Author: Zach Perkins

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Away Team Report: (2012.1129) TNG Season 2 Remastered in Theaters

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July’s theatrical screening of remastered Season 1 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation had been amazing. After seeing TNG in theaters, we never wanted to watch it another way again. But alas, we knew it was a once in a lifetime event, and we’d never have the joy of viewing the Enterprise-D on a movie theater screen again.

Lucky for us, we were completely wrong.

At the end of November, the crew of the USS Loma Prieta was once again tasked with the joyful mission of beaming down to the Century 9 theaters in San Francisco, this time for a screening of ‘Q Who’, the first dramatic appearance of the dreaded Borg, and a special hour plus extended version of ‘Measure of a Man’.

The Borg on the big screen were terrifying! The medium lent itself well to conveying the truly massive scale of the Borg cube. While ‘Measure of a Man’ in contrast is a more static episode than ‘Q Who’, where the action almost entirely takes place in a single court room setting, the theatrical setting still greatly enhanced the drama.

Since this screening took place almost immediately after the Creation Entertainment San Francisco Star Trek Convention of November 2012, uniforms were deemed optional for the away team. But lo and behold, every single member of the USS Loma Prieta away team showed up in uniform. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, that’s just the kind of top class crew I’ve got.

~Capt. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Away Team Crew Manifest:
CAPT Zach Perkins
CMDR Jon Sung
LCDR Tom Hesser
LT JG Jesse MacKinnon
EN Cindy Bee
EN Andy Smith
EN Chef Spencer Scott
EN Shawn Alpay
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Away Team Report, Supplemental (2012.0218) Starfleet Special Ops ADU-008 Debriefing

[THE FOLLOWING REPORT HAS BEEN DECLASSIFIED PER STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE DIRECTIVE AB132. ELEMENTS HAVE BEEN REDACTED PER STARFLEET SPECIAL OPERATIONS OPSEC PROTOCOL]

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On Stardate 2012.0218, the USS Loma Prieta received orders to infiltrate the Creation Con Star Trek Convention on Earth in San Francisco, California. The Convention was taking place mere miles from Starfleet Headquarters and the Academy, so potential security risks required the involvement of SFSO Intelligence assets. Unbeknownst to the convention’s delegates, the members of the USS Loma Prieta’s Starfleet Special Operations team (ADU-008, aka “Section 8”) was tasked with a recon mission the day prior to the crew’s away team beaming down. Unfortunately while the ship’s Chief Engineer, LCDR Tom Hesser, and I were interrogating a high ranking Gorn officer (TOS actor Bobby Clark), a member of the local media captured a picture of our activities. Thankfully at this point, maintaining our cover wasn’t high priority. It was determined that there was little risk to the rest of the Loma Prieta crew, so it was deemed suitable for the away team to beam down in full uniform the following day.

Prior to the convention, ASU-008 discussed the possibility of recruiting new Loma Prieta crew members to our ranks. A challenge was devised and executed.  An intelligence gathering mission in the form of a scavenger hunt was issued and accepted by a good number of the crew.  While many participated, there was only a few that really excelled in searching out all of the listed items. One of the requirements of this hunt was that it was required to get a holo-image or video of the piece of intel in question (see mission orders below):

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By the end of the convention invitations to join ADU-008 were offered to three people. LCDR Tom Hesser accepted and was awarded with an SFSO pin denoting his new status on board the ship.  Other offers went out to LT(JG) Amy Sloan and LT Jesse MacKinnon. Due to her amazing intelligence gathering skills and other great work on board the ship, Commanding Officer (and covert operative of ADU-008) CAPT Zach Perkins promoted her to Chief Science Officer and awarded her the rank of full Lieutenant.  Her and LT MacKinnon decided to defer their acceptance into ADU-008 for now. In light of her new duties, Lt Sloan didn’t want to put her job as Chief of Sciences in jeopardy.  I can appreciate that and have held the offer open both her and MacKinnon. They have both proven themselves worthy of joining SFSO’s ranks.

This report has finally been deemed unclassified for Fleet consumption as all of the information contained herein has been processed and found to be in compliance with standard OPSEC measures.

Currently, as I write this I come from the head office where we are in discussions of upgrading a lot of our systems and am working my way to help set up an excellent tactical training simulator that was created by Artemis systems. The crew of the USS Loma Prieta will be putting on a public demonstration of this new system and details of the even can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/360287100744873/. 

CAPT Erik Roberts
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Team Leader
ADU-008 “Section 8”
Starfleet Special Operations

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Away Team Report: (2012.0218) The San Francisco Star Trek Convention 2012

Starfleet Command has been hounding me to submit a report for our mission to the official San Francisco Star Trek Convention 2012. It’s gotten to the point that they’ve threatened to revoke my holodeck access codes, so I really need to get this damn thing written. To be perfectly honest, I figured that all the mainstream media attention that the USS Loma Prieta received at the convention (everything from SF Weekly to StarTrek.com and even VICE) would have sufficed for Starfleet, but as I look back on our photos and records, I remember how much went down that weekend that deserves a proper summary. On Friday of the convention, Security Chief Captain Erik Roberts and Chief Engineer LtCmdr Tom Hesser scouted the Westin St. Francis Hotel in civilian 21st-century garb. Unfortunately, the only 21st-century clothes we had available on the ship were USS Loma Prieta t-shirts, so it comes as no surprise that their cover was blown when a StarTrek.com photographer easily spotted them.

Despite this setback in stealthiness, we proceed with a full landing party on Saturday. Since our Friday recon mission had already been spotted, we decided to forego any further charades and went in full 24th-Century Starfleet duty uniforms. With eleven officers in our away team, we stormed the convention: not long after our entrance we set up a public round of something we call “Pop-Up Artemis” in the lobby. Using a portable holoemitter (disguised as a standard PC projector), a wifi router, a netbook, and 5 iPads running the Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator, we conducted a public demonstration of how a real Starfleet bridge crew handles a tactical situation. Needless to say, this display drew some attention from convention goers and the press alike, luring photographers from SFWeekly and VICE.

After a few pop-up games of Artemis, the crew dispersed to try to fulfill their next mission: an SFSO Covert Convention Ops challenge. Starfleet Intelligence had tasked our crew with a photo-based scavenger hunt for intelligence-gathering purposes. Captain Erik Roberts will file a supplementary report detailing this Special Operations mission.

After we’d taken in all the vendor room had to offer, we settled into the main hall programming to gatch a glimpse of Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn hamming it up together, with the final appearance of the day from Walter Koenig. After the stars cleared the stage, the costume contest began, where our own Chief Petty Officer Tria Connell entered as her glitzy alter-ego “Bea Dazzler”! Meanwhile, Captain Perkins and Cmdr Jon Sung snuck off for a diplomatic rendezvous with key officers of Region 4 as a part of a covert operation to infiltrate Nichelle Nichols’s hotel suite at the Westin St. Francis, rubbing shoulders with Trek stars up close and personal (but not TOO close: temporal Prime Directive, after all).

On Sunday, experiencing a hangover with a gravitional pull powerful enough to slingshot us back to the 23rd Century, we dispatched a smaller away team of seven officers in TOS uniforms. Several crewmembers continued gathering photo intelligence for their SFSO Covert Convention Ops Challenge, and we enjoyed a measurably lower-key day. After witnessing several proposals from adoring fans to the ever snarky Brent Spiner, we enjoyed the spirited stories of hometown hero George Takei.
While there can’t be any doubt that the USS Loma Prieta made a major splash at the 2012 San Francisco Star Trek Convention, it was not without its cost. Conventions are TOUGH, and this Captain is finally starting to understand why Picard always sent Riker on all the grueling away missions.

Perkins, out. =/=

CAPT Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Captain’s Log (2012.1031): “When Looking To The Stars, Keep Both Eyes Open”


Over the last year and a half I have had the great fortune of serving as the commanding officer of the USS Loma Prieta.  I’d like to thank my crew and senior staff for their hard work and dedication at length, but instead I’ll just let their accomplishments speak for themselves.

Since June of 2011, the USS Loma Prieta has published 10 articles in the Region 4 Newsletter, and 3 in the STARFLEET Communique. We have hosted over 35 away missions, meetings and events, and have never gone a month without an in-person activity.

In that time our crew has collectively earned:
-3 OCC (Officer Command College) certificates with Honors,
-12 OTS (Officer Training School) certificates,
-passed a total of 64 STARFLEET Academy courses,
-received the 2011 Region 4 award for Shakedown Chapter of the Year,
-received the 2011 Region 4 award for Officer of the Year,
-received 4 STARFLEET Awards of Merit,
-earned one place in STARFLEET Academy’s Red Squad,
-and all with a perfect MSR reporting record.

Five of our officers have trained with the San Francisco Fire Department to become certified Disaster Response Volunteers under the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team program. When the next “Loma Prieta” type earthquake strikes San Francisco, the crew of the USS Loma Prieta will be there to help.

In 2012 we began the ‘Federation Aid for Developing World’s’ Program, through which we raised $100 as a Kiva microloan to help get a family run flour production business in Uganda off the ground. Our Stellar Cartography team also founded a SETI @ Home group that has analyzed more data to assist in the search for extraterrestrial life than 79% of all other SETI teams globally.

In August, the USS Loma Prieta achieved its first great piece of PR success when we produced a highly professional Star Trek themed viral video with Discovery Channel’s Revision3. To date, this video has received 95,000 hits on YouTube garnered much needed attention for our chapter, region and fleet.

As I write this summary of our chapter’s accolades, I’ve come to realize that I may very well be the proudest Captain in Region 4, if not all of STARFLEET.  There’s no telling what’s in store for us, but as we head at full warp toward 2013, let’s remember our motto: “When looking to the stars, keep both eyes open”.

Perkins, out. =/=

CAPT Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4