The namesake of the U.S.S. Shangri-La was introduced in the 2280s as the prototype of the class cruiser that went on to bear its name.

Then in 2399, the eighth and most current starship to bear the name launched as a Constitution III-class exploration cruiser, NCC-2575-G.

She saw several years operating in deep space, scoring several first contacts with newly encountered civilizations in the process while likewise observing / studying several more that were pre-warp and thus direct contact restricted via the Prime Directive.

But then in 2401 she was recalled from deep space and ordered to return to Earth for what ended up becoming another Borg invasion and takeover of the ships of Starfleet itself during that year’s Frontier Day ceremony.

Shangri-La was one among the majority of ships taken over by the Borg, but also one that received only minor damage during the process.

Once repairs were made and the fleet coordination software / systems removed, the Connie III cruiser was released from drydock once more and thrown back out into the depths of space in 2402.

In 2407, the ship was recalled and crew reassigned during as the ship was temporarily removed from active service for overhaul and refit.

Shangri-La G was stripped down only to be built back up with the latest in technology restoring her status to being one of the most advanced exploration ships in the fleet.

A Starfleet officer of mixed Klingon/Human/Romulan heritage, Capt. Hauk Wolfseye, assumed command and oversaw the refit while assembling a new crew for the Connie III’s eventual return to space.

“Not only did the Shangri-La help to survive the Borg on Frontier Day, it also extended our map of known space with many successful first contacts made in the process,” said Wolfseye during an interview prior to ship’s re-launch.

Even before her official re-commissioning, the cruiser was pressed back into service to assist with defending the Alpha/Beta Quadrants from the all out Borg Assault of 2409.

Although this ship was officially re-assigned to Alliance Central Command’s and the Malstrom Expeditionary Force, operating within the Malstrom Expanse, she soon found herself mired down once more into a maelstrom of continuing conflict and war in the form of the Klingon-Federation War, conflicts with the Romulan fight for independence from the Tal Shiar, the Cardassian “True Way” movement and of course the Iconian War and all that followed.

Ship and crew look forward to returning to the Malstrom Expanse and resuming their core mission of exploration and discovery.

The post Welcoming the Shangri-La appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

He once had a family .. a family of some note before the loss of the homeworld, yet he’d been pushed out by that time.

He also loved science in a family that for generations had served the military.

At a young age, Adalma attended the Romulan Imperial Academy, becoming an officer in the imperial navy after graduating.

Science was a gift that always came naturally to him, but so was the art of combat tactics.

The latter is the one embraced by both family and the Empire and thus the mold he found himself unhappily crammed into.

At least until a console exploded in his face, damaging eyes and optical nerves to the point of being legally blind — his sight too blurry to perform his duties.

It spelled the end of his career in the Imperial Navy as the Romulans considered him les than a man because of it.

As did his family for that matter.

With a long naval tradition, they held his loss of sight against him, making life miserable.

When the evacuations began, his family refused to accept Federation aid or assistance.

Adalma saw it as his ticket out of an extremely bad situation.

Sneaking onto an evacuation ship, he fled ffrom family and the coming horror the supernova represented.

And it was in the Federation that strangers not only took him in … but restored his sight with special glasses.

He surprised himself when he found after this that he actually wanted to get back out into space, but this time studying its mysteries as a science officer.

So, he applied to Starfleet Academy and was fast tracked into the fleet upon his acceptance.

Within two years, he had his own command and now commands the experimental Glenn-class science spearhead cruiser named U.S.S. Raegal.

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Daenerys … no family, no last name.

At least at the beginning of her tale.

The half Orion, half Romulan orphan was born in the darkness of slave pits owned by an Orion Syndicate warlord.

Her mother died in childbirth. Her father most likely someone who took advantage of her.

Ask Daenerys the name of either, and she will say simply she never knew them … only that her name was shared from that of her mother, also Daenerys.

She did often dream of her mother, wondering if any of the features of her own reflection might be a shadowy reflection of her.

But there were none in the slave pits where she was born and raised who could tell her anything beyond her mother’s name.

Also she knew is that they as she was growing up, everyone referred to her as “little Daenerys” … aka. short for the fact she was the young daughter of a Romulan slave with that name … Daenerys.

There are rumors she may have half-sisters out in the universe somewhere, but so far … no clues.

Genetic testing is an option that might help, but Daenerys has refused such for fear it might lead her to her birth father … who she would rather believe dead and unknown.

If her mother was Romulan, that would mean he Orion … and likely not a slave but one who took advantage of her mother at some point.

Just as others took advantage of her before her liberation by Starfleet — Capt. Agnarr Krog and the crew of the U.S.S. Valkyrie to be exact.

She still remembers quite clearly the moment freedom came to her.

It was marked at first by sounds of phaser and disruptor fire followed by bright flashes of grenades.

Tasked with finding and “dismantling” the arm of the Orion Syndicate operating within that sector, the Valkyrie had tracked the Syndicate to a network of asteroid bases operating within the Kaldrii system and set to the task of neutralizing said network and brining the ringleaders to Federation justice.

Delarys can quite clearly still see the hand of Capt. Krog reaching down to help her to her feet.

That simple act … climbing to her feet … in that moment represented climbing out of that hellhole and onto a much better life track,

It took time for Daenerys to recover from the trauma of her past life, but she did it.

And after a time, she not only recovered but found she wanted to relish in her freedom by exploring the stars and herself become a Starfleet officer.

Capt. Krog sponsored her application to Starfleet Academy, and on when registering … Delarys gave a lot of thought about how she wanted her name to be listed.

She chose to add to her name the last name of Valkyrie … in honor of those who saved her.

As for the rest of her story, it remains a work in progress.

—-

Author Note — Daenerys actually is actually a rebranding of a character I’ve had in game for a while now. It was a character I realized I never played and whom just didn’t speak to me any longer. So I decided to update the character’s appearance from human to Orion/Romulan with a completely different backstory.

The post From slave to ship’s captain appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

H’nej ir-Fethraie tr’Ruth’ven was not born of a great or even small notable house.

And what’s more, he was born with an eye condition that left him with substandard eyesight.

As a child born in the Romulan Star Empire, these combined to see as considered one of society’s lowest cast.

He was lucky to land a job as a janitor as a teenager just to keep he and his family from starving.

There were times he considered ending it all, but yet he perservered … for the sake of his family more than himself.

Then came the supernova that changed it all.

When Starfleet arrived to ferry Romulan refugees to safety before that wave of destruction … and before the synth uprising on Mars derailed all that … H’e’nej and his family were among those rescued and moved out of harm’s way as Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets did not see things the same way the Empire had.

They did not look down on young Henej but instead helped fabricate glasses with corrective lenses that would when worn counter the effects of his eye disease.

From that moment forward, the young Romulan saw things literally much more clearly.

His family safely relocated, H’nej made it his mission to serve in Starfleet to see if he could forge a future for himself as bright as the very stars themselves.

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Captain Brigid has officially been given command of the U.S.S. Destiny, NCC-2346-G.

Destiny is a variant of the Justiciar-class command star cruiser line and has been outfitted with a complete suite of Diplomatic facilities not seen since the Ross-class was introduced back in the 2381.

Ship and crew will be assigned to assist with first contact and diplomatic missions within the Malstrom Expanse.

When not performing those missions, they will assist with missions of exploration.

Destiny carries on a proud heritage of ships associated with the name, tracing the origins of the name all the way back to the original Constitution-class heavy cruiser that was first of eight ships to bear the name and registry number.

And as for the ship’s commbadge logo, the design is comprised of the Starfleet Delta overlayed ontop of the design that’s “the strands and web of destiny,” which the Norse refer to as the Wyrd.

The post Introducing the U.S.S. Destiny appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

That Sagan-class is one of my favorite ship designs in Star Trek Online … following by the Constitution III and followed by the Odyssey and Excelsior II class starships.

The U.S.S. Blackstar was one of the first ships I looked at with regards to its name being one that stands on its own merit with no history or connections at all … not even connections regarding word.

The post Introducing the U.S.S. Blackstar appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

Back when the Odyssey was introduced to Star Trek Online in 2012, the U.S.S. Valhalla was the flagship of one of my main characters.

Flagship of one Hauk (or Starfleet version of his character) to be exact.

It was to the point that I had a logo commissioned to represent it.

Of course, Hauk retreated back to just his Klingon Defense Force persona, meaning he no longer had need of a Starfleet ship.

But now 11 years later, his counterpart version, Hauk’, who is of a different / alternate reality has a place firmly entrenched on the Starfleet side of the zone.

And among the ships in his arsenal is an Odyssey-class that was in serious need of a name.

Why not roll the Valhalla back out and give it to Hauk’ to serve as flagship of his personal battle group?

He will continue to also have the U.S.S. Maelstrom, U.S.S. Dragonstone and U.S.S. Blackfyre (among others), but a fleet admiral needs a command ship that is advanced enough to track and coordinate operations from one central location.

And for Hauk’, that ship is the Valhalla.

Since the ship never actually got a backstory even though I ran it in game for a time, we are going to give her one.

Although much of those details remain cloudy and not refined enough to say yet, she will be hosting a variety of technologies that were introduced on other starships …. befitting a fleet admiral’s flagship.

The post Return of Valhalla appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

by Hauk – Kaiwolf

Scene: Temporal Ready Room
Stardate: N/A

—-

Somewhere at a point outside of spacetime, Daniels made his decision.

Watching the ebb and flow of the timelines, he realized that certain events needed to happen that would shape the lives and destinies of a handful of families.

And so he set to work, figuring out the specifics to make it happen.

Studying a specific point in time, he already knew there was one random event with a cause of another event from outside this known universe … this known reality … that was making it all possible.

One reality’s collapse equaled possible salvation in this one.

Daniels equated all this to being not unlike a sculpture in that a piece of stone here and another there had to be removed before this or that feature could be shaped.

And the shaping of one altered the destiny of the other.

The Krenim had once tried manipulating the flow of events by removing things from the timeline completely.

In this case, it was the addition of something new into the timeline Daniels hoped for.

The key was not just in the what (as that person was coming regardless) … it was the when that person would arrive and hit the timeline.

Then add in enough tossed pebbles into the stream at just the right moments and the course of the stream would be shifted one way or the other … in a positive way that could actually save millions of lives in the long run.

But as with the way the Krenim performed their temporal operations, what Daniels was doing required the same level of calculations and careful, precise planning.

 First it would begin with Hauk’ … Hauk of an alternate universe … falling through with members of his crew from their home verse as it collapsed and landing somehow into this one.

A slight nudge would move the landing from 2409 to 2400.

That event in that moment with the interactions between the alternate Hauk and the one from this verse would alter and shape the destinies of both … influencing a moment here and a happening there.

And this happens cascade into other moments doing the same with the pieces all falling into a perfect form to shift the timeline just enough … just enough to cause what needs to happen to become reality.

Hauk … now calling himself Hauk’ … had fallen onto the board as needed.

And his reactions and interactions with his duplicate of this verse was proving enough to shift Hauk of here subtly along the overall board in the new directions needed.

“Good,” the temporal agent said to himself.

“Now, lets swing back and take a look at you,” he added, his eyes changing direction of view of hovering timeline.

The figure now glanced was one Mykal Hayden Kaiwolf — a human Druid born in the 23rd century whose future was being re-written (hopefully for the better) and whom was about to be cast like dice across the game board into the future.

—OUT OF STORY—

Writer’s Note: This story is setting the stage in my head for the fact I’m going to use the TOS recruitment event and the Agents of Yesterday story arc to reset the character in game that is Mykal Kaiwolf.

Right now, he is a character born in the TOS time period, but the toon itself is NOT a TOS born character in game mechanics.

So, I’m gonna give him a re-roll to rectify that while also moving him from the tactical path to the engineering as far as career.

Otherwise, his story will remain the same. … a character who graduated with Chekov but one who didn’t get cast forward into the future until someone around the time of possibly … Undiscovered Country?

And he will continue to command the U.S.S. Fenrir … a Matsumoto-class multi-mission command cruiser that at the time of launch back when was classified as a dreadnought.

With the Klingon recruitment event, I re-rolled Hauk on the Klingon side and with Delta recruitment rolled Hauk’ on the FED side.

Comes down to the fact. that I want my primary four mains to be 1 tac / 1 eng from different recruitment events on both sides of the neutral zone.

This does NOT alter the previous story I wrote about Kaiwolf.

The post Re-throw of the dice … appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

During the Borg invasion of the Beta Quadrant in 2409, the Borg boarded the U.S.S. Kashima and assimilated over half the crew before ship’s captain Capt. Alan Rhys Sollace and his people were able to draw a line in the sand and hold that line.

Alan saw it somewhat like trying to dig a fire line with the forest fire you are fighting raging all about, constantly jumping said line.

In this case, it took several times before Alan and his people were able to dig in secure enough to not just hold the line, but slowly step-by-step drive the Borg from their ship.

Many among the Borg killed were freshly assimilated members of the Kashima’s own crew, meaning Alan was forced to kill those whom he had pledged himself to lead and protect as ship’s commander.

Toss in his ship ended up being decommissioned due to the extensive damage received in the engagement.

Alan lost many friends to the Borg during that invasion … including his best friend Rhys who had been assimilated into the Collective.

Instead of accepting command of another ship, Capt. Sollace instead accepted transfer to the Björkö Fleet Yards in the Moskoe Anchorage region, located along the outer edge of the Malstrom Expanse.

His assignment was to oversee a project that sought to take older ship classes and see them upgraded to modern specifications as Starfleet was seeking to replenish its numbers following the Klingon Federation War and the Borg invasion.

This included upgrades to the older Ambassador-class as well as the slightly newer Sagan, Odyssey and Excelsior II class cruisers.

It was during the trial runs of the U.S.S. Adventure (an Ambassador / Horatio-class hybrid) that Alan began to feel the old stirrings of joy that came from being in the centerseat of a starship.

Just weeks later came the Undine invasion with an Undine assault force attacking the Cordra Shipyards.

Capt. Sollace organized a defense by launching any ship within the yards capable of flying and putting up a fight. Ships that could fly but not fight were used to evacuate as many civilians as possible from the yards.

Among the ships that could fight was a new Excelsior II-class cruiser that was considered ready for trials … the U.S.S. Sam Houston which was thus christened with fire.

Alan used the Sam Houston to coordinate the defense of the Yards, pushing back and defeating the Undine invaders.

Hell, some even say he blasted the doors off spacedock when they refused to open, just so as to reach the fight and save more lives.

Granted a “golden ticket” by the Starfleet brass for his actions that day, Sollace chose command of the Sam Houston, claiming its centerseat as his own.

With regards to Sam Houston, there was some debate on just which registry the ship itself should bear.

At first, she was to be given registry NCC-44177, but as the one overseeing the ship’s final construction … Allen challenged it.

He pointed towards the original Loknar-class ship that once carried the name … U.S.S. Sam Houston (NCC-4177).

The ship and crew of that Sam Houston (the captain of whom he not only met but had become friends with) had proven themselves over and over again.

There might not have been a single universe saving moment for them, but they had made a difference on more occasions than could be easily counted.

And in Alan’s eyes, that mattered just as much as if not more than a single moment in the spotlight.

As such, he was quick to also point out the U.S.S. Defiant (NX-74205) which had proven itself time and time again during the Dominion War, also earning such an honor for its many such acts.

Allen pointed out the Loknar-class Sam Houston had proven itself worthy of honor, respect and continuing recognition by having her registry passed on to new generations of starships.

So, it was the Excelsior II-class became the third ship to bear the name and the second to hold the registry as she was christened U.S.S. Sam Houston (NCC-4177-A).

And as Capt. Alan Sollace took command of her, he relished in the idea of getting back to the life of an explorer.

But that’s when the galaxy at large was about to fall apart yet again … not once, not twice, but several more times.

The post “Christened by Fire” appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

Meet Roqnar & Ranaq of a house yet to be named.

With a new Klingon recruitment event coming up, it occurred to me that I lack true Klingon warriors I’m pleased with that are KDF recruits.

Meaning I need a recruit(s) to complete all the missions and tasks associated with this particulat recruitment path, to account unlock all the rewards of that recruitment path for ALL my various characters.

So as I was considering what this new character would be like and his profession, I came up with the idea for the twins.

Roqnar and Ranaq are not from any large or famous house, but that does not mean they are any less Klingon.

One will be tactical in career path while the other an engineer.

This allows more freedom for me on playing what I happen to be in the mood for as I’ve learned I rather enjoy both paths.

And see those scars? Both looked completely identical until the moment of those were received.

One day the brother warriors were facing off in sparring combat with bat’leths when both lost themselves into the art of their combatic dance.

The sparring became more real with each step until scars (which they both take pride in) were applied.

It should be noted that the engineering brother is the one who had the slightly upper hand, taking his brother’s eye in the process.

— Pathfinder

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