Star Trek Online: Unofficial Literary Challenge (Season 9.5)

Star Trek Online: Unofficial Literary Challenge (Season 9.5) was the series of unofficial Star Trek Online: Literary Challenges that took place during Season 9.5 of. The literary challenges were a forum-based game where story topics for Star Trek Online gamers would be posted every month and users would respond with entries based on those topics, using their Star Trek Online characters.

Unofficial Literary Challenge #1: The Kobayashi Maru
In July 2014, in wait of Literary Challenge #66, forum users created an unofficial literary challenge.

Challenge #1 - The Kobayashi Maru

 * The infamous no-win scenario. This test defeats almost every Starfleet cadet, as it's designed to be unwinnable - it's "a test of character". Jim Kirk did it by reprogramming the simulator to make it possible to rescue the ship. Another cadet managed to stay in the simulator for over ten hours, finally losing to a pair of Birds of Prey. And Mackenzie Calhoun infamously blew up the Maru himself.


 * What happened when your captain took the test? Did they give up after one try? Did they try some unusual, possibly unique, tactics in an effort to win the no-win game? How did they handle their inevitable defeat? Or did they locate some brand-new exploit or cheat, never tried before?


 * (Remember that the test can vary from one person to another; the only constant is the Kobayashi Maru. And any cheats that worked once before have been fixed...)

Challenge #2 - Dominion Delegation

 * You and your crew have been chosen to escort a Dominion diplomatic team through the wormhole and back to Dominion space while bringing your side's own diplomats with you to further negotiations. Write a log entry about your experiences.

Challenge #3 - The Ultimate Sacrifice

 * Spock, Rachel Garrett, James T. Kirk, Benjamin Sisko...


 * Throughout history, men and women have given the ultimate sacrifice: to die in order that others might live. Their heroic actions have transformed the course of events and touched the souls of many.


 * Write about your captain's encounter with someone who sacrifices themselves to save someone else. It could be a crewman who saves the Captain's life at the cost of his own. It could be a soldier who goes out in a blaze of glory to save the lives of his people. Or a samaritan-hero who gives his life for someone who might otherwise be an enemy in other circumstances.


 * How does the character's sacrifice change history? Did history change for the better, or for the worse as a result? How does his or her sacrifice affect those who witness it?

Unofficial Literary Challenge #2: Time after Time
In July 2014, in wait of Literary Challenge #66, forum users created an unofficial literary challenge. This second challenge continued that practice.

Challenge #1 - Time after Time

 * In which you and your ship are caught in a time loop, in which you and your ship are caught in a time loop, in which you and your ship are caught in a time loop...

Background information

 * Submitted by sander233.

Challenge #2 - The Grass is Much Greener

 * It was the perfect plan! During an excursion to the mirror universe, you successfully swapped places with your annoying counterpart and have infiltrated their starship. Now, as they are aboard your vessel in stasis, you are free to sabotage the ship and open portals to your universe! All you have left to do is-wait, what's this? The First Officer wants to have a lunch meeting? Your First Officer hates you with all their life. The ship's helm's man is inviting you to play cards? Must be a trick to assassinate you. Or is it? As you spend more time aboard this vessel, you discover how...nice it is! No having to worry about assassination plots, no battle rations for every meal, no having to report to those hard asses at HQ. This universe is paradise! But the Terran universe is expecting you to complete the mission. What do you do? Can you really turn your back on your home reality?

Background information

 * Submitted by moonshadowdark.

Challenge #3 - Out in the Cold

 * When you decided to join the Landing Party to do a quick survey of ruins on an arctic planet discovered in your patrol route, you didn't think it would turn into an extended stay. The hostile ships that came at your ship forced it to retreat, and the last communication you received indicated they were heading out of the system with the entire enemy force in pursuit. Now, you and those with you must survive in the bitter cold. Write a Captain's Log detailing the time spent on the ice planet and the eventual outcome of your efforts.

Background information

 * Submitted by danqueller.

Unofficial Literary Challenge #3: The Next Generation of Tribbles with Darkest
The Next Generation of Tribbles with Darkest was the third unofficial challenge of the Unofficial Literary Challenge.

Challenge #1 - The Next Generation

 * While exploring in the Azure Nebula, you come across a temporal anomaly. As you are scanning it, the anomaly ruptures and you discover a ship coming through it. The captain opens a hail to you and reveals that they are from the 26th century and that their ship is your ship's successor! Write a log about the experience. What was the future crew like? What has changed aboard the new vessel? What is the same? Are you still aboard it?

Challenge #2 - The Tribble with Timelines

 * Well, this is the mission report to cap all mission reports. While on "routine" patrol in the McNesby System, you were sucked back in time for some reason (really, this is just typical of your luck). A quick status report finds you above your homeworld, with the wormhole still open and everything intact...except for a Tribble.


 * One solitary Tribble is missing. Scans pick it up on the planet below.


 * In addition to a rather large number of prehistoric animals. It looks like you're several million years early, and you'd better find that Tribble before it breeds out of control and causes an ecological apocalypse, potentially wiping out your entire species before it can evolve, or causing even more chaotic timeline messes.

Challenge #3 - Darkest Moment

 * James T. Kirk and Khan, Jean-Luc and Locutus at Wolf 359, Janeway and her alliance with the Borg. Every captain has fallen into the deepest shadows when brains and brawn could no longer cut it, where your captain had to compromise their spotless record. It would forever mark them with a black spot, a choice that will haunt your captain until they die, where they had to make their worst decision or ally with their greatest enemy. Write your captains darkest hour, their greatest mistake, their Darkest Moment.

Unofficial Literary Challenge #4: The Return of the Revenge
The Return of the Revenge of the Unofficial LC of DOOM! was the fourth unofficial challenge of the Unofficial Literary Challenge.

Challenge #1 - Second Life

 * You wake up in another time and another life. Though everything seems 'normal' you begin to realize it's not where you belong. As you start encountering members of your bridge crew in key roles of this other life, you become more and more convinced that it isn't real. Where did you wake up? are you a lounge singer on a Risan yacht, or a cowboy on the American frontier, or maybe a blue collar worker on a 20th century Romulus. Who put you there? Is it an enemy scheme, alien influence, holodeck malfunction or fantasy made real?

Challenge #2 - Assuming Command

 * Jean-Luc Picard, an experienced career officer with a first-rate crew and a ship so new she squeaked, ready and eager to take on the universe and preach the Federation's gospel. Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, a grieving widower and single father, put out to pasture in a backwater post expecting one last tour before retirement, with a fiery Bajoran redhead for an XO who took an instant dislike to him.


 * And then there's you. Write a story or a log entry about your captain's first day in command of their ship. Did Starfleet Command throw them in the deep end right away, or did they get a few days to get to know their crew? What did their new underlings think of them? Did it all go off without a hitch, or were there unforeseen consequences?

Challenge #3 - Broken Threads

 * Many of us have complained in the past about Cryptic having the attention span of a goldfish and leaving plots unfinished left and right. The Fek'Ihri are implied to be the result of a foreign plot which is never fulfilled, the Gorn separatists are barely alluded to outside of doff assignments, the True Way get no conclusive resolution (yes, you captured two of their leaders, but they're a terrorist organization), and the fact that there's a continuing fragment of the Romulan Star Empire, reeling from the loss of Empress Sela, is never referred to again after "Hidden Camera".


 * Of course, this isn't unique to Cryptic; there are plenty of cases in the various series where a plot thread was left to dangle. Pick a plot from the series or game that was left unresolved and do something interesting with it.

=External links=
 * Ten Forward on the Star Trek Online forums