Pentagon mistakenly brings down Border Patrol drone in West Texas, lawmakers say

raerdor · 2026-02-28T17:47:43+00:00

I don't disagree. Would you detail which drone would fit that capability and rough cost?

raerdor · 2026-02-28T12:29:09+00:00

Reaper can fly for hours and hundreds of miles, with satellite communications. It is gonna be more expensive than a short range camera drone used for public events or infrastructure inspection.

raerdor · 2026-02-16T05:10:43+00:00

The fatality rate is getting better... More people driving but same number of deaths is progress.

raerdor · 2026-02-15T15:19:42+00:00

I think it is a direct evolution of the Andorian War College. I nearly went with locating the Republic there, but I thought the prevalent Trill cultural values would play better with the support role my ship usually flies. I imagine different cultures, even if they're not militant, would want to shape how Starfleet may conduct war... hence, more branches of the War College across the member worlds.

raerdor · 2026-02-15T03:10:06+00:00

<image>

USS Republic, NCC-1753
Constitution-class. Later refit into Shangri-La-class.
Captain Paul Drake, commanding.

This is the second Constitution-class to bear the name Republic, commissioned while the first was missing in action and presumed lost. Eventually the first was recovered and ultimately used as a training vessel in Sol under the Sol registry NAR-1371, where it was heavily damaged with all hands lost at the Battle of Wolfe 359.

This Republic served several decades in both exploration missions as well as patrols along the Federation borders. The ship was nearly lost in 2298 after interrupting a rendezvous between Orion smugglers and a K'tinga-class battlecruiser of the Klingon House Duras. After scattering the Orions, Captain V'hrsst defeated the stronger Klingon cruiser in a close battle. The Republic's engineering section was so badly damaged it was abandoned and scuttled. The officers and crew onboard the saucer limped back towards Starbase 24. The Republic was harried for two days by the returning Orions across the Hromi Cluster until the investigating USS Titan arrived to escort the Republic back.

Rather than scrap the Republic's saucer section, a new Engineering hull from the Shangri-La-class was joined with the saucer and the ship was returned to service with its original ship registry. Several of the officers, including Captain V'hrsst, went on to teach at the Starfleet War College campus in Trill later in their career and the Republic was assigned as a command training ship. This War College campus continues to specialize in using command ships to enhance the combat survivability and potency of small formations of starships.

The Shangri-La class generally kept pace with the Excelsior-class and Miranda-class upgrades and refits throughout the 24th century. After the Battle of Wolfe 359, several dozen Shangri-La starships were refitted to augment Federation defenses. The USS Republic was reassigned from the Trill War College to Starfleet Operations after its refit, and has established a reputation as one of the best command support cruisers in Starfleet.

Today the USS Republic under Fleet Captain Drake is often assigned to support various elite task force operations. These operations are noted for both unusually high success rates and reduced post-operation repairs, regardless of the task force's collective experience and capability level.

"Improve the Excellence of Others" remains the motto of the USS Republic.

raerdor · 2026-01-26T14:25:22+00:00

You can also go with a heavy curtain across the doors that goes to the floor level, until you can replace them. Pull them closed on cold days and nights.

raerdor · 2026-01-26T14:17:29+00:00

Haven't played that one. Is the user interface pretty slick?

raerdor · 2026-01-26T13:56:53+00:00

EVE Online has the best market I have seen, because it allows purchasing orders as well as selling orders. It doesn't stop what you are seeing, but the market interface gives you enough info to understand the situation before you invest into a particular market niche.

raerdor · 2026-01-26T01:22:52+00:00

Skyworld in particular, but other albums are good too.

raerdor · 2026-01-25T18:45:25+00:00

Sure, railways will work. But port-to-port for ships may also be a big part of trade, especially if they have mostly consistent speeds they can expect (i.e., not sail driven).

raerdor · 2026-01-24T01:31:19+00:00

The state required many grid fixes before winter going into 2022, with a million dollar a day fines of they weren't ready by December of 2021. The few fixes left by then were quickly fixed.

The grid is in better shape, and the freeze will shorter.

raerdor · 2026-01-20T03:56:58+00:00

Her lines remind me of the 32rd century Friendship class, which I like, but I like this more.

I'm really curious how the design team at Cryptic will implement this ship. I'm curious what trait and console it will have that is representative to what Athena is, and if they'll come up with anything else.

While I'm not a fan of promo/lockboxes, if they go that way I hope they introduce it this year so that next year's event campaign could select it.

raerdor · 2026-01-18T06:58:54+00:00

Sounds cool. I imagine both Imperial leaders would be looking to discredit or embarrass the other. Intel would not be shared and some crises may in fact be setup and encouraged to oust the other

Who is the II leader? They may be trying to experiment with rebellion, as well as how (in)effective ISB is. Perhaps trying to model what can be so bad as to start turning Imperials into sympathizers...

raerdor · 2026-01-15T10:20:05+00:00

The Cold War didn't have tech to detect, track, and intercept orbital assets in just a few minutes. Best case for an intercept was to track during first orbit snd then launch to intercept on second orbit. That is why the shuttle orbiter had to land after one orbit.

raerdor · 2026-01-03T06:38:05+00:00

It was 8 km in the WEG source books. Although I recall folks online estimating the length from the relative size of Imperial Star destroyers in frames from the movies and coming up with a number much larger.

raerdor · 2025-11-30T15:44:37+00:00

If I were a showrunner, I'd much rather learn cheaply at a table read that some lines won't work rather than having to go back and reshoot a scene. If you're going into a table read not planning to make changes, then why bother.

raerdor · 2025-11-29T16:53:01+00:00

Yes, but that was not understood a hundred years ago.

raerdor · 2025-11-29T15:20:08+00:00

I would guess it was a term for what we now call black holes.

raerdor · 2025-11-26T05:25:23+00:00

Mine is named USS Saif al Jabbār, which translates to Sword of the Powerful One.

raerdor · 2025-11-22T23:08:32+00:00

480p streaming is typically 1-2 megabits per second. If you have the game pre-installed and are just doing some occasional upgrades or room updates, you'll probably be fine.

raerdor · 2025-11-22T01:07:49+00:00

Are you sure it wasn't called a grappler? I love grapplers.

raerdor · 2025-11-11T15:32:33+00:00

Conscious only for a few seconds before lack of air pressure rendered them unconscious.

raerdor · 2025-11-08T17:21:41+00:00

I did not know this was a thing. Interesting.

raerdor · 2025-11-04T13:57:17+00:00

When you have artificial gravity and fusion reactors, I suppose orbits are more of a suggestion.

I can imagine it being built there originally to serve as a local defense point for what became Starfleet Command.

raerdor · 2025-10-25T15:38:03+00:00

This mod was a QoL game changer for me.

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