...I'll do what I can to have a Tochi post up in response to Ens Blackmon's arrival in the next few hours or so.

As to the duties of a Tactical Officer:

"The Tactical Officer was an officer stationed at the console that controlled a ship's weaponry and shields.

On Starfleet vessels, the tactical officers job was to maintain weapon and shield readiness along with executing firing solutions. These solutions could range from a low intensity phaser beam or to plot a torpedo firing pattern. Security chiefs frequently doubled as tactical officers, though the two roles were not required to be filled by the same person..."

It's also possible that the TAC officer would handle communications in a lot of cases... depends on how things are arranged with OPS.

By virtue of what constitutes a tactical system (you argue comms, transporters or structural integrity could fall under tactical if we're being shot at as such the station does a lot. On a Saber you would likely seeing the CTO pulling double duty as security chief since it's so small. As such the station will have control over internal sensors and forcefields as the duty officer will likely coordinate the defence of the ship from tactical.

What Brennus said!

During her duty shift, Ens Blackmon can count on monitoring sensors, security reports, weapons system readiness/efficiency, shield status, etc... and could you open a channel to IKEA? I saw a dresser that'd look great in my quarters.

I would imagine Comms in many ways is a shared task, coordinated between ops, tac and helm, maybe science in a bind depending on workflow and workload. It's kind of like in a small office, who ever is able to pick the phone up first just picks it up, it's up to the various officers to communicate and coordinate with one another so as to make sure they can take up the slack if need be.

Well I think Lt. Shinola could take care of Tochi's cabin decorations.

Thanks for the explanation of the Tactical station duties, you guys. That'll help!

Here is the typical breakdown of responsibilities among the bridge duty stations.

Operations: Primary sensor operation. Primary communications operation. Responsible for power distribution ("boost power to the shields, mister Jones!"). Responsible for coordination of damage control teams and efforts. Secondary for shield operation, due to the ability to allocate power. Operation of tractor beams. Secondary for the launching of sensor probes.

Tactical: Primary responsibility for shield operation. Responsible for the firing of weapons (phasers and torpedoes). Analysis of sensor data for potential threats. Analysis of sensor data for firing solutions. Responsible for changing the ship's alert state (green, yellow, red). Secondary for communications (the ability is here, but is typically the job of operations). Responsible for coordination of internal security.

Helm: Responsible for all actual navigation and flight of the ship. Responsible for coordination of all shuttle operations.

Science: Primary for the launching of all sensor probes. Analysis of sensor data for a wide spectrum of data. Integrates with other departments to enhance and assist in the completion of their duties.

Awesome post there, Haemis! Really good read!

Hmmm seems I can't applaud you for that Haemis, don't know why.

Well I am applauding you for that wonderful post, even if the site won't let me.

Thanks everyone. I think I understand the Tactical station duties now.

I also see that Ensign Blackmon has a turn at Command? I assume that is the Big Chair, right? ~gulps~. I hope she is ready when the time comes, but at the rate time goes here in this game that'll be a few months away yet. . My lucky is that is when something bad will happen, when she has the bridge.

Command is a shift in the "Big Chair." Nine times out of ten, all that really means is that you're the "shift supervisor" and have the leeway to make executive/command decisions where the hour-to-hour running of the ship is concerned... if anything goes seriously sideways, wake up the Captain or the XO.

Anyhoo... the Thanksgiving/drag out Christmas rush has subsided and, with luck, I'll have a post or two ready to go in a couple of hours or less...


Oh... applauds... if you've already applauded someone on a thread, you can't applaud them again (well, you can, but it doesn't up the applaud count... unless you smite them, first, then applaud them again, or something. )

Well that doesn't seem right. I like to applaud people when they have a great post, now I can't. Makes me so

...every time you hit the Applaud button, you are registering "positive karma" for that Innmate; however, if you've already applauded that particular Innmate in the same thread, it doesn't "up the count," so to speak. Basically, the new applaud replaces the old one, if you want to look at it that way.

.. that doesn't help!

~gets out cattle prod~ Don't make me use this! ~hits trigger and is rewarded with a shower of electrical sparks ~. Ooooo this could be fun!

I don't see some posts soon, I'm going to start jabbing into the darkness out there.

I'm in my final 2 weeks of the semester so I've basically got something do every day for the next 2 weeks, that doesn't leave a ton of time for none school related (both in the academic sense and literally writing about schools and teaching.). I'll see if I can get something up by the end of this week, that said don't hold your breath.

I've started a post five or six times, just haven't liked what's come of any of them, yet... *shrugs*... I'll get something cohesive together soon, though.

I hope.