About Starbase Serenity
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Introduction and Background
6 months prior to the current stardate, the starship U.S.S. Leviathan was sent into and area of space known colloquially as "The Void" (the barren region between the Sagittarius and Scutum Arms of the Milky Way Galaxy) to investigate the disappearance of the destroyer U.S.S. Spica, assigned as last-minute escort for freighters moving goods between Starfleet bases on her way to Starbase Omega. Her investigation took them a little beyond normal shipping lanes, and that was where she came into contact with dozens of defensive probes...and received a warning signal: "You are trespassing- leave now or be destroyed." Starfleet Command had no knowledge of any intelligent species in The Void.
At the time of the signal, Starbase Serenity was simply a deep-space station in between the main body of the Federation on the coreward edge of the Sagittarius Arm and where Indigo Fleet is on the rimward edge of the Scutum Arm that functioned, primarily, as a logistics hub: fuel depot, parts disbursement hub, personnel transport hub, etc. However, given that Earth is approximately 6,000 light years away, and Starbase Omega is 3-4,000 tc light years away (making Serenity the closest Starfleet installation to the probes and the signal and, presumably, to the civilization to whom they belong), Starfleet Command decided it would be in their best interest to increase their presence on the station in this previously-all-but-ignored region of space.
The Station
Where It Is
Starbase Serenity is a Star Core-class space station in orbit around the class-M moon of the gas giant planet Antilla IV in the Antilla system. There are several other moons in orbit around Antilla IV; however, they are nothing more than small-to-medium sized rocks (perhaps rich in exotic minerals). While the moon around which Starbase Serenity orbits has no sentient life forms inhabiting it, it DOES have a few large predator species that could make visiting the moon interesting, and potentially dangerous.
The official Starfleet designation of Starbase Serenity is Deep Space 451.
Star Core- class Space Stations
Serenity is a modular type station, designed to be flexible and expandable. Standard design incorporates 5 modules- Alpha (Operations/Officer Quarters), Beta (Flight Operations/Main Engineering), Gamma (Civilian), Delta (Civilian/Auxiliary Operations), and Omega (Sciences/Crew Quarters); all modules have 12 decks except for Beta, which has 11 (with slightly higher ceilings). Typically, a station like Serenity has a complement of 3,550 crew, officers, and Marines.
After receipt of the signal, Starfleet has tentative plans to expand the station by adding additional modules.
The station's specifications and deck plans are available for your reference.
It has also become customary for deep space stations to have smaller starships attached directly to the base, manned by base personnel, for their own purposes; Serenity is no exception. Starbase Serenity will have three such ships: USS Vigilant, USS Tiayang Shen, and USS Daystrom.
Information on the ships attached to Serenity is available for your reference.
The Moon
The moon around Antilla IV had simply been the locale around which the starbase orbited; now, however, given the increased Marine presence, it is the home of the "Marine Annex" of the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. Serenity is only designed to house 140 Marines per module, for a grand total of 560; the expeditionary brigade now assigned to Serenity will have approximately 3,000 Marines, including a flight wing. Eventually, Serenity will have enough modules to house the task force's brigade; until that time, however, the Marines are constructing a temporary home on the moon. Only the brigade's flight wing remains on-station.
Information on the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is available for your reference.
Role-Play Information and Guide
Starbase Serenity, given its extreme distance from anything before the signal, was, to put it mildly, an "undesirable" assignment; it was essentially a place where people's careers died. Those assigned to Serenity tended to be those who had done something to anger their superiors, who had screwed up one too many times, or who have just tended to coast through their deployments. As such, the collection of officers and ratings on Serenity, 6 months ago, was far from "The Pride of Starfleet." Their jobs were simple and mundane: cargo transfers and refueling- the jobs no recruitment vid ever shows.
While the receipt of the signal and the discovery of something intelligent nearby in The Void has made Serenity suddenly important, old habits die hard; there is a culture of mediocrity engrained in Serenity, and this will be something our characters will need to deal with, because while better caliber officers and ratings are rotating on-station, and have been for the past few months game-time, not everyone has been replaced- we WILL have more than a few bad apples. Furthermore, reputations die hard; anyone assigned to Serenity, even now, is likely not to look kindly on the assignment. These things affect attitude and, by extension, morale. Rebuilding the professional culture of the station will be one of the primary character development tasks on station; as the department heads, it will be up to each of our characters to work on this within our specific departments.
We will be endeavoring to do this at the same time we are dealing with the signal. That will form the basis of our first station mission: discover who sent the signal, and engage them in discussion- in other words, a first-contact opportunity. Low morale and apathetic attitudes could definitely affect the success or failure of our mission. So it IS a complication we must deal with and overcome in order to do our job.
Rear Admiral Cayle Veld is the task group commander; she will definitely pressure Commander Bennett to see that his officers address these things. But, other than background task group stuff and some character development. RADM Veld, Brigadier Molly Sharpe, Captain Yuri Kazhdenin, Captain Riv April, and the rest of the task group ships will not be playing a role in the mission itself other than supporting our efforts (in fact, the major ships of the task group will be delayed in arriving on-scene). The mission is for us- the station. We will use our attached ships- the Vigilant, the Tiayang Shen (nod to The Martian), and the Fireball- to get to where we need to go.
The Task Group
Part of Starfleet's buildup of the area of operation is to include assigning a task force to the area, and make Starbase Serenity the headquarters for this new formation. This formation, predictably called "Task Group Serenity" will consist of three capital ships and their screening elements, and will act as support for the starbase and the entire area of operation.
Composition
- U.S.S. Circe NCC-27000-A- CAPT Yuri Kazhdenin ([Austin Forsyth). Circe will serve as RADM Veld's flagship when she is not on-station.
- USS Leviathan NCC-25002- CAPT Rivenda April (Scott Lusby).
- USS Constellation NCC-1017-G- CAPT Akiko Oda (Andrew F.).
- Various DD/DE/FF screening elements
Admiral Veld will spend the bulk of her time on-station, but is not in command of the station; she is in command of the task group as a whole.
Further information on the ships comprising Task Group Serenity is available for your reference.
