Rhenora Kaylen Archives - Independence Fleet

At the movies… with Independence Fleet!

Posted on July 4, 2023 | by Charles Star | 7 Comments

And yet another year of IDF is in the books with our 22nd Anniversary today. To remind you of how old we really are, here’s a quote from last year’s anniversary post:

“On our 22nd Anniversary, we will be further removed from the premiere of the 2009 Star Trek film (May 8, 2009) than IDF’s launch was from the premiere of The Next Generation (September 28, 1987): 14 years, 1 month, 26 days vs. 13 years, 9 months, 6 days.”

Well, here we are! For this year’s celebration, each of our 12 sims created a movie poster to capture their unique essence and feel. We are also very fortunate to have Amanda Rose from RPG Writing, NX-1701-G from Zodiac Fleet, and Beth from Sim Central to judge the entries in three categories: overall image quality, how much does it look like an actual movie poster, and general creativity/originality. Before we get to the posters themselves, we first have an announcement from a special guest:

Now, the 12 movie posters:

And your winners are…
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Congratulations to all three winners, and a special thanks to our judges! However, to quote Kirk from Star Trek III, we’re not finished yet! Here are superlative awards for our other nine games:

While we’re on the topic of movies, we are now further removed from our July 4, 2001 founding than it was from the premiere of the first Star Trek film Star Trek: The Motion Picture (December 6, 1979): 22 years vs. 21 years, 6 months, 28 days. Feel old yet?

Continuing last year’s tradition, we again have a second video message:

Happy IDF anniversary, everyone!

Monthly Awards: April 2023

Posted on May 15, 2023 | by Rook Mirtoh | 1 Comment

On the Ides of May, here are your April awards:

Best Post (Single Author)

Lieutenant Commander Mark Johnson
Chief Medical Officer
USS Wayfarer

For “Day 7: Deena, a pleasant surprise.”

Nice post, not rushed, with very good detail and description. Well done!

Best Post (Joint Post)

Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Commander Samantha Howard
ACSTO / XO / CMO
USS Washington

For “A Pleasant Visit”

A very interesting predicament of a First Contact with a human civilization–and outstanding job among several excellent nominations this month.

Funniest Post

Ensign Alyssa Strong
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Albion

For “Shower, Hot Chocolate, SURPRISE!”

Awesome.

Genesis

Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Commanding Officer
USS Sunfire

For “GENESIS”

Great way to start a mission–with the Obsidian Order bashing your door in. Good luck!

MVP

Commander Jonathan Grayson
Executive Officer
USS Washington

Commander Grayson had a great month leading a new mission, working closely with a new player, and keeping the story moving with inputs from everyone. Great job!

Most Posts

Commander Jonathan Grayson
Executive Officer
USS Washington

For writing 10 posts.

Most Improved

Lieutenant Callisi Veera
Chief Operations Officer
USS Churchill

Really stepped up to fill in while the Captain was unwell to keep the sim moving after having zero posts the month prior.

Rookie of the Month

Ensign J.B. Dersch
Tactical Officer
USS Washington

The new Ensign was active right out of the gate with great contributions.

Recruitment

None this month.

As always, great posting!

The Record Book Has Been Rewritten

Posted on January 12, 2023 | by Charles Star | 3 Comments

With 2022 in the books, it’s high time we checked in with the latest version of the IDF Record Book over on our About page. As it turns out, we have a new all-time leader in monthly awards. Lieutenant Bonnie “Bon-Bon” Durnell of the USS Sunfire now has a grand total of 29.83 awards, passing the previous leader, Jenna Ramthorne (of a prior version of the Sunfire), who has 24.83. What’s even more incredible, is that both characters are played by the same person!

	Best Post	Funniest Post	Genesis	MVP	Most Posts	Most Improved	Recruitment	Total
Durnell	5.05	5.78		4	14	1		29.83
Ramthorne	4		.83	4	15		1	24.83

Prolific across multiple award categories, the two stat lines seem to mirror each other. However, the difference is clearly Durnell’s five plus Funniest Post awards to Ramthorne’s zero. See what adding humor to your game can do! Congratulations to Lieutenant Durnell on this incredible accomplishment!

As it turns out, we have quite a few current or recent members who have moved up leader board since we brought the Awards back for March 2020:

Active Member — received an award within the last year or confirmed to currently be on a sim
Hall of Famer

*All characters with five or more total monthly awards*

In addition to all those who’ve won awards, I also want to thank each of our sim Commanding Officers for submitting nominations month-in and month-out and to Rear Admiral James “Rook” Mirtoh for running the program and selecting winners. Without their tireless efforts, the awards simply wouldn’t be possible.

I’ve long been of the opinion that the monthly awards are one of the absolute best features of this fleet, and they’re a key bonus that really distinguishes us from other groups out there. The numbers speak for themselves: Through the end of 2022, we have 969 total documented awards presented to 506 different individuals through 1,226 different award records. Each one is permanently part of our continuing history, starting all the way back with the five original awards presented for our very first month of July 2001 going up through today and beyond.

Now it’s time to add your legacy to the story…