Welcome back to Operations Division October here at Tuesdays at Quark’s! I actually didn’t plan that alliteration but now I’m leaning into it hard so expect everything to start with O around here. Because the Operations Division includes both engineers and security officers I’ll be oscillating between them throughout the month. On this occasion we’re at the offensive end of the… No, you know what? This is dumb. Back to the regular column.
My goal with Commander sh’Tharqat is to offer some of the grit seen in the later seasons of Deep Space Nine. There are plenty of security officers like Worf and Tasha Yar, heroic figures who put themselves in harm’s way and then bounce right back. That’s not the case for a lot of veterans, though, and Talas sh’Tharqat carries her pain around with her. She’s a badass with stats to match and she’d make an excellent tactical officer or temporary replacement on your ship. Her past is inescapable, though, and benefiting from sh’Tharqat’s skills means confronting her demons with her. Are you up for it?
There are a lot of directions to take this character, but here are some plot hooks to get you started.
- On a simple away mission with Commander sh’Tharqat as military liaison, the shuttle that the crew is on becomes disabled by a subspace eddy. After a crash landing the crew finds themselves on a jungle planet with dangerous beasts that lurk just out of sight. Cool heads are needed to repair the shuttle’s comms and reach the ship but the stress of the mission has Commander sh’Tharqat on a hair trigger.
- When the Player Characters’ ship is called to meet quietly with Cardassian diplomat Toja Pell about opening back channels, Commander sh’Tharqat is assigned as a specialist on Cardassian ships and territory. However, Talas has startling information: one of Pell’s assistants in attendance is an Obsidian Order operative who killed three of her friends in interrogations during the war. If true this puts the entire secret meeting in jeopardy but what if it’s just sh’Tharqat’s stressful imagination?
- With a war against the Dominion and Cardassians both seemingly right around the corner, the crew receives some specialized tactical training from Commander sh’Tharqat. She is hard on them and the lessons are grueling but Talas insists that this is the only way to be prepared. If they fail the crew may be relegated to a rear position, but in order to succeed they will need to act less like a Starfleet crew and more like the Jem’Hadar warriors they are fighting against.
Click on the image below for the PDF.
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