Important Links:

Main Sim Intro: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/237589/
Main Sim Start: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/237603/

Autopsy Review: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/246206/
Vid Review: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/246602/
Engineering Investigation: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/246390/
Intel Research: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/asimov/posts/245750/

(If I missed any, I apologize.)

The Asimov has been tasked with investigating an apparent attack on the non-strategic and mostly overlooked colony of Shiang-Gui, during the Dominion War. No mention of this attack exists, and the only proof of it is on a single chip that was delivered to a Federation Ambassador in a counterfeit Faberge egg by a now-deceased FedSec agent. In fact, it seems that anyone who even touches this egg or the chip winds up dead. Someone is going to great lengths to keep the attack not just quiet… but forgotten.
Called into a secure lab by Admiral Brenda Oleg, the CO of all Star Fleet Intelligence, the crew was shown a vid of the attack made up of captured vid feeds from the colony itself. The vid clearly shows an unmarked Federation Sovereign-class attack the colony… there were no survivors. The Admiral tasked the Azzy crew to find those responsible.

Leaving Starbase 1, the Azzy is now on their way to the colony to begin their investigation. As they are traveling, various leads have been looked into.

Autopsy:
Multiple DNA matches from the first murder. The FedAec agent’s (expected), and the other a circus performer named Vigliad Casperian, Strong man. The FedSec Agent was killed with a knife to the back, severing the spinal cord.
The Intel agent was killed on their way home after transporting the egg. They were tortured and killed by being bent slowly in half backwards; possibly over a rounded object like a pipe or a bar.
The Intel Agent is missing a ring that was there when the body was discovered and sent to the morgue; but is now gone.
There is a possible connection between the FedSec agent and the circus performer, but FedSec has sealed the file and it can only be opened by a FedSec Senior Agent.

Engineering:
The vid is a stand-alone copy. No copy can be made.
The level of encryption within the data is nothing like anything anyone on the ship has ever seen. It is of a complexity that even gives the ship’s computer pause.
The chip itself has a unique radiation signature, perhaps used as a kind of tracking device. The type of radiation is not naturally occurring, and there is no record of it anywhere.

Intel:
The ship on the vid is definitely a Federation Sovereign-class vessel.
No Sovereign class vessels are (officially) unaccounted for.
Looking at a sabotage of the Hyfren Ship Yards during the war, there was a Sovereign-class that ‘disappeared’ from all records: USS Portsalia, NC-74105-2
No record exists of the vessel, and the registry number is assigned to a Heavy Research Vessel currently under construction at the Antican Shipyards.
When a contact of one of the crew looked into the matter, they were found dead from apparent suicide within hours.
Where to go from here:
There is the matter of the FedSec agent’s record that needs to be reviewed.
The missing ring could be a clue… or just a coincidence.
There has been no background check on the circus performer whose DNA was in the deceased FedSec agent’s makeup.
The potential ship had a name at one point, and a registry number. As those are never duplicated identically, there may be something there.
The Azzy will be arriving at the now-vanished colony in a little under a week. There is time for inquiries, remotely done of course, that may shed some light or give some more direction.

Remember: this is an entire colony that was wiped off the face of a planet and ALL records of it’s very existence were stripped from everywhere. The ones behind it are not inept in any way.

GM