Hi there Fleet Ops fanatics! Now, despite that I'm rather new here (well, I joined a long time ago, but I've only really started posting now since I've only just now actually been able to download Fleet Ops), I thought I might give this old chestnut a try here on the Fleet Ops. You see, Spacefarers is a game that I invented about two-and-a-half years ago and have since spread to a number of different forums. In fact, I just ran one recently on another forum... I hope you guys don't mind me trying it out here...

Instructions:

There are few very basic steps for joining the game...

1: You start off by creating (or selecting) a spacecraft, which could derive from a published work, or could be completely original. It can be pretty much anything that takes your fancy... large or small, automated or manned, battleship or explorer, it's up to you.

2: Post up a link with some basic stats (or write the stats yourself) such as size, weapons compliment, etc...

3: Provide a picture. I have included this a separate step because it is absolutely essential that you provide a picture,. It could be anything from a masterful piece of CGI to a hastily drawn doodle, as long as gives one an idea of what the ship in question looks like... It's no good if we don't know what your ship looks like!

4: You're done! Just bring your ship into the game!

There are eight basic rules...

1: You are not allowed to destroy another person's vessel. Only a vessel's owner can destroy it (or allow it to be destroyed). You are, however, free to damage or otherwise effect the vessel within reason for your ship's weaponry and abilities...

Note: This rule is flexible and subject to change, depending on how the story progresses... Obviously it would, for example, to completely enforce this rule if entire fleets, for example, were engaging each other...

2: Initially, you may not use too powerful a ship. You can use any kind of ship you like, but it must not be something overwhelmingly powerful like a massive "you all might as well not bother" dreadnought (the Super Star Destroyer would be an example), a huge Death Star-esque mobile station, a ship with an insta-kill super weapon, etc. If you're not sure, trying looking for a ship that could, by Star Trek standards, be defined as a 'heavy cruiser' (a medium to medium-heavy vessel).

Note: I will have the final say on whether a ship is reasonable or not. Don't bother asking me though, as you can assume I find the ship acceptable unless I actually say otherwise... Also, this is easily the least concrete of the rules. For one thing, I'm sure most of you will be able to use your common sense to determine if something is unreasonable...

3: The game is not to be played in script format (novel format only, please).

4: Don't play another person's ship or characters for them! I see this all too often when I host this game, so I've bolded it here... as in the last game, I posted this rule and someone still did it...

5: You are allowed to use a canon ship from a published work (though I would advise against it).

6: Please don't get overly silly and/or start spamming. It really pains me to see this happen to my forum games...

7: Above all, have fun with it...

Note: OOC and IC can be used to let the other players know whether you are speaking out of the context of the game (OOC or 'out of context') or within the context of the game (IC or 'in context'). You can also think of them as 'out of character' and 'in character', respectively, if you wish...

With out of the way, let's begin...

_____________________________________________________________

OOC: This is my ship, the Akira class Federation starship U.S.S. Adelaide, registry number N.C.C. 81111. Do I really need to say where this ship derives from?

Here are several pictures of the Akira class (obviously, you guys all know what an Akira class looks like, but still)...

http://www.strekschematics.utvinternet.com/shipgallery/shipgallery1/akira.jpg

http://www.shiporama.org/images/akira/akira51.jpg

http://members.lycos.nl/sovereign001frontier/hpbimg/akira.jpg

Some excellent (albiet long winded) statistics for the ship can be found here...

ACTD - Advanced Starship Design Bureau | Akira-class
Specs

VERY IMPORTANT: Ignore all references to the class' 'flight bay' in the above link. The Adelaide does not have a flight bay (it has only a regular shuttle bay) and it does not carry fighters!

IC: The USS Adelaide flew fly silently through space. From a humanoid perspective, she was big ship, but she was but the tiniest speck against the vast void she had been sent to explore, with every one of thousands of points of light yet another distant star, if not another galaxy, far, far away... Most were well out of reach of the tiny vessel, but that didn't stop her. Starfleet and the Federation it protected, were explorers, first and foremost, even if exploring the universe or indeed, even their own galaxy, seemed like a daunting task...

At the apex of the huge, yet at the same time diminutive catamaran-like vessel, several officers had just reported for bridge duty. Amongst them was the captain, Henry Baker, a humble man in his early forties, from the southern Earth island continent known as Australia. Having just completed his log entry, he was now taking his morning coffee.

"Thank you," he nodded to the crewman who had brought to him. "Dismissed, crewman."

"Aye sir," the young man replied, before turning on his heel to leave.

The captain took a sip from his cup, then placed it down on the arm rest of his chair before looking up at the view screen. A beautiful golden yellow cloud filled most of the right half of the viewer. Henry smiled, his emerald green eyes lighting up slightly. Amazing sights like this were a large part of why he had joined Starfleet. He really was an explorer at heart...

"Coming up on class 3 nebula, captain," a voice said from somewhere to Henry's right. "That's, quite the breath taking sight, ain't it?"

"Indeed it is," Henry replied, still smiling.

It was the ship's science officer, Kevin Wilcox, who had spoken, a cheerful yet professional man from the southern part of one of Earth's northern islands, formerly part of the country known as Great Britain. The two gold insignia on the color of the blue trimmed tunic indicated his rank of lieutenant.

He ran a scan of the nebula, as was standard procedure, pushing some of his hard to manage brown locks out of his eyes at the same time. Suddenly the sensor panel beeped as the array made contact with something else.

"That's not all that's out there," he said. "I'm picking up another vessel nearby, unable to identify as yet. Our long range sensors must be being scrambled by the nebula, that's why I didn't pick it up sooner..."

"I see," said Henry. "Put the ship on screen, lieutenant."

OOC: Note, the vessel that the Adelaide has come into contact with will be the ship of whomever decides to join first...

Any takers?

OOC: Your post was fine, Rhaz...

IC: "They're... lowering their shields, sir..." said Kevin.

Henry had been immediately alarmed at seeing the Cardassian vessel. He knew the typical Galor class was no match for a modern Federation cruiser like the Akira, but a Cardassian ship being this far from Cardassian space after the war or indeed at any time was immensely suspicious at the least. Suddenly, he noticed something very odd... The ship's torpedo launchers and phaser strips didn't look right... His brief thought was cut off, however, by the sound of another voice...

"Sir, they're hailing us..."

The Adelaide's communications officer, ensign Albert Harris, was perhaps one of a dying breed in the Federation. The communications officer was dying out, communications being considered increasingly to be such a simple function that specialized training or knowledge was not required for it. Both captain Baker and ensign Harris knew better than that, however. It just wasn't good enough to reply on the universal translator when encountering a new race, or indeed, even conversing with a known race. The translator was a fantastic piece of machinery, but it was still liable to make errors. In truth, an innate knowledge of languages and other forms of communication was still necessary on any vessel on a exploration mission. Captain Baker had seen this and had insisted that a communications specialist be assigned to his vessel before they departed from Deep Space 5.

So far, Henry had been pleased with his decision. In addition to being an excellent communications officer, ensign Haptic was also a whiz with the ship's computer. He could recover infomation from the library at an incredible pace, twice as fast as anyone else on the ship. He'd also worked with the ship's chief engineer to increase the computer's processing efficiency by a reported 8-12% and there hadn't been a computer glitch since he had come on board... Yes, he was a fine young officer and Henry was seriously considering requesting his promotion to lieutenant, junior grade.

"On screen," Henry replied.

The Cardassian ship's bridge was, interesting, to say the least. The bridge crew was a hodge-podge of humans, Romulans and Cardassians and not all the technology they were using appeared to be Cardassian. Henry's short-lived earlier suspicions that might be some kind of pirate ship came to the front again. He knew he would have to be careful. He was sure they would love to get their hands on some of his ship's technology. He didn't want to provoke them into rash action, however, so he did not yet give the order for a close scan or shields...

"Greetings, Starfleet vessel".

It was the well built man sitting in the captain's chair who had spoken. Obviously he was their leader. He was physically intimidating, but Henry did not yet know what to expect from this man. He knew he would have to be careful, however. Pirates, mercenaries, whatever they were, they would no doubt prove unpredictable... And what in the galaxy were they doing all the way out here?

"This is captain Henry Baker of the starship Adelaide," Henry replied professionally. "We notice your vessel is a long way from known space. Do you require assistance?"

OOC: Well I'm waiting for Rahz up there to make his next post. If he doesn't, this thread could well be derailed before it even starts...

OOC: USS Stardust? Ummm... right...

Anyway, Rahz! Hello? Where are you? Helooooo?

OOC: *Shrug* Whatever, it's already part of this game's continuity now (unless you decide to change it, of course). It doesn't break any rules or anything, it just seemed unorthodox, that's all...

Where the hell is Rhaz? If he doesn't post soon I'm going to ahve to remove his ship from play and reassign the Stardust as being the ship that the Adelaide initally ran into...

Not to put my foot in my mouth, but Rhaz may take a while to respond 
As far as I know, he usually visits the site for a few days and then doesn't check it for a few weeks.

So...it's been more than a week, what's the deal?

I like the excelsior, so my choice would be the Stardust.

I'm assuming my post regarding tracking the cardy vessel is still valid as you said it would be ok to keep that element in the game?