Nexus - Eighth Season

The eighth season started off where the seventh left off...completing a nine-episode run of three-star adventures, culminating in the three-part story introducing the Markann. Quality of the episodes did not decline significantly until after episode 134, when a steady stream of two-star episodes continued until episode 138, after which the quality was generally higher. Quite frankly, part of the quality problem had to do with the fact that we let some of the less-experienced players attempt to GM. Most of the time, this was not unenjoyable, and the players in question ARE in the process of learning, but the quality of those episodes did suffer nonetheless.

Our Assistant GM came up with some very high-quality episodes and overall, despite the higher turnover rate in characters this season, the ones that replaced the deceased were more in-depth, which meant that character development has risen. Also added were characters with long-term goals which will probably not be realized until at least the ninth, if not the tenth season.

All of this activity got to be too much for some members of the group. Due to creative differences, our Assistant GM decided to quit playing Nexus. This was after an abortive attempt to start another deep-space series, and after the short-lived Cyberpunk series. We managed to hammer out our differences, and the Assistant GM returned in time for the opening of the ninth season. The layover resulted in a one-month hiatus in April, and it also marked the first time a soundtrack theme has been devised to cover a period of time when nothing happened. The soundtrack itself, despite heavy amounts of damage that needs to be repaired, was added to quite frequently, and the quality of the new tracks is superb.

The eighth season continued the recordbreaking streak set by the seventh by receiving seven four-star ratings.

The eighth season of Nexus was rated at:

Eighth Season Episodes

116. The Assassination Game
(DD, DW, JW)

The team is called to the planet Sarrahban to protect the president of that planet from assassination by factions who support a return of Hesperian rule to the area.

117. The Multi-User Dungeon
(DD, DW, JW) (MERC)

The team finds itself within an alternate reality contructed from Selene Nyjax�s mind. It seems that Nyjax and Tri-Star once had a romantic relationship, but that relationship fell apart, and Nyjax is seeking revenge.

118. Circle of Five
(JB, TW, DD, JW, MM) (Guest GM: DW)

A visit to Xavier�s grave sets the team onto the mystery of his hidden life as a researcher of ancient magics. It also puts the team in a race against time to foil the efforts of the sinister Circle of Five, who plan to destroy the barriers between the demonic realms and Nexus.

119. Dimensional Dangers
(JW, DD, DW, TW)

The team is chosen to safely transport the Nexus ambassador to the Khitai Empire to talks arranged between the two governments. En route to the pre-arranged site, the ambassador is attacked and killed by the Legion of Death, who was secretly hired by the NIS. This episode was based off the plot of the Star Trek PBEM adventure of the same name.

120. Arena of Death (JB, TW, DD, JW) (Guest GM: DW)

Illian, Stacy Wilkins, Stiletto and Mirage are unknowingly hired by a criminal organizaton to assassinate the kingpin of a rival organization. They do this by infiltrating the rival group�s �gan-ji� fights.

121. Real Stories of the Nexus Starfleet (JB, TW, DD, JW)

A media group proves to be a major obstacle to the team as they attempt to diffuse a hostage situation perpetrated by Terror Inc.

The Markann Trilogy
(eps 122-124)

122. The Scout (JB, TW, DD, DW)

When Nexus shipping routes from the NW Sector to the Nexus FW Sector aredisrupted, the team is sent in to investigate. While scouting out the area aboard DN5, the team comes upon a derelict spacecraft.

Once aboard the dead ship, the team discovers that the are only a few people aboard, and those people are either dead or insane. One person keeps muttering something about monsters with eight legs, this while in the process of mixing a highly acidic broth to kill the monsters with.

After returning to the ship, the team finds a nearby planet which has been ravaged by the aftermath of a series of nuclear detonations. The team heads down to the surface in a shuttle and finds that the planet�s environment is nearly destroyed. The trees have mutated, the lakes are full of a flamable compound, and the people, what few of them remain, scratch out an existance on the barren mountainsides.

While investigating a small villiage, the team finds the remains of an underground library. They find the diary of one of the community leaders, in which is detailed the last days of the civilization.

As the group is leaving for their rondezvous with the shuttle, they see it hurriedly land nearby. The pilot tells them that DN5 is under a heavy attack. The group heads for space. Upon reaching orbit, the group finds that DN5 has taken heavy damage and can not manuver. After a few more hits, the antimatter containment fields aboard the dreadnought begin to collapse. Sarah Nyjax hurriedly signals the ship�s surrender because her baby is aboard, but to no avail. The alien ships unleash a barrage of shots that destroys the dreadnought, and they then take the team prisoner.

123. Experimentation
(DD, DW, JW, TW)

After being locked up in a dungeon-like cell by the aliens, the team meets a strange woman who is being held prisoner with them. After Armor removes everyone�s shackles, the group manages to escape. They make their way through a seemingly deserted building and manage to reach a control center...also deserted.

Nyjax sends a signal to Nexus and receives a reply saying that DN 5 is en route. Knowing that DN 5 has been destroyed, the group realizes that they�ve been discovered. From the control center, the group fights a fierce firefight to the landing pads, where they board an alien fighter and leave.

As they are heading away from the planet, the team picks up four alien fighters which attack and quickly damage the ship. As the team attempts to repair the damage, they suddenly find that they have no control over anything. At that point, the scene dissolves, and the team is back in their cell, having been the recipient of a holographic series of hallucinations. At this point, an alien tells the group that they must be punished for their mock escape, and as the group tries to delay, the alien kills Sarah Nyjax by slitting her throat.

124. The Final Test (DD, DW, JW)

The team makes a second escape attempt and succeeds in linking up with a Nexus strike team sent to retrieve them. After a fierce battle on the launch pads, the group transports to the ship, which soon comes under heavy fighter assault from the aliens. As the ship and the fighter pilots fight to keep themselves from being destroyed, the team battles a group of Markann who came aboard when an injured Nexus citizen was brought aboard.

The team manages to defeat the aliens, but the last one incinerates itself and its comrades, thus robbing Nexus of any opportunity to study them. The ship then engages a graviton pulse to discourage any further attacks by the alien fighters, then does a T/D jump to return to Nexus space. At a debriefing on Nexus, the group retells the story of what happened to them, and warns the Fleet Admiral to either abandon the area, or fortify it and be ready to fight.

125. Power Drain (DD, DW, JW)

When DN 3 is suddenly taken out of warp while on patrol, near the Maphistopheles Nebula, the team investigates and discovers a shapechanging villian who is using an Alpha class courier to siphon energy from the nebula.

126. Ghosts From the Past
(DD, DW, JW)

Shroud and Psyren attack a reception for the President of Nexus which is being held aboard DN 3, and the group discovers that the two are clones of Nikko and Xavier, who were killed during the final battle with VOICE during episode 113c.

When the group manages to get the President off DN 3, the villains force a showdown when they threaten to destroy the NOC and the planet Nexus unless the President is turned over to them.

127. Vampyre (DD, DW, JW)

While investigating the disappearance of a small Nexus ship on the frontiers of the NE Sector, the team discovers and defeats a tribe of vampires who have absorbed the crew of the downed vessel.

128. Crystal Wars (DD, DW, TW)

DN 3 is called to the planet Von Berg to check in with research teams who are studying recently-discovered towers of crystal. While this is going on, Mirage, who has been exonerated from accused crimes against Nexus, feels the beginnings of a psychic surge from the planet, and she protects the crew of DN 3 from the fatal assault.

While repair teams race against the clock to repair the ship�s AI, whose neural pathways had been obliterated by the psychic blast, the team investigates a small shuttle hanging just inside sensor range. When they board the shuttle, they discover that The Enforcers have come in order to check out the crystals also. The team defeats the villains in a spectacular display of brute force and head back to the ship just as the next psychic wave starts to build. The team members use their ships� shields to protect DN 3 from the psychic wave and then return to the ship.

129. Badlands (DD,DW)

While returning from a search for a criminal on Tortuna, the team�s ship experiences a T/D misjump as a result of a bomb placed near the engines by Crown agents. The team manages to break the ship out of the misjump only tomake a crash landing on a nearby planet. Once the team lands, they discover that they have landed on the planet Badlands, a planet renowned as a haven for criminals from all over known space. The group immediately starts planning an escape, but one of them is injured in a fight with police and this injury further complicates matters. The team manages to find sympathetic support and assistance both in their escape and in the humane killing of the wounded comrade, who had been captured by the police and had no chance of making it home alive.

130. The Exchange (DD, DW, JW)

Capt. DuBois� animosities toward Khitai are fueled even more when an NIS operative posing as a Khitai engineering technician aboard the Excalibur tampers with the engines, sending them into Khitai territory in an attempt to start a war.

131. R.E.M. (JB, DD, DW)
(Guest GM: DW)

Zzintar, Redblade, and Plasma are attending a dance at a rather glamorous ballroom, yet Zzintar can not figure out how he got there. While pondering this, the dance is interrupted by terrorists who quickly disarm everyone and lock them in groups in small rooms within the building.

Efforts to escape prove futile until Plasma activates his powers, which gives Zzintar the moment of distraction he needs to activate his. The guards in the room start firing at the imprisoned people but are quickly taken out by the three super-powered beings. Once they emerge from their cell however, the trio are caught up in a firefight with super-powered villains who subdue them. As a price for their attempted escape, a group of the prisoners is killed and Zzintar�s sister is among them.

The team manages to escape again, only to find that the building has been rigged to explode. They rush to a window and get ready to escape when the building explodes.....and they all wake up in their quarters aboard the Excalibur.