A Nest of Vipers (Rising Empire, Part III)

[Solluk]

Shortly after the Federation's Tachyon Detection Grid is disabled by a powerful tachyon pulse, a fleet of Romulan vessels attacks the neutral Caph star system, which lies inside of the Federation borders but is not a member of the Federation.  After a brief and brutal conquest, the new government of the Caph System, identifying themselves as The Emerald Empire, reach out to the Federation.  A breakaway sect of Romulans unsatisfied with the current direction and development of the Romulan Empire, the Emerald Empire has established itself in the Caph system and now wants to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Federation. Though reticent to accept such overtures, the Youship is dispatched to carry Federation envoys to negotiate a peace.  Uncomfortably, a Romulan diplomat is sent as well, to observe the diplomatic process.  But will peace with the Emerald Empire be threatened before it can be established?

Starting Point: Yourship is assigned to carry envoys to the Caph system.

End Goal: Yourship prevents the launch of a protomatter weapon that could destroy the Emerald Empire.

Story points that must be passed?:

I) Yourship is dispatched to carry Federation envoys to Caph to negotiate a nonaggression pact, while also taking aboard a Romulan shuttle full of Romulan diplomatic 'observers.'

II) In an uncomfortable diplomatic dinner, the Emerald Empire and Romulan Empire representatives take verbal jabs at each other.  It comes out that the Emerald Empire has made slaves of the Caphian Prime survivors.  Everything about the Emerald Empire seems unpalatable, but the Federation would prefer peace with them to the prospect of war.

III) The Romulan diplomatic observers request a tour of the ship.  The Emerald Empire ambassador demands to be included in the tour.  The same tour, at the same time.  Though this seems unwise, the Federation diplomats force the Captain to concede.

IV) During the tour, two of the diplomatic observers from the Romulan Empire attack the Emerald Empire Ambassador.  They turn out to be exceptionally skilled martial artists who have been implanted with advanced cybernetics that allow them to shrug off most ordinary attacks.  This kind of cybernetic enhancement is unusual, and against Romulan cultural norms.  Additional security must be called to handle the attack and protect the Emerald Empire envoy.

V) While this altercation is underway, two members of the Romulan delegation sneak off.  One carries a small, advanced protomatter warhead to the torpedo room, while another goes to engineering to sabotage the warp drive.

VI) Altercations follow in the torpedo room and engineering.  Depending on how events pan out:

VI - A) The Romulan operatives launch a protomatter-armed photon torpedo at the Caphus system star, while also sabotaging the warp drive.  Yourship must emergency launch a shuttle to intercept the torpedo (moving slower than usual due to the protomatter warhead's energy drain) in order to prevent it from creating instability in the star that will create a stellar ejection which will destroy Caphus prime.

VI - B) The Romulan operatives are stopped before they can sabotage the ship and launch the torpedo.

VII) The Federation and the Emerald Empire sign a non-aggression pact, but this puts a new and dangerous political player within Federation borders- a Rising Empire that could pose a future threat to the quadrant.

Departments: (To make sure everyone has something to do.)

- Flight: Most of the flying will be routine, unless option VI-A comes to pass, in which case a thrilling race to intercept the torpedo will commence.

- Engineering: A sabotage attempt on the ship will involve engineering personnel.

- Operations: Operations may be involved in dispatching security or repair teams to incident areas.

- Security and tactical: This is a security-heavy mission with lots of involvement from security personnel aboard the ship.

- Medical: Somebody always gets hurt.

- Science: Science will be instrumental in figuring out the effect of the protomatter-armed torpedo.  If the torpedo can't be stopped, perhaps Science can develop an emergency solution to stabilize the star.

Note:  This mission is Part III in the Rising Empire story arc.  Note that the Emerald Empire uses a green serpent as their national symbol.