Federation First?

In a recent converstation with Fortunae, he brought this group up. A group of Starfleet officers who want to be more aggressive and expansionist.

I would love to know more about them. Anyone?

I too would like know more. I have always thought that after the DW there would be certain elements in SF that would be more hawkish.

In my little corner of DecTrek (the one in my mind.) This group, Section 31 and the conspiracy from ST:VI are the same thing.

A group of federation citizen/officers who feel very strongly about defending the ideals of the Federation, even if it means bending a few rules.

As such, they do not exist as an organisation but are more of an old boys network. Over the years, people have started giving this group of persons name and a life of it's own.

And they've been quick to take advantage of this. Presenting themselves as section 31 or federation first or whatever.

There.

I remember reading in an old Star trek novel (TOS) that the antagonists were a militant group in the Federation; they called themselves the United Expansion Party...maybe a good name for the umbrella group?

Me, too Bob. The Starfleet part of the ST:VI conspiracy was the embreonic Section 31 in my game. I had an extensive movie-era campaign dealing with them. We didn't call them "Federation First" but rather "The Patriotic Conspiracy."

The events of that campaign are recorded at http://bancroft.tripod.com/SCC.htm

I used this concept in a game way back in '88, where it was called the "Brotherhood of Federation Patriots," a conspiracy of Starfleet Command officers, Starfleet Intelligence officers and a group not unlike the US "militia" movement which was just then coming into the public consciousness. The climax of the Intelligence Wars campaign was so similar to the ending of The Undiscovered Country (which didn't come out until a couple of years later) that the players in my group started looking for the microphones Paramount obviously had in my living room! That was the campaign which featured a phaser firefight in a turbolift where ever shot was a miss until someone in the corridor simply hit the entire group of combatants with a wide-angle stun.

Ah, those were the days!

I had an idea sort of long these lines.. a group of Starfleet officers, all humans, who feel that humanity should break away from other "inferior" species and form their own empire ala Mirror Universe. I never went forward with it, though... maybe I should.

The TOS novel "Dreadnought!" had something like this, as did the sequel, "Battlestations!"

A militaristic Admiral, with his cohorts in high places, having the Dreadnought developed in order to use it to provoke a war and subjugate the Klingons and Romulans... etc.

Basically, making war to achieve peace, taken to extremes.

As other people have pointed out, my campaign has a very realpolitik and dark feel.

There is a definite struggle in Starfleet between the hawks (mostly younger officers who came up through the ranks during the Borg/Dominion threats) and the doves ( the more 'explorer'-oriented officers of the early TNG period). A lot of the officers see it as an idealism vs. realism dialectic, but both sides are very adamant about their 'rightness'.

Starfleet is moving away from the old designations for starships, toward more military classifications (including the Sovereign as a battlecruiser), toward more military discipline ideas, and a more aggresive internal policy. But there are the hold-outs throughout Starfleet that are trying to drag Starfleet back to the more paramilitary, exploration-driven organization it was in the earlier days.

The big movements in the Federation are the Federalists -- who wish to maintain a strong Federation central government that remains very distant from the average person on the street, to the Democratists -- who want more direct intereaction between the average Federation citizen and the central government ( they seek reform of the Federation's election processes and more accountability to the average person), and lastly, the planet's rights' group -- who wish to see a devolution of power to the planetary governments, and a weaker central government that handles primarily defense nd interstellar commerce and diplomacy issues. (If anything, my camapign, I guess, is headed toward a weaker UFP).

Here's some of the stuff going on in my campaign, set during season 6 of Voyager (wow, it started in Season 5 of TNG... :D)

The Cardassians are dealing with their version of the Weimar Republic and the reparations demanded by Bajor, the Romulans, and the Klingons (only the Federation abstained from this). The Final Order has gained seats in the Detapa Council, a Nazi-like party. They are the largest power bloc but the other blocs can usually block them and form a coalition against them. That said they are very popular.

The Klingons are on the brink of collapse - losing over half their fleet in the War.

The Romulans are debating whether to stay allies with the Federation. A squirming Klingon Empire and a weakened Federation are just too tempting. But they can't face both and the two would probably protect each other.

Now, the point of the thread, the Federation. I think of a line from Insurrection...

Quote:

---

Federation support, Federation procedures, Federation rules... look in the mirror, Admiral... the Federation is old... in the last twenty four months, it's been challenged by every major
power in the quadrant -- the Borg, the Cardassians, the
Dominion... they all smell the scent of death on the Federation.
That's why you've embraced our offer... because it will give
your dear Federation new life. Well, how badly do you want it, Admiral? Because there are hardchoices to be made now.

---

I am having seccesionist movements beginning to appear in the outer colonies - the Federation has to rebuild but the core worlds are getting the bulk of the resources. One of the premises behind Star Trek is the replicator removes the need for greed. But there's only so much power for replicators - in the bloody aftermath, not everything can be rebuilt instantly. Breen and Cardassian pirates picking at the fringes of the Federation, rogue Klingon houses. And most importantly, the Federation is alive because one man sacrificed the ideals of the Federation - Captain Sisko in deceiving the Romulans into joining the Dominion War. (Mind you I'd probably have done the same...)

With all this going on, I truly can see the Federation beginning a slide towards corruption - indeed, it is already on its way, much like the Republic of the Star Wars movies. All it takes is one coup or one president to assume emergency powers and the Federation as we know it would be no more. And I see the Federation in the post-DS9 universe as being on the brink of that. One more test like the Dominion War might push them over the edge.

Good point, First: I admit I used inspiration from both "Dreadnought!" and the sequel, "Battlestations!"

Right up to the point that Admiral Rittenhouse was one of the high-ranking members of the Patriotic Conspiracy. And I used the graduation test from "Battlestations" as a flashback scene in my game.