ESQUADRA CRUZEIRO DO SUL (Southern Cross Fleet) - ECS - TREKinRIO Fan Club.
ECS was founded by Clovis Aguiar Jr. and Douglas Figueiredo in March 2008 to take part in the first Brazilian Star Trek: Bridge Commander Championship, category Fleets. It was named after a constellation, the Southern Cross, which can be seen in the Southern Hemisphere and in many countries’ flags, such as Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. This name was chosen not only because it is a symbol of many things in Brazil, but also because it is a name which would not restrict membership to Brazilian players, but would represent people from the south as a whole.
As all ECS members were back then Trek in Rio (TiR) members as well, it was only logical that the fleet would represent the Fan Club itself. TiR’s president Admiral Angela Oliveira heard the proposal and authorized ECS to represent the Club, and from then on, our ships carry the “+TiR” tag before their names: the “+” represents the Southern Cross, and TiR is the acronym for the Fan Club name. After that other members who also enjoyed “Star Trek: Bridge Commander “ joined the founders.
The Ships:
USS Dumont: Commanding Officer : Captain Clovis Aguiar Jr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Classes: Rhode Island, Borg Sphere, Romulan Falcon, Sovereign, Constitution, Prometheus
Named After: Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian inventor, who was the first man to build an airplane capable of taking off using only the power of its own engines instead of a catapult, the 14-Bis (Paris, France, Oct 23, 1906). Santos-Dumont was also the first man capable of flying balloons to wherever he wanted, going through a determined course, going around the Eiffel Tower and getting back to the starting point within half an hour (Paris, 1901), therefore being considered the inventor of the blimps and the wristwatch (ordered to Cartier, early 20th century).
Former Names: USS Sonic
USS Capricorn: Commanding Officer: Vice Admiral Douglas Figueiredo, Praia Grande, São Paulo, Brazil
Classes: Sovereign, Negh’Var, Fekh Ihr MkII, Constitution, Prometheus
Named After: Zodiac constellation, Capricorn
Former Names: USS Emily, USS Helius
USS Burn: Commanding Officer : Lieutenant Luiz Mello
Classes: Ferengi Marauder, Sovereign, Prometheus
Named After: The scars it leaves on the opponents’ hull
Former Names: USS Louys
USS Martius: Commanding Officer: Vice Admiral Márcio Mello
Classes: Sovereign, Prometheus
Named After: Martius is the original latin name from which the Captain’s first name derives.
Former Names: None.
IKS Ikha’Rus: Commanding Officer: Admiral Angela Oliveira, TiR founder
Classes: Klingon Bird of Prey, Sovereign
Named After: A mythological character, Icarus, who tried to escape Crete Island along with his father, Daedalus, using wings made of feathers glued with wax. Overwhelmed by the pleasure of flight, Icarus went to close to the Sun, which heat melted the wax holding the feathers. Icarus fell to death, but he still represents Mankind’s dream of flying like birds.
Former Names: None.
There were other ships, but their Captains became unworthy of mention due to inappropriate behavior. They were expelled from the club and from the fleet.
ECS history in FEDF’s Brazilian Star Trek: Bridge Commander Championship:
2008:
Singles: In 2008 ECS had 3 ships in the tournament (USS DUMONT, USS CAPRICORN and USS MANCHESTER). With remarkable campaigns, those ships made it quite far. USS Manchester fell at the quarter-finals, while USS DUMONT and USS CAPRICORN were the finalists. Three thrilling battles took place, and the final score was 2-1 for Dumont.
Fleet Tournament: Four ships took part in this category: USS DUMONT, USS CAPRICORN, USS MANCHESTER and USS VIPER.
Intense battles and good tactics made ECS the winner over FEGAM (Amazon Galactic Starfleet) in the final match and ECS brought the trophy to Rio de Janeiro.
2009:
Two members (USS MANCHESTER and USS VIPER) left ECS, three others joined the fleet: Luiz ‘s USS BURN, Márcio’s USS MARTIUS and our first Klingon ship, Admiral Oliveira’s IKS Ikha`Rus. ECS members insisted on “using their tractor beams” to drag the Admiral into playing Bridge Commander. With such reinforcements, ECS would be ready to defend its titles, both singles and fleet.
Singles: Four out of the five ships of the fleet fought in the Brazilian Championship in that year: USS DUMONT, USS CAPRICORN, USS BURN and IKS IKHA`RHUS. Once again the ships excelled in their campaigns – remarkably, the Admiral’s IKS IKHA`RHUS, which fought the longest battle of all championships against Venture Fleet’s USS Andor, and BURN, surprisingly “getting milk from rocks” as said in Brazil, with its Ferengi Marauder , making Márcio, his father proud of him.
The finalists were the same of 2008, USS CAPRICORN vs. USS DUMONT and after a draw the competition organizers considered the battles and declared both the finalists the Champions of 2009!
Fleet Tournament: Four ships took part in this category: USS DUMONT, USS CAPRICORN, USS BURN and USS MARTIUS.
Intense battles and good tactics made ECS the winner over VENTURE FLEET in the final match, and ECS brought the second trophy to Rio de Janeiro.
2010:
In 2010 USS CAPRICORN was renamed USS EMILY, in loving memory and in honor of the mother of its captain who had passed away months before the competition. USS DUMONT was also renamed as USS SONIC, its first name after its captain’s recently deceased son. Due to lack of fleets available, once again there was no fleet tournament.
Singles: Burn, Emily and Sonic were ECS only ships. USS Dumont made it to the final match, but was beaten by Venture’s USS Aeon (2-1) getting the silver medal for ECS.
2011:
Due to lack of fleets available, once again there was no fleet tournament.
USS EMILY was once again renamed as USS HELIUS in honor of Hélio, a Star Trek fan from Rio de Janeiro who passed away and whose family donated all his Star Trek material to TREKinRIO Fan Club. USS SONIC was renamed as USS DUMONT again. USS BURN also came back this year.
All ECS vessels were again hard to beat, as expected but no one won the tournament. USS Dumont lost the quarter finals match to FEDF’s USS Slash, who would lose the final match to FEDF’s USS Mycroft.
USS Burn and USS Helius made it to the semi finals, but also lost their matches and for the first time the fleet got no medals.