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[S01E02.ii] Hospitality.

Posted by UniverseFor group 0
Universe
GM, 199 posts
The Final Frontier
Thu 3 Oct 2019
at 04:55
  • msg #1

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

The USS Oberon departs Chiron station and sets course into the gaping wound through the nebula. The crew crosses the threshold and several alarms start blaring. Even with the passage through the Hellsmouth the sheer amount of volatility and ferocious storms play havoc with the sensors. A shockwave from a distant explosion sends debris peppering against the shields and causes the ship to vibrate but after a few hours the ship has crossed to the other side. The crew are now the first among Starfleet to cross the Hellsmouth Nebula and once the sensors are rebooted to clear the electrical discharge from the passage data starts feeding into the sensors.

There is a lot of long range activity and the sensors quickly detect signs of warp travel however due to the distances involved it will take some time to triangulate the source of these signals to provide more accurate headings but a general direction can be identified.

OOC: On the map, it is North, North-East and East are signs of advanced civilization

Meanwhile shorter range sensors pick up a few things of note. The first is that the telltale tears in subspace show that the Abaddon Dreadnaught had passed this way. In fact thanks to the top minds of Starfleet working night and day for the past few months the Oberon was equipped with algorithms that could trace the path of the dreadnaught like following breadcrumbs.

Sensors also indicate a pair of M-Class worlds just a few light years away. Sensor readings show evidence of pre-warp civilization in the form of primitive radio waves equivalent to Earth's 20th century technology based on the bandwidth and encoding.


OOC: To recap, three obvious paths of exploration:
1) Follow the dreadnought trail
2) Focus on triangulating warp signatures
3) Explore a pre-warp civilization

T'Saen
Command, 97 posts
Vulcan/Human Female
Flight Controller
Fri 4 Oct 2019
at 01:38
  • msg #2

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

"Welcome to the far side of the Hellsmouth," Lt T'Saen announced.  Lieutenant.  That would certainly take some getting used to.

Without turning the she inquired of Garrity, "Course Commander?"
John Garrity
Command, 82 posts
Human Male
Fri 4 Oct 2019
at 12:14
  • msg #3

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Garrity frowned in thought. It was, in fact, harder than it looked to be in command. How do you choose between three unknown, and in fact unknowable, courses, any one of which could just be a quick and painful death? And not just for him, but for everyone under his command.

Still. That was the job.

"Our primary directive here is to seek new life and new civilizations. And I think it's best if we start getting a sense of the political atmosphere in the Quadrant, so that when we get around to our secondary directive, we'll have a better idea of how to proceed."

A pause.

"Lt.Wright? Can we get a lock on those warp trail? Helm, once you've got it, lock in a course and let's see what we're dealing with out here."
Universe
GM, 201 posts
The Final Frontier
Sat 5 Oct 2019
at 04:47
  • msg #4

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

The crew quickly learns that it isn't a single warp trail but clusters of warp travel. After several hours of making small warp jumps and then taking additional scans the crew is able to identify seven distinct pockets of heavy warp travel, all of them several days or weeks away.


OOC: Where to now? In this square is the double M-Class planets and no other close anomalies but to the north is warp activity that seems to be along the path of the Abaddon ship. We'll say it takes a day to cross a square so there are three bubbles of warp activity within a week's journey.

Cmdr. Petroka
NPC, 13 posts
Romulan Female
Commander
Sun 6 Oct 2019
at 04:04
  • msg #5

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

"Seven warp trails certainly gives us plenty from which to choose," Petroka stated. "Are there any your data suggest would be more fruitful than the others?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:13, Mon 07 Oct 2019.
Universe
GM, 205 posts
The Final Frontier
Tue 8 Oct 2019
at 21:32
  • msg #6

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

The crewman at the comms station raises his voice. He's a bit nervous and keeps his eyes fixed on the screen.

"Uhhh...Captain? We've been monitoring the radio signals coming from one of the Class-M planets in the area and the computer has provided a summary. It seems there is some king of ecological disaster that is going on...one broadcast is talking about the planet tearing itself apart.

Sensors have also picked up faint signals with energy patterns similar emitted by the alien device from Signi.

T'Saen
Command, 99 posts
Vulcan/Human Female
Flight Controller
Wed 9 Oct 2019
at 02:24
  • msg #7

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

T'Sean regards Garrity but refrains from voicing her opinion.  The situation certainly sounded grave and the world was nearby in comparison to the warp signatures that appeared to possibly be a week away.  This was the captain's decision.
John Garrity
Command, 85 posts
Human Male
Wed 9 Oct 2019
at 12:25
  • msg #8

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

The hardest thing, so far, about being in charge was the multitude of decisions that had to be made more or less on intuition or impulse, with no real indication if it's the right or wrong decision.

This one, at least was easy.

"Lt. T'Saen, take us to the planet, as fast as you dare. Let's get sensors fired up and ready to start taking as many readings as we can."

He tapped his comm-badge.

"Bridge to Medbay, get a medic to Transporter Room Two, on the double."

Looked over at Ops.

"Lt. zh'Kerja, form up an Away Team."

A small pause and a small smile.

"Let's get to it."
Universe
GM, 210 posts
The Final Frontier
Wed 9 Oct 2019
at 18:52
  • msg #9

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Prime Directive protocols would have the ship go into high orbit and run dark so as to shield itself from low tech observation.
Ylis zh'Kerja
Operations, 75 posts
Andorian Female
Tactical Lt. Jg
Thu 10 Oct 2019
at 00:31
  • msg #10

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

“Aye sir.” Ylis responded, tapping her com as she turned to head for the turbolift. “Security Team Alpha, meet me in Transporter Room 2. This is not a drill.” The Andorian added the last bit because she had been planning some extensive drills with her security and tactical teams, and she had touched on that topic at their first meeting shortly after shoving off. She wanted to make sure that Alpha Team was bringing its A game... not that she would have expected anything less during a drill, truth be told.
Sebastian Wright
Science, 67 posts
Human Male
Science Officer
Fri 11 Oct 2019
at 02:52
  • msg #11

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Sebastian glanced at Garrity and then Ylis, "Lieutenant, I'd like to accompany on the away team. I might be able to help dealing with the natives and identifying whatever ecological disasters are going on down there, and I know my way around flying a shuttle in atmosphere if we need to evacuate quickly."
John Garrity
Command, 91 posts
Human Male
Fri 11 Oct 2019
at 12:51
  • msg #12

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Garrity nods. "We'll need your help up here figuring out what's happening, and whether we can even insert ourselves without violating the Prime Directive. After that, it's zh'Kerja's call. But it's okay by me."

A pause.

"Flight? Once we're out of Warp, take us into as high an orbit as you can and go dark. And then I'll need every ounce of data the Sensors can give us. I need to know what's happening, what we can do about it, and what the locals look like so we can see if we can blend in."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:54, Fri 11 Oct 2019.
Universe
GM, 211 posts
The Final Frontier
Mon 14 Oct 2019
at 18:56
  • msg #13

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

The Oberon moves into high orbit over Orgun III where the radio signals are coming from. A quick scan of Orgun II shows that there is also an abundant ecosystem and signs of sentient life albeit one in a primitive state, roughly equivalent to Earth's late Iron Age on the cusp of Middle Ages. Without the dedication of months for observation and research further details would be hard to come by.

Orgun III however while still a pre-warp civilization has entered the Space Age as evident by the network of orbital satellite. The computer systems equates it to technology roughly on par with Earth circa 1990's.

Judging by intercepted communications from their satellites the dominant species calls itself the Lormeans and are a mammalian species that look similar to humanoid lemurs although biologically speaking they are quite different. Overall their society seems to be both highly tribal but also relatively peaceful. Intercepted news and entertainment shows a strong focus on community and family although the world is split into hundreds of competing governments. Conflict seems to be resolved through very intricate and involved diplomacy as opposed to war.

The distress signals take a few hours to fully decipher and get a clear picture of what is going on with the planet. Firstly the sensor scans have shown similar energy patterns to the planetary tractor beam the crew had used on Signi and the science team onboard the Oberon puts it as highly likely that the system was artificially created as having two M-Class planets with nearly identical atmospheric conditions despite being different sizes and orbits seems highly unlikely. What seems more likely is that the planet Orgun III contains a subspace tractor that was used to "create" the solar system based on the original desires.

Second the device appears to be malfunctioning as the sensors are showing buildups of energy and then a premature discharge corresponding to massive earthquakes.

Third the presence of the subspace signal means that things like communication and transporters likely not possible and could interfere with shuttle transit to the surface. There have been several intercepted news reports of unexplained airplane crashes.

Finally as both planets are pre-warp both civilizations fall under the purview of the Prime Directive, the Starfleet policy of noninterference.


OOC:

Momentum: 0
Threat: 0
Conditions: Subspace Signal - all Sensor based rolls are +1 difficulty

Possible Next Steps:
Scanning the surface for the source of the energy: Reason + Science, Difficulty 2
Scanning Orgun II's surface for more information on the sister planet: Reason + Science, Difficulty 1
Modifying a shuttle to be resistant to the subspace interference: Reason + Engineering, Difficulty 2

Sebastian Wright
Science, 69 posts
Human Male
Science Officer
Wed 16 Oct 2019
at 19:56
  • msg #14

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Sebastian takes a moment to study the readings appearing at his station, and then taps on the screen, "scanning the surface to try and figure out the source of all of that energy." It's not long before a frown forms on his face, "uhh, Captain, this is definitely not right."

Yay! My first roll and I get a complication

14:52, Today: Sebastian Wright rolled 22 using 2d20 with rolls of 2,20.  Reason+Science: 16, Diff: 2 - Scan surface.

John Garrity
Command, 95 posts
Human Male
Mon 21 Oct 2019
at 23:32
  • msg #15

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Unaware that something was about to happen at Sebastian's station, Garrity called out, "We're going to want a shuttle prepped as well. ASAP."

If they were going down, they were going to go down hot. And he wanted to be ready.
Universe
GM, 214 posts
The Final Frontier
Tue 22 Oct 2019
at 20:54
  • msg #16

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Just then the science team called up to the bridge to report that the Ferengi map had been successfully decode and would be ready to review by the time the away mission was concluded.




Sebastian accidentally points the deflector dish unknowingly directly at the energy source. A feedback resonance develops and before he can react the console starts to spark and goes dark.

Down in engineering damage reports start filtering in, the main deflector dish was temporarily burnt out and so scanning the surface would be next to impossible for several hours while repairs were made.

The silver lining was that because of this accident the crew did now have a rough idea of the area where the signal was originating from but there was still a span of dozens of square kilometers where the alien device could be hiding.
John Garrity
Command, 100 posts
Human Male
Wed 23 Oct 2019
at 15:14
  • msg #17

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Garrity winced and frowned and scanned the damage reports. Not great. But better than it could have been.

"Alright, people, let's work the problem. Ops, can we get that shuttle prepped and ready ASAP? Medical, how hard would it be to modify the away team to resemble the natives? Security, is your Away Team ready?"

OOC: I know Ylis is away from the game, but that's for whomever will be answering for her.
Sarah Greene
Operations, 182 posts
Human Female
Engineer
Wed 23 Oct 2019
at 17:45
  • msg #18

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Sarah stared at the displays on her console in shock and then hits her comm badge. "Engineering to the bridge, what's going on up there? We've lost the main deflector dish."    She grabs her tool kit and makes her way up to the main deflector dish to begin the repair and survey and additional damage that may not be registering yet.

off to repair the deflector dish, focus Damage Control.  (3 successes toward making an improvised repair)
13:43, Today: Sarah Greene rolled 28 using 3d20 with rolls of 12,8,8.
Universe
GM, 217 posts
The Final Frontier
Mon 28 Oct 2019
at 17:55
  • msg #19

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Medical reports that it can provide some dermal grafted fur and subdermal implants to modify the structures of the face to match. Transmission intercepts allow for matching current fashion and adding tail extensions however Laila reminds the captain that these would all be surface and cosmetic. The ship isn't equipped with the necessary supplies to fool a medical scan.




Sarah gets the engineering team on task to repair the deflector dish. Nothing critical was damaged and getting the dish online will only take a couple of hours but because it needs to be realigned it will be several more hours on top of that to run diagnostics before it is fully cleared.

An out of alignment deflector would make high speed travel dangerous as it could collapse and open up the ship to damage from space debris as well as making detailed scans quite noisy in terms of data. The dish will be partially operational within 3 hours and fully operational within 6.
John Garrity
Command, 102 posts
Human Male
Wed 30 Oct 2019
at 16:42
  • msg #20

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Garrity thought quick. As quick as he could anyway. He'd always been more of a slow-grinder.

"Okay, team, here's the play. Everyone who's going, get down to medical for a facelift. Nothing they'll do to you will fool a medical scan, so you need to be extremely careful not to attract more attention than you have to. Once you're down safe, we'll move Oberron back to a safe distance until the dish is repaired. The shuttle can go to WARP better than we can right now, if need arises."

A pause.

"You first, and foremost job down there is to quietly gather intel about what's happening to the planet. I want contact with the locals only at need, and only as much as you need. Let's keep it quick, quiet and efficient down there. Okay?"
Universe
GM, 222 posts
The Final Frontier
Sun 3 Nov 2019
at 05:56
  • msg #21

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

The shuttle approaches the planet under the cover of darkness using its superior technology to mask and obfuscate its approach from primitive radar scans from the surface. A landing zone is identified on the outskirts of the capital city and the crew start sweeping the area for clearer signs of the alien ruins. Unfortunately just as before the subspace signal makes scanning a difficult task as the readings are constantly being distorted.

Eventually the signal source is located and the crew make their approach to the alien ruins. The ruins are similar to the ones on Signi, built into a mountainside of seemingly impenetrable rock modified on the atomic level to display herebefore unseen levels of resilience and strength. Unlike on Signi, however, the giant blast door is already shut and sealed.

If it is like the Signi ruins then there should be other entrances to underground tunnels located all across the planet's surface.

Momentum: 0
Threat: 0
Condition: Subspace Signal
- +1 difficulty to all scans

Obvious Rolls
Scan for signal source - Reason + Science - diff 2
Scan for natives/surveillance - Reason + Security - diff 2
Look for signs of tracks - Intuition + Security - diff 1

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:53, Tue 12 Nov 2019.
Cmdr. Petroka
NPC, 22 posts
Romulan Female
Commander
Sat 9 Nov 2019
at 03:02
  • msg #22

[S01E02.ii] Hospitality

Petroka frowned at the tail as she sat in the shuttle. "If I'm not sitting on it it's moving on its own accord like it has a mind of its own."

She looked over at the human Commander. "This isn't going to get you into trouble with Starfleet, is it? From what I understand about your Prime Directive this is rather close to the line, if not butting against it where one wrong move would cross said line."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Sat 09 Nov 2019.
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