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

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

A Voyage to Deep Space Nine 

​It’s interesting what you come to realize when you reflect upon just about anything, and since I’ve spent the past five, now six, weeks pondering upon my own journey through Star Trek Online, many new things have come to light for me when it comes to this majestic game. First and foremost, I’ve come to understand that I really, really, love this game through and through and second to that, it’s also become apparent that STO really moves you through the ranks quickly and packs in some serious storylines in the process because my crew and I saw a lot of combat and plowed through a lot of storylines during our early days in space.
 
To some, that may seem like the game is more or less rushing the player to the finish line, but this reflection time has also helped me to understand that there is a rhyme and reason for that kind of mad dashed game play, and it all relates to the spirit of the game. Because a Starfleet officer must be ready for anything at any level, and surprises will find their way to your hailing frequencies at any given moment and honestly, I’m glad the game more or less prepares skippers for that kind of dynamic change because now that I had reached Admiral, the stories were only going to get bolder and bigger from this point on and well, I felt ready for any challenge that STO was going to throw my way.
 
Thankfully though, the game did find a way to give me an anchor mentally, because the Galactica-A was going to be my home for the foreseeable future and well, she was coming along on some of those incredible journeys and the first one of note involved Deep Space Nine. Because the crew had been sent there to have a grand discussion with the other superpowers of the Alpha Quadrant in regard to a growing Borg threat and during this meeting, it became clear that while the game was going to up the ante storytelling wise, it was never going to stop with the fan service because holy crap, I was sitting in the conference room aboard Deep Space freakin’ Nine and to top it off, in the midst of our meeting, a throwback to the series came our way.
 
Because if you recall, in the DS9 episode, ‘Sacrifice of Angels’, the Prophets were kind enough to throw the Federation a bone by removing Dominion reinforcements from the wormhole. We never quite knew what happened to that fleet, just that they were sent away and well, it turns out that they were propelled into the future, to the exact moment where I was sitting in that Borg meeting and just like that we were plunged into a new and unexpected conflict where the station was once again under siege and my goodness, what a treat this turned out to be. Because this mission arc took me just about everywhere when it comes to the Deep Space Nine universe and this massive and sprawling story ended in explosive and magnificent fashion. 
 
For in the finale, ‘Boldly They Rode’, allied forces work to re-take the station with the help of Weyoun and the Founder who was captured at the end of the war and while it was awesome to navigate the station’s hull in an EV suit, and battle Jem’Hadar inside the station. Nothing compares to the cinematic space battle that took place outside the station. Because there were moments worthy of the silver screen in this sequence since I remember the Galactica swooping in from above (or as above as one can get in zero gravity) to save ships in peril in the midst of the battle and while that was cool in its own right, nothing that happened in this fight compared to the arrival of reinforcements, since that fleet was led by the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-F and just like that, my crew and I were suddenly fighting alongside a living legend namesake wise and that…will remain as one of the coolest moments I’ve ever enjoyed in this game.
 
Yet, what’s really incredible, is that this entire mission arc, was nothing more than an appetizer for the feast to come. Because even bigger stories were waiting on the horizon for me, something I didn’t think was possible. But our next big journey would take us to a region of space that I never thought I would explore in this game, the Delta Quadrant, and our arrival in this fascinating part of space meant that my crew and I would be working alongside more Star Trek legends and that particular tale is precisely where we will pick up next time. Until then. 

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