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   TO: All Horizon Fleet Personnel
   FROM: Horizon Fleet Intelligence
   RE: TOP SECRET - The Elyshan Empire
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Ladies and Gentlemen of Horizon Fleet,

Let me start by apologizing for taking so long to issue this report. I know it is long overdue, but the time has finally come to shed some light on the growing crisis between the United Federation of Planets and the Elyshan Empire.

First, allow me to recap the most important encounters that Horizon Fleet vessels have had with Elyshan ships, whether military or factional:
 

Tthe USS Frontier was launched on a mission to explore the Taeveon Expanse - a region of space informally known as the Necro Expanse on account of there being no "living" planets or stars and dangerously high concentrations of dark matter and various hazardous gases.

The USS Frontier disembarked from Starbase Gate Keeper after undergoing extensive repairs. They re-entered the Expanse and, with Willen's help, were directed toward a trading station in the very far reaches of the Elyshan Empire. It was there the Starfleet officers learned of the whereabouts of the Frontier's lost officers, allowing the Frontier and her crew to set a course.

Not long after, the Frontier arrived in the Necro System, purportedly the first and largest dead star system in the Expanse. Using the intelligence gathered from the Trading Outpost, the Frontier located a cloaked space station, only to come under attack again, this time by a relatively large fleet comprised vessels from the Shayde, Regime, and several other unidentified factions. The Frontier's crew managed to rescue their lost crewmen, but in the process, they unwittingly assisted the factional forces in usurping control of the cloaked station.

 

The crew of the USS Frontier, while passing through the Bajoran wormhole, learned of a possible future timeline three years in the future (2387 or 2388) in which the Federation and the Elyshan Empire were at war. According to sources from their vision of the future, the war was sparked by a bombing in Elyshan space which killed several key diplomats from both sides several months earlier, and by the time of the Frontier's arrival, the Federation had already lost one-third of its space to Elyshan control.

While completely conjectural, and most likely the result of interaction with the Wormhole Aliens who call themselves the Prophets, Starfleet has very
closely monitored the Elyshan situation since learning of their prophecy.

 

The USS Frontier received a distress call from an Elyshan transport vessel in unclaimed space that was reportedly under attack by a Federation ship. Further investigation revealed that the Federation ship in question had been stolen by members of a faction calling themselves "The Anarchist Cause." Led by a man named Geos, the ship retreated once the Frontier arrived, allowing the Intrepid-class vessel to rescue the surviving passengers on the doomed transport vessel.

The USS Lincoln, under the command of then-Commander Vorn Krace, investigated the attack of a non-military Elyshan freighter in unclaimed space. After rescuing the civilians crew and learning that their cargo was stolen, the Lincoln pursued a factional vessel into the Necro Expanse, emerging periodically to prevent its systems from failing. Hoping that the factional ship would have to do the same, the Lincoln was eventually able to ambush the attacking ship, forcing the pirates to defend themselves. Knowing that they could not survive an encounter with the Lincoln, the pirate crew attempted to activate the unidentified technology they had stolen from the Elyshan freighter. Moments later, their systems began to overload, causing the apparent destruction of the vessel in a flash of blinding light. No remnants of the ship were found, leading some within Starfleet Intelligence to believe that the ship had been pulled into a wormhole of some sort, or subspace.

The USS Orlando was en route to an annual Peace Summit when it was suddenly attacked by three unidentified vessels with poorly retrofitted subspace weapons. Moments later, a rift was created which pulled the Orlando in and propelled them five years into the future (approximately 2390).

The USS Frontier was attacked by an unidentified vessel believed to be operating under Shayde control. Despite suffering extensive damage, the Frontier crew was able to confirm that the Shayde had become a "major power" in the unclaimed space between the Federation and the Elyshan Empire, and it was continuing to use the Necro Expanse as its base of operations.

The USS Tethys departed Starbase 386 for the Elyshan border and stumbled across the remains of an unidentified Starfleet vessel. Shortly thereafter, an Elyshan vessel decloaked and was later identified as the Paldor, commanded by Sovereign Rokar. The two captains agreed to exchange information and eventually identified the ship as the USS Tethys, only from one day in the future. Not long after, the two ships were attacked by several small factional ships which caused extensive damage to the Paldor's subspace weapons array and caused them to malfunction, creating a rift in subspace. Moments later, the rift began to pull on the Tethys' warp core, forcing the crew to eject it. The resulting blast caused major damage to all vessels, but the total destruction of the Tethys was averted.

A Federation shuttle carrying Federation diplomats was destroyed by a concealed explosive device. All but one of the Federation diplomats (Ambassador Mordred Ocal) were killed, and several nearby Elyshan diplomats also died as a result of the blast. Ambassador Ocal was immediately tried by the Elyshans as an Enemy of the Empire for planting the device and was scheduled to be tortured and executed. Before the sentence could be carried out, a rescue operation was attempted by a Horizon Fleet civilian officer named Raemet with the help of Jordana and an unidentified member of the Frontier crew.