Act 1 – Aboard the waverider

We join our team aboard Pioneer’s waverider shuttle as they receive a briefing via holographic comms from the ship’s XO. A young colony nearby has suddenly gone quiet, having missed two consecutive scheduled check-ins with colonial operations. Shortly before going silent, the colony reported several strange occurrences including; failing equipment, an unusual wasting illness and a series of unexpectedly underwhelming crops. Carina VII, known locally as Vandel, is a relatively new colony, settled in the last 20 years following the fracturing of the Romulan Star Empire, intended as a joint effort with the Klingons to populate and secure this region of space. As a result of the recent changes to the political landscape, the colony has continued with its work in relative peace, with neither side in a position to flex their muscles to exert control. As a new venture, Vandel only has a small population who are focused on establishing the colony prior to developing further with plans as a starbase. In their current phase, they are primarily solidifying large-scale agriculture and initial infrastructure in preparation for an influx of colonists. Pioneer has been tasked with re-routing to the colony and investigating the sudden lack of contact with the following directives;

1. Confirm the status of the colony and provide aid as necessary.
2. Confirm, and if necessary prevent, the Klingon Empire from exerting undue influence on the colony.
3. Where necessary secure the colony from dangers presented by any party, including the nearby Romulan Free State.

The XO confirms that help is several days away at high warp and Pioneer is essentially one on it’s own. He also confirms that nearby listening posts at the Romulan border have detected the approach of several signatures matching Klingon vessels from House Ghalan, a banner house of Duras the team have previously encountered. The signatures have been detected en route before disappearing, likely under cloak. Pioneer will patrol the system whilst the team take the waverider down to the planet to investigate, the shuttle will then act as a mission hub as the ship leaves planetary orbit. The team are assigned a support crew of 4, one from each main department (Engineering, Security, Medical and Sciences) to assist them during the mission as Pioneer will be out of immediate reach.

The team depart the ship and begin their approach to the planet as Pioneer banks away to begin it’s patrol.

Act 2 – Morgan’s Hope

As the shuttle banks into the atmosphere, the team run a series of scans, including atmospheric survey scans and long-range sensor analysis. Katsu confirms that there do not appear to be any unexpected issues with the atmosphere or life-supporting aspects of the planet, all indicators falling within expected parameters for a Minshara class planetoid and the colony’s recent reviews. The team note that the buildings of the colony are spread far apart and large-scale farmlands fill the spaces between, with most farmsteads separated by hundreds of kilometres. They also note a significant amount of automation in use on the colony, with machines working throughout the fields as well as transporting materials to and from locations without direction. In a distant series of mountains they detect a faint power source indicating the presence of a matter-antimatter reactor, this matches colonial records as the Klingon compound, built deep into the mountains overlooking the main colony hub of Morgan’s Hope.

Seeing a large cluster of buildings built around a central landing pad, Orlan effortlessly brings the waverider in to land where they are greeted by the colony governor Syreeta, a human woman dressed in muddy working clothes and a welcoming smile. Several other groups of colonists have turned out to see the arrival of the team and as the engines of the waverider power down the quiet sounds of muttering can be heard from these nearby groups.

Syreeta welcomes the team and offers them the best of the colony’s hospitality with locally produced tea, fruits and cakes. Whilst they take a moment to enjoy the welcome, Katsu enquires as to the colony’s overt lack of technology. Drawing on her sociology & anthropology training she notes many manual and traditional farm features as well as an absence of computer terminals and similar parapherinalia. Syreeta explains that the planet is not filled with luddites but rather the colonists take pride in the labour inherent in good craftsmanship and believe that hard work makes their experience more worthwhile. The colony still makes use of advanced technology as evidenced by the automation in the fields but doesn’t currently need extensive tech, preferring to let the colony establish naturally instead of imposing it upon the planet.

Shaw takes the lead in enquiries regarding the colonies’ unexpected silence, Syreeta confesses that two weeks ago the comms array building collapsed unexpectedly, killing 6 people and neutralising their deep space communications ability. The colony has no dedicated interstellar support vessel and depends on regular visits from both Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force; as they were not in direct danger they opted to wait for the next scheduled visit. The colonists do not have the expertise to establish what caused the collapse other than the mechanical failure of the building’s metallic members, which is unexpected as they are less than 20 years old and are constructed of the same fabric as starship hulls. She mentions this is the most recent in a series of unusual occurrences and explains that in addition to the collapsing building, several farmers have reported entire crops failing and wasting overnight and a wasting condition spreading throughout the farmlands. She also mentions the unusual medical situation of the Mackley family but prefers not to talk about it, offering to take the team to meet them instead.

The team enquired as to whether the Klingons could help, Syreeta confessed that the Klingons retreated to their compound almost a month ago and have not been in contact since. All attempts to make contact have been ignored and suspicion is growing amongst the colonists that they are responsible for the colony’s bad luck.

The team split up to investigate two locations; Katsu and Gik will head to the collapsed comm building to follow up with two ensigns they sent ahead to begin surveys; whilst Shaw, Orlan and Kaz head to the Mackley house to investigate the family’s unusual medical condition.

Act 3 – The Mackley House

As they arrive at the Mackley house Syreeta warns the trio that the parents of Efren are very concerned, unsure what to make of the boy’s condition. As they step in they meet Wes and Gadeen Mackley who sit at the table, watching a young boy of 6 years play with toys in the corner of their small homestead. Wes appears to be a human in his early 40’s and is the more panicked of the two, pleading with Starfleet to help them. Gadeen on the other hand appears in her late 20s and sits quietly at the table, her attention laser-focused on the young boy making babbling noises as he lays on the floor playing with letter blocks. As the trio converse Orlan notices that Efren seems woefully under-developed for a six-year-old, his actions more akin to a small babe. When they enquire further the parents inform them that Efren was born only six months ago, having grown rapidly into the boy before them. The colony’s medics had no explanation and they were awaiting a response from Starfleet Medical. Kaz takes a number of scans and confirms that the boy’s physical body is consistent with a six-year-old, noting a number of unusual chroniton readings from the child.

Concerned that Wes may be overwhelming Gadeen, Kaz takes him off under the guise of taking some medical scans, whilst Orlan enquires further with the mother. He manages to draw out from her disassociated state that she is struggling with reconciling the boy’s condition, believing she has done something during the pregnancy to affect him despite her attempts to protect him. Following some further probing she reveals that she stopped working in the fields a month before the birth following medical advice and began working in the comm array instead, she’s been working there ever since. When asked if she noticed anything odd, she says she ‘never really noticed anything about the building’. She did remember an odd incident a few months ago when a Klingon cruiser made a scheduled visit. There was a high number of encrypted transmissions and transports between the ship and the Klingon compound, including reports of a storm on the edge of the system. She also overheard a number of comments regarding high levels of chroniton radiation in the storm and the system generally but thought little of it at the time. The cruiser then left orbit without notice having delivered its supplies, at the same time the Klingon colonists retreated back to the compound in the mountains.

Kaz confirms via a number of scans on both the parents, the child and Syreeta that there is some unusual chroniton activity; each seems physically older than they should. The team suspect the reported storm may the cause but note that Pioneer did not report seeing it on their arrival. The trio decide to return back to the shuttle and rendezvous with the other team with Kaz confirming that currently, no one in the trio seems affected.

Act 4 – The Collapsed Comm Array

As Gik and Katsu arrive at the remains of the comm array they spy the two ensigns waiting outside. They report that the building has collapsed due to apparent fault of the structural members, though they note this is unexpected as the life of durasteel construction is in the hundreds of years. When Katsu asks if they have investigated further they note they haven’t found a safe way in yet. The Lieutenant points at the open door and for a moment the pair of ensigns think she is ordering them into the building ahead of them. Gik notes the structure appears relatively sound and not at risk of further collapse so he and Katsu enter the ruins and begin picking their way through the rubble after detecting a barely functioning power source. As they enter the building they realise the damage is extensive, the building is mostly useless now and they can see where the casualties have been extracted but it appears no further attempts have been made to enter the site. Throughout the building is evidence of the daily activities that were interrupted by the collapse, scattered work padds, empty mugs strewn across the floor, and still flickering consoles displaying sensor data.

As the pair make their way to the central console Katsu is able to call up recent data, drawing on the last trickle of power in the building’s batteries. She identifies a number of maintenance reports of increasing severity, starting as minor reports of inefficient power batteries (the engineer thinks they got sent old stock), broken and faulty furniture, reports of a broken fridge when all the food got spoilt and finally reports of micro fractures in the ceiling a day prior to the collapse. Gik begins to investigate the main collapsed joist and after initially promising evidence of chroniton radiation, fails to get further details. He reaches out to take a physical sample for investigation but the durasteel crumbles to dust in his hand, appearing as if it has been on plathe net for centuries rather than decades. It’s clear the collapse was due to the main joists failing from fatigue, he takes a sample of the dust for later reference.

Before returning to the landing platform to check-in, the pair manage to decode a number of encrypted messages from the recent visit by the Klingon Cruiser. They reveal a number of ‘research materials’ were delivered to the outpost and the messages contain several instructions regarding an ongoing investigation into a storm on the edge of the system. Though the pair cannot fully break the encryption they are able to see that the Klingons received instructions to further the investigation above all other considerations.

The two teams rendezvous at the landing pad and after some discussion decide the next step is to visit the Klingon compound. As they begin preparing to leave, a farmer rushes up to the group shouting about Klingon murderers stalking around the edge of the field last night. He proclaims through his furious tears that they are the cause of the colony’s issues before presenting two bundles to the assembled group. One contains the body of his dog, clearly killed by a disrupter weapon. The second contains the familiar shape of a Klingon Disrupter pistol, on it’s hilt the curving sigil of House Ghalan.