Viridian File 050222: Stardate 16124.2123.03221000
Reveal Flashback
Volea Sector - Stardate 16124.2123.03101354
A small freighter vessel near the Volea System is alone in the vastness of space is on a normal shipping run. While not the most exciting job, it pays well enough and allows it's Togrutan pilot to travel to various worlds.
All is normal until the proximity alert begins to go off. 2 vessels drop out of warp and begin firing at the freighter. One of the shots impacts the primary engines, disabling the warp drive.
Zukrom: "How can this day get any worse. Let's try and lose them around this moon."
Zukrom navigates around a nearby planetoid to use its gravity field to outmaneuver the attackers. However, one of the vessels managed to land a harpoon onto the vessel and latch on which knocks out the main power grid. The vessels sails to the dark side of the planetoid as the lights begin to flicker and the attackers make their way onboard. You can hear the sound of torches and equiment cutting through.
Zukrom: "They told me this place would be safe. Not the worst job I've had."
Zukrom gets up and heads towards the main hold and prepares to engage the pirates. He is brought before the rest as they question him about the manifest and cargo. The lights flicker again as he hears the leader mention there can be no witnesses. Zukrom quickly draws his weapon as the power grid fails and darkness falls.
... it is daylight when he awakens. The emergency pod has crashed into the foothills of a nearby mountain. Nearby is the still smoking wreckage of the freighter and one of the pirate vessels. While inspecting if any of the cargo survived, Zukrom identifies five bodies of various species in the craft. Scorch marks from blaster fire still can be found on some of the ship's wall, though more concerning are the large claw like marks through the metal and some of the bodies and the dried blood on his hands.
Zukrom: "... did... did I do that? This is getting out of hand. I need to find shelter."
The emergency module of the pod identifies a small outpost on the far side of the mountain that can send aid. After settling the cargo contract and getting passage to Volea, Zukrom is alone in the Space Port when an explosion rocks the platform. What appear to be pirates are making their getaway with stolen cargo back to their vessel. A shot sails overhead from a sniper well hidden as a murean with shark features slithers out from a side alley overloading the weapons of the pirates. A Human Solarian with a glowing blade leaps down behind the pirates and orders them to surrender. As officers arrive, the Kresk sniper saunters over to join the Murean and Human Solarian.
Zukrom: "That was amazing! Who are you guys? It must be great working in a team. Are you part of the Society. I'm looking for my next job."
The Kresk and Murean snicker and jostle the Solarian and walk off. Zukrom sees the red badge of the Alatheian Protectorate on his collar.
Solarian: "We've all been there before. If you are interested, the galaxy could always use more heroes. Good luck out there!"
He hands Zukrom an application pad to the AES, gives him a two fingered salute and goes off to find his squadmates.
Celta Moira - Ravenloft Tower
As the sun rises over Morriga Prime, Zs arises and heads downtown to the Greenfield Archives. He walks up to the front desk and asks the eldari woman where he might find Archivist Rivena.
Ann Whitmore: "Let me check/ Ah yes, Claudia is here in the back. I can page her if you like."
Zs: "Yeah, I was told she can help me with some research. Thank you. What was your name?"
Ann Whitmore: with a bit of an accent, "Ann."
Zs: "N?"
Ann Whitmore: "No, it's Ann."
Zs: "Glenn?"
Ann Whitmore: gesturing to her name badge, "Ann. Come on people, it's three letters long."
Zs: "Ah my apologies. Thank you Ann."
Claudia comes out and Zs asks for her help in looking up information for a personal request: activity of System Lord Morganthe. She leads him back to the same room Zukrom was in, his materials still on the desk. She asks for his badge id to temporarily have access to restricted AES files, which Zs gives reluctantly.
In his research, there has not been much new information on System Lord Morganthe. Morganthe, a powerful Shadow Weaver, is content staying in the Beta Quadrant where she rules vast sectors of space from her throne on Khrysalis. None of the other System Lords are willing to attack her and focus on expansion elsewhere. However, there are 2 recent developments that seem very concerning. Reports of System Lord Kronos employing a powerful Shadow Weaver general is unusual as most of the other System Lords have not dabbled in that realm of magic. Those that have encountered this Shadow Weaver who does not show her face are never heard from again. Not only that, but an envoy, a Zalantis, has been sent by Morganthe to the Alpha Quadrant. No one seems to know why she is here; not even the System Lords. However, she is allowed to traverse relatively freely for the time being.
Back at the tower, Amelia arises and messages the squad to grab some coffee before they have to meet at the monorail station. She, Morph, and Zukrom head down and grab coffee at the Cobalt Harbor.
Amelia: "I gotta grab a lot of creamers. They are Morph's favorite snacks."
Morph already has a creamer cup per tentacle and is going to find a place to down them all.
Zukrom: "I tried researching more about Shadow Magic yesterday but did not get much."
Amelia: "Yeah Shadows are not my thing. Not too knowledagble there. The Sun is my thing which is realy ironic since its like... the total opposite. Also... I noticed we're kinda like two sides of the same coin here. What's going on with that?"
Zukrom: "Well, my father was an explorer. I don't know if he always did the same things my mom said he did, but I wanted to follow in his footsteps anyways. I ended up going to an academy in the Alliance and trained to be a pilot. I have lost several jobs before coming here."
City Center - Celta Moira
At 10:30 the party meets with Warden Kii Fyro and Vosaara. After arriving at Downtown Central Station they all walk to the Basilica where Warden Fyro and Vosaara go to meet with Ka'Ral, Chief Stone and Sister Nulas in a side conference room. Advanced Recon Unit T1 (AR-T1) approaches the party and escorts them to the Consul's office.
AR-T1 "I guess you are the squad everyone is talking about. The Consul's office is this way. Please keep up."
Consul Yaren Satesh: "Ah! Welcome. Please do come in. Have a seat." she gestures to couches beside a fireplace.
AR-T1: "Consul, are you sure you don't want me to stay? This group looks rather... rough around the edges."
Consul Yaren Satesh: "It's fine Artie. They are here to help, and Chiefs Stone, Rivena, and Kratar speak very highly of them, as does Vosaara."
AR-T1: "Very well. I will be just outside though." he looks to the party "No funny business."
Consul Yaren Satesh: "You'll have to forgive him. He is rather overprotective. Thank you for coming. I am Consul Yaren Satesh. I oversee the government of Celta Moira and am Lead Consul of Morriga Prime. I realise this is technically only your second official day as a team, but you already know of classified information, have witnessed the dangers firsthand, and have survived. You are the best bet I have to act quickly.
Two days ago there was a break in and sabotage of Flight Records in the Tymoran Transit Authority facility. And yesterday during the chaos in the afternoon, a theft occurred at Raptora Technologies where a prototype advanced starship sensor array was stolen. The timing of these events leads me to believe they are all connected to our missing starships.
My suspicions are that Kronos is somehow behind this. He has constantly violated the Neutral Zone and the Senate and Federatoin Council have done nothing about it. They are so afraid of starting another war I am forced to sit here while our borders are threatened and our vessels go missing. Chief Rivena and Vosaara have been very supportive in their assitance, but as of yet I have not had probable cause to sanction external aid into the matters. That has all changed now. I'd like you to investigate the two cases in town and report back to me. You may include Chief Rivena and Vosaara as you see fit. Outside of those individuals, the matter is classified and you must not speak of it to anyone until we have more information."
Zs: "What kind of scanner was this?"
Consul Yaren Satesh: "It appears this was a contract filed with the Na'Shiar to create a military grade sensor suite to detect individual creatures of unusual varieties such as constructs in addition to the normal life signs. The System Lord vessels often carry platoons of battle droids that we cannot detect."
Zs: "and who are the Na'Shiar?"
Zukrom: "The unseen ones. Those ones in the shadows."
Amelia: "They are like a covert organization within the Federation."
Zukrom: "Do we need to stay in communication with you?"
Consul Yaren Satesh: "Not every detail, but any major findings please inform me so that I am up to date on your progress and can provide any assistance if needed. You can contact me directly here." and she registers a line with the party.
The party barrows speeder bikes and head towards the Tymoran Transit Authority, using the Raptora Roads app for directions. They are greted by Jack Lothan, human, and Protocol Droid C1-A3. They take them to one of the server rooms where Zs can review and see the corruption overtaking the servers.
Lothan explains that he is not sure what the cause is and C1-A3 indicates that the last 4 months of records is unavailable or corrupted. C1-A3 indicates that Tamar, the security person on duty during the time of the corruption start, has not been in to work since he clocked out a lunch yesterday. C1 also indicates they sent copies of the servers to the Consul's Office this morning for analysis. Zs manages to slow the degredation down and asks for a copy to be sent to the tower. They have C1 give BUDDY the information for Tamar's address as well as a copy of the recovered server data for BUDDY to process.
Raptora Technologies - T'Kara District - Celta Moira
Heading out again, the party arrives at Raptora Technologies and are escorted to Lab 1 where a woman is scanning the room.
Doctor Martha Jones: "Ah, you're here good. Doctor Martha Jones. I'm so glad you are all here to help."
She shows the party a life size holo-mockup of the sensor cell which is about 8 feet tall. Trials were going to start within the next month, but this was the only prototype. Not only that, someone seems to have sliced the system and fragmented the data. The party walks over to the security desk to look through the security camera footage. While there, Zs notices a female Betazhan muttering to herself. She reveals she was one of the 7 scientist working on the sensor. Chan'doe seems to be having difficulty with her telepathy as Zs keeps getting static. Chan'doe reveals to Zs that her friend, Tyrrin Cotta, had been having strange thoughts and was trying to hide them from her. He also hasnt come to work today. She's worried something was wrong. Zs and Kar'jan begin to believe someone has been poisoning her and weakening her telepathic abilities to obsure something from her sight.
Inside the server room, Zs accesses the closed circuit system and the party sees everyone in the lab as normal, then everyone leaves. There is nothing on camera and then the people return and chaos erupts as several people come running out of the lab frantic. After several views, Zukrom and Amelia notice a shadow in the frame and notice that the frame is frozen for 20 minutes and then resumes 5 minutes before the scientists return. Since this is a closed circuit system... either someone sliced in or an internal factor messed with the camera.
Returning to the lab, Zs does a computers check and detects the corruption is the same kind as that seen at Raptora. The party deduces that with the lack of evidence in the halls of scuff marks and a struggle, something along the lines of levitation or some other means was used to get the sensor cell out. According to the camera, everyone, even Tyrrin Cotta was seen leaving and returning with everyone else. Returning to the security lab, Zs notices the door logs have altered entries. He is able to track the path of the spoofed access through a series of doors which leads the party to an outside door alongside the road. A perfect escape route to get the sensor out and make a quick getaway.
Tyrrin's Apartment - Damar Plaza - Celta Moira
Getting the address of Tyrrin in the Damar Plaza, the party decides to pay him a visit. Inside the complex, they are escorted to his apartment and are given an access card. They unlock the door and turn on the lights. Inside is a normal apartment that appears to have been lived in as recently as yesterday or this morning. Searching the apartment, Amelia then perks up as she hears it first. A high pitched beeping... and its getting faster.
Suddenly, the doors slam shut and the power surges. 3 shadow being emerge from their hiding places and attack the party. In the darkness, the Zukrom and Zs are hit and the strength and vitality is sucked from their being. Amelia conjures a sword of flame and leaps over the counter to engage with the other shadow creature. Dispatching the shadows, they party fixes the lights and begins to explore the apartment looking for signs and tending to their wounds. While investigating the bedroom, Zukrom does not find anything... until he decides to look under the bed.
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