First, set the scene with the appropriate Jerry Goldsmith music.  You have to admit – beyond the initial shock of the bumpy headed klingons, and the on screen translation – the music from ST:TMP has become iconic.

Queue up the Beam-Raptor Build.  Top down and in the HUD her outline reminds me of the Clint Eastwood Cold War thriller Firefox.

As with the Federation Icarus build I worked with yesterday, this ship carries the full 3-piece console set.  The big difference is a full AP dual beam build with a proper space set for combat.

In truth I could drop all three consoles, and improve my survivability while increasing my DPS efficiency.  But I like the console set, and for what it’s worth – this build is all about having fun.  To heck with the DPS (I should be doing at least 10K to keep the peeps happy).

BTW – the fifth Vulnerability Exploiter is bonus torpedo damage.

First Stop – Tholian Red Alert.  The combination of the Spacial Sinkhole Generator, followed by a GW1 enhanced by the QSM ability, with an over-the top Micro Projective Barrage + TS3 FAW Alpha – Strike.  An entire task force of Tholians – who at one time I actually feared – melt before my eyes.  The wail of a thousand crystalline life forms shattering into the expanse of antiproton and radioactive fires was glorious. 14.5K DPS

The server is oddly empty tonight.  The queues are not popping, and DPS 10K is unusually quiet.  Oh well, lets find another Red Alert.

Second Stop – Borg Red Alert.  Again I try the SSG attack strategy, using my afterburners and retro rockets to stay in range while I pummel a borg cub and sphere cluster.  This time they don’t melt as quickly, and the Borg actually get past my shields to do some damage.  A few seconds more, and I overwhelm them.   The entire Borg Red Alert finished very quickly – there are more than a few of us with pilot ships tonight. 8.2K DPS

Third Stop  – Pugging ISA.  It’s clear by this point my cruiser-style of play needs to stop,  Running these Pilot ships at full throttle is the only way to go.  The SSG combo is highly effective against the first cube and sphere, and I’m starting to get the hang of barrel roles as part of my quick get aways.  The backwards and forwards motion of retros and afterburners literally feels like I’m cheating. 13.2K DPS

Three rounds, and I’m well on my way to Starship master IV.

As I said last night, these ships are immensely fun to play and I have not even started to experiment with pilot abilities yet.