The crews of the Medusa, LSS Stheno, and LSS Euryale were very excited to be part of the first few Archigos class ships to be made. During shakedown and training they bonded playing into the whole 'gorgon sisters' angle and presuring command into letting them form a wolf-pack. Eventually they relented.
The Captain of the Medusa, Tavish Gunn was a relatively green commander, recently promoted was very much a pleasant, affible man from the [Highlands Cluster][]. The crew liked him, and the other two captains worked well with him. The shakedowns went well, and the first few missions they were incredibly effective.
Tavish was relatively knew, but not as a captain, as a Zealot. He was a recent addition to the Milky Way and to the Zealots. He was tasked with getting his hands on the final version of the Archigos plans and specifications. It took him a while, despite being on one of the ships to collect the information they wanted, and confirm.
He thought his mission would be done by that point, but it was not. Zaine gave orders for him to bring the ship in. After he pointed out the crew would not come quietly, he was reminded they're just humans and he should 'handle' it. The implication was understood.
Tavish pushed back, saying he didn't sign up to kill anyone. Zaine told him he signed up to do what needed to be done, and if he didn't, he'd be dealt with. As they were arguing, a knock came on his cabin door; his XO and two marines. She informed Tavish that she'd been given evidence he falsified his credentials and wasn't actually a member of the military; she very appologetically told him she was sure they'd get it sorted out, but she had to relieve him of command.
Instead, he killed everyone onboard. Zaine's message was clear: there was only one way he'd accept this going.
After the grisley work was done, Tavish contacted Zaine. Only then he was informed this was a test and he was to blow up the ship and return home; he'd failed as a field operative, but could still serve in other ways.
Tavish ended the call and set up a bomb in the engine room. When search teams found the ship weeks later, Tavish's DNA was all over the engine room, and a horrible mangled Petty Officer was found, barely alive, in a maintenence shaft. She claimed the captain had killed himself after setting up the bomb and she's tried to disarm it, but only had succeeded in getting both of her legs blow off in the process.
She was ferried off to a hospital ship where she underwent extensive therapy and while she was fitted with prosthetics, they never fully took, so she uses a wheelchair. She asked not to be dismissed on medical discharge and was instead transfered to the Medical Corps, and serves as a traumatic events counselor.
McKenzie and Zaine both (through their own channels) checked her DNA, and she seemed to be who she claimed to be. A pure bread human. Both came to the same conclusion: Tavish must have died on the ship.
Tavish survived, and changed his form into this petty officer. He had the same abilities as [Nyana][], but had never done anything this drastic and never to himself. To reach into will and pull out the ability to do this was so forceful and traumatic, it left a permanent imprint of the malice and will wrapped tightly around the ship.
What this lead two was, after her repairs and a new crew, accidents, then deaths. Eventually nearly the entire crew is killed when one of the reactors goes critical. The investigation showed no signs of tampering or known mechanical reason for the failure.
McKenzie, suspecting Zealot interference. They examine every piece of the ship and are unable to determine anything being wrong. So it was put back together and flown out to [CNK][]. While there, [David][] starts getting very upset and [Nyana][] realizes it must be something he can see or sense. She takes one look at the malevolent will wrapped aroung the ship and informs her husband that he needs to fire it into the nearest sun.
Instead, she gets taken to Prometheus and mothballed. This starts the infamouse 'Gallery' as McKenzie calls it of mothballed ships, or the 'Morgue' as the yard engineers call it.
In an attempt to defeat or spread this will out, when the LSS Stheno, and LSS Euryale come in for refit, McKenzie instead swaps a bunch of parts from all of the ships, and puts all three back in service. None of them even finish their shakedown cruise before all three show an increased accident rate. A crew member almost died and that's enough for McKenzie to pull the plug and mothball all three ships.
The Medusa and her sisters needed to be off the board and considered too cursed for either refit, but too interesting to simply destroy. Given how superstitious Naval officers can be, it seemed like they could make for a good set of ghost stories and something to have in mothballs at Prometheus.
Mainly, I wanted something very tragic to happen that would keep people away. What I came up with was, well... yeah.