2389/07
The USS Traveller, having been transported through the Whisper Gate of Carpathia's sun to the gate orbiting with the chromosphere of a new star, gain the upper hand on [[The Myriad[[ known as Abborax. Allowing Clee-san to act as the main computer, when Abborax attempts to control the ship again he is stunned into inaction. This allows the crew to not only beam back their stolen Computer Core, but also the digital embodiment of their Chief Engineer and the prisoner/guests Abborax kept.
Finding themselves in the star system graveyard of thousands of derelict starship, all of them orbiting in a swarm around a massive space station of Myriad manufacture, the Traveller jumped to warp to escape. Damaged and in need to drop out of warp to make good their repairs, the crew chose the Beacon star system as a good hiding spot. An older red giant star, it had long ago turned its attendant planets into rings of debris and gas: a Cove System as Captain Remas named such a place.
Upon arriving the starship found a large piece of asteroidal debris to hide behind and began to make its repairs. Warped hull plates, fractured warp coils, and the melted barrels of the forward phaser cannons that had been as arrows to the lightning against the Myriad shields. It was whilst freeing a number of melted armour plates that an engineering team working on the hull noticed debris heading towards the ship from the surface of the asteroid. This 'debris' soon turned into lightly armoured space-suited figures, making a mad boarding action by leaping from the asteroid onto the hull of the ship.
What followed was a brutal assault. The Reka, a bird-like race native to Messier 4, were able to sweep through the ship like an ill wind using their Phase Staffs: one part contact energy weapon, one part site to site transporter. This allowed them to bypass nearly every barrier put in their way, and it was only the timely appearance of a turncoat among their ranks siding with Starfleet that allowed the ships SI Field to be tuned to disperse their transporter ability.
Those Reka not mangled in grisly transporter malfunctions were cornered by Expedition Security, all of them choosing to die fighting than surrender.
During this assault a member of the Traveller's medical team, Chief Nurse Tsabina, was overcome by the collective psychic subconsciousness of the Reka. Coupled with an undisclosed medical condition that had been affecting her for some time since arriving in Messier 4, Tsabina turned on the crew and lead the Reka near her on a bloody rampage through sickbay slaying a number of wounded crew. She scaped with some of the Reka back onto the asteroid, from which a number of fast-moving fighter craft were now spilling.
Escaping their hiding spot and fleeing into a denser part of the dust cloud, sensors soon detected a great multitude of Reka Carrier Craft patrolling the system. Their turncoat Reka, known to be a member of the Seven Dancing Shadows Den called First Among Liars & Traitors, told them that Beacon was the hunting ground of the Bone Shard Crowns: raiders who enjoy using ambush tactics to stalk their prey. Now alerted to the presence of a wounded starship in their midsts, the Bone Shard Crowns were on the hunt and closing in.
Damaged from their first meeting with a Messier 4 native race, the Traveller braved the gauntlet of Reka ships and punched through to clear space in time to warp away. But half-blinded by damage, and lamed from prior stress on her warp drive, the starship was unable to outpace her pursuit as several Reka Carrier's took after them.
The USS Traveller set a course for Carpathia, intent to make a final stand where it had all began...unbeknown to what waited for them in orbit of Carpathia.
