The Sim
Welcome aboard the USS Ithaca.
Star Trek: Ithaca begins in late 2385, aboard the Nova-class survey vessel USS Ithaca, NCC-75227. She has been assigned to Task Force 74 in the Vesper March, a quiet stretch of frontier on the Federation’s galactic-southern edge.
The Federation has survived a brutal decade. The Dominion War is no longer fresh history, but its shadow has not completely disappeared. Then came the Borg invasion of 2381: the final assault of the Collective, an extinction-level crisis that killed billions and left worlds, fleets, and whole communities broken in its wake. The Borg are gone now. For many, that should have meant peace.
It did not.
Starfleet is still rebuilding. Colonies are still recovering. Refugees are still being resettled on worlds that were never meant to carry so many new lives at once. The Federation endures, but it does so with fewer ships, thinner patrols, and a harder understanding of how quickly certainty can vanish.
In the aftermath, President Kellessar zh’Tarash has taken office with a promise to turn the Federation back toward its better self: peace, diplomacy, science, exploration, and the careful rebuilding of trust. It is an ambitious promise. It is also one being watched closely by the Typhon Pact, by old rivals, by uncertain neighbours, and by Federation citizens who have heard noble words before.
Recovery is not the same as peace.
The Ithaca is not a flagship; she is not a state-of-the-art battlecruiser. She is a small science and survey vessel with a crew of seventy-eight, commissioned on 17 March 2374 at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, during the height of the Dominion War. There was no grand ceremony. No speeches. No parade of admirals beside a polished hull. Starfleet needed ships, and the yards were launching whatever they could get into service.
The Ithaca’s first duty was not glory. It was the quiet work: survey operations, sensor support, long-range observation, and intelligence-adjacent assignments. She was built to watch closely, endure patiently, and come home with answers.
Now, eleven years later, she has been sent to the Vesper March as part of the Lantern Fleet, operating from Starbase 74 at Tarsas. Her orders are straightforward: explore, investigate, assist where possible, support diplomacy, and maintain a careful Starfleet presence in a region where calm should not be mistaken for safety.
The Ithaca is older than some of the ships around her, smaller than many of the threats around her, and more lived-in than polished. But she is a working Starfleet vessel with a capable crew, a good name, and a mission that matters.
Welcome to the Vesper March.
Welcome to the Lantern Fleet.
Welcome aboard the Ithaca.
