Sphere of Terror
Scientific Study
In 2413, the USS Hades was on station in the Beta Quadrant, conducting a detailed study of the Magnetar PX 1354.
A fairly rare stellar body, this form of Neutron Star is one of the more scarce stellar types. This fact, coupled with the indications that the Star was entering into the very final stages of it's life-cycle made the study of this magnetar a particularly appealing mission.
During their survey the Hades began detailed magnetic studies of the magnetar's magnetosphere. They also witnessed a few Gamma Ray Bursts as well.
The Call
After roughly three days of study, the Hades received new orders from Starfleet Command. They were advised that the USS Onyx a Steamrunner Class vessel on a diplomatic mission had failed to make their appointed destination.
The Onyx had been dispatched on a diplomatic mission by the Federation Diplomatic Corps to aid in the transport of a Nertalli peace delegation to discuss a peace treaty with the Perthalla, with whom they had been at war for the last 75 solar years.
Now with that ship missing, accusations from both sides of the conflict threatened to escalate back into open warfare once again. The Hades, suspended all scientific studies of PX 1354 and immediately went in search of the overdue ship.
The Onyx
Roughly two days after the call came in for the Hades to conduct search operations for the Onyx, the Prometheus Class starship located the ship, powerless floating dead in space.
There was no sign of any power sources on the vessel and external sensor scans proved to be useless due to a large tachyon interference that seemed to be emanating from the location of the vessel.
Fearing the worst, Starfleet Marines from the Hades beamed over to begin an initial search. Once they had determined that there was no immediate danger other members of the ship's crew beamed aboard to conduct a search and recovery operation.
Almost immediately, the Crew began to notice strange quirks about the abandoned ship. There was no sign of the ship's crew, and there was no sign of jettisoned Escape Pods.
in addition to this, the Hades crew found signs of tasks unfinished as if the operator had simply stepped away for a few minutes. In this fashion the Onyx was compared to the Mary Celeste.
However, something much more insidious was taking place. As the crew were searching the ship and trying to figure out why the Onyx had no power, a sense of dread and barely suppressed terror began to make it's presence known.
Before long, something, or someone had instilled a deep sense of absolute blinding terror into the members of the ship's crew searching the Onyx. At first it began with peripheral hallucinations. small noises, or the hint of a shadowy figure. However, it didn't take long before those initial delusions took on full blow threats that altered the perceptions of those affected. Some members of the Away team were suddenly attacking their shipmates, and at least one member of the away team was killed as a result of the hallucination driven responses of the crew.
With the away team threatened by an unknown force, the Away team commander, ordered an emergency return to the Hades.
Bringing Terror Home
The away team was recovered and several members were treated in sickbay for a wide variety of medical and psychological issues. The cases ranged from delusions and unwarranted fear to violent paranoid responses. Several of the marines seemed to have been the worst affected indicating that perhaps there was something that they had been exposed to aboard the onyx that had caused the more intense reactions.
Thinking themselves safe from the strange happenings aboard the onyx, however was not the same as actually being safe. Shortly after the return of the away team to the Onyx, the Warp Drive suddenly and inexplicably failed.
The failure of a single Warp core would have been enough for a need to worry, but when all three aboard the Hades failed within moments of each other despite the multiple redundancies in place to prevent them, there was complete and utter confusion and chaos.
The quick thinking of the engineering staff managed to prevent a core breach which would have destroyed the ship instantly, but that wasn't the only issue that they would have to face. Within just a few short minutes of the warp core failure the ship's impulse reactors suddenly stopped putting out energy.
The fear from the Onyx had followed them to the Hades.
Spreading Fear
As the Engineering teams struggled to keep the ship operating on emergency power, the science department found itself trying to come up with a hypothesis on what had happened not only to the Onyx, but for what was also seemingly being repeated aboard the Hades.
With nerves spread thin, it also became apparent that not all of the crew could deal with the extreme stress of the rising dread that the situation was creating. Some crewman became violent, while others became catatonic or reclusive. This forced the security staff, despite their own manpower shortages caused by the situation to attempt to enforce order on the ship.
More details coming soon.
