test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
These are the voyages of the Starship Hartford (Odyssey Class small RP group)
llywarch
Member Posts: 224 Arc User
U.S.S. Hartford is a small RP group based around the idea that Star Trek is an ensemble show. The relationships between characters being the priority in this fleet. If the banter between Spock and Mccoy or playing poker with your crew is something you are looking for come give us a look.
If after looking around our site you find yourself interested come find me @Juroden in game and we can talk. I am not interested in recruiting enmasse into the fleet. My crew and I decided we want to know each character rather then just fill in positions.
Some images from our past adventures.
0
Comments
Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's, and yours.
I dare you to do better.
After receiving a distress signal from within the sol system, the Hartford was dispatched to investigate, being the nearest vessel to render assistance. The Hartford pulled out of dock, experiencing a few minor warnings and problems swiftly dealt with by Chief Ill'issin. Hartford warped the short distance to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter where the distress call was coming from. Ill'issin transferred to the science station where she detected weapons fire between a Federation transport and her attackers. The attackers were using disruptors and were soon discovered to be Orions. Kelley swiftly took the tactical station and the Hartford made it's presence known. After the aggressors made no effort to break away their attack, Llywarch gave the order to open fire. Having only her phasers operational and her shields non-functional, the Hartford fought the Orions, taking some damage but emerging victorious over the small squadron.
After dispatching the enemies, the Hartford moved in to assist the disabled transport. A small team consisting of Kumar, Ill'issin and Kelley boarded the transport. Ill'issin noted that the ship was in poor shape and wouldn't hold for long, Kumar gave the order to rescue as many of the passengers as possible. As they moved through the transport they were challenged by numerous Orion invaders. The away team were able to fight them off and rescue many of the injured passengers.
The away team made their way to the engine room of the transport where they encountered an eccentric passenger named Zeeb. He was a purple skinned Saurian and pleaded with the away team to help him save the ship. Ill'issin and Zeeb worked hard on stabilising the warp core while Kelley and Kumar searched the area for survivors. Kelley came across an odd device, tucked between several crates of cargo. On closer inspection he had discovered an Iconian device that had been amongst the cargo. The team inspected the device but Llywarch was unable to beam the team and the device back through the radiation meaning the team had to get back to the transporter. As they began to leave, another pirate vessel returned to face the Hartford. It beamed multiple pirate aboard the transport to stop the away team. Kelley was able to dispatch most of the invaders using a nearby console to vent plasma at the boarding parties, this made the away teams job much easier. The away team reached the transporter with the rest of the survivors, Zeeb disappearing briefly to collect his possessions. All were beamed out safely, just before the transports warp stability failed and the ship exploded.
After defeating the final Orion ship, the Hartford crew regrouped and debriefed. Zeeb had wandered from sickbay and had found his way onto the bridge. He explained to Rhys that he had traveled from Sauria to join the Starfleet Delta recruit program and become an explorer. Rhys took Zeeb in as an honourary ensign in order to give him a better more rounded Starfleet education as opposed to the 8 weeks training he'd have as a Delta Recruit. When asked about the Iconian device, Zeeb explained that it belonged to him calling it his "shiny". He had stolen the device from his Uncle who lived on Sauria. Why did his uncle have such a device? Why were the Orion pirates attacking the transport so close to Earth? Find out next time...
Shortly after Rhys was updated on the current state of the Hartford, he ordered they leave dock, their first heading, the Cardassian Starbase occupied by True Way forces that the old Hartford has been to months before. When they were last there, Rhys and Kumar had detected large Jevonite stores on the station, a mineral needed for Chief Ill'issin's proposal to harden the hull plating. When they arrived on the outskirts of the system, they were confronted by a Cardassian union ship commanded by Gul Karacet.
Rhys and Karacet discussed the reasons for being at the station and ultimately the Gul agreed to assist in dealing with the True Way forces that had occupied the station. The Endeavour, commanded by Kumar and with Natalya at the tactical console assisted the Hartford and Cardassian vessel in dealing with the patrols, leaving the True Way ships disabled. When the area was clear, Kumar and Natalya beamed aboard, accompanied by Karacet.
The ground forces had to fight their way through True Way patrols and defensive measures to get to the Jevonite stores. Most of what they found was unrefined, however they were able to find condensed, refined samples that were nearly ready for the applications Ill'issin wanted to perform. After retrieving what they could, however, Gul Karacet gave the order for his ship to beam over explosives to the station, his true intention for helping the Hartford was to destroy the station and all that inhabited it. Natalya reminded the Gul that many of those aboard the station were refugees and displaced people. Karacet revealed he had no taste for murder, but his orders were clear. Through some persuasion and reasoning, Natalya and Kumar were able to convince him to find an alternative, a compromise where he and his men would clear out the True Way left and help the civilians relocate. After Natalya and Kelley had finished tagging additional supplies including spare engineering parts of Cardassian configuration and crates of Ketracel White, the away team beamed back to the Endeavour before the ship departed.
The USS Endeavour, the Aquarius escort that accompanies the Hartford was taken out on order of Commander Kumar. Their mission was to follow up on the Orion pirate incident that had occured prior in the Sol system. The Endeavour neared a system between the Vulcan and Orion sectors, finding a single Orion vessel. Volkova made numerous scans of the vessel to find that it had not powered up weapons, shields or engines and had not scanned the Endeavour. On closer inspection increased radiation levels were detected, including an increase in triolic waves. With no response to hails, Kumar ordered an away team to board and investigate. Volkova stayed behind in command of the vessel due to her injuries from a previous mission still healing. Kumar, Ill'issin, Kelley and crewman Jenkins beamed to the Orion ship.
The away team discovered the ship was in a poor state, power distribution was low and irregular and the crew were nowhere to be found. Jenkins was lost when a static discharge from a console jumped out towards him and killed him. The away team pushed forward and discovered numerous triolic spikes, it was only a short time before a triolic spike appeared near them and strange triolic life forms began to attack them. The team were able to dispatch them each time but the beings seemed to attack their neural energy, leaving the team dazed and sometimes in pain after attacks. Ill'issin discovered that the ship had been there for three weeks and was in decay. The away team moved towards the bridge to try and find out how this happened but when they entered the main section of the ship they were trapped by the doorway locking. Communication with the Endeavour was lost. The team moved forwards, fending off triolic life forms and finding maintenance logs along the way. The team found a member of the crew locked in a room, when they opened the door however, she had been killed by something other than the triolic life forms however there was no trace of anyone else there.
The team began to shunt power from various consoles to try and open the locked doorway, however when they moved towards the final console, plasma vents were opened to prevent them from proceeding. Kumar was able to see a gap between vents and proceeded to pass through the vented areas where he got to the console. Ill'issin and Kelley heard a grunt followed by a series of phaser shots and proceeded to move through and rescue the Commander. They found him startled, still holding his rifle up. A breach in his EV suit was sealed by the self sealing system. Kumar said that he was attacked by some sort of man, who was just there and then gone and that if he wanted to, he could have killed Kumar easily. Kumar theorised the being wanted to toy with them and after leveling himself ordered the away team to head for the exit and to contact the Endeavour for beamout. As they went to leave they were confronted by the strange figure, a maniacal hologram intent on torturing and killing. The team were able to defeat it, however more of the photonics were encroaching. The away team escaped and beamed out.
Jason Sits cupping his head in his hands at the helm console of the U.S.S. Lexington the bridge of this refitted constitution class ship is small yet functional, she's on loan a concourse condition relic from the Starfleet museum pressed into service for this dangerous mission.
And that mission has gone wrong.
Time travel, it isn't easy.
This mission, Operation Regenesis is the first stage of a three part plan - none of which are easy and most of which is morally grey. in a nutshell, stage one is warping back in time and stealing the device known as Genesis from Space Station Regula One, Stage Two is Replicating it and returning it and Stage Three is detonating it inside the Iconian's main operating base, a sphere containing the lion's share of their battle fleet.
Stage one has already not gone to plan.
Years ago I was told by a Klingon the difference between a soldier and a warrior it was a simple statement and one that I found so profound I use it as a personal code to this day, he said "A soldier does as he is told - A warrior asks why"
I found it elegant in it's simplicity.
I stood on the bridge of the USS Lexington Hartford's senior staff present, they needed a full briefing - not of my orders but the entire situation that this mission will solve. It is the most important thing that they volunteer out of their own free will no one was ordered to do anything they were asked.
"we do this not as Starfleet Officers and not because we are ordered to, we do it as free people, for free people to preserve our liberties and our way of life"
I actually felt like a Captain again when I said that, and I mean every word.
Lexington was prepped ready and the Bridge officers assigned their roles, the roles they are best in - Even Captain Llywarch who is certainly my moral opponent in this turned up I made him take the Captain's chair, he's a good Captain and a better guy, I took the helm mainly because I don't trust anyone else to fly.
Arcturus was the star I picked to timewarp around, she's big and generates more than enough gravity to boost the slingshot manoeuvre we approached her fast and at precisely the right trajectory and angle and began to acclerate.
Lexington shook like hell and it got a lot worse fast as we approached warp nine at seven kilometers above the star, any pilot or helmsman will tell you doing that is no picnic.
As we approached maximum warp Lexington seemed to scream under the speed, heat pressure and gravity of Arcturus then it happened - everything seemed to drip like a Salvador Dali painting I don't know about the others but I saw visions of the past present and future all at once, my beloved Sharian, The ruins of Trellias IV, mom, dad, Rhys and me fist fighting, an elderly Kumar at the head of an army of liberated Borg an older me getting married and then it all went quiet - braking thrusters had fired and we decelerated.
I smashed my head open on the helm console and the other crew took a beating too - fortunately Dr Dunoon our new CMO was on hand to check we were all safe.
Where were we? was the first question, en route to Regula answered it. and the second was when were we? we were bang on target 2285 stardate 8130.4.
Lexington had taken quite a battering through our trip LtCmdr Ill'Issin reported several failures of systems and some fracturing of the hull both her and the Captain stayed aboard overseeing and making a start on repairs, whilst myself Commander Kumar, LtCmdr Kelley, Counsellor Mikellis and Dr Dunoon prepped our landing party to board Regula One.
Upon arrival at the science station we were greeted by low light and some wreckage - it did not look good, and then we found the bodies.
We were too late, by a matter of minutes Khan had already arrived and left leaving a trail of destruction and death in his eugenic wake, all we found was an almost deserted station with dead scientists and two Starfleet officers Captain Clark Terell and Commander Pavel Checkov who were disorientated due to having centaran slugs wrapped around their cerebral cortex, we were not there to help them or to mess up the timelines.
There was no Genesis, a scan for the protomatter we know was used in its construction indicated it was there not long ago but had been taken, a brief conversation with the two Starfleet officers confirmed that Genesis was gone.
Captain Llywarch Shouted that Enterprise was approaching at the edge of our long range scans and to get the hell out of there - Fast.
We stuffed Commander Checkov and Captain Terell into storage crates in case their wandering got them shot by Kirk's away team, then we beamed back to re-think our strategy.
After the setback at Regula One It was time to do what we do best - Improvise a plan, some would say that's no plan at all - but when you're dealing with random elements there's no way at all to plan for that. Thinkin on your feet and coming up with out of the box solutions is what we do as Starfleet Officers, I've got several citations for that in my career, so have most.
After liasing with the bridge crew we decided to still attempt to retrieve the Genesis Device - except in even more dangerous circumstances.
We were going to wait in the Mutara Nebula for Khan and Kirk to have their legendary final battle, we all know the outcome of that, however Lexington would have to dodge both the Enterprise and Reliant each one of us would be effectively blind due to the interference of the Nebula - none of us felt like being shot at by Kirk or Khan, another random factor - so how do we give ourselves an edge?
Counsellor Oliver Mikelis was the answer, he's a Betazoid I figured we could use him as some sort of "Empathic sensor array" hell I'm even logging that with Starfleet tactical and callin it the "Mikelis Manoeuvre". I told him to sit in the big chair though he didn't want to - he handled himself exceptionally given the circumstances.
Enterprise entered the Nebula - typically right behind us, Commander Ill'issin boosted our thruster power so we could climb above her. fast. We knew Khan and Reliant would be hot on her heels and the game of cat and mouse would begin somewhere in the distorted regions of Mutara, Ill'Issin turned off all of our running lights and exterior windows - we needed to run "black".
The battle began to play out somewhere - we could hear it through the sensor array, A stray photon Torpedo whistled past us at one point, that was tense - Commander Kumar adjusted the sensors to try and give us more of an early warning. Mr Mikelis shouted out directions he could sense the combatants from and we slinked away from them like thieves in the night.
The most tense point as the viewscreen cleared was Reliant flying about two hundred meters in front of the Lexington's bow - we reversed like hell and avoided somethin catastrophic by the skin of our teeth.
We waited, it was tense - then all hell broke loose somewhere close, this was it - this was the finale Kirk blew the hell out of Reliant - it was somewhere close to us anyone lookin out of the Lexington windows would have seen history takin place in front of them I wish I could have seen it with my own eyes I have a painting in my Quarters of it - but I bet it doesn't compare.
Reeve's Painting of the Mutara Battle
A flaming warp nacelle flew past us - the cold hard evidence of Enterprise's pinpoint gunnery - Mr Kumar scanned an unknown energy source - this had to be Genesis on it's build up, it was time for us to use our stasis equipment and transport it over to thoroughly scan it.
For a brief instant, the time around us stood still and there they were frozen in time - Enterprise limping away with no power, ready for the Moment Captain Spock made his supreme sacrifice and Reliant, Ablaze, Khan spitting his last hatreds towards Kirk - it was poetic, it was history and we were witnessing it.
I ordered Kumar to the Transporter to see to his sciency scans of the Genesis Device so we could duplicate it in our own time, thankfully this didn't take long, we beamed it back to Reliant and turned off the stasis generators I don't even begin to understand how they work - as soon as we got what we needed Mr Kelley plotted a course out of the Nebula and out of the way of the explosion - and what an explosion, it was immense - the only thing I can liken it to is a Mini Big Bang - truly this device has terrible destructive power and i'm more convinced than ever that we can not EVER produce this thing again - everything has to be wiped - everything.
We warped away the explosion billowing out smoke rings over light years and repeated our trip back to our own time, the strange visions happened again, as braking thrusters fired we came too a little disorientated - Kelley confirmed we were back where we began.
Unfortunately during the time jump Lt Colinson the Transporter chief was found outside the transporter room - dead - his head pummeled I guess he didn't brace himself properly, which is odd in itself as he's a good officer, been with Nomad for years and knows the drill well - i'm wonderin though why he was outside of the transporter room - still I shall be writing a letter to his family and that's a job no captain enjoys.
Hartford staff are being transported back to Rhys' impressive new vessel and I'm checkin Lexington's engines over whilst we make our journey to return this ship to her well earned retirement at the Starfleet museum.
Reeve out.