Artemis – USS Loma Prieta • NCC-26848

2013.05022014.0614

CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER’S LOG (2013.0223): #BATTLESTATIONS!

[ABOVE: The view from the Main Bridge]

Per Starfleet regulations, the USS Loma Prieta has long since conducted shipboard tactical drills with great regularity. Finding current systems somewhat lacking, the crew sought out a third-party provider for our simulations, and not too long ago happened across a promising holodeck program called “ARTEMIS”. This wasn’t our first go around with a major ARTEMIS based tactical simulation, but it was by far our most ambitious, involving many other ships and crews. The fleet-wide drills were headed up by our First Officer, CMDR Jon Sung, and the ship’s Tactical Officer, LT(jg) Michael Owens. Accompanying them were Chief Engineer LCDR Tom Hesser and myself.

Utilizing co-working spaces in Starfleet Headquarters San Francisco (a location code named: WeWork), we set up two mock bridges and began running the simulations. As part of an unofficial recruiting effort for Starfleet, the decision was made to bring in civilians so they could see the amazing opportunities that existed in the high-stakes, fast-paced life of a starship bridge. The simulation was a bigger success than was originally planned, and ended up being attended by over 120 people. We even had the pleasure of having the commanding officer of the USS Golden Gate, Admiral David Nottage, in attendance along with several of his Marines from the 49th MSG and 13th MEU, as well as a civilian scientist Brian Johnson representing the creators of the ARTEMIS system.

[ABOVE: CAPT Perkins tackles the Gorn and the crowd goes wild]

There was only a slight security breach: a Gorn prisoner broke loose from his shackles, overpowered me and the Marines from the USS Golden Gate, and attacked our commanding officer, CAPT Zach Perkins. Thankfully the Captain, being an honors graduate of the “James T Kirk School of Hand to Hand Combat”, swiftly took down the Gorn in a matter of seconds. It didn’t take me long to recover, and I quickly took the Gorn back into custody for immediate evac. The rest of the evening went off without a hitch (save for a few technical difficulties that were quickly tended to by LCDR Hesser).

[ABOVE: LT(jg) Nicole Lippman, EN Tiffany Bukowski, LT(jg) Ben Roodman]

I must make mention of the incredible Ten-Forward staff we had on

hand, headed up by EN Tiffany Bukowski, EN Kelly Jensen, and LT(jg) Nicole Lippman. Manning the airlock/front of house was LT(jg) Casey Koon, EN Jessie Philipp, EN Andrew Rogge and LT(jg) Ben Roodman. At some point in the evening, there might have been a slight malfunction with the synthahol replicators, because they neither tasted like nor had the same effect (or lack there of) as true synthehol. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that some people might have been … intoxicated. Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to grossly affect the quality of the various bridge crews — in fact, it made the simulations almost infinitely more fun. If only I could have gotten away with that in my Academy days!

Due to the event’s overwhelming success, Starfleet has asked us hold yet another ARTEMIS tactical simulation. After some system upgrades, we’ll definitely be doing this again in the near foreseeable future. Look for us under the code name: #BATTLESTATIONS.

Until then,

Roberts out.

=/= CAPT Erik Roberts

Chief Security Officer

USS Loma Prieta

Starfleet, Region 4

Team Leader

ADU-008 “Section 8”

Starfleet Special Operations

2012.09182014.0614

First Officer’s Log (2012.0917): August 2012 Artemis Tactical Simulations – “Peak Performance”

[Above: CMDR Sung mans the helm station]

If you like Star Trek and you haven’t played Artemis yet, I don’t know what to tell you. Wait, I do: you should play Artemis. You’ve probably got a laptop that can run it. Find five other people who do, too, plus a TV you can connect one of the computers to, and you’ve got yourself a bridge crew.

Or you could find a friend with an office space, a wide-throw digital projector, and the best crew in Starfleet. You might end up making a video like this one with some friends:

And that was the FIRST run of the night, with the reckless and bloodthirsty Anthony Carboni of Rev3Games in the big chair.

Our next mission featured the crew of the USS Loma Prieta herself, with Captain Zach Perkins in command. I would give a complete roster, but the stresses of taking the helmsman position prevented me from paying attention to much other than flying the ship. Flying the ship to victory. [Captain’s addendum, our crew was: Cmdr Sung on helm, Capt Roberts on tactical, LtCmdr Hesser on engineering, Lt Dolgoff on sciences, and Lt(jg) Roodman on communications]

[Above: CAPT Perkins takes the big chair and CAPT Roberts sets up at tactical]

The rest of the night consisted of civilian crews taking to the bridge, some in various states of inebriation that may have helped or hindered; I’m not sure. But they were all awesome. We agreed we had to do it again.

And so we did! For the second night a handful of days later, we gathered some of the first night’s participants and more of the USS Loma Prieta crew, and made some important discoveries:

The Artemis missile gunboat is a fearsome engine of destruction and surprising vulnerability
Engineers make excellent captains but need some training on the use of shields
Space monsters can be an effective if unexpected ally when dealing with massed enemy fleets

It was more fun than we’d ever had. However. We’d long wondered what would happen if we could get another ship’s worth of computers together and try to fly two ships at once: would it be possible to double our fun? No. We quadrupled it. At least.

[Above: The USS Loma Prieta crew on the main bridge]

It turns out that having two ships in the same sector, flying under two different captains, with communications officers talking to each other via FaceTime on dedicated iPads, is at least four times as much fun as it is with just one. The fun expands exponentially (I would expect a third ship to increase the fun by nine).

For our third and last night in the space formerly occupied by Bolt | Peters, we once again assembled the bridge of the USS Artemis, but in the empty upstairs office, the bridge of the USS Intrepid came online. iPads with FaceTime were set by the communications stations, and our missions began. And they were amazing.

We were thinking about trying to battle each other, real Wrath of Khan style, but we had much more fun tackling enemy fleets together, coordinating our movements and battle tactics, warning each other when nukes were being deployed, taking turns flying cover and staging raids on enemy fleets. It was outstanding.

We said goodbye to the Bolt | Peters space that night with simulated battles and a lot of booze, which may explain why we thought it was a good idea to try something at the very end of the night that I later dubbed “WOLFPACK MODE.” We took four computers and made each one an entire ship. Yes, an entire ship: one person manned all five stations, switching between them as best he could, with the highest-ranking officer (me) assuming strategic command of our battle fleet. And we did it! It was not without its travails — we nearly lost one ship — but we emerged victorious after a lot of planning, communication, and frantic, frantic multitasking.

I think it’s been definitively proven: Artemis is the most fun any Star Trek fan with a computer and some buddies can have, full stop. But we may not stop there. You have been warned.

=/= CMDR Jon Sung
Executive Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

[Above: VICTORY!!!]