| SUBMITTED: Stardate 95259.5 | FILED BY: CAPT A. Derenzis | SECURITY: Level 2 - Confidential |
LOCATION: Raven's Star, Boreth Sector
MISSION: Establish first contact with the warp-capable civilization located in this system.
OUTCOME: Peaceful contact established. Spoke with the military leadership of the Protectorate of Cuervo Verde, and exchanged cultural primer data packets, with the possibility of further dialogue in future.
KEY PERSONNEL:
Federation Attache Lev bim Bozgid
CAPT Bahieh Keexa
CAPT Samuel Bishop
CAPT Alyx Derenzis
CAPT Minabi Derix
CAPT Terrellia Natashin
CAPT Alistair Nimitz
CAPT Aaron Tanaka
1st LT Gabriella Valencia (NPC)
LT(JG) Riomi Savur (NPC)
CADET Rianni Tierno
CAPT Bahieh Keexa
CAPT Samuel Bishop
CAPT Alyx Derenzis
CAPT Minabi Derix
CAPT Terrellia Natashin
CAPT Alistair Nimitz
CAPT Aaron Tanaka
1st LT Gabriella Valencia (NPC)
LT(JG) Riomi Savur (NPC)
CADET Rianni Tierno
NARRATIVE: At the briefing held on board the U.S.S. Endeavour, Captain Nimitz informed the listed officers about a newly detected warp-capable civilization in the Boreth Sector, at a star system known as Raven's Star. Due to this civilization's close proximity to Nukara, there was concern that the Tholians might contact and possibly annex this civilization. Of the civilization itself, little was known aside from some language markers for the Universal Translator and crude data suggesting a religion centered on what was translated as the "Great Raven".
Captain Nimitz proposed a task force composed of the ships commanded by the listed captains, as much to send a message to the Tholians as to impress the local inhabitants. Attache Bozgid voiced a concern that several Federation Starships arriving en masse would be more likely to appear as a threat. The task force was thus amended to a single ship (U.S.S. Endeavour) for the actual contact mission, while the other ships in the task force (U.S.S. Harmony, U.S.S. Invictus, U.S.S. Kassandra, and U.S.S. Pegasus) would hang back outside the system to serve as a deterrent to any Tholian forces in the area, as well as to be ready to provide backup in the event of a hostile encounter. (It should be noted that U.S.S. Singapore and U.S.S. Shackleton were left out of the task force at their captains' request due to ongoing repairs on both vessels). The assembled captains travelled aboard the Endeavour, and at Captain Bishop's direction, provided assistance at various stations. This officer aided at science, while Captain Bahieh assisted at Tactical, Captain Natashin assisted at Ops, and Captain Tanaka took the helm. Cadet Tierno aided 1st Lieutenant Valencia at Comms. Attache Bozgid was placed in charge of the diplomatic end of the mission.
Upon arrival in the Raven's Star system, the Endeavour began passive scans of the system and any detectable stations or starbases; at this officer's recommendation, active scans were not attempted so as to avoid provoking the very people we were trying to contact peacefully. We found a system with no habitable planets, but plenty of surface colonies, orbital habitats and orbital farms, as well as a large volume of spacecraft. Approximate age of the oldest habitats approaches 1,700 standard years. One station in particular was found neighbouring a spatial anomaly unknown to Federation science. The station itself was configured as a fortress, with several weapon emplacements and nuclear missile launch tubes detected by our scans. While we continued our scans to determine the nature of the anomaly as well as assemble a more complete picture of this civilization, we also attempted communication via subspace radio. Communications from the inhabitants arrived via simple radio waves, and it took us some minutes before we were able to establish a proper two-way link. Once this link was made, Attache Bozgid was able to communicate with an individual identifying himself as High Admiral Yurki Xan II, who shortly agreed to a face-to-face meeting once the attache was able to convince him of our peaceful intentions. It should be noted that radio traffic indicated a state of high alert coinciding with our arrival.
A warp capable vessel identifying itself as the Akaar met the Endeavour and dispatched a shuttle to collect our diplomatic party, consisting of Attache Bozgid, the listed captains, and Cadet Tierno. This officer would note that, both in the shuttle ride and on the Akaar, several members of the local people reacted with surprise and/or unease at our presence. This officer would also note that both the Akaar's design and its crew were oriented more towards military ends rather than exploration. The Akaar's senior staff displayed little of the unease we noted among their subordinates.
In the dialogue that followed, we learned that the inhabitants called themselves Ravenites as a people, but were divided into two factions: the Protectorate of Cuervo Verde, with whom we had made contact, and the Faithful, a faction exiled on the other side of the anomaly that the Ravenites called "the Bridge". These two factions had been in a state of extended conflict of approximately 2,000 years, which sparked only 100 years after their arrival and colonization of the Raven's Star system. Forty years prior to our meeting, an armistice was established between these factions, reliant on the continued functioning of the Bridge. When the Bridge shut down twenty years ago, the Protectorate began searching for other means to traverse interstellar space, ostensibly to defend themselves against the Faithful launching an attack. High Admiral Xan also stated that only a small output of their economy goes towards defense, with the rest going towards maintenance of the colonies and orbital farms, that the Protectorate's population was in excess of eight billion people, and that the Protectorate had, quote "never started a war" unquote. High Admiral Xan had also stated that construction of the Akaar had itself taken twenty years. Through our dialogue, we also learned that the Faithful maintained a parliament, which may or may not have been overthrown by a coup, and that they heavily mix their religion with their government. It should be noted that both factions possess the same basic devotion towards the "Great Raven", but that they are divided on points of doctrine or theology which were not made clear to us at this time. What was made clear was that the conflict's beginning coincided with the discovery of the Bridge, and of the system which lay on the side. That system was stated to possess two class M planets which have since been colonized by the Faithful.
Attache Bozgid and Captain Bishop then presented High Admiral Xan with a First Contact data package, as a sign of good faith, and the High Admiral agreed to give us a data package in turn; after which our party was permitted to return to the Endeavour. Captain Nimitz offered to remain behind in-system with the U.S.S. Pegasus to further facilitate dialogue between our two civilizations.
RECOMMENDATION: This officer notes that there are significant gaps in our understanding of the Ravenites, their conflict between the Protectorate and the Faithful, the current goals of the Protectorate, and the nature of the anomaly known as the Bridge. While I recommend that we continue our dialogue with the Protectorate, I also recommend a mission to seek out the Faithful and gather information. If the Faithful has also attained warp travel, a contact mission may yield more information, and possibly an opportunity to broker a more lasting peace.
OOC: This is the AAR for the Event "Ravenwing". I've done my best to keep this as accurate as I can, but if I have misrepresented your characters' actions or made other errors, please let me know via PM and I'll make the appropriate corrections. Special thanks to Nimitz for running the event, to Sam for allowing us on the Endeavour bridge, and to everyone for a fun adventure all around!