Season 4: Episode 6 TBR053
Posted on Sun Sep 11, 2022 @ 12:22am by Captain Toron Pax
Season 4: Episode 6 TBR053
Game began 1:30pm, ended —-pm 9/10/22
Players GM Matt (Pax), Nikki (Elli-Navine), Will (Dr. Artopolis & Basin), Steve (Johnny5) Simon (Danielson)
"The Assessor Gambit" “Captain’s Log, Stardate 48942.6. We’ve been recalled to Narendra Station, where Admiral Hebert (UFP) and General Kargan (Klingon Empire) have called my senior staff and I in for a major scientific briefing. The fact the other captains and staffs assigned to the Expanse are here too doesn’t bode well. I suspect someone has figured out how to put together some of the puzzle pieces we’ve found over the last several months. I’m deeply curious to see what the picture looks like, though I admit to a certain level of dreadful anticipation as well.”
We are called to the auditorium on the station along with a couple dozen scientists. On the view screen are live video feeds from multiple probes and data streaming in all being presented by Doctor Taliaferro Explaining how the discoveries are pointing to an advanced ancient species. EM fields throughout the expanse. Including HPI, Secu 6, Orgon 3, and Alpha Taurri II. Deep space probe discovered in a candidate 3 system, 3 class M planets in close proximity to each other and 4 other class planets. These don’t seem to have been there naturally. The 3rd M class is a massive world, covered in ancient ruins of stone and metals. Tetrion particles and dangerous weather. Metal content in the ruins match other worlds in the expanse. Admiral and General disagree about surveying the world, because it’s too close to the neutral zone. Clearly there was an ancient race with advanced tech, but where they went and why remains a mystery.
USS Thunderchild CEng and CSci are talking and Elli joins them, asking about obelisks in their time surveying. They are talking about 2 worlds locked together, using a tractorbeam like tech. They were rapidly destroying each other- seemed recently activated. Uninhabited. Long range sensors indicated that the two planets were in different origin systems before they were found.
We notice Doctor Taliaferro at the front of the room, managing a sudden surge of data- and then a romulan warbird decloaks and takes out the probe- all the probes in the candidate 3 system are taken out. The admiral speculates about the Romulans knowing about the technology and about what their motives are for disturbing our investigations.
Potemkin goes with a Klingon Warbird to check out the Candidate 3 system.
It will take about 11 hrs to reach the system. We are given a data packet from Doctor Taliaferro.
We open up the science info–
Density of the anomalies in the system has no apparent source…
The eddies in the system have properties of gases vented from a massive machine. Where it is and how it is venting these by products is unknown.
The EM disturbances are wreaking havoc with sensors.
We drop out of warp at the edge of the system. Sensor scans don’t reveal romulan ships… but…
Klingons are going to scout the system, and they break off.
We approach the key planet from the briefing. Sensors are being tripped by tetrions and gravitons which seem to swirl between the ship and the planet. We get into orbit. No current signs of romulans. The interference affects sensors but not transporters.
It’s a hive planet like (SW’s Coruscant) and is built up all over. We can’t identify anything that stands out from anything else to beam to. A science scan is done… minute levels of energy seem to be pulsing towards a common center, but we need to beam down to pinpoint the location.
We beam down, Basin and Johnny take rifles. Atmosphere is breathable.
We beam down and find spires and structures in all directions. There’s grooves cut into the stone in straight lines and angles. Glyphs are carved within the walls and spires, Tillakaal, like the ones we’ve found before. The area is blanketed in silence. And animals, or machinery. Our tricorders are making the only sounds.
This is a powerless area of the city. We scan the area and the grooves and find energy coursing momentarily through the grooves towards the center point we’re looking for. As we follow it, we see current going from one grid to another.
Coherent superheated plasma is being transferred- like our warp plasma, but channelled more efficiently.
Larger structure we are approaching looks like ancient Roman architecture. Faint blue energy is pulsing through the pillars and wall.
As we approach we hear voices. They sound Romulan.
Alien 3 meters tall, long arms and legs, green skinned, hypnotic movements. We hear in or minds- welcome, “I am Assessor Tredric- I did not expect visitors. May you be more cordial than these people.”
Elli orders Johnny and Basin to lay down arms, but the Romulans start shooting and we’re forced to take cover and return fire (stun)
After some back and forth and some distractions and some rivalry between Basin and Johnny, we take out the Romulans and send them up to the brig. We follow the green alien to the temple thing and see some energy stuff happening that is out of alignment. Elli aligns it. The floating cloud coalesces into an alien with wings and a tiara. short dark hair and solid blue eyes with no pupils, blink and reach towards us.
Ash Talamara of the Tilakaal- “we are trapped, help”
Elli- How can we help?
A stray bolt of phaser flows through the pillar and surges up the column, a deafening whoosh of power fills the area.
The Assessor enters through the poligonal archway. “No it is not yet time” he’s frustrated and has pity- “the true way must be maintained.”
He fills the air in traces of energy symbols that got all blue and glowy, splits the ears, hair raising. Then we reappear on the Potemkin- we’re sick from the transport, disoriented. Massive planetary field comes online around the planet.
Massive energy surge left the system….
Assessor directly in our heads- “There is much to prepare. This area of space is no longer safe for you. You must leave.”
An emitter array appears on the planet and emits a bright blue energy pulse that hits the Potemkin- space folds like origami around the Potemkin. The planet is gone and we’re back at Nerandra station….
The Admiral listens intently, then says, “There’s little time to lose. I’ve informed Starfleet Command of the situation here in the Expanse and they’ve agreed with me – the Romulans are up to something and we’re confident it’s a clear and present threat to this station and to the peace between us and the Klingon Empire. Klingon intelligence suggests that cloaked warbirds are pushing deeper into unaligned space outside their Neutral Zone in this direction. We’ve run out of time to either argue or confirm, so I’ve recalled the flotilla. General Kargan and I are putting the station and the entire sector on red alert. Come home as soon as possible for a council of war.”
Category: General News
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