The Admiral’s Log: My Journey Through ‘Star Trek Online’ – Part LXIII

Written by John Edward Betancourt

The Grind 2: Battlecruiser Bugaloo

I think it is safe to say, that every last one of us out there; love to get something for free. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sandwich or a coffee, it’s just nice to get a little break now and again and enjoy a little reward instead of handing over your hard-earned dollars. But sometimes, you do have to put in a little work to get that freebie and while sometimes the quest for free stuff is irritating, other times it is supremely worth your while and a lot of fun for certain, as is the case with this year’s big reward for the Star Trek Online anniversary event. Because the folks at Cryptic are offering up a free T6 Alliance Battlecruiser, provided of course you complete the tasks ahead of you and well, I have to admit, that sounded like a fair trade.
​
Because this ship is cool, and armed to the teeth with fun weapons, so why not go after it? And well, that’s what today edition of the Admiral’s Log is going to be about, the grind to get that bad boy. Because not only will recounting this quest spotlight more of the fun present in the Tenth Anniversary celebration, it will also be worth documenting, simply because I’ve actually never done anything like this before in game. For I tend to stick to the storylines and my own carefully crafted agenda and the Endeavor missions as well. Which means I usually gloss over the big events and partake in a little portion of them, so I didn’t know what to expect. And it turns out, that diving into this event to get that monster of a ship, ended up being a far greater undertaking than I expected it to be.

Not because the tasks were hard. Because they certainly weren’t horribly taxing. I mean sure, I got my butt kicked in ‘The Measure of Morality Part 1 and 2’ but the other options available to complete my daily progress goal were to either take part in The Battle of the Binary Stars TFO or to fly about the galaxy and stabilize some Omega molecules per Q’s liking. Which aren’t tough by any means. So, what really what made this quite the quest, was carving out time in my day to do the work. Because I won’t lie, while I do visit STO often, there are some days where I just don’t have the energy to game. You know how it goes, where the day was long, or the laundry needs to get done, or you’re just stone cold tired and in need of a nap. So, those are the days where I don’t do much outside of watch my usual shows and go to bed at a decent hour. Or try to.

But this time around, I really wanted to push myself and earn this ship. So, on the days that I was tired or had too much to do, I figured out how to juggle everything so I could carve out a little time to log on. Because this was one of those situations where if I didn’t stay on top of it, I would have forgotten and let this ship slip through my fingertips. But a little bit of vigilance and a heavy use of the Omega hunt allowed for me to dive in like never before and it was quite a joy to see the daily meter continue to climb as I inched toward my goal and well, it didn’t take long for this to become habit and those days that I didn’t quite feel like logging on disappeared. Because now, I was on my way and I wanted this sucker and wouldn’t you know it, twenty days later… I had myself a brand-new ship.

She will be named the A.F.S. Pegasus (CSN-17) and I am so looking forward to taking her out for a spin. Because she is armed to the teeth with Anti-Proton beams, which are my favorite. And it would seem her shield system is impressive as well and really, what has me excited about taking this monster out in the galaxy, is the sheer fact that a little nerdy hard work brought her into my personal fleet. Because it’s always nice when you straight up earn something, and it is even better when that hard work lets you have it for free. And truly, this is the first time that I actually didn’t mind the grind and there’s a fair chance now that I’ll probably start diving into other events down the line as well since the grind wasn’t so bad once you get over the hump. But in the here and the now, I have a new toy to play with and how she performs on her shakedown cruise is where we will pick up, next time. Until then, Pegasus out.  

---