West Karana

“Cold Call” is the first of Star Trek Online’s “Feature Episodes“. The first series deal with those cryo-suited Alpha Quadrant villains, the Breen. Staying more or less out of galactic affairs after their defeat along with the rest of their allies at the close of the Dominion War, they have returned.

Those Federation diplomats who negotiated a treaty between the Ferengi, the Rigelians and the Deferans in the Starbase 39/Sierra diplomacy mission may remember Ambassador Surah as the Deferen Ambassador. Klingons will be reminded of an ancient pact between the Klingons and the Deferens where the Klingons promised aid when asked — that time has come. Though simply knowing that they would face the Breen would be reason enough for the Klingons to show.

A few years back, the orbital Hubble telescope pointed itself at a very small portion of the sky where there were no visible stars. In just that narrow slice of space’s darkest sky, it found clear pictures of 1500 galaxies.

Yesterday, gathered outside the Orellian Sector Block in Beta Ursae, you could see dozens of Galaxy-class cruisers any direction you looked. From the number of 50 person instances created at least 600 Federation captains were waiting to take part, along with an unknown number of Klingons.

The Federation News Service was there, along with some new allies; five Vice Admirals with the mission difficulty set to “elite”. We’d come to regret that.

The episode was delayed a few minutes, much to the jeers of the people on the test channel. The call finally came; each ship received a transmission giving us permission to warp. Warp we did, and we descended upon the Deferan system like pigeons to a stale crust of bread.

Ambassador Surah greeted us from aboard his ship, the Jeska. He thanked us kindly for coming to his call; reports of unusual ships had made him uneasy about returning to Defera, and wondered if we might escort him to his home world.

Five Federation ships of the line accompanied him from the fringes of the system to orbit around the planet. Just at the end, sensors picked up the momentary traces of an alien ship — a Breen ship. It warped away before we could respond, and its warp trail was masked so we couldn’t follow.

Surah beamed down to the surface, and invited us to enjoy the hospitality of the capital city, at our convenience.

Defera is a beautiful world, full of life and activity. The Deferan people welcomed the unexpected transport of five of the Federation’s finest. We even found a Ferengi selling odds and ends. For a peoples that had only recently started venturing beyond their home planet, Defera was remarkably high tech. They seem to have found a perfect balance between technology and nature.

We joined the ambassador in the main square. He began to tell us of the recently excavated ruins nearby, which showed signs of being artifacts of the Preservers, an ancient race which distributed humanoid life throughout the galaxy and may have been the distant ancestors of us all.

His story was interrupted by a surprise Breen attack on the city. (Since this was on elite mode, I died instantly). We regrouped and fought the Breen throughout the city, finally pinning them down in the ruins outside the city, where we fought and defeated the Breen commander atop an ancient pyramid.

The pyramid is also the site of an ancient Preserver puzzle, which was puzzled out by FNS Senior Editor Longasc, and described in his separate pull-out photo section. The puzzle appears to be part of a longer holographic message; perhaps the other pieces will be found on other episodes in this series.

Ambassador Surah realizes it is not safe for him to remain on the planet, and returns to the Jeska to make his way to a better location. Before he leaves, he calls the fleet captains together and explains to us that he knows he should have told us about the Preserver artifacts ahead of time, so we could have become better prepared. He gives us the freedom of the planet and offers daily missions in the area if we have the time or inclination.

(The Klingons don’t get this last scene).

We took our leave and went to do the new Deferan dailies. Unsurprisingly, they all dealt with protecting the sector against Breen attacks. Their cryo-based attacks were particularly devastating, leading many Federation captains wondering when they’d get cryo weapons for their own ships.

My ship, the USS Monterey, is furthest in the screenshot. Longasc’s Excelsior-class ship, the USS Amgarrak, is next; Thumupp’s escort, the USS Columbia, is closest.

The mission was so much fun, Longasc and I logged to our Klingon characters and did the whole thing over again!

“Cold Call” was a fantastic success. Player reaction on the forums has been very positive, aside from the usual trolls who don’t like anything. I am very much looking forward to next week’s episode, “Out in the Cold”.

While searching for a lost ship, the crew uncovers a plot to enslave the Deferi people.

Well, we can’t allow that, now, can we?

Cryptic starts their new weekly episode tomorrow, with “Cold Call”. I’m pretty excited to see what they’ve come up with! I’m not sure any subscription MMO has ever done weekly content updates before.

All players level 10 or higher will be able to access the Featured Episode: Cold Call starting at 11:00am PDT (6:00pm GMT) on Saturday, August 28.

Once the Episode is live, you may begin the new mission by traveling to the Defera Sector and contacting Deferi Ambassador Surah. (K, Surah, Surah?)

For more information about the Featured Episodes, go to http://www.startrekonline.com/feature_episodes/, and if that just points to this message, I’m going to feel stupid for re-typing it.

Where does this portal lead? It’s a mystery — but let’s back up a bit.

The USS Monterey has her regular patrol — exploring the expanses of the B’Tran Cluster to keep the systems closest to Borg space safe, the occasional mission for the Federation Diplomatic Corp, helping out on any fleet actions that may arise. This is the bread and butter of life in Starfleet. But on occasion, some brass with shiny medals plastered up and down their uniform sends an encoded transmission for My Eyes Only, and then we’re off, and these entries in my Captain’s Log are all the record there ever will be outside of the locked corridors in Starbase 01.

Our last expedition into fluidic space was a failure. The Undine are no more willing to talk to us on their own turf than they are when they find themselves in baryonic space — our reality. We did gain some allies in the fluidic realm, masters of vast, living ships. While we appreciate friends where we find them, we must find a way to make peace with the Undine so that they will stop attacking our fleets and concentrate their attacks on the Borg.

The Borg are the ultimate threat. Reviewing Janeway’s logs from the USS Voyager, I can’t help wonder how she could have had several opportunities to defeat the Borg forever, and at each point, backed off from the final blow. Every time she showed mercy, how many billions more died or were assimilated as a result? And now, they are at our doorsteps, killing us all. If it were up to me, I would take that final step and save the galaxy.

Starfleet has summoned the Monterey to an obscure system in the Pelia sector. There, a fleet stands ready to respond to any new incursions from fluidic space. There also is a most unexpected ally — a telepath from a race unknown to me, Celestara Mex — who believes she can make contact with the Undine and explain to them just how friendly we are, if they only knew us.

I call my first officer into my ready room and ask her, rhetorically, how the Undine could have made an exact duplicate of Starfleet HQ, worked itself into leadership positions in the Federation, Romulan and Klingon factions, and fought us again and again without coming to know us as well as we know ourselves? Commander Dylla said nothing. She will go far in this Starfleet. She knows when to shut up, a trait rare among we Andorians.

We prepare the ship for transition to the fluidic realm, and follow Celestara’s ship, the Seleya, through the portal. Navigation in fluidic space is a strange affair. We have never been able to analyze the liquid through which we glide. It is absolutely and utterly clear — if there were even the slightest impurity, we could not see at all. The impurities tend to clump into massive, continent-sized globules that form the base for what life exists here. It is toward one of those that the Seleya swims. The Monterey follows as best she can.

Celestara Mex soon makes contact with the Undine. They return her greetings with weapons fire. We fight back as best as we can, but eventually the Undine overrun the Seleya and capture the survivors. We get a telepathic message from Celestara that resonates in every mind on the Monterey. She is being held nearby… but she is in great danger.

We follow her message to a strange base growing from one of the immense globs of semi-solid fluid that dot this realm.

With some trepidation, I form an away team. We meet at Transporter Room #2 and beam down at once.

Commander Longasc graciously consents to serve as tactical officer. Also on the away team are Commanders Sryn and Karas, and Dr. Maph is on hand representing the Science division.

It is our first experience moving about in fluidic space without the Monterey around us. The experience seems exactly the same as moving against a stout wind blowing from all directions. The gravity is unexpectedly strong; the mass of this clump alone can not account for it. Clearly, there is much we don’t know about this realm. Our 2mm dynamic force field modules keep us protected from whatever harmful effects the fluid might have, but we will have to keep an eye on our shield generators. We do not expect to go long without being attacked.

Celestara Mex and three survivors of her crew are being held in semi-biotic cells; each are well-protected by an Undine squad, but they are dispatched without much trouble. The Undine have apparently not learned how to defend themselves against circle strafing and flanking damage. To their short-lived chagrin, no doubt.

When we rescue Celestara, she says she has psychically discovered the source of the Undine’s anger. We follow her to an alien portal — into normal space.

We are immediately attacked by another Undine patrol, this one led by a powerful Undine captain, who screams angrily at us for attempting to invade his race’s home via portals like the one before us. He won’t accept that this technology is well beyond Starfleet’s capabilities, nor that our only desire is peace and alliance. He meets all attempts at diplomacy with threats and violence. Battle ensues, and we defend ourselves.

Celestara Mex probes the gateway. She sees nothing but darkness and evil, an ancient threat, and a single word: “Iconian”.

We must close this portal. Commander Karas sets the controls to overload; we beam to the Monterey and flee for normal space as, behind us, the base and its portal implodes, leaving dark eddies in our wake.

Iconians? As if the Undine, the Borg, the Romulans, the Klingons, the Hirogen and all the other races against us weren’t enough. Sometimes I just want to point the Monterey toward the edge of the galaxy and peek outside it. It can’t be any worse out there than in here.

I find, these days, that I don’t make that much of a distinction between online RPGs — even Massive ones — and offline, single player RPGs. The only real difference is who I am playing with. Offline ones, I tend to chat with people about the game as I play on Twitter or somewhat slowly via this blog. Online, I chat with people about the game in game.

The experience, though, is the same. My character truculently departs the city to fight some awful mean thingies and then returns victoriously with the heads of the bloody beasts raised high. If they have heads.

I’m all about the RPG. Give me a world that needs a hero, and I will be that hero.

When Cryptic announced “Neverwinter“, their new “Online Multiplayer Game” that would NOT be an MMO, but would be more of an open, city zone where parties would gather prior to leaving for an instanced adventure, my first thought was not “why isn’t Neverwinter an MMO?” but, “how is this not Turbine’s Dungeons & Dragons Online” followed by “so, how is DDO an MMO if Neverwinter is not?”

I’m not a big fan of MMOs. I love the concept of an immersive world of adventure, don’t get me wrong. I like classes and leveling and all that. I even like quests. But what I don’t like is the implicit assumption that I will want to devote hundreds of hours to this game, because I know that I will probably grow bored with your MMO long before the end. Very few MMOs of the dozens I’ve played have grabbed me enough to make me work for max level. EverQuest, EverQuest II, World of Warcraft, Wizard101 and Star Trek Online.

And look, there’s a Cryptic title, right there at the end. Star Trek Online.

Some call it a failure, but every time I log in, I geek out with the “OMG I’M IN STAR TREK!”. Cryptic nailed the look and feel of the universe perfectly. I may quibble about how they can’t give with one hand without taking away with the other (was there REALLY a reason to weaken my Vice Admiral-level Intrepid refit compared to my Rear Admiral-level Luna?). I may want more story missions and better Klingon support. But I can’t fault their ability to make a world.

Neverwinter sounds like the sort of game I’ll really like. Quick, session-based play. A world that I’ve played in through Neverwinter Nights and its sequel. Likely not going to use that weird camera that ruined NWN2 for me, but will use the very good camera they have for Champions Online and STO. I do hope the rooms will be less cavernous than those used in their previous two MMOs. The original EverQuest could support small rooms without any trouble, why can’t Cryptic’s MMOs?

I digress. I’m excited for Neverwinter. It’s going to have player generated content from the beginning, which means my static Sunday night group, currently in DDO as we wait for Diablo III, could possibly end up running an adventure that one of us creates.

I’m so totally THERE. So buzz off, haters. It’s a great concept and I think Cryptic has a shot at making something we’ll want to play.