[This is our entry for the writing contest. It's about our Deep Space Stonewall character "Five of Five", a liberated borg. He was the second character we've designed in STO, and he was our first engineer. Please note that we are not native english speaking, so please forgive any mistakes we've made :)]

It was cold. Very cold and very empty. There is a lot of space in space. I know it, believe me. I learnt it the hard way. It took me about 39 years. That was the time I was floating in that vast empty space. It all took place at a location called Wolf 359. But let's start at the beginning.

My name was Walther Schmidt, born in New Berlin on Earth's moon. As there was not much to do on the moon I took my chance to get off that rock as soon as I could, thus joining Starfleet. My career as a redshirt was nothing special, but I've managed to become a Lt. Commander, serving as a tactical security under the command of Commander Ted Hembach. Commander Hembach was head of security assigned to Planitia Utppia, so one of my jobs there was joining the crew of ships that were refitted at the shipyard to secure a correct security procedure.

My last assignment was on the U.S.S. Chekov, NCC-57302, a Springfield-class starship. The ship was on a deep space test-flight because of it's refit with a secondary hull. Just as the hull stress-test began the code red message from starfleet headquarters came through, rerouting the ship to react to an emergency call of the U.S.S. Saratoga. The Saratoga was engaging a borg cube heading for earth. There was not much we could do, only staffed with a skeleton crew, but every helping hand was needed to ensure a victorious fight against the borg cube.

As we arrived at the battle scene everyone was giving their very best. I tried some special tactical maneuvers to lure the cube away from the Saratoga, but I failed. The Saratoga was destroyed right in front of us. The luck was on our side, as the Chekov was ignored by the borg for a while. Our odds changed dramatically, when they started to invade our ship. We gave them a hell of a fight but there were too many of them. Nearly every second the borg beamed a new away team on our ship, and soon we were fighting against about 20 of those creatures on the bridge.

I was the last man standing. Equipped with a phaser in each hand I fired till they reached me. Then one of the borg touched me with a bite of a vampire, ejecting something into my throat. Everything turned green in my sight, and in a moment of despair I blew off the emergency hatch of the bridge. In a second everything and everybody was sucked into space. My last thought was that I've managed to die while on active duty, giving my life a reason. But the thought never ended, and I was not dead.

Something that borg had injected into my body kept me alive. I didn't need to breath nor did I feel any hunger. But I felt the cold out there, and it is cold, really. For a while I heard voices in my head, many voices, but they disappeared after a while. And than there was only loneliness, vast space, and the cold.

My body was found 39 years later. It was the U.S.S. Boudicca under command of captain Tara Mareil that retrieved me. They were able to deactivate one of my implants and after that I was able to remember. My borg designation was Five of Five. My last order from the collective was still in my memory core. It states that I should assist in the assimilation of the crew of the U.S.S. Chekov.

As we know, that never happened. After I was revived by the Boudicca, I rejoined Starfleet. As I am still partly a machine myself, I decided to become an engineer. My first command was the U.S.S. Thermopylia, today I am in command of the U.S.S. Kobane. Why do I mention this, you may ask. Let me tell you: I want to honor the crew of U.S.S. Chekov. These brave men and women gave their life to protect humanity itself. So do I, and because I was the only survivor of the Chekov, I decided to name my ships in the tradition of great battles that were lost against tyrannous attackers while the defenders put up a great fight we remember for centuries. Keep those names alive, as we do it today at Wolf 359!

[Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoyed it!]

 Awesome, thanks for entering the #WritingContest @GXV3!  Good luck!!

(This is my first ever written story, since school, but I wanted to give it a go, forgive my grammar. it was kinda fun thinking it up though)

The Joining Of life


The doors to the meeting room slid open as 3 senior federation admirals stepped through, each carrying a bundle of padds under there arms.
The room was bigger than what the Joined Trill Captain was used to, the luxury was more different in earth space dock than it was aboard a starship... Standing to attention Capt.Gareth Zaahn watched as the admirals made their way around the large oval table to meet with their chairs.
"As you were", one of the admirals said as he nodded toward Gareth, The captain knew full well that this wasn't going to be an easy meeting. The conflicts in the Dyson sphere between the aligned federation and Klingon defense forces had been marching toward a never ending war it seemed..  with the U.S.S. Pendragon called back to ESD for this very meeting, that will involve a top secret mission.
It wasnt a normal meeting of admirals.. this time it was direct and to the point, the stone faced admirals outlining mission details and Strike plans on the enemy wand what was expected of the Pendragon and her crew.
Gareth was handed padd after padd of target structures, no doubt some poor soul was responsible for getting these blueprints that showed the enemy's base of operations.. if crippled it would give the federation the extreme upper hand in this war..another padd was slid in front of him... the two hand selected officers who were the main Strike team responsible to infiltrating the Target building, and destroying it.
The Two Specially trained offers appeared on the screen of the padd infront of him, The Admiral gave a run down of what he was seeing on screen,  a young female Bajoran.. a master at infiltration. and a male Trill an advanced demolition expert.. The Pendragon was to ferry these experts to the target area and let them do their thing. it was extremely risky, maybe some broken bones and bulkheads along the way.. Though the two man strike force will be in a worse situation, Through his many life times as a joined Trill.. Gareth knew what sacrifices had to be made, he had almost become numb to it. This would more than likely be a one way trip for the two Volunteers he sees in front of him.

The Admirals continued to talk, as Gareth glaces over the Bios once more, he looked deeper at the images of the two officers, The admirals voices were blanketed out and became mear mumbles as Gareth transfixed on the Male trills picture, "I know him".. The captain thought to himself, It cant be?
He looked down toward the officers name, Lt. N'rall the Bajoran female.. and The Trill Male Caleb, eyes darted over the letters that caused the feeling of severe familiarity and a unconscious inhale of breath.
"Oh my Gods.. its him, it is.. him, oh please no" The panic stricken words ran through Gareth's head until he was interrupted by one of the Admirals calling the meeting to a close, Everything was in place, the plan was a simple one.. the two Experts were already briefed and aboard the Pendragon waiting to set off toward the Target. 
As the Admirals got up from their seats, a somber good luck was exchanged, and they promptly left.
Gareth reached down to his glass of water.. looking down at the Male demolition expert on the padd once more.
"No Gareth, let it go, let it drop", he ordered to himself.

U.S.S Pendragon: On route to the Contested Zone: ETA of target 2 hours

Gareth had made the decision not to meet with the two strike force officers Caleb and N'all during the journey to the Dyson sphere, instead letting his 1st officer handle all their needs and go over plans of action. His first officer hadn't said anything but this was an out of character move on behalf a Captain that always likes to go over every single detail with all involved. But there was enough trust between Gareth and his crew that it wasn't brought up.
The Pendragon as always was ready to deal with anything, the crew was exceptional, and the Nebula Class Starship had seen more battles and came out of them more times than he could count.
The voice of his navigation's officer chimed through to Him as he sat in his ready room, "One hour until we reach our destination sir", Gareth acknowledged, and his eyes darted over to The padd that held the young Trill males bio, all throughout the journey he had forced himself not to look at it. But a sudden urge came over him to look at the young mans face once again, Feelings grew inside of him as he looked at the mans face, a small smile crept up on the corners of his mouth as a rush of warm feelings of familiarity washed over his body.
"No"! Gareth blurted out, "I cant", with that he put the padd back on his desk.. stood up and straightened his uniform, filling his mind with the where he needs to get the ship in order for the strike team of two can breach the Target building. it wont be easy, the ship needs to be in and out before anyone can even blink. The Calculations and timing alone would be enough to occupy every bridge officer mind. A warp in with a split second transport and warp out isnt an easy thing to pull off, So concentrations must be focused on that.

The time was near, The Pendragon was ready to warp into the target area, "Lieutenant!, standby to break out of warp", Gareth noted toward helm, Tapping his comm badge, "Transporter room three, are you ready from Transport"? 
A voice other than the Transporter operator answered The captains request, "Yes Captain, we are ready to beam down, Good luck to you and your crew" .. it was The Trill male, Caleb.. Gareth inhaled at the unexpected response, he bit on his lip slowly as another blanket of emotions tried to cover the Captain. He paused, and replied. "Good luck to you.. .. to you both".
Knowing full well this was a definite one way trip for the two officers, there was no time for the Pendragon or any other ship to hang around to wait for them to do what they had to do, by all accounts the detonation would envelop a large area around the target.
It was war, wars need sacrifices to see an ending, Gareth kept telling himself.
Things went smoothly, The Nebula class Pendragon Dropped out of warp at the exact location that was planned, beamed the officers down, a second later warped out as fast as it could, This probably left the voth Confused at what had just happened, hopefully giving the Strike team the distraction they needed.

Two hours had past since the drop off, the Pendragon was now in a safe zone, they had come out of this mission unscratched thankfully, however no word on the sensors of a large scale explosion, had they managed to infiltrate the prime target?, to cripple the Voth to buy the Federation enough time to  grow  a stronger foot hold in the sphere. The voice of the Trill Caleb kept repeating in Gareth's head, The feelings of guilt, the need  to hear him one more time, He should have met up with him before they beamed down.. he should have spoken to him more. The voices of "should haves" wouldn't pass despite Gareth's best efforts to silence them.
Suddenly a voice came over the Con, it was his first officer informing him that sensors picked up a massive explosion, and the mission was successful.
Gareth Slowly sat back in his chair, and stared out at the small view port of his ready room window.

He remembered when Caleb was born, He was his first child, he was not prepared for fatherhood, even though he had been a mother twice before, the surprise of love that came with this new bundle of joy, the feeling of protection that needed to be put into place for his son, the change of life all for the good was amazing.
Seeing him learn how to walk, how it took so long to get teach him to ride a bike, give or take a few medical packs being opened to patch Caleb up. Life was perfect, Perfect job at the Trill Science council, perfect wife and now a Son who loves and looks up to his father and wants to follow him everywhere.
Things changed when Caleb was 7 years old, his father was no longer in his life, Caleb's father Bren'k Zaahn had died.
His Symbiot now belonged to another young Trill.. Gareth Zaahn.

#WritingContest

Nice Bro!

#SWCsale

Love these kinds of videos. Wished my ships looked that good.

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I would show mine but well its a hive for my medications, the catch all for somereason for my childrens stuff and paperwork.  It is a desk with a computer and lots of clutter always cluttered even after cleaning it spotless within an hour its a mess again.

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Quote by nivagni

wow he must have a hell of a graphics card to get that detail...

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Not really. I have an alienware console with a graphics card that is the equivalent of the nVidia GTX 850 (the 850 doesn't really exist, but it was special made for this brand of pc's) and I can play on max settings. Looks basically like that, although he has his bloom settings differently than I do.

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Thanks for your #WritingContest entry, @Niko!  Good luck!!

M'Freya beginning

(I am not all that great at writing, I hope it is at least enjoyable.)

"Four ships approuching from port, secondary power relay on deck 2 is gone, we have hull breaches, warp drive is down. Civillian craft is making for the incoming raiders, their weapons are offline, shields seem to be rerouted to only foward arc. Husband they are going to ram them." M'Freya looked from from her mother standing at tactical to the view screen, a ship roughly the size of a bird of prey streaked past them arcing towards the four oncoming raider ships. Pulses of emerald disruptor fire hammered into the ships forward shields. They buckled after a second, cutting swaths into her hull. The civillian defence ship that had looked to be made of a pod with wings branching off in every direction tore through the hull of the first raider. The ships central section erupting in flame before exploading sending her wings and sections of the raiders ship crashing into the other three. Two of them becoming their own blazing balls of fire, the third just drifted lifelessly past the Wotan. There was silence on the bridge before shouting began again, with a section of wall exploding showering the bridge crew in sparks and smoke. The Wotan shaking hard from weapons fire. P'valla shouted from tactical that ventral plating was gone. The last of the raiders ships was looming before them, and old Orion slaver ship. Her hull breached and burning in places.


The hum of transporters started filling the air. J'prurr jumped from the captains chair, an old type 2 phaser in hand. The first of the raiders materialized his weapon moving up to aim. A streak of blue light pierced his chest throwing the alien back. Pivoting on his feet J'prurr fired off two more times crumpling an Orion and wounding another. A beam of scarlet shot over his shoulder hitting a klingon in the chest behind her father. The towering man stumbled, hefting his weapon to swing it down at M'Freya. She closed her eye hearing a muffled grunt and the feeling of something wet hitting her face.


Her eyes opened seeing her fathers body blocking her from the Klingon, his bladed weapon lodged into her fathers chest with one of the piercing ends protruding through his back. The last of his strength was spent pushing the phaser to the Klingons chest, a blue streak ripping from his back and pounding into the bulkhead behind him. Both slumped to the floor. She was frozen there as silence fell for her, turning M'Freya saw rage, blind rage in her mothers eyes. Scarlet beams ripped out into three more raiders one dropping near her without a head. Her mother had disruptor burns on her arm and chest. With the one good uninjured arm she shook M'Freya.


"Helm, man the helm get us away from them." She nodded weakly turning and fumbling over the controls till her eyes locked onto the view screen. "They have a tractor beam on us." Her mothers voice was shallow, fingers moved over controls. The Vulcan womans features fell her face turned towards her daughter. "Save the ship, save who you can.... I love you Daughter." Her mothers fist slammed into the control panel. Turning her head quickly to the screen as streaks of tealish plasma beam ripped into the breached sections of the Orion ships hull. The tractor beam vanished, M'Freyas relfexes moving the ship away with all the power she had left as the other ships began to tear itself apart. She never saw the explosion of the tactical console or her mothers body hitting the bulkhead behind her station. She heard it, and in her mind later formed the image to fit the sound. The young woman turned in her seat looking blankly at the spot where her mother had been standing. A scream started to rip from her throat.


M’Freya woke with a start, another nightmare; the same nightmare. She peered at the console, weary of life and the months of warp travel returning to Earth. The old Oberth class starship S.S. Wotan sailed silently threw the stars, her decks void of life save for the young girl of Caitian and Vulcan heritage, that rested slumped over the helm. The ship rigged for steady autonomous operation for the duration of the trip. The ship was M’Freyas home, the place of her birth and the death of the caitians parents. Both scientists, her mother a Vulcan observer from the federation and her father the owner of the starship a civilian deep space exploration leader.
The Wotan was crewed sparsely; her mission set for twenty years in five year increments based from the federations furthest most colonies in the Beta Quadrant. Over the duration of the mission the crew had become a close knit family everyone contributing to some of M'Freya's upbringing. Assigned to a devoloping deepspace station giving a federation presence in the middle of the Wotan's mission. In the seventeenth year of the mission tragedy befell the ship with an attack from colony raiders. The Wotan joined three other ships to battle the raiders, the older ship giving enough fight to make even the most confident of captains worry. She was joined by two civillian defence ships that had been purchased by the colony from Ferengi merchants.
In the years spanning the mission; the Wotan had received several updates purchased by her captain to better suit the region of space. Her old type six phasers replaced with Xindi made plasma arrays, her torpedo compliment exhausted years prior; now fitted with clusters of missiles purchased from Ferangi traders. She was fighting well, but well could last only so long with the numbers they faced. By the battles end her crew was a third less. M’Freyas parents among those that lost their lives in the fray. The Wotan and other defending starships won the day; though at a high cost of lives.
It was a year before she would be ready to leave for Earth with the aid of her parents Star Fleet contact who sponsered her entrance into the fleet; passing her entrance exam with aid from both the remaining crew and colony who continued to house her and fund repairs to the Wotan for the service it had provided. As the ships owner and now Captain she refused to leave the sector till a Star Fleet replacement vessle arrived. The voyage would be long with the remainder of the ship’s crew departing slowly along the tip till the final member left a few weeks prior to arriving at Earth. The ship was a ghost of her former inviting self, the moments of laughter from the young M’Freya followed by the eventual puzzled scowl of her mother; before her father would chuckle softly from the captain’s chair. Moments like those flashed in her memory, drawing smiles and tears from the young caitian.
The computers voice broke her from the string of memories, her voice filling the void of the bridge.
“Approaching the Terran system.”
M’Freya shifted sitting upright at the helm, her slender fingers moving over the old ships controls dropping her down to warp one. Transferring helm and most other bridge controls to the captain’s chair, she hesitated for a long moment before finally taking the seat. Since the day she lost her family she had gone to great lengths to avoid that chair. Now it was time for her past, her family and the ghost of that day to remain behind her in space. The Wotan was her ship, she was the Captain by all rights and soon she would be an officer in Starfleet. Her hand moved over a set of controls in the chairs armrest a soft chirp from the system acknowledging her.


“Starfleet control this is the S.S. Wotan civilian Science and Exploration vessel. I am requesting permission to dock.” Silence lingered for a moment before a youthful man’s voice came over the com.
“Wotan you are cleared for approach vector 005 civilian docking bay two of Starbase 1… Welcome back.” The channel closed and within the hour the Wotan was safely moored in the massive starbase.
M’Freya departed the ship her single bag of possessions slung over a shoulder, and a second bag of data pads clutched at her side. She stood outside the docking doors for her ship, setting one bag down she patched herself into the ships computer giving the order to power down all systems. Unsure she would be returning to the ship, or if this was goodbye M’Freya looked behind her once before entering the lift leaving the docking bay. The lift shot her quickly stopping as needed for personnel to come and go, eventually she arrived at the cluster of command decks. Navigating the maze of corridors and offices she found Captain Millians office.
Millian was the contact officer assigned to the Wotan, over the years he had befriended her family and over that last year spent a great deal of time working with the young Caitian. He had been waiting to hear word of the ships arrival, waiting to meet M'Freya in person finally. He was on the man that sponsored M’Freya’s entrance into Starfleet, and help the young woman build a new life. She strolled into the office standing still for a long moment before the bemused human stood coming around his desk and embraced the young Caitian.


“My dear, it’s good to finally meet you in person mi girl. I was starting to think something happened along the way here.” Stepping back from her gauging the surprised and then neutral face of M’Freya, resting his hands on the front of his desk.
“And you sir, I just finished docking the Wotan in the lower docking bays, and I have brought you all of her reports, logs, and final mission assessment. I am looking forward to starting fresh on Earth sir.” He studied her for a moment before taking the hefty bag of data pads; he could already see the kind of officer she may become in the future. Weighing things in his mind for a moment before asking, “Have you chosen a course of study and which path you plan to take at the academy?” Her response was quick with no hint of heavy emotion just determination “Command sir no other particular fields of study interest me.” He nodded before retaking his seat behind the desk.
Taking a moment to organize the bag of Data pads before reaching for one he had tucked away at the corner of his desk. Giving a thumb print to it before leaning forward to offer it to M’Freya, her body moving forward enough before reaching out and taking the pad. Her eyes scanning over it before looking up to meet Captain Millians own.


“Thank you sir, I won’t disappoint you.” Her body language was a little more at ease now, with her long tail flicking behind her. Millian watched amused silently, his cheerful voice filling the space between them.
“I am sure you will cadet, Take that pad to the warren officer on deck 10 and she will get you set up right, and as to that personal request from you I have cleared it with the academy. You are going to stand out M’Freya, the only cadet to have captain a starship, and own her own to boot. This may not make you many friends to begin and some false ones if you are not careful. Hold onto that sentimental side of yourself as well, it will serve you well. Dismissed and good luck.” M’Freya gave a crisp “Sir” starting to turn and leave before stopping with her shoulders slumping. She didn't turn to face him fully wanting to keep a stream of tears from being seen. “Thank you Captain, my parents thought highly and you and... and you have been a good friend to me sir. I wont let you down.” She left before a reply could be given.
The hum of the transporter faded away with the last few sparkles of the matter beam, depositing M’Freya in one of the Academies transporter rooms, her uniform clung a little tighter than she thought it would, the Caitian opted to remain barefoot feeling that the issued boots tripped her up a little too much. Her bag slung back over a shoulder now with a holster and an old type II phaser resting in it. Something that had to be argued for, and made as a personal request, the old phaser having been her fathers and the weapon he held when saving her life the day she lost him. She had promised herself to never let it go. Nodding to the transporter operator before leaving the room and finding herself a little lost the adventure awaiting her now just beginning.

 
 ( #SWCsale  and to just add this here as well.)

Looking for a chance to win more Stonewall Credits for use in the Stonewall Credit Store or during the next #SWCsale?  Enter Stonewall's #RedShirtRun for your chance to win Stonewall credits, running gear and to join other community members in keeping healthy!  

As Captain, you need to inspire your crew! Details on how to participate are in the first post in this thread!  Deadline to participate is December 31, 2016!

Sooo clean - my main computer desk is so messed up :-)

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wow he must have a hell of a graphics card to get that detail...

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Looking for a chance to win more Stonewall Credits for use in the Stonewall Credit Store or during the next #SWCsale?  Enter the Character Writing Contest for your chance to win!

See the first post in this thread for contest directions and the entry deadline!

Hello Fleetie Darlings,

Due to a medical emergency by one of the primary organizers of this event, I regret to inform you that we will be postponing Rukh Pa'Ul Galactic Drag Race indefinitely. Stay tuned because we will be posting updates on this thread.

Welcome to the fleet!

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I changed the set up of my living room last Friday, so this is currently my gaming corner. And yes, that is a map of Tamriel on the window :P

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Nice Bro

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So Cool thanks for sharing. i really want to have a dual monitor set up.. i just never have the spare cash to get another monitor.
Im guessing your not a big fan of Zelda :p

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Here's the shots of my gaming pad. I'm behind on the sharing, no?

Here's the pretty pic (colors look good.)


Here's the secret feature of monitor 2

(Why yes, that is a Roku TV from Sharp, 32" so it'd fit on my desk)

Here's in normal light with my STO stuff up and running.


Lastly, here's in adjusted light so you can actually see my screens.


Bonus feature: keyboard changes colors.

A player of STO makes these amazing videos of the Ships of STO, his youtube channel is dedicated to make them look beautiful and dramatic.. they are so nice to watch.

Here is an example video: 



Hes just hit 1000 subscribers and is doing a huge raffle.. giving away some kelvin ships and a few other items.
you only need to Subscribe to his channel.. and comment on your favorite Ship video... leaving your in game @ Handle. 
(PC only)
k out his channel and Subscribe if you like.. they are really beautiful to watch.

#SWCsale