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Welcome to Code Name D's Fan Fiction Underdround

That is, if you work to make it so.  The truth is, you will get out of Soul Trek, what you put into it.  But once you get to know the rules of the game, and the regulations under witch you play, you will find that Soul Trek is in fact a vary easy going and light hearted place to spend some of your free time.  The truth is that many of these rules were born out of necessity and hesitantly put into place.  Other than that however, the officers of Soul Trek feel that rules and regulations hinder Soul Trek's true function.  To be fun.  Above all else, remember that.  Have a good time. 

I have been a writer for all my life it seems all though I have yet to see any thing published.  And yet I have found many challenges here to further my art as a writer.

But most of our number in Soul Trek is not an accomplished authors or professors or writing.  Indeed, many are just starting to pick up the basics of writing.  Our writers are as young as 15, and some of our most valued members might even be said to have no writing talent what so ever.  But not only are all welcome, but valued here.  Some evens have English as a second language.

The reason is this is a place where we call can indulge in the fantasies of being Star Fleet officers.  The quality of writing just doesn’t really figure that prominently into the formula.  If you have an imagination, and are willing to pull into a team effort, you WILL do well here. Even the desire to learn the art of writing is not a perquisite. (All though it is highly recommended.)

Your character is your first step.  And the best advice's I can give you here is keep him or her simple.

Do you remember Lt. Worf?   When Michele Dorn started the role, he was basically a token character.  Just another expendable security officer in a red suit.  But in time, he was fleshed out and became one of the most complex and interesting characters in Start Trek to date.

My point here is, you only need to start your character out with the basics and go from there.  Your bio-profile is a good starting point.  But even not every thing in the profile needs to be filed out just yet.  Keep in mind that the bio-profile is also meant to be updated buy more signor players as well.  Their characters are bound to have more history.

One thing to keep in mind however.  NO SUPER MEN.  I can not stress this enough.  In normal role playing, you will want to prepare your character as best as you can for what ever he/she may face.  The stronger, the better.  As many fighting and magic skills and the GM will let you get away with.

But here in Soul Trek, things just do not work that way.   Here an average or even a challenging character will prove far more rewording than any supped up psy-ninja.  In fact, the more challenges that your character starts out with, the more interesting a character he/she will be in the long run.

• Race – We here at Soul Trek love alien races.  Not just Klingons and Vulcans, but the Budos, Cepts, and Nenicks as well.  In fact the more original the character, the more interesting he/she/it will be to write.
• Sex
• Name – The best names are short names, while long names can be a clear pain because they have to be written over and over and over again.  Long names are also difficult to remember.  If you're going to use a long name, then also provide a short nick name.
• Personality – Just the basics.  Is he/she a pleasant person, or a hard ass.  My best advice is too keep in mind your one personality as well.  If you pleasant and easy going, writing for an asshole will become a chore real quick.  Here again, simple is usually better.  This will give you plenty of room to explore your character in the future.
• History
• Agenda – All good characters have goals that they wish to achieve.  But some goals are more interesting that others and can be major driving forces in the growth of your character.  For example, in your history you may say your wife was taken buy the Borg.  Your agenda will be to get her back.
• Skills – If history is you're past, your agenda your future, then your skills are your present.  Unlike conventional role playing, your do not have to spell our the skills of your character.  But what your character knows know reflects on there past and on there future.  Your Engineer may have grown up in an old auto-shop, and draw warm friendly memories from the smell of oil.  A doctor may remember picking up exurbs with his/her mother.
• Physical appearance – As I have observed, the most neglected feature of any new character, is the features themselves.  You want to focus on the features that stand out, and would grab some one attention when they are first spotted.  For example, let's say "she" is usually tall, say 7 feet.  A preverbal amazon.  Your first impression will be being extremely tall, and that will be the first thing others will notice about you.  But only if you keep that in mind for the next step to come.

Who knows, you may even want to try another ship.  Perhaps you wanted to be an engineer before, but there were no open slots.  Well, now one has opened up.  Do take advantage of it.  Just be sure to let the Captain know a little ahead of time.

Describe yourself. – Remember your physical appearance?  If it is something striking like a seven foot tall female, then that is bound to be the first thing others will notice of you.  It should be the first words in your post.

Don't worry about the rest of the crew. – Hay, you just got here.  You are not expected to know the personalities or names of every one.  Your also bound to find out that the crew rooster is probably not up to date.  Just don't worry about it.  You have two approaches you can use.  Use your average "walk on, walk off" character, like brief chats with a transporter chief or nameless crew man.  Or if you want to use the name of a signor staff member, keep it formal.

Brevity is your friend. – You do not have to write a twenty page introduction.  In general, your post should not go beyond three pages.  Even a post as short as a few paragraphs is acceptable.

You're first impression of the ship.  / A reflection on your assignment. – You can not see a personality.  If you can't see it, how do you physically describe it?  Easy.  You exercise your character's opinions.   Opinions on what ever are likely to strike your character first.  If he/she is human, it will probably be about the ship and crew that you encounter.  If you're alien, then the human crew itself my give you something to think about.

Until then, go to the bar and have a few drinks, take a trip to the holo-deck for some water skiing.  There will be work enough for you to do soon enough.

But your hardly limited to just what you see on the posts.  Go ahead and e-mail or ICQ your new ship mates.  I know for a fact they will be eager to talk to you.  Feel free to ask them any thing you want.

You are not usually permitted a lackey until you reach a full Lieutenant.  Even then only if the Captain approves.  The Captain will be reluctant to let one player fill two slots when that slot could be filled by another writer.

Soulfleet Honorary Rank	Starfleet	Astromarines	Civilian	Klingon
Admiral	Admiral	General		General
Ship's Captain	Captain	Colonel	Captain	Captain
Ship's 1st Officer  (Ship's Editor)	Commander	Lieutenant Colonel	First Officer	Captain's Warrior
Senior Officer	Lieutenant Commander	Major	Commander	Warrior Superior
Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Captain	Lieutenant	Warrior Major
Jag Lieutenant	Jag Lieutenant	First Lieutenant	Ensign	Warrior
New Writer	Ensign	Second Lieutenant	Seaman	Warrier Minor
	Cadet	Warrant Officer		Grand Soldier
	Chief  >>>‡+  >>>‡  >>>+	Sergeant  <<<+))))  <<<+)))  <<<+))		Soldier Major  ‡‡‡‡‡  ‡†‡†‡  ‡|‡|‡
	Petty Officer  >>>  >>  >	Corporal  <<<+)  <<<+  <<+		Soldier of Arms  ‡‡‡  †‡†  |‡|
	Crewman  ///  //  /	Privet  <+  <  +		Klingon of Arms  ‡  †  |

Vulcan did have a military starfleet and a standing army of sorts.  But it was more geared to handling local disasters and evacuations.  The Vulcan variation of the police was largely an unarmed force.  Had the Romulans broken thought, Vulcan would have been ridiculously easy to take.  What was more, Starfleet didn't have any capacity for a ground invasion at the time.  Even approaching the planet would have been difficult.

To further stress the need.  Many worlds had never had any form of military at all.  Such as the Betazeds.  Warfare for them is remarkably difficult sense friend and foe alike feel the physical and emotional anguish of the misery war brings.

Finally, an Astromarine force was sanctioned as its own branch of the military, separate from Starfleet.  The function of the Astromarine is literally, the power to take a world throw ground action, approaching a occupied or hostile world, dropping troops from orbit, and taking and holding ground.  To some extent, Astromarines are being used more and more for ships security for the larger Starships.

The only real difference between Astromarine rank pips and Starfleet ranks is that the Astromarines use the soul fleet color blue and use a slightly different arrangement.

That said however, there is still a large degree of tradition in Human Civilian commerce and trade, especially where passengers are concerned.  In this sector any way, necessity has demanded some uniformity.

These ranks are typically displayed on black shoulder boards on either the left or both shoulders.  But a T-shirt variant is also common where they are displayed at the end of both sleeves, not unlike how ranks were displayed during the founding of the federation.  There are no equivalent ranks for enlisted personnel sense there is no equivalent.

As a result of every one holding rank, a complex set of social order evolved in their culture.  A Klingon's rank is displayed in a number of ways.  Buy poster, how he speaks, the violability and display of the weapons on his person. (The high in rank you are, the less likely you are to be seen carrying a visibly displayed weapon.  The ideas being that a Captain would be handed a weapon buy his subordinate, and a General would have volunteers to be his champion.)  A formal display of rank in something like a badge or patch was simply not necessary.

But with increasing collaboration between the Klingon Defense Fleet and Starfleet, the Klingons are encountering more and more disrespect to there rank buy those who are not well steeped in this highly complex social order.  Some what reluctantly, the Klingon High Counsel decided to formalize a set of ranks and titles for there worries so "Our allies will not become our enemies because of there own ignorance on how to address us, a most unpleasant possibility for our allies."

These "pips" are now currently displayed on the collar, or shoulder plate.  For the enlisted ranks, each slash represents one "glorious battle" that the individual has served while formally in service to the Klingon High Command.

There are two types of plots.  The main plot is under the control over the 1st Officer and Captain.  It is the main plot that every one must participate in.  If you have an idea for a main plot, you should bring it to the attention of ether the 1st Officer or the Captain.  When you come up with a possible main plot, it is normal to NOT share this with your fellow writers.  This helps to preserve the amount of suspense and mystery for the other writers.

The second type of plot is a sub plot.  These are more under your control and generally focus only on you, or a select group of other characters.  Sub plots are normally discouraged for any one below a Jag Lieutenant, but they do not have to be approved, or even reviewed buy the Captain.  But a sub plot must always give way to the main plot.  After all, the whole point of Soul Fleet is to work together and share the adventure.  However, sub plots is how most characters live and grow, and can span several main plots, and even follow your character as he/she is transferred to other ships.

All writers can contribute to the plot of the day.  It is only required of the Lieutenants or regally add to the plot of the day, or establish new plots of the day.  All though a new writers contributions are reviewed buy command, this is usually done so through the normal posting process, and approval given when the post is sent to the rest of the ship.

The ship's command also serves as a final line of defense against stepping on some one else's plot, hopefully preventing unnecessary hard feelings between other writers.  The big thing is to keep an open mind about being edited.

A joint post is when you team up with another writer for one of a hand full of posts.  The exact manner of how the both of you get together to create these posts is up to you.  Some have a short session in a chat room, the edit it down a bit.  Others will exchange an e-mail post until both are satisfied.  How ever you make it, it is submitted just as an ordinary post is subjected and is still subject to the same oversight.

Correspondence second type is simpler and usually done when the two characters are not currently in the same location, or even not serving on the same ship.  Just as the name implies, you basically exchange letters between each other, and go from there.

The third type is far more complex.  A cross post is not just two writers collaborating.  It is two ships collaborating with a common plot.  From the average writer's point of view, not much changed other than you suddenly have a wider cast to contend with.  But for the command crew, this represents a lot of extra work to bring the crews of two ships together.  It's defiantly worth the effort, it just doesn’t happen vary often.

This also means that if you find yourself not able to keep up the kind of post rate that the ship would require.  You can always transfer to a more relaxed crew.  After all, the point is to have fun, not to meet deadlines day after day.

If it is a hiatus (vacation or long absence) that you're expecting, then it may be a good time to send your character on a vacation or something of the like.  If it's a longer hiatus, then killing off your character is also an option (All though the Captain will want to know before you do so.)  A good death seen can actually be rewording.  Your honorary rank will be waiting for you when you return.

For a new writer to turn up missing is one thing.  But for a Star Ship captain to go AWOL can lead havoc with the running of a ship.  This reason alone has promoted command to be hesitant to giving out new commands to new writers as we once did.

Shortly after the Federation/Cardeasen war and a sweeping scandal over the high admiralty of Star Fleet (ST:TNG: Inserection ) the military readyness of Starfleet was in a downwerd spirel just as more and more threats to Starfleet began to emierge. Starfleet was severely demoralized, sinking public confidence, and a seeming sea of hostilities from the Romulans to the Borg smelling blood in the water.  The Federation was in serious trouble.

In steps Admiral Kelly.  A Kennedy like figure with an undeniable charisma and a "role up your sleeve" attitude to reform and Star Fleet operations.  Prior to Admiral Kelly, the admiralty insisted that Star Fleet's primary function was exploration, not national defense.  Admiral Kelly not only broke that covenant, but railed the public behind a more militant Star Fleet.  His genius was to push foreword the "Heart and soul of why we humans charge into battle," taken from a speech that captured and ignited the general public.  And thus the name "Soul Fleet" was coined.

Now in charge, Admiral Kelly made some dramatic changes to Starfleet.  Many of the most sweeping changes had not to do with day to day operations, but attitude and approach.  More emphases was given to weapons development.  Seven whole Astromarine divisions was practically given to the Klingon for "Development of Combat Skills and similar disciplines" in hopes that they would return with many of the much neglected combat skills.  He accelerated the promotions process to bring in a young Admiralty that were not so entrenched in their thinking.

But buy far his most notable contribution is just his inspiration.  Not sense General Lee has such a high ranking military officer so earned the devotion, loyalty, and even affection of the whole of his fighting force. Admiral Kelly has also been a vary visible Commander to the general public at large.  More importantly, he is trusted buy the public.  Something that Starfleet command has always had trouble with.