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Ghosts of War, Part I (ST-HBPDJHGFE)@NCC-89471
"Ghosts of War, Part I" (ST-HBPDJHGFE, aka "Murdered World") is the first of six missions in the Ghosts of War series.
Synopsis
Historical context
This mission takes place in an alternate 2409, shortly after the events of Cryptic mission "Cutting the Cord".
Plot summary
The player is contacted by Admiral Madelaine Youngs, the chief handler for Starfleet Intelligence assets, asking the player to check on one of those assets: Communications Array 115, a platform for monitoring comm traffic in the Romulan Star Empire and fledgling Romulan Republic, which has malfunctioned and may have been sabotaged. Upon arrival at CA-115, the player finds that the Hirogen have indeed tampered with one of the array's nodes, presumably on the Empire's behalf. Upon repairing the node, the player's ship broadcasts a sector-wide alert for Hirogen activity, which is acknowledged by every Federation ship and installation in the Sierra sector except one: A team of exobiologists studying the third planet of the Verena system.
The player sets course for Verena III, only to find the planet completely lifeless - and a ring of unidentified satellites in its orbit. A series of scans reveals the satellites to be orbital thalaron radiation emitters, which explains the sterilized planet. The player contacts Admiral Youngs, who authorizes an investigation into the destruction of the planet's biosphere (and apparent murder of the exobiologists).
The player leads an away team to the now-barren surface, where they are frequently accosted by Hirogen hunting parties while gathering evidence from the area surrounding the exobiology team's base camp. Of particular note is a log recording by the late team leader Margaret Evans, who recounts an incident from the night before the attack in which another team member unexpectedly detected triolic wave readings in the vicinity. After surviving a Hirogen ambush, the team returns to the ship, which is then forced to fight off more Hirogen ships in orbit.
Curiously, however, the lead Hirogen vessel does not join in the attack. Instead, its commanding officer says he's no longer inclined to serve the Romulans after learning of their dealings with the Iconians. More importantly, he claims that a Romulan senator named Veledrus was behind the thalaron weapon that sterilized Verena III - and that the attack was merely a test of the weapon's capabilities, suggesting plans for another attack, this time against a populated world. Later during a debriefing, Admiral Youngs says finding Veledrus and learning what he knows about the weapon, and his intentions for using it, is now Starfleet Intelligence's top priority.
Outline
Mission text
Objectives
- One Bad Apple
- Ghosts of War, Part I
- Survive Hirogen ambush
- Locate the compromised node
- Shut down all adjacent nodes
- Shut down and disinfect Node 0D
- Verena III
- Scan the first satellite
- Scan the second satellite
- Scan the third satellite
- Scan the fourth satellite
- Download logs and destroy fourth satellite
- A Crime Against Nature
- Concurrent objectives:
- Collect evidence
- Collect evidence
- Collect evidence
- Reach survey team's base camp
- Concurrent objectives:
- Analyze the soil and plant samples
- Upload data from clip to camp computer
- Study survey team logs
- Concurrent objectives:
- Examine team leader's log
- Examine communication log
- Examine sensor log
- Survive first Hirogen ambush
- Survive second Hirogen ambush
- Concurrent objectives:
- Out of Season
- Defeat Hirogen squadrons
- Talk to Hirogen Alpha
- Rendezvous with the Fleming
- Hail the Fleming
- Interstellar Exports, Ltd.
- Talk to Miss Pomeny
- Talk to Admiral Youngs
Walkthrough
- There is no walkthrough for this mission, yet. You can help STOWiki by writing it here.
Gallery
One Bad Apple
Verena III
A Crime Against Nature
Out of Season
Rendezvous with the Fleming
Interstellar Exports, Ltd.
"Ghosts of War, Part I" promotional graphic
Notes
- This mission's original alternate title was "Dust to Dust". It was changed following the release of the Cryptic featured episode of the same title, to avoid confusion between the two.
- This is a reworked version of the author's first attempt at writing a Foundry mission. In the original version, the player was to pursue a group of Gorn who had stolen a red matter detonator from a Starfleet outpost (a nod to Star Trek's Kelvin timeline). The detonator contained no red matter when it was stolen, suggesting a wider conspiracy involving other unknown parties with access to the substance. However, it soon became clear to the author that the consequences of a red matter attack, as depicted in Star Trek (film), could not be adequately reproduced in a Star Trek Online Foundry mission. On the other hand, the consequences of a planetary-level thalaron incident - not shown, but alluded to in dialogue during Star Trek Nemesis, were considerably easier to depict, so the story was rewritten to use that type of weapon instead, and to cast the Romulans as the implied villains instead of the Gorn or the Klingon Empire.
- The dialogue mention of Will Riker's use of "subspace steganography" refers to TNG episode "Ménage à Troi (episode)".
- The S.S. Fleming is named for James Bond 007 author Sir Ian Fleming. She appears again in Parts II and IV of this series, and then in unrelated mission "Mirrorball" (a 007 homage) by the same author.
- Admiral Youngs's given name, Madelaine, begins with M - a subtle reference to her counterpart in the 007 franchise.