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Since the USS Kelly’s new spirit guide is the elephant, we thought we’d go over some interesting fact about them. All of the following information below on the African elephants, including the photos, are courtesy of the National Geographic website.

  1. African elephants are the largest mammals on Earth.
  2. Elephants are fond of water, and enjoy showering themselves by sucking water into their trunks and spraying it all over themselves.
  3. An elephant’s trunk is actually a long nose which is used for lots of things other than breathing and smelling. They will trumpet, drink through their trunk, and grab things – especially food.
  4. The trunk alone contains about 10,000 different muscles.
  5. Elephants use their tusks to dig for food and water, and also to strip bark from trees. Males also use them in battle.
  6. Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark – about 300 pounds of it per day.
  7. Elephants don’t sleep much, and they roam great distances while foraging.
  8. Elephant mothers are pregnant for about 22 months – that’s nearly two years!
  9. Baby elephants shed their first set of teeth and tusks, just like humans lose their baby teeth.
  10. Elephants make powerful low-frequency rumblings to communicate over long distances.
  11. An elephant’s brain has a very similar structure to humans.
  12. When an elephant dies, their family grieves. They may even revisit the bones of their deceased for years, touching them with their trunks. Not many animals do that.

Remember, our next activity will be going to the Hogle Zoo to view these majestic animals. We will be going on Saturday, September 21st. Time TBD.

FLEET GAMES REPORT:
It was great seeing everyone at the Seventh Fleet Games last Saturday. Many of our crew were able to come up and participate. We didn’t win the bragging rights trophy (congrats to the Valkyrie), but I think we did well. On the other hand, we kicked butt at Shields… but that’s another story.

If you have pictures you’re willing to share, please contact me (Jill) by PM on Facebook so I can make arrangements to get them. (I’d prefer copies of the original files.) The pictures below are from Liar’s Dice.

SEPTEMBER ACTIVITY:
Our next activity will be September 21st. We will be going to the Hogle Zoo and looking at the elephants. Since September is our birthday and our new spirit guide is the Elephant, we figured this would be appropriate. Times and other details TBD.

The next USS Kelly activity is going to be the Seventh Fleet Games, held this coming Saturday, August 17, 2019 at Heyburn Central Park in Heyburn, Idaho. Directions to the park, the agenda, and additional information from the USS Valkyrie are listed below.

If you plan to attend and need a ride, please contact Mel Andrew so she can coordinate rides.

Directions to Heyburn Central Park
1. Coming from Utah take Exit 211
2. Turn left towards Burley/Heyburn
3. At the first stop light turn right onto 21st street
4. Turn left on K street and go to the end of the street
5. Park comes up on your right at the end of the street

Important information
1. We will be keeping to the time schedules listed above. If two events are going on at the same time you will need to choose which one you want to participate in, time frames can not be extended to keep us on time so travelers do not get a late start heading back.

2. There will be a silent auction that will go on throughout the Olympics. There are 30 Lots of different Sci-fi Memorabilia. Auction will close at the time the medals are awarded. We will be able to take cash, debit, and credit cards and PayPal for payments of auction items.

3. There will be a playground for small children who do not want to participate in the Cadet games. There will also be restrooms available to us for the duration of the Olympics.

4. Lunch will be Street Tacos, Salad, Chips and Dessert. We will also have bottled water available to drink. Anyone not wanting these options are more than welcome to bring their own lunch. We are not charging any Fleet member for the lunch provided. If you feel you would like to donate to cover cost a donation jar will be there for donations but is not required.

5. The event will run from 10 am to 6 pm. Instructions and sign up will happen until 10:15 am and then the games will start. Sign ups will be available up until each game starts. Time schedules will be strictly adhered to.

The USS Kelly held our most recent roleplaying session on August 3, 2019. We are just now starting to get to the heart of the story. You can read prior posts for the earlier parts of the story, but here’s what happened last Saturday…

Faced with multiple contract options, our intrepid crew decided to head for a starship graveyard. Unfortunately, as they were heading toward it, their propulsion quit. Instruments all said that the power generators were at full power – we just quit going anywhere.

Faced with multiple contract options, our intrepid crew decided to head for a starship graveyard. Unfortunately, as they were heading toward it, their propulsion quit. Instruments all said that the power generators were at full power – we just quit going anywhere.

It turned out that this area is a galactic “Bermuda Triangle” called the Carvon Nebula. What we didn’t realize is that our assistant engineer is from this area… an area that has magic.

We took the shuttle that is part of the ship’s configuration and mounted it on top of the bridge. What most of we didn’t realize is that we now have air and use the ship like a sailing ship, cruising between the planets in the nebula.

We landed on the nearest planet, and quickly realized that most of the people don’t speak Galactic Common. Fortunatley we found a … rather enthusiastic young woman named Ruby who was willing to help us out. (She was viewed as as a weirdo for studying science in a world where it doesn’t work.)

We also discovered that our ship is infamous within the nebula – the prior Eperor’s private yacht, named the Royal Dawn. We had to change the name, and it’s configuration, rather quickly.

Now the hull looks like a bird made out of various shades of wood, and the sails (to the port and starboard) look like giant, flaming bird wings. We named the ship the Phoenix.

What will we face next?

When a ship of Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet gets a new captain, they have the option to change several things about the ship, including the club’s colors and our the animal Spirit Guide, and more. Captain Nada has done just that.

The U.S.S. Kelly’s new colors are purple and silver, and our new Spirit Guide is the Elephant.

With a new Spirit Guide and new colors, it is also time for a new banner, so we need YOUR help.

1. What elephant traits do USS Kelly members possess?
2. Captain Nada also needs submissions for banner ideas (graphics are preferred over text submissions).

You can post your answers on our Facebook post, by Facebook Messenger, or by e-mail to Captain Nada.

Elephants on the meadow

On the first Saturday of every month, the Tactical department gets together and does a role-playing game. In July, we started with a new system (for us) called Savage Worlds.

Here are the notes from the first session…

“On a backwater, nothing of a planet named Kayleain lies a ship graveyard, a fuel post, and people who got stuck. Our players were all travelling on various ships when they broke down. Since there are no real spacedocks on Kayleain (which is actually a moon of the gas giant Darian V), the only way off the planet is to try to scavenge parts for repairs. Our travellers met each other on the planet, and decided to work together to get the repair work done.

Out in the debris field they found several likely candidates, all about the size of a scout vessel, including one very interesting ship that seemed more grown than manufactured.

Our intrepid travellers hired local kids to help scavenge, purchased a house that had used their ship’s airlocks as doors, and ended up putting the ship back together using most of its original parts (since they weren’t exactly compatible with other vessels).

Now, our travellers have said goodbye to their original ship (which used other parts they scavenged), hired a second Engineer named Torran, and have set off across the galaxy to find work. As soon as our adventurers took off, they found two young stowaways they don’t know what to do with.

This is going to be an interesting journey.”

I am very proud to announce that the U.S.S. Kelly’s Tactical department is back up and running!

 

Let me introduce myself. I am Lt. Commander Jill Bogler-Patterson, Chief Tactical Officer of the USS Kelly and general pain in the rear. I have been involved with this fine ship for over two decades, though due to real life issues I have not been able to work with the Kelly as I have in the past. Fortunately, that has changed.

Captain Hollinger asked me to head this department, and I have taken on the challenge with gusto.

Since the Tactical department is in charge of gaming events, we have started with a Star Trek based role playing game that will be held the first Saturday of every month and is created using the GURPS system. You can check out the USS Kelly calendar on this Web site for game dates and times. These Tactical Logs will be used to provide information on what we’re up to, but we’re also going to write up our game-play as a story.

Speaking of the story…
We are all recent graduates of Starfleet Academy, on our final training cruise aboard the USS Chimera. The Chimera is set to be mothballed and a museum piece after this mission. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned, does it?

 

If you are interested in creating a character, come up with a character idea and contact our game master here. (For example, I am a half-Betazoid/half-Caitian engineering graduate.)

If you’d like more information about the U.S.S. Kelly in general or the Tactical department specifically, contact me here.

 

Hailing frequencies closed.