Obsidian Fleet – A Year in Review

A slim woman walked up to the news desk and took her seat. She wore a nice plain suit and her make up was tastefully done, unlike many of her predecessors. She smiled, teeth gleaming. “Welcome, I am Kara Danvers, and Welcome to the OF News, a fleet retrospective.” She paused as if to gather herself

“The year that has been 2396 so far has been one of ups and downs for the Obsidian Fleet of Starfleet. One where rumour and truth often contended for supremacy. And it has been our pleasure here at the Federation News Service to bring these stories to you all, so you are more aware of the struggles of the fleet. Now to begin, let us go to Arthur for the Year that Was retrospective!” She waved an elegant hand and the camera panned across to a tall, shaggy white-haired man, dressed in an ill-fitting suit. 

Arthur nervously cleared his throat. “Uh.. thank you Lara.. sorry Kara.” he ducked his head. “So, let’s begin,” he said the words in a rush. “So 2396 started off recovering from the year 2395, where things were a lot less panicked. But now, we have a few new things happening.”  

He ran a hand through his messy hair and continued.

“So in January Obsidian Fleet Started off, well for lack of a better word, poorly, with a ship missing.The USS Cassiopeia went missing without a trace after it was dispatched to study an anomaly. And all Obsidian Fleet could say was ‘no comment’ it seemed to be a wary start, but not for long when the Sons of Cheron coming to the fore. The Sons of Cheron were founded shortly after the Dominion War.  Their policies have always been focused on strengthening the Federation’s military arm while removing the Federation from the Khitomer Accords and cutting ties with protectorates. Their politics have been relegated to the backbench and whatever momentum they thought they had it was cut off by the antics of the Captain of the Elysium! The incompetent captain of the USS Elysium was sent to assist the planet of Cortic VI, A terraformed colony, Settled around 150 years ago, was suffering from a spate of natural disasters. It was, to put it mildly, a disaster for the ship and the people on the planet.” 

He paused as if to draw breath. 

“Then in February, the Higher ups of Obsidian Fleet known Triad, worked with other branches of the Starfleet to host a gathering of captains and their crews, all in one place! Just who was defending our borders while this party of booze and frivolity was happening??!” As he spoke the screen behind him was filled with images of ships, command crew and admirals. 

He turned wild eyes to the screen. 

“So that brings us to march and you would think that the Fleet would have solved their Mysterious disappearance issues but it is not to be! Here we have the USS Nogura, under the command of Admiral Harrington vanishing and the captain of the Majestic being kidnapped by Pirates! COME ON PEOPLE Where is the security!?!?! And then Scientists went missing at the medical conference at Risa, and the ship sent there to attend the conference, ended up self quarantining due to an unknown pathogen!”

 He waved a hand over the image of the Nightingale

 “A MEDICAL SHIP PEOPLE!” He took a breath.  Then in April, there was an explosion on Starbase 122 which killed 346 people! The explosion, which went off in the station’s residential section in the early hours, destroyed nearly a quarter of the residential section, forcing many residents to evacuate their homes, while station authorities began their investigation into the incident. While early estimates had the death toll at just over 100, it has now been confirmed that 346 people were killed when an explosive device destroyed one of the structures that provided support for the upper decks of residential section C. A visit by the USS Sarek in may mark the one month anniversary as they dropped off passengers, and workers, coming to take part in services or to provide help with relief efforts. And survivors joined the crew of the Sarek in paying their respects to the departed. And just when you thought bombing was done with…Starbase 308 had an explosion. What is it with this fleet and Bombs, Missing Starships, missing people, boozy evenings and people who cannot control their crew!?! Something should be done don’t you think!?!” 

He moved to tap a picture of Admiral Myrkul Sharr. 

“THIS Man has to do something before it gets worse! Can it get worse? Yes, it can!!!” 

He gulped water from a tall glass, spilling some of it down his suit.

“BECAUSE in this man’s infinite wisdom, which has included letting a 25-year old become captain of his previously commanded ship, he has let Rear Admiral Cornelius Harrington take command of a Taskforce and lookie lookie, two ships decommissioned – Well what can you do when the two commanding officers are just plain reckless!?!? One commodore in disgrace and the man has more children then we can count, along with more women! THEN he assigned a commodore to take over his own command while he waltzes off into the sunset, resulting in the destruction of the Nogura and the loss of one of his senior staff!” 

Arthur staggered across the screen pointing to different things on the screen as he spoke.And it seemed his pointing was very random. 

 “Then in the month of June 2396 they chose to celebrate, wait for it! Obsidian Day! WHAT? Why would you want to celebrate the birth of this fleet? Well according to sources, it is a chance to bring all the captains together and celebrate what OF Does best. Ok.. can someone tell me what that was again? ANYWAY moving on! Now we move into August and what do we find?The USS Defiant, one of the many Temporal Anomalies within the Fleet, being sent off to investigate an extragalactic object of unknown origin which was on course to arrive in a region of the Perseus Arm, outside of Federation territory. Yes, sound thinking I am sure, sending a Temporal Anomaly to investigate another anomaly! And look there, a diplomatic summit at Starbase 621, all the while the highly incompetent Captain Lalor is listed as missing along with her command crew and some upstart Lieutenant Commander attempted to have Her Royal Highness Miram Lalor, sister of Captain Lalor and a political refugee with Federation citizenship, removed from the Elysium and sent back to her homeworld, a move that would have ended in the death of the 16-year-old Princess. Wonderful people, we have in this fleet ladies and gentlemen, but hey look there the command crew is rescued and everything is back on an even keel or so we thought!” 

He tugged at the now standing up tufts of hair on his head. 

“IS nothing ever simple with this lot?!?!” he all but screamed at the camera.

He took a shuddering breath. 

“Then Rear Admiral Cornelius Harrington Is back in the news again! And this time it looks like his past is catching up with him! Several officers missing, one AWOL, and one MIA- presumed dead and this one the supposed love of the admiral’s life, 2 children born out of wedlock, with a woman he is now living with! The man needs to have his head examined! Admiral Harrington has a propensity for being a womanizer and when we study his Task Force we see a highly concerning rate of female promotions and the highly bizarre transfer of one Commodore Yoshi Minawara, CO of the USS Vesta to another Task Force. Admiral Harrington has recently promoted Captain Jane Saulitis of the USS Majestic to Task Group CO in the Commodore’s place. The captain, recently married, has been seen walking with the Admiral, ostensibly discussing deployments, but to our sources, are very close. What is strange is the fact that her promotion comes on the heels of the transfer. Surely there are other officers out there who would have been better suited? And just why was the Commodore transferred so abruptly? Did he find the admiral in a delicate position with one of the many female CO’s? Well, we will never know because the admiral refuses to comment, but what a horrible start to the year for this TFCO! And not to mention one of his presumed parmours has a streaker problem, highlighting more issues of incompetence within the Once Proud Obsidian Fleet! Something must be done!”

Arthur was now swirly eyed and flushed as he raised his arms as he ranted! And his voice cracked as he continued. 

“We implored the vaunted TRIAD of Admirals Sharr, Du Lac and Sepandiyar to do something to bring this year to a proper end,and you know what they did? They smiled, toasted us with the finest whiskey and locked us out of the annual Captains ball! That and threatened our reporter with a meeting with the Mythological beast known as FLUFFY!! *Here an image of a mythological 3 headed dog appeared behind him.* “And that wraps the Obsidian Fleet Report, back to you Sara!” 

He collapsed in a heap on the floor and the camera swung back to the main desk swiftly as medical personnel swarmed him. 

Kara stared shocked at the now collapsed and crazed man before giving the camera a half smile. “Thank you for watching.” she got out and the feed was cut and was replaced by the wording: 

=/=THIS HAS BEEN A BROADCAST BY THE FNS=/=

OOC: Our source material – With thanks to the various authors and suppliers of material and a BIG Thanks to Becca AKA Communications Goddess, Queen of the Announcements and Admiral of Advertising for her support with this. And a HUGE THANK YOU to Admiral ‘I have too many children to count’ Neil Harrington for his backing of this article. 

https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/01/04/uss-cassiopeia-gone-missing-near-hundari-void/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/01/03/sons-of-cheron-a-voice-to-be-heard/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/01/01/and-again-the-incompetence-of-the-uss-elysiums-co-comes-to-the-fore/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/02/13/project-khitomer-schedule-and-discord/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/03/20/head-to-head-with-cassandra-angel/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/03/13/majestics-captain-kidnapped-by-pirates/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/03/09/starship-disappears/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/05/25/citizens-mourn-victims-of-starbase-122-bombing/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/05/24/bombing-on-starbase-308/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/06/29/commodore-rice-appointed-to-the-uss-nogura/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/06/22/kates-ramblings/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/06/01/commodore-stripped-of-command-and-ship/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/08/28/frontier-diplomacy/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/08/13/elysium-command-crew-rescued-while-questions-abound/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/08/09/starfleet-detects-extragalactic-object-uss-defiant-sent-to-investigate/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/09/29/admiral-harrington-a-wicked-web/
https://www.obsidianfleet.net/2019/10/05/uss-majestic-streaker-foul/