the Borg battle fleet, in hopes of giving the Tethys a proper shake down.

Personality:
Jayce is a rather cool headed captain, his temper rarely flaring unless truely provoked. He takes the time to get to know his bridge officers and crew the best he can, trying to figure out how each one of them ticks. While he is pretty friendly, he requires only the absolute best and most diligant work from his crew, not taking a no for an answer. He has also been known to crack a great many jokes while on the bridge.

Hobbies:
Jayce has a strong fascination with fish and aquatic life, mostly of the salt water variety. He has outfitted a small storage area aboard the USS Tethys as a holding facility for many different marine species from Earth, and has 2 shows tanks in his ready room, and one in his quarters.

Whenever he gets a change to return to Earth, he has been known to take several days to go to the South Pacific and scuba dive, looking for strange and interesting new specimens for his tanks. He has devise small transporter devices to attach to the things he finds, and transport them to the tanks without hurting, scaring or stressing the specimens.

Lieutenant Commander L'Ran

Full Name: L'Ran
Species: Vulcan
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: February 5th, 2257
Place of Birth: Raal, Vulcan
Affiliation: Utopia Plantia Shipyards / United Federation of Planets / Starfleet
Current Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Physical Description
Height: 5 feet, 7 inches
Weight: 145 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown

Family
Parents: Vloran and T'Hathel
Siblings: None
Marital Status: Married, Husband: Huron

Starfleet Academy Records:
Attended 2279 - 2291
Degree: Starship Design with Honors, Starship Engineering with Honors, and Warp Theory with Honors.

Career:
Previous Assignments (oldest to newest):
Engineering Ensign aboard the USS Maine(2291 - 2293)
Starship Designer at Utopia Plantia Shipyards (2293 - 2402)
Head Designer of the Saturn Project at Utopia Plantia Shipyards (2402 - 2409)
Chief Engineer aboard the USS Saturn (2409 - 2409)
Currently Chief Engineer aboard the USS Tethys

Lieutenant Commander L'Ran was born on Vulcan in 2257 to her parents Vloran and T'Hathel. At a very early age, L'Ran's parents noticed that their daughter was very interested in making and constructing things, L'Ran constantly constructing new gadgets and inventions as a kid. As a final project in her last year of basic education, L'Ran constructed a minotare repulsion device. While the devic and output was small, L'Ran concluded that if it was to be sized up to a starship level, the repulsion technology could vastly increase the current tractor beam levels on Federation starships. This discovery caught the attention of Starfleet Academy, who sent a representative to Vulcan to talk with L'Ran on attending the academy. After a length discussion, both L'Ran and her parents agreed it was the most logical choice and L'Ran enrolled at Starfleet Academy.

L'Ran arrived on Earth on 2279 to begin her Academy years. During her years there L'Ran devoted all her time to her studies, taking the most allowed classes at any point in time that they would allow her. L'Ran also viewed her time at the Academy as a time in which she could further educate herself, and decided to stay at the Academy for 12 years, earning 3 degrees in Starship Design, Starship Engineering, and Warp Theory, all with honors.

After the Academy, L'Ran was assigned to the USS Maine for a 2 year deployment as an Ensign in the ships Engineering section. While stationed her, L'Ran used her skills to work on various projects in further increasing the efficiency and function of many of the USS Maine's, often to the determent of her other duties. While it was stressed that she needed to focus more on her actual duties, the Captain of the USS Maine sent a message to a friend he had at Utopia Plantia, asking if they were in need of a brilliant young engineer. Utopia Plantia agreed, and L'Ran was transferred after her two years in 2281.

From here L'Ran began her tenure at the Utopia Plantia Shipyards, serving on many projects over the many years she served. While many of her colleages jumped at promotion opportunities, L'Ran wished to have nothing of it and turned down promotion after promotion, noting that a promotion would take her away from the things that she really enjoyed doing, and that was starship design and construction.

Most of her projects she served as assistants on, however on 2402, Admiral Cortland, who was serving as head of a project called Saturn Project at Utopia Plantia, selected L'Ran as chief designer and director of the entire project. L'Ran took it as a great honor and quickly created a team of engineers to begin work. Her designs, however, were not ideal for the first ship to be created, the USS Saturn. Many design flaws caused the ship to be prematurely recalled and decommissioned, a failure that L'Ran personally blames on herself for being over ambitions on several features. L'Ran personally wanted to make it up on her and took more careful calculations on the construction of the USS Tethys. Early success reports have confirmed to her that this design is far superior than the old USS Saturn.

L'Ran currently serves aboard the USS Tethys monitoring it's situation during it's trials. During this time she also doubles as the ships' Chief Engineer. She keeps in constant contact with the Utopia Plantia Shipyards to keep the Saturn Project on track, often using the Tethy's holodeck to hold meetings with the Shipyard.

Lieutenant Commander L'Ran has an upbeat attitude, for a Vulcan. She has been known to make several 'jokes', even if they are rather dry, and enjoys many human sports such as Tennis. She deems herself a bit of a guru on human interaction from her long tenure at the Utopia Plantia Shipyards, and tries to be more sociable to them, as she recognizes some human's dislike of Vulcan stoicism.

USS Saturn

Registry: NX-93052

Dimensions:

* Overall Length: 350 meters

* Overall Draft: 72 meters

* Overall Beam: 128 meters

* Displacement: 990,000 metric tons

Velocity:

* Cruising: Warp Factor 8.2

* Maximum: Warp Factor 9.7

Offensive Systems:

* Fore and Aft Type XII Phaser Arrays

* Fore and Aft Quantum Torpedo Launchers

* Fore and Aft Photon Torpedo Launchers

Crew: 100

Born from the fledgling Saturn Project under works from the Utopia Plantia Shipyards, the USS Saturn was the first and only Phase 1 ship of the Saturn Project. The early concepts of the USS Saturn was to outfit a current tactical vessel with more sensor arrays and science bays to meet the need of it's Deep Space mission. Several different were considered for a 'refit' when the aging Akira class ship was selected for its bulky size and efficient design.

Lieutenant Commander L'Ran took charge of the research and development of the Saturn, tearing down the old Akira design and making vast improvements to bring it up to the 25th century standards. The first improvement made upon it was adding an incredibly advanced state of the art deflector array and sensor array. Due to the size and components that went with the systems, the entire underside of the ship was taken up by the complex, living no crew quarters or research facilities. Utopia Plantia also pushed to have a new experimental warp core design added to the Saturn, but space issues within the ship restricted such a move. Starfleet's most advanced weapon arrays were added to the ship as well, but crews found issues placing the arrays, and the first warning signs of the potential issue of a blind spot began to surface.

In 2409, the USS Saturn was completed and commissioned, assigned to Captain Jayce Arygos. Its first mission would be a shake down tour of the Sirius Sector, making sure the ship was in top notch order. The first few weeks of deployment were ideal, the Saturn worked to the standards and beyond, but several concerns were being passed around. One was the lack of recreation and relaxation facilities aboard the Saturn. The Saturn was equipped with one holodeck, and no lounge areas. Despite the holodeck however, the holodeck had to be heavily rationed as it severally cut into the limited power supply taken up mainly by the sensor and navigational array.

Two months after her commissioning, the Saturn was assigned to the Federation front lines against the Klingons in a combat shake down. With a day of being at the front lines, severe issues began to plague the fledging ship. One was the blind spot that the Klingons quickly discovered and began to exploit. Despite its heavy armaments, a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey could easily exploit this spot and cause severe damage. The other issue was running the deflector array and sensors with the weapons at full strength. Such a feet was almost impossible as the intense drain of power would short one of the two out. Numerous complaints of the Saturn short comings and failure to be effective on the front lines caused the Saturn to be promptly the Sol system for reevaluation 3 days before her 6 month anniversary.

The engineers at Utopia Plantia sprawled over the Saturn in hopes that her short comings could be easily fixed and the ship returned to duty as quickly as possible. However, Lieutenant Commander L'Ran deemed that the amount of fixes and changes needed to be done to the ship to return it to an 'acceptable' level would be severe, being easier to simply scrap the ship and put their efforts in the Phase 2 project, which was nearly completion. Rear Admiral Cortland who oversaw the Saturn Project agreed, having the Saturn dismantled at once and available parts given to the Phase 2 project.

Its dedication plate is all that remains of the Saturn now, Lieutenant Commander L'Ran keeping it as a keepsake.

Saturn Project

The Saturn Project is a ship construction projection undertaken by the Utopia Plantia Shipyards in hopes of creating a new breed of starship that would be able to escort deep space science vessels to the Gamma and Delta Quadrants. These new tactical ships would not only serve as an escort, but would provide additional assistance to its science vessel counterpart in missions and experiments. Several prototype ships have been commissioned in hopes of extensive field tests, with several more prototypes being built.

History -

The Saturn Project came about by seeing the vulnerability of deep space science vessels had by them far beyond the range of sending assistance. During the years 2399, 4 different deep space science vessels were lost to mysterious circumstances, the reports that were able to be retrieved about the ships point to coming under attack during their missions. The need for additional security of their vessels caused Starfleet to begin looking for options, seeking different proposals from shipyards and science stations across the Federation.

After a long debate process, a finalist was selected amongst all the different proposals from the Utopia Plantia Shipyards in 2402, the proposal backed by Rear Admiral Cortland. The proposals called for a 4 prototype ship building process to best come up with and improve upon a ship design that would be able to see major deployment in 15 years. 4 different ships would be made, one ship after the other, improving on the designs of the first. Each ship would contain experimental technology and revolutionary ways in ship designs, hoping to come up with an effective design and ship. The ships would see continuous redesign till the 4th stage, which Utopia Plantia hoped to have a ship worthy of mass production and deployment.

In 2407, construction began on the Phase 1 ship, code named Saturn, after the project. This ship took it's rough design from the aging Akira class ship produced by Antares Fleet Yards, modifying it heavily for length deployment. After much design, the engineers at Utopia selected a design where the nacelles of the ship were extended away from the primary hull of the ship, allowing the ship create a much large warp bubble for faster flight. The ship was also outfitted with a large deflector array network on the ship, consuming much of the underside of the primary hull. Utopia Plantia also experimented with a new alloy to construct the ships hull; initial tests showing it could withstand greater stress than previous alloys and was 3.4% more effective in absorbing energy attacks. This alloy, however, was a dark grey color, border lining on black; however the engineers decided to keep the ship with the darker color, instead of changing it to a much brighter grey.

In 2408, with construction of the Phase 1 ship well under way, design began on the phase 2 ship code named Tethys, building upon previous lessons learned with the Saturn. Early tests with the phase 1 ship showed that the warp nacelles, while pulled further away from the ship, became a weak point for the ship, during engagement and during warp speed. This time the engineers decided on moving the nacelles of the phase 2 ship forward and over the primary hull, allowing a greater protection and stability. This fixed the issues of the previous design, however, but a new and very dangerous problem began to appear. During initial computer simulations, it was possible for the nacelles to hit by enemy fire, causing dangerous particles to be bombarded into the ship. Engineers, however, came up with a solution by covering the nacelles that sat over the primary hull with a protection shield. The shield was constructed with similar alloys as the hull and laid across the nacelles, protecting them from incoming fire.

In 2409, the USS Saturn was commissioned from the Utopia Plantia Shipyards under command of Captain Jayce Arygos, the grandson of Cortland’s old Captain during his ensign days. The Saturn was assigned to a 6 month tour of duty of various exploration and patrol missions, wanting to get the feel how the ship was preformed. In anticipation, 2 other phase 1 ships were ordered by Cortland, in hopes of having them stationed in deep space by the end of the year for further testing. Despite the optimism, the phase 1 ship project was ultimately a failure. While the engineers took great leaps in producing a viable deep space tactical vessel, many of the steps were too great for the ship to handle. The Deflector Array, if powered to full, was known to draw so much energy the weapons were inoperable. The positions of the nacelles and the struts that were used to hold the nacelles created wide 'blind spots' where phasers and torpedoes could not reach. The USS Saturn reported various incidents where these blind spots were being used against them. Last, and finally, the amount of space left for crew quarters was deemed too small to outfit a crew for lengthy deployments, taken up by the large deflector array. 3 months into the mission, the Saturn was recalled by to Sol where the Engineers reevaluated the Saturn in hopes of improving her to a point where she was better. After a lengthy discussion, Engineers deemed too much work to refit the USS Saturn to a point where she would be viable and decided to scrap her entirely and the two unmade phase 1 ships.

Exactly one month after the decommissioning and scrapping of the USS Saturn, the USS Tethys was finished and commissioned, Captain Jayce Arygos taking command of the new vessel. The Tethys had learned greatly from the previous construction and design of the Saturn, making sure not to repeat their mistakes from last time. The first improvement was the ships overall size. The ship as twice as large of the USS Saturn, and it's power output much greater. Its weapons mounted in such ways that the ship did not suffer from blind spots like it's sister. The most prominent feature of the ship however, is what the crew calls it's 'nose'. The deflector array lines in the center of the ship running through the middle of the ship. A large protrusion from the primary hall, resembling a nose, contains an advanced array of sensors.

The Tethys has already received rave preliminary results back from it's crew, and the Rear Admiral has issued the Tethys to report to the Omega Force Fleet on the verge of Borg space to help in operations, hoping to give the Tethys a hearty shake down. It is hoping that the Tethys fares well with the fleet and future vessels can be cut from a similar mold.

UPDATE: The USS Tethys ended command by Captain Jayce Arygos on star date 86327.39. The Tethys would report to the Utopia Plantia for lengthy overhaul and upgrade by the shipyard. Captain Earl Hancock has been assigned to her as her new captain seeing the finally of her repairs. The Tethys would then report herself to the Klingon-Federation border where reinforcements are badly needed.

With the completion of the phase 2 design, phase 3 has begun, code named Dione. Little is known about the phase 3 design, other than that it is well under way in its construction. It is likely to see the Phase 3 ship by the end of 2409.

UPDATE: The Phase 3 ship finished construction on star date 86327.39. Her builders had given her the nickname of Aegir, instead of her code name Dione, so that they could speak about her in code and not mention her. The name stuck so much that building directors decided to pass the name on to the ship, instead of taking on her code name like her sister ships before her. Almost all of her systems are deemed classified by Starfleet, most systems seeing their first deployment on a ship ever. Current calculations show that the Aegir's capabilities surpass the Tethys in every field by at least 2.341%. The Aegir's first mission to to rendezvous with the USS James Cook and continue their deep space exploration mission.

Phase 4, code named Hyperion, is only in it's infancy stages, and likely won't see service till 2410.

Starting...

Well, I guess I'll start this whole thing like this... I've been wanting a place to put some information that I'll be coming up with over the next few days and hopefully, well into the future about my characters in Star Trek Online. I write quite a bit, and while I do enjoy making the information, it rarely goes anywhere and is lost to the digital wasteland that is the internet. So I created this blog, in hopes that they'll migrate here, and live a peaceful life where you and anyone else can stop in and check things out.

At least for the first bit I'm going to work up character profiles. These should be rather complex, detail looks into character and supporting characters that affect my character. I'll try to post them at least one at a time, with a bio and at least a hand full of screenshots. From there, once I feel I'm good with that, I'll start working on short stories about whatever comes to mind.

Anyway, introduction is over, I'll kick this out and try to get at least one bio up tonight.