New Ships for Locke

Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 87882.64: Admiral Quinn has given myself and my crew an unusual assignment. Along with my promotion to Commander, I have been given command of the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Massasoit. During the mission brief we received during the transition, the admiral informed me that we would be receiving a secondary assignment aboard the U.S.S. Black Hawk for occasional missions requiring dedicated firepower and a more agile profile. The escort will be pre-positioned at Starbase 39 in the Sierra Sector and maintained by a skeleton crew. The current shortage of qualified starship commanders has necessitated the unusual dual assignment. I am interested to see how the two ships perform in the shakedown cruises later this week.

The U.S.S. Massasoit (NCC-91632) is named after the great chief of the Wampanoag Confederacy that befriended the Pilgrims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 17th century.

Dedication: "Ense petit placidam sub libertate qvietem" The official motto of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Latin phrase which means, "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." 

The Massasoit is a Heavy Cruiser, Dakota Class, with a Stargazer secondary hull and Cheyenne style pylons, and a mixed paint scheme in red and black. I have unintentionally given both my cruisers name-titles of Native American chiefs who were at least somewhat friendly with the British colonists, while the escorts were named after warchiefs who fought against the U.S. expansion.


The U.S.S. Black Hawk (NCC-91767) was named for a Warchief of the Sauk who fought on the side of the British in the War of 1812 and again opposed the Americans in what history remembers as the Black Hawk War.

Dedication: "In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind." Napoleon Bonaparte

The Black Hawk is a Heavy Escort, Akira class, with an Oslo catamaran hull and Zephyr nacelles, painted with the Sagittarius scheme in red and black.

I have actually played with both ships and understand a little more about having many Boffs. A lot of players use dedicated away teams, which I never got other than perhaps an RP reason, because the space abilities have no influence on the ground abilities, and vice versa. Suddenly, with two ships, the extra Boffs make sense. Witko has cannon skills that are great on the escort, but useless on the cruiser. So I use Sera in the ensign spot on the escort for her high-yield torp skill and the only tactical spot (lewey) on the cruiser, where her fire-at-will beam skill is of more value. Interestingly, as you may know if you play STO, all the Boffs are present on every bridge, regardless of their roll in the bridge assignments tab.


The Massasoit turns like the Titanic with a broken rudder, but I don't mind because the extra weapons and durability of the cruiser make it more than a match for the encounters I have had so far. The Black Hawk seemed a little squishy at first, but I think I got overzealous, and so she does much better now. I have two consoles on the Massasoit dedicated to turning ability and one on the Black Hawk, which leads to interesting effects. The escort seems to skid around a bit in battle. The issue I had with keeping weapons on target in the Red Cloud is not a problem on the Black Hawk, helped of course by the extra weapon slot in back.