Officer Roles

Helm Officer Vijay Wei saved forty-five lives when weapons systems failed on the UCS Garland. Wei’s skilled piloting through an asteroid field left enemy forces unable to give chase.

During a close fought single-ship action of the First Adamas War, Gunnery Officer Second Class Apollo Kiriakou was awarded commendation for having remained at his station despite massive system overheat. His beam capacitors peaked out at 847°C.

The longest-range unguided hit in the UCN’s history was achieved by Weapons Officer Walter ‘Crosshairs’ Emerson, who fired six rounds of railgun ammunition at an oncoming enemy frigate. Five of the six rounds struck their target, 51.9 kilometres from Emerson’s firing location.

A major disaster was avoided when Communications Officer Mo Gruffud kept their cool and defused a stand-off between UCN forces after an enemy deception strategy led to accusations of treason. Gruffud kept lines of communication open and, together with their fellow officers, exposed the enemy interference.

Science Officer Sofia Bulgakova of the UCS Ajax used an encyclopedic understanding of shield technology to detect weaknesses in a pursuing much larger enemy vessel. Her speedy calculations saved three thousand lives.

When his flotilla’s sensor arrays became inhibited, Commander Helmut 'Sextant' Rothwell became famous for his precision as a navigator when he successfully led the entire group out of an asteroid-filled nebula near the Adamas Belt. All of his plotting and calculations were based entirely on his naked-eye astral observations.

The Engineering Team of the UCS Ajax earned medals after an asteroid collision severely damaged their reactor. Making use of jury-rigged fuses and displaying excellent initiative under pressure, they prevented total power failure and got the ship and her crew home in one piece.

Thanks to Engineering Officer Second Class Christina Mtimbe, the heavily damaged UCS Bradley was able to limp home with her impulse drive completely destroyed, forcing a dangerously long journey at warp speed. The warp core came within seconds of catastrophic instability, but Mtimbe used emergency coolant at the last possible moment, ensuring the ship safely reached a UCN station.

Drone Controller Gil Suarez unwittingly pioneered the tactical application of mine laying drones. Usually deployed for the placement of strategic, area-denial mine fields, Suarez employed mine-layer drones for a last ditch defence of the crippled UCS Makhanda, launching mines directly at oncoming hostiles.

Now-celebrated Rear Admiral Morgan Xi began their career as the humble Helm Officer of a personnel transfer shuttle. They often cite their experience of conversing with a diverse array of officers as foundational to their deep understanding of UCN leadership structures, and crucial to their later success in reforming UCN fleet doctrine.

Sub Lieutenant Rosie ‘Good Cop’ Tanaka gained UCN fame when she saved her shuttle from pirate ambushers. Alone on the vessel due to a previous boarding action, Tanaka convinced hostile elements that she was barely reining in her trigger happy weapons operator from deploying nuclear arms - in reality she quickly switched between her roles as ship’s communicator, scientist, and weapons officer, spooling up heat beams to mimic a larger weapons array.

Despite running on only a single fuel cell, Shuttle Engineer Grace Denby sustained her shuttle, The UCS Bellerophon-S, over a 49 sector warp by rerouting latent chemical energy from the vessel’s munitions.

92% of Captains in the UCN today gained their first experience of command while serving as a First Officer. One such was Captain Athena Hamilton, who currently serves as Captain of the UCS Falchion – part of the Warspite Task Group in the Adamas Belt.

Vice Admiral Nilsson, then-Captain of the UCS Mandela, was awarded the Confederation Star for her quick-thinking and bravery at the Second Battle of Iaptus three years ago. By rallying her crew, communicating with other UCN ships, and planning a precise flanking manoeuvre, Nilsson was able to hold off enemy forces until reinforcements arrived - no mean feat, given the UCS Mandela was a light scouting vessel.