Setting the Stage

Posted on Thu Aug 5, 2021 @ 8:40pm by Captain Larisna Koralova

Mission: Mission 1R - Vigilance Be Our Shield
Location: Cestus III
Timeline: M1D1, 2394

Cestus III; headquarters for 11th Fleet and a major world in the Federation. At one time, it was a disputed world between the Federation and the Gorn, but that was long since settled and the world firmly remained in Federation control but with a Gorn population living alongside others. It was no stranger to traffic of all kinds; civilian ships, Starfleet vessels, ships belonging to nearly every major power and even minor powers in the quadrant. But in orbit, at a unique station that was there for the express use by 11th Fleet, there was some unusual traffic and presence.

The USS Hornet was in one of the docks, her dorsal pods being swapped out by experienced dock workers. Despite the sheer scale of it all, the work was best described as routine - the practices long ago perfected on the Nebula class starships that came before the new Monarch class. Outside the docks, a pair of yellow trimmed California class vessels waited, USS Tahoe and USS Alameda, along with the Olympic class hospital ship, USS Divya Iyer. Two more ships were warping in from opposite directions to approach, an Akira, the USS Zaikov and a Steamrunner, the USS Windhoek. These ships together were here for a single purpose, as were the two non-Starfleet ships that hung a safe distance from the station. One was a Klingon K'Tinga battlecruiser, it's familiar shape hanging on the opposite side of the station from a Gorn cruiser, as if the station itself was interposed between them.

What was not visible was the tension. The news broadcasts here often came back to the same topic after covering what others they could - the Klingon Empire and Gorn Hegemony were poised for war. This wasn't news in itself, the two powers had been fighting skirmishes for nearly 5 years prior. But one escalation after another and both sides felt slighted by the other. What was more unusual was that the Federation would not take sides and were asked specifically by the Klingon Empire to not honor the Khitomer Accords. This was to be a private affair, and that the Federation would be called upon to make peace when the time came. Klingon and Gorn pride would have to run their courses first, and this would be a test of the Federation - would they respect the wishes of their closest and most trusted ally? Or would they drag themselves into a war for the sake of sating their own conscience?

Such decisions, though, would not be decided on Earth or Qo'nos or Gorn. Not to start, at least.

They would be decided first in the disputed territories during this tense evacuation effort.