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Alternate History (Artemis)

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USS Artemis-A
Titan Luna class.jpg
ACTIVE STATUS
Current Alert Status Green Alert.gif
Luna class
NCC-81287

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Alternate History (Artemis).png

"Tempus fugit, my dear Addison!"- CloQ of the Q Continuum

Teaser

After a well-earned shoreleave on Betazed, the crew of the USS Artemis-A gather in the bar 'The Fifth Chalice' for an award ceremony to recognize the efforts of its crew in their conflict with the CIC Desdemona. During the ceremony and the following socializing, Crewman Fugit - who had thus far just been Cdr. Genkos Adea's personal headahe for the evening, sheds his disguise and reveals an enemy that Cpt. Addison MacKenzie had hoped to never encounter again. Now, the crew of the Artemis-A are displaced in time to an alternate version of 2375 where the Dominion's foothold on Betazed is more prominent than it ever became during the proper timeline. Can Cpt. MacKenzie's crew save the timeline, while also getting every member of her scattered crew back onto the Artemis and back to their proper time?


After the Snap

A Battletorn Betazed

That was CloQ. A rogue member of the Q continuum we’ve had the displeasure of dealing with before. ::He sighed.:: I had really hoped we’d seen the last of them. They are obsessed with time and get a sick sense of satisfaction out of sending us to history’s worst moments. ::His eyes swept the horizon.:: Though this time seems especially personal.

“
”


Displaced to another area of Betazed - Lt.Cmdr. Dakora's hometown of Medara - him and a team of Ensigns (Savel, Chevalier and Z'Vahme) are dropped into an active conflict zone between the Dominion occupying forces and the local resistance cells. After escaping a Jem'Hadar patrol by ducking into an abandoned building, the group comes face-to-face with a member of the Betazoid Resistance Network - Leera Dakora, Lt.Cmdr. Dakora's mother. While not supposed to be alive at this date in the real timeline, it becomes clear - beyond the occupation occurring outside - that all is not well with the timeline.

Mrs. Dakora realizes her son's identity immediately, but their reunion is cut short as a squad of Jem'Hadar blast their way into the community center where the group is holed up. Knowing that their fighting chance is slim with one phaser between five people, Mrs. Dakora leads the group to an access tunnel leading down to the resistance network below the city. After Ensign Chevalier leaves a dastardly chemical trap for their Jem'Hadar pursuers, Lt.Cmdr. Dakora leads his team down while his mother goes up to finish the mission she was on, involving the demolition of a major crossroads and a nearby building, aimed at delaying and obstructing the occupying Dominion force on Betazed. While his mother is out of earshot, the Lt.Cmdr. brings his team up to speed on the identity of their rescuer and the complication of her continued existence in this version of 2376. Realizing that the very reason for their displacement is likely intrinsically linked to her, the Starfleet Officers accompany her back to the Resistance Hideout below Lt.Cmdr. Dakora's childhood home.

All of which brings us to the crux of things. It’s clear that we’re losing the war. Not just the fight here on Betazed, but the fight for the entire Alpha Quadrant. Which means, we have to do what we can to help – and the biggest difference we can make right now, as a planet, is to destroy those facilities. It won’t be easy, but there are some… structural flaws in the construction of the buildings; Concessions made in the name of expediency. We need to exploit those weaknesses.

“
”

There, the group makes the acquaintance of the Resistance Cell that Mrs. Dakora heads. After introducing Lt.Cmdr. Dakora as a cousin, the Starfleet Officers are disguised and briefed on an upcoming operation to destroy the numerous Ketracel White factories that the Dominion has erected in the region. The chances of success are slim, but if successful, they will deal a severe blow to the Jem'Hadar soldiers' efficiency in their war against the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. After ensuring that his crew all have the chance to reject participating in the operation, Lt.Cmdr. Dakora and the Ensigns finalize the plan for the following day's operation with Nieran Dwayx, his mother's second-in-command.




Setting History Right


Sequestered to Cmdr. Genkos Adea's childhood home in Dekoa by CloQ - who also bars any attempts at leaving the homestead - the three officers find themselves thoroughly confused by the current state of affairs. Their confusion is not aided by the appearance of a young Tevet Elain, a childhood friend of the Commander's that Lt Jovenan and Cmdr. Adea know as a vet in the future. The young Betazoid - not even ten years of age in this time - has been taking care of the city's pet inhabitants while their owners are away in one of the numerous internment camps run by the Dominion forces.

Initially earning the child's tentative trust through veiled honesty and a clear desire to help, they are allowed into the basement to help with taking care of the numerous animals within. But maneuvering within one's own past, even an alternate one, can be fraught with dangers, and when Lt. Jovenan accidentally reveals too much, Cmdr. Adea reveals his identity to salvage the situation.

After gaining the Betazoid child's trust through a sharing of minds and memories, the three Starfleet officers - now unburdened with the task of keeping their true identities and purpose secret - set to discovering what CloQ has altered about history, and how to possibly rectify it. This quest leads them to the study of Cmdr. Adea's father, which is in disarray following a ransacking. After some unconventional engineering by the Commander, Lt Jovenan attempts to utilize the old terminal to peruse news reports and find any discrepancies with the timeline she knows. Meanwhile, Cmdr. Adea and LtJG Sadar attempt to clean the study and locate the reasoning behind the ransacking. Lt Jovenan discovers that the cause of the alteration is the absence of the Romulan Star Empire in the Alliance against the Dominion, which leaves the Alliance severely lacking in firepower. This discovery occurs moments before Cmdr. Adea finds a message on the back of one of his father's bookcases. "RIGHT ON TIME."

Purpose? ::their anger was barely concealed:: My purpose is to make your Betazoid friends confront their pasts. You’ve got mummy issues Dakora, and then the doctor here has been running from every trauma he’s ever had. He’s terrified that if he ever stops to confront any of them, well… ::they raised a brow at Genkos:: What do you think will happen, doctor?

“
”

Just then, CloQ manifested before them, taunting the crew members with their inability to comprehend their grand design and reasserting their desire for entertainment. Succeeding in their intention to rile up the Betazoid Commander, CloQ then promptly disappeared once more, leaving the group to ponder on their next move. Recalling his prior encounters with CloQ, Cmdr. Adea ordered his subordinates to search for portals or windows connected to another place or time - a gimmick which CloQ had once used before. Locating such a window was easier said than done, but the group eventually discover one leading to the Romulus Capital, Ki Baratan, on the day of Senator Vreenek's return from his diplomatic talks with the Dominion - an event that never happened in their timeline, as Senator Vreenek had been assassinated by the Dominion by that point. Leaving behind Tevet Elain to guard the window from the other side, the Starfleet trio cross over in the hopes of setting right what went wrong.

Whatever that means in context...

Heading through the temporal window, the trio arrives on a walkway up in the skies of the Romulan homeworld, a world long-dead by the time of 2401. In order to stop the derailing of history, the three officers must head towards the Senate and intercept Senator Vreenek, but as they discuss how exactly to accomplish this, a Dominion vessel soars overhead. Perhaps they are already too late? Deciding that nothing could be gained by standing on a walkway in indecision, Cmdr. Adea leads the group into one of the connected skyscrapers, where the group encounters a very confused and very solitary Ensign Gnai. Bringing the Ensign up to speed, the group are then surprised by a Romulan civilian nearly outing their presence on the planet, but between a bit of creative roadblocking by a clumsy LtJG Sadar and a handy canewhacking, their cover is maintained a while longer.

After disguising LT Jovenan as the now unconscious Romulan civilian, and managing to pull out a map of the building and the city-at-large, the group manages to locate a laboratory with funcioning replicators on one of the lower floors. While there, functional disguises, complete with wigs and prosthetics, are replicated to fit the Cmdr. and the LT, and Cmdr. Adea realizes that they have a relatively clear shot at one of likely numerous planetary defense turrets, and a reasonable idea on how to carry out the assassination starts forming.

Heading up towards the access point to the turret platform, the party's way is barred by a security checkpoint. Despite encountering some issues due to their inability to convincingly disguise LtJG Sadar, the party is delayed, but some convincing acting from the disguised Cmdr. Adea and LT Jovenan manages to gain them entry to the turret. Battling the clock, the four Starfleet Officers begin planting evidence to suggest that the Dominion are the ones responsible for the tragedy that's about to occur, while simultaneously gaining control of the turret itself. As the Senator's shuttle enters the atmosphere, Cmdr. Adea mans the controls and prepares to shoot it down. His junior officers still burdened with guilt and doubt in their hearts about the justice of their actions, their task is completed as the turret shoots off one violent burst that hits the shuttle, sending it careening off-course. And straight into the turret itself, burying the Senator's assassins under tonnes of rubble...

Or so it would have been.



Retaking the Artemis

We know the Artemis is close – while we can’t make contact, I would have to assume she’s still in orbit where we left her - and likely crawling with Dominion forces - if CloQ has tasked us with retaking the ship. We don’t have weapons, we don’t have contact with the ship, and from the sounds of things, we’re knee-deep in trouble if we stay here. We need ideas.

“
”

Left behind in the ruins of the Fifth Chalice - the bar where (in an alternate future) the crew of the Artemis-A were enjoying an award ceremony - Captain MacKenzie and her team is tasked with the attempt at retaking their futuristic vessel, currently in orbit of the planet and beset by Dominion forces. Realizing that they currently stand out like sore thumbs on the streets of the occupied world, their first order of business is finding a clothing store to procure disguises.

However, not long after arriving at the store and examining their options, LT Silveira reveals a concealed Jem'Hadar soldier who'd been following the officers into the store and the encounter immediately turns violent. The Tactical Chief of the Artemis deals with the situation in short order, before the group must turn their focus onto their next move: How to get to the Artemis? LT Yellir reckons that the only 'safe' way to do so is to commandeer a landlocked vessel in one of Betazed's shipyards, and the group heads off to do just this.

Getting to the shuttles prove a greater issue than getting to the shuttleport itself, but after employing some rather loud 'Vulcan lockpicking', Ensign Solas manages to gain the team access to the shuttleport, but now, the team is even more of a timecrunch than before. Surely, the loud groaning of metal being forcibly folded in on itself is bound to alert guards? In the haste brought about, LT Yellir locate a spaceworthy shuttle that should serve their purposes, but it's locked. And a Jem'Hadar squad is heading their way quickly. The Lieutenant and Ensign Solas manage to pry the shuttle doors open in time, and soon, the Betazoid shuttle veers off into the Betazed night sky, upwards towards the Dominion blockade surrounding the planet. Meanwhile, on the Artemis itself, Assistant CMO Morgan comes face-to-face with the commanding Jem'Hadar, Tark'iqbar, who seems particularly obsessed with the idea of capturing the elusive Captain.

Captain Addison MacKenzie! I am Tark’iqbar, First of the LV Mak’ro. I’ve claimed your Ship. I’ve claimed your crew. And in the name of the Dominion- ::fires::

“
”

In the Betazoid shuttle, the team brainstorms on possible ways for them to retake the Artemis. Deeming the hijacking of a Dominion freighter far too perilous, Cpt. MacKenzie puts her faith in a plan involving a spacewalk in environmental suits. The shuttle approaches the Artemis, seemingly making it all the way to the access hatch without being detected. The entire group abandons the shuttle in favor of gaining access to their Starship. Once inside, Cpt. MacKenzie is able to access the computer to learn of the situation as is. Troubled by the presence of hostile boarders on her vessel, the group then enter the Jeffries' Tubes with hopes of locating a means of self-defense to aid them in retaking the Ship. Meanwhile, the Jem'Hadar command realizes that the Artemis has been boarded, and sets out for the lower decks in the hopes of capturing the elusive Starfleet Officers. When such attempts are met with limited success, the Jem'Hadar opt for gassing the Jeffries' Tubes in order to smoke out them out, prompting the team out into the open in Main Engineering, where a firefight soon ensues. Outmanned and outgunned by the hostile boarders, LT Yellir opts to rupture a tube of warp core coolant, causing the computer to start containment procedures in Main Engineering. The four Officers narrowly escape Main Engineering before the blast doors seal in the Jem'Hadar, who opt to escape through the Jeffries' Tubes. It's now a race to the upper decks.

Heading for Security to better arm themselves, the group encounters Lt.Cmdr. Salkath - a recent addition to the crew - who has thus far avoided detection by the Jem'Hadar, and he joins their group as they start heading towards the environmental controls to begin a daring attempt at retaking the bridge. However, just as they approach their goal, a bright light blinds them, and LT Yellir considers - is this death?

If only it was so...



Shuffling the Bag

Facing the Empress

Prison Break


Meeting the Gamemaster


MSNPCs and NPC Mentions

  • Mentioned NPCs:

Kyle Morgan - Assistant CMO, Addison MacKenzie's PNPC


FNS Headlines

  
*  Stardate 240102.24: USS Artemis-A Missing with all hands following Awards Ceremony

Fun facts



References

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