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Finally all caught up on this thread. Moon Slayer, Coq au Nandos, and Cythereal, I raise a glass of prune juice to you. Your writing has been consistently enjoyable and entertaining over the couple of weeks I've been reading through this thread. Thank you for a wonderful Star Trek experience.  I look forward to whatever updates may still be to come!Edit: Of all the posts to end up as a page snipe! Here are some of my reactions to the last update: Cythereal posted:Captain T'Kara, I am Kai Kira Nerys of Bajor. I shouted "HOLY poo poo!" As poorly as she got along with some of her predecessors, I never imagined her holding that title herself. (Is that show canon? Go ahead, spoil me.) Cythereal posted:Capt. Shon: Don't remind me. The first non-human to command an Enterprise since Starfleet began, why does that have to make me so interesting to godlike beings... I LOL'd. I would watch/read the hell out of that show/fanfic, too.
PurpleButterfly fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 08:15
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PurpleButterfly posted:
It's not show canon. It has been a matter of public record in the MMO since it started, though harder to come across since they stopped showing lore snippets in the loading screens.
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Mar 9, 2021 13:11
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MightyPretenders posted:It's not show canon. It has been a matter of public record in the MMO since it started, though harder to come across since they stopped showing lore snippets in the loading screens. Thanks. It has been fun seeing the future careers of characters we already know from the TV series. I think my favorites are Captain Nog and Grand Nagus Rom 
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Mar 9, 2021 13:21
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Fun fact: the DS9 bunch weren't originally in this mission! There's a DS9 themed expansion ahead, and they got the original voice actors for Garak, Kira, Odo, Rom, Quark, Leeta, Bashir, Weyoun, and the Female Changeling back, so Cryptic patched a lot of earlier missions to include some of the cast.
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Mar 9, 2021 13:28
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Having played the game on and off since it started and having not really played the game in years it feels weird seeing actual characters from the shows being played by their actual actors. Cryptic didn't have any rights for likenesses (and maybe even weren't allowed to use the actual characters) for years, I think the Delta Rising expansion (which is where I stopped playing) was the first time they had a significant number of actors available. Before that they seemed to be able to only get one or two actors. Back in those days you had a lot of children of characters from the shows turning up and not the actual characters themselves. Like you had the son of Thomas Riker (the transporter clone of Riker) showing up for a mission in the Cardassian storyline and I think the lead antagonist of the Mirror Universe stuff was the son of "Smiley" O'Brian from the DS9 MU episodes. I think both of those characters don't appear any more as their missions have been patched out. It's actually a little shocking how little of the launch missions seem to be left, Cryptic looks to have re-made or replaced just about all of them by now.
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Mar 9, 2021 14:00
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Veotax posted:It's actually a little shocking how little of the launch missions seem to be left, Cryptic looks to have re-made or replaced just about all of them by now. The Klingon specific original missions used to be that way, but they were remade just last month. You know all the Klingon-only missions I did with T'Kara originally, when I thought I was just briefly supporting Moon Slayer by showing off some side content? All those missions are gone and remade now, some with quite substantial changes. As for remaining content in the game, we're near the end of the temporal arc. Then there's three more story arcs to go: a miscellaneous batch of missions that got lumped together because they don't really fit anywhere else, some almost entirely original content, and finally the DS9 expansion. Everything after that is a mistake that I do not intend to give publicity and I'd get bored fast of hate-LP'ing. If anyone else wants to take up that banner, contact me via PM or on discord and I'll be happy to start laying the groundwork. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Mar 9, 2021 |
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Mar 9, 2021 14:28
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IIRC the big transition to using real actors was in the dyson sphere missions, where they got Dorn to play Worf Dyson was the high point of this game for a lot of reasons
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Mar 9, 2021 19:44
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Tunicate posted:IIRC the big transition to using real actors was in the dyson sphere missions, where they got Dorn to play Worf The period I covered includes the best point in the game’s life cycle and what was until very recently its worst. Re old content, I’m fairly sure that every mission from the game’s launch has now been re-worked or patched out entirely, making PoptartsNinja’s original LP a bit of game preservation as well. Without delving into the STO wiki to check, I would say the oldest live content in the game at this point would be the New Romulus adventure zone, or maybe the creepy Halloween mission with the Vulcan clones. Some old missions have been removed but are still present in the game, so another player can share the mission to you if you want to experience Bij for yourself. One plan I had before burning out entirely was trying to run one of these with PTN as a sort of Arrow/Flash team up episode.
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Mar 9, 2021 22:06
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Nukara and deferi are still around, and are getting pretty creaky. Nukara's geometry has gradually shifted with each patch until rock formations are levitating in places
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Mar 9, 2021 22:54
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If I had to take a stab at it, I'd say the oldest content currently in the game is the old featured episode story arcs: the Breen, Devidian, Romulan, and the 2800. They came out between 2010 and 2012, and while the Romulan one have been integrated into the main quest line, the other three have been pushed off to the side. I don't think the Breen or Devidian ones have been touched much - the interior for 23rd century Drozana doesn't make use of anything Cryptic built for Agents of Yesterday - but the Dominion one has been partially updated. It still uses the launch-era DS9 Promenade map, since the new one is so small that they found in testing that players would instantly aggro every enemy on the map when they loaded in.
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Mar 10, 2021 00:33
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When The Clock Strikes **ERROR, ATTEMPTING TO RESOLVE**  Strange. Usually I can sense tightly controlled seething resentment and self-loathing from the captain's ready room when I start my shift on the bridge. The captain's talking to Daniels right now. What fresh temporal nonsense is being loosed upon us now? I've stopped worrying about that kind of thing. The mad leading the mad, Lieutenant Commander? In my professional opinion as ship's counselor, I think the fact that all the senior staff on this ship are still functional is disturbing. What about the non-senior staff? Ask T'Vrell how much medication this ship's crew has been going through.   You mean to tell me that they've destroyed the temporal fleet and undone the Galactic Union of your time, or at least the Federation. I don't know for certain. We need to get to New Khitomer. Daniels, the only reason I'm inclined to do as you say is the fact that I helped cause all of this. I don't think the Envoy and Noye and the Tuterians and the rest of their fellows are doing the right thing, but that's a long way from agreeing that the temporal fleet is doing the right thing. I'm past caring about your petulant and narrow-minded views on right and wrong, Captain T'Kara. I put up with Jonathan Archer once, and you're no improvement. Will you help, or will you not? I will clean up my own mess.   Krenim ships. Noye was a lunatic with one ship. How did he find an entire fleet? Same place they found all these Na'khul, Vorgon, and Tuterian ships. The Envoy's rear end, as far as I'm concerned. There's been heavy fighting in this system. A lot of debris from both Front and what I'm assuming are Union ships. They've shut down the Temporal Relay. We can't contact the majority of the fleet on assignments elsewhere in the timeline. Clear us a path to the station, Commander.   We're clear, but there are ships in system I can't quite identify. Might be due to Front sensor jamming. Daniels, can you give us beam-in coordinates to reactivate this Temporal Relay of yours? Auxiliary command station is in the same room where the Temporal Accords should have been signed. An area we're already familiar with. It works. (This is one of my favorite looking space maps in STO, this game can be really pretty)   Resistance has been disturbingly light. If the Front has felled the Galactic Union, I would have expected more resistance at the heart of what had been the temporal fleet. On the one hand, that's the nature of temporal war. The sheer amount of force you have is vastly less important than knowing where and when to use it. And on the other hand? Resistance should be heavier.   Everything Boratus is doing, he's doing to avenge the woman he loved. Admirable, really. Commander, the woman he loved died trying to steal a weapon of mass destruction. I never said I agreed with him.   I know what the Front is planning, Captain. Explain. In most timelines, the Battle of Procyon V is fought between the Alliance and the Sphere Builders in the 26th century. The Sphere Builders make their final play, but a prepared Khitomer Alliance defeats them and ends their machinations. Tuterians, Daniels. The 'Sphere Builders' are the Tuterians. They were the Tuterians. Captain, all the changes in the timeline... the Envoy is going to reinforce the Sphere Builders at Procyon V. Procyon, Andoria's star. If the Sphere Builders unleash a new Expanse right in the heart of the Federation... the Alliance fleet is prepared for the Sphere Builders. They could perhaps handle one or two additional fleets arriving in support. But the force the Envoy has assembled, and with the temporal fleet crippled... We have our mission. <Captain, he's known about Procyon V all along. As the timeline's changed and additional forces have been present at Procyon V, Daniels has suffered steadily greater injuries at the battle. That's what this has been about from the beginning.>   Daniels, you refused to answer me when we were there. Could I ever have saved the Na'khul? No. The Na'khul are so intimately and deeply interwoven with the Temporal Cold War that every attempt from every side of the war to interfere with their fate has been disastrous. Some people, and some worlds, are simply not possible to save. Like the Iconians. There were other attempts to interfere with the Iconians using time travel? Why do you sound surprised? The Iconians are massively important to the history of the Milk Way. Your solution to the Iconian War was a remarkably elegant resolution to one of the greatest crises the Milky Way has ever faced. Had you tried to save the Iconians directly, you would have failed. Time, captain, does not like to be changed in gross, violent ways, and it has a way of retaliating when twisted too far. You talk about time like it's a living thing. Isn't it? You found a lever to change the course of history for the Milky Way galaxy, and it was a very small lever in the perfect place and time. It was a change that Captains Kirk or Picard or Sisko would have approved of. The Envoy and his followers are up to something very different, and they must be stopped. As I told you, I will clean up my own mess.          (she shoots Daniels)     (Surprise! The Envoy/Future Guy was Noye all along!)        You had your chance to surrender the Tox Uthat to us long ago. And prevented it from being used on our star. Krog, you at least have my sympathy. But if your answer to atrocity is atrocity, then I will stand against you. Starfleet speeches won't work on me, Captain. Have it your way, then.    Would that you had a better cause to fight for, Krog. He's dead, sir. What are your orders? Elisa, what's your status? We're fine, but the Front's fleet just engaged temporal drives. What's going on down there? Daniels is dead, the Envoy was Noye, and the Terran Empire from the Mirror Universe has allied with the rest of the Front. That's... bad. Beam us, and Daniels' remains, up. And prepare the Ataraxia for battle. Yes, sir! Er... when and where are we going? Procyon V, in the 26th century.
Cythereal fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Mar 20, 2021 |
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Mar 20, 2021 18:12
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Why should an early 25th century ship have any business with stuff this far in the future?
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Mar 20, 2021 22:36
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kw0134 posted:Why should an early 25th century ship have any business with stuff this far in the future? Because this is a video game we're playin' here sir.
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Mar 21, 2021 01:21
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Oh , I thought that daniels was going to get so hosed up he'd turned into the Envoy. loving time travel.
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Mar 21, 2021 07:52
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Dalris Othaine posted:Because this is a video game we're playin' here sir. Yeah. I'm sorry but I'm just kinda over this story arc. I never particularly minded this story arc until I was put into the position of trying to make some kind of sense of all this. Next mission is the finale, at least. Also, as before, there's an extra space part at the end that I cut because it adds nothing to the story (you chase off Leeta and the ISS Enterprise, killing some mooks while she wags her finger at you about how she'll get you next time). It's starting to sink in to me how badly paced some of these missions are, with extra combat sequences that add nothing to the story and draw out the mission complete after what should be an emotional punch. And it's always the same thing: you beat up a named bad guy and their army/fleet for a bit while they rant at you over the space phone until they get away and either die off-camera or you kill them in a later mission in the story arc.
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Mar 22, 2021 14:03
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Cythereal posted:Yeah. I'm sorry but I'm just kinda over this story arc. I never particularly minded this story arc until I was put into the position of trying to make some kind of sense of all this. Next mission is the finale, at least. sto_story.txt
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Mar 22, 2021 15:09
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Technowolf posted:sto_story.txt Yep. And on a writing note, this came up in the discord today and I feel it's worth reposting here for those who haven't seen this episode of DS9, as it's one of the scenes that impacts my writing in the LP. Lieutenant Ezri Dax : I tend to look at the Empire with a little more skepticism than Curzon or Jadzia did. I see a society that is in deep denial about itself. We're talking about a warrior culture that prides itself on maintaining centuries-old traditions of honor and integrity. But in reality, it's willing to accept corruption at the highest levels. Lt. Commander Worf : You are overstating your case. Lieutenant Ezri Dax : Am I? Who was the last leader of the High Council that you respected? Has there even been one? And how many times have you had to cover up the crimes of Klingon leaders because you were told that it was for the good of the Empire? I... I know this sounds harsh, but the truth is, you have been willing to accept a government that you know is corrupt. Gowron is just the latest example. Worf, you are the most honorable and decent man that I've ever met. And if you're willing to tolerate men like Gowron, then what hope is there for the Empire? And on an actual STO note, I had fun with reputation vanity shields.  Sir, why is that Covenant ship broadcasting a Klingon IFF?
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Mar 22, 2021 16:05
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Cythereal posted:Yeah. I'm sorry but I'm just kinda over this story arc. I never particularly minded this story arc until I was put into the position of trying to make some kind of sense of all this. Next mission is the finale, at least. Did you actually manage to finish that fight against Leeta?
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Mar 22, 2021 16:36
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Bmac32 posted:Did you actually manage to finish that fight against Leeta? Yeah. You get the Enterprise down to about 90% before she runs away. STO really does not like you killing named bad guys. Edit: Now that I think about it... for a game with such an emphasis on space combat, and it being the part of the game that people tend to like most, I cannot name a single named bad guy that goes down in a big space battle with their tricked-out flagship. There's a couple of Borg Queens but they don't count in my book. Everyone else, they contrive a reason to board their ship or fight on foot in a neutral locale if they even bother letting you fight them at all. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 16:39
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Cythereal posted:Yeah. You get the Enterprise down to about 90% before she runs away. You gotta look 'em in the eyes. Even though that is the least fun part of the game.
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Mar 22, 2021 18:30
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Cythereal posted:Yeah. You get the Enterprise down to about 90% before she runs away. I believe the Community Manager gets very upset when people ask why you can't blow away J'ula or whatever.
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Mar 22, 2021 19:44
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:I believe the Community Manager gets very upset when people ask why you can't blow away J'ula or whatever. He was the same way about Sela.  And (minor spoilers about the next mission) about Leeta, who IIRC get away scot-free from this mission.
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Mar 22, 2021 19:46
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The problem is that the vast disparity in player power levels means that the fight agaijst a single ship is likely gonna be unwinnable or very short. Unwinnable for bad pubs is a big problem, so they lean on being too easy. But then the skilled players take down the ship in 20 seconds. So they cheat and make it invulnerable until the end of the mission dialogue, and give you something else to shoot instead of the invulnerable ship.
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Mar 22, 2021 20:21
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So I think what's going on is that the Envoy got his butt kicked at the Battle of Procyon V, got away horribly scarred, and everything since then has been him gathering allies and sending them to the beginning of that battle he lost. Each time he adds forces, his defeat was less severe and he retroactively escaped with less scaring while Daniels won with greater injuries. It wasn't until he gathered enough help in this mission with the Terran Empire as the tipping point that he came through the battle unscathed and victorious. For himself. His allies have yet to engage in the battle from their perspectives. I think.
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Mar 22, 2021 21:26
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I legitimately thought Daniels was the envoy
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Mar 22, 2021 23:26
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:I legitimately thought Daniels was the envoy That’s what you were supposed to think. IIRC this was originally the first time your player character discovered the identity of the Envoy. Now they’ve reworked the mission structure to de-fang the bait and switch. Cythereal posted:He was the same way about Sela. Leeta I understand to an extent - the actor is very willing to keep working with Cryptic.
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Mar 23, 2021 00:55
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:I legitimately thought Daniels was the envoy I legit thought for the longest time Archer was the Envoy/Future Guy, mostly because one of the show creators said it on Twitter. Cythereal posted:STO really does not like you killing named bad guys. And yet the game was perfectly okay with my science officer disintegrating Scotty in one of the "go back to the TOS era" missions.
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Mar 25, 2021 16:09
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Snorb posted:I legit thought for the longest time Archer was the Envoy/Future Guy, mostly because one of the show creators said it on Twitter. The show writers admitted that they had no idea who Future Guy was. One theorized it was future Archer. Another thought it was a future Romulan. He was a plot device for a particularly ill-conceived plot.
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Mar 25, 2021 16:13
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Which makes STO's assertion that it was That Guy What We Did Temporal War Crimes To make sense! You can't contradict canon if even the guys writing the canon don't know the answer! 
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Mar 26, 2021 10:40
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Future Perfect How did the briefing with Temporal Command go? Elisa, my first ship after graduating from the Academy was the USS Sisko. Two weeks into the tour, we encountered an anomalous event. Commander Harry Kim, the first officer, told me human wisdom that I have never forgotten. "Ensign, stop looking for logic. This poo poo is bananas."   Our plan relies on the Tox Uthat. With it, we can destabilize the Expanse and force the Sphere Builders to withdraw. Tuterians. They're called the Tuterians. There is only one ship with the power to use the Tox Uthat effectively - the Enterprise. She must survive, at all costs. Today we are fighting for the past, present, and future. So fight hard, and fight well. Dismissed. All ships, this is Commander Chekov. Protect the Enterprise and engage the enemy. The Spheres are generating an Expanse, and it's growing rapidly in size and intensity. This isn't like the Expanse we saw in the Kelvin timeline, we can't stay here long. Hold on just a second! Is that Commander Pavel Chekov from Kirk's Enterprise?!?! Yes. How did he - what is he - Captain, what the hell is going on? Another word of wisdom Commander Harry Kim taught me. There comes a time in every Starfleet officer's career when you just stop asking questions. Elisa, Tila, take us in. Battle stations.  Tactical situation is a mess, Captain. There's hundreds of ships in action throughout the system, looks like the Klingons and Romulans are holding the perimeter and trying to contain the Expanse's growth while Starfleet goes for the heart. We've got Tuterian, Vorgon, Na'khul, Krenim, and Terran ships active throughout the Expanse.I will be blunt: this mission sucks. It's long. It's buggy. It's hard. I had to restart this mission four times due to plot triggers misfiring, and the Temporal Liberation Front's armada includes some of the most annoying space enemies in the game. You are also perpetually in combat, meaning no full impulse, no rapid hull/shield regen, and no cloaking unless you have a battle cloak. All these allied ships - which are a smorgasbord of 25th century ships, 26th century ships, and 31st century ships - do jack poo poo (missing from the ENT episode this battle is from: the Klingons fighting alongside Starfleet, even though this expansion cycle added a few 26th and 29th century Klingon and Romulan ships). On top of all this, there's a special Delphic Expanse environmental effect in this mission that deals constant damage to your hull and debuffs your resistance to damage. There is a specific item you can equip on your ship to negate the Expanse effect... that's a quest reward from this mission. You are almost certainly going to die in this mission, and probably several times.    What in the world... IFF says that's the Enterprise...? USS Enterprise NCC-1701-J, Universe class. So over the course of the next century or so we go through the Enterprise-F, G, H, and I. Poor Captain Shon.   Ataraxia to fleet, this sector is clear for the moment but we're detecting Terran boarding parties on the Enterprise. Confirmed. Captain T'Kara, come with me. We need to load the Tox Uthat into the Enterprise's systems before the Terrans can sabotage the ship. How are you holding up, Captain? I'm functional. I'm sorry we had to pull you into this. People always are.  (the screen shakes)  That sounded like a hull breach. A big one. It wasn't. The Klingons at the system periphery just took out a Sph - Tuterian super-dreadnought. And we felt the shockwave from here? Have you ever heard of a Jach'eng class ship? Nothing by that name in our time. Good. As for damage to the ship...   Scotty...?! That would be this wee temporal beacon. Once activated, it brought me here, somehow. Bozhe. I've been holding on to that beacon for many a year, waiting for a signal. Better late than never, I suppose! Where - and when - are we, if ye don't mind me asking? Aboard the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-J in the 26th century in the middle of a battle to decide the fate of the timeline. Ah, the Enterprise never changes. Who might you be, lass? T'Kara of Shi'kahr, Captain of the USS Ataraxia. Don't ask how my crew and I wound up in this mess, I don't know. That's just how things be sometimes, aye. Let's not let this fine lady down!  What class be your Ataraxia? Excelsior, one of the newer models. Excelsior class? Hah! Hikaru would wet his knappies to know that bucket of bolts is still flying! There's been a few major updates of the design. The Ataraxia is one of the Resolution series, and there's a new Repulse series in development. Ye can't keep a good lady down, I suppose. Do they still fly the Constitution class? They do. My first assignment after the Academy was one of the Lexington series, similar to the Enterprise-A.(As a matter of fact there's eight different Constitution class ships available in the game now, six of them tier 6 endgame ships)  Here we are. Captain T'Kara, Scotty and I will get the Tox Uthat hooked into the Enterprise's systems. Keep the Terrans off of us. Terrans? As in agony booths and agonizers? The same. Och.    Admiral Leeta. Temporal Command briefed me on your activities. Oh my! I'm sure they described me in glowing terms! Actually, to quote Captain Walker, You were used by a changeling from our universe as a catspaw and Captain Nyroh beat your rear end. Pardon my Human. You insufferable little Vulcan!  (Yes, Chekov is holding a TOS phaser rifle and a VOY phaser rifle simultaneously)   Terran forces, this is the Admiral. We're leaving. Now. Good luck with your fool's errand, Noye... you'll need it. (and so exits Admiral Leeta from the Star Trek Online story, never to be seen again outside one janky TFO leftover from the original Mirror Universe plot before all the mission revamps) The Terrans are in full retreat from the Expanse! Captain, Scotty and I can handle the rest from here if you can cover the Enterprise. Noye is sure to redouble his efforts with the Terrans gone. Acknowledged. We'll buy you the time you need. Ataraxia, beam us up.    Chekov to fleet, we've done it! All ships, stand clear!      Confirmed. Local space-time is returning to normal throughout the system. The Vorgons and Na'khul are in full retreat. Then there's just one more loose end to tie up. Elisa, find the Annorax. Hailing frequencies are open, all channels. Noye, this is T'Kara of Shi'kahr. One blood-drenched killer to another, one fool who has meddled too much with time to my fellow, it is time to finish what we began at Denius III in a time that never was. Poetic, captain, but don't pretend we're the same. I never said we were. The duty and burden of a starship captain is to make decisions that will affect the lives of others. Sometimes in ways we can predict, sometimes in ways we cannot. I accept that weight of responsibility. Do you? You took my wife from me! You damned her entire civilization! We've both seen the recordings, Noye. You and Clauda knew the risks in that time as well as I did, and you both made the same choices. We didn't know what would happen! No one ever does. The future is not ours to know, nor the past. There is only the present and the decisions we make. Then make your choice. I've made mine.   The Annorax's temporal core has been damaged, and is growing unstable. Noye hasn't shut it down. I don't think he's going to. There is only one way he'll stop. Be careful down there.     I am not going to kill you, Noye. You may yet find time to be something of a curse.   (Noye is supposed to fall over when defeated, but since he's on stairs the model glitched out) T'Kara to Temporal Command. Noye has been subdued and is in custody. It's over.    (flash of light)   They won't be an issue again. I've assigned the Alecto a special mission to... simplify things, for the Na'khul refugees, and the Vorgons aren't a threat by themselves. The Krenim bear monitoring, but they're a vibrant and important part of the Galactic Union in more timelines than not.          I remain unconvinced that this timeline deserves to be secure. That's fair, and I promise to never darken your bridge again. The Klingon Empire needs you, T'Kara of Shi'kahr, more than you or they know. A stabilizing influence, Captain Nog once called the Empire. But none too stable in itself. It's surprising how little time cares why you do the things that you do. What matters is that you do them, when and where you need to. For that, Captain, we will always be grateful to you. I'll hold you to your promise, Daniels. Show up on my ship again, and we'll find out what happens to the timeline when a transporter, a hargh'peng torpedo, your rear end, and a monotanium alloy funnel meet. I think I'll try to avoid that. For now, I think it's time to send you back where you belong. Where I belong...
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Mar 28, 2021 17:26
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So a bit of a post-script here. I made a Fed copy of T'Kara a long time back, when Ferret was still running things, as a joke to turn up during this temporal arc that's now finished. Maybe a one-off brief encounter, maybe a running gag about how messed up the timeline must be getting for the irascible and inimitable Captain T'Kara to be a Starfleet officer in this timeline. When I took over the LP, I decided to make use of the joke more seriously - I felt that the Lukari introduction in particular, and more generally the whole temporal storyline worked much better with a Federation protagonist than a Klingon. So, enter Fed T'Kara after Malthis threw another monkey wrench into the timeline. No, there's no particular reason why Malthis' actions caused Fed T'Kara, nor why she changed back to normal. For a while I even considered putting it up to a vote whether T'Kara would return to normal or stay a Starfleet officer, but ultimately I concluded that as a writer I preferred original recipe T'Kara so here we are. As for the temporal arc in general, I think it's mostly fun as long as you don't pretend it makes sense, with one big exception for this last mission which is just a miserable slog with gratuitous character cameos that come without a lick of foreshadowing unless you did the TOS Federation starting sequence. It's basically just breezy fun full of references obvious and obscure to the shows, nonsensical but well-crafted for the most part. As it happens, this is indeed the last we'll hear from Daniels, Walker, Noye, Admiral Leeta, or anyone else from this arc, though the Na'khul will make one more small appearance in the LP. Well, kind of the last time you hear from Walker. There's a mission reward from one of these temporal missions that gives you the USS Pastak - Captain Walker's ship - as an admiralty card, meaning you get to boss him around and send him on missions. It's a really good card, too! Just 15 more missions to go in the LP. Been a bit of a crazy trip for T'Kara, but there's just two more story arcs to go. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 18:47
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The characterization (that you've introduced) is more fun than the arc itself. I guess that's how these temporal stories end up in the ST universe, a kind of shaggy dog story that in the end doesn't really change anything, but it's the journey that counts.
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Mar 28, 2021 18:51
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Admiral Leeta seems like she should be a funny joke. It's Leeta from DS9, but she's an evil warlord, because every time a Trek Writer utters the words "mirror universe" we know we're in for a bad time. The writers have no idea what to do with her, so she shows up in two TFOS (the DS9 vs evil DS9 battle AND the one where she gets possessed by Pah Wraiths or whatever) mostly to eat antiproton cannon fire and then gently caress off after wasting legions of expensive Terran empire ships that make her uniquely vulnerable to being shot to pieces by another more competent admiral. Who the hell knows.
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Mar 28, 2021 18:58
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I'm kind of glad the Mirror Universe is such a minimal presence in STO these days, honestly. The Discovery version of the Terran Empire also appears briefly in content I'm not going to cover, and Captain Killy (God why) is no more interesting than Admiral Leeta. Also, something I only noticed when recording this mission the second time with regular T'Kara: the Terrans are so copy-pasted from the Federation that the turrets and generators Terran engineers summon are tagged as belonging to Starfleet, not the Terran Empire, and count as Federation faction kills. Fortunately, from here on out in story terms it's mostly a straight line to the finish. A few weird digressions because it's STO, but things are going to be relatively cogent from here on out. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 19:03
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Cythereal posted:I'm kind of glad the Mirror Universe is such a minimal presence in STO these days, honestly. The Discovery version of the Terran Empire also appears briefly in content I'm not going to cover, and Captain Killy (God why) is no more interesting than Admiral Leeta. One of the things I like about STO is how when playing as a klank, tons of npcs flag as hostile when they load, up until the game catches up to starfleet being your ally and sheepishly turns them blue. Tunicate fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 19:06
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After The Fall Captain's Log, IKS Fek'lhr Alliance Command and the High Command have ordered the deep classification of my temporal activities. This suits me. Starfleet, now and in the future, continues to insist that their ends justify their means. I disagree. When a man says that he 'did what he had to do,' he is being a coward, nothing more. He is denying responsibility for his own actions and choices. When you say that you 'have no choice,' that is never, ever true. It merely means that you find the alternative choice less palatable, and so you seek the psychological comfort of saying your actions are not your own. Your choices are not your own. This is, simply, targ poo poo. The alternative choice may be your death. It may be the death of your civilization. I do not fault choosing a lesser evil in such a context. What I fault is the lie that you did not deliberately and knowingly choose evil, and bear responsibility for that evil. Vulcans would no doubt say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one, but that sentiment is too often used to justify selfish choices rather than its original context of a selfless choice. No doubt some sanctimonious Starfleet officer would say that I am not suited to the psychological demands of temporal war. I do not disagree. I would, however, consider that a compliment rather than an indictment. We sail now for the Lukari system, where the Lukari have been hard at work building a new deep space exploration vessel after learning so painfully the consequences of isolationism. Petra and Tylos think it odd that the Klingon Empire is reaching out its hand to the Lukari. I believe that the Lukari are not so different from us, a society forced to adapt and reach out to the stars when we had previously had no inclination to when their home was invaded by an alien force intent on destroying them all. The shadow of the Hur'q looms large in Klingon history, and to this day we still do not know where the Hur'q went after withdrawing from Qo'noS, or even why they left our world. The Tholians are only somewhat less enigmatic.   All readings on the Lukari star are normal, captain. One standard issue blue giant, though I am detecting what looks to be a new monitoring outpost in close orbit of the star. No surprise there. There's an Iliana class science vessel from the Cardassian Union in system. The Detapa Council must be serious about being good neighbors to the region. I have the Lukari ship, the Concordium, on sensors. Along with a Ferengi destroyer, Nandi class.  Be reasonable, Administrator. The Alliance will be tied up with refugees and damage from the Iconian War for years. But for just a small fee, you can pursue endless opportunities with us! I've said it before and I'll say it again! We are not interested! We want to explore this galaxy in peace, not plunder our world for profit! Ugh! Idealistic claptrap! Is there someone higher up I can talk to? No, and as a matter of fact the contact from the Alliance we were expecting just arrived! Attention, Ferengi vessel. This is the IKS Fek'lhr. The Lukari system is under our protection. Klingons?! Suit yourself, Administrator. Good business is where you find it. Lukar isn't our homeworld, you know. I did not, actually. Dealing with the aftermath of the Tholians' attack on your star left me heavily preoccupied. Ah, of course. Did you learn why they targeted us? You were only a means to an end for them, the Tholians have no interest in attacking you. You were saying that your people aren't native to this world? Our homeworld was called Kentar. We... destroyed it, through overpopulation and industrial pollution. A small number of us fled Kentar on our first warp-capable ship until we found this habitable moon. We've had warp drive, but our exodus was... not an easy one. We had little desire to travel the stars again. Interesting. More than one world out in the galaxy has a similar story about a close run with extinction from destroying their world's ecosystem. Tell me about it. Risa only detonated three nuclear weapons during the Last War, and we still managed to wipe out about two thirds of our native species. The Tholian attack on our star convinced the Council that we couldn't stay in our own little corner of the galaxy anymore, so we built the LSS Concordium. Given my experience with you and the other off-worlders, I was chosen to command this ship. It's quite the responsibility! That it is, Administrator. Or should I call you Captain? 'Captain' will do now! We have a target destination in mind, a nearby system that the Federation says has never been properly explored. The Alliance thought we could use an escort, and given recent events, the Council agreed. Then set a course, Captain Kuumarke. Welcome to the galaxy.  Your ship is enormous! The Concordium is smaller than one of your warp nacelles! The Concordium is capable of warp two and has a crew of three hundred, Captain. The Fek'lhr is a Martok class dreadnought and has a crew of two thousand. Wow. And this... Iconian War, demanded such powerful warships? Kuumarke, as powerful as the Fek'lhr is, the Iconian War was something else entirely. Be glad the war passed your people by. But the Federation says you personally ended the war...? Not with disruptors, Kuumarke. Intriguing. This looks like a very young stellar system. We're still inside the proto-planetary envelope. Watch your sensors carefully, Captain, there's a lot of stellar debris and electromagnetic interference. What did you mean that you didn't end the Iconian War with disruptors? Some wars simply cannot be won by brute force, in the end. Violence has a way of begetting violence. How very strange to hear a Klingon say that, according to everything I've heard about your species! Kuumarke, I'm probably the strangest Klingon you'll ever meet. Are our sensors glitching? They think there's something organic out there. Tila, sensors to tactical mode. Undine? Doesn't look like it, and there haven't been any confirmed Undine sightings in normal space since shortly after Operation Delta Rising commenced. What's an Undine? A very long story, but they grow living ships with organic technology. It's your call if you want to investigate this sensor reading, Captain. What's exploration without a little risk? Helm, take us in! What is that?! They're called Gekli, Captain, they're a life form native to deep space. Please adjust your ship's energy emissions, you don't want one of those trying to feed on your ship or a juvenile mistaking your ship for its mother. I'm sorry, what? It's a weird galaxy, Captain. This reminds me of the holo-records of Kentar's oceans, back when they still teemed with life. Did you at least save any DNA samples? No, we couldn't afford to bring anything but the essentials on our exodus. What about your world, Captain T'Kara? Does your homeworld have large marine organisms? Many. My homeworld is a geologically very young planet, with an extremely oxygen-rich atmosphere. Our native fauna tends towards gigantism. She means the oceans are filled with sea monsters, Captain. Beaches aren't resort destinations on Qo'noS. Most of the famous early Klingon explorers were aeronauts in hot air balloons, not sailors in ships. Thank you for saving my world, Captain. I had no idea there was so much right next door to us, just waiting for us to come and find it. What the-?! Sorry, our impulse trail set off a reaction. It's harmless. Hah! The galaxy is a beautiful place, and more than a little exciting! How could anyone see this, and be content with their own little world? I think I would have understood you, once. A long time ago. We're outside the envelope, Captain, but there's still plenty of asteroids, comets, and proto-planets. Stay alert. Interesting, I'm reading lots of dilithium in these asteroids! I suppose we'll need a lot more if Lukari are going to be an active part of the galaxy from now on! This system hasn't been claimed by any power. I don't think the Alliance would mind granting this system to your people. We have another strange reading on our sensors, past that proto-planet. Organic, but not like the gekli. Confirmed. Captain... I have no idea what this is. Whatever it is, it's big. Your decision, Kuumarke. We've come too far to stop now. Let's take a look! I don't know about you mammals, but I like her.  What in the world... Should I... should I raise shields...? Fek'lhr, are you seeing this? Confirmed. Species 9. I found a match, captain. I've never seen anything like it... Neither have I, Kuumarke. At this point in my career, that's saying something. Interesting. Biological analysis suggests that they're feeding on the electromagnetic radiation of the young star. Older stellar systems don't appear to match the wavelengths they're feeding on. What are they doing?! I think they're trying to say hello, Captain. Incredible! Simply incredible! But... there's one other thing in the system I'd like to check out, Captain. If we can come back here afterwards. Certainly. What's your interest? It looks like there's a planet with a breathable atmosphere on the far side of the system, within the star's habitable zone. I'd like to give it a look. Agreed. We'll follow you, Captain. Fek'lhr to Concordium, we're not detecting any lifesigns down there. Not even bacteria. Hmmm. That's strange, and so is this radiation reading. It looks like protomatter. Oh no. That stuff is a nightmare. Your people are familiar with it? Of course! It's not dangerous if you know what you're doing, we've used protomatter safely for more than a century! In fact, it looks like some kind of protomatter wave happened here. Recently, too, judging by the decay in the energy particles. Captain - both Captains - I'd like to go down there and have a look. I have a very bad feeling about this. Agreed, Commander. Accidental or deliberate, if someone's using protomatter in this neighborhood the Alliance needs to know about it. I'd like to go with you, Captain. All this exploration has me feeling a little cooped up here. We'll make a warrior out of you yet, Aoede. Very well, Gronth and Aoede to the transporter room. The rest of you, stay alert. I don't want any surprises. Confirmed, we're very close to where the protomatter wave started. In these canyons? Weather topside is very unstable. I wouldn't be surprised if civilization on this planet was based in the canyons. Why did I not ask the professional archaeologist on the ship to come down here... Away team to Fek'lhr, see if you can't patch Nelen through to my suit's automated recording system. This planet is inhabited! Or... was, I suppose. Leaning towards this being a deliberate protomatter event, Captain. The energy readings are very uniform, none of the chaotic variation I'd expect from people trying to use it as a power source or some such until it blew up in their face.  Fek'lhr to away team, I'm reading you through your suit's recorder. Good to have you, Nelen. Thoughts? Bronze Age technology, well preserved. Much less developed than ruins elsewhere on the planet. A cultural or religious site, I'd guess. Not the kind of place for protomatter experiments. Was this an attack? That's my working hypothesis, Captain. Which then begs the questions of who was responsible, and why this planet was targeted. This civilization was not capable of space travel, Captain. Standard ideographical patterns for depicting the construction of this site. Clear social patterns of obedience and hierarchy to a central authority, possibly a conflation of secular and religious hierarchy as common in civilizations of this stage of development. Detonation site of the hypothesized protomatter weapon was definitely inside this building, Captain. Who would do such a thing? A lot of people. Every major galactic power has the technology to use protomatter, they just largely choose not to. Give them a reason, though... They were carrying crystals to the structure as an act of obedience. Interesting. I've been meaning to ask. Aoede, is it? Why are you wearing sandals to a possibly dangerous foreign world? You should have seen what she was wearing when she first arrived. I get that Risans have an extremely high internal body temperature, but... Don't say a word, T'Kara. I wasn't going to say anything. ...What am I missing? The Captain and the Lieutenant Commander are lovers. Once. We decided we were better off not taking things further. Not to mention it's strictly against regulations for a captain to be romantically involved with a subordinate. Is this kind of thing normal for Klingons? And every other spacefaring mammalian species. Thank the Mother and Father that Gorn only feel reproductive instincts once a year. Are those crystals... growing? Being carved, maybe. Or it's an allegory or myth of some kind. Any luck with the universal translator? Not with such a small sample of only the written language. Then we're going inside.   Oh no. Do you recognize this symbol, Captain? I have had enough of this temporal nonsense. Um, Captain? T'Kara? 23rd century uniforms. Analysis of particles collected by your suit's filters suggests that these murals were probably painted around a thousand years ago, give or take a century. And we all thought we were done with this insanity. I'm really missing something here. You're coming up on the main chamber now.   The crystals from the murals outside...? I would assume so. Gronth, about that radiation? This is where the protomatter bomb was detonated. I don't get it. Why here? Those crystals obviously aren't organic or the protomatter would have destroyed them. Fek'lhr to away team. We have a situation up here. What kind of situation? Belay that, Commander! Sir? Allow me to guess. 23rd century design, but almost a thousand years old. Close to nine hundred, Tila thinks, but yeah. I have had my fill of that insanity, Derius. Tell Starfleet that we found a 23rd century space station of theirs that's almost a thousand years old and well outside their borders. Then get me the High Command. I think we have a situation. ...You sound worried, T'Kara. Someone detonated a planet-killing weapon on an inhabited world, Captain Kuumarke, and did so recently. I suddenly have a very bad feeling about all this. Yeah. Me, too.
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Apr 4, 2021 17:31
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A little bit of clarification: yes, I've used the changing timelines to eliminate the T'Kara/Aoede relationship. To be blunt, as a writer I'm not satisfied with how Aoede or her relationship with T'Kara panned out. I think they would have been fine in their original context, if T'Kara was still a secondary character to someone else's story, but I've concluded that in my own mind at least they don't work as a couple with T'Kara as the central protagonist of the LP. No, I don't have a different love interest in mind now, but I decided to take the opportunity presented.
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Apr 4, 2021 18:29
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Someone from future Starfleet decided they didn't like T'Kara's attitude and tweaked the timeline to mess with her personal life in petty retaliation?
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Apr 4, 2021 18:52
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Nah it's the standard temporal breakup
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Apr 4, 2021 19:12
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 15:11 |
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Look, sometimes time travel causes the near-extinction of the Tuterians, and sometimes it breaks up a couple.
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Apr 4, 2021 19:16
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