Garuda Mission History
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239101: Visit to Neverland
The month began with shore leave aboard Deep Space 10 as both captain and crew came to terms with the results of the last mission and their assignment to the Garuda, the USS Mercury’s Galaxy-class successor. However, while controlled chaos reigned behind the scenes — civilian astrophysicist J. Cowens disappeared during the Mercury’s fire-fight with the Cardassian warship Nok’Tan, and that disappearance precipitated a fierce but quiet manhunt, among other things — the majority of the crew enjoyed a pantomime of Peter Pan as brought by the United Service Organizations. Unexpectedly, though, many members of the senior staff were asked to participate in the panto when the USO’s full troupe did not arrive on the station. After a week of rehearsals, the senior staff presented the pantomime for the enjoyment of the rest of the crew. During the performance, however, the captain suddenly recalled everyone from shore leave for the Garuda’s next mission: first contact with a powerful race deep in the Menthar Corridor known as the Kubarey.
Just before the Garuda departed DSX, though, it was approached unexpectedly by a Cardassian diplomatic shuttle with Detapa Council member Prianna and Federation Ambassador Lily Ventu aboard, both of whom were welcomed politely but guardedly as both openly mentioned complicating agendas that extended beyond the first contact. Still, the trip to the Rho Aurigae system proceeded smoothly and without incident.
239102: First Contact With the Kubarey
The crew of the USS Garuda were all excited about being involved with a historic First Contact with the Kubarey race, but things did not go according to plan. Although apparently invited to the remote Kubarey outpost, initial contact could not be established with either the vessel in orbit or the planet. Captain Cassandra Egan Manno took a diplomatic away team down to the planet’s surface to investigate, while her crew probed the other ship in greater detail.
The away team inadvertently disturbed an ancient holy ceremony, greatly angering the Kubarey on the planet and triggering immediate reprisals. The Kubarey vessel, the Heart of Vahasamara, deployed electronic warfare in the form of an uploaded virus, disabling the Garuda in less than ninety seconds. Boarding parties were then beamed over, and over a thousand crew and civilians were taken hostage, the Garuda firmly in the control of the alien species. The remaining senior crew resisted the boarders, and through cunning and force, were able to wrest control of their ship back.
Meanwhile, down on the surface, Commander Ross was the first to feel the wrath of Kubarey, shot by a strange device and vanishing into thin air. The rest of the away were forced to undergo trials to prove their worthiness to enter the Kubarey’s temple. They seemingly passed the tests, but both Rune Jolara and Jade Shryker received painful injuries for their efforts.
Fortunately sanity finally prevailed, and the Garuda was returned to Captain Egan Manno, and the entire crew, except the unfortunate Crewman Jones who died fighting the Kubarey, could return home to Deep Space 10.
239103: R & R at DSX
With the fraught first contact mission with the Kubarey over, the Garuda crew arrived back to Deep Space Ten for some well earned rest and relaxation. However, Lt Jade Shryker had been badly injured during the Trials, and both she and the abducted Commander Ross had to deal with their experiences as best they could. On the station, Commander Ross and Captain Quinn Reynolds were reunited after being apart for the whole of the last mission, although Reynolds unwittingly got punched during a bar fight in Ten Forward. Fortunately Doctor McGregor and LtCmdr Bakari were on hand to assist.
Meanwhile, Lieutenants Mei'konda and Evan Delano spent some time together relaxing on the holodeck, whilst Leo Handley-Page and Ensign Frank O'Malley worked on a highly toxic blood sample, hoping to find a cure to a rampant infection on Leo's homeworld of Byzatium, little realising that another sample had been stolen during the Kubarey's assault, and fallen into unwitting hands.
Elsewhere, Lt JG Trel'lis got her infusion from the mysterious Xelarian race, causing her headpiece to become part of her physical form and giving her a more youthful appearance and extended life span. It was during leave that Ensign Kenoi joined the crew as a medic, and Lt Jg Alora DeVeau was promoted to Chief Science Officer. The final crew change was the unexpected departure of Leo Handley-Page on a private quest, and the arrival of his half-sister Nia Calderan, who became the new Diplomatic Attache.
239104: Blockades and Diplomacy
The crew of the Garuda traveled to Zeta Equulei, a K-class star, to meet the two rival alien races of the Community and the Myr Luuks. Both races were quite unusual in appearance. The Community were comprised of one collective consciousness, who used plant-like avatars to communicate with the Starfleet officers. Meanwhile, the Myr Luuks were giant furred centipede-like beings, whose chosen form of communication was to project holograms mimicking the Garuda crew members themselves.
Upon arrival at the gas giant and orbiting moons, the crew of the Garuda realised that they had stumbled into a system engaged in a cold war, with the Community ships blockading the Myr Luuks. Wanting to not only mediate between the two races, but also investigate reports of some rare artifacts from the lost civilisation of the Ancient Alliance, Captain Egan Manno split her crew into three teams. She sent LtCmdr Calderan with the Saucer section of the ship to liaise with the Myr Luuks, and a team under FO Commander Ross down to the surface of Zeta Equulei 3 to talk to the representative of the Community, Bodhisattva. Meanwhile, Captain Egan Manno kept her remaining crew upon the Stardrive section of the Garuda, waiting to assist either of the Away Teams. However, whilst doing a system check, Chief Rahman and Ensign Rawlings discovered some damage and potential sabotage in engineering conduits of the Garuda. Soon after, strange disembodied voices started taunting the crew as the Stardrive section was pulled towards a 'void' in space, where many Myr Luuk and Community space ships were found drifting and derelict - a veritable ship's graveyard!
239105: Aggressive Negotiations
The crew of the USS Garuda found themselves between a rock and a hard place during their mission to the Zeta Equulei system where the Community and the Myr Luuks were hostile neighbours.
Cmdr. Ross's away team visited the home moon of the Community and discovered a complex base in the course of their discussions that was probably left from an older race, as the Community didn't possess the technology necessary to construct the structure. As part of the negotiations, Lts. Delano and Mei'konda and Ambassador Ventu willingly underwent a mind merge with the Confluence (the Community’s hive brain) where they discovered a link between with the even more ancient and mysterious Menthar race that once inhabited this region of space: The Menthar had uplifted the pre-warp Community to be an aggressive race that could fight on their behalf. After the disappearance of the Menthar, the Community continued along this developmental path.
Meanwhile, the Garuda’s saucer section under Lt. Cmdr. Calderan was hosting a delegation of Myr Luuks. However, a renegade on board had plans to scupper the meeting. They murdered an ensign to gain control of a shuttlecraft, and launched it on a collision course with the alien escort vessels, destroying one upon impact. This brought the Myr Luuks and the Community to the brink of war.
To remove themselves from making the situation any worse, Captain Egan Manno decided to reunite the saucer and stardrive sections and withdraw the USS Garuda from the Zeta Equulei system. However, it must be noted that the Myr Luuks – unsatisfied with the Federations overtures, began negotiations with the Cardassians soon after. Before the Garuda arrived back at DSX, Commanders Rahman and Core discovered that a nest of DSX’s rogue spider-drones had been making a new home in the Garuda’s plasma conduits. The nest was excised quickly and the crew began shore leave on DSX, though there remained several loose ends to tie up....
239106: Treachery on the Mud Dome
The crew of the Garuda, including the surprise return of a younger Aron Kells, were busy working to save the population of the city of Bocasa. This city, the largest settlement of the Eth race on the planet Pleethion, was about to be engulfed by an unstable, volcanic mud dome.
One away team, under XO Commander Ross, was assigned to monitor the mud dome and investigate methods to stop its eruption. What no one could expect was that Commander Ross would turn rogue, kidnap Captain Reynolds, and abandon the rest of the team next to the dome. To compound his treachery, he had laid explosives aboard the USS Garuda to hinder their pursuit of him in a stolen shuttlecraft. Fortunately, Lieutenant Delano’s force shields prevented a lot of the damage to the ship.
Meanwhile, another team, led by 2O Lt. Cmdr. Calderan, was tasked with helping with the evacuation of Bocasa. However, they were surrounded and captured by Eth zealots who resented their presence on the planet. They were being taken to be sacrificed to the deity Sirilis, but they were rescued at the last minute as the Garuda restored its sabotaged transporter systems and beamed them back safely. The mud dome away team were likewise rescued, but not before Lt. CMdr. Alleran Tan got a limpet mine painfully embedded into his leg.
With the crew reassembled, the engineers and scientists on the Garuda worked to develop a plan to dehydrate the Mud Dome and save Bocasa, before beginning their pursuit of the wayward Harrison Ross and his captive, Capt. Quinn Reynolds.