The Last Outpost

Amber Munro and Abigail Watson returned as the short-lived command partnership of Asteroid Base: Alpha - back in 2384 - to recap events which occurred during Accobar's only Borg encounter up to this point. As back in the present, the Hera was racing to Station Nimoy to supposedly recover Captain Mason while Vega did who-knows-what aboard Pioneer with her legion of modified drones. Elsewhere, all available ships in the Tyrella sector were mustering to lead a counterstrike against the captured station. But if the Hera was to lead that task force, they would have to get back in time.


On their arrival at the unfamiliar space-station, listed on no chart, Sullivan and Costello determined that their weapons systems were offline and there was one lifesign aboard. Choosing to cautiously take advantage of an shielded area of the station, Menden formed a boarding party and beamed across. There, the away team stumbled in to one of the many simulations Vega had been running of Pioneer, while en-route to the sign of life. Only a few locked doors got in their way and Menden had already remarked that it seemed all too easy. Reaching the Director's office, the team located Captain Mason. Or so they thought.


As Doctor Rogan awoke Mason, she sprung to life and grabbed the Doctor by the throat while assimilation tubules burst out of her holographic shell and pierced his neck. The Borg Mason imposter was dragged away from Rogan before she beamed out of the area to places unknown. Rogan was found to be fine - and unusually, no nanoprobes had been transferred. This was a demonstration of what Vega's drones were capable of. It allowed the crew to get close to somebody they believed to be an ally - only to be put in a position of extreme vulnerability. You and your characters should take that as a teaser for what is to come.

A message from Vega announced her intention to cover her tracks. The station's self destruct sequence had been initiated but the team had been directed towards the Brig to locate Mason for good.  Riker was the first to arrive and a slightly dazed Mason in a damaged uniform was freed from captivity. With less than a minute to spare, the team raced back to the transporter room and beamed off the station before it blew - with nothing less in the databanks to recover. The resulting explosion knocked the Hera - which injured McClintock, leaving him out for the count and elevating Layton to Acting Chief Engineer.


Mason freshened up during a quarantined examination in Sickbay while the Hera set a course for the small fleet prepared to retake Accobar. She informed Rogan that she could only remember some of what Vega told her - believing that they may have somehow exploited her untreated memory disorder which is commonplace in Telosian society. A condition still unknown to most of the crew, Rogan administered a double dosage of desegranine before sending Mason back to duty. One fact which she was unable to disclose to Menden (whom she happened to call by his first name for the first time) was Vega's allegiance to Section 31. For now, it seems, Vega has secured their nonexistent status. Perhaps we'll never know where the crew of Nimoy Station went. But there was a more pressing matter to attend to as the fleet formed up and shot off towards Accobar.

With a final meeting before the battle, the Captain thanked them for their rescue and wished them luck. The crew then attended their battle stations as the fleet dropped in to Accobar on the edge of the asteroid field. With the Hera taking point, they positioned themselves to enter and approach Pioneer having received no response to their hails. The station's shields and weapons systems were fully operations - but as it turned out, Vega had no need for them whatsoever.

With seconds, another ship inexplicably dropped out of cloak directly ahead of the fleet. It was the USS Apollo. The Apollo careered in to the fleet and though Mason ordered all ships to break formation, there was little that could be done. In the collision, two of the Starfleet ships were wiped out - and the others bore the brunt of the blast. Amid the damage, the Hera's warp drive was knocked out - something which would cost them dearly. Forming up and intending to take the fight to Vega,  the Hera detected a spatial fluctuation between them and Pioneer. Something far worse than the Apollo was coming.


A transwarp aperture formed in front of the fleet and before long, a Borg Sphere emerged from the vortex - firing on all cylinders without warning nor gratuitous introduction. With the counterattack now in disarray, the fleet was ordered to withdraw. Mason had the Hera provide cover for the fleeing ships, though this decision in conjunction with a disabled warp drive was only going to end one way. The sphere came down hard on the Hera and the faithful science vessel proved no match for it. Battling the drones aboard Pioneer was one thing, but nobody expected to be fighting a Borg ship on their arrival.

In the science lab, Etis and Rogan worked with a sample of the Halkonian nano-virus Vega had modified to control the drones, intending to find a way to destroy it. Sure enough, Etis was able to program the nanobots to seek and destroy themselves. But during the attack, the sample's vial was shattered and the virus released. Thankfully, Rogan was able to activate the new routine - and the nanobots destroyed themselves. Lexi was able to replicate more - which may serve as a platform to mount an organised defense and offense against the Vega Drones. But it would not be on this day.

With their shields gone, a final volley struck across the ship. The impact on the Bridge was severe, collapsing the structural supports. One struck the overhead tactical console, barely missing Costello - while another came down on the Helm control, knocking Sullivan out cold, leaving him unresponsive and sustaining injuries we are yet to know the severity of. Although Layton insisted on working to the last minute, the damage was already done. Hera was unable to hold herself together and as flamed roared on the Bridge, Mason issued a surrender to Pioneer and ordered the crew to proceed to the escape pods and abandon ship.



As the Hera creaked and groaned, as if crying out in pain, Rogan arrived on the Bridge to assist the injured as the remaining able officers left their posts and headed for the escape pods. Ensuring she was the last to leave the deck, Mason apologized to her first command as she left the Bridge in ruin. Upon receiving word that the the rest of the crew were out safely, she took a last look before joining Menden, Costello, Riker and others in their escape pod and ejected from the ship ( to an appropriate soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl077jwhPWE) ).

Seeing the Hera fall apart from a distance, Mason saw from the pod that the Sphere had retreated - having stopped it's attack upon their surrender. She conceded that Vega must have established some form of control after all....

---

With no ship and no station, the future looks incredibly bleak for the crew - and where they will all end up is a question to be posed during the break. We saw nothing of what Vega was doing on Pioneer and received no hint as to what she might need Accobar for. We only know that she has not only her modified drones - but also a Borg vessel - heavily implied to be the one encountered by the Athena a number of years ago. We know not how William Sullivan will fare with his injuries, nor whether the Hera can still be salvaged at all. Etis and Rogan asked themselves why Vega really wanted Mason, and whether the Captain was telling them everything about her time with her. There's also the matter of her apparently worsening mental condition which will need to be addressed one way or another.

The promised change in direction has come to pass and the Federation will be coming to terms with an unleashed Dark Star in the Sixth Season, which launches in the Summer. Thank you for attending - not only this episode but all season long. Please do leave a vote in the poll and your final comments on this episode and Season Five as a whole.

Where do I even begin? This story is the culmination of an arc that began long ago, featuring people and components that have been picked up over time throughout two different SRPs. Dark Star has turned out to be far more than the crew of Pioneer Station can handle on their own. Director Vega has taken the years she's had to meticulously plan everything. She selected crewmembers to target, she manipulated events throughout the Asteroid Base and Asteroid Field timelines, and now she's finally implementing it all. There's so very much to discuss here, and this will become an essay, but I'd like to start with the basics: Director Vega.

We still don't have a first name for the illustrious figure behind Operation: Dark Star. We don't even know for sure that she's the one pulling all of the strings. What we do know is that she is the director of that clandestine Section 31 group. Section 31 is often a group that is heard about when an annoying or frustratingly elusive mishap has occurred in the Federation. They serve a darker ethic, one that is often unknown. Director Vega has been planning for some time. Being in charge of Section 31 certainly put her in a position to monitor actions in the Accobar System from Starfleet's inception of the science teams to the present. The point remains that Vega is after something. Perhaps something that was discovered early on in the days of Rush and Thrace. Perhaps in more recent times with the discoveries made by Pioneer's crew and Professor Fox. Either way, Vega wants Accobar, and she wants it bad. What do the Accobi have that she wishes to possess? And what will happen next? This eases us into our next topic...

Accobar. For as long as we've been in this system, there has been no such thing as uninteresting. Stations and people have blown up ... several times, in fact. Key players in the entirety of the Federation have risen and fallen in this system. The Accobar system has survived ancient wars, past and present. The planet beneath the station watches, like a chessmaster, waiting to make the next move. Anyone who has spent time in the system knows only that it is an adventure and endless puzzle. The Accobar system has no friends, and it has no enemies. Being in charge of the system sounds like fun, but in reality it is anything but. The question is not "will Vega find her prize?" but rather "what will happen to Vega once she finds her prize?". Accobar is a giant puzzle, it favours puzzle solvers, and Vega doesn't strike me as one for puzzles. Speaking of puzzlers...

Captain Sophia Mason. Her condition has been known to Doctor Rogan and apparently Director Vega for quite some time. This one is a bit deeper than you might think. It's easy to see Sophia as the officer injured in the line of duty. It's harder to see what's happening underneath. The medication that she was taking is helping her, for now. Evidence indicates that Vega needed Sophia for a very good reason. Her new and improved drones were using Telosian technology. Sophia is a Telosian with a very fresh memory gap and a very dirty uniform that suggests that she didn't spend all of her time in a brig cell. As her condition continues to worsen, what will be revealed to her as she continues to undergo extra treatment for her underlying condition? Is it possible that she's the key to the puzzle that she's been chipping away at for some time? There is a larger puzzle at play here, one that may or may not be revealed to us. Stay tuned.

This episode saw the resurgence of the Halkonian nano-virus. Doctor Rogan has been keeping variants of this since it was first encountered in Asteroid Base. At times, the nano-virus could be found on the experimentation table, and Rogan was once even asked to stop meddling with the thing, but he never did. Finally seeing a use for all of the research he had done, he took the extreme measure of revealing his research to Lexi Etis, the other remaining member of the original task force. Together, they were able to get a working prototype of a weapon out of the nano-virus before the Hera had to evacuate. The Science Ship, although defeated, gave birth to what might one day take its revenge. "If we succeed, we will be pitting Hell against Hell" as for what the result will be ... this is another reason to stay tuned! ;)

There is, of course, one piece of the puzzle that has not yet been put into play. The Federation's first liberated drone, the leader of the Borg Task Force. Annika Hansen has yet to weigh in on this development. They were looking for a use before, it appears they've found one. Space is falling apart and they may be the only ones who can help. That is, if Vega hasn't done anything to them yet. Whether the silence of Annika will be broken is yet to be seen. If it is, something spectacular is sure to happen. What's for certain is that the Federation is about to be shaken again. G'rath levels of shaken. Perhaps even worse. All remains to be seen.

Somewhere in the Universe, there remains other possibilities. Assuming that the Continuum doesn't get involved and suddenly snap things back together, there is something that I hadn't considered between the hours of 1:30 and 3:30 EST this afternoon. There are Borg Drones that are being manipulated by an outside force. If they were stolen from the Collective in the first place, there is likely a monster far larger than Vega rumbling in the distance. It shall be interesting to see how many quadrants are involved in this unfolding conspiracy. Vega may have unintentionally boiled a pot she can no longer cool.

So we've got really cool, stolen Borg. We've got a VERY confident Section 31 head. A Captain who refuses to let this one get away (this is sounding familiar). A task force that may soon be reopened. Or not. We've got a nano-virus that certain parties are clinging to desperately. We've got an injured helmsman in a shuttle. Stir lightly then shake violently until eruption, then let it sit. With that you get a galaxy-sized serving of Accobar Soup.

I wanted to take a moment to echo the sentiment that Grizz put forth already. That is thank you to you guys. To the ones who help make this SRP what it is. Without all of you wonderful characters to draw from, we wouldn't have so many fantastic and hair-raising and heart-stopping and 'no way!' moments in the SRP. There is a saying: an SRP is only as good as it's RPers. So thank you once again for participating and I hope to see all of you once again once this resumes in the Summer. I know I'm excited!

Now I know there's one more thing that I wanted to touch on. What was it now? I seem to be suffering the same memory gaps as Captain Mason. Hrm... oh yes.

... Where are Jemma Etis and Amber Munro?

One more thing I wanted to say: definitely vote and leave your comments. The more you do this, the more you become immersed in the story and the more it allows our wonderful showrunner to refine the story. Even if you thought it was 11/10 would play again forever, say something. It's great to hear that as well! ;) Thanks again guys and I hope my babbling hasn't annoyed you all too much :P

Well, what is there left to say? Grizz summarized it, Andzzy gave one of his famous extensive reviews, so I'll just say this: another exellent episode.

Between Grizz and Andzzy I actually havn't got much to add. The ending was something I was expecting: a large cliffhanger with no resolution to the immediate problem. It is clear that the Accobar system is important to either Vega or whomever she is working for (Mason let something slip when she was back on board, but of course, due to her memories not being what they should, she doesn't know for sure). It is, again, important for something or someone. Lets recap that a bit.

In AB we've had the Romulans for a long while, then the Klingons came into the mix. We've had a nanovirus threathening the system at several occasions and then alternate universe antagonists collaborating with a corrupt presidency. Switch to AF and we have the old Romulan/Klingon 'we want in on it too' discussion again followed by a mountain of foreshadowing by someone believed to be from the future leading up to the day a star exploded, and we where all to busy to notice. It did give us some peace and quiet from the Romulan side of things seeing they where hardly in a position to do anything, but then again, the Halkonians where still around the corner. Having taken care of that, again, the Romulans crash our Federation Day party, they are persistant little bunch aren't they? And now again, a fallen director controlling a Borg army possibly again working for... well who knows?

Romulans, Klingons, Nanovirus, Parallel Universe. Romulans again, Klingons, Halkonians and Accobarians (?), Halkonians again, Romulans AGAIN, Borg... Does that sum it up?

It has been quite a ride, and no rest in the Accobar system. No no, the Accobar system won't rest untill every person, every ship every station, every rock and every asteroid and every bit of technology and spatial ruptures, rifts and anomalies are gone for good, untill nothing more then the emptyness of space is left. Well, atleast its trying very very hard to do that, and succeeding at times...

I would like to echo Andzzy's words on this: Grizz has created a beutifull setting for us to enjoy and also have our go in with our characters and without those, this SRP wouldn't have been possible. Again, thanks to everyone involved, I can only hope that more people will join up for the ride as it is going to be quite the ride for season 6 I think.

Now I do remember this  (http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/topic,7524.0.html)thread. It appears some episodes have not made it to the line up. So I can't stop but wonder what season 6 has in store for us on the 'forgotten episode' front (also going by these  (http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/topic,7845.msg59364.html#msg59364)comments from our own director of the show  ;) )

See you all next season!