"Falcon Down"

The Phoenix was on patrol when they received strange signals from what appeared to be a harmless pocket of space. That pocket of space was actually a concealed nebula. The sensors were insufficient to gain proper data and so the commander ordered the ship in closer – only for the ship to become trapped inside the nebula. To the Phoenix’s surprise, the nebula had already been occupied by a small planet that had the characteristics of a class M body. An away team was ordered to the surface. After meeting an inhabitant, the team was brought to Azvahdel, a city populated by descendants of the Falcon crew – a late-21st century craft that had gone missing years ago that had been utilised by Vulcans and Humans for space exploration for a firm known as the HSIA. R’hen, the city’s mayor and a Vulcan-Human hybrid of all things, told the away team about the conflict with the other natives which had lasted over 400 years. Some wanted the fighting to stop. Other settlers had darker goals; to learn all they could about the Xoids and use that knowledge against them. Their main goal was to steal the HCSG device that was fuelling the camouflage that covered the planet – the Crix’oids had been using this to mask their location and hide away from attacks. While engineering and science worked on how to leave the nebula, a second away team was beamed down to discover the Crix’oids. The species were incredibly hostile to begin with but it was then established that they could communicate using a form of sign language. It seemed they had learned it from a Human who had been exiled from the settler population and had become peaceful with the Crix’oids, this having been many years ago. They explained their side of the story. The Human/Vulcan side had crashed down and settled on their planet. Every time a ship crashed down they would gain an advantage, salvaging it for technology and power.

After talks and a trip back to the Crix’oid’s own city, they decided that the only way to stop the conflict was to completely divide up the planet. The away team agreed to help the Xoids finish up their plans to put a shield around their city. Engineering assisted with coordinating the beam to fit over the planet, while science helped make sure that the shields would been strong enough to withstand attacks. In the meantime, the first away team spoke with R’hen about establishing peace between the two. R’hen himself sought out the Xoids and begged for forgiveness, coming together to end the conflict as mediated by the Phoenix crew.