Darien 224

Darien 224
The Last-of-all-Cities colony on Darien 2254
Dominant species:	Vulcan settlers
Capital:	Last-of-all-Cities

Darien 224 was a planetoid located in a binary star system in the Alpha or Beta Quadrant.

Darien being in a binary system is based on illustrations in the comic which show two suns, it is possible Darrien could exist in a system with more than two, but addition stars are never shown.

Darien was a harsh worlds, featuring storm swept deserts and barren rocky landscapes. The atmosphere was sufficiently volatile that it precluded the use of transporters and allowed intermittent communications at best.

In the 3rd century, before the teachings of Surak spread across Vulcan, a group of Vulcans left their homeworld. They crash landed on Darien and established the Last-of-all-Cities colony on the planetoid's surface. The colony was lost and isolated and the pre-enlightened Vulcans passionate. Left alone, divisions began to form between them and two rival factions formed in order to gain absolute control of the planet.

The Cortez and the Enterprise battle above the planetoid

In 2254, the USS Cortez entered the system on a survey mission and discovered the lost Vulcan colony. After a short while, the crew of the Cortez fell victim to the Vulcans' internal politics and was boarded and taken in battle by one faction. She was later refitted with a powerful pre-enlightenment Vulcan weapon, the Tol par-doj.

Eight weeks later the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, was sent to investigate the disappearance of the Cortez. On the surface a landing party was attacked by one faction before be rescued by the other, while in orbit the Enterprise was attacked by the Cortez and narrowly avoided sharing the vessels fate by repelling another boarding attempt.

The attempted capture having failed, the Cortez began another space battle with the Enterprise, which was only saved when T'Kell, the Ruler of the Last-of-All-Cities fired a planetary psionic weapon, the Vorl-tak, utterly destroying the Cortez and most of the members of the main opposing faction.

As Darien's surface is destroyed the Enterprise flies into the atmosphere

Firing this weapon had a devastating effect on the planetoid, the weapon used the planetoid’s gravitational field as a psionic amplifier, thus causing the mantle to shatter and begin to sink into the magma layer. As the planet's surface disintegrated the Enterprise flew into the atmosphere to cut through the interference and save the landing party on the surface. The Last-of-All-Cities colony and the rest of the Vulcan population were lost as the planetoid's surface was destroyed. (EV comic: "Cloak and Dagger")

The planet is first established as Darrien 224, all subsequent spellings in "Cloak and Dagger" use only one r, when the planetoid is mentioned in the following issue, "The Flat, Gold Forever", two r's are used again.

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