The Black Dawn Colony - Star Trek Armada III: A Call To Arms Mod AAR [Updated 08/04/2015]

[McScottish]

The Black Dawn Colony (Akhiy'Anarhai Aaenhr) AAR

Introduction

Greetings, one and all!

For a long time have I pondered about doing a non-TW AAR on this forum, and long have I tried to decide what mod - nay, what game - I would use; eventually mine eyes fell upon this particular mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, and I was hooked. Now, I have no idea how many (if any...) Star Trek fans there may well be on this forum, but if there are then I shall try to make it worth their while to read this while still making is accessible to those unfamiliar with the setting, races and so forth of the ST franchise.

One of the most difficult decisions I came across was where and when to set my tale, and thus I decided to set it a decade after the Hobus Star went supernova a la Star Trek '09, destroying Romulus and Remus and essentially crippling the Star Empire. In writing, I shall be ignoring the timelines of ST Online and the alternate timeline in which J.J.Abrams decided to reboot the franchise on the big screen.

Now, why the Romulans?

Apart from the obvious 'Space Roman' vibe, the ships named after birds-of-prey, and the attractiveness of their women (forehead ridges accepted ), the Romulans have always been my favourite race in the ST universe; more emotional than the Vulcans, more underhand than the Klingons, and generally better than the Federation, it could also be the cloaking technology that did it for me. Yet probably the thing that veered me toward them the most is the way in which they are underused, not as filled out background-wise as the other 'superpowers' of the universe, and could have been used so much better for the television series'.

Please feel free to ask any questions, give suggestions, and generally I hope ya'll enjoy what I have to write.

So, let us begin.

[ccllnply]

I love when people come along to do AARs with games that aren't usually seen. Don't get me wrong, I think the writing in all Skyrim AARs here has been fantastic and I'm a huge fan of all Paradox Interactive games but I just enjoy seeing something totally different. I don't know anything about the Star Trek universe, other than the word klingons, so hopefully I'll learn something here. Especially since you said you're going to try and ease new comers in to it.

I'll be reading

[McScottish]

I love when people come along to do AARs with games that aren't usually seen. Don't get me wrong, I think the writing in all Skyrim AARs here has been fantastic and I'm a huge fan of all Paradox Interactive games but I just enjoy seeing something totally different. I don't know anything about the Star Trek universe, other than the word klingons, so hopefully I'll learn something here. Especially since you said you're going to try and ease new comers in to it.

I'll be reading

My thanks, CC. Indeed, I spent quite some time deciding what to do/which franchise/game to use, but eventually settled on STAIII:ACTA for the simple reason that it is so damned enjoyable to play but also an overall excellent mod! There are a couple of really good Star Wars mods for the same game, so you might well see a SW AAR in the future as well, I'm not sure yet.

Have you seen the 2009 Star Trek film at all? Or Into Darkness? This would help, but pretty much all you really need to know is an overview of the ST Universe - so here's two links I think might help.

http://www.avclub.com/article/beam-m...anchise-207976

http://brainknowsbetter.com/news/201...-trek-universe

If you've got time, just give them a quick scan-over, and most stuff I write should make a wee bit more sens; nevertheless, I shall attempt to make everything as easy for non-fans to read as I can.

[ccllnply]

I have a small understanding of the universe but I've never actually seen any episodes. I'll have a scan of those links when I get time and anticipate your first chapter.

[McScottish]

When the Hobus Star turned 'supernova' - at least that is the correct word in the language of the Humans - it was thought by many, both within the Star Empire and without, that the Rihan species as a whole were finished. Yet, there were many things that our enemies did not realise, the size of our Empire would be one of them; the Star Empire had never been fully explored by outsiders, never charted, and what the Humans called the 'Neutral Zone' had never been successfully crossed by an enemy vessel in my lifetime. Nevertheless, they - the Terrhasu on their floating ball of water, or our ignorant former allies the Khe'lloann and their honourable Empire - underestimated our strength at every turn, and would live to regret it...

There were repercussions, of course.

In many corners of the Star Empire there were planets, some being colonies as my own homeworld, that wished to secede (or, at the least, gain further independence for themselves) from the Senate and step out from under the ever-looming shadow of the Tal Shiar; with our fleets scattered about the quadrant, and the destruction of both our capital planet and its twin, those Senators that remained - as well as senior military commanders, planetary councils (formerly puppets of the Senate and their ambitions), and would-be monarchs - scrambled to grasp at and collect together what little gravitas and command they had left.

My own planet, or at least the planet of my birth-colony, known in the Human tongue as Black Dawn, was flooded with refugees who had taken flight from our central worlds; both our own people and those of our sister planet came to the colony seeking shelter, whether from political attack or simply for survival we did not ask. They left the sector around ch'Rihan and ch'Havran as a desert, nothing drifting there but empty planets and debris from their annihilation.

Civil war was a possibility, we were a bloodthirsty and emotional race, and with the death of most of the Senate, and thus our leaders, there were many who would gladly have finished the job and likely formed what they saw as a more reasonable Star State. Unfortunately for them, even with our figureheads gone the majority of our people remained loyal to the traditions and rightful ways, meaning that a new Senate was to be formed - the only question being where it would sit, where the new capital planet of the Empire would be.

This is where it should have ended, and would have ended, had it not been for a rather obscure figure; a middle-aged Romulan, his birth place only guessed at by most (although his closest knew it to be on the fringes of the Empire, nearest to the Neutral Zone), who proclaimed that the lying Senate and their Tal Shiar lapdogs could no longer be trusted but that, if they were to exist, should be kept under the control of a higher authority...the authority of a Rhiyrh...an Emperor.

I can still remember, quite clearly for one of my age, the first time he came to Black Dawn; the beginning of what, for the Romulan Star Empire, would usher in a new age, a new era, for the Rihannsu.

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

That's a very intriguing beginning!

[ccllnply]

Finally got around to reading this and really enjoyed it. Great setup in the first post. I have to say I'm very intrigued by this idea of the Romulan proclaiming that there is a need for an emperor. I want to see where that goes.