Star Trek Adventures

One-shot: “Rescue at Anansi Aleph III”

Yesterday, young Anya plays Commander Jewel Mochizuki, XO of the Walker-class USS Bangkok. Several more days of Ramadhan to go, and she just saw the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode “I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Scream”. So, she asked if I could run a Star Trek Adventures session. I would ask Irfan to join but he was napping.

GM and Player of Star Trek Adventures

The Mission Begins

It is July 2260. Captain Adilia Morales is sent by Starfleet Command to investigate an SOS from the missing Saladin-class USS Neptune in the Anansi Aleph system.

Captain Morales assigns Cmdr Mochizuki to the rescue ops. Upon dropping out of warp, Science Officer Lt Amanda Heisenberg scans nearby gas giant Anansi Aleph III detecting a ship in its upper atmosphere. Helmsman Lt. Cmdr. Simone Tsang plots a course there.

An electrical storm under the Neptune disables scanning, comms and prevents beaming. Cmdr Mochizuki orders Tsang to launch a probe. Despite the atmospheric disturbance, Mochizuki succeeds [using Control+Conn] in remote flying the drone. From the drone scans, the Neptune seems fine, but there is no sign of activity. They see no movement through the windows.

The Landing Party

Then, Mochizuki leads a landing party with Tsang & Heisenberg in a Type-7 shuttle. They pass the probe on its way back. The winds and ionisation disruption buffet the shuttle, but Tsang skillfully lands them in the Neptune‘s hangar bay, beside another Type-7 shuttle.

The Type-7 shuttlecraft

They disembark and are jumped by a creature out in the corridor. Mochizuki stuns the creature with her phaser. The creature is a dog-sized leathery ball of muscle with a huge maw and sharp teeth.

The Creatures

Heisenberg reports that there are multiple lifesigns on the Engineering Deck – but no reply on comms. Tsang informs the XO that the ship is sinking into the storm clouds below which would destroy the ship.

With 15 minutes left, they split up. Heisenberg proceeds to the Science Department to learn more about the creatures. Mochizuki orders Tsang to find and destroy the creatures while she heads for the Engineering Deck. The XO fails to break the lock on the Engineering Room, where the Neptune survivors are trapped. Another creature jumps her but is disintegrated by her phaser.

Then Heisenberg calls. She is under attack by more creature before her signal cuts off.

The Neptune rocks violently as it descends into the topmost storm clouds. Tsang reports that an organic, egg-like object smashed through the hull & hatched some time ago. The hull breach is contained by emergency forcefields for now.

Mochizuki heads toward Tsang but en route a group of four creatures rush for her. They are pursued by a large 3-m long tentacled creature! Mochizuki and the small aliens flee together. But [by spending 2 Momentum creating a Scene Trait] a lightning hit activates the corridor security forcefield and traps the creature. The smaller aliens are also happy at this development.

A Strange New Worlds phaser

Then Heisenberg shows up with more of the smaller creatures in her arms. She discovered that the smaller gir-ligud are not hostile. The USS Neptune picked a group of them in space as they were being hunted by the larger sarab-bok. The predator travelled in an egg-like vessel that had smashed into the starship in search of its food.

The Rescue

Lt Cmdr Tsang reaches the bridge but helm power is off. The XO finds a power junction and [with Reason+Engineering] successfully diverts power to the bridge, allowing the helmsman to pilot the ship up and away from the electrical storm.

The Neptune out of danger, Cmdr Mochizuki beams the trapped sarab-bok out to space and rescue the near-frozen crew in the Engineering Room – some of which had been devoured by the huge alien creature.

With the survivors safe and sound, the USS Bangkok and the USS Neptune then warp away from Anansi Aleph III.

THE END

Notes:

• Anya named herself “Jewel” after Leslie Mann’s character in Rio, and “Mochizuki” using a Japanese surname list website.
• Anya named the Bangkok as she visited the city recently.
• Anya also named the captain after her friend in school.

Jewel Mochizuki – Ink & Water Colour Sketch

Jewel Mochizuki of the USS Bangkok