Neverwinter cosmetic

#WritingChallenge
 
https://www.stonewallgaming.net/photos/179380

Fleet Admiral’s Log Stardate: 88583.67
                It’s been 10 Years since the incident, I have been released from security over-watch and allowed to continue working under Starfleet Command. The Federation know what, I was who I was prior to the incident now but I do not feel they fully trust my new resolve to work with them rather than against them. My entire universe has changed thanks to these memories from Lieutenant Maria Serpentis I have seen that dependence on others is not weakness. It is an entirely new form of strength one my former life, my former compatriots would never and can never understand. I have committed myself towards preventing them from wiping out all life in this universe.  Alas I am getting ahead of myself lets start a little over 10 years ago before the incident when I was living, another vastly different life.
                You see in fluidic space we ruled supreme no other life form could exist as they where weak and we where strong we ruled the entire universe with an iron fist and all other life was ours to allow to live or to die. The empty space the universe the Federation, and the Borg Collective hailed from continued incursions into our realm attempting to take our life to steal our form and use it for their own goals to strengthen themselves to rise above their weakness. This would not and could not stand so agents were sent into the Federation, into the Klingon Empire, The Romulan peoples and many other worlds and cultures so that we would learn how to end them all and take our place as rulers of both realms.

https://www.stonewallgaming.net/photos/179382
 
                I was sent to the Federation to work from within to weaken their faulty resolve there flawed thinking that they where superior in there multi species alliances. I was sent to observe and wait for my time to strike. I didn’t have emotions as they have them, I saw the tasks at hand and blended in pretended to care, did what was expected of an officer of my rank. That being said, the officer I had taken the guise of Lt. Commander Eleva Rema was an average human if not a bit of shut in if I recall the phrase appropriately. I eliminated her and took her place took her memories to blend in better saw the things she had done and the persons she had lost and used that to continue my work. Lt. Commander Eleva sudden became friendly with others helping others with their tasks, taking on more and more missions and more and more dangerous assignments all in the attempt to get the promotion to be in a more prestigious rank for when I and so many others would strike. The ship we where on the USS Yamazaki which was a Yamato Class vessel it was sent to some of the more dangerous places and warzones through out the Alpha and Beta Quadrant and occasionally into the Gamma Quadrant. A month after I came on, we were sent to a world to infiltrate and investigate a possible contamination of a pre-warp civilization.
 
                We Went down myself Lt Buna, Lt Evelyn Savea, Ensign Yto, and Ensign Saatini. Another group was sent in two days earlier from another ship which went missing suspected of being destroyed by an Undine warship. It was believed Undine Operatives where contaminating the civilization, our mission was rescue and secure any technology procured by the locals. This particular civilization was indeed housing a rather large Undine force about 300 of the local population had been converted this was to be a forward operating base for our assault on the Alpha Quadrant.  We went in, the intent was to dead drop data about federation outposts to the rest of my people and then to ‘rescue’ the previous group that had been held captive and retreat determining that the cultural contamination was due to Undine vessels passing though the sector. Upon locating the other team things went south quickly. Ensign Yto in an attempt to gain favor decided to investigate the building the captives were housed in against my direct orders to get in then get out and discovered a massive supply of Bio-Molecular Torpedoes Undine tech housed deep underground how she even gained access to the computer terminal is still a bit of a mystery. By doing so she alerted the entire Undine battalion and they began to attempt to eliminate the entire group seeing the mission as a failure. I tried to salvage my own reputation to continue my own mission and attempted to rescue the survivors retreating to the caves outside the city. We set up pattern enhancers so that the Yamazaki could get a transport lock the local battalion set unknown to the rest of us the Undine Battalion had set up a bio-molecular scattering field. This field does not prevent a transporter lock, but good luck being beamed out of that and coming back in one piece. We tried to compensate and thought we had managed to succeed as a group of Undine rushed the cave and attacked us using hand to hand combat rather than ranged weaponry to prevent the locals from catching on. The beam out took place as they rushed us, I grabbed the team leader of the other team to ensure she got out safely none of us really did.
                I woke up 3 days later in a bio bed contained within a Level 10 Force field the rest of the away team was similarly entombed. I was confused my mind muddled I wasn’t even sure who I was something had gone terribly wrong was I Maria Serpentis or Darmakus of Undine or was I Lt. Commander Rema I had no idea anymore. I tried to shift into My natural form to bust through the containment field, my cover obviously blown but I could not I had no idea what was going on.
                That’s when Lt Buna, and Lt Savea woke up and began screaming pounding on the field demanding to be let out they were equally confused but why where they having fits of rage yelling about superiority and emotions why where they flopping between the Undine language unspeakable by most species and Federation Common. I calmed myself quieted the voices in my own head and did something very not Undine, I meditated on them something told me to focus the thoughts to focus the memories and the emotions something new to me. As I listened and I for the lack of a better word assimilated the minds of those within myself I realized what had happened and I realized my Mission to bring ruin to this universe to these peoples was flawed. You see the Undine Respect Strength and the only strength the Undine see as valid is purity of species The purity of the Undine all of us had become something impure and through this impurity I found that the Undine are wrong the strength of our purity is fleeting, one Borg nano virus could wipe us out because we are the same. The Federation, Humanity, Tellarites, Vulcans, Betazoids, Trill, and the Andorians, The Klingons and the Romulans their strength is in their individuality and their genetic differences. The Undine value their strength in their sameness, The Borg want to bring every living thing into alignment with their view. Both of these views are flawed as that sameness and alignment to one type is a weakness. I allowed the different minds that had become mixed within me to become one and I became something different.
                It was at this exact moment the entire ship was rocked with a massive explosion and a medical officer came running in he sneered at all of us as we tried to calm our minds. “Well, it looks like your people have come to take back you and the ship we tried to tractor out of orbit of the second moon. We should just space the lot of you.” He said this as another salvo hit and penetrated the shields of the ship throwing him across the floor slamming his head into an empty bio-bed. After a few moments he stood looking up in dazed state as third salvo hit, slamming into the ship so hard it ripped a segment of hull off exposing our compartment to hard vacuum the force field around us all collapsed and we all almost got pulled out of the ship the emergency shield was not activating the damage was too extensive. The medical officer went flying towards the hole in the wall and without even thinking all of the group all 5 of us in that room grabbed him. We may have been stuck in this humanoid form but we still had significant strength compared to normal humans even to normal Vulcans perhaps even greater strength than a Klingon or Jem’Hadar. Step by step we worked our way to the door fighting the hard pull of vacuum trying to tug us out of the hole. We entered the main hallway and it was chaos security personnel stationed to guard us and prevent our escape had been rag dolled down the hallway unconscious and bleeding medical personnel were tending to the wounded they didn’t even realize who we where when we asked what the situation was, they just looked at our pips and gave us a sit rep. Three Heavy Bio Ships had come up from the surface of the planets third moon and began running an attack pattern against the Yamazaki firing torpedoes then retreating leaving one to take the brunt of the battleships defensive weapons while the third came in for another strike.
                The fight was one sided three destroyer’s vs a single battleship I recalled the Doctor now being treated had said something about a ship in tow I asked what it looked like they described what we all knew as a Kiwavi Bio-Cruiser an experimental ship that when crewed by an experienced Undine crew could go toe to toe with the best that we had at the time. I looked to the rest of the survivors of the last mission and asked one question. “What side do you stand” they all looked at me with anger at first then confusion as they had come to realize what I had minutes before. “Survive, and Save this ship” they all said in almost unison. “Follow me, lets take that ship and bring it to bare against our own people we will give up our old lives, and hope the Federation will take us at this gesture and grant us Asylum.” They all nodded and uttered their agreement in Undine as we ran through the corridor towards the nearest transporter room.
                The Transporter Chief however was not amicable to our decision to take the Undine warship being towed and assumed we were going to take it and join the fight against the Yamazaki. He required a bit of blunt persuasion. We targeted the Warships bridge for transport since it was within the Yamazaki’s shield bubble, we didn’t even need to do anything funky with the angular confinement beam just a straight shot in. We took our stations and hoped there was enough Undine left in us to pilot this monstrosity. We first activated the ships Bio-Molecular shields which caused the tractor beam to cut and immediately flung the ship into a short warp jump effectively coopting the Picard Maneuver. We came out of the warp jump on the other side of the Yamazaki shields at full weapons ready we took a full broadside from the Undine Destroyer and barely took a dent it was expecting Federation shielding not its own species. We took a defensive position between the Federation ship and the Undine as best we could and modified our weapon frequencies to match the shielding of the other bio-ships and we started unleashing blast after blast of antiproton beams unloading the ship of every warhead it had we took out one of the Destroyers as the Yamazaki prepared photon torpedoes, I opened a frequency to the bridge of the Yamazaki “ I am “ my words faltered I didn’t know who I was anymore  or who we where we had decided to throw ourselves to the Federations mercy at this moment. “I do not really know who or what I am anymore, however, I can see this fight, this moment is not right, I will fight by the side of the Federation after this battle we will all submit ourselves to your judgement and council, do you find this offer, Acceptable Captain?” He didn’t answer vocally, he unloaded a spread of photon torpedoes around us converging on the Second ship coming in towards us catching the ship completely off guard crippling her judging from our readings, all hands lost, we dropped a bio warhead at it just to be sure. The Third ship came in our hail to the bridge of the other ship was still open and I heard them say “Warp Drive is Back online Sir; we can jump on your command.” We fired the last of our warheads at the Third Ship turning it into fragments as we prepared to ask the captain where to jump to a fourth ship came out of fluidic space then a fifth our ship took a full broadside from both of them as the warheads approached, I voiced to the captain. “Get out of here Captain while you can, this ship won’t survive this assault and You can’t handle more ships either” the warheads hit I recall seeing space peaking out through the walls the ship attempting to save its crew by encasing us in protective armor then darkness.
 
                Once again, we woke up in a sick bay bio bed apparently 3 weeks had passed once again we were stuck behind a level 10 force field but we sat. We still wore the protective armor the bioship had put around us apparently It would not allow the Starfleet Medical staff to remove it they determined it was somehow healing our injuries however very slowly but the armor itself had stabilized us. After we had woken up the Captain of the Yamazaki and several fleet admirals walked into the sick bay turned brig. We all began removing the bio armor and setting it aside wearing what was left of our former Starfleet uniforms under it they were burnt warped and barely holding together but they would do. The first admiral asked the questions first “Who are you, or rather what are you” I looked at her quizzically realizing this was Admiral Janeway and I stood at stark attention the Undine had a clear memory of her and it was of respect and fear. “Ma’am I am not sure who or what I am at this particular moment, I am neither the individuals that make up this mind, but I do believe I am the sum of their parts. I believe the others feel the same” The rest of the group vocalized agreements with phrases such as sounds about right and seems as fitting as I could think up. The next question was “What are you doing here, why where you on this ship” this was the question that I was dreading because now I felt the full weight of what I had done to the Lt Commander Rema and for a moment it broke me water flowed from my eyes and I was in visible confusion Janeway looked at me with both confusion and compassion as I responded. “I am, no I was Combat Operative Darmakus of Undercover Operations Corp, I was sent to Empty Space to take the role of a Federation Officer and work my way up the ranks with the intention of gaining intelligence and a means of breaking the Federation as many others have done.” I paused and Janeway started to speak “I was also Lt Commander Eleva Rema shut in but brilliant Engineering Student Top of her class, on the fast Track to Command, yet I am also Lt Maria Serpentis Former Tactical officer of “she cut me off shaking her head “You’re telling me that you remember everything from all of these… individuals at the same time?” “Yes, Ma’am it took a bit before I was able to understand I am still not sure… what happened but their memories and personalities have become one being in my mind Myself, and my friends here have become a wholly unique lifeform neither Undine nor the other life that makes them up but a combination. Your Federations ideals your driving force of unity for all species was alien to us at first but we see that there is strength in this unity where we originally felt only weakness. Due to this I humbly request Asylum within the federation our ability to use Undine technology and our knowledge of there tactics could be of use to you but we have no home to go back to if you decline my request.” I looked down shuffling my feet in something I would come to know as a gesture of embarrassment but I was unaware of this at the time. Janeway shook her head for a moment and looked at me and the others gathered there knowing what we did and that we saved a ship from peril and she sighed before saying “Well, I can’t give Asylum to anyone without a name.” She said with a half smirk on her face as she said turning to the Captain of the Yamazaki. “Explain to them what happened, Last time this happened on my ship I felt dirty cause I reversed it.” she then walked over to a chair and sat down.
                The Captain of the Yamazaki an Andorian named Shrelaon stepped forward and spoke “During the fighting with the Undine you where each jumped upon in an attempt to capture you as well as the other members of the previous away team. The Scattering field that the Undine had put up to effectively neutralize anyone whom beamed out worked far better than you had expected we had issues within the matter stream, when we boosted the power to the transporter an Undine ship hit us with a surprise torpedo when our shields where down the power surge caused your matter stream to fuse with the undine that was also beamed up with you, we didn’t have time to reverse the process as we had to escape. We warped to the far side of the second moon where we enacted repairs to get underway when we found a rudimentary ship yard in orbit with a single ship waiting for a crew. We tractored the ship and extended our warp bubble and blew that taco stand as the humans say, only for them to track us 3 days later while in another system still enacting repairs, this is when you woke up and saved our hides.” He grinned and looked back over at Janeway “That about do it” she sighed “You really are never going to not give me a hard time are you” he chuckles “Well you still owe me a bar of Latinum from the last Admirals Gala so I think not any time soon.” Janeway stands back up and walks over “So, what name should our new Lt Commander Decide on today you will have to deal with a Tribunal and you will be watched like a Hawk, but I have an idea where someone like all of you would fit in just perfectly.” My breath caught in my throat for a moment as I thought and I spoke the name that I would use for the remainder of my life however long that may be. “Since I am none of the people who make up my parts but all of them, I will honor those whom not only sacrificed for me but whom I sacrificed for my original cause Eleva Maria Serpentacus.” Janeway scrunched her nose “Works for me, thank you Lt. Commander Serpentacus, you will be given command of a ship and earn yourself up the ranks, your mission is counter attack the Undine when the breach you may go days or weeks without rest, or you may go months without a mission, we have another captured Undine ship you will fly it, you will fight with it if you can capture a better one have at it. This ship will be equipped with multiple subspace monitoring systems, if we so much as think you are double crossing us, we can ignite its warp core remotely from across the quadrant. If any system goes down that we use to monitor you, and you don’t report in within 24 hours of what happened or why, we Will ignite the warp core. Is this understood?”
                My mouth must have hung open for to long staring at her because she followed up with “You going to say something or you just are the flies just going to take up home there?” I shook my head for and spoke “Yes Ma’am understood, what would this task force be called?” Janeway gave that disturbing grin of hers that I came to know all too well over the years. “Oh, just a little thing we call Species 8472 Counter-Command.” With that one sentence she turned on her heals and walked back towards the door the other Admiral, wearing a black badge beside her never uttering a word. “Ohh and keep the Armor I’m pretty sure it will help you a lot.”

That's how I got to be where I am now, Admiral within the Counter-Command working to stop the Undine a species that partially shares my genome but not my understanding of the life in this universe. I would give my all to stop them I've been fighting them 10 years now, I wonder if the fighting will ever end.

Computer, End Log.
https://www.stonewallgaming.net/photos/179384

Quote by aetios

Well, for once I've got an idea. Probably gonna execute it poorly lmao, but hey, who knows?

I'm sure it'll be awesome!  Very excited to read it!

Well, for once I've got an idea. Probably gonna execute it poorly lmao, but hey, who knows?

It's time for Stonewall's 2nd #WritingChallenge of 2023 and the theme will be: "Stories of Sacrifice".  Submit your entry by logging into this site and posting your story in this thread between now and August 31st, 2023.

Theme Instructions:
We want you to write and share a Story of Sacrifice revolving around one of your characters from a game you play.  To help get the creative juices flowing, I've provided some writing prompts, though you're free to write your story without the help of the prompts:

• Write about choosing to take the fall for someone else
• Write about choosing to be brave for someone else's sake
• Write about having to sacrifice personal ethics or morality (think In the Pale Moonlight
• Write about the sacrifices of going to Starfleet or Klingon Academy
• Write about shouldering an unspeakable burden for those who do not realize it
• Write about carrying the weight of a past situation or decision
• Write about making a personal sacrifice so a loved one can get to Sto'Vo'Kor

We'll share every submission with the entire community for them to enjoy, but we'll also be looking for our three favorite entries that excel in three criteria that we'll detail below.  We're so very eager for you, SGN's amazing writing talents, to once again share your talent and creativity with us and your community!


To participate in Stonewall's "Story of Sacrifice" writing challenge, you must post your entry here, in this thread, before day's end on August 31st, 2023.  Please use the #WritingChallenge hashtag in your entries.  Your posted entry must comply with these additional rules to be eligible:

1. Your story must in some way relate to your character from a game you play
2. Your story must be your own original work - NO ChatGPT or AI help!
3. The content of your story must not be edited after the submission deadline of August 31st

Only one entry per community member, please.  While we encourage you to include graphics to supplement your Story of Sacrifice, only the written narrative portion of your entry will be judged.  Instructions on how to incorporate graphics in your post can be found by clicking here.


Every writer will receive a deposit of 3 Stonewall Credits into their account, but our favorite contest entries will be recognized on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media feeds. The prize packs are as follows:

Our favorite story will get:

1. 10 Stonewall Credits, AND, your choice of either:
2. 20 Master Keys in Star Trek Online, OR
3. $25.00 Redbubble Gift Card to purchase Stonewall Merchandise!

Our second favorite entry will receive:

1. 8 Stonewall Credits, AND your choice of either:
2. 10 Master Keys in Star Trek Online OR
3. $20.00 Redbubble Gift Card to purchase Stonewall Merchandise!

Our third favorite entry will get:

1. 6 Stonewall Credits!
2. 7 Master Keys in Star Trek Online

*Stonewall credits can be saved and/or redeemed for in-game merchandise through the Stonewall Credits Store.

Good luck to everyone!  We can't wait to read your stories!

Congrats to all the winners. I bet if it was 26 prizes i would have won something ;) 

Raffle Weiner's list!

1st: Constitution III Miracle Worker Cruiser - michaelandersch#5751
2nd: Lower Decks Deluxe pack - Gr_vity
3rd: Half the raffle EC proceeds (1,551,100,000ec) sylveonsenpai
4th: 1.25 bil EC = @Qeraeth
5th: Courier pilot raider = @Serpentacus#0686
6th: Quarter raffle sales (775,550,000ec) = Smearcampain
7th: Quarter raffle sales (775,550,000ec) = Kenley86
8th: Borg command Juggernaut = fizzelamp#9365
9th: T6 ship coupon Ayjaynyc
10th: T6 ship coupon @Gaymer
11th: T6 ship coupon @Danadark
12th: T6 ship coupon @Okaybuddy
13th: T6 ship coupon Nashwolf
14th: x30 master keys = Callumjw
15th: x15 master keys jimmyjoe1
16th: x10 master keys = knightchucky
17th: x10 master keys = Suldarion
18th: x5 master keys Dvalin
19th: x5 master keys Nilust
20th: Exprmtl upgrde token @Michlo
21st: Exprmtl upgrde token Tedhembach
22nd: DS9 BOFF (holo ds9 character) - @perseus75
23rd: Elite capt training token- @Nicholasjohn16
24th: x15 R&D packs Tanka001
25th: x15 Various doff packs @Dutch2010


I am so VERY sorry if you are not a winner this year... but know that your EC has gone to someone to enjoy.. so THANK YOU for being a donator to this raffle.
We at stonewall leadership take absolutely nothing from this raffle, its all done for fun.

I am contacting you all in game about your prizes and the best way to get them to you.

Thank you once again to Cal, Joey and gladiator for donating their time over the past 2 weeks to sell tickets.

Raffle Sales are now closed!

Raffle winner announcement will be held just after the "Picture This" game on Sunday 16th.
To see the timeline of events in your timezone, click here https://stonewallgaming.net/pages/pride

Don't worry if you are not present, I will let you know via Discord or ingame mail...
I will also post a list of winners here as soon as I can after Stonewall pride.

Attention all you crazy Raffle fans!!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to change the old 3rd prize (Infinity lock box) to a completly new prize of fairly similar value.
The 3rd prize is now 1,250,000,000 EC (1.25 billion) as the prize list indicates above.

Not only that... your fellow fleet mates have been so kind this year..

knightchucky donated an extra T6 ship voucher...

@animalcub86 (Dvalin) wanted also to treat you all with another T6 ship voucher

our very own pride host @Voleron dipped into his (and Julians) handbags and added x45 lock box keys into the prize pool!!

NOW ITS 25 PRIZES!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much donators!!!!

i looove among us haha

Always my favorite time of the year, getting to spend the weekend with everyone!

I don't think her opinions will ever alter, thus she really shouldn't work in a field where they affect other people.

I'll second this - thanks  @robertjaneway for the fun and thanks to everyone who came out to support the event and have a good time!  Can't wait to see you all at our big Pride celebration coming up in July.  (Keep your eye on our events page for deets)

Dave.

Greetings.

Since there wasn't a post yet, I just wanted to say a big thank you to our morale officer, Kevin.

This was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed being able to "meet" some new folk, particularly those brave enough to be on camera. :)

Cheers.

Ian (Michlo).

Thank you for sharing this information with us.

Chances are good that the supreme court won't even take the issue up because no lower federal courts have upheld other state restrictions in the most recent wave. The judgements reached by the lower courts will remain in effect as a result, but only in the districts where they were decided. Regrettably, that implies a complete, national decision won't be made.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our first writing challenge of 2023!  Our panel of three impartial and distinguished judges who did not submit entries read and scored every story from 1-10 in three categories: creativity, detail & impact to arrive at our top three, who we'll reach out to shortly to arrange prize delivery!  Everyone who participated will receive Stonewall Credits.  To spend them, login to this site with your account, click the drop down menu next to your profile picture on the menu bar and select 'wallet'.  

Create a Commentary List for Eurovision 2023!

We challenge you to share your thoughts regarding this years Eurovision Song Contest: the concept is called commentary list. Yearly, we put together our own commentary list - a playlist of the ESC songs, each followed or answered by a commentary song. Commentary songs either have a similarity in the music or lyrics to their song or they represent another (free) association and they can be tongue in cheek - examples for such commentary lists can be found in our playlists for the recent years at the end of this post.
So now, we want you to share your associations and commentaries! Post them to this forum thread before May 8^th and win some Stonewall Credits.

PRIZES: Stonewall Credits in the Eurovision style, from 1 to 12 SWC (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12) will be rewarded to the best lists. But watch out: We will start from 1 SWC, so only if at least 10 people participate, the best list will receive 12 SWC.

TIMELINE: You have to post your list before the actual ESC starts, so write your entry before 8^th of May. We will give out the SWC during the week after Eurovision, between 15^th and 22^nd of May.

METHOD: You can either post a link to a youtube-playlist or just write it down as text here. If you go for a youtube-playlist, you will need to use a link shortener like 1tp. If you do it in text, it should look like this if you want to comment with any other song:
Finland 2006/Hard Rock Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen/Hallelujah
Or, if you want to comment with another Eurovision song, give us nation, year and song title:
Finland 2006/Hard Rock Hallelujah – Israel 1979/Hallelujah

RULES: Every commentary is valid. The goals, though, are to find answer songs that have recognizable similarities and/or are funny in the given combination (you know: "it pays to be funny..."). Here are a few more examples:

Azerbaijan 2021/Mata Hari – Azerbaijan 2020/Cleopatra (obvious similarities: same artist, same style, the lyrics of „Mata Hari“ even inlcude the line „just like Cleopatra“)
Azerbaijan 2021/Mata Hari – Carly Simon/Nobody Does It Better (outside the box: this was the theme song for the James Bond movie „Spy who loved me“ and Mata Hari was a spy)

Sweden 2015/Heroes – David Bowie/Heroes (similar title)
Sweden 2015/Heroes – Tina Turner/We Don't Need Another Hero (funny turn-around of the title)

You do not need to comment every single song of the 37 participants, if you don't have ideas for every contestant just put the list of where you had ideas here. But, longer lists will probably score more points once we judge which lists are best.

If you are looking for more inspiration, feel free to check out our commentary songs playlists from the previous years:
Commentary List 2019
Commentary List 2020
Commentary List 2021
Commentary List 2022

Now go ahead and find your own commentaries to the songs of the 2023 season (Links to the 2023 participants in the event post). And don't forget to post your list here before the 8^th of May!

https://stonewallgaming.net/photos/178655
#yourovision