Podcast: Episode 3 – To Boldly Roll The (Mis)Adventures of the USS Potemkin

Written Bydulac
Published On
18 April 2021

Population III conundrum Pt. 2

Saturday 27 March 2021 – 1800hrs ~ 2100hrs GMT

Commander Kenneth Mikhael – Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Ezekiel “Zeke” Pride – Flight Controller

Lieutenant Elli Navine – Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Alexander Artopolis – Chief Medical Officer

Podcast: Episode 3 – To Boldly Roll The (Mis)Adventures of the USS Potemkin

Having found all to be found at the satellite dish Commander Pride took the away team in search of further evidence of what happened. The nearest settlement was the remains of a large city, a dead city. Nothing lived with in, no plants, animals, birds, or insect within the city boundaries. Clearly a mystery, and in true Starfleet fashion; one that they had to explore and explain. Discovering that the shuttles sensors were being jammed they made for the centre of the field, hoping to fathom a way to turn said interference off. Landing I the centre of a dead park just shy of an old but well-preserved band stand, being unsure as to what the cause of the dead space they decide to send out the drone to find the source.

Long seconds tick by, the drone searching seemingly with no luck. And then, there it was, a trapdoor in the stage of the band stand, below a small featureless cylinder. Again, not really trusting this suspicious placement the drone is tasked with lifting it out and placing it upon the stage. Lieutenant Artopolis a laser torch to the top edge and cracked that sucker open. With in was a jamming device and another higgs-boson generator, this one tiny in comparison to the other but still functioning.

Disconnecting the transceiver array from the generator immediately cleared the interference field, immediately they start detecting trace amounts of Muons. In high enough concentrations, Muons could disintegrate biological matter; but this meant that there was not anything to carbon date! They did work out where the Muons were emitted from, the orbital satellite, the only artificial one up there. With nothing else here, they decided to take to the skies again and search for another city, maybe others had survived and would hold more information.

200 miles was just a hop, skip and a jump for the type 11 shuttle craft. Minutes after take-off they approach another city. Tall, windowless windows buildings reaching hundreds of meters into the sky, just like the dead city; only all the buildings were covered in life, green and overtaken over and reclaimed the once large city. Scans showed what appeared to be a broadcasting building, its roof bristling with transmitters, Pride brought his shuttle down gently on a patch of grass that was once a road, even parking it on the side in a gap of the lines of cars that already lined said road.

All around then the sounds of life were clear, birds flocking around the tops of buildings, the hum and buzz of insects and the rustle of grass as small creatures ran and hopped away from the landing shuttle. These signs of life lifted the down spirits of the away team, that life was still very present could mean some of this world’s population had survived. Well, that hope lasted until they discovered several news programs in the server data. The sad news was that when the star was changed and started firing Chronotrons at some distance star the communications satellite in orbit rained down Munos, for weeks after weather systems spread these high energy, deadly particles around the planet, all but the hardiest of life survived upon the surface. Deep water life and those found within caves and under ground were also spared. They were also able to finally able to work out this world calendar and set a timeline. Three thousand years had passed since all intelligent life had been destroyed. With this understanding and knowledge, they once again took to the skies, while not the best outcome there was still more to do. That is when their sensors triggered proximity alarms, a large, fast… something was rapidly approaching them. Lieutenant Artopolis was at a lose of what to say, his read outs were telling him that it was… well it was a dragon! Clearly, they were wrong, dragons are not real! Well, this one was and this one clamped onto the shuttles shields like an eagle with a tortoise. The shields registered extreme pressure stress from each of the meter long talons that were still trying to crap the energy barrier.

Some quick thinking and the directional tractor beam emitters were reversed to push upon the creature right wing, maybe an over estimation of its strength the wing is throw back hard enough to have caused muscle stress; but it worked. The Dragon… sure we will admit Dragons are real… grudgingly, fell and crashed laned atop of a tall building. It tried to take off again but with a frustrated roar it fell back down. Instead, it breathed a jet of fire, narrowly missing the shuttle. This time, as its massive wings forced air down it lifted off the building, beating the leathery wings. The shuttle was too far and too fast to be caught though, the dragon broke off its pursuit and the shuttle reach orbital space without further harassment.

Lieutenant Navine wanted to have a peek at the satellite, so Commander Pride brought the shuttle close, instead of trying to beam her out of the shuttle themselves or depressurising the shuttle they called upon the Potemkin to perform a site-to-site transport. The bubbly engineer quickly deactivated the power systems and pulled the datacores, each containing a segment of the combined knowledge of this world former culture.

The time had come for them to backtrack and head to the target of the attack, the planet they had passed days ago. The damaged world!