The Last Outpost

When her inaugural season began, she was an officer promoted too early and out of her depth. She hung around in corners of rooms and worked on the floor, in her own little world. Then a wake-up call came in the form of the Halkonian incursion. Then another on the same day, with the Hobus Supernova. Then the Narada attack. Then the Aletheia incident. Is it any wonder that this woman was last seen sobbing alone in her quarters?


With Amber Munro, I had a complex character who had all the really interesting stuff happen to her before the series began. As Peirce himself said, Munro would have shot him off that ledge, because that is what she had become - and why she had to go. With Renee Hampton, I had a character who was very good at what she did - but had Mark Chaplain to rely on when it came to everything that came with the Accobar System. When Chaplain died, it was time for her to leave. With Mason, she was thrown in to a group of strangers and told to run the show. She made mistakes - mistakes which cost early lives. She didn't trust Barnes after he covered up Peirce's presence on the station.

We have hinted at her backstory. Born on Telos to a society which has now been isolated from the rest of the galaxy - taken away at a young age from everyone and everything she knew. Sophia Mason has relied on her crew and the people around her more heavily than previous COs in the Accobar System... and boy, did that crew respond. Rogan's (unscripted!) words with her at the end of the episode were a nice way to round out her first season. Let me know how she did!

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Fast forward from Mason's arrival and we find ourselves lurking within an oddly understaffed Red Dawn base tucked away in a corner of Romulan space. Costello didn't cave to Peirce's pressure and he was forced to give her the antidote to keep her alive. Of course, he failed to mention this when the away team captured him - insisting that he had to mix up the medication himself to buy the time he needed to sound the alarm and make his escape after distracting Etis. Throughout the little adventure, Costello's sworn enemy Gaila was crucial in distracting the Klingon overseer and analyzing the outpost's defenses. Perhaps those two will get along a little better in the future.

Peirce's presence allowed for a few questions to be answered. The abandoned Aletheia was indeed a trap set by Red Dawn (we can say with a degree of certainty that the crew are dead), but the tip that Starfleet received about Peirce's briefcase of intelligence was sent by Ambassador Taval. If Peirce is to be believed, it was Taval himself who has been trying to derail relations between the Federation and the Star Empire since the first season. Peirce has latched himself on to those who would help him bring around his goal of chaos - it would be no surprised if the two of them have been helping each other. Perhaps it was Taval himself who led the Romulan fleet to the Klingon outpost at the end of the episode. We will have to wait and see.

Mason referenced Henry Etis (Jemma's father) when discussing Peirce's intelligence. The fugitive attempted to inform Etis of something regarding her father before Michael Barnes beamed him over to the Klingons back in Season Two. We're no closer to finding out what it was, but it would appear that Mason became aware of it after retrieving his case. I'm sure that's something we will be coming back to.

So, Peirce was using what was left of Red Dawn after Koroth's death to carry out his goal of bringing our world to anarchy after the events of AB Season One's *AWARD WINNING* Treasures from Accobar. (http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/topic,3520.0.html) It's safe to say that we probably won't be hearing from them again any time soon. Those Klingon feuds can go on for a while. But one important question remains. Costello never confessed to Koroth's assassination. Even Leona Mason refused to mention that Costello was responsible. So, did she do it? You will have to look out for details on a special episode to find out.

With Red Dawn dissolved, the Alethia mystery resolved and Walter Peirce captured alongside Mason's attempt at redemption - the third season of Star Trek: Asteroid Field has come full circle.

Any comments would be welcome  ^-^

Quote from: Grizz on July 20, 2014, 01:16:52 PM
Any comments would be welcome  ^-^

Haha, no pressure then!

Great thread music, Dishonoured is an awesome game. :) It was a great finale, really tied up most of the loose ends, but leaves me eager and looking forward to Season 4. Considering there were so many set-pieces to complete the story I wouldn't mind having a 'special episode' with my and everyone else's character, kinda an aftermath?

That's the plan and I'm sticking to it. Will be setting a date next week.

Thanks  ^-^

Thank you, SRP reviewer - a very nice pay off after a very long season.

Quote from: Grizz on July 19, 2014, 06:32:16 PM
Special thanks to Criminula for his extra special work during the latter half of the season. It won him awards, you know.

I think significantly more of the effort was on Grizz's part. I showed up with an idea or two as to what my character could have been doing over the break, with a view to getting a bit of guidance as the best way to develop this. A few PMs down the line, and a bit of an arc started to take shape, and concluded with what we have now.

Unfortunately, I couldn't write in Gaila's death. However much I may have desired to. Apparently even Ferengi can prove useful at times.

I'll post an extensive review when i have some more time on my hands. For now, this was an excelent closure to a somewhat shaky but overall very nice season.

Thanks Martin - I'll hold you to that :)

Hoping that the other 3 members can vote so that I can run up the season report!

If the remaining three members could spend a few seconds to vote - it would be good to run up the report before I go away  :P

So yes, I promissed something, I promised an "extensive review" when I had the time. I havn't done that yet, untill now.

There are two parts to this, the episode itself, and the Red Dawn / Walter Pierce storyline. I have to admit, i sometimes forget the details because of the series spanning quite some time (and its pretty hard to re-watch episodes).

The episode itself, it was really what you should expect for a little bit toned down season finale. A steady start of the episode with some initial troubles in the docking area, which could have been prevented beforehand but still did not spoil the fun, led to the meeting of Gaila and a large looking Klingon, member of Red Dawn presumably. For some reason, he did not question Gaila about his companions, but still left them in the cargo bay to, well, just peruse. A bit strange aswell, seeing as there where no guards present. Presumably the station itself had some internal scanners or other monitoring tools active, but we saw little of that. The most protection came from several forcefields in the station. From the contents of some of the containers it was already clear the station had served as an outpost for a bunch of outlaws who got their hands on anything they could. The typical Klingon skills of not-cleaning where also clearly present, as Jemma stated. With the station heavily shielded, her older Romulan tricorder (hey, can't take starfleet equipment with you on an undercover mission) could not detect Alicia's lifesign. With a heavy electrified forcefield barring their path, McClintock and Jemma tried to fiend a way around it, while Commander Barnes borrowed an old disruptor which mr Perry managed to bring and tried to force his way trough. With little luck on both sides, brains and brawn came together to finally bring down the mighty barrier. No alarms? Hmmm, wierd...

Setting forth, trying to evade Klingon detection, which was not hard given the apparent lack of guards and the help of Gaila, the crew wandered the station. A first attempt at passing a secundary forcefield with Jemma's brilliant plan of using her tricorder as a decoy emitting strange duck sounds failed as both Commander Barnes and Mr Perry where not fast enough to get a grip on the Klingon guard. A second, not so elegant plan, succeeded, leading to Mr Barnes shooting the klingon at point blank range with his own disruptor. Well i think it it safe to say that he ate his last bowl of Gagh. Finally, Alicia Costella was found, but with her, and old .... friend? nemesis? well who else then Walter Pierce would it be? Bartering Alicia's life for his, convincing even Dr Rogan she was in life threatening danger unless he injected her with some kind of cure to an illness she had supposedly contracted, Pierce and Jemma went on to the cargobay to get the cure. And impatient Barnes (who can blame him) took the cure just as Pierce had finished making it. Rushing back to Alicia to cure her, Jemma had some time to talk to Pierce. Gullible as she was, she fell for his trick, asking him about a thing he was about to tell her months back, before he got taken away from Pioneer by Red Dawn Pierce led her to look at an empty container and Pierce escaping trough the same escape hatch the team had used earlier to get away from the cargo bay, even pondering first about whether or not to get rid of Jemma altogether.

All is well that ends well, right? Nope, before making his, what turned out to be not-so-tiumphant, escape, Pierce rang the alarm. A few Klingons where still there to answer it and while they rushed to their birds of Prey, the crew scurried back to Gaila's ship, Gaila, who was himself still unloading his cargo, made it back there first, of course, only to find Captain Mason gone. Ah yes, Captain Mason, forgot to tell you that. Did you know that she knows something about the thing Pierce was about to tell Jemma but didn't tell her? Apparantly, she does, and hasn't been telling either. Pierce, trying to escape, met the end of Mason's rifle barrel as the two faced off in a rather precarious position. What happend next, well, we all know that now. But it could have gone differently would it have been Amber Munro, or Renee Hampton there, or even... no, that wouldn't be possible, that is something which only exists in my own storytelling mind. Yes, even I am sometimes doing spin-offs and what-ifs based on Asteroid Fields episodes in my head.

So, this leads us to the story line. Red Dawn. Apprantly, Pierce was running it all the time, with information given to him by none other then Ambassador Taval. Remember him? Yes, that immensely charismatic, well cast Romulan Ambassador which primarily tried to bring harmony (1x08 http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/topic,5089.0.html) but was ultimately playing for god (3x06 http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/topic,6927.0.html). That was quite the reveal at the end of a rather quiet and person-driven sub-story in the SRP. One that was dormant for a while but very well played out there at the end. It could have seen a bit more of Costello there, perhaps, but all in all I think it was a succesfull storyline. Thanks to Criminula for brining (part) of it to us. (On a sidenote, google chrome wants to correct Criminula to Criminal lol :P).

With Walter Pierce behind bars for the time being, it seems this storyline has been settled. Or has it? For one character, I think this is only just the beginning! But before we get to that, there is that other matter. Yes indeed, THAT other matter which must come first...

This was my extensive review. I hope you liked it. A bit late, but nonetheless. I'll leave you guys with the introduction of next season then, which will probably see the return of Renee Hampton I believe. Doctor Renee Hampton if I am not mistaken.

Tick tock, goes the clock, even for the Doctor...