Shooting on Nimbus

“This latest attack will not stand, we will locate and prosecute the people responsible for the attack to the fullest extent of the law.” — Admiral Lance Thomas

On the 18th security officers collected several assailants at Finnegan’s Tavern on Nimbus Station. One of first splicers was attacked by an unknown number of assailants during the evening of the 18th. Security responded but not before the injured officer was shot in the stomach at close range by a phaser blast. The site is frequented by many of the military personnel on the station and is run by Captain Lee Finnegan.

Solas Tempus has not released details of the incident nor the name of the person attacked, only that he was retired and worked in the hospital. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the unnamed victim was one of the team which helped in the recovery efforts of Admiral Lance Thomas after his return from capture. Given recent events, we reached out to Admiral Thomas for comment.

We have always taken the security of our officers, crew, and civilian residents seriously. It it deeply troubling when a man who did not wish to come here, who was forced here by the Splice phenomena that pervades this system, turned his life to service of the people who welcomed him among them is attacked without provocation. It is even further troubling to know this person was retired and had devoted his remaining years to the medical profession, healing the sick and wounded. Such a person should, at the very least, not have to concern himself with being shot and potentially killed by attackers after surviving numerous military campaigns bravely both in his native universe and here in ours.

It is truly inspiring to see someone who is so devoted to the service of others. Retiring from military service only to go into the medical profession. Especially when this man could have rested on his laurels and no more would have been expected of him. Such a person deserves our respect and gratitude.

This latest attack will not stand, we will locate and prosecute the people responsible for the attack to the fullest extent of the law.

Admiral Lance Thomas

When asked for further details on the attack Admiral Thomas reiterated that he could not comment further on an ongoing investigation, being handled internally by the Solas Tempus security forces rather than civilian agencies.

Within hours of our speaking with Admiral Thomas an unnamed source at Serenity Station indicated to reporters that an increase in the number of patrols was being organized. In addition, another source at the Umbral Shipyards indicated that many of their support craft which had yet to be assigned were in the process of being refit with more advanced sensor arrays. A second source at the shipyards confirmed this and also confirms that orders have been issued to upgrade the sensor arrays of existing vessels, fighters, shuttles, and all other starship and auxiliary craft in the region. It is unclear the reasons for such upgrades or orders, though it could indicate that the organization is actively searching for something which requires new hardware capabilities.

Is the surge in activity in the system related to the recent attack? The timing seems to indicate that it could be, but Solas Tempus denies that new ordered have been given, insisting that any upgrades taking place are part of the normally scheduled routine maintenance. If it is related, one has to wonder what Solas Tempus is searching for.

Bombing of Nimbus

Anyone tuning into the Serenity Concord news broadcasts would find the familiar, detached expression of news anchor John Boyega would be staring back at them. He cleared his throat, and began to speak.

“Several weeks ago, as many of you know, an Andorian male identified as Koss Th’sherheth entered a hospital on Nimbus station while Commander Mike-037 was visiting an injured Solus Tempus Marine, and bombed the building. Aside from causing massive amounts of structural damage to the hospital and nearby buildings with the blast itself, he took the lives of 100 civilians and hospital workers, as well as severely injuring 20- including the target of the bombing: Commander 037. 30 more civilians were left with minor injuries. Everyone else was unharmed.

“Protests have sprung up against the excessive use of force against the media by ST security forces during the crisis,” Boyega’s words were supported with video of Tobi Angelos straight up yoinking all the media equipment out of the reporter’s hands while the hospital burned in the backround. “However, as no damage was done to the equipment or reporters, none of the outlets involved have pressed charges. Our own Serenity Concord Broadcasting Company claiming that ‘Solus Tempus security was merely trying to keep everyone at a safe distance from ground zero’. The public disagrees.”

The footage changed to video of security forces being obstructed on patrol by a group of protesters. There was no audio, due to the amount of obscenities shouted at the two poor patrolmen. They looked afraid for their safety, hands tightly gripping their phasers as more security arrived to try and disperse the crowd.

“The bomber’s apartment was searched, and it was revealed he left a note behind for Solus Tempus and the Concord at large. For security reasons, we’ve not been permitted to release the exact words on the note, but long story short… Koss Th’sherheth claimed that ST has long discriminated against non-humans of all kinds. He didn’t provide any proof, only accusations. He also accused the organization of becoming a fascist state with the increasing size of the military and the seemingly total control of Fleet Admiral Lance Thomas and Fleet Admiral Sal D’Amico. He claimed to be part of an Onyx supported ring of anti-human terrorists aiming to help bring about the demise of Solus Tempus.

This has sparked more outrage, as it seems the recent attempts to guarantee the safety of civilians have only brought more danger, closer to home.”

Introducing Force Recon

“This already causes some issues for most, as the Spartan-II’s have already been proven to be unreliable and sketchy at best.” A flat out lie, but Mr. Boyega’s job was just to read the words on the screen. He couldn’t have cared less about this himself. “The fact that Solus Tempus continues to increase their military presence is also frightening to many, and protests have begun to try and bring about some sort of limitation on the organization’s growing armies.”

After a very generic, local news type intro with some synth riffs and aggressive brass that was just grating to any ears listening, the actual reporting began. A man behind a desk in a suit, holding a PADD began to read from a teleprompter behind the camera.

“Hello everyone, and welcome to the most trusted source of news within the Serenity Concord. I’m John Boyega, and boy do we have some things to go over today.” The screen changed from his face to footage of the Solus Tempus Marine Corps during a training exercise.

“Just a month ago, the Command Staff of Solus Tempus announced they’d be opening a special forces division of their Marines. They’ve named it Marine Force Recon, and already the news has kicked up dust among the general population in Schatten system. It’s stated purpose is to be the first line of offense between Solus Tempus and anyone who would attempt to attack them, and it’s being led by Spartan-II’s Mike-037 and Alicia-052.”

The screen now showed two pictures, one with Mike standing in his armor without the helmet, and a second with Alicia fully enclosed in her armor.

“This already causes some issues for most, as the Spartan-II’s have already been proven to be unreliable and sketchy at best.” A flat out lie, but Mr. Boyega’s job was just to read the words on the screen. He couldn’t have cared less about this himself. “The fact that Solus Tempus continues to increase their military presence is also frightening to many, and protests have begun to try and bring about some sort of limitation on the organization’s growing armies.”

Now they showed clips from the protesters being interviewed. Boyega sipped his coffee and relaxed, he didn’t have to do anything now. Not until the cameras panned back at least. The first protester was a young woman, around her early twenties it looked like.

“We can’t just let them shoot anyone who disagrees with them! The Serenity Concord was formed to promote peace, and Solus Tempus putting some warcrime machines in charge of a bunch of trigger-happy, brainwashed teenagers is not peaceful. What are they gonna do? Conquer the whole galaxy?”

The other clips were some variation of this, and there were mentions of Leo and the Epoch acting as the mobile headquarters of the special forces. The camera panned back to Boyega.

“That’s currently all the information we have on Force Recon, as the Spartans refuse to release any information- even the names of the men and women they’ve recruited have been hidden behind number codes. Whatever they’re doing, it’s probably no good. And now, on a lighter note: space squirrels.”

Anti-Human Bomb Attack at Nimbus Diner

Earlier today, at 6:30 am, a bomb was detonated in the popular diner Jonny’s Place killing thirteen humans including the the diners owner, head cook, as well as five Solas Tempus personnel. All the casualties were human though one of two survivors was a Klingon. This publication has received word that the attack has been linked to anti-human terrorist from an anonymous source within Solas Tempus.

We have asked the public for there opinions on this outrageous attack, it seems some are more lenient on these terrorists than others. Many humans believe that drastic action is necessary to prevent these atrocities from happening again. While it is not a common sentiment, some felt that detaining any suspected to have links with potential terrorists was a matter of public safety.

Reporters were shocked to find numerous non-humans declined to answer questions posed about the terror attack as well as the growing racial tensions. A serious question has come to the forefront, who are our allies in these times of need. As many on the station mourn the loss of life, we can only hope that this is not the beginning of something much worse and that a solution can be found to end the growing hostilities.

Unknown Signal Intercepted

Operations officer of Nimbus Station has confirmed with crew of INV New Hope existence of unknown signal leaving planet, location was confirmed to be at or around of any colony, station, or ship identified within the Schatten System itself, but it was impossible to get proper coordinates.  It is also possible that signal was somehow encoded and / or relayed as to be especially difficult to detect.

Signal is strongly encrypted and teams at working on decoding it.  It is possible, though unconfirmed that some faction was at work within the system to produce the transmission.  The signal has been sent to Starbase Tranquility for concurrent efforts to decode along with the crew of the New Hope and specialists here on Nimbus.

At this time it is crucial to find way to intercept and fully decode signal like this if it will happen again.  The facts that we know at this time:

  • It is scrambled and encrypted.
  • Appears to be transmited using long range coms, possibly using hyperspace related technology according to New Hope technicians.
  • Appears to be transmitted from area of the system which uninhabited, but sensor scans don’t show anything unusual.

Providence Truth Inaugural Broadcast

A signal is broadcast out of the darkness of space, those who have been especially paranoid or those who were inquisitive enough about the truth knew where to tune their receivers, the subspace signal comes on loud at the appointed time, intro music has a fair bit of static at first, but clears up pretty quickly before the face of James Anatoli appears.

Hello everyone it’s me James Anatoli of Providence Truth Radio, your ray of truth in an abyss of misinformation. First off we have some very interesting pair of topics to talk about today that really highlight the state of affairs on Nimbus Station. First, however, I would like to remind all of our listeners about transporter shield. This isn’t a joke — this chemical cocktail is specially made to prevent the transporters from scrambling your brains everytime you are beamed somewhere.

Alright back on track. Now after our brave free speech advocates were violently broken up by the irresponsible goon Spartan Mike, a counter protest was assembled. Well I only call it a counter protest to give them the benefit, but many of the witnesses say it was nothing more but a display of anti-human power. You guys may not believe me in this but this next story apart from being true is also a great example of the double standard. In response to the anti-human propaganda a great man, Jeffery Brooks, called them out for their misinformation. They obviously played the victim to garner sympathy and to get the help of our misguided leadership. How misguided? Well Admiral Lance Thomas happened to be around and only happened to catch the last part of the discussion between Jeff and the anti-human thugs when the thugs pretended to be the victims. The misguided idiot berated Jeff and even went so far as to threaten him! Can you believe that? Threatened for exercising his free speech! Folks I don’t know what is happening to our station but it is not good, we are experiencing a degradation of our nation.

You may think that this is another example of Lance being hard on his men but I have another topic to discuss. We recently had some fine men and women come to the station to take command of a ship. The Captain, Laurena, had caught an X-Wing flying dangerously close to the station. Understandably she went to the hanger and looked for the pilot to berate them for endangering the people of the station. So good so far but the xeno, a splice from another world, just ignored her. Can you believe the nerve of that xeno?! She just completely ignored Laurena and walked away without following the orders of a superior officer! Had Jeff done the same thing he would most likely been arrested and sent to the brig on the spot. Remember that, you wanna know what happened to the xeno? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Do you see what kind of double standards we are dealing with? They can march all over us and ignore our authority with no repercussions but we can’t even express our opinion without threats!

Folks I don’t know what to say about the direction the station is headed in. What I can tell you is that we must resist this sort of tyranny. At first it’s just something innocuous but believe me this is a portent of things to come. We have to fight them every step of the way and show them we are serious. Folks keep fighting the good fight, this is James of Providence Truth Radio signing out.

Music begins to play as the image of James fades to black, then the channel closes.

Void of Unfinished Plots

Back when I was doing all Tabletop role play we had a guy that would promise to run games a lot. His name was J.D. and the main GM would get tired of running things so, we’d all roll characters in whatever system he was going to run, play one or two sessions and then those character would be in the void, by this I mean we’d never be able to pull them out because the game was always “going to be” continued and J.D. would just drop it.

I try very hard not to do this but there are a number of plots that have been going on for a lot longer than I wanted them to go. To help with that I’d like to invite any players who want to help restart or resolve the current plots to do so. This will also serve as a kind of primer to different kinds of characters we need to add to the role play.

Incomplete Plots

Ok, so here are the plots currently going on that I recall right now, and where they stand. These, of course, don’t involve PSL’s (personal story lines) that are tied to one or two individual people.

Blazing Umbra

  • Akron Mystery (currently on Act 3)
  • Political Pressure
    • Operation Succubus / Operation Grey Angel
    • Racial Tensions
  • Infinity Wave Investigation (currently on Act 2)

Akron Mystery

The Akron Mystery’s current state is talked about here on the forum but also in these tagged posts. Currently, there is one open thread on the forum where Flask is stuck on the USS Akron. Aside from that I’ve asked repeatedly for someone to go ahead and start playing some creation player-character of the Akron to interact with people and be a problem, that hasn’t happened so I’m trying to figure out a way around it.

What do we need?

Akron currently is in need of scientists and magic specialists to study the Malitae.

Political Pressure

So because of the expansive nature of this plot line, a lot is included within. The basic idea is talked about here as well as here and here of the forum. The basic idea is that Onyx is using covert measures to apply political pressure to undermine Solas Tempus. In doing so, they are attacking the organization on multiple fronts.

Since the game mostly takes place on Nimbus Station, that is where the bulk of the role play is focused. In this, we’ve gone through a few things already and I’d say that the main plot is on Act 4, but that act is going to wait until we’ve completed one of the related sub-plots, which is the Abduction of Megan Shepard, this abduction is part of a larger effort on the part of Onyx and the residual Imperial forces in the Blazing Umbra Universe.

The the abduction of Megan and the rescue efforts are talked about in Operation Gray Angel posts while the Imperial efforts are talked about in Operation Succubus, on a wider-scale the Imperial / Onyx efforts can be also looked at with the Imperial Intercepts category.

What do we need?

While we finally found an interrogator for use on Megan, currently one player is playing the three starships searching for Megan, which is spreading one person a little thin! So we need people who are willing to play additional assets, preferably with ships of some kind to help search for Megan and then later engage Imperial forces.

Infinity Wave Investigation

This mission began with the Infinity Wave that had the entire group stuck in 1509 orbiting Saturn for an extended period of time while the Lilith went to stop the wave from happening. The initial act of this plot saw that Onyx had successfully constructed or obtained some ALR-X Missiles, which were accidentally used on Earth’s moon before the birth of the United Federation of Planets and it wiped out of current timeline. After disabling the missiles, the Lilith returned having allowed everyone to return to the 24th century.

I put out a general call for participants and only found 2 players willing to participate. That’s fine, but we could use some more players to take on this mission. There will be both investigation and combat as things get underway. Anyone wishing to join are welcome and should contact me directly.

Angelic Sins

The main unfinished plot line here is with Symbols in Blood and Sorrow, currently on Act 3 after being reboot. The plot is currently stuck at waiting for players who play witnesses. The overall arc is talked about in this forum thread which has links and goes over the plot to-date. We need people to play witnesses in order to continue this plot. The witnesses should be RPed out, murders will go along with these notes which outline the kinds of things people would be seeing. I’d like to get a few people to actually play these witnesses.

Embers of Soteria

The generalized overall plot of Embers of Soteria is really about how the veil between worlds is breaking down. The current incarnation of this is in the Daemoni Attack. Since it is just beginning there is a lot of room to play in. Right now, experts in magic (and counter-magic) are needed, people who are knowledgable in monsters, spirits, and demons. Anyone wishing to play in this arc is more than welcome to do so.

Update on Operation Succubus

The INV Serpent arrived at our facility Assyria Base on schedule and refit began immediately. Unfamiliar with the hyperdrive technology or hypermatter reactors, the refits are slower going than one would like. After some amount of argument with Admiral Vallan, he begrudgingly agreed to allow them to refit the reactors with matter-antimatter reactors which engineering crews are far more familiar with. The turbolaser designs appeared to require only minor adjustments to bring them up to speed to be comparable with phaser and disruptor designs. Transporters and expanded shields were also added tot he vessels. The full refit has taken longer than expected but is now complete.

The Duchess Malumnus has temporarily joined the Admiral’s Imperial fleet to assist in operations, part of the larger Operation Succubus to apply political pressure and undermine Solas Tempus. The fleet’s current task is already underway, they have successfully intercepted and captured the commanding officer of the Federation vessel dispatched to the Schatten Star System to assist and monitor Solas Tempus. The Commander has been detained aboard the Serpent who has already fended of one attempt to rescue her using their overwhelmingly superior numbers and firepower.

For this KS and Bucket would really like some people to play interrogators. KS plays Megan Shepard and while I play Angelique, I’d like to keep her more supervisory. Bucket, of course, plays Admiral Vallan. It would be very useful for someone to play an interrogator or similar part in the process, see both KS and Bucket for details on that.

Destruction of a Probe of Unknown Origin

Viper Probe Droid An unknown droid was found entering the Schatten Star System and was brought into the main shuttle bay of the USS Pegasus before it reached it’s destination. The droid refused to communicate its intentions waiting for a verbal identification code. Mr. Damien Smith and Ms. Heather Quinn were brought in to assist with the situation. The pair attempted to seize the droid and force a physical connection. At that point, the droid self-desturcted injuring both parties. Mr. Smith is currently in the ICU Burn Unit on Nimbus Station while Heather is in the workshops being repaired by the engineering staff. Heather is expected to be repaired without issue, however Damien’s status is still critical from plasma extensive plasma burns.

The purpose and origin of the probe remain entirely unknown, the New Hope and the Cabur have been asked to consult while the Captain of the Pegasus retains the probes debris, the sensor logs have been transmitted to both ships for further analysis since those two ships have more experience with such technology.

Racial Tensions on the Rise

Following the recent attack on the hangar claiming that humans should rule and aliens should be purged, the racial tensions have increased significantly on the station. It appears that an undercurrent of intolerance may spread throughout the station if left unchecked. Complaints about racial slurs being used in civilian settings have increased significantly, though not from humans but instead against them. So far the term xeno has shown to be used most often, though other terms have been used by the Sangheili. Statements from Governor Maddox have attempted to reassure humans that this is a natural extension of where they came from, the investigation into the Spartan’s revealed a world in which the Sangheili were in a brutal war with human-kind. The governor has encouraged citizens to remain peaceful and attempt to be understanding though his statement also asks for non-human races to attempt to do the same, noting that the ship which attacked the station was not from this universe. As a side-effect of this there is a small, yet growing, momentum toward an isolationist philosophy though a movement has yet to form around it there are reports of isolated pockets of such philosophy among civilians who feel threatened.

The unity initially brought by the attack appears to have been short-lived and the prevalence of humans in the highest ranking positions of Solas Tempus has again raised questions about it’s leadership. Sentiment, especially among civilians, is starting to shift toward questioning whether or not it should matter that the leadership of Solas Tempus has a lot more humans in it than not. Humans on the station, especially within Solas Tempus security forces, have reported feeling as if they are under a microscope and that they thought the universe had grown out of such things. As it happens, several other prominent races feel as if they too feel this is society going backwards. In particular the Vulcans and Andorians, once bitter enemies, cite their own coming together to help form the United Federation of Planets as proof of the idea that so many different races can coexist.

As tensions increase on the station officials from Solas Tempus have urged for people to remember that regardless of race or origin, we all have challenges to face and the planet one is from or color of ones skin matters only as much as society says it does.