Ancient holy war reignited aboard USS Invicta

NYGEL II — After bringing back an ancient artifact from Nygel II, the USS Invicta was rendered dead in space, with her crew unable to remember who they were before an alien artifact reignited an ancient holy struggle.

Home to an Iconian Gateway initially destroyed by the USS Mercury, Nygel II offered ruins for the Invicta’s archaeological teams to explore. First officer Lt. Cmdr. Kinan Venroe, chief science officer Lt. Cmdr. Alora DeVeau, Cmdr. Dickens, and chief medical officer Dr. Blueheart returned to the Invicta with an Iconian artifact via shuttlecraft, while Dr. Saveron, Lt. JG Tuk, and Lt. Cmdrs. T’Lea, Jolara and Walker remained beneath the surface among the ruins.
Whilst en route to the Invicta, the shuttlecraft containing the Iconian artifact abruptly lost power and crashed into the ship’s shuttlebay. The Invicta herself then lost power as well, and in some twisted turn of events, all on board seemingly lost their personal memories.
“Some people just didn’t have a clue who they were, others… it was like they were possessed or something,” said Crewman Erica Jives.
Possessed is closer to being accurate than some might think. Many of the ship’s senior staff took on “passengers,” stored memories or katras of members of the ancient Nygelian society that had torn itself apart in a bloody war between two factions devoted to different goddesses, believed to be called Masarya and Hassam. The holy war eventually destroyed them all and devastated their planet. Key members of the Invicta’s crew, having been possessed by these “others,” attempted to re-initiate the war aboard the ship.
The crew was further split when Fleet Captain Aron Kells, also influenced by these entities, took a small party to the Captain’s Yacht, inflicting damage to the Invicta’s Main Engineering and severely injuring Lt. JG Danni James. The Invicta’s captain, Joseph Washington, also controlled by these strange entities, returned fire. Not only was the Captain’s Yacht damaged, but an additional shuttlecraft that had returned from the planet was destroyed just after its occupants Lt. Cmdrs. T’Lea and Jolara beamed back aboard.
Efforts to restore control to those of the crew unaffected by the beings was futile with the ship under a command lockdown for much of its time orbiting Nygel II, double-locked by both Kells and Washington with main systems only accessible by the two.