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Valley of the Shadow I (ST-HBHYV0LP6)@NCC-89471
"[Rom] Valley of the Shadow I" (mission ID: ST-HBHYV0LP6, aka "Into the Valley") is the first of three missions in the Valley of the Shadow series. The [Rom] tag in the title identifies this mission as one designed for Federation-allied Romulan Republic characters. (The Foundry only supports Federation and Klingon factional alignments, so this mission was published as a Federation mission. A Klingon Empire-allied version, titled "[Rom] VotS1: Into the Valley", is also available.)
Synopsis[ | ]
Historical context[ | ]
The series takes place in the year 2409 during Cryptic's Romulan Republic story arc, in between the mission series Vengeance and Freedom. It is also a prequel to the Foundry mission series Ghosts of War by the same author.
Plot summary[ | ]
Proconsul D'Tan gives the player a secret fact-finding mission to the planet Nivay IV, which has been under Imperial Romulan rule for over sixty standard years. The Nivayan government-in-exile, located on Andoria, has reached out to the Republic for assistance in overthrowing Imperial rule; D'Tan is sympathetic to this goal, but wants the player to assess the state of the Nivayan resistance before he commits Republic resources to the cause.
In order to minimize the risk of discovery, D'Tan forbids the player and officers from simply going to Nivay IV in his/her own ship; instead, they travel there aboard a civilian freighter on a smuggling run to aid the resistance. Unfortunately, the freighter overshoots its planned warp-in coordinates and falls into the planet's atmosphere. Her captain, Aaron Yates, manages to safely transport the player's team to the outskirts of the planetary capital city just before the freighter breaks up and explodes.
The player explores the crumbling capital city and finds its people living in squalor and in constant fear of the Tal Shiar. Eventually the player encounters an enraged mob of Nivayans intent upon killing the player's team, until they are talked down by a fellow Nivayan named Larna Premesh. The player reveals his/her mission to Premesh, who directs him/her to an entrance to a network of tunnels beneath the city that is home to its organized resistance.
Once inside the tunnels, the player soon finds and speaks with the resistance's senior figures, led by General Breka, in order to assess their capabilities and their specific aid requests. The resistance then receives a report from the surface: Captain Yates is alive and has been taken captive by the Tal Shiar. According to Breka, Yates knows enough about the resistance to break it if the Tal Shiar were to extract that information from him. The player volunteers to lead a raid on the Tal Shiar compound in the capital, in order to rescue Yates before he can reveal any information.
The mission is a success; however, it also leads to an alarming revelation. While searching for Yates, the player finds log entries made by the local Tal Shiar commandant, Major Tarnak, suggesting that the Tal Shiar have developed a new weapon to be used against Nivay IV in the event that the Star Empire loses control of the planet. The nature of the weapon is not specified, but its purpose seems to be to make an example of the Nivayans, in order to deter any other would-be rebellious subjects of the Empire - including, presumably, the Romulan Republic itself.
During their escape, the player's team witness a large-scale attack on the compound by rogue elements of the resistance - the spark for their insurrection. To the player's surprise, the team are then rescued by the player's ship, whose remaining officers have apparently disobeyed D'Tan's directive in order to do so. (They later explain that once they received word of the freighter crash, they knew the mission was already compromised and could not risk the player's team being captured.) The ship must fight off Imperial forces before making her escape.
Outline[ | ]
Mission text[ | ]
Objectives[ | ]
- Smuggling Runs in the Family
- Concurrent objectives:
- Valley of the Shadow I
- Speak with freighter captain
- Access mission briefing
- Leave the bridge
- Return to Capt. Yates
- Get report from Lt. Brot
- Concurrent objectives:
- The Shantytown
- Get your bearings
- Activate holoemitters
- Enter the shantytown
- Explore the shantytown
- Investigate thermal signature
- Speak with Nivayan woman
- Locate entrance to tunnel network
- Underground diplomacy
- Speak with Col. Venag
- Concurrent objectives:
- Speak with medical head
- Speak with head engineer
- Speak with head of security
- Speak with logistics officer
- Speak with diplomatic liaison
- Speak with head of training and personnel
- Report to Gen. Breka
- Go to tunnel entrance
- Get In...
- Concurrent objectives:
- Download new disguises onto holoemitters
- Recharge holoemitters
- Reprogram ID chips
- Find Capt. Yates
- Examine prisoners
- Search computer at Tarnak's desk
- Obtain dose of Mravalet
- Go to Holochamber 6
- Attempt to override security protocol
- Concurrent objectives:
- ...Get Yates...
- Move within earshot of Capt. Yates
- Give Mravalet to Yates
- Plant transponder on Yates
- ...and Get Out
- Defeat first Tal Shiar squad
- Return to entry point
- Ambush!
- Search for another way out
- Open wall panel
- Attach detonator to EPS junction
- Close wall panel
- Disrupt EPS grid
- Defeat Tal Shiar in entrance hall
- The Spark
- Leave Imperial compound
- Return to view island tower
- Escape Imperial compound
- Here Come the Cavalry
- Defeat Tal Shiar squadrons
- Break orbit (Optional: Destroy Hirogen ships on way out)
Walkthrough
- There is no walkthrough for this mission, yet. You can help STOWiki by writing it here.
Gallery[ | ]
Notes[ | ]
- The name of planet Nivay IV is "Yavin" spelled backwards - a reference to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, meant to foreshadow the Death Star-esque weapon of mass destruction that threatens the planet later in this mission series.
- The character of Aaron Yates identifies himself as the nephew of Benjamin Sisko and Kasidy Yates. His freighter, the SS Xhosa II is presumably a successor of Kasidy's ship seen throughout the Deep Space Nine TV series.
- The culture of Nivay IV in its current, war-torn state was modeled after apartheid-era South Africa, with the Romulans (particularly Major Tarnak) showing open contempt and racism toward the conquered, indigenous Nivayans (often referring to them as "dark savages"). References to the capital city ruins as the "shantytown" are the most direct allusions to South Africa.
- The underground tunnel map is based on one of the generic ship interior stock maps, redressed with brick walls to make it look like an old planet-bound construction instead. The idea was inspired by the underground headquarters of MI6 seen in the James Bond 007 film Skyfall.
- The "inverter" mentioned in this episode is the same technology used by the Ansata terrorists in TNG "The High Ground". It also figures into Part II.