by Kheren » Sat Jan 09, 2016 4:00 pmGeneralMission Title
- Dance with the Devil
Mission Overview
- Receiving a Starfleet distress call, the USS (ship name here), the only starship in range, rushes to the Paulson nebula, only to find that discerning who is the enemy and who is the victim is not as easy as it seems... it is not just because shields, sensors and weapons lock are inoperative in the nebula.
Requirements
Type of Ship
- Any ship patrolling or travelling the Hromi sector. A large combat ship may have it much easier than a small science vessel to be sure, but mere firepower might not be enough to resolve the situation... or even the best option.
Mission Objectives
- PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
- Find the ship in distress in the nebula (science )
- Help with repairs and casualties (Engineering & medical)
- Resolve the situation once fully disclosed ;(Command and all)
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
- Navigate the nebula while minimizing hazards (Operations) - - Face whatever threats caused the ship's distress and perils following full disclosure (Tactical)
Story Acts
NOTE: Spoilers in black wich should be read only by the captain/GM and his XO/GM assistant
Act 1
- THE DISTRESS CALL
Your comm officer almost accidentally catches a Starfleet encoded transmission, not aimed at you but nevertheless sent on a very narrow and directed subspace band which your flight path just so happen to intersect at that very moment; but it is too weak to have reached much beyond your current position. The encoding level is 10 (Captain & above only)
Once decoded, it is revealed astonishingly as a Starfleet distress call (who would ever send an encoded distress call and moreover on one specific narrow channel? and why?). It seems to indicate that an unidentified ship with an unregistered Starfleet NX designation (NX666) has major problems within the Paulson nebula; they were under attack (enemy identity lost in the static) while making a flight test (ship identity lost in the static except the name:USS First Legion), lost nav control anf fell into the nebula which is rendering all their systems inoperative (propulsion and tactical offline, life support and power failing, hundreds of casualties and several hull breaches).
Starfleet general orders leaves no choice but to provide immediate assistance, regardless of any current mission in progress and your ship is the only one in range. But this is uncomfortably close to the Romulan Neutral Zone... which terms of treaty's relevance is not all that clear anymore with the empire shattered yet rebuilding.
Act 2
General information about what is to occur in Act 2.
- THE NEBULA
The Paulson nebula is quite unremarkable as a space phenomena goes; very standard and classic stardust expanse, which means it plays havoc with some systems, like shields and weapons lock (inoperative) sensors (operative only within their EM resistance percentage). Prolonged stay would also eventually clog impulse manifolds and thruster exhaust ports. Warp is not possible within a nebula as the friction of particles at faster than light peed would simply disintegrate any vessel.
At the edge of the Nebula, comm again pick up something, very faint and distorted; a starship's disaster beacon. Now, the task is to try and find that disabled ship within that cosmic acidic fog.
And just before entering it, Romulan vessels that seemed to have already seen heavy action decloak aft, port and starboard, all weapons hot and locked on your ship! They fire even before red alert can be raised. If you were at yellow alert, your shields will allow you to survive that first salvo but then will be down too low to let you survive such another conentration of fire. If you manage to make them talk, you (Starfleet and the UFP) will be loudly and boldly accused of nothing less than bringing evil back to the galaxy, making pact with the devil and plotting the destruction of the Romulan empire, if not all life! Of course, they will not explain themselves much further and force the issue violently. (alternative as a more proper non-combat option or addition; the Romulans being known for their deviousness, will try to capture ship and crew or at least some of them, or play a game of twenty questions with them over subspace to interrogate them about something they do not reveal clearly but are very intent on obtaining... which lies in the Nebula).
You may try to ward them off, fight them off or flee... but there is still that damaged Starfleet vessel alone and helpless somewhere in the nebula...
Act 3
- THE SHIP IN DISTRESS
Whatever you managed to do to survive the Romulan attack, you enter the nebula and face it's dreadful conditions until with some good resourcefulness or simply dumb luck, you find the distressed vessel: a Borg Tactical Cube!
The shock is compounded by the fact that it is the vessel emitting the Starfleet signals and codes... and it si amazingly made with standard state of the art Federation construction materials, with a definite Starfleet energy signature!
There is no answer from this strange vessel and sensors, already so much weakened by the effects of the surrounding nebula, cannot penetrate at all to scan it much more than that and several thousands of indeterminate lifesigns, faint and fading. Solving this mystery obviously requires the use of an away team... while the ship itself has battle damage to repair and still enemies to be weary about (either the initial attackers still on the prowl for them or reinforcements called that would arrive too soon for comfort... or both).
Act 4
- DECISIONS TO MAKE
It will be discovered that the Borg Cube IS indeed of Starfleet's making; complete with Starfleet officers deemed long dead or MIA now literally made into Borgs with cybernetic implants and neurogenic technology to link them together and to the ship's systems.Encoded logs and engineering or ops analysis will show that, when the ship was attacked and damaged, they all suffered just as if their own bodies had been atttacked and went into shock. it will also show that the whole thing is a secret project of Starfleet Intelligence called Project Legion, under the sanctioned authority of Admiral Neil S Redding, head of Starfleet Security.
Since this is a genuine Starfleet ship with genuine Starfleet officers on board, help remains mandatory... but what the Captain will do with this situation is up to him. The consequences of this project are far reaching and even apocalyptic... especially that there seems to be a ghostly intelligence still active on board (a holographic presence with the name of Philter looking like a ghost of a Borg) which let them help and either watches or even helps them just long enough for the ship to be spaceworthy again... and then ensure that no one will leave to tell the secret of the USS First Legion and the project.
Both away team and ship will thus have to deal with this unforeseen possible resurrection of the Borg for which Starfleet is seemingly responsible... and Romulans intent on either destroying that threat or take it for their own schemes and plans.
NOTE: Confronting Admiral Redding specifically will be next to useless; he had the full support of Starfleet higher ups on this project and was himself under orders. However, Starfleet itself may be called before the Federation Council for this; after all, they did not make it such a secret for nothing. That would possibly weed out the last few remnants of the old Dominion War corruption in the service in the higher ranks like Admiral Ross...
This mission has been completed by the USS McKenzie
