156 thousand years ago, an advanced race inhabited the world known as Deridous IV. Their civilisation spanned acoss the surface, and even seeded life on other worlds. So advanced were they that they thought they had become invulnerable: there was nothing their technology couldn't cure, solve, or resolve. Or so they thought.
A plague struck the civilisation, tearing their culture apart. Carnage reigned, and piece by piece, the mighty race crumbled into the dust, its legacy lost within the jungles of Deridous IV for a hundred millennia.
Early in 2375 a group of Scientists discovered a New World absolutely teeming with life. This heavily Jungled world was the 4th planet in the Deridous system. This system contained 5 Planets and two large asteroid belts.
The possibilities this planet offered for scientific research was too much to pass up. Another exciting aspect of this was its location on the very edge of Federation space in an area known of as the Crossroads. The Crossroads are a notorious and vast wasteland of space separating the Gorn Confederation; the Romulan Star Empire, Lyran Democratic Republic, and the edge of know space in the Alpha quadrant.
To make things even more interesting in this area, several of the larger Orion Pirate cartels operate from the crossroads raiding frequently into the neighboring races. Finally, the Borg made use of this corridor of space to invade the Alpha quadrant; it was here that the Romulans fought their own version of Wolf 359 to much the same conclusion.
Despite it's name little is known about this area by the Federation. Most of what we do know comes from second hand intelligence and free traders stories. All that is known for sure is that this area of space represents an unsecured border for the Federation.
The Scientists settled this colony and prospered for about two months before they mysteriously disappeared. The USS Lancelot was tasked with finding out exactly why this colony had stopped all communications. As the Lancelot arrived it was targeted by saboteurs and crashed into the planet. The survivors established a base camp on a nearby ridge and waited for rescue. This took about three months in which time they discovered the reason for the disappearance of the colonists. They had inadvertently laid their colony on the breeding grounds of an unintelligent Insect like Creature dubbed Gi-Ants for their similarity to Terran Ants. These Gi-Ants averaged very similarly in size to Large Terran Bulls and did indeed resemble their six-legged namesakes from Earth. The Gi-Ants proved to be very territorial and killed every colonist.
It also turned out that there was another species of creature common on the planet. The Sloth-Monkey. These small creatures ranged from 2 to 4 feet in height and were covered in a wild and thick fur that varied from bright red to dark black. These creatures seemed very intelligent and it turned out that the main source of food for these creatures was the Gi-Ants. These Sloth monkeys were capable of using simple tools and seemed to have a fairly advanced family based society very similar to the African Gorilla. It is postulated that these creatures can communicate among themselves telepathically however Starfleet was unable to establish any communications with them. These creatures were very playful and curious and soon completely infested Camp Lancelot. Starfleet Scientists are now studying these creatures.
As Lancelot's crew was rescued it was determined to establish a Starfleet Colony and forward base of operations for several reasons, chief of which was the desire to keep an eye on the Romulans. Star Fleet intelligence is afraid that the Romulan Empire might use this time of peace to renew hostilities with the Gorn. The basis for this belief comes from the large amount of social unrest on the Romulan home worlds. The Vulcan unification movement has grown in strength and has recently even attempted to gain a seat on the Romulan senate. Historically, the Romulans have quelled social unrest by focusing the anger of the people on an external enemy. The belief is that if the people are to busy fighting for the survival of the empire, they won't have time for new social movements. A crude belief, but due to the violent and emotional nature of the Romulans it has been effective for nearly 2000 years!
Another reason is because of the vast amount of Pirate activity in the system. Beyond that there is a vast amount of raw materials that could benefit many systems, and the sheer amount of scientific possibilities that a planet of this nature may provide.
The planet itself is barely in the M class. It is completely covered by jungle. There are no real Oceans but plenty of lakes and rivers. There are mountains but they are rare. This planet apparently had a mild tectonic period that resulted in the lack of continental plates. It is more stable then perhaps any planet found and explored to date, another scientific wonder. As far as life there are literally gazillions of lifeforms on the planet. From bugs to the Fierce Gi-Ants. The cataloging of these species may take decades.
There are no advanced lifeforms beyond the Sloth-Monkeys however there is evidence of previous inhabitation in the form of ruins spread about the planet. These ruins are completely alien to any known culture and remain a mystery.
An over-curious Sloth Monkey inadvertantly activates a Doomsday device created by 'Ancient' extremists as a counter to the plague. It had lain dormant, but its activation set into motion a predetermined chain of events. High-magnitude earthquakes have begun, the Guinevere Township shaken to its very core. But there is no Starfleet to rely on: no known ships are in range to mount a rescue, and Camp Lancelot is no more - we have a massive volcanic erruption to thank for that.
A general evacuation is being ordered, and the deadline for Deridous IV's destruction have been set: 20 hours, and counting.
The USS Portman, Norway-class, has just escaped from an assignment assisting Starfleet Academy with training, and is continuing with the shakedown cruise its skeleton crew was placed aboard to perform. With them is Jacen Parami, the former Strategic Operations Officer of the USS Edison, who is taking some 'time off' after a recent ordeal. Unfortunately, his R&R is cut short when the Portman receives a distress call from Deridous.
The only ship in range, the Portman rushes to help.
Julia Sannheim, Deputy Chief Constable of the Guinevere Township Police, has her routine thorougly disturbed by the beginning of Deridous' destruction. Switching instantly into Police mode, Sannheim begins the evacuation, trying to bring order to the understandably scared citizens.
The van Vliegen facility on Deridous also feels the effects of the earthquake. An evacuation is called, but not quite in time: Bowser barely makes it out of a building in time before it collapses, but his family aren't quite so fortunate. Its a race against time to save those trapped inside.
Chief of Police Nathan McClure is on his way home for the evening when the disaster strikes. Seeing the devastation at Camp Lancelot from the roof of the Police Headquarters, McClure orders the police into action, trying to save as many lives as he can. Then emergency orders come in, and the Police Force heads to the Spaceport to play crowd control. they have 19 hours to get everyone on the planet into whatever ships they can find: anyone left behind doesn't stand a chance.
The Queen Anne's Revenge IV commanded by Johnny Teech, and the SS Aurora commanded by Christopher Bauer ready themselves for rescue operations with (in the former case) much "Yarr!"ing, and stamping of wooden legs. Teech also contributes a new satellite (of sorts) to Deridous IV's orbit.
The Etain family (all 78 million of them) struggles to make ends meet after the recent terrorism by the Orions, and as Nick Etain leaves preschool after dropping off their child, the earthquake hits. Racing to the Clinic for his better half, digging into the ruins of the building in search for her. Ten minutes later, an aftershock collapses the last of the building, Nick and Cherijo still inside.
Across in the Galahad settlement, Marine Captain Pulaski tries for some quality time with his girlfriend. However, their romantic liaison turns horribly wrong when the disaster hits, their infant child lost for a moment, until a Sloth-Monkey appears, carrying their baby Matthew. However, she and her own child are injured: sending his girlfriend to safety, Pulaski sets about trying to save his furry friend...
The end has finally come. An almighty effort raised by local civilian ships, Starfleet vessels, and even the occasional Klingon craft have managed to lift survivors from the face of Deridous IV, rescuing them from a planet literally on the brink of falling apart. However, despite their unrelenting efforts, less than 10,000 survived, and where Deridous IV once was, a field of asteroids now drifts.
Now a fleet of homeless survivors journeys through space. Fortunately, hospitality from an unexpected source has provided them with a new world to colonise, and call their own: a Gorn, a former Officer of Starfleet and now an Ambassador, has negotiated for an uninhabited world to be ceeded to Starfleet to rehome the Deridous survivors. The intentions of the Gorn are unclear, and speculations have run riot: many believe that this is a genuine gesture of friendship, and represents a turning of Gorn attitudes in the wake of their recent coup d'etat. Others believe that it is merely a hollow gesture, meant to avoid provoking the Gorn into a war with the Federation that they are ill-equipped to win.
Starfleet has dispatched a Corps of Engineers unit to make preparations for the arrival of the survivors, constructing temporary shelters and facilities that should be enough to sustain the fledgling colony until more stable and long term structures can be built. Now all that lies between the rag-tag fleet and their new home is several weeks of perilous travel across Federation space, through regions rife with ion storms, navigational obstacles, and the ever-present threat of pirate attack...
