USS Black Hawk (Sim History)

USS Black Hawk-A
Class Information
Assigned System:	Finnea Sector
Task Group:	TG1: Vanguard
Class:	Century-Class
CO:	Captain Harvey Geisler
Template:Shipname

The USS Black Hawk-A is a Century-Class starship assigned to Task Force 9. It is currently operating as a member of Task Group Vanguard and is currently based out of Finnea Prime to study the Finnean Convergence Zone. She is also currently home to the 325th Fighter Squadron.

Background

Akira-Class

Dominion War

Commissioned in 2373 during the height of the Dominion War, the USS Black Hawk, under the command of Captain Mitch Bueller, saw plenty of combat. Captain Bueller was an excellent tactician and was given the responsibility of commanding the entire Starfighter Wing for the Third Fleet. Under his direction, the Black Hawk led many successful missions during the war.

Until the Battle of Kalendra, that is.

The Black Hawk led allied forces into the system. Captain Bueller's tactics were on the verge of becoming textbook, a fact that the Dominion was prepared to exploit. The Black Hawk was targeted the moment the battle started. Nearly an entire Jem'hadar attack wing came down on the Black Hawk and her companions. Most of other ships were destroyed or disabled within five minutes.

But not the Black Hawk.

Within two minutes, her shields were overwhelmed and the warp drive disabled. Instead of simply destroying the ship, the Jem'hadar boarded the vessel. This battle, it seemed, had become personal.

With aid from a couple Miranda-class ships, the crew of the Black Hawk was able to retain control of their vessel, but their spirits were broken. As the Allied Forces declared victory, the Black Hawk was towed back to Andoria for repairs. She sat out most of the war; seeing her next and last bit of action at Cardassia Prime, but without a starfighter squadron to call the Black Hawk home.

Post-War

Following the war, the Black Hawk was assigned close to Sector 001. She did see some variations of duty, including patrolling the Romulan Neutral Zone in the early 2380's. Before the Hobus Supernova, the Black Hawk was recalled to Earth.

Assigned to the Gamma Quadrant

As Task Force 9 expanded deeper into the Gamma Quadrant, the Black Hawk was refitted and reassigned to join the Task Force, accepting Commander Harvey Geisler as the first Commanding Officer to take her into the edge of known space. Commander Geisler assumed command in late 2387. As he led the ship into the far reaches of the Gamma Quadrant, the mystery of the frontier became Harvey's new obsession, wanting to uncover truth and make an impact much like he did as a young lieutenant who worked feverishly to cure disease and pestilence.

Before long, the starship and crew were misled by The Consortium. Captain Geisler led the crew on one mission after another to curb the Consortium Threat. At long last, the Black Hawk confronted the Consortium at Deep Space 11. While they were successful in uprooting the threat, the Black Hawk was fatally damaged by the USS Sovereign and forced to make a crash landing on the planet below. The ship lost both nacelles and the weapons pod in the process. Starfleet later declared the wreckage to be a total loss.

Century-Class

Just a couple of months following the Akira-Class ship's destruction, Starfleet commissioned a brand new Century-Class starship christened the USS Black Hawk-A. The command crew of its predecessor was summoned back into service and propelled towards their destiny.

A little more than three months since the Federation ended the Consortium coup. The USS Vasco de Gama, a Nova Class Starfleet vessel patrolling the mouth of the Finnean Convergence Zone, comes across a 100-year old Class Nine Probe. Their engineers quickly uncover the first page of a great mystery, a garbled message stating that a great danger is about to eclipse the Federation. The recording lasts for minutes, but most of the information had been lost due to years of aged equipment and hardware.

Normally, such a discovery would be inventoried and carefully studied. However, the crew of the Black Hawk is summoned back to active service to discover the origin of the probe, determine if the Federation is actually in danger, and find out why the message was sent by Harvey Geisler himself. The probe, unfortunately, had been captured, along with the USS Vasco de Gama and Deep Space 15 in orbit of Finnea Prime, a Federation station that had been abandoned during the Consortium Crisis. After days of negotiation, Captain Geisler and his crew were able to resecure the station, as well as lay the groundwork to restablize the Finnean society, yielding the return of all Federation property, including the probe.

A month later and after several close studies of the Convergence Zone, the USS Black Hawk was able to traverse the barrier no one had been able to break in nearly twenty years. Their method involved various modifications to the shield and deflector grids, allowing the ship to offset multiple quantum variables without being translated through various spatial dimensions. The experience was not fully successful as the Black Hawk lost power shortly before exiting the zone. The crew was also bombarded with an unknown radiation, rendering them unable to remember anything. A simple medical procedure was able to restore the crew's memories. This came just in time as a mysterious group called The Guardians attempted to take the Black Hawk for themselves.

After the crew finishes repairs, they set course for the nearby Alpha Trios system where sensors revealed five destroyed planets and two small artificial establishments. Multiple away teams are dispatched to learn as much as they could. Their discoveries match well with the conditions of the Guardians. The level of technology in the universe is consistent with the Federation at the turn of the 24th century but there doesn't seem to be anyone developing technology further, and many of the locals seem resigned to their fate to live within a dystopian universe.

Specifications

For a complete overview of the USS Black Hawk-A's specifications, please visit USS Black Hawk-A Specifications.

Crew Manifest

The Black Hawk currently holds 780 crew and 20 civilian passengers.

Crew Breakdown

• Officers: 195
• Enlisted: 585
• Civilians: 20
• Emergency Capacity: 1,600 souls

Senior Staff

Position	Name	Rank
Commanding Officer	Template:CommandingOfficerName
Executive Officer	Template:ExecutiveOfficerName
Chief Flight Control Officer	Template:ChiefFlightControlName
Chief Intelligence Officer	Template:ChiefIntelName
Chief Operations Officer	Template:ChiefOperationsName
Chief Security/Tactical Officer	Template:ChiefSecurityName
Chief Engineering Officer	Template:ChiefEngineerName	Warrant Officer
Chief Science Officer	Template:ChiefSceinceName
Chief Medical Officer	Template:ChiefMedicalName
Counselor	Template:ChiefCounselorName
Squadron Commander	Template:SquadronCommanderName

Out of Character Background

The USS Black Hawk was first launched under the command of Captain Mitch Bueller in the now-defunct Alpha Quadrant simulation group in 2005. Upon reasons that were not made public, Captain Bueller resigned his command and moved on from simming. This was the first time that Harvey Geisler took command.

For three years, minus one short break, the Black Hawk remained under Geisler's command. Following his second resignation, the sim floundered for a few months before finally being shuttered in 2008. All of the crew was either transferred off to other AQSG sims or left the group all together.

Geisler returned to simming in 2012, and one year later dared to relaunch the USS Black Hawk in Bravo Fleet in December 2013. More than three years later, the Black Hawk continues to perform as one of Bravo Fleet's top simulations.

Awards

• October 2015: Bravo Fleet (TF9) Sim of the Month
• Fall 2015: Bravo Fleet Sim of the Quarter
• February 2016: Bravo Fleet (TF9) Sim of the Month
• July 2016: Bravo Fleet (TF9) Sim of the Month
• September 2016: Bravo Fleet (TF9) Sim of the Month
• January 2017: Bravo Fleet (TF9) Sim of the Month
• First Quarter 2017: Bravo Fleet Sim of the Quarter
• April 2017: Bravo Fleet (TF9) Sim of the Month
• July 2017: Bravo Fleet Admiralty Unit Citation
• February 2018: Great Star Trek Tournament of Simulations
• September 2018: Ongoing Worlds Medal for Superior Online Role Playing (Squiddie)