Avandar Mission Archive

USS Avandar
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This page records mission summaries for the past adventures of the USS Avandar. Data relating to previous missions is posted here, as well as a synopsis of what happened. For information on the USS Avandar's current mission, go to the Current Mission page.

Mission 7: Hell's Gate

Another day, another unusual sensor reading - this time relayed to the Avandar by one of the long-range probes that have been launched to roam the Sector. At first glance the readings appeared to be some sort of energy fluctuation, but as the Avandar closed in on the area to investigate it became clear there was more to it than that.

The source of the readings was traced to beneath the surface of a large chunk of rock, a chunk that appeared to once have been a significant part of a moon. Also present, landed on the surface, was a small craft broadcasting a radio signal that proved very hard to get any sort of translation on - and no life signs. Something about the composition of the rock, perhaps with artificial help, made scans largely ineffective, but it was possible to discover that the energy readings showed significant similarities to the signature given off by Iconian technology.

With no intention of leaving something like that laying about, an Away Team was deployed by shuttle to the planetoid's surface, but almost immediately ran into trouble. Communications began to fail very quickly, and a storm began moving in on them - a storm that appeared seemingly from nowhere, and bore all the signs of being artificially generated.

As the Away Team moved to find shelter, the Avandar searched for some way to both disrupt the storm and regain contact with the team. Unfortunately, the best solution for both of those seemed to be to break up the storm directly - and hope that the crew on the planetoid were not caught in the backlash...

Regrettably, this appeared to prove a vain hope. Whilst the disruption of the storm was expected to cause some chaos, an energy release that left a crater where a mountain used to be, and even managed to propel debris far and hard enough to hit the Avandar's shields, was not foreseen. Subsequent scans of the area revealed no trace at all of the Away Team, and it was not hard to draw a rather dire conclusion about what had happened.

For the Away Team, there had been no concern about the blast since they had made a discovery all of their own: an intact, and operational, Iconian gateway. Travelling through it may not have been intentional, but it did keep them safe from harm when the storm - and the area they had been in - practically disintegrated. The downside was that they found themselves somewhere completely unknown - which, when they learned where they were, was perhaps not the best news they could have received.

Whilst the Away Team took what steps they could to stay out of trouble, having just found themselves on the Breen homeworld, the Avandar set about looking for any sort of clue as to what had happened on the planetoid. With much, if not all, of the sensor disruption now gone, they were able to get a much better look at the surface... but it was only when LtCmdr T'Lea disobeyed orders and beamed herself down to investigate that the best evidence began to come to light.

With the aid of a remote-piloted Workbee, she managed to locate the gateway - or rather the remains of it, since it had been badly damaged in the blast. At Captain Vetri's instruction, she salvaged the most promising of the components so that the crew stood some chance of being able to isolate where their colleagues had been sent.

Though it took a certain amount of creative work, it proved possible to do just that - and also reopen a portal large enough for a small craft to pass through. The away team, having managed to escape the Breen forces trying to capture them, still found themselves in somewhat dire straits... until a shuttle from the Avandar, carrying a jury-rigged cloaking device for cover, managed to locate and retrieve them. After a narrow escape from their pursuers, the stray team and their rescuers made it back through the portal without being positively identified as Starfleet by the Breen.

Once everyone was safely back aboard the Avandar, Captain Vetri took steps to make sure the gateway was not going to be found or reactivated again, and the crew took some time for a well-earned breather.

Mission 6: The Nomad Pursuit

Back out beyond the Romulan Empire once again, under the temporary command of the First Officer since Captain Vetri had been summoned to a conference on Deep Space 6, the USS Avandar soon found itself receiving an automated distress call from an unidentified ship. When they investigated, the crew found the source of the signal to be inside an asteroid field, a field who’s chemical composition made attempts to scan less than effective.

With caution, the Avandar began getting closer, and was eventually able to detect a pair of ships – one little more than wreckage, whilst the other was very much active. Before much could be done to react to this discovery, the Avandar began suffering massive power drain, quickly identified as coming from something among the asteroids. To add to the trouble, the active one of the ships they’d found moved to attack.

Within minutes, the Avandar’s crew had some major problems of their own on their hands – not least of which was the fact that the power drain had effectively stripped the ship of it’s shields and allowed boarders to infiltrate and begin grabbing anything they could. The intruders were repelled, but not without the loss of a fair amount of hardware, and their ship broke away. In the wake of this raid, the crew left with deciding what to do about the attack, and also how best to deal with their first contact with a species that they had only ever really encountered in old second-hand Romulan reports.

With creative use of the asteroid field they were otherwise stuck in, the crew managed to drive off the alien raiders, even managing to land significant, though not crippling, hits on the attacking vessel despite the Avandar’s tactical systems being compromised by electronic attack. Fortunately, the fact they were fighting back, plus the arrival of two new ships in the area, drove the raiders to retreat.

The newcomers introduced themselves as an independent military force, a form of freelance law enforcement. Their commander, a Xomite by the name of Challno, agreed to join efforts with the Avandar crew in the pursuit of the Alr’n raiders, who he had apparently been chasing for some time after being ‘requested’ to hunt them down by a number of worlds who accused the Alr’n of piracy and other similar activities.

Meeting with Lieutenant Commander Dickens and a number of other officers, Challno put forward a trio of possible locations the raiders could be trying to use to fence their stolen goods. Deciding to go along with the idea, despite some doubts about just how truthful Challno was being, the Avandar crew agreed to investigate one of the possibilities, the trading world of Shalin.

Once main systems were fixed, the Avandar got underway with only a few minor issues still plaguing the ship, such as virus-infected replicators spewing large amounts of gagh into any number of places throughout the vessel, much to the annoyance of the crew, and managed to track at least some of their stolen equipment. The next step was reclaiming it, and the Away Team sent to try and achieve this quietly almost managed to do just that – but almost was not quite good enough. It took some fast talking and a timely beam out to avoid them being arrested for, of all things, theft.

In the meantime, Captain Vetri’s undesired conference trip to Deep Space 6 ended with the arrival of a number of new transfers to the ship’s crew, giving her a great deal more company on the trip back home - a trip that was to prove far more eventful than the last one.

Safe and secure back on the ship, with part of the haul recovered, the crew set course for their next objective to finish the job. This time, things went more smoothly, with smaller teams spreading out to search and recover, and the thieves themselves successfully tracked down. With the crew back together again - after a rather hair-raising confrontation with the Romulans still living in their old D7 near the Rabbit Hole for the Captain and her companions - the Avandar coordinated with the local authorities to close the net on the raiders once and for all, leading to the successful retrieval of the stolen equipment... though the thieves themselves managed to escape.

Mission 5: Strange Acquaintances

With repairs all but complete and the crew having had a chance for some R&R, the USS Avandar made final preparations to leave Poseidon and resume it’s mission of exploration – only have the ship’s sensors detect a rapidly forming nebula a relatively short distance away from the Poseidon system, with no clue at all as to why it might be appearing. Since the ship was not totally ready for action at that point, a probe was launched to get a closer look at this phenomenon and to see if any hints as to it’s nature could be gleaned.

What actually transpired was even more unexpected. With as little warning as had heralded it’s appearance, the nebula vanished mere moments after the probe detected signs of some form of subspace distortion in the middle of it. The science team, as well as the rest of the crew, had little opportunity to think on this, however, before it reappeared again close enough to cover most of the system, Poseidon and the Avandar included.

With what seem to be a form of interphasic rifts popping in and out of existence around them, the Avandar’s crew are trying hard to work out how to prevent major damage to themselves and the planet, as well as retrieve two of their crewmates who have apparently been lost through a rift that formed inside the ship itself – officers who are now in the middle of possibly the oddest first-contact situation they could have imagined.

As the interphasic rifts began making navigation around Poseidon increasingly hazardous with their erratic shifting, the crew of the Avandar got to work trying to find a way to avoid a potential catastrophe.

Help came from an unexpected angle, with contact being made with the other side of the rifts – and the Rubari, the explorers of their own dimension who were accidentally responsible for what was going on. The Avandar’s missing crew were confirmed to be on the Rubari ship, and it turned out the displacement wasn’t one-sided, with one of their crew lost and confused on the Avandar.

Inter-dimensional collaboration soon had a plan formed to neutralise the rifts, whilst similar scheme was worked on to get the stray Rubari back to his own ship. Retrieving the Avandar’s people turned out to be less easy than expected, however, when they were caught in another rift – and dumped into Poseidon’s ocean.

Lieutenant Commander Dickens led a rescue in a shuttlecraft, which very early had an unfortunately wet experience of it’s own, but the pair were recovered safely, and the last preparations to clean up the mess of local space/time got under way.

Mission 4: The Klingon Invasion

With tensions high due to the conflict between the Klingon and Romulan Empires, the USS Avandar arrived at its designated patrol area with the intent of trying to keep as good an eye on what was going on across the border as possible without landing itself in undue trouble. This did not go entirely according to plan.

Just as they were getting settled in to their new assignment, the Avandar’s crew received an emergency distress call from another Starfleet vessel – the USS Drake – which reported itself under attack by a Klingon ship. Making best speed to Gateway Station and the Drake’s location, the Avandar was able to make a sufficiently dramatic entrance that the Klingon ship withdrew, leaving the Drake and Avandar to establish just how serious the impact of the attack had been.

It turned out that the impact was quite serious, though not for the reasons first thought. When the alien beacon the Drake’s crew had been working on Gateway Station gave off a significant energy surge, disrupting local subspace, it also uncovered a swarm of gravitic mines the Klingon ship had left behind as it withdrew – mines that immediately began homing in on both the beacon and the civilian station it was aboard…

In an attempt to prevent the loss of civilian lives, the USS Avandar focussed it's efforts on trying to stop the swarm of gravimetric mines heading for Gateway Station, it's tactical crews working hard to shoot the attacking drones down. In the meantime the USS Drake, along with an ad-hoc fighter wing piloted by members of their own crew, as well as volunteers from the Avandar and Gateway Station itself, ran interference to try and make sure the Klingon ships still in the area kept their distance.

The arrival Klingon reinforcements, including a carrier, turned the situation for the worse as far as the Starfleet ships are concerned. In a rather desperate attempt to keep things under control, Captain Vetri tried a diplomatic approach to buy some time. Unfortunately, the attempt didn't pay off to well - both Starfleet ships found themselves boarded.

In an unexpected turn of luck, relief arrived in the form of another group of KDF vessels - who promptly engaged the Klingons already closing and inflicted a number of casualties. Taking advantage of the distraction, both Starfleet crews began evacuating as many of the station's population as possible before recovering their pilots and breaking off as fast as they could.

With a large hole in the hull from the boarding craft and cargo bays overflowing with refugees, the Avandar parted ways with the Drake and began making it's way toward somewhere safe they could make repairs and pass the passengers on to those best able to help them.

Mission 3: Dancing in the Void

With the arrival of the USS Halo in the area, which took over dealing with the conditions on the Werent Outpost, and after bidding farewell to their fallen comrade, the crew of the USS Avandar got back to the business of seeing what mysteries waited for them. Things were not totally smooth sailing, however, as two of the crew still needed further treatment for injuries sustained on the last Away Mission, and the tension it had aroused among the crew caused a number of incidents, including a confrontation between one of the Engineering staff and a Marine that left the CPO Valaine in sickbay (again) and LtCmdr. Eerie and others investigating just what had happened - and why the ship's internal sensors had failed to record anything at all in the area the incident occurred.

Things settled down quite quickly, however, and the Avandar's new Chief Science Officer, LtCmdr Sorani, was welcomed aboard, though with perhaps a little less enthusiasm from some quarters as might have been preferred. The crew have something new to focus on now, however, with the discovery of a previously unknown form of apparently space-dwelling life. Eager to get to grips with this new discovery, the Avandar's officers have begun trying to piece together just why these creatures seem so interested in an apparently utterly mundane comet in deep space...

The creatures were not the only puzzle, however. The comet itself gave off some interesting readings, suggesting something beneath the surface, something that strongly resembled a masked chamber of some kind. Despite the potential hazards of going walkabout on the surface of a comet, the selected away team was eager to get going – an eagerness that lasted right up until they encountered an entity of some kind on the comet and things took a turn for the the strange.

With the away team completely off sensors and experiencing some very vivid hallucinations apparently caused by the entity, the Avandar's crew had to deal with a gas sample from the comet’s corona totally ignoring containment methods after being beamed aboard for study. Finally, the entire area of the ship had to be vented into space, but with a little creativity the crew managed to locate the Away Team was found once more and return them to the ship – though not totally unscathed by their experiences with the entity they encountered inside the comet.

Even with some relatively minor injuries to deal with, there was a great deal of interest in digging deeper - unfortunately, there was no chance to study what it’s custodian considered an archive of experiences from a number of species as urgent orders came through from Starfleet Command for the Avandar to return to Federation space. A far bigger problem was beginning to rear it's head...

Mission 2: Dark Shadows

After returning to Starbase 23 to give the crew a chance to recover from their ordeal on Eden, the USS Avandar returned through the Rabbit Hole to continue it's efforts to explore the new region of space on the other side.

The events of the last mission left their mark on the crew of the USS Avandar, and a stop at Starbase 23 gave them a chance to let off a little steam and take the chance to get to grips with what had happened to them. The layover didn't last all that long, however, and the crew were soon back through the Rabbit Hole, with the intention of getting the region of space they were to explore to yield up more secrets than trouble.

At first, things were pretty mundane, with a few somewhat interesting stellar features located for possible further study, but the real prize came in the form of a beacon that led the Avandar to their first planet-side contact on the far side of the Rabbit Hole.

The beacon which contained a message about being taken by a hostile ship to a star system with the Werent Colony. It also gave warning about a nebula in the system.

With an invitation offered to pay a visit, an away team led by LtCmdr. T'Lea shuttled down to the colony to take a look around, whilst the Avandar itself began the job of investigating the possible mysteries of the nebula that lay only a short distance away, and seemed the destination of at least one other ship - quite possibly the source of the beacon they had investigated.

After the Away team's departure to the Werent outpost, the USS Avandar headed the short distance to the nearby nebula. Looking for signs of the transport ship that had dropped the beacon they had followed here, the Avandar was still taken somewhat by surprise when the ship responsible for the disappearance - an old Romulan Warbird commanded by what turned out to be a renegade officer - attacked from out of the nebula. The resulting conflict was rough, with both the Avandar and the Warbird having to fight the turbulence of the nebula itself as well as the other vessel. Eventually, creative use of the erratic terrain allowed the Avandar to prevail, with the Warbird's crew abandoning ship.

On the planet, things went equally roughly, with an initially warm and welcoming beginning soon turning into something from a nightmare. Whilst questions still exist as to the exact nature of the creatures that attacked the colony, two things became abundantly clear - Count Iblie, the colony's ruler, knew all about them... and the closest thing any of the away team could use to describe them was "zombies".

At LtCmdr T'Lea's command, the away team made a break for their shuttle, only to find themselves having to fight the monstrosities the whole way. Two of the team were seriously injured in the fighting and for Lt Blackwood, her encounter with the attackers proved fatal.

Now, with the Away Team back on the Avandar, the crew are faced with the decision of just how to proceed after their loss.

Mission 1: All that Remains

On it's maiden voyage, the USS Avandar set out to explore the far side of Romulan space by way of the recently discovered "Rabbit Hole" anomaly. On the other side of the anomaly, the crew picked up a faint signal, which they tracked to a dead world that none the less showed signs of ruins from an old culture. That was about as far as the crew got in their investigation before an unknown force struck the ship, forcing it into a very uncomfortable, and highly destructive, descent.

In the wake of the crash, the surviving crew discovered the world to be a rather tropical environment, with plenty of jungle life - and intelligent tribal natives that reacted poorly to the Avandar's violent arrival on their lands. Amid occasional raids by the natives trying to evict them, the crew worked to survive as best they could, which required some drastic decisions as to priorities to be made.

Over the months that followed, a number of the crew, led by LtCmdr Umas, grew increasingly dissatisfied with Capt. Vetri's lack of "at all costs" commitment to getting the crew rescued and her seemingly weak stance with regards to the natives. This finally erupted into open conflict when Umas attempted to murder the Captain whilst his followers provoked a major assault from the natives before making their escape in the only operational shuttle that remained.

Their attempt to get away from the planet failed due partly to sabotage to the shuttle, and they ended up making a forced landing some distance from the Avandar's remains. Now cut off, they are struggling to make their way whilst the rest of the crew - still under Captain Vetri's command - have brokered a truce with the natives, which shows signs of being the beginning of a true peace between the two groups...

For nearly ten years, the survivors of the USS Avandar's crash on the world they had dubbed Eden worked to adapt to their new home. After a very rough beginning, they had even managed to reach an accommodation with the natives, the crew and the nearest tribe coming to live in, if not harmony, then at least amicable enough proximity.

The relative peace wasn't to last, however, as LtCmdr Umas and his small band of rebels, tired of eking out an existence in the wilderness, found a way to capitalise on what they saw as their chance for revenge on those that had cast them out.

The beacon, the one hope the crew had for eventual rescue, was found to be having a detrimental effect on the atmosphere. Slow, subtle, but significant, this effect was enough for Captain Vetri to order it to be shut down whilst an attempt to fix the issue was made. There was no chance for that to happen, though, as Umas managed to get his hands on the device, modifying it for a more powerful transmission burst - a burst that, within minutes, had burned Eden's atmosphere into oblivion.

In the wake of the planet's destruction, the Avandar's crew were left to find answers to a number of questions - including what had just happened, and why where they back on the ship - which was parked neatly in orbit around the dead world they had approached only ten hours before...