A dust bowl of nothingness where a civilization of colonists hangs onto a bleak existence: this is the back drop where the crew of the USS Independence find themselves. Take yourself back to the wild-west with a mix of Mad Max and you have the Wheeler Colony, where life is cheep and gold is an everyday commodity. Two away teams search for answers and possibilities to help this stranded people lost in a time where technology has almost been forgotten. What little technology does exist is left to run until it breaks, the skills of engineers and mechanics long forgotten.
As the Hammond glides out of sight in orbit above this desolate world where only meters below its surface lays the riches of yet another possible boom town waiting to be discovered.
In the skies above, two majestic fighters observe the goings on below on the planets surface, a mob of town’s folk lumber towards one of the away teams to an unknown end. The USS Hammond is unable to contact the away teams due to interference from the natural magnetic atmosphere of the planet caused by the decades of pollution from the old forgotten industrial days. Temperamental defense satellites scan out to space and the orbiting Hammond looking for a reason to open fire while the bridge-crew search for a way to disarm its old payload of thermonuclear payload.