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» Season 4: Episode 12 TBR060

Posted on Sun Jan 29, 2023 @ 7:37pm by Captain Toron Pax in General News

Season 4: Episode 12 TBR060
"Prism"

Captain’s Log
“Having escaped the VinShari and with repairs complete, we are tracking increased tetryonic filament activity and associated EM radiation bursts. Our new friend Thacinn has helped us track these phenomena, which all seem to be leading to an unexplored star system with a single planet. Thacinn has agreed to assist the science team with scans on board while an away team investigates planetside. While it’s anyone’s guess what awaits us on this world, we know the trapped Tilikaal cannot wait for us indefinitely.”

Arriving in the system the Potemkin detects a single star orbited by a single tidally locked world. Scanning the world proved difficult due to interference from objects in orbit, but there are signs of Tilikaal technology on the surface. To investigate further the away team must take a shuttle down, on their way through the atmosphere they encounter a jellyfish looking creature which interferes with their navigational sensors resulting in a collision with one of its tendrils. Pilot and engineer worked together to bring the shuttles systems back online and to reroute power to the inertial dampeners, restarting the engines and then pulling the nose of the shuttle up at the last moment to save them all from being pancaked on the surface of a calm ocean.

A vast ocean stretches out around them, in the distance a rock mountain range rose; the source of the signals.

“Under a sunset sky, you reach a band of black basalt pillars rising from the water, with several 400-meter-tall spires across the horizon, each with a flat top and glowing blue veins of power coursing through them. A few crystalline ships land or take off from the tops of the spires. Many lights float around buildings that seem to be made of glass.”

Floating in the water next to the spire are clusters of shimmering particles wildly flashing a rainbow of colors. Tricorder readings show that these are living beings with electrical bio-signs that appear to be in distress. The alien bodies are clear liquid and rapidly dissolving. The away teams quickly tune the tractor beam to a frequency that would allow them to rescue the creatures without harming them. During this process a small group of crystalline spheres, each one meter in diameter, approaches, floating in the air. The away team realize that this is a first contact situation and attempt contact, the crystalline creatures use light patterns to communicate and using their tricorders they manage to make contact.

“We are the Sunseekers. Leave alone what is natural!”

Unwilling to say more, the creatures make to attack the shuttle when a dozen or more angular-shaped Cal-Mirrans arrive. The lights flashing across these individuals are in a slower, almost calming rhythm.

“We are the Cooperative. There will be peace.”

“The new group of aliens flash in a hypnotic pattern. You and all those around you stop fighting. Your head starts to ache and around you appear images of yourselves and the Sunseekers, playing out the fight that has just occurred. You are frozen in place and can only watch. When the conflict ends, the vision dissolves, and everyone drops to the ground, disoriented.

“I apologize for the abrupt greeting,” one of the newcomers says. “Welcome to Cal-Mirra. I am Ayr-amin Gold, lead Unifier of the Cooperative government. The time refraction was necessary to assess who started the conflict. You were not harmed, though I apologize if you were disoriented. This was the most effective means to determine root cause. I am not surprised that it was these religious zealots, even though they are here in the city as a delegation from the Ray.”

Ayr-amin invites them to a sumit with other factions and explains that there are strange vibrations coming from the spires which are destabilizing Cal-Mirran citizens, causing injury and death. Even though the spires are sacred to some factions he wants to dismantle one of them to study it. Ayr-amin requests that the away team investigate the source of the signal and bring back evidence that it is the spires that are the root of the problem, he offers to send with them a guide.

As the team pass from the twilight into the darkness of the planet they see a VinShari Stormbreaker class vessel, heavily modified into a habitation. As soon as the near they are attacked as the broken vessel fires two energy harpoons holding their vessel still.

One crystal wall of the ship’s interior blinks into a viewscreen, displaying an obsidian cloud. “You’re in my dark,” the cloud says. “If you’re lost, go home. If you’re a VinShari spy, you’re dead.”

The ‘cloud’ issues a riddle they must answer or be destroyed: “What is beautiful yet brutal, “Gentle yet powerful, Versatile yet unwavering?”

A few moments of consideration and the away teams answers, “Water” They are allowed to land.

The inside of the VinShari ship is covered in technology from half a dozen other races, including Federation and Ferengi. Studying the data that the ‘cloud’ had gathered the away teams Assessor guest is able to determine that a single spire is the epicenter of the problems this planet is suffering. So, with their cloud Cal-Mirra now guiding them they take the away teams shuttle and quickly fly to the nearby tower. They arrive to find that the aspire is partly under water but still stretches high into the sky.

Plunging into the water the shuttle descends down the height of the spire. All of a sudden the ship is buffeted as a very large creature flashes past at less than a meter from the hull. Sensors indicate the creature is a good nine times their size and so make the decision to seek cover at an airlock that had just come into view.

Captain’s Log
“Supplemental. Our search for methods of helping the Tilikaal has led us through the heart of Cal-Mirran society and now out beyond the reaches of civilization. We found an unlikely ally in a near-paranoid scientist, Gar-zalash Black, who is obsessed with the energy pulses. Perhaps he can help us find the seat of this power so we can help both the Cal-Mirrans and the Tilikaal.”

The away team reach the bottom of the spire and find an exchange airlock which cycles to allow them entrance to the dry chamber. The chamber contains controls covered in glowing blue veins and runes. Emergency lamps reveal hundreds of stasis sarcophaguses similar to those found in other Tilikaal facilities encountered. Scanning the room, and the pods the away team discover that some of the Tilikaal have been dead for a long time, others are showing life signs that seemingly appear and disappear at random and the remains of an assessor are discovered crumbled near the controls.

In time with pulses of electric blue energy that pulses through the wires there is a vibration through the entire structure. It is these vibrations that are causing micro sub-space fractures, also, in time with the pulses and vibration some of the Tilikaal who remain in stasis take breaths, their life signs spiking before falling dormant again. They away team surmise that some of the Tilikaal are trying to reenter this universe and their bodies.

Their new friend, Gar-zalash starts to record audio and visual while listing off a series of conspiracy theories pausing only to point out that no one will see this as the signal isn’t strong enough to stream the video back to anyone. Elli decides to link her tricorder and commbadge to the shuttle to allow him to stream what they have found back to the others. This was part of their mission after all!

Captain’s Log
“Supplemental. After an involved investigation, we’ve found the place we sought: a gateway that connects to the Tilikaal’s pocket dimension. With the energy pulses speeding up and likely damaging more Cal-Mirran homes and harming more Cal-Mirran citizens, it is imperative we open the gate as quickly as possible, allow the trapped Tilikaal to come through, and then disable this technology. Much depends on our success.”

Sar-alya aids the away team in reactivating an arch, faint screams can be heard when near it, the displaced Tilikaal begging for help.

A swirling pocket of prismatic color fills the arch and sends a powerful wave of tachyon radiation through the chamber, forcing Gar-zalash into a brief reverie of Time Refraction, which also envelops you.

As the wave of radiation washes over you, your head throbs and the chamber goes dark. As light returns, you see an image of past Sar-ayla move warily around the long-dead Assessor and float to the pods in the room, somehow modifying their mechanisms. The machinery makes a high pitched whine and she vibrates nervously – she clearly knows she shouldn’t be here and has no idea what she’s doing, but looks curiously at the beings inside. The sarcophagus implodes, crushing the being contained within. A shimmery blue silhouette appears in the flickering archway.

“Friend – what have you done?”

“I...I’m sorry, I was exploring the Unknown and found this place. What are you?”

“Displaced.” The form extends a hand. “Assist my people in retaking physical form in your dimension, and I will show you unknown realms such as you have never imagined.”

Sar-ayla flutters pink. “What must I do?”

“Engage the pulse initiator from your side. It will take time to reach full power. Find a being who can open the gate, whose biology won’t short the controls. Then...prepare for us to take physical form.”

The time refraction ends and everyone in the room collapses. Gar-zalash turns on Sar-ayla. “You’re a lying spy after all! You used us. Never trust a government agent – I was right to harpoon you.”

“I want more out of life than becoming a ship!” Sar-ayla snaps. “I want to explore. And now the rest of our people will have that chance.”

Trying to communicate through the arch only resulted in ominous sounds, nothing they tried worked. Seemingly as the were about to give up the attempt and try something else the sparkling aderi of Ash’Tamalia appeared before them.

“Ash’Tamalia!” Sar-ayla says excitedly. “I did what you asked. Can I explore your realm now?” “You did well, Sar-ayla.

Revelation is indeed coming.” Ash’Tamalia latches their aderi onto a large glowing blue vein of the spire and it lights up in a brilliant white flare.

A faraway thunder rolls closer, shaking the spire, until a crackle of lightning rips through the vein. It blows out a section of stone, and seawater begins rushing into the chamber.

Ash’Tamalia reaches out and snares Sar-ayla in another surge of energy, and pulls her close. The Tilikaal technologies in the chamber surge with power as Ash’Tamalia manipulates the lightning and Sar-ayla’s form, and creates a humanoid-shaped crystalline body for her aderi. As the two entities merge into one, the away team hear Sar-ayla’s cry of anguish, which is soon replaced by Ash’Tamalia’s victorious laughter.

In a new voice reverberating with power, punctuated by flashes of crimson light, Ash’Tamalia says, “Not every world possesses this unique power of creation. I’ve been watching your evolution, your growing energy talents.” Ash’Tamalia opens and closes a glassy palm that crackles with blue energy. “Soon all our lost power will be restored, and in my control.”

At that moment a surge of Cal-Mirrans who had been watching the Stream arrived.

“And our sacred spires from ruin,” Recana-El says, then screeches at Ash’Tamalia’s melded form. “Abomination,” she spits. “What have you done to Sar-ayla? You desecrate the natural form of our people!”

“No – I perfected it.” Ash’Tamalia snaps their crystalline fingers and more Tilikaal aderi pour through the gate. Ash’Tamalia prepares to call down more lightning to transform more Tilikaal, while others frantically search for their bodies within the sarcophaguses.

The away team engaged the very powerful Ash’Tamalia with weapons only to discover that their phasers were ineffective.

“Our Peacekeepers are capable of handling this invasion,” Ayr-amin sneers. However, it is clear the Cal-Mirrans from the city are being deeply affected by the strong energy pulses. They flicker and seem disoriented. “We don’t need the help of the rogues.”

Recana-El, unaffected, flashes. “And Sunseekers don’t answer to tyranny. Stand aside and let us counter the invaders. Alone.”

The away team left Ash to the Cal-Mirrans and went to work to destabilize the archway instead! They interrupted the powerflow and caused a feedback loop, this inturn disrupted the archway enough to overload the power conduits.

As the arch collapses, the vibrational pulses slow and then cease. Any Tilikaal who were attempting to create Cal-Mirran bodies revert back to sparkling aderi spirits who cluster around a furious Ash’Tamalia.

“This isn’t over.” She twines her fingers in an intricate dance and uses some of the remaining spire technology to teleport herself and her aderi allies away. What havoc will they wreck in the Expanse? To what lengths will Ash’Tamalia go to get what she wants?

» Season 4: Episode 10 TBR058

Posted on Wed Nov 23, 2022 @ 7:15pm by Captain Toron Pax in General News

Season 4: Episode 10 TBR058

“Captain’s Log: Supplemental; We were tracking more instances of tetryonic filaments connected to an EM radiation burst when our long-range sensors picked up fluctuating energy readings from deep within the Shackleton Expanse. We can’t tell what the readings are coming from, but they are consistent with a vessel in distress. All attempts at communication have gone unanswered. There may be some people out there who need our help. We arrive within the hour. This is why we’re out here.”

The Potemkin picked up readings which suggested a ship in distress. Dropping out of warp they discovered two space going life forms in orbit around a gas giant. Sensors readings trigger a recognition from the ship's library. A Vulcan myth calls these creatures the Ha’kiv, a space-going race that the myth says is able to create stars. The crew get on with studying these amazing creatures but, as is often the case with the adventures of the Potemkin, nothing ever goes to plan. Four alien ships drop from warp to normal space, immediately splitting up and moving to flack both the creatures and the Potemkin. All four ships look like old sailing ships, where the sails are in fact energy gathering solar sails. Firing some kind of energy harpoon the alien ships spared the hull with boarding tubes. Energy was being drained from the ship's systems even while alien boarding parties invaded the engineering hull.

Another pair of ships, similar to the attacking aliens, dropped from warp and split up making a heading to intercept and opened fire with energy cannons. However they were no match for their larger counterparts and in the return fire they were badly damaged and left drifting. While ineffective their efforts were appreciated.

Even as the Potemkin’s crew rallied and fought back the attacking aliens managed to enact the protocols to eject the warp core, using the boring harpoons to latch onto the now floating core and bringing it aboard. Meanwhile the other attacking ship had secured the Ha’kiv and both ships, having achieved their goals, jumped to warp leaving the crippled ships behind them.

As the Potemkin’s crew worked to limit the damage and power loss the bridge reserved a hail from the closer of the two alien ships. Captain J’Lara introduces herself as a Ar-Ka-Se, a sect of the VinShari people who disagree with their government's stance on the Ha’Kiv. Spaceborn creatures that are used to power their ships, and are as of now the only source of power strong enough to power their ships are warp speeds.

The offer to help the Potemkin retrieve their warp core in exchange for their help in freeing Ha’Kiv. Some time later, understanding that they could need the full resources of the ship Captain J’Lara offers the use of her ship’s warp drive, but they would need extra power. So, with daft piloting the Potemkin is maneuvered so that the smaller Ar-Ka-Se ship was nestled between the larger vessels warp engines and work started on connecting the power systems of the two ships so they could share power. With the combined energy of the two ships Captain J’Lara’s ship would provide the necessary initial jump to warp while the Potemkin’s superior warp drive would maintain the warp bubble, albeit at a lower speed than normal.

As they near the VinShari home planet they discover a large field of destroyed ships, beyond those is a field of tens of thousands of drones, Pyramid shaped machines which Captain J’Lana says are a security field that would destroy anything that approaches. The ‘Got to’ choice is clear, hack one! Within moments they have hacked into one of the drones and had access to a limited network. They are able to alter Potemkin's signature so that to the drones of the security grid they will appear invisible.

Through the link they are able to download a massive amount of data. They are able to learn that the warp core and abducted Ha’kiv are being moved together via drop-barge to a secret research and development facility. All the captured Ha’Kiv are drugged to keep them docile and were attached to machines that drained them of their power. Just one Ha’Kiv could power a city for generations.

A massive VinShari research and development facility is located inside the system’s gas giant between a layer of benzene gas and liquid helium. Sensors and communications will be out for four minutes during the barge drop to the facility, due to ionization and electromagnetic fluctuations in the gas giant’s atmosphere. A single escort vessel will accompany the drop-barge. Because of ionization and EM interference, transporter use won’t be possible without pattern enhancers. They discover a map to the R&D Facility along with information that they have captured, and are interrogating an assessor for information, he is also being held at the facility.

Armed with this information there are a number of possible paths open to them. They first decided to go for the warp core, beaming in would be impossible, but if they could get pattern enhancers aboard they could beam the core out. The Escort ship would be a problem for any shuttle that approached and secrecy was the primary concern for Pax. Thus an orbital jump was decided and the chief of security, Johnny 5 and Meme would drop from the Potemkin into the lower altitude of the drop barge. With great skill he was able to land on the target with no problems and find entry into the ship through a maintenance hatch. It didn’t take long to find the core, given that it was composed of materials which were not found anywhere else on the ship.

Within moments the pattern enhancers had been placed and the core was back aboard the Potemkin ready to be reintegrated back into her systems. In the meantime the rest of the away team were beamed into the R&D facility to rescue the assessor.

A brief fight and security overcomes the threat of the aliens guarding the assessors room, they are able to release him but he is badly injured and weakened by the ordeal. He says “Can’t you hear them? Can’t you hear Ash’Tamalia? They’re screaming, she’s screaming! You have to help her! You have to save them all!”

In this moment a screen lights up and a VinShari woman appears, calling herself the Queen Mothers and threatens the away team. Doors opening reveal more VinShari warriors. The Assessor asks for help and drawing them all in close he transports them back to the Potemkin, a method they have experienced before with the Tillikaal.

In a race with the VinShari security forces the engineering crew work to bring the warp core back online before they are discovered. All the while they detect increased energy readings from a dying Ha’Kiv which indicate an impending explosion. All these factors play upon the minds of those within the Potemkin. With just moments to spare the core is installed and the vessel speeds out of the system at full impulse. Her shields and engines once again at full power.

“As you move away from the VinShari system, the viewscreen switches to display the system’s gas giant. The dying Ha’kiv from the barge is there, its movement slow but determined. VinShari ships are firing on the creature and harpooning it, while others are warping away, perhaps aware of what is about to happen next.

The dying Ha’kiv ignores the VinShari, pulling the vessels now tethered to it into the depths of the gas giant. As the creature disappears into the swirling mass, the planet itself begins to shrink and deflate until there is nothing but empty space, revealing the Ha’kiv, the VinShari ships, and their R&D facility. For an instant, the universe seems to hold its breath and then releases one impossible, magnificent flash of power…creating a new-born sun.”

» Season 4: Episode 10 TBR057 - Halloween Special

Posted on Mon Oct 31, 2022 @ 11:57pm by Captain Toron Pax in General News

Season 4: Episode 10 TBR057 - Halloween Special

Game began 1:30 pm, ended 4:00 pm 10/29/22
Players GM Matt (Pax), Nikki (Elli-Navine), Will (Dr. Artopolis & Basin), Steve (Koolie), Steve (Johnny), Sarah (Huzzi)

While on a layover at Starbase 364 the Potemkin is ordered to investigate a loss of signal with the Xec end of the Federation/Xec wormhole. With the nature of the signal loss being unknown Starfleet is reluctant to send a ship through the wormhole aperture, but the Potemkin is the ideal ship to send given their history with both the Xec, and with Xec wormhole technology.
Long range scans showed that the partially built gateway station was at the stage it was meant to be and was partly powered, however the garrison/construction ship was nowhere to be seen.There was no sign that anything had gone wrong but it might be possible to interface with the stations computers to access the few sensors which had been brought online so far, however; the system is rifth with interference and the computers must be accessed on site rather than from a long range communication.

The flight to the system was uneventful and the Potemkin dropped to normal space on the edge of the planet's gravity well. A closer scan of the station and the wormhole aperture showed no signs that anything had gone wrong. There was no debris or signs of weapons fire. The away team beamed over to the station in EVA suits as the life support systems had yet to be installed. The curricular command deck as a little smaller than the Potemkin’s bridge and was limited to emergency power, even so Elli and Huzzi was able to bring the sensor logs up and discovered that there had been a lot of transporter activity from the garrison ship to the planet below up until a short time before the loss of signal; at which point the Xec garrison plunged into the atmosphere of the planet burning up and crashing on the surface. The stations sensors also picked up a set of four combadge signals on the planet, being amplified somehow the away team advised Captain Pax to beam them up into isolation, with any luck they will have some answers as to what has happened.

In medical, Basan and Johnny 5 armed to the teeth and with a containment field surrounding the individual isolation cells. As the transporter room routed the signals to sickbay three sets of remains and one living arrived. A quick scan of the remains confirmed that each had been killed when something had ruptured out through the ribcage, blood and organ remains showing the graphic nature of their deaths. SOmething had been inside and wanted to be outside!

Armed with this knowledge the Doctor immediately scanned the fourth body, the survivor. While nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first, closer inspection showed that the Xec’s internal organs were being pushed outwards by something, a void in the data. Quick thinking and the use of the Protectorate enhanced surgical bed allowed the Doctor to get a better look at the void in the scans, like a photo negative they could get an idea of the shape; turns out it isn’t one mass but three and they were… as a nurse pointed out shaped a lot like a small dinosaur and they were getting ready to ‘hatch’. IT was suggested that they lock onto the Xec with the transporters and beam him away leaving the unscannable mass behind, reasoning that if they couldn’t see it on sensors then the transporters wouldn’t be able to see it either. It worked! They left the writhing mass of goo-covered creatures behind while the Xec was safely beamed away.

Visual observations of the creatures, inputted into the computers suggested a few possibilities; as they continued the data input they found the species. It wasn’t a native Expanse race as they had thought. It was in fact the young of a species the Federation had made first contact with over a hundred years before; The Gorn. Or at least one of the several races that are collectively known as the Gorn. The ‘fun’ wasn;t over though, for the four young creatures awoke and attempted to break through the containment field. For their size the moved very fast, blindingly fast and warning runes flashed across the nurses station, showing a rapid failure of said containment field. Johnny 5 reinforced the containment field with a level 10 security field and they lowered the temperature and reduced the air pressure in the room to try and render them unconscious. Once they were, the Doctor found a compound that would sedate the young Gorn for a while.

With that dealt with, for the time being at any rate, the bridge crew turned to locating the garrison ship on the surface and seeing if they could find any survivors. Turning the power sensor array of the Potemkin they were able to cut through the interference and locate the downed ship. Moreover they were able to locate and contact a dozen survivors who had holed themselves up in a shielded cargo hold. Transporters couldn’t penetrate the hold’s shielding but with the right equipment they would be able to cut through the door and once the survivors were outside the hold they could be beamed out. The transporters were tuned and with Elli at the controls the away team beamed down to a cat-walked area just outside the shielded hold, which turned out to be in the back section of the garrison ship. A distraction in the form of a shuttle had drawn away many of the sensor voids, which they assumed to be young Gorn; they and a pair of Marines made their way to the cargo hold.

Johnny first tried to hack their way into the hold, they succeeded but the door had been contacted wielded shut, but a flashing red light started to blink, bright enough that the pitch black cargo deck is lit by a red strobe effect! Movement is heard and Huzzi starts to cut through the door, it is slow going and loud, it is going to draw attention to them.

The next few minutes are filled with explosions, screams and weapons fire! Two Gorn are captured, another is killed but ultimately the away team is able to break into the hold and drag the now unconscious Xec survivors out ready to be transported up. LEarning from the past the Doctor ensures they are beamed into isolation, the transporter catches a forgin substance in their bodies, with some choices made they are able to extract the substance and destroy it before the Xec are materialized in isolation rooms.

A Xec relief ship arrives a few hours later, it is to continue the work on the station and have been ordered not to go down to the planet, a full scale landing force will be sent in with Starfleets help. The survivors are able to tell the crew what happened, the original colony had discovered Gorn artifacts in a base a dozen or so years after they had established the colony. Several members of the colony had been infected, those had hatched and infected more and so on until the entire colony had fallen victim. The Xec government at the time had cleansed the colony from orbit. A thousand years had passed and the Xec returned, finding remains and, unfortunately, a sample held in status infected a member of the garrison ship's crew. The cycle started again aboard the garrison, the ship's captain plunging his vessel into the planet's atmosphere in an attempt to destroy the infection!

» Season 4: Episode 9 TBR056

Posted on Tue Oct 25, 2022 @ 6:56pm by Captain Toron Pax in General News

Season 4: Episode 9 TBR056

Game began 1:20 pm, ended 3:15 pm 10/15/22
Players GM Matt (Pax), Nikki (Elli-Navine), Will (Dr. Artopolis & Basin), Steve (Koolie)

In a remote sector in the Expanse, find there is a way to focus the EM signals and tunnel a hole through subspace to the Tilakaal universe

We are in a sector of space dense with Pulsars, EM radiation, and powerful gravimetric disturbances. Many pulsars are new, formed within decades of each other, highly unlikely natural occurrence. Sensors also indicated gravimetric disturbances have increased in intensity over the last decade or more. There are also tetreon filaments. Obviously something happened here that was beyond known natural phenomena. Tetreon particles typically only exist in subspace environments. Pax suggests this may ba caused by the Tilakaal trying to pierce beyond realities.

Comms picks up audio distress call from an unidentified vessel a short distance away. We can’t make out the alien language. Koolie keeps the alien talking until the Universal translator catches up. Commander Mattai- She says an intense gravity wave impacted her vessel, killed most of her crew and they are in need of assistance. We use science to pin point where the vessel is located among the eddies of the gravimetric and EM interference.

As we make our way towards the ship, Commander Mattai says she has 74 crew to evacuate (they are the Akaru species hailing from the planet Sattu). 20 crew dies. Many of the remaining crew are injured.

The Stewart (name of the ship) has a damaged FTL drive. The ship is very automated and efficient and requires about 30% fewer crew to man than a UFP ship.

Engineering and Medical are invited aboard to assist. The Akuru ask lots of small talk questions. They seem outgoing and new to space travel.
Elli patches up the engines. Notes that the design of the system is effient and has made repairs go smoothly.

Akaru power relays have thin blue veins of energy running through them, resembling the larger power relays of the tilakaal worlds…

Doc is finding that the Akaru seem to me Vulcanoids/ with also Romulan source. They have webbing between their fingers.

We get invited to visit Sattu. Pax accepts.

Halfway to Sattu, we get hit by another wave. Potemkin is mostly unaffected. It does fresh damage to the Stewart. Sensors show that the tetryon burst came out of subspace without warning and appears to be a natural phenomenon, however it is noted that the displaced tilakaal may be trying to create a breach to our reality, causing these sudden bursts through subspace to our reality.

We manage to make it the rest of the way to Sattu. A big pretty world, industrial with a shipyard. We are given coordinates to go visit the palace and the ruler of Sattu: Iryaxnadan.

Pax makes us button our collars and comb our hair and Koolie briefs us on etiquette before we beam down.

M class world with 2 continents, and thousands of islands. Peroo is the capital city. Planet has 2 moons.

Satuu is governed by a tall thing being Larax Nedrion: the ageless. Not native, but has lived on Sattu for at least 7 thousand years by the record. 4,500 yrs ago he was given the title of Larax (custodian or safekeeper) theocratic dictatorship. Akaru boast a diverse set of cultures spread over a global population and they have theatre and kinetic visual performances. State sanctioned theater tends to praise the Larax. The Larax has no male or female pronouns. People select their pronouns and the families are composed of multi person relationships. Cities are more dense, very efficiently planned.

Trace build up of EM radiation and tetryonic particles in the atmosphere…. Might be naturally occurring. Never know.

The planet has only build six space faring vessels so far. They’re pretty new to space travel.

At some point they were once recently visited by off world merchants, who travelled to Sattu to trade. The Larax authorised Sattu industries to develop defensive shielding, weaponry and space flight capacity increased.

We find in a database a curious letter from Morgret, an entrepreneur to a ltcmdr sar devorial of starbase 364. Something like- I risked my ship and crew to trade with the locals, so the least you can do is let me drop you this report informally before i head home to Ferenginar. Sattu seems to have some hidden secrets.

We beam down to the palace courtyards
It seems very religious in decor and soundscape. We are greeted. Akaru Bec Shinn leads us to a large open entrance and down a wide corridor to a square courtyard with a pool and lots of nice cushions to sit on.

Small antigrav bots serve food and drink.

Akaru Bek Chell, a representative of the gov’t comes out, she and aides take a seat nearby. They are not eating and drinking, but recording what we are talking about. Chell says the Larax is unavailable for the rest of the day, but is available in the morning. We get invited to stay overnight. Lots of attention and hospitality.

Elli checks out the tech for the evening and discovers all their power distribution systems carry tilakaal influence.

Koolie is looking at portraits of the Larax… he looks a lot like the assessor….

Next morning we gather for breakfast. Experiment J21 gets another bath because of syrup. Then we are led to another section of the palace, brought to a wide audience chamber. A Dias at the far end of the chamber. Has a tall wooden throne, varnished to a high sheen. Sitting on the throne, a long, lean alien who looks a lot like assessor tedrik….

Akaru bek chell introduces us all by rank and name. Chell has us sit on a front row of wooden benches. We are warmly welcomed by the Irax and he converses with us formally and stately.

We ask him if assessor tedric is any relation of his. He claims ignorance.
We ask him how long he’s been on Akaru. A long time.
Elli asks him why he refers to the people as his children. He says what ruler doesn’t.
He doesn’t seem to miss being around others of his kind. He seems to have just come here to be in charge of the place.

J21 gets loose and while there is a distraction the doc scans him. We can tell he is telepathic and telekinetic. And has genetics similar to the assessor. There seems to be a gradual genetic drift within his DNA. Doc it’s cloning related. The Larax have been cloned in long succession. Constant degradations in the clones and only a matter of time before the clones are no longer fit for ruling.

Being telepathic, he knows what we have discovered, Larax dismisses Chelle and then tells us the truth about the cloning situation breaking down. This is part of the reason that the Larax has now encouraged space development, to allow the Larax to begin a new future among the stars.

He tells us about the Unificationists- several yrs ago a transport leaving romulan space, suffered damage from a gravimetric phenomenon and landed on Akaru (survivors were Romulans and Vulcans). They settled, intermixed with the population and they became helpful in maintaining the cloning facility and tilakaal tech. Tilakaal tech was pre-exiting on this world, recovered by the early Akuru settlers, always had it on Sattu.

Recently there was a short message embedded within a subspace burst. He offers to share it with us.

Larax opens a holographic communication- a static filled image of wide blue eyes of a tillakaal male face, desperate, fearful, lots of chaotic dream tornado background images- we are here because we desire it. Do not let the others release it. The message ends.

Pax is also listening. The Officer we rescued from the pocket universe says that this message was not sent from Ash and is clearly from a different pocket universe.

The Larax is ill. He never makes public appearances any more. People try not to talk about it.

Pax has us beam back to the ship. The ship’s sensors detect another subspace burst. There is a sensor net in the middle of the ocean that seems to interfere, and a tilakaal energy signal deeep under the ocean. It is too deep to beam to- no access points. We get the sense that delving too much into the signal will not be taken well by the locals. We suspect there is a huge facility down there. But Pax doesn’t want us to mess with delicate political situation by trying to break in….

Tilakaal soul= kadra
The…
The displaced
The assessors
The attendants (the protectors of heritages) - an unknown species that abducted and experimented on enterprise D crew

» Season 4: Episode 8 TBR055

Posted on Wed Oct 12, 2022 @ 7:23pm by Captain Toron Pax in General News

Season 4: Episode 8 TBR055

Game began 1:15pm, ended 3:05pm 10/1/22
Players GM Matt (Pax), Nikki (Elli-Navine), Will (Dr. Artopolis & Basin), Steve (Johnny5) Simon (Danielson)

Last week: a flotilla of ships headed back to the CIII system to match up with 4 romulan warbirds. We witness an entire planet appearing in orbit out of no where and is crashing inevitably into the CIII world. Thunderchild was destroyed in battle, holding back the Romulans. Potemkin used science to by more time from the planets colliding long enough to recover the Assessor on the planet below.

Tilakaal ask for help and reach out and pull our ship across a rift.

We start this week with 3 system breeches from the stress of being pulled through to an artificial created pocket universe.

Several of our telepathic or empathic sensitive crew members fall unconscious. There are voices overwhelming everyone’s head. Disorganised and noisy.

Ship is on fire. We make attempts at damage control.
As we run around trying to put out fires, we find many of them seem to resolve instantly

Tillakaal lady show up and says something about us being saviours and us almost slipping through her fingers.

There seem to be whole system failures happening, but aren’t really, and people start hallucinating, seeing friends and family who have passed away. People experience a variety of places, people walking through walls, non corporeal beings etc.

Something that seems to sparkle comes together on the bridge like a long slow transport.

Resolves- it’s a starfleet officer. Human. Wearing a 10+ yr old SF uniform. We don’t recognize him

“Time makes no sense here. It’s a mobius strip cut up and put back together randomly. I’ve been here forever there’s no physical reality. Tillakal have imagined us into little bubbles of reality. You just have to believe and then things come together. I saw the ship and then thought about beaming aboard so I did. Ash says the pocket universe is harming them, but may recover if they get back to their physical bodies. We have to get back before nothing is real anymore.”

We try to adjust the shields to protect from EM fields. Soon our own crew will have symptoms of radiation poison.

Elli having an emotional breakdown.

Senors show the EM fields affecting us are overlapping, blowing out eps conduits and blowing out isolinear chips, and causes equipment failures.

Modify a static warp bubble or modulate the fields to try to counter act.

Doc scans Pax, who as a joined trill is very affected by the EM fields. He’s not coming around. Geoffrey able to harmonize the shields, doc gives elli a stim shot to get her to focus. She works on the deflector dish and the warp field bubble setup. Geoffrey has to take the ship to warp while standing still.

Several of the warp coils fuse. Warp coils will burn out. Basically we’ve just bought ourselves some time.

Pax seems to look a little better as the Doc helps him.

ACTII- through the looking glass
We’ve stabilised the situation and we need to go back to finding the tillakaal and the lost officer.

We use the info on his reality bubble to track him- he’s everywhere and no where. Elli says we need to help him by giving him something to focus in on again. Doc suggests we tune in to his communicator through the differently aligned realities. Elli thinks happy thoughts and tries to tune into his communicator. The lost officer’s bubble resolves with ours and he becomes real in our reality bubble.

Doc tends to him. The officer is very psychologically unwell from his time. He doesn’t seem to have been exposed to as much radiation as we are being now. Seems to have been here a few hours, even though his uniform is from an earlier decade.

Officer’s name is Tolan- he doesn’t remember how he got lost in the reality bubble- his memory is very fragmented.

Our earlier scans of Ash while she communicated with us, showed that she was using an orb-like device to contact us. Computer has a frequency for the orb device. It’s not a standard frequency. It’s weird.

Elli cracks her knuckles and breaks out her computer skills and rolls 8 successes.

A blue light appears near the comm staton and becomes the Tilakaal, Ash, and the comms explode and a breach is suffered. Ash sees this all as a sign we’re going to help her.

Ash sees Geoffrey and hugs him.

“Two questions- where are the rest of your people and how do we get out of here?”

Scene 3- in the land of the tilakaal
Ash whisks us into an arid place, it’s painful for us to be there. Soundless dark descends until no one can see each other, then each character melts into a loney singular silent space, then suddenly the characters find themselves together in a dusty open plain with storms and lightening, difficult to breathe there. Thousands of tillakaal wander around infinite structures- some even walk through the crew members. We have no tricorders or phasers and our communicators don’t work
We are not sure if we are actually here or are hallucinating. We can touch and interact with the landscape, just not the people

Ash appears. Explains this place is a prison. They had tried to help other tilakaal and failed to heal them and were tricked into this prison many eons ago. Tried to get someone outside the prison to hear them, but it took too much effort and was often mistaken for an attack or a disease.

They miss their true physical experience.

They want us to recover their “idra” and find their physical bodies where they are preserved. Want to know the extent of our use of subspace, hyperspace and side spaces. What’s the biggest mass we have moved, the fastest warp we have achieved etc.

“You can’t harbour us on your ship- we are attuned to this physical universe and your transporters are not compatible with our energies. You need to find our transference machines and assessors to help operate them.”

We get transferred back to our ship- the return trip is not so painful.

ACT III

Basin and Johnny don’t like the idea of releasing the prisoners. Elli tries to adjust the Xec drive navigation to link to a known preset location, to avoid being lost anywhere in the universe.

It’s going to be a crazy piloting test though. Geoffrey rolls 7 successes

But before we break loose, a male tilakaal speaks with us.

“Can I link with one of you here in order to connect between universes? To prevent the difficulty of speaking.”

Elli volunteers and is blue-ified.

A prismic vortex forms and the potemkin escapes the pocket universe.

We appear back in normal space. The transition blows out a number of systems. But we arrive back at the CIII system. For some reason

Scan the system- we determine that it’s only been seconds since we left. Bellerophon hails us. We head over to the remains of the thunderchild to collect survivors.

Geoffrey asks after the rescued assessor- but he’s not awake.

Latest Mission Posts

» All the Power!

Mission: NW 1: Dry-Docked, The Lighthouse
Posted on Sat Oct 29, 2022 @ 5:29pm by Captain Toron Pax & Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine

She had started her day with a fresh coffee from the messhall, freshly ground beans was a smell she would forever be grateful for first thing in the morning. Hot, black and sugarless Jax had strolled into main engineering already knowing the day would only get worse. For today was…

» Dreams

Mission: NW 1: Dry-Docked, The Lighthouse
Posted on Thu Oct 13, 2022 @ 2:25pm by Captain Toron Pax

The deck shuddered beneath his feet, the inertial dampeners fighting the wild and radical evasive manoeuvres Lieutenant Samuels was enacting as her fingers flew across the multicoloured LCARS. Another narrow miss from a plasma torpedo, the bright green streek still burned into the damaged main viewer, the stars wheeling crazily…

» The Beginning

Mission: NW 1: Dry-Docked, The Lighthouse
Posted on Tue Sep 20, 2022 @ 10:03pm by Lieutenant Commander Koolie & Captain Toron Pax & Ensign Jak Summers & Crewman Myrah Zolar

Location: Starbase 364, Koolie's Guest Quarters
Koolie stepped out of the quarters that had been assigned to him and yawned. He was still getting used to daytime running hours after a long time as the third shift commander on the Potemkin. He looked down at the padd in his hand…

» Recovery

Mission: S3 M1 Into the Targ Pit
Posted on Tue Aug 23, 2022 @ 4:45am by Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine & Crewman Myrah Zolar & Captain Toron Pax & Commander Carl Hedley & Lieutenant Commander Koolie & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Artopolis

Captain Toron Pax stood at the bay windows that overlooked the external docking cradle that the beaten Potemkin was now being tractored into. One nacelle had been vaporised, the other was gutted. Dozens of small hull breaches riddled the primary hull and a large gash dominated the port side of…

» Sealed Lips

Mission: S1 M6 Shore Leave - Obsidian Command
Posted on Tue Jun 21, 2022 @ 2:32am by Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine

“It was a seedship!” She put another forkful of salad in her mouth and crunched at it. Between one another, Grazerites had no etiquette rules about closed mouth chewing, like humans. She was relieved that she could munch in present company without worrying to keep her masticating from being observable.…

Latest Personal Logs

» The Last Breath

Posted on Sun Jan 16, 2022 @ 5:13am by Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine

Chief Engineer’s Log

It was nice working on the kinetic pistol with Scott for a little while. He's decided to call it a Claymore. It seems to be a name in connection to his family roots, I think. He doesn't talk much about home, but there's moments like that I…

» Fireside

Posted on Sun Jan 16, 2022 @ 4:51am by Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine

Chief Medical Officer's Log

I don't know why I'm doing this. It doesn't really matter. If I were to look down at this tricorder it would tell me the stardate. But who cares right now? We've decided to “camp” for a little while. I suppose this is for posterity, of…

» A Titanic Problem

Posted on Sun Jan 16, 2022 @ 4:47am by Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine

Lt Elli-Navine Chief Engineer’s Log

How to you describe the indescribable?

All of the official reports will get into the nitty gritty about anatomy and physics, but I'll always be left with the awe, the sheer gobsmack that is witnessing a supermassive life form, just going about it's business in…

» Dark and Distant Waters

Posted on Sun Jan 16, 2022 @ 4:08am by Lieutenant Commander Elli-Navine

Lt Ellie Navine, Personal Log

I think it was predestined...

We tested a very exciting new technology. The Xec have developed wormhole threading using exotic matter. But their technology requires them to transport the far end physically and move it into place, the tunnel within remaining securely formed by the…