Tiberius' Conclusion

 After some delays due to various real life stuff, the crew of the USS Tiberius finally met this past Saturday to conclude our story. When we last left the crew, they had just finished helping Assessor Tredik repair the control center on the Candidate III planet when 2 Romulan shuttles flew overhead. 

On the bridge of the Tiberius, Commander MacKenzie was notified of the impending shuttle arrival and the trouble it means for the away team. Back planet-side, the crew grab some artifacts and made for the Tiberius, dodging debris that was falling from the sky. However, the Romulans were waiting for an ambush, and a fierce fire-fight ensued! Security Officer Hawk fell in combat twice, but the steady hand of Dr. Jerrynn was able to help revive him. Lt. Commander Foxwell also suffered an injury during the fight but was patched up by Dr. Jerrynn as well. In total, 9 Romulans advanced on the away team, but all 9 were defeated in the end! 

While the away team fought off the Romulans, the Tiberius received the final log entry from the USS Venture. In it, the Captain detailed the bravery of his senior staff as they refused to abandon their posts after the Captain ordered "abandon ship". It was their final sacrifice that allowed the Mogami and the Tiberius to have enough time to complete their missions. 

With the Romulans dispatched on the surface, Commander MacKenzie fired upon the 2 Romulan shuttles to ensure they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. 

As the away team returned to the shuttle, a flash of light occurred, with many wondrous eddies appearing everywhere. Then, Ash Tamalia appeared to each of them and asked for the crew's help to return the displaced Tilikaal back to their bodies. She reached out her hand to each one, ship included. 

The decision was made to accept her help. With a smile on her face, Ash pulled the entire ship into the unknown. 

Fade to black. 

This concludes my crew's run through of the (TNG) Living Campaign! We had a blast doing it! But it was a bitter sweet ending as we all say goodbye to our characters. Maybe, one day in the future, they will return. 

But for now, we are drawing up new characters and await our new orders! Tune in later this fall as the crew of the yet-to-be-named ship seeks out new life and new civilizations, and boldly goes where no one has gone before!

I thank you for reading our adventures! Feel free to reach out to me for any questions you may have if you are running the Living Campaign. And stay tuned for the next chapter of my group!

Live long and prosper!

Assessor's Gambit

As we left the crew of the Tiberius, Captain Ral was found in a bunker on the Xaldi homeworld. After dispatching of several Xaldi guards, the crew found the Captain in a room, badly injured and barely alive. Medical teams did their best to stabilize the Captain, but they knew they needed to get him into sickbay now. 

Lt. Commander Torc threw the Captain over his shoulder and ran outside in order to transport back to the ship. The rest of the crew followed shortly thereafter. 

As the crew attempted to lead the system, an Xaldi cruiser gave chase, chasing the Tiberius into the nearby nebula. Meanwhile, medical crews, lead by Lt. Commander Jerrynn, started to work their magic on the Captain. First they had to stop his bleeding. Then they had to stabilize his head trauma before they could stabilize his neurological damage. 

While the medical team worked on the Captain, the crew on the bridge were dealing with the Xaldi cruiser. A firefight broke out, and the Tiberius quickly found themselves out numbered (and out gunned) 3 to 1. With all of the shaking and rattling of the battle, it made the medical teams job a little more difficult. However, help quickly arrived in the form of the Mupwl' and the Mogami, both of which were able to dispatch the Xaldi ships. This allowed the medical team to finish their work in stabilizing, and saving, the Captain's life. 

After informing Starfleet of what happened, the Tiberius (among the rest of the ships in the Expanse) were recalled to Narendra Station for a scientific briefing. Someone has been able to piece together everything that has been going on in the Expanse. 

Once the briefing was over, and questions were asked (and answered), Admiral Walker and Dr. Taliaferro tasked the Tiberius to investigate some mysterious sensor data coming from the Candidate 3 system. At this point, the live stream of sensor data in the room suddenly went dark. Further investigation revealed that the Romulans destroyed their probe. The crew was tasked to immediately depart for the system for additional investigation (in addition to their previous investigative tasks). 

Once in the system, scans didn't find any signs of the ship, but found interesting targets on the surface of the 3rd planet to investigate. The Mupwl', who was also tasked to help explore the system, decided to cloak and investigate the 2 other planets (both of which didn't originate from this system). 

One the surface, the away team found a good spot to beam down to and investigate. What they found matched some previous technology they found: carvings and crystal structures cut unnaturally that occasionally blinked blue. Additional scans revealed a stronger power source a few clicks away, so the team headed that way.

When they arrived at the building where the power signature was registering, they were shocked at what they saw: a group of Romulans talking to a truly alien creature. Only moments later did the alien welcome them by speaking to the away team with telepathy. He advised the group that he has no issues with them and suggests they sneak around to the other side of the building to find the answers they were seeking. 

The group obliged and made their way around to the back of the building undetected by the Romulans. Inside they found what appeared to be a huge power factory, that the building itself was the battery. They soon were discovered by the Romulans, and a firefight broke out. Having fairly easily dispatched of the Romulans, the away team went back to investigate the structure.   

They soon came across a blue glowing fog-like scene, like something was trying to materialize but was being blocked. After making some adjustments, the image appeared. It was a female alien, similar to the one they saw outside. She claimed to be of the Tilakaal and were trapped. But the rest of the message was cut off as the image disappeared. 

The alien outside soon appeared and told the crew they were no longer welcomed here or in the Expanse. And in a blink of an eye, the crew found themselves not only back on the Tiberius but that the Tiberius was also back at Narendra Station! 

After making their report to Admiral Walker, the Admiral recalled the entire fleet to the station for a council of war. But what does this mean? Join us next time as we find out more about the Tilakaal and more! Thanks for reading!

Meet the Neighbors

With mysteries and questions building within the Shackleton Expanse, the Tiberius set off to try to answer some of these questions:

• Are there any connections between all of these artifacts and technology they've encountered? 
• Who or what is Tilakall?
• What roll does the Romulans play in all of this? 
• And, probably most importantly, who are the XO?

After having a staff meeting to discuss these questions and how to resolve them, the Tiberius, following some intel, sought out the XO. This would take the crew deeper into the Shackleton Expanse than any Federation ship has gone. But first, the ship had to navigate a tricky patch of space, known as the Passage, that is filled with unstable gases and electromagnetic eddies. The ship, with some precision flying by Lt. Faragutt, managed to make it's way through the Passage with a cloaked escort in toe (the Mupwl'). 

On the other side of the Passage, the crew set about normal operations on the ship when suddenly the ship went into Red Alert. As the crew investigated they realized that Captain Ral was no longer onboard the ship! Sensors were jammed for approximately 3 seconds at the time of the Captain's disappearance, and only trace elements of what the crew suspected were a transporter signal were discovered onboard the ship. Outside of the ship, sensors noted a faint energy trail leading into a nearby nebula. 

As the Tiberius approached the nebula, 2 drone ships emerged and attacked. One of the drone ships, but the other was disabled. The crew was able to establish a remote link with the computer on the drone ship and transferred some data onto the Tiberius. This data provided what the crew interpreted as coordinates to a star system on the other side of the nebula. 

As they set off after the other drone ship, they were greeted by the ship. After some negotiations, the Tiberius agreed to follow the ship to the homeworld of the Xaldi in order to retrieve the captain. However, in order to get the captain back, someone would have to face the Xaldi champion (and win) in hand-to-hand combat! Lt. Commander Torc agreed, and the 2 meet inside a great arena. 

Torc ended up being victorious, but the Xaldi seemed hesitate to turn over the captain. The Xaldi started fighting amongst themselves, allowing the crew to escape to rescue the captain. The Captain was located in an underground bunker very near to the arena. However, the bunker was filled with Xaldi, and the crew had to fight their way to find and retrieve their captain.

The crew was able to make their way through the bunker and to the captain, but his life-signs were failing fast. Besides the obvious broken bones, the captain appeared to be suffering from head trauma, neurological issues, and massive bleeding. While alive, the captain needed to be transfered to the ship so the Doctor can try to save him (and the symbiont's) life. 

Will the Doctor and his team be able to save Captain Ral's life? Will the Tiberius be able to flee the Xaldi? Find out next time on the continuing missions of the USS Tiberius! 

We Are the Stars

Following the events on the Klingon colony, the Tiberius was diverted from their patrol in the Shackleton Expanse in order to assist in the evacuation of some Federation scientist and artifacts from Alpha Toryui II. The Tiberius was to rendezvous with the USS Mogami, a new Calypso class vessel, and assist in the evacuation. 

Once the Tiberius arrived into the system, standard scans were performed. The results were a little concerning as they discovered the red giant star was just hours away from going Supernova (hence the reason for the evacuation). However, as noted by the science team on the surface, this star was far too young to be going supernova. The Tiberius' sensors, upon scans of the star, found an anomalous sensor hole deep inside the the star. The crew also discovered some debris, consisting of metals normally found on starships, orbiting off-center from the star. 

Captain Ral ordered his senior staff to a conference room meeting and invited Captain Fortok (of the Mogami) and Lt. Thompson (of the science team on the planet surface) to join in to discuss the plans. Captain Fortok thought it would take about 18 hours to get the personal and artifacts off planet. However, according the Tiberius' calculations, they only had about 11 hours until the star went supernova. Lt. Thompson was being fairly adamant that he was staying until all artifacts were recovered.

After their conversation, it was decided that First Officer MacKenzie and Second Officer Torc would go to the planet and get an assessment from planet-side. Meanwhile, Lt. Commanders Foxwell (Eng.) and Wegen (Sci) were going to stay on the ship to do more research on the star. They created an advanced sensor probed and launched it into the sun to try to get more data on the star, but the results were negative. 

Meanwhile, the Tiberius' CMO Jerrynn started getting reports of headaches from about a dozen or so crew members (including himself). A quick observation noted that all of these patients had either telepathic or emphathic abilities and were all also reported hear whispers. The good doctor was able to administer some medication to everyone (including himself) to help with the symptoms, but all were declared fit for duty. 

With the sensor probe having failed, the idea was presented to link together the sensors of the Tiberius and Mogami to try to get a better look at the sensor shadow in the star. Once again, this didn't appear to have any success. While that was going on, Lt. Commander Foxwell, with the assistance of Lt. Commander Wegen, went to work adjusting the sensor emitters on the outside of the Tiberius in order to more efficiently transport the artifacts to the surface. 

On the surface, Doctor Jerrynn joined MacKenzie and Torc to see if the effects of the whispering were made better or worse by being on the planet (since there were no empaths/telepaths on the planet). The Doctor concluded the planet wasn't causing any changes, though he did note that the whispering was steadily growing louder. Also on the surface, MacKenzie and Torc were able to convince Lt. Thompson and the rest of the science teams to depart, assuring them they would be able to recover most (but not all) of the artifacts. 

As the Mogami departed, being as they were all filled up with artifacts and scientists, it was up the Tiberius to take the last couple of transports and artifacts before setting off themselves. As the last of the shuttles and artifacts arrived on the ship, the ship was rocked by a large gravimetric shock wave from the star (these have been becoming more frequent and more violent through this whole time), placing the ship in Red Alert and disabling the warp drive. Lt. Commander Foxwell was able to determine that the warp coils in the nacelles were out of aligned and that he needed hours to repair, hours in which the Tiberius didn't have. He was, however, able to produce some short-lived warp bubbles to allow the Tiberius to 'skip' out of the system in short bursts, ensuring the safety of the entire crew.

Just as the star was finally going supernova, Doctor Jerrynn (and the rest of the empaths/telepaths) suddenly were overwhelmed by the pain and sounds of the whispers (which were now more or less screams). At the moment the star went supernova, the voices finally became clear and said "Tilikaal...help us...please" and then went silent. Suddenly, with a bright flash, the star and the three planets suddenly vanished, and the Tiberius was left in relative safety (which allowed Foxwell to affect repairs on the warp coils). Also, the artifacts onboard the Tiberius at the moment of supernova, suddenly all glowed blue, with sensors and tricorders detecting tears and fractures in sub-space before they quickly healed themselves. 

Now that the Tiberius is out of harms way from the star, many questions need answering. Who or what is Tilakaal? These artifacts, is there any relationship to the artifacts of previous missions? And who or what has the capability to move entire planetary systems through sub-space and time? Not to mention the previous unanswered questions: Who is the XO and what happened to the Romulan ship Commander Sigmund discovered? 

Check back next time as the crew of the Tiberius tries to answer these questions and more! 

Doomed to Repeat the Past

After a short hiatus, the Tiberius was back in action. We started on Narendra station where the ship was continuing to be repaired. Admiral Walker called a meeting with the senior staff of the Tiberius, the station, and the other Federation ships and Klingon ships at the station to introduce everyone to General Borak, the new head of the Klingons on the station (as well as Admiral Walkers XO). Admiral Walker then met with the senior staff of the Tiberius to inform them that their shore leave would be extended by 2 weeks so the ship can be equipped with some quantum torpedoes.

Following shore leave, the Tiberius was tasked to head back into the Shackleton Expanse on an ordinary patrol. Shortly after the trip began, the crew was ordered to divert course and to rendezvous with an unregistered Federation ship, the USS Cass where they would be given new orders.

Once the Cass met up with the Tiberius, Commander Natalie Sigmund of Starfleet Medical met with the crew to give them a briefing about a plague spreading out of control on a Klingon colony world. Commander Sigmund said the initial reports suggest the long since dead Augment Virus may be back. The crew was tasked with investigating this virus to come up with an antidote. To that end, Commander Sigmund presented a datacore from the USS Enterprise NX-01 to help in their research. However, the crew would have to first figure out how to operate the device and interface it with the ship.

While the crew was figuring out how to operate and interface the device, reports continued to flood the ship of the rising death toll. Three away teams beamed down to the surface, including one team consisting of XO MacKenzie, Chief of Security Torc and Doctor Jerrynn (along with unnamed security officers). Upon beaming onto the planet, Lt. Commader Torc was immediately attacked by an infected Klingon who was trying to bite and scratch through their hazmat suits. Quickly thereafter, another infected Klingon attempted to do the same to Lt. Commander MacKenzie. Luckily, both Torc and MacKenzie were able to repel the Klingons and stun them without their suits being compromised. The group decided to transport the stunned, infected Klingons to the ship in order to use them as samples for researching a cure.

Meanwhile, onboard the Tiberius, Lt. Commander Foxwell (Eng) and Lt. Commander Wegen (Sci...who also happened to be Denobulan), were hard at work studying the device. After some time, they were able to get the device to work and interfaced with the computer via the holodeck. Once connected and the rest of the team was back onboard the ship, the team quickly learned that the antidote that Doctor Phlox created was indeed kept on this device. Any hopes of quickly creating and disseminating a cure were cut short when the computer informed them that the antidote would result in a 100% chance of death and the antidote, Phlox-1, was non-viable. The virus, it turns out, has mutated.

The situation on the planet was getting worse. Desperate to avoid getting infected, three cargo shuttles attempted to leave the planet but were turned back by Lt. Colonel Morok and his blockade in space. The cure was urgently needed as estimates as high as 20% of the population were now infected. But the odd thing was: it wasn't just the Klingons that were infected but other humanoids as well.

Back on the Tiberius, Wegen, Jerrynn and Foxwell started researching the virus thanks to their guests being held in isolation in the brig. The initial tests proved their initial suspicions: this was an altered form of the Augment Virus but they still didn't know who or how it was augmented.

The situation in space was beginning to deteriorate. Some the Klingon ships in orbit began bombarding the planet. In an effort to help Morok get his ships under control, MacKenzie and Torc beamed over to Morak's vessel to provide assistance, which initially seemed to work as tensions started to calm.

Meanwhile, knowing that the virus was spreading unchecked and the infected rate was rising quickly, approaching 60-70% of the population, Jerrynn, Wegen and Foxwell continued to research and study the virus. As it turned out, Jerrynn (who is half Andorian and half Vulcan) started to notice something oddly familiar about the virus (or more specifically how it was changed). He thought the RNA strands within the virus had a Vulcan signature to it, but he wasn't totally convinced. More research was needed. However, before the research continued, Commander Sigmund took out a Starfleet Intelligence badge and said all of this research is now classified at the highest levels.

In space, the situation was turning bad. In fact, it appeared that all-out war was ready to break out at any time. Morok & MacKenzie seemed to be losing control of four Klingon ships, while two others were reporting computer malfunctions. As the ships appeared to be positioning themselves over major cities and weapon systems were powering up, MacKenzie and Morok made one last plea for patience and to not fire on the planet. That is when word came in from the Tiberius that Doctor Jerrynn et al finally broke the code of the virus and that a cure could now be created and distributed. The virus, it turned out, was not Vulcan but Romulan in design. Once again, Commander Sigmund, at this finding, stepped in and said all this information is now classified Top Secret and no one besides senior staff on the Tiberius was to know of the Romulan involvement. Shortly after, Commander Sigmund received a communication and departed the ship.

However, news of a possible cure only made things worst it seemed. Civilians on the surface stole a cargo transport ship (from the company working on manufacturing the cure) and were shot down by the Klingons in orbit. However, Morok and MacKenzie were able to persuade them to stand down as the cure was being made. Slowly, as the cure was being administered, the rioting and chaos settled down and the Tiberius was able to depart the system. Admiral Walker and General Borak gave the crew their many thanks from Starfleet and the Klingon High Council for their great work.

The next day, following some much needed rest, the Tiberius received a hail from Commander Sigmund who didn't say a word but simply showed a Romulan Warbird powered up but adrift.

Tune in next time to the adventure of the USS Tiberius.

Trouble at Narendra Station

After recent events, the Tiberius was ordered back to Narendra station for some much needed repairs and for the crew to take some much deserved R&R. On their way back, Admiral Walker gave some words of praise to the crew for their work in recent days and told them the station was at their disposal. He also informed the crew of the memorial services on the station in wake of the latest news from the Dominion Wars.

After that, the crew set about doing some prep work for departure. Lt. Commander Foxwell (Eng) assembled his team and made a list of things needing repaired. XO MacKenzie and Captain Ral (GM) discussed crew performance. In addition to the promotion of Dr. Jerrynn to Lt. Commander, MacKenzie also requested Ens Faraggut (NPC) be promoted to Lt Junior Grade. MacKenzie also inquired about taking the Command test, which Captain Ral said he would put in a request. MacKenzie then offered Captain Ral the chance to get together and have a drink at the station, which the Captain accepted.

The trip to the station, though longer than normal due to speed restrictions, was uneventful. Once at the station, the crew set about for some R&R, but not before the memorial service. Once the service was over, Captain Ral and Lt. Commander MacKenzie invited the crew out for a drink, which they accepted.

Lt. Commander Torc, being Klingon, invited the crew to the Klingon part of the station for some blood wine. Things were going well until a friend from the past, Captain Akul, broke up their party to accuse the Federation of stealing his Bat'leth. After a few words were exchanged, it turned out other equipment has been stolen as well. Captain Ral excused himself in order to confirm this with Admiral Walker. Akul tasked the party to investigate his missing Bat'leth and find who was responsible.

This lead the team into a search of the missing gear. In addition to the bat'leth, a random assortment of items were reported missing: medical supplies, firearms, parts for ships, etc. The crew first began their investigation by searching Captain Akul's quarters. However, this turned up no clues.

Meanwhile, part of the crew went to the cargo bay to speak to Lt. T'Kot (Quartermaster) in the cargo bay where the gear went missing. T'Kot insisted he doesn't know how things went missing, only noting that he was awaiting parts to repair the transporter that had been busted for the past couple of weeks. While talking with the party, Doctor Jerrynn noticed an unusual twitch occurring on T'Kot's face. When asked about, T'Kot got a little defense, well as defensive as a Vulcan can get. Scans by science officer Wegen were inconclusive, though he figured something was off on the scan. Dr. Jerrynn relieved T'Kot of duty and ordered him to sickbay for a full physical, which he complied.

While T'Kot was being escorted to sickbay, the crew did a very thorough scan of the cargo bay and found something quite unusual. An ancient piece of technology, one resembling the technology recently discovered on previous missions, was found attached to the transporter. This device seemed to mask and erase any evidence of transporter activity from that pad, including masking its activities from the station log as well.

Back in sickbay, just as the scans on T'Kot were nearly finished, he seemed to suddenly melt into a puddle and escape sickbay. T'Kot, it turns out, was in fact a Changling! The crew immediately notified the station ops, who put the station on red alert.

The crew, with assistance by the station, was able to track the Changling to an empty science lab near the actual T'Kot's quarters. Once security measures were in place, a scan of hurtful energy beams was swept across the lab, finding the Changling in the corner disguised as a common house plant.

With the Changling captured, he was transferred into a bucket and taken to a secured prison cell. After several hours, the Changling finally emerged from the bucket and was interrogated. The crew found out this Changling was working for the XO and was stealing parts for the pirates in the XOs employ. This was about as much information as they cagey Changling was willing to give up.

The plot thickens with the XO. Who are they? Where are they located? And other than sewing discord between allies, what is their purpose? Join us as the crew of the Tiberius continues their investigation into these and other questions!

Signals Part 2

The crew of the Tiberius, after debriefing with the leader of the settlement Ero, received a distress signal from the Susquehanna. The signal originated about 1 light year deeper inside the nebula, which has caused the distress signal to become garbled.

With warp speeds not advisable in the nebula, the crew set off at full impulse toward the signal, knowing the Romulans are still out there but unaware of the dangers located inside the nebula. A game of cat-and-mouse ensued as both the Tiberius and the Romulan Warbird Veritex search for the Susquehanna. Shortly after launching, the Tiberius, unfortunately, ran into a pocket of metrionic gas, causing some further complications on their journey. After encountering, and dodging, some debris, the Tiberius was able to find the Susquehanna first.

As the crew scrambled to lock a tractor beam onto the Susquehanna, the Veritex arrived and immediately hailed the Tiberius. After not answering their demands, a fire-fight broke just after the Susquehanna was rescued. Luck was on the side of the Tiberius, and they were able to chase the Veritex away after a few rounds of fire were exchanged.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jerryann raced to the shuttle bay with his team of doctors to treat the crew of the Susquehanna. Thankfully, the Tiberius arrived in time to save the remaining 2 crew members, who were on the verge of being unconscious and looked malnourished. Dr. Jerryann and his team were able to stabilize the crew members without many problems.

Meanwhile, Chief Science Officer Wegen and Chief Engerineeer Foxwell scanned the shuttle to determine what had happened to the Susquehanna. They were able to determine that the Susquehanna was blasted by the same blue energy bolt that dropped their (and the Romulan) shuttles on Seku VI. They were also able to determine that this bolt of energy was what caused the transporter accident that killed the other 2 crewmembers.

Once all was secured, the crew headed back to Seku VI to warn the settlement about the Romulan threat in the area. Ero thanked the crew for the warning and said they would contact Starfleet should they want or need further assistance.

The Tiberius was then ordered back to Narendra station to make some much needed repairs to the ship (top speed has been limited to Warp 6 and the runabout needs repairs). The crew was also offered to use the time at Narendra station for some much needed R&R. However, before getting there, Admiral Walker broke the news to Dr. Jerryann that, effective once he arrives at Narendra Station, he will be promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander for his outstanding work onboard the Tiberius.

What will await the crew of the Tiberius once at the station? Will it be a time of fun and relaxation? Or will something cut into their R&R? Tune in next time for the continuing adventures of the USS Tiberius!