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Eloquent Conversationalist
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 Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:53 pm
NAME OF LOCATION - The Hephaestus System DESCRIPTION - The Hephaestus system is a rather odd system. Unlike most systems where the entire system orbits around a star, Hephaestus Beta, the systems medium yellow star, orbits Hephaestus Prime, a black hole. While normally this would be catastrophic for the area, Hephaestus II is far enough away to be mostly unaffected by the gravity of Hephaestus Prime. It orbits the singularity once every thousand years or so. Hephaestus Beta has two planets, Hephaestus Beta I (Class N) and Hephaestus Beta II (L Class). There is a rather dense asteroid field between Hephaestus Prime and Hephaestus Beta, the remains of what may have been Hephaestus Beta III or IIII when they got ripped apart by the tide forces of Hephaestus Prime. LOCATION - Hephaestus is located in Sector M-13. PEOPLE -The system is uninhabited, but traces of Preserver technology have been found on both worlds. CLIMATE -Hephaestus Beta I is an oxygen rich planet roughly the size of earth. However, other than a few scattered archipelagos at the equator, the planet is mostly water, over 98%. The weather in the island chains is tropical, almost paradise like. Due to solar energy and a large about of water, there is a 52% chance of very large hurricanes. Also because of the relative closeness of Hephaestus Prime there are very dramatic tides of almost 50 feet as the planet reaches its closest point to the Black Hole every year. Hephaestus Beta II is a dead planet. While its orbit isn’t close enough to let it fall into Hephaestus Prime it has been stripped of its atmosphere and is frequented by earthquakes caused by Hephaestus Prime’s Tide forces. It is a hard, dry, airless world. RESOURCES -Hephaestus Beta I has few resources other than perhaps a fishing or tourism industry. The oceans hold massive amount of sea life, many of which can be eaten. Hephaestus Beta II is rich in Tritanium, an ore use to build starships. The geological activity caused by Hephaestus Prime as caused large veins of the Metal to form under the planets surface. However any mining attempt would have to be from orbit as any structure on the planets surface would soon be destroyed by its earthquakes. ASTRONOMICAL DATA - Between Hephaestus Beta II’s closest point to Hephaestus Prime and its Singularity is a very dense asteroid field stretching from just 1000 Kilometers from Hephaestus Beta II to just before Hephaestus Prime’s event horizon. It would be unwise of anyone to venture into this area due to the insane velocities of these orbital debris. While a small ship of Tier 5 or smaller could safely navigate the upper portions of this field, a larger ship would find itself too large to avoid them all. However, even a ship of Defiant Class or smaller would soon run out of luck after too long and would begin to take damage. [[100 damage to shields then hull per turn to Tier 5 and lower.]] [[200 damage to shields then hull per turn to Tier 6 and higher.]] In addition, any vessels venturing into the field will experience massive Gravimetric Shear as the gravitational forces from Hephaestus Prime will literally attempt to rip a starship apart. No amount of protective plating can dampen the effects of this force, and it passes straight through shields, doing damage directly to the starship's hull. Rerouting power to your vessel's structural integrity field can serve to delay the inevitable, but if you do not exit the field, your ship will eventually be destroyed. [[200 damage to hull per turn. Unmitigated.]]
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:33 pm
The Mythic slowed to impulse and began her first scans of the Hephaestus system and even just looking at the view screen they could see this system was unusual. It was almost beyond belief, through out the known galaxy; the Star centered system had been the norm for millions of systems and worlds, not so here. Instead they were now faced with what may be the first example of a Singularity centered system. At the heart of Hephaestus was the crushing might of a black hole, which the Ship’s computer labeled Hephaestus Prime, though one member of the bridge crew dubbed the Singularity “The Maw of Hephaestus.” It was a small Black hole, barely large enough for an event horizon and acted to red and blue shift the nearby stars when viewed from in system. It was orbited by a large debris field that surrounded the singularity in a dense cloud of rock shrapnel.
As for other bodies there was a single medium class star (Dubbed Hephaestus Beta by the computer,) that circled the black hole, just far enough to maintain a stable orbit and to maintain its grip on its planets. Of those planets it appeared that at one point 3 had existed though the outer most seemed to have been destroyed by the tidal forces of the star and its darker brother. Perhaps some clue to that lay in the asteroid field around the Black hole. Of the other planets only was seemed habitable, its surface a royal blue while the other seemed a dead hard rock. The crew of the Mythic could only image the extreme geological activity that must rock the two worlds.
Toko sat in the stellar cartography room, reviewing the incoming data, happy as a schoolboy with a new toy.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:10 pm
Having completed the preliminary scans of the system the Mythic pulled in closer to the system, turning its focus to the systems star, Hephaestus Beta. The Akira class pulled in a close as it could without adversely effecting their ship board systems, modifying their shields to resist the heat and radiation, a technique perfected aboard the Enterprise many years ago. They began by taking high density scans of the star corona, the ships computer identifying patterns in the flow and ebb of the inferno. They were checking for things like abnormal solar flare activity and energy spikes that might indicate a hazardous environment in the area, something ships and outposts in the area would have to be on the look out for. While the computer processed the data they turned the powerful sensors to the first layer of the sun, marking and mapping dark and light spots, micro flares and arcs. Such things could be used to predict future solar activity based on the patterns of the various phenomenon. The very nature of such scans meant the Mythic had to make numerous orbits of the star, recording even the most seemingly unimportant details.
Unfortunately even with modern science it was impossible to view the lower levels of the Stars body, making any estimations on the stars inner makeup based only on the data collected from the surface and corona. Having completed its scans of the star the Mythic backed away to begin reviewing the data it had compiled on the Sun.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:50 pm
After a short journey by impulse tha lasted less then 2 minutes the Mythic found itself in orbit of the first of two planets orbiting the sun, what the computer dubbed Hephaestus Beta I. It was obvious that it was a water world from orbit and as the ships sensors probed the planet it became apparent that the world was N class. This meant that while the planet was oxygen rich and capable of supporting a wide variety of life it was over 98% water. The only real landmasses were a chain of archipelagos located neat the planets equator. The size and number of these islands were hard to determine because one of the more radical features of the planet. As a result of the fairly close proximity of Hephaestus Prime, Hephaestus Beta I was subject to massive tides ranging from 50ft on average to a much as 75ft when the planet was on the far side of the sun where both Hephaestus Prime and Beta could pull from the same direction, causing massive neap tides. Because of this the islands could range in number from thousands to as little as a few hundred. The largest of which was large enough to support at least 7000 people provided precautions were taken against the hurricanes that rocked the islands regularly. It seemed their was a 53% chance of hurricanes on any given day making this a stormy little world of powerful storms and unforgiving tides.
The Islands supported only plant life with the bulk of the planets oxygen being produced by an algae-like organism in the water. These organisms also fed tiny fish, which in turn fed larger and larger beings. The largest seemed to be a massive jellyfish like creature the size of a 22nd century Klingon warbird. Other than being a Hydrologists wet dream there was little interest in the planet as far as resources. It could be a useful point to place a research station, both to study the oceans and to study the nearby Black Hole.
All this data was recorded and subsequently reviewed by the ships scientists before being added to the packet of information being prepared for Starfleet.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:31 pm
Turning its attention from the first world to the second the Mythic entered a very low orbit, something possible by the planets lack of an atmosphere. Hephaestus Beta II was a deaf world. While its brother was a fluid and dynamic world, this barren sibling was a hard cold world of high mountains, deep canyons and raging volcanoes. This was due to its fairly close proximity to the black heart of the system, the unquenchable thirst of the maw of Hephaestus draining away the planets atmosphere.
The forces of the Singularity and the Star tugging at the world causing an increase in the world’s plate tectonics speed and almost unending earthquakes of massive levels. It seemed the entire planet shook with rage at its fate. This was the definition of an L-Class world, dead and lifeless, not even the most primitive of bacteria lived on the surface of this world. As a result of the immense pressures under the surface of Hephaestus Beta II, the planet was rich in Tritanium, one of the primary building materials for starship hulls. The Deposits were seemingly endless as they scanned deeper and deeper into the world’s surface. However it was obvious that any attempt to mine the ore would take and Orbital mining station as anything built on the planet wouldn’t survive a week due to the massive frequent earthquakes.
Once again this data was cataloged with the rest of the data with special note being made on the planets ore deposits.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:14 pm
Having completed its scans of planets, the Mythic turned its attention the asteroid field that stretched from 9000k of the most inward point from Hephaestus Beta II to Hephaestus Prime’s Event Horizon. As you neared the Singularity the field grew thicker and faster the closest being almost untraceable as they were reduced to rubble before being devoured by the Black Hole. It was apparent just from the initial scans that anyone entering the field would begin taking damage from the debris if I they entered anything deeper than the outer layer. As they began scanning the asteroids in greater intensity they discovered that while a number of the rock were normal drift that a black hole would pick up the bulk of the material of was similar composition to the planets of the system. Even more starling was the detection of an object located deep in the field. Interference from the asteroid field and the Black hole made it impossible to identify but it was obviously of an artificial nature and seemed to be able to resist the impacts of numerous asteroids without being destroyed. It was in a slowly decaying orbit that would cause it to fall into the maw of the black hole some time in the next 5 years.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:15 pm
After almost an hour of the main computer chewing away at the data the computer was able to provide a simulation of the genesis of the Hephaestus System. It seemed that the system had at one point been a normal 6-planet system, with the third planet possibly supporting an advance civilization. That changed when the paths of the Star and the Black Hole crossed, capturing the star in a distant orbit. In the chaotic formation of the system the star managed to keep its grip on two of its worlds, abet in highly elliptical orbits.
Two planets, the outer most and the inner most, seemed to have suffered quick deaths, with the outer being devoured by the Hole and the Inner falling into and unusable orbit that caused it to fall into its star. Still 2 more were destroyed by the tidal forces of the Black Hole creating the asteroid field they saw now. After 10 millennia of chaos the system had settled down into the fairly stable form it now sported though the computer predicted slow deaths for both the remaining planets and the Star. That, however, was so far into the future, that the likelihood that the federation even still existing seemed unlikely.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:28 pm
Toko desperately longed to recover the object but at present it was beyond this means, what ever it was may hold some information on the system itself. His head swam with possibilities as he stood in the holodeck,, surrounded by a simulation of the Hephaestus System. Maybe the object was a artifact of a civilization that lived here before the Black Hole had changed everything here. If so what had they had outposts or colonies on the other worlds of the system. He quickly reviewed the data he had been presented with, looking for any indication of an artificial anything on any of the worlds. As he looked at the data two items jumped out at him, odd reading in the geological surveys of the two worlds. He rushed out of the deck, saving the program and rushing for the turbolift. This was something he had to get a second look at.
Moments later the Mythic turned and headed back to the nearest of the two worlds. As the same time a message was sent to DS12, inquiring to the wear about of a certain Ambassador with a flare for archeology.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:01 pm
As the Mythic reentered orbit around Hephaestus Beta I Toko ordered the ships sensors to focus on a small island just off of the largest on the planet. It was situated in the middle of an oddly circular bay on the northern shore of the landmass. As they gave the Island a more thorough scanning they detected a structure in the center of the island. From orbit it seemed like nothing more than an odd pattern in the ground. Toko took a few moments to check the local weather conditions and found they had a three-hour window before a rather nasty hurricane hit the area. “Commander Martinez, assemble an away team. I want you to investigate that structure on the Planet below, record everything.” He said looking at his first officer. “Aye, sir. Ensign Johnson, your with me.” The two stood and walked to the turbolift to be whisked away to the transporter. They were joined by two members of security and the ships head science officer, Dr.Benson, a nervous man who checked his tricorder regularly.. Moments later the group of 5 beamed down to the surface of the world below them, less then 50 feet from a very man made archway leading to a circular depression in the ground. And in its center stood an elongated pyramidal shaped obelisk, covered with alien symbols. Martinez gapped as he realized what he was looking at, a structure simalar to that descovered by Captain Kirk years ago...
A structure built by the Preservers...
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:57 pm
It was half an hour later and 12 of the Mythic’s scientists were crawling over the site, studying the area with near obsessive interest. As far as they could tell the object was completely drained of its power and unable to activate even the most basic of its functions and at the federations current level of technology their was no way or duplicating such a power source, A few of the scientists theorized that if the Object was indeed like the one discovered by Captain Kirk that perhaps the belief that it was only a asteroid defector was a bit limited. If it had a more broad purpose of protecting a planet from natural space borne disasters than perhaps it explained the survival of this work in the nearly apocalyptic arrival of the Hephaestus Prime Singularity. As soon as the Obelisk had been discovered Captain Akumu had immediately ordered a shuttlecraft to HB II [Hephaestus Beta II] to examine the other sensor anomaly. They had taken the shuttlecraft to the location and had hovered less then 3 meters over the ground, studying a second Obelisk, this one even more heavily damaged than the one on HB I. It appeared than even though the Obelisks had maintained the world’s orbits to an extent they had been drained dry by the task.
Toko could only guess at the impact this might have on the quadrant and the Federation Science Division. It raised a number of questions however, only one of these Obelisks had ever been discovered before in all of the Federations explored space. How important had this system been to the Preservers? Was the doomed ship in the Hephaestus Prime Asteroid Field a Preserver vessel? Could it be saved and if so could it be rescued?
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:07 pm
Toko sat on the bridge of the Mythic, reviewing the data they had gathered so far. The implications of this discovery and even the vague possibility of recovering the vessel intrigued him to no end. He smiled to himself as he looked over a request from nearly every scientist on the vessel to DS12 to build Science Outpost on Hephaestus Bets I for Archeological, Astronomy and Hydrology… a request he supported with fully. He ordered the ship to do a final sweep through the system then turned away from what they had discovered. The Mythic broke orbit over the world of Hephaestus Beta I and powered out of the system at half impulse before jumping to warp 8, bound for DS12.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:14 pm
NAME OF LOCATION:
> The Hephaestus System
DESCRIPTION:
> The Hephaestus system is a rather odd system. Unlike most systems where the entire system orbits around a star, Hephaestus Beta, the systems medium yellow star, orbits Hephaestus Prime, a black hole. While normally this would be catastrophic for the area, Hephaestus II is far enough away to be mostly unaffected by the gravity of Hephaestus Prime. It orbits the singularity once every thousand years or so. Hephaestus Beta has two planets, Hephaestus Beta I (Class N) and Hephaestus Beta II (L Class). There is a rather dense asteroid field between Hephaestus Prime and Hephaestus Beta, the remains of what may have been Hephaestus Beta III or IIII when they got ripped apart by the tide forces of Hephaestus Prime.
LOCATION:
> M-15
PEOPLE:
> Uninhabited; Traces of Preserver technology have been found on both worlds.
CLIMATE :
> Hephaestus Beta I is an oxygen rich planet roughly the size of earth. However, other than a few scattered archipelagos at the equator, the planet is mostly water, over 98%. The weather in the island chains is tropical, almost paradise like. Due to solar energy and a large about of water, there is a 52% chance of very large hurricanes. Also because of the relative closeness of Hephaestus Prime there are very dramatic tides of almost 50 feet as the planet reaches its closest point to the Black Hole every year.
> Hephaestus Beta II is a dead planet. While its orbit isn’t close enough to let it fall into Hephaestus Prime it has been stripped of its atmosphere and is frequented by earthquakes caused by Hephaestus Prime’s Tide forces. It is a hard, dry, airless world.
RESOURCES:
> Hephaestus Beta I has few resources other than perhaps a fishing or tourism industry. The oceans hold massive amount of sea life, many of which can be eaten.
Hephaestus Beta II is rich in Tritanium, an ore use to build starships. The geological activity caused by Hephaestus Prime as caused large veins of the Metal to form under the planets surface. However any mining attempt would have to be from orbit as any structure on the planets surface would soon be destroyed by its earthquakes.
ASTRONOMICAL DATA:
> Hephaestus Beta I and II orbit Hephaestus Beta and Hephaestus Beta orbits Hephaestus Prime. Between Hephaestus Beta II’s closest point to Hephaestus Prime and the Singularity is a very dense asteroid field stretching from just 1000 Kilometers from Hephaestus Beta II to just before Hephaestus Prime’s event horizon. It is due to the extreme speeds needed for these rocks to remain in orbit of the black hole (The closer the faster) it would be unwise of anyone venturing into this area. While a small ship of movement priotiry 5 or smaller could safely navigate the upper portions of this field, a larger ship would find is deflector array overwhelmed in minutes, followed shortly by his shield and his hull. However, even a ship of Defiant Class or smaller would soon run out of luck after to long and would begin to take damage.
[[100 damage to shields then hulls per turn to Tier 5 and lower.
200 to Tier 6 and above]]
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:21 pm
 43rd Fleet - Alpha Flight
Fleet Comp: USS Mythic, USS Stonewall
Akira Class[Heavy Fire Support//Carrier Variant], Nova Class Science Vessel
Fleet Captain Toko Akumu Commanding
Status: Red [Shields up, Weapons Armed]
Squadron Status: Red Flight [5 on station]
Course and Speed:Nil, In orbit around Hephestus Beta I [Post 6 of 11]
Hull:6000
Shields2400 [Regen Shields Negate 40% Damage]
Shield Emitters:1200 [Emitter Mats Negate 30% Damage]
Engines:1470
Sensors:1260
Weapons:
Phasers: 6 Type XI Phasers [11 x 1d10]
Torpedos: 160 Photon Torps[130dmg], 60 Quantum Torps[180dmg]
"The Gods Protect the Strong"
- Quote on Commission Plate With a series of flashes the 7 Vessels dropped out of warp and entered a fairly high orbit around the first planet in the system Hephestus Beta I. It was here that the USS Epyon left the task force to take up a post near the growing Science station that was underconstruction above the world. As the small vessel left the small fleet, another joined the Mythic, the Nova Class USS Stonewall. Captain Akumu was in no rush to leave the system, taking the time to bid the crew of the Epyon fairwell and to greet the captain of the Stonewall. He also contacted the Outpost commander and extend his wel wishes. He had a great personal interest in the system, having been the ship to do the indepth survey of the system, the survey that had brought the perserver tech to Starfleets attention. However, duty called and soon the ships turned and left the system, moving along at the Stonewalls maxium allowed speed, Warp 5. 
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Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 11:27 am
The Claymore and Sau Paulo drop out of warp as they enter the Hephaestus system. George Marcus and captain Griffon of the Sau Paulo exchange good-byes as the Sau Paulo begins its assigned duties. After a well deserved week of shore leave the Crew of the Claymore prepare to leave the system. The USS Epyon then Joins the Claymore in formation and the two ships prepare to leave the system. After a final exchange of formalities with the Outpost Commander the two ships leave the system for DS12 at warp 6.
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