Star Trek: Theurgy

To summarise, Episode 01 of the new Season will set all of this in motion, with the thelaron bomb in Paris, the message from the Infested, the Praetor ending the Romulan Civil War and declaring war against the Federation and the Klingon Empire both. I think what makes the most sense for Episode 01 besides this build-up of the Season overall, is to focus on Martok and his to-be-decided rival in the Empire. It being in the Theurgy's interest to support Martok, the first Episode could be about preventing war within the Empire and also making sure Martok remains in power.

• The UFP President, Nanietta Bacco, managed to survive Paris, but when Starfleet Intelligence cite that Praetor Tal'Aura of the Romulan Empire is the most likely to be behind the attack, she authorises Starfleet to investigate and act on this threat to the Federation. At the end of Episode 01, however, Garak is on board with what is really happening, and may affect what the President and the few survivors of the Federation Council does.
  
  
• The Romulan Star Empire has declared war on the Federation, and Tal'Aura - the Praetor - has implemented the use of thalaron weaponry in order to end the Romulan Civil War swiftly (despite the galactic ban against use of thalaron particles in warfare). Before attacking Federation space outright, she is currently subduing not just the Remans, but has sent the decimated rebel fleet of Donatra's running for the Klingon border. Donatra has ended up a mere renegade leader of a broken fleet instead of the Empress she'd proclaimed herself to be. The Praetor would, since the manipulated Gorka isn't in power, claim that the Klingon Empire are enemies, since they had openly sided with Donatra and even helped give sanctuary to Reman refugees inside Klingon space.
  
  
• Starfleet Command would react appropriate to the Praetor's violation against the ban on thalaron weaponry, and mobilise in reaction to the Praetor declaring war against the Federation. The Theurgy has become a second priority since not only has Donatra been defeated - the alleged ally of the Theurgy and Captain Ives - but they have the Praetor to worry about. Needless to say, with the Infested having infiltrated both Starfleet Command and possessed the Praetor, they have everything they need to begin a war. What will they do now that they failed to put their puppet - Gorka - in power of the Klingon Empire? I'd say, with Martok in open support for the Theurgy's mission and the Infested risking exposure, there is plenty of motivation to attack the Klingons, right?
  
  
• So, together with a challenged Martok, and possibly a disgraced Donatra, and with a secret alliance with the rebels in the Savi Flotilla, the Theurgy will have to head back into Federation space and try to deescalate the tensions. They need an ally like Ambassador Elim Garak to gain the ear of the President of the UFP, and they have to coordinate with Director Anderson in Starfleet Intelligence to try and be one step ahead of the Infested. As their inside man, Director Anderson would feed intel to the Theurgy that would help them stop further use of thalaron bombs, and help them spread the truth about what's really going on.
  
  
• Lastly, we have the Scion High Council of the Savi Flotilla. The Infested there will have an interest in stopping the Theurgy as well, and to further seed unrest in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. I have already mentioned this before, but in regard to the origin of the Infested, it has been suggested already that someone had to be the first Infested. Someone that made the initial temporal breach into a future where the nameless darkness have reached the Milky Way Galaxy. Now, which species are devoted to science... and tend to push too far in their research?
  
  A Savi made the breach, which means that the key to finding the breach might be with the Scion High Council.
  
  

Gotta do something with Thalaron radiation. Find some kind of defense against it. I believe that was something that you (auctor) mentioned in Discord Chat, and part of why I made the character that I did.

"We have the need to work on some kind of counter measure for Thalaron radiation weaponry because the Romulans are coming" From Discord General from auctor on 10/22/21.

It will be interesting to see what we do with this, and will have to be something we need to get going on before the end of Interregnum. At least get some theories going for a "thalaron dispersion field" or whatever. I'm working on some ideas that we can develop this with my Nara character. But I'm sure you'll have your own.

We might have to see a full scale Romul;an civil War, especially if the Hobus Supernova happens or is thwarted. I'm not sure we want to see Nero and the Narada make an appearance though? Bip had some good ideas with working towards Hobus being a plot point in the upcoming timescale.

Hell, we might even see part of Starfleet siding with the Klingons against other elements of Starfleet? I'm sure that there's some elements of the Fleet that would have some respect and trust for Martok, knowing him as an honorable man, and maybe having a different view of Kopek wanting out of Khitomer.

We could potentially have the Savi poke the Federation with their own sorta stick, be it diplomatic or otherwise.

• https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Slaver_Empire
  
  https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Iconian
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slaver_Weapon

Sporadic thoughts mainly centered on the original Infested species (good luck in tracking the following):

Ba'Ku, Organians, Cytherians, Vissians, Douwd, Pah-Wraiths, Voth, Iconians, Slavers..were all ideas that came to mind for species who were first to be Infested as for each one of these they are noted for being either chaos oriented and highly evolved, highly advanced tech that led to their destruction, evolved too far too fast and those that survived swore off this or that in order to maintain morality, and etc.

If you choose Pah-Wraiths, for example, that could be why they became corrupted and were cast out of the Prophets (very controversial thought of course). The Douwd could've had that incentive to develop their super-duper powerful abilities in order to eradicate the Infested from within their ranks. For the Cytherians, the Infested could be why they changed from being explorers to having folks come to them after they too evolved powers to eradicate the Infested. I'll admit I'm not as well versed on the Voth and Vissians personally, but they showed up as being advanced tech science-driven. The Organians could be similar to the Douwd and the Ba'Ku are always messing shit up (personal opinion).

For the Iconians, that could be why their civilization came to such an abrupt end despite being at the top of their game 200,000 years ago and with how vague they are in the online lore it could work to our advantage to flesh them out further without constraints. The Slaver empire was super duper advanced, aggressive, and hardcore, then poof destroyed itself. With both the Slaver empire and Iconians, folks are still finding tech spread throughout the empire and it is all super powerful and dangerous, so stuff is there but buried and it takes excavations to find them. Same as with Kzinti, if the animated series had continued, they wanted to incorporate Slavers more and if the board accepts Kzinti then Slavers could be accepted because they came from the same creative genius (Larry Niven I believe) and were both featured in the animated series (which interestingly they both appeared in the SAME episode "The Slaver Weapon.")

Not to break minds or anything, but similar to the Forerunners in Halo when they "reset" the galaxy in an effort to eradicate the Flood, perhaps the Iconians or the Slavers did something similar to seal the breach the void that the Infested came through?

As for how they're introduced: Maguffin for Slavers! Literally, the Slaver boxes are things that are found around the galaxy and are sealed to where time does not pass within them and different items are found inside, never the same things. Theurgy could find one such box and there's data in there about the Infested breach and how to seal the void or perhaps even an old school Infested itself? But even if not one of those, finding data, be it digital or physical from an informant, would make sense. Maybe they get a tip from an NPC or an old friend, etc?

Also, Slaver tech is super sought after because so much of modern tech was inspired by them, and peoples who find their stuff tend to advance beyond their neighbors nearly overnight (according to the lore in the episode) so again IF this was something they found they'd be a hardcore target by a lot of folks for more than just being Theurgy and enemies of the Infested. Now they'd be targeted even by supposed allies. Even Martok would think twice about just letting the Federation waltz off with such tech. Also, could be the Savi found a Slaver tech gizmo that caused the breach in this century? Though he is clueless about the manner in which the Scion High Council ended up as Infested, even Echtand suspects they might be the first ones.

Took a break in writing homework and these thoughts spilled forth, so again if you tracked through congrats!

Links for references:

• https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Slaver_Empire
  
  https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Iconian
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slaver_Weapon

So, after finally giving this thread a read, I have some thoughts. Please don't hate me for them as they are just my opinions.

We don't need the Iconians, at least not at this stage. Perhaps down the line we could have a lost Iconian artefact or weapon be a plot device but for Episode 02, I do not feel that this would be beneficial to us. Also, it was confirmed in the first episode of Picard that it was the Romulan Star that went Supernova, Link 01 and Link 02. Perhaps this could be a plot point for a future episode in preventing the stars destruction, perhaps from that Iconian weapon. At this stage though, Romulus is just too far away and I think this episode would be beneficial with us not jumping in giant strides across the Quadrant at every turn.

No, for Episode 02, I pitch that we focus on the Klingon/Romulan border, perhaps also where the two borders meet with the Federation boarder. We have a ship that is designed to split and operate as individual units for an extended period of time and I feel like we should make use of this for the episode without it being a giant emergency. Thea's subspace link would be active this time unlike in Episode 05 after the Versant's attack, so all three vectors would still be in contact with each other. Perhaps we have to stop a Romulan fleet in one area while dealing with Gorka loyalists in another. There is also the Niga threat to deal with as well if that is still a thing come Episode 02. Maybe the Loyalist Romulans plan to target the Reman world that the Klingons gave them. And it doesn't have to be three different threats. It could be two and we pair Vector 01 and Vector 03 together and have Vector 02 operate independently.

I just think that it would allow for a nice bit of overall development along multiple fronts without us having to resort to slipstreaming, Soliton waving, Savi shipping service to get everywhere.

That's just my two cents. Feel free to ignore them.

Entirely possible IMO to "split the party" and target multiple fronts but it'd be complicated from a writing POV and also would run the risk of writing ourselves into a corner with covering too many plot hooks too quickly. 

Also, each team is basically on their own.  If someone needs to be in two places at once, they're gonna get frustrated. 

Let me first say that the Theurgy has access to the finest quality cloaking device available.

@GroundPetrel an interesting breakdown of thought there. Let me first say that the Theurgy has access to the finest quality cloaking device available. A Reman Cloaking Device was installed onto the ship just prior to the Battle Of The Apertures. As for your other points, its is an accurate and concise summary of what we have been dealing with. We definitely wouldn't want an easy enemy to defeat as we would then have to find a new opponent.

Quote from: GroundPetrel on April 11, 2022, 07:49:41 AM

Entirely possible IMO to "split the party" and target multiple fronts but it'd be complicated from a writing POV and also would run the risk of writing ourselves into a corner with covering too many plot hooks too quickly. 

Also, each team is basically on their own.  If someone needs to be in two places at once, they're gonna get frustrated. 

We have written across multiple fronts in the past. Episode 05 of Season 01 had the ship separated into its 3 vectors, as well as having characters aboard the Savi ship Versant, and aboard the Allegiant as it was on it's own mission. We would of course have to manage the plot points for writing but we already do that. And I am not suggesting something as expansive as 3-5 locations. Even just being in two places at once would be enough to heighten the drama. And yes, each group would be on their own, that would be the point. Each group would have to deal with events within their arena with what they have. Each writer would know exactly where their character was from the beginning. So I don't see how that would be a point of frustration. Each writer would have to be a little creative in writing within the limitations of their locations and available characters.

That is the challenge and fun for writers.

May I just say add that there is no problem with finishing off the big baddies of the Infested within the first round of the next season as there is the aftermath "mop up job" of dealing with the political and social ramifications therein. Also, moving on to other bad guys and incorporating more exploratory-type prompts in the season could be a nice breather as well.

It occurs to me: in Episode 01, the Theurgy brute-forced an end to the civil war. They took on a Klingon fleet, fought to get Martok to Qo'nos, fought to save Praxis, succeeded at Andoria and so on. For the entire episode, the Theurgy was in a position of strength as the biggest baddest badass of them all. They achieved a major victory, secured a powerful ally, and are now more badass than ever.

So what if we flip it? The Romulans can't out-fight the Theurgy crew (the Klingons tried that and it didn't go well), so instead they out-think the Theurgy crew: cloaking devices, hit-and-run attacks, diversions, ambushes. Perhaps Scimitar-class warbirds comprehensively defeat the Theurgy, forcing them to abandon a mission and run away or risk destruction. Heck, make it a Kobayashi Maru no-win situation. We don't even need to do heavy damage to the ship to make that work.

The crux is that while Episode 01 focused on the Klingons, Episode 02 will (apparently?) focus on the Romulans and their historical enmity with the Federation and Klingons. The Romulans rarely use brute force, instead winning by other tactics. It might be interesting to see the Theurgy crew try to accomplish their mission while being the underdog, so to speak.