The Dragon: Once per episode, at the beginning of combat place an Advantage on the field representing a cunning tactic or strategy devised by Danara Pel.
NAME
USS Voyager
PROF.
MULTIROLE
CLASS
Sovereign Class Heavy Exploration Vessel
CONST
2371
SHIELDS
13/13
RESISTANCE
6
SCALE
6
POWER
13/13
CREW SUPPORT
6
SMALL CRAFT
5
COMMS
ENGINES
STRUCTURE
COMPUTERS
SENSORS
WEAPONS
BREACHES
0/6
0/6
0/6
0/6
0/6
0/6
9
11
10
11
9
10
COMMAND
3
12
14
13
14
12
13
CONNING
2
12
14
13
14
12
13
ENGINEERING
2
11
13
12
13
11
12
SECURITY
3
13
15
14
16
13
14
SCIENCE
2
11
13
12
13
11
12
MEDICINE
2
11
13
12
13
11
12
TALENTS
Command Ship: Can give advantages using Command within range to Away Missions or to supporting ships.
EMH: Has an EMH!
Improved Warp Drive: When going to warp, roll 1cd on an effect, regain the power point.
Quantum Torpedoes: Can use Quantum Torpedoes! (60 total)
Secondary Reactors: +5 to Power
High Resolution Sensors: +1 momentum to out of combat sensor checks.
TRAITS
Federation Starship – A highly sophisticated and advanced vessel, with holodecks, replicators, and similar comforts, primarily designed to handle multiple operations. Highly sensitive and requiring constant maintenance, the vehicle is less rugged than other interstellar craft
Maquis Crew - a good chunk of the crew are former Maquis troublemakers. Expect discipline problems and unorthodox plans.
WEAPONS
Phaser Arrays
Power Cost: 1-3 | Range: Medium | Damage: 9cd [+1 per extra power spent]
Can Use Spread: Hit +1 time at ½ damage per effect OR Area: hit +1 ship per effect within close range.
Versatile 2: Gain 2 bonus momentum with a successful hit
Photon Torpedoes
Power Cost: 0 | Range: Long | Damage: 6cd
High Yield: If it causes 1 breach, it causes +1 breach
Quantum Torpedoes
Power Cost: 0 | Range: Long | Damage: 7cd (Vicious 1 - +1 damage on effects)
High Yield: If it causes 1 breach, it causes +1 breach
Calibrations: Requires 1 minor action to calibrate
Tractor Beam (Strength 5)
Power Cost: 0 | Range: Close | Damage: None
Effect: If successfully established, enemies face a diff 5 check to escape.
SCIENCE: Tuvok (Skilled: Science | Weakness: Emotionless)
COMMS: Lt. Bian T'are (Skilled: Communications | Weakness: Combat)
MEDICAL: The EMH (Skilled: Doctor | Weakness: Kind of a Dick)
ENGINEER: B'lanna Torres (Skilled: Engineering | Weakness: Also a dick)
SECONDARY CHARACTERS
Ensign Steve (Useless Security Goon)
Ensign Becky (plural fighter jock)
Petty Officer Third Class Jessie (Hard working engineer)
Crewman Billingsly (Dude, Billingsly!)
Crewman Chandra (Concerned Crewman)
Bifurcate (bidimensional robot girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Princess Lyan Positron (runaway daughter of magician most foul and girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Soria Flyte (Pegasus girl and girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Mirror Universe Trevor (he's fine!)
NAME
MRSS Val Jean
PROF.
TACOPS
CLASS
Keldon Class Heavy Cruiser
CONST
2370
SHIELDS
12/12
RESISTANCE
5
SCALE
4
POWER
7/7
CREW SUPPORT
4
SMALL CRAFT
3
COMMS
ENGINES
STRUCTURE
COMPUTERS
SENSORS
WEAPONS
BREACHES
0/4
0/4
0/4
0/4
0/4
0/4
9
9
9
8
7
10
COMMAND
3
12
12
12
11
10
13
CONNING
2
11
11
11
10
9
12
ENGINEERING
2
11
11
11
10
9
12
SECURITY
3
12
12
12
11
10
13
SCIENCE
1
10
10
10
9
8
11
MEDICINE
2
11
11
11
10
9
12
TALENTS
Electronic Warfare Suite: Whenever making a Jamming or Intercept communications check, can spend 2 momentum to select +1 target (repeatable.)
Fast Targeting Systems: No +1 diff for called shots
Improved Hull Integrity: +1 Resistance
Cloaking Device: Spend 3 power, and make a Control+Engineering + Engines + Security check with a diff of 2. If successful, gain the Cloaked Trait (impossible to detect, cannot attack, shields are down.) It takes a minor action to decloak.
TRAITS
Cardassian Ship – Durable, uncomfortable, close, cramped and cheap. Thinks creature comforts are for other people and technical sophistication is for people who haven't spent decades starving to death. The fact that the starving could have been avoided if the government were less...you know, monstrous doesn't seem to have occurred to that many of them.
Okampan Crew – the crew are bright, perky, cheerful, and incredibly psychically powerful. Individually, they're all better than Vulcans, and as a gestalt? Who knows!
WEAPONS
Phaser Arrays
Power Cost: 1-3 | Range: Medium | Damage: 7-9cd (Spread: Hit +1 time at ½ damage per effect OR Area)
Versatile 2: Gain X bonus momentum with a successful hit
Disruptor Banks
Range: Medium | Damage: 8-10cd (Vicious 1: Each effect adds +1 damage)
Crewman Stadi - Age 23, Betazoid, born Beta Colony-5 to Zani and Talwyn of the House of Riis, survived by her sisters Tari and Batri.
R'mor - age 182, Vulcan, burn on Romulus to R'tan and Leslali, survived by his twelve nieces and nephews across the Empire
Bog standard Federation fusion reactors.
I'm more concerned that somebody might try to prey on the Ocampa - through given their psychic power that might not be much of a concern.
How many Ocmapa ARE there on the planet @DragonCobolt?
Also, I find myself skeptical about the "lose control of their powers" line. Is that a thing that definitely happens, or is it a thing that happens because the Caretaker doesn't train any of them to keep control? The Federation has a bunch of psychic members, there's probably all sorts of reference materials we can provide to help them find appropriate self-management techniques.
Unfortunately, I don't think this would work - the Catapult equipment gets left behind from what I understand, and it couldn't 'pull' a ship to itself remotely.
Hard to say. Seven was under the belief that the catapult could be used for something like that, though this was also during her information overload conspiracy theory episode, so its hard to say. Given that it is built with displacement wave tech though, which is known to be able to grab starships, maybe its not impossible - it's worth looking into at least.
Waste not want not. Caretaker is generating a pretty big field to keep their city's environment from being a desert. Replicating parts for industrial size fusion reactors might be more time consuming than we want to deal with. Could be a stopgap for them until they get Talaxian help. Not sure how Janeway would view the tech transfer but maybe we replicate the Okampa some "gold" for trade.
I'm glad we stuck to our -guns- on this issue. (*rimshot*)
But seriously, making a rash judgement based on off-hand comments from the Caretaker- they cannot send us back. They normally cannot reach out that far and where only able to due to an unexpected reaction from a certain region of space amplifying the effect. And with that much damage done to us when we were in perfect condition, repeating the effect could rip the entire ship apart and kill half the crew -again.-
The best we could hope for with talks with the Caretaker would be changing its ways to save the Okampa from their fate, having Voyager used as a Bio-lab for creating the components the Caretaker needs, and getting the station to function as a dock for repairs with maybe some exchange of technology- from a being that sees humanoid lifeforms as cattle to be harvested for resources with no guarantee as to the state of things the moment we no longer have a gun pointed to their head.
Succeeding at excessive violence might remove whatever protections the Okampa have for their homeworld and destroy the gilded cage masquerading as a utopia- but they haven't had agency over their own lives let alone any form of societal agency. It might leave them to the whims of the Kazon or the Talaxian governments, or create a refugee crisis for the short term, but it is easy to argue that such a situation is better than being harvested and exploited as a resource before you hit a decade old.
Author's Note: As of this moment I am no longer going to italicize ship names cause it's too annoying thanks.
Everyone in the room watched Tuvok as he listened. He nodded. Nodded again. Then, he turned to the Okampa. "...we shall assist you in overthrowing the Caretaker."
Neelix stood, walked to the wall, then tugged a bottle. The wall slid smoothly down, revealing racks of cheap, simple disruptor rifles and suits of simple body armor. He smiled a cheerful smile, his eyes sparkling. "Be prepared is my motto," he said, pulling a disruptor rifle and tossed it to Kes, who caught it while still dressed in her red cabaret dress. She pulled back the slide on the energy chamber to check the batteries and connections, before letting it clack back into place with a meaty thunk.
"He...heh...heh...girl..." C'nola whispered.
"C'nola, your sapphic attraction can be saved until after the mission," Tuvok said, dryly as he pulled his own compression rifle from his transporter buffer.
"Got it, Tuvok," C'nola said. "You ever use that, Bian?"
T'are had pulled her class 2 phaser, with the pistol grip, from her buffer. She nodded, firmly. Then she smiled, shyly. "I'll still be sticking to you."
"Sweet," C'nola said. "So, we got a plan?"
***
The crystalline tower that pulsed its energy into the top of the dome sat in the center of the city - and despite everything the Caretaker claimed...it was guarded. The guards were dressed in simple body armor, crystalline in structure and gleaming, and had simple disruptor rifles slung off their shoulders. They were arrayed in a position that made more sense for intimidation and crowd control than combat - and they clearly had no idea that anything was about to happen.
C'nola liked it that way. She was nestled on the roof of a three story building across the street, aiming down her scope at them. She paused, stuck her tongue from the corner of her mouth, then pulled back on the trigger.
She had programmed her compression rifle to her preferred mode - phased pulse - meaning that it bucked against her shoulder gently as it sent a thick packet of highly energetic particles downrange, contained in an electrostatic bubble. It slammed into the guy with the fanciest hat's chest, center of mass, and shorted his nervous system out instantly. One second he was up, concious. The next, he was going to be nursing one fuck of a hangover.
The Caretaker Security man dropped to the ground, bonelessly.
His two comrades gaped at him.
"SNIPER!" one shouted. "SNIPER!"
HIs friend, though, was a bit more proactive. He swung his disruptor around and loosed a beam of shimmering green energy. Beamfire was wasteful - if you asked C'nola. This guy didn't. He used enough disruptive energy to melt a tank on the front of the building he was ostensibly here to protect. The beam punched through glass, carved through internal walls, and emerged out the other end as a shimmering greenish cloud of highly energetic subatomic particles. The scything sweep whipped up and C'nola rolled to the side seconds before it carved through where she had been laying - leaving a smoldering red line drawn through the whole building. The structure creaked and she muttered. "Fucking asshole!"
Tuvok, who was on the ground, nodded. "Begin advancing, take cover as you go. Team two, you were provide covering fire - keep your disruptors on setting one and fire high. The morale effect cannot be overstated."
The Okampa, with their rifles, began to jog into the open street, rushing towards planters and benches, using them more concealment than cover, while the rear team fired their disruptors high, peppering the side of the crystal tower with pulses of green, strobing light.
T'are, meanwhile, was hissing as she hurried around the back of the building that C'nola had chosen. Okampa civilians were running for cover and screaming - she had to thank the gods that the building they were using for the centerpiece of their attack was empty during the endweek days. She peeked around the corner and jerked her head back, her heart in her throat.
Two CTS officers had been running around there, taking advantage of C'nola's blind spot. They were rushing the fire escape, a route directly up to where the sniper was located.
T'are peeked again.
There were three and the first at the escape had slung his disruptor and was yanking down the ladder.
T'are whimpered, looked down at her pistol, then adjusted it, her hands shaking. She leaned around the corner, knew she had exposed herself too much. One of the CTS officers saw her, then swung his disruptor around. She pulled the trigger and a cone of blazing orange-white light exploded from her phaser pistol. All three men went boneless and limp, collapsing to the pavement as T'are panted, her knees knocking together.
"I just wanted to be in signals," she whispered.
A green strobing beam shot well over the building. In response, Neelix and two Okampans ran past where T'are was crouching and the muscular and pudy Talaxian gave T'are a cheerful tip of his head. "What a bracing afternoon, eh?" he asked, then sprinted out from cover to cover. T'are peeked around the corner and watched as Neelix flung himself over a planter, a disruptor beam blowing a tree into splinters and a smoldering stump. Before the haze of subatomic particles that was disintegrated matter had even fully dispersed, Neelix had popped up and fired his particle rifle. It caught the man who had tried to shoot him in the arm.
It was then that T'are remembered that...her own allies didn't have stun settings.
Phasers were complex, finnicky weapons that had to be perpetually tuned and kept up to date, because they were expected to stun a wide range of neurological features. And there was always the chance that your next attempt to stun would end with you down some alien monster's guts. The vast, vast, vast majority of the universe had seen hand held phasers as a dead end technology. They turned to simple, dependable energy weapons that did one thing and one thing only.
They put energy into a target and randomized a chunk of the matter that made up a person - turning it from flesh, blood, sinew, nerves, thinking, feeling, living people...into...
The Okampan who had decided that he would be ready to kill and die for the Caretaker took the particle beam to his shoulder. His arm ceased to exist, exploding into a haze of superheated blood and mist. His torso yawned open, cored out like someone had shoved a katanga baller into him and scooped. His organs glistened and steam rose from him - boiling blood flecked his shocked, pale cheeks, and his wide eyes as he dropped to the ground.
T'are threw up on her shoes and missed it as the other Okampan rebels leveled their disruptors and misted the rest of the security detail - until the survivors threw their rifles down and their hands up.
C'nola swung down the fire escape, landed, then grinned at T'are. "Nice work," she said, already slinging her favorite phaser off her shoulder and preparing to turn it into a bomb.
***
"Captain!"
The voice that came over the forward speaker was furious and tight. The Caretaker didn't pretend to be a cowboy or a buisnessman. He had a glittering crown and glowing, furious eyes.
"You have created psychic dampening fields around your ship - a hostile act if I know one," he said, pointing his finger at her.
"Hostile? No, no-" Janeway started.
"Liar! Even now...my precious Okampa rise against me!?" he looked furious and horrified. His face twisted into a snarl of rage - and the image distorted. For just a moment, there was a hint of writhing tentacles and shimmering pink light. Then the hail cut off as Tom Paris whistled.
"Weapon systems coming online, Captain!"
"Evasive actions, now!"
The USS Voyager's impulse engines and RCS thrusters flared at the same time and the vast, yet elegant, ship corkscrewed to the left and veered away from the crystalline structure. It came around and brought the broad disk on the narrowed side, presenting the hardest profile to hit while also giving the most number of phaser arrays a chance for shooting.
"Mr. Kim, take those weapons out, now," Janeway barked.
"Firing!"
The phaser arrays stuttered, their crews at their stations as the arrays whirred and whirred and whirred again. Pulses of orange-white light struck the crystalline station, hitting and causing the sheilds to ripple. Glowing phase-kisses blazed along the shields, marking how close it was to total collapse, and a few partial penetrations had struck deep enough at a few key points along the flowering of the structure. Harry nodded, grimly.
"We have a few good hits, but-"
Purple lightning explode from the Caretaker. It lanced outwards, searing and buzzing and crackling. The shields rippled and bubbled as they tried to absorb the damage. The ship heeled and smoke bloomed from two holes blown on the side.
"Partial penetrations on deck 9 and 8!" Tom Paris called out. "We've got overloads throughout the phase-grid!"
On deck 9, crew scrambled from damage control stations - and found flaming conduits and burn victims. They beamed them to medical bay, then started to spray down the areas that were flaming with their fire retardant foam. The damage control leader, Petty Officer Third Class Jessie Gander, slammed her hand down against her com badge and shouted over the alert sounds. "Damage control report! The phaser grid is out, we're going to be firing at fifty percent of our normal guns and we've lost tracking in a quarter of them. Trying to reinitialize automation but, until then, we're firing manual, sir!"
Janeway blinked as if she had been flicked between her brow. "...Kat?" she asked.
"Maquis," D-91 said, shaking his robotic head.
"All right, everyone, hold on for more fun!" Tom Paris shouted - but then a strobing pulse of pure, green-white light exploded from nowhere. It lanced into the side of the massive station - literally blowing a hole through the thin flower-decks that fanned out from the side of the ship. As ablated hull plating floated away, the cloaked Val Jean appeared, for a moment, her disruptor banks glowing a dull cherry red from blazing waste heat...and then the heavy cruiser vanished. Tom blinked. "Nevermind. Good on...the...Cardi?" he looked unsure, while the station coursed with crackling, purple lightning.
***
"Do...do you need help?" T'are asked, leaning over C'nola, who was kneeling down and firing a small beam into the guts of her phaser.
"If I needed help, I'd have fucking asked for help, Bian" C'nola snapped, then frowned. "Come on, come on, come on..." She started to hook wires home.
"Isn't that her favorite rifle?" Neelix whispered to Tuvok, the two of them standing guard. "She looks like she's customized it to hell and gone - most guns don't come with...bayonet lugs anymore."
"Yes," Tuvok said.
"And she'll lose it forever for...for us?" Neelix asked.
"No," Tuvok said. "When she returns to Voyager, she will simply replicate another one."
"Ahhh..." Neelix said, nodding. Then he did a double take. "Wait, what?"
***
B'lanna hit the transport running. Momentum was maintained, and she landed in Deck 9 with her toolkit, while three crewmen, all from the Val Jean carried the replacement parts. She looked over the damage, winced, then shouted. "Okay! Okay! We pull the power units, now, now, now!" She pulled out her mag-spanner and rushed to the first of the partially damaged power units, then started to undo the bolt quickly. The unit came free and she tossed it underhanded to the RWD man, who chucked it immediately into a portable, high power, high speed disassembler. As the disassembler worked, B'lanna shouted. "Work fast not pretty, this whole damn deck is one hit away from-"
One of the tricks that saved lives on starships was sound simulation. The computer piped noises through PA systems and com badges.
For example, the screeching crackle of-
"INCOMING!" B'lanna shouted. "BRACE!"
The damage control team flung themselves flat and the entire deck slammed hard left. The dissassembler skudded along the ground, engaged clamps, then the clamps failed - either due to bad luck, shitty carpets (B'lanna was going to find whoever made new Starfleet ships carpeted), or EMP flux from the energy impact.
Either way, it smashed into the thighs of one of her damage control crew and, with a sickening crunch, broke his legs worse than half the phasers. He shrieked, his frills expanding outwards. "Auh! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"Get that fucking thing off him!" B'lanna shouted.
"We've got overloads, we need to evacuate!" Chief Gander shouted.
B'lanna flicked her eyes around the place, saw the gathering energy build up, nodded to herself. "Chief Whoever You Are, take everyone back!" She slapped her palm on the wall panel and a shimmering force field crackled up. "Remember, guys, gamma can't turn corners."
"Sir, the neutron flux-"
"I'm half-fucking Klingon, Chief! I can handle it!" B'lanna snapped. "Don't worry, I've already banked my sperm!"
B'lanna Torres got to work.
And ignored the black color of her arm mounted dosimeter.
She nodded, then, stepped back. The phasers were back online. She shut down the force field, stepped away, and then saw the disassembler was still there, and it was glowing brightly.
"Oh come on," she muttered.
The disassembler and the distinctly un-disassembled unstable power core inside of it exploded at the same time.
***
"Our phaser grid is back online, swinging us around to bring undamaged arcs to bear," Tom said.
Voyager swung around. Her prow came to bear, at the middle of the arc.
"Photon torpedoes. Full spread," Janeway said.
"Firing!" Harry said, thumbing down on the controls.
The four front mounted photon torpedo bays opened and fired torpedo after torpedo - each one moving so fast as to be barely visible - straight out. They slammed into the ragged shields of Caretaker Station - and the shields popped. Hull plating ripped apart as crystalline structures shattered as the torpedoes kept slamming home, until the arc had finished and the bays were no longer angled.
"Reading damage to their superstructure, power grid and weapon arrays!" Harry said, grinning - his face falling a moment later. "...it's not enough, Captain. Their weapons are still mostly operational."
"How tough is this thing!?" Tom snapped.
"Tough enough, Mr. Paris," Janeway said, her voice grim. "Prepare to bring us-"
***
"Hah! Got it!" C'nola said as her phaser began to whirr loudly. "See! Didn't need any help. In your face, Sully! Worst engineer I've ever met my-" T'are grabbed her ear, yanked her to her feet, and began to sprint away. C'nola, not even trying very hard, kept pace with the sprinting Orion, her hands in her pockets as she loped along. The Okampans were sprinting for cover, and Neelix shouted to them.
"Come on, hurry! Hurry!"
T'are flung herself over a parked vehicle.
C'nola, who was walking even slower every time Neelix shouted at her, yawned, then casually backflipped over the car, landing on the balls of her feet next to T'are. She stuck her fingers in her ears.
The whirring got louder.
"I would advise you to duck, Mr. Neelix," Tuvok said.
Neelix flung himself flat.
The phaser released the entire potential energy of its battery cell at once at a specific point, chosen for maximal effect.
The psionic dampener crumpled inwards, collapsing onto itself and into a pile of glittering, crystalline rubble. The dome shimmered and faded - replacing false blues with the impossibly deep skies of the desert.
"Hah!" C'nola grinned, sticking her head out of cover. "Eat shit, Sully."
"...who the fuck is Sully?" T'are asked, sticking her head out a moment later as well.
"Instructor back at the Academy," C'nola said, shrugging. "Absolute dick."
***
"-about..." Janeway finished, her voice wondering.
The pulse of glowing energy that had shot up towards the Caretaker station sent one last pulse...and then vanished. The station seemed to shrink before her eyes, the crystal dimming. Dying. Growing reedy and thin. She glanced at Harry, who nodded up to her. "Their reinforcement armor is down to almost nothing!"
"End this," Janeway said, immediately.
The phasers on the starboard side of Voyager...were more than functional. Beams of orange-white light lanced out, carving into the Caretaker structure, slicing off weapon protrusions and blasting off chunks of support systems. The spray finished and the entire station looked like it was ready to strike her colors.
"We're being hailed," Paris said.
The Caretaker, when he appeared, was not even trying. He was a glowing orb of light, surrounded by shimmering tentacles that writhed in clear agitation. Its central form had a single large eye, which glared out at them. A wailing voice, made of a synthesis of dozens of voices all at once, sang out at them.
"Why? Why did you do this to me? What have I done?"
"We do not tolerate slavery in the Federation," Janeway said, her voice cold. "Nor do we appreciate societies that are built on institutional mass murder."
"Murder? Murder!?" The Caretaker wailed. "I only do what I must. I protect the Okampa. I protect them! From the Kazon! From the Hirogen! From the Borg! I protect them from Vidians and...and I protect them from themselves. Without me...their powers, they would use them for any end. For their own end! This is the only system that is stable! The only system that is secure! You promise them anarchy! You...you have taken from them the surety of my protection."
"Your protection...was rooted in injustice and bloodshed. You can dress it up, you can claim it is more secure...but in the end, you cannot deny the foundation of your civilization was in blood - blood that paid for your power," Janeway said. "The Okampa may fail. They may succeed beyond their wildest dreams. But what they will no longer be is your power source."
The Caretaker was silent for a time.
"I...see," he said, quietly. "For...so long...I took care of them. I made their city. But...as they grew and I grew, I needed more. Every step I took...I thought was for them. But now I wonder if it was not, in the end...for myself? When did I turn from Caretaker...to Master?" His tentacles slowed. "Perhaps...now is the time for them to stand on their own..."
His body trembled.
"Farewell, Voyager. I wish you the best of luck...and...forgive me. Forgive me for...taking...you..."
"Captain, I'm detecting a massive build up of tachyonic particles and biopsionic waves from the station!" Harry said.
"Pull us back, Mr. Paris," Janeway said. "And snag the Val Jean while you're at it."
The two ships withdrew - soaring away from the station. Behind them...crackling purple energy built and built and built, growing more and more powerful, until the station shone like a star. Centuries of collected psionic energy, once used to sustain and enhance a singular mind, was being turned to a better purpose. The light flared...and then pulsed down. It spread like a ring blown from a smoker, so that it struck the edge of the Okampan city. Energies flowed outwards, and with them came a wave of green and verdure. The crew of the Voyager watched through their ship's windows as what had once been lifeless and barren bloomed with the life that had long been denied it.
***
Amy Strong groaned.
Her eyes opened.
She found herself looking up at the face of...
"Dr. Zimmerman?" she mumbled.
"No," the man said. "Say Ahh."
"...no?" she asked - which was enough for him to stick a tongue depressor down. He prused his lips, nodded.
"Well, your molar implants are doing well enough - they'll be regulating the blood and antiradiation medication in your skull for the foreseeable future. In tandem with your kidney replacement, regrown internal intestines, skin grafts, and bone marrow replacements, I'd go so far as to say you're practically a new woman, Lieutenant."
Amy sat up, slowly, and saw that the medical bay was full. The woman next to her - a half Klingon - was breathing through a tube had had half her body wrapped in burn-graft and splints. Next to her was a Denobulan who was missing both legs and reading a novel on his PADD. Then there were a bunch of shrapnel wounds, and-
"Catra?" Amy asked.
"Wow, you finally woke up," the ghost from her past said, swaggering towards her, grinning. She put her finger against Amy's face, then shoved her back into the bed. "And I'm in your department."
"W...Wh...am I...hallucinating?" Amy asked.
"No, C'nola is here," the EMH said, from where he was checking on the clone-vats in the corner of the room. Two Denobulan legs were half formed in their lattices.
"C-wha-mmh!" Amy blinked as Catra put her finger on her lips and shook her head vigorously.
---
"Welcome aboard, Prime Minister," Janeway said, gesturing to D-91. "This is my first officer, D-91."
The Prime Minister of the Interim Post-Caretaker Government looked around himself with a frown. He was an elderly Okampa, meaning he was about seven years old, which meant he had to work extra hard to display any level of gravitas at all. "This is quite an impressive spacecraft. The Talaxian vehicles that have visited us are...significantly smaller," he said.
"In our defense, those are all trade ships," Neelix said, chuckling cheerfully. "Our warships are...also quite a bit smaller."
"We're a deep space exploration ship and, well, our Federation builds for comfort," Janeway said, gesturing the man forward. "Now, we are pleased to hear that the formation of your new government is going so...well."
"The last act of the Caretaker was to speak to each of us, psionically. He told us what had happened and to accept the new status quo," the Prime Minister explained. "It was a shock. but...well, realizing that the Calling is over, that...our lifespans will...be significantly longer, and that our children's lives will be longer still? It's..." He shook his head. "It's miraculous. And the world the Caretaker has left us is spectacular."
"It is indeed!" Neelix said.
"The issue will be, of course, keeping yourself safe," Janeway said. "And...well...I had an idea about that. Your people can build disruptors. Surface to space disruptor cannons are more than enough to scare away anything other than an all out invasion - and those are rare." She nodded. "You just need time to build them, yes?"
"Yes..." The Prime Minister said, frowning.
"Then, I offer the services of the USS Voyager and the MFSN Val Jean as orbital security for the time it will take to bring your S2S defense grid up," Janeway said. "In exchange, you can provide a port and labor to refit and repair our ships."
"That...does...sound fair," the Prime Minister said, guardedly. "Too fair."
"On the contrary," Janeway said, chuckling. "When you learn our full...predicament...you will realize that you're paying us far more than we are paying you."
***
Janeway leaned back in her chair, looking out the window at the city of the Okamapa. The scaffolding wasn't quite visible, but she could hear the distant reveberations of the night work crew. Her crew were dispersed through that city, relaxing, reveling...blowing off steam.
She couldn't.
She wouldn't.
She looked down at her deck, at the PADDs that had all her work. Promotion possibilities. Casualty reports. Thankfully, those hadn't grown despite the battle - they had gotten lucky. And the EMH, despite running far, far, far longer than he was programmed for, had proved to far exceed the base components of his programming.
His programming.
She frowned.
When had she started to thinking of the program as a him, rather than an it?
She shook her head.
The crew had a big decision to make tomorrow. One that she wasn't sure of, herself. She rubbed her thumbs against her eyes. Finally, she decided. "Fine," she said, then pulled out one of her few parchments of replicated paper, and her very own pen. "I'm on the far side of the galaxy...but...I have my correspondence."
She put the pen to paper and felt a wave of relaxation hit her, almost like the knots in her shoulders were relaxing. She scribbled.
Dearest Sister, Pheobe.
I'm sure this letter will find you in a state of some shock, considering circumstances. But I write to let you know...that while I am a long, long way from home...I can see the way. And I have a good crew at my side, and a good ship. I have faith, in my heart...that we will make it home.
She looked out to the city lights...
Where Harry was playing darts with Tom while Okampans learned the sport...
Where Seska sat alone at a table, drinking a single tall glass of wine, and trying to not cry...
Where C'nola and Amy glared at eachother over a table, both daring the other to talk first...
Where B'lanna Torres limped up to Neelix and began to ask him about the state of his kitchen and if it was kosher...
Where Brian Wacoche sat with a robed, cloaked figure, and spoke about backup plans and potential dangers...
Where, in the distance, the star that was SOL glittered.
Lost in the infinite.
ROLL CREDITS
The game is unclear, but I will say there are 2 "rounds" of ground combat per "round" of space combat.
Pre-combat check: Away Team (3) sneaks up on tower with support from Okampan Rebels (3) plus Neelix (1)
Okampan Security: 3s
Away Team + Allies: 5s + 1 Complication (extra guards, adding +2 dudes to the total for 10)
GROUND COMBAT
Starfleet: C'nola starts us off. She takes her aim minor action and rolls her shot! 2s, which is a hit with 0 momentum! She does 5 damage - an injury. The Okampan is down. She spends 2 momentum create the Condition of "Complete Stupefying Shock" to the Caretaker Security
Caretaker: CTS dives for cover as a minor action, then returns fire with their disurptors. They get 3s versus a diff of 2+1 for the complication, for success with 0 momentum. They do 5 damage to C'nola, but her resistance is upped by +4cd by being in good cover. She rolls and gets 1 resistance. She loses 4 of her 12 Stress and takes no injury.
Starfleet: Tuvok makes a check to create an advantage by directing the Away Team. He gets 2s, creating the advantage of "Fire and Advance" on the Away Team.
Caretakers: CTS sends out three men to try and flank out C'nola. The first of them rolls 2s for his move and keeps initiative.
Caretakers: The second guy gets 2s for his move and, since you can't keep ini twice in a row, banks 2 threat.
Starfleet: T'ana, seeing that C'nola is at risk, moves to cover her, then takes a minor action to Charge her phaser pistol to Area, then fires. She gets 0s, but adds +1 threat (3 in total) to roll another dice. She gets 1s! The diff is 2-1 for "Fire and Advance" -1 for "stupefying confusion", putting them at diff 1 (the minimum.) She succeeds with 0 momentum and gets 5 damage with 2 effects. She phasers all three men down as they sprint for the flank.
Caretakers: The caretakers are down from 10 to 6. Their CO tries to remove the stupifying shock with his move. He gets 2s and removes it. Now, he spends 2 banked threat to retain initative.
Caretaker: The next caretaker takes another shot at C'nola! Even with an aim action allowing him a re-roll, he only gets 1s, missing her handily.
Starfleet: Neelix is up. He advances with the Okampa, firing his particle rifle. He gets 1s versus diff 2 (-1 for "fire and advance") and hits with 0 momentum! He gets 5 damage and downs a CTS.
Caretaker: There are no more Caretakers who can act. They're all stunned or dead.
Starfleet: The three Okampans advance with Neelix and fire, getting 1s, 1s, and 1s! They do 7, 6 and 5 damage with their Talaxian donated disruptors and vaproize three CTS, leaving only two who immediately surrender.
GROUND ROUND TWO
Starfleet: C'nola runs forward and begins her demolitions. The demolitions is an extended task with a base diff of 1, a work of 20 and magnitude of 2, and a resistance of 3. She makes her check and gets 3s! She succeeds with 2 momentum, which she spends 1 to add +1 to her work roll, and banks one to re-roll work dice. She re-rolls two of those dice and the resistance drops it down! Total Work: 5! This gets her 1 breaththrough (since she did +5 work in a single roll.) If she gets another breakthrough or drops the work from 15 to 0, then she's done!
SPACE ROUND ONE
Starfleet: Caretaker is prepping to attack, so Janeway leaps into action. She orders Tom Paris to give them evasive maneuvering - one shot and they're dead. He spends 2 of their 13 power and, in total, they get 6s against a diff of 1, for a total of 7 momentum (+2 from power spends.) Wild! He spends 4 momentum to create the advantages of "Sweeping through forward phaser arcs" and "in their blind spots!", then spends 2 to pass to Harry.
Starfleet: Harry is up. He targets their weapon systems, then rolls, with 3 power spent (putting them to 8) to get +2 damage dice. He gets 1s and 1 complication (oh no!) against a diff of 1+1 for called shot +1 for evasive action, -2 for both advantages, for a total fo 1! He hits by 0 momentum, but that means he gets 3 momentum. He takes a second shot at +1 diff, spending 3 more power for it. This is much better, netting him 3s and no complications, meaning he hits with 4 momentum, which he spends entirely on reducing Resistance. Shot One does 13 damage with 3 effects, while Shot 2 does 7 hits and no effects. He gives the Caretaker 3 threat to re-roll some of those dice and reduce their resistance for the first shot!
Shot One, in total: 7/1/1/1
Shot Two, in total: 6/1/1
This drops their shields to 1 and does 2 breaches, both to weapons. Since it's scale 10, they're only impacted. The complication is "port phaser arrays burned out"
Caretaker: The Caretaker takes a minor restore action, then fires back, furiously, with psychic energy. He's facing a diff of 1, +1 for in the blind spots, +1 for evasive action, for a total of diff 3! He gets 3s! Barely, success! 11 damage with 8 effects, EEP! That's 11/6, reduced to 6/1(x8), which brings the shields down to 0 and causes 2 breaches (1 for the 5+ damage, one for hitting 0 shields.) Through OUTSTANDING luck, they hit your relatively undamaged Weapons. Well. Previously undamaged weapons. They are now at 4 breaches, meaning they're at +2 diff for shooting.
"Starfleet": Seska decides to take the round. She has one shot...and gets...a STAGGERINGLY good roll of 3s, considering! She's at diff 1, +1 for called shot, for 1 momentum, which she banks for re-rolls! 16 damage! She actually is fine with that, lol. She keeps the momentum banked for the team. That drops the Caretaker station down to 0 shields (1 breach) and does 5+ damage (Even after 10 resistance) for 2 breaches, putting their weapons at 4/10 breaches! Gottem!
Caretaker: The caretaker takes a minor restore action and begins to restore their shields. They get a pitiful 0s! Lol, get wrecked.
Starfleet: B'lanna is up! She gets 1s and 1 complication ("B'lanna is irradiated") which fuck it, she succeeds at cost to get weapons back online ("B'lanna is badly burned".)
Caretaker: Caretaker, furious about this new shot, tries to swat the Val Jean. He gets 3s against a diff of 2, +2 for cloaking field, for a miss!
Starfleet: Last action for the round, Tom Paris tries to remove the complication of "port phaser arrays burned out" by bringing the starboard arrays to bear - using his piloting skills, with +2 power spends (they're at 6 now.) He gets 3s, removing the complication, but rolls...a complication, JEEZE GUYS! I'll say this complication will be "Strained Hull Fractures." Still, he gets +2 momentum from the power spends, giving him 3 momentum, allowing him to take a second action at +1 diff. Screw it. He fires the photons, FULL SPREAD! He got 2s, hitting with 0 momentum. He gets 7 damage, with 5 effects - meaning he hits SIX times! Since Caretaker station is at 0 shields, he does damage for each hit and each hit does 1 breach, but since they're high yield, that's +1 breach, for a total of 12 breaches!
4 breaches to weapons!
4 breaches to structure!
2 breaches to sensors!
1 Breach to Engines
1 Breach to Communications!
Their weapons are damaged, they lose 4 actions for the rest of the round, all attacks are at +1 diff until they take a minor action, they lose 1 power, and they cannot communicate until a minor action is taken.
Caretaker: Caretaker has 10 actions, has used 3, lost 4, so has 3 left. He attempts to repair weapons, and uses his minor action to realign sensors! He gets 3s and one complication ("Busted targeting arrays"), and in his fury, tries blasting the Val Jean and the Voyager with his last two actions! 3s and 3s! However, the diff is 2, +1 for the complication, +1 for evasive manuvering (For voy) and +2 for cloaking (for Seska), putting it at 4/5, which means he misses both times.
GROUND COMBAT
Starfleet: It's all down to C'nola! She rolls 4s, getting 2 momentum! She spends 1 for re-rolls, 1 to reduce resistance to 1. She gets 6 work done, reduced to 5...meaning she gets a breakthrough. She's good. The tower explodes...and-
SPACE COMBAT
Starfleet: All of Caretaker stats are reduced by half by the sudden loss of psionic fields. His weapons go offline and his resistance drops from 5 to 10. "Fire!" Janeway barks. HArry Fires. 3s! That's 3 momentum, which is spent to reduce his REsistance to 0. 11 damage, with 6 extra damage, for 4 breaches in total (hitting an unshielded ship, +5 damage each time), doing 4 breaches to structure, putting him at 8/5 structure, so 3 breaches go to Engines.
Caretaker: Caretaker brings on coms and contacts hte party. Janeway makes a speech and gets FOUR SUCCESSES!!!!!!!! Good End Unlock!
That was much more violent than I think Starfleet would have preferred.
That said, we have/had no way of knowing what else the Caretaker may have had up its metaphorical sleeve and how many Okampans would have been needed to power it.
That was much more violent than I think Starfleet would have preferred.
That said, we have/had no way of knowing what else the Caretaker may have had up its metaphorical sleeve and how many Okampans would have been needed to power it.
The Caretaker, when he appeared, was not even trying. He was a glowing orb of light, surrounded by shimmering tentacles that writhed in clear agitation. Its central form had a single large eye, which glared out at them. A wailing voice, made of a synthesis of dozens of voices all at once, sang out at them.
"Why? Why did you do this to me? What have I done?"
"We do not tolerate slavery in the Federation," Janeway said, her voice cold. "Nor do we appreciate societies that are built on institutional mass murder."
"Murder? Murder!?" The Caretaker wailed. "I only do what I must. I protect the Okampa. I protect them! From the Kazon! From the Hirogen! From the Borg! I protect them from Vidians and...and I protect them from themselves. Without me...their powers, they would use them for any end. For their own end! This is the only system that is stable! The only system that is secure! You promise them anarchy! You...you have taken from them the surety of my protection."
"Your protection...was rooted in injustice and bloodshed. You can dress it up, you can claim it is more secure...but in the end, you cannot deny the foundation of your civilization was in blood - blood that paid for your power," Janeway said. "The Okampa may fail. They may succeed beyond their wildest dreams. But what they will no longer be is your power source."
The Caretaker was silent for a time.
"I...see," he said, quietly. "For...so long...I took care of them. I made their city. But...as they grew and I grew, I needed more. Every step I took...I thought was for them. But now I wonder if it was not, in the end...for myself? When did I turn from Caretaker...to Master?" His tentacles slowed. "Perhaps...now is the time for them to stand on their own..."
His body trembled.
"Farewell, Voyager. I wish you the best of luck...and...forgive me. Forgive me for...taking...you..."
I'm sure this letter will find you in a state of some shock, considering circumstances. But I write to let you know...that while I am a long, long way from home...I can see the way. And I have a good crew at my side, and a good ship. I have faith, in my heart...that we will make it home.
1) On the whole, how closely do you all want me to even bother to try and hew to Voyager "canon"
Cause I'm reading some of these episodes and...man...even I would struggle to make anything remotely playable out of Parallax - which is genuinely worse than bad, it's just BORING. It's nothing! There's nothing here!
2) Do you have any interest in the TTRPG advancement system?
ST:A *has* advancement systems, but they're...slow and kinda fiddly...I'm sleepy, but some people love leveling up, so is anyone interested in me bringing them in?
1) On the whole, how closely do you all want me to even bother to try and hew to Voyager "canon"
Cause I'm reading some of these episodes and...man...even I would struggle to make anything remotely playable out of Parallax - which is genuinely worse than bad, it's just BORING. It's nothing! There's nothing here!
I say don't bother to try at all. Take the canon stuff you like, like you've done excellently so far, and jettison everything else to do things however you want.
2) Do you have any interest in the TTRPG advancement system?
ST:A *has* advancement systems, but they're...slow and kinda fiddly...I'm sleepy, but some people love leveling up, so is anyone interested in me bringing them in?
Hmm, I have no idea what that is, but I'd like some kind of mechanical change if possible to reflect how our named crew changes and grows as people during the journey.
How long will we be guarding the Ocampa while they get their defenses set up, and repairing our ships? The around a year that B'lanna estimated a couple updates ago?
Thanks to the fact you've got 1.1 million reasonably technically proficient espers helping, this counts as a spaceport - so, you'll be ready to launch in 2 weeks, give or take. And by using your replicators and their technology, the Okampa can build their S2S defenses!
Thanks to the fact you've got 1.1 million reasonably technically proficient espers helping, this counts as a spaceport - so, you'll be ready to launch in 2 weeks, give or take. And by using your replicators and their technology, the Okampa can build their S2S defenses!
