The Admiral’s Log: My Journey Through ‘Star Trek Online’ – Part LXIX

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Retro Replay – ‘The Doomsday Device’

Well hello again my fellow starship commanders and welcome to another edition of The Admiral’s Log. It’s hailing frequencies open once again and in today’s edition of this here futuristic and nerdy blog, we’re conducting another Retro Replay, one that I was very much looking forward to. Because today's entry features a mission that back in the day, kicked my butt in every way imaginable. Because ‘The Doomsday Device’ is a story that takes you behind enemy lines, where you must disguise yourself as a Klingon Warrior in order to stop a devious plot involving the Doomsday Machine and the end of the Federation and well, there are two key things that brought me to my proverbial knees the first time I played this mission.

For starters, the ground combat is damn near impossible when you’re a young Lieutenant. Because Imaga is host to some talented Klingon warriors and they are quick to slap you around when they discover your true identity and that means, I spent a lot of time res-pawning when disruptor beams hit me from every angle and the horror of this story didn’t end there. Because you have to take on the Doomsday Machine in a Bird of Prey, and the only way to stop this galactic monstrosity is to fly towards its maw and fire off your super strong torpedoes and well… that works out about as well as it sounds. Because if a ship that weak even gets clipped by the pure antiprotons that thing fires, its curtains and re-spawn time.

Which means that I was hoping for some serious payback this second time around. For I was confident after my last Retro Replay, that my level 65 standing and Mark XV gear would protect me from all the troubles this mission sends your way and well, I was beyond wrong about that. Because the talented warriors on this world, are now level 65 as well and they are still fierce and hungry for bloodshed and well… we got our butts kicked once again, several times over. Because anytime our holographic disguises got sniffed out, we found ourselves embroiled in a fierce fire fight. The kind that saw my away team drop fast regardless of our top tier body armor. Which took me completely by surprise, mainly because I really did expect to walk in and drop the Klingons like bad habits. But a little patience and humility goes a long way, and once tactics came into play, the mission went a little smoother. On the ground at least.

Because the space combat portion of this mission, was still an outright nightmare. For the Klingon Bird of Prey just does not have the same hull and weapons capabilities as an Odyssey class starship and that led to some awkward fighting for certain, the kind that saw me once again get obliterated by the Doomsday Machine time and time again. Which once again meant, that I absolutely needed to take my time with this fight and wait for the perfect opportunity to get in front of the monster when it wasn’t blasting ships to bits and that helped me in this here mission, a plenty. Because there were no re-spawns after that realization, just wonderful tactical strikes on its maw, followed by a hasty exit where I would watch and wait for the deadly glow from its maw to pass, which eventually led to victory and some fine lessons for the future.

Specifically, that I cannot expect to walk into a situation as a default superior force. For the playing field is indeed leveled in some instances by the game, and just charging in with beams a-blazin’ means I will get back handed by my enemy. Instead, I need to rely upon what I’ve learned in this game and think before I fire, otherwise I’m basically making the same rookie mistakes all over again. Plus, to hell with the Bird of Prey, because that ship sucks worse than Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra and I am so looking forward to the fact that I will never have to fly that hunk of junk, ever again. For this was the last of the missions from the Klingon War arc that gave me fits and now we’re onto the Romulan segment of the story. In order to replay a grand battle that ripped my Cheyenne class ship to pieces back in the day, and that’s where we will pick up next time in this adventure, in a more cautious and thoughtful manner of course. Until next time, Galactica out.

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