Bravo Fleet
I’m pleased to report that Nightfall continues to be a storming success on the writing front. The second phase of a Fleet Action is always hard going. You’ve been writing loads, riding the initial wave of hype, and this is the long stretch of the marathon. That initial enthusiasm has been harnessed to death, and the end is nowhere in sight.
And yet. Nightfall Phase 2 has seen a combined over 200,000 words of fiction in the last two weeks. I’m delighted by this activity, and immensely proud of every writer who’s put proverbial (or literal) pen to paper, who’s dug in deep to press on, because this campaign is truly a once-in-a-BF-lifetime opportunity, and it’s worth fighting to leave your mark on.
This is it – we’re approaching the endgame, now. Phase 3 begins today, and already the Intel Office has released a Story setting up not the end, but the beginning of the end. Familiarise yourself with it as you look to building to the climax, as you think, “How can I pull it all off?”
Because you can. We’re all here for the final phase. But first… the story so far…
Nightfall: Phase 2
Bravo Fleet Senior Staff
USS Aldrin
As a large portion of the USS Aldrin crew take leave on Risa, the remaining skeletal crew on board ship are forced to quickly take stations as an unknown enemy emerges from subspace apertures and begins an assault on the planet and support ships around it. The Aldrin manages to hold their own against an initial enemy vessel assault but not without sustaining some initial battle wounds.
Atlantis Squadron
After an unhelpful meeting with the Cabinet of Matriarchs and the arrival of Vaadwaur forces, the Atlantis and Tizona both sally forth in separate engagements against the invaders after a defiant announcement from the planetary government. Tizona engages in deception, faking emissions to lure a Vaadwaur force away from the main body, before slipping into a debris plume and engaging the Vaadwaur as they pursue. Atlantis launches a frontal assault on the Vaadwaur advance, and escapes back to Betazed before the rest of the force can arrive. Meanwhile, in the Thomar Expanse, Republic grapples with navigating through the Blackout, more and more reliant on the intuition of their helmsman. As the pressure builds, Willow Beckman’s heritage becomes apparent for all to see, answering some of how she does what she does. A comment from Captain MacIntyre sees Willow claim she can get the ship to Betazed to link up with Atlantis, picking a spot on a map that coincides with a known Underspace aperture from the previous crisis as where they need to go to get to Betazed.
Constellation Squadron
Constellation and Odyssey Squadron gathered the major powers of the Nacene Reach to search for a common understanding of the threat posed by the Vaadwaur Supremacy. Constellation’s crew negotiated through the Kazon’s distrust, the Trabe’s hunger for resources, and the Pralor’s single-minded focus on their own war. In sharing the learnings between both squadrons, they identified a pattern underlying the Vaadwaur’s limited activity in the Delta Quadrant — all driving vessels away from a dilithium-rich asteroid field. Why the Vaadwaur would need dilithium remains in question as the squadrons plot a course to investigate.
Odyssey Squadron
After helping those attacked by the Vaadwaur in the Nacene Reach, the Odyssey Squadron’s efforts with the Constellation Squadron have finally paid off. The beginnings of a coalition have been formed, but there’s still more work to do to bring the new allies together. From working with the Vidiians dealing with those infected by the Phage to finding common ground between the Talaxians and the Haakonians, the Odyssey Squadron works hard to bring everyone together to make the difference. However, when the captains get together with their comrades from the Constellation Squadron, they discover what the Vaadwaur may be up to in the area and need to bring everyone together to deal with this once and for all.
Polaris Squadron
Working off intelligence collected by the USS Serenity and USS Ingenuity, Polaris Squadron puts out a call to arms across Klingon space and the borderlands, hoping to rally what they can to K’t’inga for a strike against the Vaadwaur. The response is paltry due to damage sustained by the Vaadwaur assault and a reticence to pull defensive assets away from their posts, but nonetheless, Fleet Admiral Reyes and the makeshift armada of Starfleet and Klingon ships set out for their target, a Vaadwaur command and logistics hub beyond the galactic plane which is used to monitor and signal the Underspace network. In order to bring the hub down, a pair of sophisticated arrays must be destroyed first, and a Hazard Team is deployed aboard a stolen Manasa to take one out, while the USS Serenity and the USS Ingenuity go for the other. In the end, the mission is successful, but not without a heavy price paid, Captain Lewis forced to detonate the warp core of the USS Serenity in order to bring the second array down and open the gates for Polaris Squadron to land a critical blow against the Vaadwaur.
Sirius Squadron
With Proxima liberated, Sirius Squadron begins its advance across the rest of the Alpha Centauri system. A series of engagements hamper Vaadwaur operations in the system, with the USS Endeavour leading a formation conducting hit-and-run raids harrying enemy ships, disrupting their supply lines, and laying traps, all supported by the clandestine operations of the Rooks. Within weeks, the Vaadwaur have been pinned back near the twin stars of Alpha Centauri, but they are still too numerous and fortified to directly engage. A mission at the system’s edge ends with an opportunity as a Vaadwaur command cruiser crashes into a moon of Toliman, and the Rooks deploy to salvage data from the computer core. There, they find something that might turn the tide: data on the Blackout Outpost, whose dampening effects have cut off any hope of reinforcements.
Task Force 17
USS Babylon
The crew of the Babylon has devised a way to temporarily map out the paths of the Borg transwarp conduits with a radioactive dye. The potential ramifications of taking three fugitive scientists along for the ride is a problem for future-them.
Columbia Division
After Columbia’s arrival in the Andor system by virtue of an Underspace aperture, Starfleet forces are surprised by the sudden appearance of a massive enemy force. With dockyards under attack and the majority of the Imperial Guard out of position, the enemy bear down on the stricken Galaxy-class ship having engine trouble. As Commander Prida suggests a dangerous and radical manoeuvre, the rest of the Division comes to the flagship’s aide just in time for a new commanding officer to take over the command chair.
Hecate Squadron
Hecate Station faced a growing refugee crisis, strained resources, and rising tensions, just as an unknown ship appeared. The Gemini rescued the Horsehead crew and covertly extracted prisoners during a tense Vaadwaur-controlled medical mission. Himalaya deployed a manual comms grid toward Archanis, while managing to evade an Underspace object. Stranded two weeks ago, the Eclipse crew remained hidden until a recent recon mission revealed critical intel and nearly exposed them.
Task Force 21
USS Leif Erikson
The crew of the USS Leif Erikson encountered Vaadwaur soldiers in Stardust City. After interrogating a Vaadwaur officer, with the help of a Fenris Ranger, they discovered a plan to kidnap citizens to be taken to a internment camp. They make it back into orbit, and manage to adapt a Vaadwaur comms relay to eavesdrop on comm traffic, but alert the waiting Vaadwaur ship of their position. A battle ensues, and they manage to free the captured citizens, dealing a moderate amount of damage and forcing the Vaadwaur to retreat, but with no idea of where they went, and no way to follow them…yet.
USS Morro Bay
The USS Morro Bay only has two hours left in their four hour ”game” proposed by both captains. With the only safe space for the crew being breached, and the search for an artifact called a ‘Nano-Bug’, and the game coming to an end: times a-ticking, and they have to act fast. The worst part? The Morro Bay is losing.
Task Force 47
Britannia Division
Britannia continues to hold the line at Risa against the overwhelming enemy, whilst the machinations of the Vaadwaur put their colleagues and friends on the ground in an unenviable situation. Far across the stars, Daedalus is finding themselves face to face with the dark deeds of the enemy, as they literally leap aboard K-74 to free the station from the cold clutches of the Supremacy. No-one will make it through unscathed and our heroes are finding out just what resistance costs.
USS Century
Starfleet forces continue to regroup in the aftermath of the Vaadwaur attack on Vulcan. The USS Century, badly damaged in the boarding action, is undertaking ship wide damage control and repairs amid the lull in hostilities. The USS Pulsar, largely intact after the fighting, has been dispatched to investigate the Underspace corridor that allowed the Vaadwaur to spring their surprise offensive in the hopes of gleaning any information that might help Starfleet respond with a counter offensive of their own. The Pulsar’s crew has indeed found the very information they need, but will they be able to make it back in time before the Vaadwaur silence the crew and leave their allies in the dark about what is lurking in subspace?
USS Oakland
The battle over Narendra III rages on. Oakland continues her running duel with a pair of Vaadwaur escorts while their battlecruiser struggles to get back online. Just as the battered old utility cruiser does the impossible and destroys one of the escorts, the battlecruiser finally gets back online and rapidly disables the ship, leaving her dead in the water as the bombardment of the world continues…
USS Sausalito
The USS Sausalito arrived in TF 47 space just in time for the blackout to hit. After locating another vessel close by, the crew comes across the USS Bell Rock and evidence of a space battle. The crew helps the Bell Rock’s Captain and finds out the Vaadwaur are to blame for the attack. The USS Sausalito aims to tow the Bell Rock back to safety and commence a rescue operation for the Diplomatic Officer kidnapped from the Bell Rock.
Task Force 72
USS Carlsbad
A friendship, and quick alliance, was built with Kaelara’s people, the Kyrennei, and the USS Carlsbad. With the Kyrennei and Captain Skyrunner’s crew working together, they formulated an attack plan against the Vaadwaur in this region. Kaelara revealed one of their secrets, that one of their founders, Hugh, had managed to stash a Borg battle group deep inside the Murasaki 312 quasar nebula. That Borg battle group consists of a fully functioning Cube, two Type 4 Assimilator class cruisers, and four Probe class scout ships…all in stasis. The USS Carlsbad managed to arrive at the Murasaki 312 quasar to begin restoration procedures with the Borg ships.
USS Fresno
The USS Fresno hides in the cavern of a large asteroid to lick her wounds and engage in repairs. Her crew can do nothing but watch as the Vaadwaur emerge from their Underspace apertures to lay waste to the research colony of Pieris IV. The Fresno emerges after making her repairs, to approach the world and at least look for any survivors. An away team lead by Commander Thalissa Zheen discovers there is still a contingent of Vaadwaur soldiers left behind to occupy what is left of the ruins. They come face to face with at least one survivor who has managed to evade the Vaadwaur so far.
USS Hikaru Sulu
With the survivors of the Cardassian colony of New Providence onboard, the crew of the USS Hikaru Sulu discover that saving a life doesn’t always end in abject gratitude and that sometimes you can get a cold welcome from your own as Captain Shavda seeks the assistance of the Terran miners of the belt. Realizing that they lack the requisite brutality to wage a successful guerrilla-warfare campaign against the Vaadwaur, when they return – a desperate plot is hatched to kidnap an important prisoner from a high-security Obsidian Order Black site; none other than the infamous True Way Terrorist-leader, Gul Yomat Ghallir. Sometimes it requires a monster to do monstrous things, but in enlisting the assistance of this paragon of evil – does Captain Raveen Shavda risk becoming the very Devil that she fears?
USS Vallejo
The USS Vallejo crew confronts a malevolent psionic entity on Nerathis IV, where an ancient structure unleashes chaos, warping their minds. One away team escapes a nightmarish Vaadwaur ship, unwittingly carrying the entity to the surface, while another in the ruins fights a possessed commander. As the Vallejo’s systems falter and the entity strengthens, the crew races to unite and save their teams. The storm ravaged planet hunts them, pushing all to the brink.
Task Force 86
Canterbury Division
After being stuck making its way in fits and starts across systems, the USS Resolute has discovered a possible ingress to Underspace. Lying in wait, Captain Mason intends to use Underspace for two reasons: to take the fight to the enemy, and hopefully get closer to the last known location of the Division Flagship, the USS Canterbury. Meanwhile, help from an unexpected source might just be waiting for them…
USS da Vinci
Together the USS da Vinci and USS Grus, along with the unlikely aid of Navaar Orci and her crew of Pirates, have destroyed a Vaadwaur Supremacy Battlecruiser in orbit above the planet Samson III. It is clear though that the Orion has taken advantage of the attack and stolen an unknown quantity of Vaadwaur technology, along with some of their own stuff taken from the Toby Crackit when it was attacked.
There are still currently Vaadwaur soldiers roaming Samson III, and as the first of the landing parties arrive on the surface, the question is; will the Vaadwaur fight?
Task Force 93
Eos Station
As the Vaadwaur assault overtakes Eos Station, Captain Harris watches his defenses crumble. The assault peaks with the capture and execution of Lt. T’Kara during a failed operation. Meanwhile, the USS Yeager makes a desperate move, with Commander Liz Carter sacrificing herself to buy precious time. Amid the chaos, several Romulan warbirds arrive and rescue the few survivors from the Yeager, leaving Harris to confront the realization that they are no longer fighting to win, only to survive.
