Nexus - Tenth Season

The Tenth Season proved to be a transition period for Nexus, as we searched for a new player and a newer style to the presentation of some of our stories.

After a brief membership by both Troy McDonald and Travis and Martin Goss, Eric Tewes was recruited into Nexus, and he has been a standard player since.

The tenth season was used as an opportunity to polish up what had been basically a new phenomena within the past few seasons...musical accompaniments to the episodes. By the end of the tenth season, our musical pieces were winning four star ratings for episodes on their own merit...not necessarily a good thing, but something to take notice of.

The tenth season of Nexus was rated at:

Tenth Season Episodes

191. Frame of Mind (DD, BP, JW)

While attempting to escape from the T/D wormhole created during their battle with the Markann, the crew is forced by Lucien to choose between their current lives, and a life of glory. Unfortunately in each case, the fantasy life is about to take a fatal turn.

DeVerst is convicted of the murder of his girlfriend on Tarnath, but is rescued by Lung Hung. He later becomes emporer of the Khitai Empire, but his ascension to the throne comes right on the heels of the Markann invasion of NY 350.

Black Widow was taken from her mother and raised in the royal family. She becomes queen of the Arachnid Empire just before the invasion force from Raghast is repulsed, but not before they manage to contract the �white plague� from the invaders.

Shadowwalker is recruited into the Organization, where he becomes a mercenary. Due to political infighting, he is betrayed while on a mission in Hesperian territory. He escapes with the help of the NIS and exacts his revenge against those responsible for betraying him. He becomes the Director of the Organization. Unfortunately, this happens just before the NSF begins a crackdown on Organization activities on Badlands.

Confronted with the rather disastrous turn of events that each of their fantasy lives seems faced with, the team members decide to return to their old lives.

192. Atrocities From Beyond (DD, BP)

Upon returning from the T/D wormhole, the team finds itself confronted with a Nexus that has been taken over by creatures belonging to the Anopheles, a quasi-hive mind from another dimension. The group encounters a harrowingly bizarre world of horrors until they confront the person responsible for the Anopheles invasion, Dr. Gregory Kulik. With Kulik�s aid, the group travels back to NY 288 to stop his original ceremony which brought the Anopheles into the Nexus dimension.

193. The Dark Fleet (JB, BP)
(Guest GM: DD)

Attacks on Nexus colonies in the SE Sector are determined to be the work of the Dark Fleet, an evil force from the Second Dimension. After a non-productive visit to the Second Dimension, Zzintar and the rest of the team track down the Dark Fleet.

After a short, inconclusive battle, Dr. Stephanie Wolf-Cain is abducted by the Dark Fleet, which then flees the scene. Once the Dark Fleet is induced to return, Zzintar initiates a battle where he manages to retrieve his wife. The battle goes badly for the CS 10 until Zzintar uses the shield grid to emit a graviton wave that displaces the Dark Fleet. The CS 10 then returns home.

194. Forbidden Technology (DD, BP)

Dr. Darwin initiates an NIS inquiry into Zzintar�s medical and psychological condition. Members of the command crew grow suspicious of the inquiry and attempt to figure out its purpose.

At the same time, the CS 10 is selected to test a new Graviton Fold Engine. During the test however, super-powered mercenaries hired by Lucien take control of the ship from the engine room. Dirk and Black Widow manage to subdue the villains. The test is cancelled, however.

195. Seduction of the Gun, Part 1 (DD, BP, JW)

Redblade comes out of retirement and joins Dirk and Zzintar who are both on medical leave, and Dr. Darwin, who is heading an NIS investigation into illegal weapons shipments by Riko Ltd. The investigation is complicated by the fact that the lead investigator happens to be Redblade�s daughter. She also has deadly psionic powers.

As tensions rise between various members of the group, they investigate the possibility that Lisa Martel is actually a double agent working for the weapons suppliers. The group ends up being captured and they face death at the hands of Lisa and the Gladius II powered armor.

196. Seduction of the Gun, Part 2 (DD, JW)

After escaping Lisa�s deathtrap, the group discovers her stranded in a lifeboat. Lisa explains that the Gladius II powered armor were programmed to record her movements and report them to the weapons suppliers. She then gives the group information on the Omura Clan, based on Ophir. The group then makes a successful strike on the Omura Clan�s headquarters, although the Clan Master escapes.

197. Stranded (DD, BP, TM, MG)

A recon team sent into Markann territory becomes stranded in deep space while returning home, and it is up to the CS 10, led by its new captain Steven Knight to rescue them and escape from a nearby planet razer.

198. Games of Chaos
(DD, BP, TM, MG)

The team meets up with Infinity, who decides that the group is too boring and livens things up by having the group fight copies of themselves from an alternate universe. The duel is called off once Lucien and Beth appear and punish Infinity for tampering with the normal flow of time.

199. Ghosts of Conscience
(DD, BP, TM, MG)

After receiving sealed orders, Captain Knight is sent to investigate the disappearance of CS 4, which was investigating a dimensional convergence zone. Boarding parties report that the CS 4�s crew has succombed to the debilitating effects of the convergence zone. While Knight orders the CS 10 to leave the area prior to destroying the CS 4, Dr Darwin, believing that the crew of the CS 4 could be saved, rigs up a remote impulse thrust on the CS 4 and she activates the CS 10�s graviton beam to stabilize the area. She also activates the ship�s tractor beam. In order to escape, Captain Knight orders the CS 10 out of the system at high warp. This triggers a temporal jump that takes both the CS 10 and CS 4 back to NY 129.

While attempting to return to their proper time, the CS 10 is approached by three trikaran vessels who claim to be ready to assist. When Knight refuses the offered assistance, trikaran soldiers board the CS 4, intent on gaining technological information. Knight orders the destruction of the CS 4, but the trikarans manage to escape. Before the trikaran ships can leave the area, the CS 10 fires and stuns the crew long enough for boarding parties to remove most of the stolen technology. The CS 10 then returns home.

200. The Face of Evil, Part 1
(DD, BP, TM)

While on patrol in the Willisford system, the CS 10�s computer AI suddenly shuts down. The team learns that the computer�s access file to the ship�s personell database has been erased, meaning that the crew has no control of the ship. In fact, in Zandra�s eyes, the crew doesn�t even exist. The crew manages to gain manual control over most systems, and Zzintar is sent to Acheron to get a new copy of the access file.

It is learned in the meantime that several Nexus dreadnoughts have disappeared. They are later sighted in Markann territory, heading for the shipyard at Schiavett. It is also learned that the reason for Zandra�s computer failure was due to computerized orders coming from System 347. Examination of ship�s logs reveals that AIC is behind the computer failures.

Upon Zzintar�s return, the CS 10 heads to System 347, where the ship comes under attack from a ground-based weapons array. While the majority of the command staff try to figure out how to infiltrate AIC�s base, Black Widow transports to the planet and gets inside the base�s shielding, but she is captured by AIC�s robotic patrols. A second team, composed of the most of the command staff is also captured, after a short firefight. They awaken in the central control room of the base...looking at the huge computer brain that is AIC.

201. The Face of Evil, Part 2
(DD, BP, TM)

Secondary bridge officers, led by Zzintar discover that the landing parties sent to confront AIC had instead been implanted with a neuro- override device that allowed AIC to control them. This happens when Dirk is secretly scanned by Dr. Darwin during a dinner date. Dirk later attacks Darwin in the Medical Center, and the entire group is caught and placed in the brig. They escape with the help of AIC-controlled security guards, but they are seperated and captured when the people on the Bridge managed to locate them.

AIC was successful in starting a battle between the Markann and Nexus at Schiavett. Just before the battle, Darwin is given permission to attempt a dangerous operation that would remove the implants by overloading them. The problem is that the operation would also traumatize the nervous system of the patients. The recovering group members are still in the Medical Center when the Markann attack.

The battle is furious, and damage to all ships is heavy. A Markann attack on CS 10 damages some of the power systems in the ship�s forward section, including power to the Medical Center�s primary systems. As the episode closes, Dr. Darwin is laying unconscious outside the Medical Center as a plasma fire closes in on her, and the patients are in the Medical Center unconscious, while the monitors beside them show their vital signs dropping.....

UNASSOCIATED GAME PLAY

Because the group took a 2-week break, we were unable to play what was to be the third part of the "Face of Evil" trilogy. Therefore, let it simply be said that a technician rescued Dr. Darwin before she was consumed by the plasma fire, although she did sustain burn injuries. Dirk was also rescued. Others in the medical center were seriously injured and were taken to a critical care facility.

Captain Knight retired from Starfleet after these events.

202. Redemption (BP, ET)

Colossus T�Garr is assigned to the CS 10 through the prisoner exchange program just in time to be there when the crew confronts the killer who framed him.

203. Legends Never Die (BP, ET)

The CS 10 diverts to the Aftin system to rescue the colonists aboard a passenger ship. However, the entire incident turns out to be a hoax planned and carried out by a Hesperian strike team sent to kill Dr. Darwin because of her involvement in the assassination of the Hesperian queen. Despite heavy damage and a few casualties, the CS 10 manages to destroy two Hesperian cruisers and disable a third. The new queen is also killed when she is caught aboard one of the doomed Hesperian ships.

204. Ultrasonic (BP, DD, ET) (NR)

While the ship is undergoing repairs at Hali, the team is enlisted by the local defense officials to remedy the problem of a ship that is levelling cities using a high-energy ultrasonic weapon.

This episode was taken from a Battle of the Planets episode.

205. Secret Assignments, Part 1
(BP, ET)

While awaiting the completion of repairs to the CS 10, Dirk is requested to travel to an area near the Khitai-Markann border to receive an emissary. The rest of the group are again elisted by the Hali defense authorities. This time, they are asked to track down a ship that is using stealth technology to sneak up on refugee ships which are fleeing the civil war on Hamish. The team signs aboard a Hali patrol craft and finds the pirates just as they destroy a refugee ship. Pursuit leads the group back to Hamish.

Meanwhile, Dirk meets the mysterious emissary, who turns out to be from the planet Dnar, deep within the Markann Sector. The emissary reveals to Dirk that the Markann know about Operation Nightwing, the secret recon mission that the NIS undertook against the Markann. The emissary then sends a signal out into space and a severly damaged Nexus dreadnought drops out of T/D travel nearby. Dirk is then left to board the ship and try to start it on its way home.