History TearJerker / StarTrekOnline

* "Survivor" has the player, Agent Daniels and Sela arrive at an abandoned Tal Shiar prison and find evidence that Tasha Yar and the crew of the ''Enterprise''-C is still alive when you hunt down the T'Nae from "Temporal Ambassador". You're given HopeSpot after HopeSpot that, somehow, Tasha is still alive only to learn that Tasha was one of the last to die, passing of old age and that her last request to T'Nae was for her to tell everyone the story of the ''Enterprise''. At the end, Sela, once again in jail, is confronted by a Starfleet officer (heavily implied to be Data), who gives her a hologram of Tasha. Sela ends the mission by asking "Tell me about my mother...", the same thing Guinian asked Data of in "Yesterday's Enterprise".

** And Sela's [[VillainousBSOD reaction]] when she realizes [the destruction of Romulus, and probably the entire Iconian war, are ''all her fault''. It's the only moment in the game where she truly loses faith in herself, and for a second you think she might actually [[DrivenToSuicide shoot herself out of despair.

* The entire tragic story of K'mtar's life [[spoiler: a.k.a Alexander Rozhenko]] who was a diplomat from the Federation and tried to get the Great Houses to work together against threats. This got him thrown in Rura Penthe along with his suspicions of the House of Torg. Ultimately, it's clear no one takes him seriously in the Klingon Empire and even his own father [[spoiler: Worf]] considers him a joke. It's not until he [[spoiler: sacrifices his own life and is proven right in all of his suspicions that he earns his father's respect.]]
* The death of Martok's grandson at the bat'leth tournament. You crossed the entire Beta Quadrant and fought through legions of House Torg soldiers only to fail to protect him. It gets worse at his funeral as he died as a warrior but lost all of his potential. [[spoiler: The fact Martok never even got to know his grandson when he comes back doubles the tragedy.]]
* While technically an All-Factions mission [[spoiler: the discovery Martok has been alive this entire time and drugged for decades is both a Heartwarming moment as well as a horrifying one. Everything Martok has worked for all these years has been destroyed by J'mpok and his grandson perished in a cowardly assassination.]]

* Most of the Romulan Captain's story arc. It starts off with your colony being invaded and it gets worse from there. The penultimate mission shows that [[spoiler: just about everyone abducted was or is in the process of being turned into more Elachi.]]
** [[spoiler:Charva's RedemptionRejection, and Tovan's utterly ''broken'' reaction.]]

* In the mission "What Lies Beneath": When you find [[spoiler: the latest victim of the crazy murderer, only seconds after she was begging for you to help her. AND once you realize the murderer was a hologram whose program degraded due to the radiation down there.]]
* In Delta Rising [[spoiler: Gaul slaughtering the Talaxians, all in an attempt to anger you. Neelix doesn't rise to the bait and is just heartbroken.]]
* In the mission "Dust to Dust" [[spoiler:the revived and turning-into-a-Kobali Harry Kim, frightened and confused, doing everything he can to get back to Voyager, not realizing what he's doing.]]
* The deaths of [[spoiler:the [[BenevolentPrecursors Preservers]]]] in "Blood of Ancients". They [[spoiler:spent millions of years in stasis in the hopes of one day meeting their descendents]], only to be dispassionately [[ShootTheShaggyDog wiped out]] by the Iconians.
* For the ground portion of Broken Circle, you will quickly round up a platoon of RedShirts as backup, making the early parts of the mission quite easy. But as you travel between repeated engagements with [[MarathonBoss M'tara]] expect your forces to [[DwindlingParty dwindle]] until it's just [[PlotArmor your usual away team]] again. After that's done, the next map consists of flying through the ruins of [[spoiler: ''your fleet'' which had been so huge at the start of the mission.]]. Your listed objectives are to scan for survivors, but the game cuts you off with instructions to just leave when you try.

* "Butterfly" [[spoiler:has the team decide to use the Krenim weapon to stop the U.S.S. ''Yamato'' from discovering Iconia. It would stop the Iconian War altogether and bring back Romulus. Then, to your horror, you discover that, by doing so, ''the Borg'' have taken over Romulus.]]
* "Midnight" [[spoiler:has you going back to the day the Iconians were eradicated. Just like Jean-Luc Picard postulated, ''they did nothing wrong''. They might have been arrogant, but they were trying to protect other races and those races didn't like it.]]
** And Sela's [[VillainousBSOD reaction]] when she realizes [[spoiler:the destruction of Romulus, and probably the entire Iconian war, are ''all her fault''.]] It's the only moment in the game where she truly loses faith in herself, and for a second you think she might actually [[DrivenToSuicide shoot herself out of despair]].
* The entire mission of “Renegade’s Regret” [[spoiler:which makes the player experience the Tzenkethi Coalition’s genocidal actions through Neth Parr’s point of view. This makes you feel for her and the civilians she was forced to kill. She then begs the admiral not to destroy a planet populated with billions only to be threatened by him before watching the planet get destroyed anyway.]]
** Some players may also feel guilty during parts of the mission since [[spoiler:they must destroy ships with innocent civilians while they are pleading through the comms channel to spare them before detonating a protomatter bomb.]]
* The Mission "The Search" from the Gamma Quadrant series. [[spoiler:Kira slapping Odo and calling him a Founder for intentionally luring the Hur'q to Bajor to get the Alliance in the war. It hurts because Odo destroyed a lifelong friendship in order to save people. The hurt on both sides is made apparent despite the limited graphics of the game's engine.]]
* The mission "Partisans"' ending. [[spoiler:J'ula runs through rings to finally find proof that J'mpok was the mastermind behind the genocide at Khitomer... and watches in horror as the Great Houses decide that ''both'' sides suck and they should work alone. J'mpok decides to take up the vacant title of Emperor and J'ula realizes she destroyed her brother's work.]]
* "Survivor" [[spoiler:has the player, Agent Daniels and Sela arrive at an abandoned Tal Shiar prison and find evidence that Tasha Yar and the crew of the ''Enterprise''-C is still alive when you hunt down the T'Nae from "Temporal Ambassador". You're given HopeSpot after HopeSpot that, somehow, Tasha is still alive only to learn that Tasha was one of the last to die, passing of old age and that her last request to T'Nae was for her to tell everyone the story of the ''Enterprise''. At the end, Sela, once again in jail, is confronted by a Starfleet officer, who gives her a hologram of Tasha. Sela ends the mission by asking the person "Tell me about my mother...", the same thing Guinian asked Data of in "Yesterday's Enterprise".]]
** Compounding this is that confirmation that [[spoiler: Tasha Yar isn't coming back.]]

** In "Painful Omens" [[spoiler:you get to see what caused the Tholians to go after the Na'khul - time travelling Na'khul ''massacred'' a colony of Tholians and their Queen opted for a TakingYouWithMe to gain revenge, but not before telling the other Tholians that the Federation was not to blame.]]
** In "Battle of Caleb IV" [[spoiler:you perform a LastStand against a fleet of Klingon ships, giving your former Captain and the other ships a chance to escape. Even more, the captain, now Admiral, parts with a touching "Godspeed... and give them hell!"]]

* "Survivor" [[spoiler:has the player, Agent Daniels and Sela arrive at an abandoned Tal Shiar prison and find evidence that Tasha Yar and the crew of the ''Enterprise''-C is still alive when you hunt down the T'Nae from "Temporal Ambassador". You're given HopeSpot after HopeSpot that, somehow, Tasha is still alive only to learn that Tasha was one of the last to die, passing of old age and that her last request to T'Nae was for her to tell everyone the story of the ''Enterprise''. At the end, Sela, once again in jail, is confronted by a Starfleet officer, who gives her a hologram of Tasha. Sela ends the mission by asking the person "Tell me about my mother...", the same thing Guinian asked Data of in "Yesterday's Enterprise".]]
** Compounding this is that confirmation that [[spoiler: Tasha Yar isn't coming back.]]

** Some players may also feel guilty during parts of the mission since [[spoiler:they must destroy ships with innocent civilians while they are pleading through the comms channel to spare them before detonating a protomatter
bomb.]]

* The Mission "The Search" from the Gamma Quadrant series. [[spoiler: Kira slapping Odo and calling him a Founder for intentionally luring the H'rud to Bajor to get the Alliance in the war. It hurts because Odo destroyed a lifelong friendship in order to save people. The hurt on both sides is made apparent despite the limited graphics of the game's engine.]]

** Some players may also feel guilty during parts of the mission since [[spoiler:they must destroy ships with innocent civilians while they are pleading through the comms channel to spare them before detonating a protomatter bomb.]]