Disclaimer: The rights to 'Star Trek' and 'Star Trek Online' are owned by its creators, Gene Roddenberry, CBS Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Cryptic Studios. This story is based on the idea from Gene Roddenberry and is used for entertainment purposes only and written without expectation of monetary or material profit.
Notes: The plot of this story is based on the Star Trek Online (STO) plot from 'Season 1' during the initial release back in 2010. While the original prologue has long been changed from the initial release, to the new prologue which tells the story of a class of cadets who are on the wrong side of a distress call and are attacked by Klingons. If those who remember the original tutorial, this was not the case. We will start from the original released tutorial which tells of a different plot point.
Timeline: The Stardate for STO starts on 87695.52 or September 11 2410. The Star Trek Stardates will also be used for anything before that Stardate. This timeline will be based on the fact that the current season started in 2409, with the latest being in 2411. I will use the date of May 20, 2405, or Stardate 81384.80. This makes it easier to reference dates both with STO and with the original Star Trek series.
Warning: This story is self-beta'd. If there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, please PM me the paragraph.
Star Trek Online: Reign of Terror
By
RyanSlicer
Book 1: The Klingon War
Prologue
As the transporter beam collapsed and brought over Markus Darmoth, a young man with short dark hair and a goatee. The black jacket with yellow shoulders covered his torso, along with tight black pants that went down to calf high boots covered his body like a uniform. As Markus stepped off the transporter pad with his standard issued duffel bag, he nodded to the chief, a human with brown hair and also a black uniform with yellow shoulders, before speaking up. "I'm glad that they changed the interior of the ship. I don't think I could deal with the 23rd century walls."
The transporter chief laughed as he reset the transporter for the next group to come aboard, "They just recently sent us in to do a refit and cleaned up the corridors and access panels for better access." He nodded back to the person, "Chief Reginald."
"Ensign Darmoth." Markus replied, giving a slight wave with his hand before heading to the door. As he walked up to the door, they slid open with a soft hiss. Markus took a moment to notice the plaque on the wall, stating the following.
U.S.S Argon
Miranda-Class Registry Number NCC-34726
Launch Stardate 17484.97 Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars
United Federation of Planets
Markus gave a soft whistle, 'This ship is over 70 years old?' He thought to himself, 'Starfleet must be desperate for ships if they're pulling these ships out from the mothball fleets.' Markus continued from the transporter to the closest turbolift on his left, passing sickbay. Several other enlisted men and women were also in the corridor, passing him or following him to the turbolift. The Miranda class ships only held a max crew of 396 so the corridor didn't feel as cramped like on other ships. Markus entered the turbolift, along with a few other crew members before calling out to the lift, "Deck 6." Markus noted the Vulcan and Andorian also mentioned deck 6 as well.
As the lift quickly made the short stop to the deck above it, the doors slid open and the passengers left the lift, heading in different directions. Markus turned down a corridor on his left, going across a walkway that overlooked the general cargo area. He stopped at the first door and looked at it, then down at the PADD he pulled out of his bag and confirmed the door number. Pressing the door release, the door slid open and he saw the multiple bunk beds as he entered. As he looked at the PADD again, he found his bunk and locker. Setting his bag on the bed, he sat down for a moment to take in the room he was going to be sharing with several others for at least the next six months.
He started to get up when the door chimed and slid open, a Vulcan wearing a black jumpsuit with a blue collar matching the 2370's era uniform entered the room, the pips on his collar also marked him as an ensign. He turned to Markus and gave him a calculating look. "Greetings, I didn't realize we were getting a new crew mate." He said in a calm, almost logical way. "Ensign Reshaun. Science division."
"Ensign Markus Darmoth." Markus replied, "Engineering."
"Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Ensign Darmoth." Reshaun responded, moving over to the desk. "Have you settled into your assigned bunk?" He set a PADD down before moving to a locker.
"Yeah, I'm getting settled." Markus nodded, settling back down onto the bunk. "Anyone else assigned to this room?"
"Right now only two others, but they are currently on shift and you will probably not see them that often." Reshaun pulled out a candle and holder before turning to face Markus. "I hope that my meditations do not disturb you."
Markus waved his hand. "It's okay, I had a Vulcan friend who tried to help me meditate after some issues at the Academy." This caused Reshaun to raise an eyebrow up in a questioning manner, "It was to help me with my marksmanship. It worked out pretty well."
"I'll take your word on it." The Vulcan replied, setting up his meditation candle.
Markus grabbed his bag and went to the assigned locker, noting that it wasn't displaying his name until he placed his finger on the designation plate. As soon as he released his finger from the plate, his name appeared and the locker unlocked. Markus started to put his stuff into the locker, when his comm badge chirped. Tapping the badge, it chirped back, "Ensign Darmoth."
"Ensign Darmoth, please report to main engineering for orientation and duty assignment."
"Roger that, Darmoth out." Markus tapped the badge to end the communication. He finished putting his things in the locker and shut the door. He turned to Reshaun. "I'll see you after orientation then." The Vulcan nodded before Markus left.
-LINE BREAK-
Markus exited the turbolift near the main engineering office. There were a few other crew members walking up and down the small hallway, checking panels and bringing items to and from the office. Markus walked up to the office as an older man by a few years in a gold and black jumpsuit stepped out, the pips on his collar marked him as a lieutenant. The man stopped Markus with a gruff, "Ensign Darmoth?" Markus nodded, "Come on in." He turned back into the office with Markus following.
Once the door shut, the man turned around, grabbing a PADD off the desk and handing it to Markus, "This is your assignment. Right now it is routine work until I see what you can do."
Markus looked at the PADD, before tapping on it to transfer it to his PADD in his locker. "Sounds pretty easy. Having issues with the EPS conduits?" He asked, noting that most of the work was going over to the EPS conduits and checking for damage and replacing as needed.
"Yeah, when they did the refit, they didn't do a good job checking and replacing them. If it wasn't for this damned war with the 'Klinks' then they wouldn't have rushed the refit." Erris grumbled, "Not like 25 or so years ago, back when you had Picard, Riker, and Freeman all flying about in their ships."
"There weren't any issues with the Klingons before then?" Markus asked, "I thought that we were in a non-aggression pact with them before they attacked the Orion's and Gorn?"
"Back then, they respected Riker and Picard. Their current ambassador, Worf, was a Starfleet officer and was friends with them and the current commander of DS9."
"So why did he go back to the Empire?"
Erris shrugged, "I don't know really." He walked around the desk to sit in the chair. "But we're not here to discuss politics." He motioned to the PADD, "There are extra conduit parts in the main storage and cargo bays here in engineering. If you find any damaged ones, mark it so we can send a repair team. If it's something you can do, go ahead and grab the parts needed."
Markus nodded, handing the PADD back to LT Erris, "Do you mind if I take a bit to get settled fully?"
Erris waved his hand a bit. "That's not a problem, you can start tomorrow as I know you just got here." He took the PADD and set it aside, "Report back here tomorrow at 0900."
Markus nodded and walked out of the office. Heading back towards the enlisted quarters.
-LINE BREAK-
"Personal log, Stardate 82826.74, it's been a few months since I've started on the Argon, and LT Erris was right to be pissed at the refit crew. Almost every other EPS conduit needed to be replaced or specific parts needed to be fixed. Still they didn't replace the warp core so this isn't a power issue with these conduits. These are just older parts." Markus leaned back onto his bunk. With the rest of his bunkmates either on shift or taking personal time off, he figured he could record his personal log while they were out. 'Still they could have at least checked them and fixed the badly damaged ones. Other than that it's been a pretty quiet patrol, a few Orion raiders, or some diplomatic envoy. But the engineers don't care as much for that. I'm about ready for my next shore leave, it'll have to be on Starbase 34, but that's fine as well." Markus thinks on it for a few more moments before the warning klaxons of the Red Alert start blaring across the ship.
"All hands, this is not a drill. Report to your designated battle stations." The calm computer voice chimed above the alarms. "Red Alert. All hands, this is not a drill.." the message began to repeat. Markus threw down his PADD on his bed and zipped up his uniform as he raced out of his quarters. As he left the room, the ship shook as he heard the bulkheads take the brunt of a torpedo, jostling him around, along with several other crew members that were also running to their stations.
Running towards the turbolift, he was about to turn the corner to get there when an explosion hit the ship, causing a massive hole to appear adjacent to where the turbolift would be. The explosion knocked Markus off his feet completely as the vacuum of space started to pull him and other crew members towards the hole, before the emergency bulkheads shields activated. Around the crew, beams had fallen down and fires started as smaller explosions from the antiquated systems started to go into overdrive to compensate for the lack of a bulkhead. Markus tried to move, but felt very dizzy from the fall and the explosions causing his ears to ring as his vision started to go in and out. The last thing he saw out in the blackness of space was several green beams of weapons fire, and a dark object moving across space.
