Thors_Alumni
Proud member of Thors Class VII from Liberl
- Location
- Liberl Zemuria.
what is with the oversized eyes? Are they even real?!
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
- Location
- Patriarchova
Its because of my stick figures, isn't it.
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Not entirely, but partially yes. I do enjoy your stick figure pictures, especially since I figured out how to find them easily.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I KNOW, RIGHT?
No one should have to like it, it is a fairly dense literary work. But there's a difference between, y'know, not liking something, and a calculated decision to try "teaching a lesson" to fans of a work by complaining about it and "showing them" that not everyone likes the thing they like.
Leslie:
"Eh. It has its ups and downs."
aledeth
The Flesh is Weak
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's a movie based on an Anime, and this particular character is a cyborg so they can argue the huge eyes are some sort of augmentation. But really, it's just an excuse to see what Anime Eyes look like on an otherwise human face. TBH I didn't really notice it in the trailer, but the pictures are hilarious.
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Thors_Alumni
Proud member of Thors Class VII from Liberl
- Location
- Liberl Zemuria.
100% of it is pure bullshit with a few rare gems hidden among the detritus these days. Star Trek Discovery and that other Star Trek knock off show are some of them.
- Location
- Patriarchova
Yan-Ros eyes are like that too, only theirs are protected by nictitating membranes made of natural see-through tritanium.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Strictly speaking, Leslie probably isn't allowed to admit to knowledge of the Temporal Cold War. Given that he served aboard Enterprise, however, I'm not prepared to assume he doesn't know about the entire conflict from having met and/or brawled with every single participant.I can't do a Leslie response to that because I'm pretty sure Leslie, in character, doesn't know anything about the Temporal Cold War.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Oh, he knows some Na'kuhl and affiliated time travelers showed up a few times.
What he doesn't know is the broader context. Partly because Temporal Investigations really is pretty careful about compartmentalization. And partly, well...
Leslie, shrugging:
"Eh? You're right, there were more than a few funny incidents like that, on the '66 mission. And before. Maybe I could have worked out what was behind it all if I'd thought about it long enough. But... those yellow guys, they gave me the same itch in the funny-bone as that Lazarus fellow. Or the Yangs and the Comms on Omega IV. Or that time the Morg stole Spock's brain. Some things are just better off forgotten, you know?"
"Huh. Gotta say, though, it might explain what the hell an un-augmented Klingon was doing in the bar on Deep Space K-7 back in '67, and why he decided to settle an old score instead of ganging up on our boys. Always did wonder about that."
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pbluekan
Somethin's Fucky ...
- Location
- Trumpistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The eyes. The eyes!
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Amarki, serenely:
"It's not our fault all you elf-form species usually have beady eyes to go with the stubby little ears."
"It's not our fault all you elf-form species usually have beady eyes to go with the stubby little ears."
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Give her teal skin and pointy ears and that's an Amarki
Captain's Log, 2321.Q1.M3
- Location
- Patriarchova
Captain's Log, Stardate 27474, USS Valiant - Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
During routine patrol operations, Lieutenant Commander th'Varket detected an unregistered vessel with no logged flight plan. Valiant will intercept and if necessary, detain the culprits.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27477.2 USS Valiant - Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
When we reached the extrapolated course of the unregistered vessel, we found it had rendezvoused with a Dawiar-registered freighter. My first impression was that we had caught a Cardassian special forces team on return. I began surveillance to discover their mission so I could correct whatever they'd done, but the freighter hailed us before I could begin to put my plan into action.
A Bajoran answered the call, claiming they hijacked the Dawiar vessel in order to return to their homeworld and begin a peaceful protest movement. I found their story suspect given their chosen freighter was carrying a mix of ores that could be easily synthesized to create a powerful explosive. Additional intelligence reports indicated the hijacked vessel usually supplied military installations.
My belief is that the hijackers are going to use the vessel to engage in a terrorist act, confirmed when they warned that while they had peaceful intent, they would detonate the freighter and kill everyone onboard if we approached. Allowing this vessel to go free and conduct a terrorist attack would be cause for war. That cannot be allowed.
My shuttle will be ready in twenty minutes.
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27478, USS Typhoon - Captain Ozzgrizzira
The trade summit at Eridani was an unqualified success. Balancing the commercial interests of Gorn, Rigellians, Vulcans, Tellarites, Amarki, Humans, Muuyozoi, Bolians, and Horizonites was a lengthy process, but I believe the results for Starfleet will speak for themselves.
[Gain +30 br]
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27478.1 USS Valiant - Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
Mission accomplished.
The freighter is Dawiar-registered, but a lot of the crew were Bajorans. My intelligence officer tells me this might confirm the Cardassians have begun using Bajorans as slaves. More relevantly, the hijackers have separated the Bajorans from the rest of the crew to keep them in a safe location. A more effective choice would have been to spread all hostages across the ship, making it harder to save them all at once. Instead, only a handful of the Pact crew have been put in danger. This made it relatively easy for us to recover them.
Under cover of sensor-spoofing from the Valiant's deflector, three shuttle teams were dispatched. My team assaulted the aft control room and infiltrated the computer system. The other two teams broke through the transporter scrambling at close range and beamed out the hostages. They would have been vented into space otherwise when I jettisoned the cargo.
While we suspected the Bajoran hijackers would not sacrifice the innocent Bajorans once the cargo was jettisoned, our plan did not leave that to chance. Without kilotons of ore to block our scans, we quickly located the remaining explosive device and its escort team and disabled both..
We have the surviving Bajoran hijackers in custody. Any of the Pact crew who wanted to go back onto the freighter was welcome to; a few requested asylum status. Some of the ores were actually in violation of the transit agreement with the Cardassians, so we confiscated those as well.
[+15 relations with Bajoran diaspora, +10sr]
…
The Lironh Record
SELINDRA - Authorities today arrested Dr. Garon Thomsev, a Chrystovian visitor to the Federation, on charges of Prime Directive breach and crimes against sophonts. Dr. Thomsev allegedly beamed down to the planet of ARX-430, home to a pre-warp civilization in the early agricultural stage. Thomsev is believed to have chosen Federation space because it is peaceful, extensively mapped, and has good documentation of multiple prewarp species to establish a baseline.
Thomsev used his superior technology to force the inhabitants to accept him as their leader. He relocated the entire planetary population to one island, and was attempting to test the long-term political and sociological effects of a strict social order based on handedness. This was to test the hypothesis that the neurological conditions that give rise to handedness can be extrapolated to superior leadership abilities.
The CAS Riala eventually detected and stopped Dr. Thomsev. The Federation Ambassador to Chrystovia has commented that this incident has the potential to be a stumbling block to closer relations.
[EVENT RESPONSE FAILED! -25 relations with the Chrystovians. Now 75/100.]
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27483, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
After what happened to the S'Harien last month, EC Command is finally taking the berserker threat seriously and giving us the go ahead to go looking for them to find out just how painful this is going to be. It's fortunate we know what to look for, and even more fortunate we aren't having to babysit a shipful of ashidi while we do it. We've been through the data, and Lieutenant Commanders Krantz and Bessle have some ideas for how to knock out the drones' self destruct before it can trigger. If we can take one mostly intact, it might be able to teach us how to make all the OTHER drones blow up with slightly less pain on our end.
This crew's impressed me in combat many times now, but I've no intentions of letting that go to my head. Any group larger than the one Sulu stubbed her toe on, and we're backing off.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27485, USS Saratoga
We've had an unusual mission sent our way. An Amarki survey ship was exploring a system not far from the Gabriel border when they discovered a derelict space station of unknown design, dating back well over fifteen thousand years. More surprising still was the discovery that the station is still inhabited, after a fashion. Upon boarding the station, they had a hostile encounter with a group of seemingly non-sentient organisms that failed to appear on sensors, and seemed able to instantly transport themselves around the facility without using any sort of transporter. Starfleet has been called upon to investigate both the organisms, and the station.
Aiding us in this task will be a civilian consultant, Dr. Noran Sael of the Academia Amarkia. Dr. Sael's previous research on dangerous exotic organisms from Calcis Minor and Second Risa should make him a valuable asset in pacifying and studying these strange creatures.
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27489, USS Saratoga
The derelict station hangs in a low orbit, just a few more micrometeor impacts from being knocked into a decaying one. Were it any less massive, or less fragile, I'd be using the ship's tractor beam to pull it further out. Parts of the hull are open to the vacuum of space, but despite the age I can't say that the damage looks like natural wear and tear. There are none of the usual tells of weapons fire or large impactors that could have caused the damage either, however.
I am unable to say why, but something about the station disquiets me. Particularly those holes.
While I cannot question Dr. Sael's enthusiasm, I am reluctant to allow him to beam aboard the station in advance of our own security personnel, and I am reluctant to beam them over until we can determine the cause of these micro-scale gravitational anomalies throughout the derelict station. Sensors show no thermal or radiological activity that would suggest active technology, and yet the mass readings continue to fluctuate in an unpredictable pattern. Almost as if parts of the interior were being randomly enveloped and released by low-powered warp fields.
Nonetheless probes have failed to find anything. We will need to send people sooner rather than later. But I intend to keep the shields, as well as the transporters, ready to engage on a moment's notice.
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27491, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
Took a little while, but we've identified a warp signature consistent with the berserkers and are laying in an intercept. Fortunately, if experience is anything to go by they'll be turning around to head toward us as soon as we show up on their sensors. I think we might as well make it easier and run as hot as we can.
…
Field Log, Stardate 27492, Dr. Noran Sael
What an unlikely arena in which to find oneself faced with such an oppositional mystery! I am all but certain, now, the object of our quest is a cosmozoan, rather than a synthetic organism left over from this tritanium corpse's ancient crafters or a long-lonesome research object left by some ancient counterpart to myself. The organisms have yet to materialize within the pressurized decks, but if those marvelously keen Starfleet sensors can be trusted - and if I am correct about the "warp fields" being connected to the creatures' teleportation - they remain quite active throughout the rest of the airless station.
What continues to puzzle us all is the peculiar connectedness of those fluctuations. A decrease in relative mass in one region is always coincide by an increase in not one, but multiple other locations. I suspect the organisms move in groups, and are prone to going their separate ways mid-transport? Ah, but if only they appeared on sensors!
Tomorrow, we return to the station with the intent of setting transport inhibitors. Perhaps then we might immobilize a specimen long enough to catch a glimpse through our own visors!
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27493.3, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
Get sent to hunt down berserker probes, run smack into a fleet of Hishmeri.
Things didn't go nearly as bad as you'd think, given our history. The hishmeri were already engaged with the berserkers when we arrived, and I guess impressing them with a full photon torpedo barrage at the pair of drones was the right move. More surprising was when the first probe's shields went down, and the Hishmeri flagship used a phased pulse just like our Plan C to fry the thing's computers before landing a disrupter bolt on what I guess must have been its EPS aorta. We tried the same thing on the second probe with our phasers, and it worked.
Then the Hishmeri accused us of trying to steal their prey, and threatened to give us the same treatment unless we give up our claim to the wrecks. When I asked them if they really thought the United Federation of Planets could give a damn about two probes' worth of materials, they seemed to remember who they were talking to and agreed to let us scan and disassemble the things before turning them over.
Well, that means having some hishmeri over to make sure we're good for it. Time to break out the old charm and win them over with my astute diplomatic skills and consummate good manners.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27493.4, USS Saratoga
We are unable to beam out the away teams; the entire station has been overrun with gravitational fluctuations and spatial warping effects that make a transporter lock impossible even after deactivating the transport inhibitors. I have dispatched the bulk of our remaining security personnel to retrieve them by shuttlecraft, and - as per their own recommendations - I have sent them armed with full phaser rifles, point defense units, and demolition charges.
It seems that the organisms were not happy about being bound in place, and have penetrated the repressurized sections of the station.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27495.1, USS Saratoga
Nearly two days of running combat through the ancient decks, and this is the end to which our mission comes.
I fear I will never be able to forget the sight of the black, squamous tentacles, each as big around as a runabout, erupting from every breach and port in the derelict, tearing apart the outer hull in pursuit of the retreating shuttles. The station finally falling to pieces as the antagonized entity's dimensional-warping properties swept away the last of its structural integrity. The screams over the channel of the men and women seized in its appendages and pulled through an extradimensional realm as it flung them throughout the station and attempted to tear them apart.
My security personnel are all to be commended for their combat performance, stunning or dismembering each appendage long enough to recover the taken and return them to the ship alive. When the station finally came apart, the entity retreated from our reality entirely; there are no further physics anomalies in the wreckage or in the nearby space. Parts of the station are still raining onto the planet below, too numerous for our phasers to intercept. The local biosphere, however meager the initial survey team found it to be, will likely not survive this.
Even more unfortunately, it seems that Dr. Sael was at the center of the initial breach, and taken almost immediately. His remains are not present anywhere in the wreckage. Wherever the organism took him, I can only pray that death followed quickly.
[Lose -10 pp]
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27496.5, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
I suppose that was enlightening. According to our guests, the Hishmeri Septs have been hunting these probes for shipbuilding materials for decades, and learned quite a few tricks for making it easier. Unfortunately, Captain Shadow Step fears the wrath of her sept's leader too much to trade any more of those tricks without her permission. When pressed on the issue, she offered to escort us to the Livefleet and let us talk it over in person.
This is either the best idea I've ever had, or the worst, but we're laying in a course alongside them. I made sure they understand that we've transmitted these logs back to Starfleet, and if the Opportunity disappears now they'll likely have a certain Captain Sorek to deal with. The way her bristles stood up on end and her eyes went wide at the sound of that name made it all worth it right there, but hopefully we'll be coming home safely after this meeting and you won't have to send any terrifying vulcans to avenge us.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27499, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
That went about as well as it possibly could have.
Aside from buying some more probe-hunting tricks from the Majestic Fiery Roar for a pittance, we were able to get close enough to the Livefleet to gather some sensor data. Not close enough to be sure of their numbers, but we did learn a couple of things.
For one, they've got mobile factories designed to be towed by their larger Andalusian class frigates. Based on the bulk and energy readings of these things, they've got a good amount of habitat space as well; I have a hunch they keep a large share of their population aboard those things.
More importantly though, we were able to get a look at what has to be the Hishmeri flagship, the Bastard. We already had intel suggesting that their supreme leader ruled from a much larger vessel, but what KIND of larger vessel, well. We run the data a dozen times to make sure, and there's no doubt about it; the Bastard is a variation on the Imelak breeder-class capital ship. With that in mind, we started looking at everything we know about Hishmeri naval architecture, and it turns out that under all the greeble and patchwork and jury-rigged attachments most Hishmeri ships are a LOT more like Imelak technology than anyone would have guessed.
I don't know what this means, exactly, but I know that it means something. For now, we're heading back toward Federation space at a comfortable warp 9.
[Gain +15 relations with Hishmeri Septs (now at 89/100)]
During routine patrol operations, Lieutenant Commander th'Varket detected an unregistered vessel with no logged flight plan. Valiant will intercept and if necessary, detain the culprits.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27477.2 USS Valiant - Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
When we reached the extrapolated course of the unregistered vessel, we found it had rendezvoused with a Dawiar-registered freighter. My first impression was that we had caught a Cardassian special forces team on return. I began surveillance to discover their mission so I could correct whatever they'd done, but the freighter hailed us before I could begin to put my plan into action.
A Bajoran answered the call, claiming they hijacked the Dawiar vessel in order to return to their homeworld and begin a peaceful protest movement. I found their story suspect given their chosen freighter was carrying a mix of ores that could be easily synthesized to create a powerful explosive. Additional intelligence reports indicated the hijacked vessel usually supplied military installations.
My belief is that the hijackers are going to use the vessel to engage in a terrorist act, confirmed when they warned that while they had peaceful intent, they would detonate the freighter and kill everyone onboard if we approached. Allowing this vessel to go free and conduct a terrorist attack would be cause for war. That cannot be allowed.
My shuttle will be ready in twenty minutes.
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27478, USS Typhoon - Captain Ozzgrizzira
The trade summit at Eridani was an unqualified success. Balancing the commercial interests of Gorn, Rigellians, Vulcans, Tellarites, Amarki, Humans, Muuyozoi, Bolians, and Horizonites was a lengthy process, but I believe the results for Starfleet will speak for themselves.
[Gain +30 br]
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27478.1 USS Valiant - Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
Mission accomplished.
The freighter is Dawiar-registered, but a lot of the crew were Bajorans. My intelligence officer tells me this might confirm the Cardassians have begun using Bajorans as slaves. More relevantly, the hijackers have separated the Bajorans from the rest of the crew to keep them in a safe location. A more effective choice would have been to spread all hostages across the ship, making it harder to save them all at once. Instead, only a handful of the Pact crew have been put in danger. This made it relatively easy for us to recover them.
Under cover of sensor-spoofing from the Valiant's deflector, three shuttle teams were dispatched. My team assaulted the aft control room and infiltrated the computer system. The other two teams broke through the transporter scrambling at close range and beamed out the hostages. They would have been vented into space otherwise when I jettisoned the cargo.
While we suspected the Bajoran hijackers would not sacrifice the innocent Bajorans once the cargo was jettisoned, our plan did not leave that to chance. Without kilotons of ore to block our scans, we quickly located the remaining explosive device and its escort team and disabled both..
We have the surviving Bajoran hijackers in custody. Any of the Pact crew who wanted to go back onto the freighter was welcome to; a few requested asylum status. Some of the ores were actually in violation of the transit agreement with the Cardassians, so we confiscated those as well.
[+15 relations with Bajoran diaspora, +10sr]
…
The Lironh Record
SELINDRA - Authorities today arrested Dr. Garon Thomsev, a Chrystovian visitor to the Federation, on charges of Prime Directive breach and crimes against sophonts. Dr. Thomsev allegedly beamed down to the planet of ARX-430, home to a pre-warp civilization in the early agricultural stage. Thomsev is believed to have chosen Federation space because it is peaceful, extensively mapped, and has good documentation of multiple prewarp species to establish a baseline.
Thomsev used his superior technology to force the inhabitants to accept him as their leader. He relocated the entire planetary population to one island, and was attempting to test the long-term political and sociological effects of a strict social order based on handedness. This was to test the hypothesis that the neurological conditions that give rise to handedness can be extrapolated to superior leadership abilities.
The CAS Riala eventually detected and stopped Dr. Thomsev. The Federation Ambassador to Chrystovia has commented that this incident has the potential to be a stumbling block to closer relations.
[EVENT RESPONSE FAILED! -25 relations with the Chrystovians. Now 75/100.]
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27483, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
After what happened to the S'Harien last month, EC Command is finally taking the berserker threat seriously and giving us the go ahead to go looking for them to find out just how painful this is going to be. It's fortunate we know what to look for, and even more fortunate we aren't having to babysit a shipful of ashidi while we do it. We've been through the data, and Lieutenant Commanders Krantz and Bessle have some ideas for how to knock out the drones' self destruct before it can trigger. If we can take one mostly intact, it might be able to teach us how to make all the OTHER drones blow up with slightly less pain on our end.
This crew's impressed me in combat many times now, but I've no intentions of letting that go to my head. Any group larger than the one Sulu stubbed her toe on, and we're backing off.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27485, USS Saratoga
We've had an unusual mission sent our way. An Amarki survey ship was exploring a system not far from the Gabriel border when they discovered a derelict space station of unknown design, dating back well over fifteen thousand years. More surprising still was the discovery that the station is still inhabited, after a fashion. Upon boarding the station, they had a hostile encounter with a group of seemingly non-sentient organisms that failed to appear on sensors, and seemed able to instantly transport themselves around the facility without using any sort of transporter. Starfleet has been called upon to investigate both the organisms, and the station.
Aiding us in this task will be a civilian consultant, Dr. Noran Sael of the Academia Amarkia. Dr. Sael's previous research on dangerous exotic organisms from Calcis Minor and Second Risa should make him a valuable asset in pacifying and studying these strange creatures.
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27489, USS Saratoga
The derelict station hangs in a low orbit, just a few more micrometeor impacts from being knocked into a decaying one. Were it any less massive, or less fragile, I'd be using the ship's tractor beam to pull it further out. Parts of the hull are open to the vacuum of space, but despite the age I can't say that the damage looks like natural wear and tear. There are none of the usual tells of weapons fire or large impactors that could have caused the damage either, however.
I am unable to say why, but something about the station disquiets me. Particularly those holes.
While I cannot question Dr. Sael's enthusiasm, I am reluctant to allow him to beam aboard the station in advance of our own security personnel, and I am reluctant to beam them over until we can determine the cause of these micro-scale gravitational anomalies throughout the derelict station. Sensors show no thermal or radiological activity that would suggest active technology, and yet the mass readings continue to fluctuate in an unpredictable pattern. Almost as if parts of the interior were being randomly enveloped and released by low-powered warp fields.
Nonetheless probes have failed to find anything. We will need to send people sooner rather than later. But I intend to keep the shields, as well as the transporters, ready to engage on a moment's notice.
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27491, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
Took a little while, but we've identified a warp signature consistent with the berserkers and are laying in an intercept. Fortunately, if experience is anything to go by they'll be turning around to head toward us as soon as we show up on their sensors. I think we might as well make it easier and run as hot as we can.
…
Field Log, Stardate 27492, Dr. Noran Sael
What an unlikely arena in which to find oneself faced with such an oppositional mystery! I am all but certain, now, the object of our quest is a cosmozoan, rather than a synthetic organism left over from this tritanium corpse's ancient crafters or a long-lonesome research object left by some ancient counterpart to myself. The organisms have yet to materialize within the pressurized decks, but if those marvelously keen Starfleet sensors can be trusted - and if I am correct about the "warp fields" being connected to the creatures' teleportation - they remain quite active throughout the rest of the airless station.
What continues to puzzle us all is the peculiar connectedness of those fluctuations. A decrease in relative mass in one region is always coincide by an increase in not one, but multiple other locations. I suspect the organisms move in groups, and are prone to going their separate ways mid-transport? Ah, but if only they appeared on sensors!
Tomorrow, we return to the station with the intent of setting transport inhibitors. Perhaps then we might immobilize a specimen long enough to catch a glimpse through our own visors!
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27493.3, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
Get sent to hunt down berserker probes, run smack into a fleet of Hishmeri.
Things didn't go nearly as bad as you'd think, given our history. The hishmeri were already engaged with the berserkers when we arrived, and I guess impressing them with a full photon torpedo barrage at the pair of drones was the right move. More surprising was when the first probe's shields went down, and the Hishmeri flagship used a phased pulse just like our Plan C to fry the thing's computers before landing a disrupter bolt on what I guess must have been its EPS aorta. We tried the same thing on the second probe with our phasers, and it worked.
Then the Hishmeri accused us of trying to steal their prey, and threatened to give us the same treatment unless we give up our claim to the wrecks. When I asked them if they really thought the United Federation of Planets could give a damn about two probes' worth of materials, they seemed to remember who they were talking to and agreed to let us scan and disassemble the things before turning them over.
Well, that means having some hishmeri over to make sure we're good for it. Time to break out the old charm and win them over with my astute diplomatic skills and consummate good manners.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27493.4, USS Saratoga
We are unable to beam out the away teams; the entire station has been overrun with gravitational fluctuations and spatial warping effects that make a transporter lock impossible even after deactivating the transport inhibitors. I have dispatched the bulk of our remaining security personnel to retrieve them by shuttlecraft, and - as per their own recommendations - I have sent them armed with full phaser rifles, point defense units, and demolition charges.
It seems that the organisms were not happy about being bound in place, and have penetrated the repressurized sections of the station.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27495.1, USS Saratoga
Nearly two days of running combat through the ancient decks, and this is the end to which our mission comes.
I fear I will never be able to forget the sight of the black, squamous tentacles, each as big around as a runabout, erupting from every breach and port in the derelict, tearing apart the outer hull in pursuit of the retreating shuttles. The station finally falling to pieces as the antagonized entity's dimensional-warping properties swept away the last of its structural integrity. The screams over the channel of the men and women seized in its appendages and pulled through an extradimensional realm as it flung them throughout the station and attempted to tear them apart.
My security personnel are all to be commended for their combat performance, stunning or dismembering each appendage long enough to recover the taken and return them to the ship alive. When the station finally came apart, the entity retreated from our reality entirely; there are no further physics anomalies in the wreckage or in the nearby space. Parts of the station are still raining onto the planet below, too numerous for our phasers to intercept. The local biosphere, however meager the initial survey team found it to be, will likely not survive this.
Even more unfortunately, it seems that Dr. Sael was at the center of the initial breach, and taken almost immediately. His remains are not present anywhere in the wreckage. Wherever the organism took him, I can only pray that death followed quickly.
[Lose -10 pp]
…
Captain's Log, Stardate 27496.5, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
I suppose that was enlightening. According to our guests, the Hishmeri Septs have been hunting these probes for shipbuilding materials for decades, and learned quite a few tricks for making it easier. Unfortunately, Captain Shadow Step fears the wrath of her sept's leader too much to trade any more of those tricks without her permission. When pressed on the issue, she offered to escort us to the Livefleet and let us talk it over in person.
This is either the best idea I've ever had, or the worst, but we're laying in a course alongside them. I made sure they understand that we've transmitted these logs back to Starfleet, and if the Opportunity disappears now they'll likely have a certain Captain Sorek to deal with. The way her bristles stood up on end and her eyes went wide at the sound of that name made it all worth it right there, but hopefully we'll be coming home safely after this meeting and you won't have to send any terrifying vulcans to avenge us.
...
Captain's Log, Stardate 27499, USS Opportunity - Captain Huth fop Makpol
That went about as well as it possibly could have.
Aside from buying some more probe-hunting tricks from the Majestic Fiery Roar for a pittance, we were able to get close enough to the Livefleet to gather some sensor data. Not close enough to be sure of their numbers, but we did learn a couple of things.
For one, they've got mobile factories designed to be towed by their larger Andalusian class frigates. Based on the bulk and energy readings of these things, they've got a good amount of habitat space as well; I have a hunch they keep a large share of their population aboard those things.
More importantly though, we were able to get a look at what has to be the Hishmeri flagship, the Bastard. We already had intel suggesting that their supreme leader ruled from a much larger vessel, but what KIND of larger vessel, well. We run the data a dozen times to make sure, and there's no doubt about it; the Bastard is a variation on the Imelak breeder-class capital ship. With that in mind, we started looking at everything we know about Hishmeri naval architecture, and it turns out that under all the greeble and patchwork and jury-rigged attachments most Hishmeri ships are a LOT more like Imelak technology than anyone would have guessed.
I don't know what this means, exactly, but I know that it means something. For now, we're heading back toward Federation space at a comfortable warp 9.
[Gain +15 relations with Hishmeri Septs (now at 89/100)]
Defiant logs and missed event by @Iron Wolf
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Derek58
Rocket Punch is Best Punch
- Location
- Getter Valhalla
- Pronouns
- He/Him
They are. I'm looking forward to pulling Excelsiors out of the Explorer Corps over the next decade, not to mention ludicrous Kepler spam.
Eh, could have been worse. Nothing too big went wrong. We didn't lose the Miracht again, or any other ship. Now if our Task Forces failed hard or the GBZ went hot, that would be bad.
- Location
- Cyberspace
The apparently Hishmeri connection to the Imelak is... intriguing. Common origin for the two species, one was subordinate to the other before the Hishmeri took off...?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Seems to me that mostly it's not the Excelsiors that are failing, it's the ships with 3s and 4s in the statlines. I'll have to double-check, though.
The bright side is, none of these bad event outcomes is a Federation-sized disaster, yet.
Not to look a gift Arcturan mega-goat in the mouth, but I'm a bit confused about why the Bajoran diaspora is happy?
Hm. Cloud, silver lining. Aren't the Chrystovians over on the other side of Cardassian space? Hitting affiliate status with them might be... problematic, and good relations may not pay off the way they would with most other species.
Leslie:
"Never change, Huth. Never change."
Well, if the berserkers can be hunted for, uh, "prey," then they can't be QUITE as bad a problem as I'd feared... but we may end up having to wipe them out anyway if they're migrating into our space.
While it is remotely possible that Dr. Sael will come back with a big friendly and carefully tamed extradimensional beastie friend... and if anyone but ka'Athnon could somehow achieve this, it'd be him...
o7
You will not be forgotten, Amarki Steve Irwin.
I noted this when we got our Imelak intelligence report, but the Imelak came into our space fleeing something and the Hishmeri came to our space chasing something.
Your classic Janissary revolt, perhaps?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm not criticizing the performance of our current ships dispatched on Five Year Missions; rather, I'm looking forward to them being available for internal duties. I apologize if I had been unclear before.