My New Campaign Idea (kinda long)

[Mirror_Sulu]

Hi there, after spending a while away from Trek, i've decided to create a new campaign, and after a little research and work, here's an idea I came up with for an organisation designed to combat the Borg. apologies for the amount of reading.

STAR TREK: PHALANX

In 2153, a group of cybernetic people were discovered buried under ice in the Arctic. They were awakened, and escaped Earth, taking a transport ship and killing the crew. The stolen transport was destroyed later by Enterprise, but not before Captain Jonathan Archer made some startling discoveries. These creatures managed to relay a message to somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, which was estimated to take 200 years to get there.

Upon becoming head of Starfleet, Archer created a Special Operative Group, with the codename Phalanx 6, with the aim of preparing for an assault by these creatures. After three decades the Phalanx 6 team were cut loose, and Starfleet forgot about it. Until 170 years later. After an encounter the Enterprise D had with creatures of a similar description, it was only then that Starfleet learned of their name… The Borg. Phalanx 6 was reactivated, and given the task of preparing defences. They worked closely with Starfleet Tactical & Intelligence, and even (unofficially) with the Tal Shiar.

Eventually, Wolf 359 happened. Starfleet had been defeated, but Phalanx 6 learned some important things about the Borg. They got to work designing experimental systems, some of which were successful, and it was at this time that Phalanx 6 was put under the command of Captain Varel, a Vulcan tactical master and Borg expert.. Under Varel’s directions, Phalanx 6 has been more active in development of new tactics and technology to defend against the Borg.

This lead to the design of the Phalanx class Starship, a ship on par with the Sovereign for tactical capability, but comparative to the Intrepid in size. It featured new armour technologies, weapons systems and propulsion devices. A full team of Marines was also assigned to the Phalanx under the command of Colonel Hyram Burns.

The first real test for the Phalanx was the return of the USS Voyager. Unknown to fleet that met her; a Drone had escaped the destruction of its Cube, and was sucked into the Alpha Quadrant. It survived, and boarded one of the ships that met Voyager. Phalanx 6 was assigned to deal with this, as their first major solo operation in its history…


Obviously, it wont focus completely around the Borg, but that is the main plot. Any ideas and input are welcome.

Cheers, Mirror_Sulu

[LUGTrekGM]

In 2153, a group of cybernetic people were discovered buried under ice in the Arctic. They were awakened, and escaped Earth, taking a transport ship and killing the crew. The stolen transport was destroyed later by Enterprise, but not before Captain Jonathan Archer made some startling discoveries. These creatures managed to relay a message to somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, which was estimated to take 200 years to get there.

I'm not a fan of the borg at all. I don't use it in my games, at all. However, since you are asking for responses;

I'd change the premise a bit, or just not discuss it in game.

Figure it's 2153...post..what? Eugenics wars? cybernetic people, let's wake them up? From my chair, unbelievable. One of them, in a prison-like cell, perhaps. Not a group. Not so that they'd have a hair's chance of escaping.

To escape, I'd think they'd have to kill some kind of hard core security force (put in place to prevent just such an event, so something really hard core is going on with them), and wipe out the base where this study of them was going on. This transport they'd escape in is a total sucker for ship-based weapons, and I think there's a bunch of such ships near earth, yes?

If this message is going to go 200 light years it's one powerful transmitter.

I'd think it more likely to have a science team, with a small scout ship, finds these things on some little ice rock of the outer solar system on some place like "AC 437 +32" 12 LY (or wherever) from earth.

The scout party is somehow subdued, and the cyborgs mimic thier voices perfectly allowing them to beam up and gain control of this scout ship. The scout ship goes missing for 200 years.

If you are going to say that Archer destroys their ship, but not before they get a message off, it just seems contrived, to fit the story. Hows come if he's so good, he didn't just blow them up a few seconds earlier?

[LUGTrekGM]

Also it comes to mind that

Phalanx 6 was reactivated, and given the task of preparing defences. They worked closely with Starfleet Tactical & Intelligence, and even (unofficially) with the Tal Shiar.

Why not just call them Section 31, and be done with it?

And working unofficially with the Tal shiar is a really big step.

[LUGTrekGM]

The rest of the details of how it got to be this way, are not apparently part of the immediate story problem.

I mean, you can do a modern CIA story and talk about how the CIA was formed out of the OSS, and how those guys plus some Gestapo people are tossed in, but that was 60 years ago. And in your game, you are talking 200 years ago. Totally ancient history.

This is your story, and sounds like a valid campaign, just there as it is:

The Phalanx class Starship, a ship on par with the Sovereign for tactical capability, but comparative to the Intrepid in size. It featured new armour technologies, weapons systems and propulsion devices. A full team of Marines was also assigned to the Phalanx under the command of Colonel Hyram Burns.

The first real test for the Phalanx was the return of the USS Voyager. Unknown to fleet that met her; a Drone had escaped the destruction of its Cube, and was sucked into the Alpha Quadrant. It survived, and boarded one of the ships that met Voyager. USS Phalanx was assigned to deal with this, as their first major solo operation in its history…

Anyway good luck with it.

[Mirror_Sulu]

The opening bit was based off of the Enterprise episode 'Regeneration' where the A6 excavation team finds two surviving First Contact Era drones along with their ship, and some chaos ensues. Maybe I should have explained that little better...

And, in retrospect, I maybe should have kept the back story a little shorter, instead of going back that far...

[Tobian]

The premise is based on Enterprise, as you say.. yes it was a bit of an annoying plot line, because it was completely redundant.... given the enterprise D made first contact with the Borg because of Q, so what import did that message have. It has also a certain measure of predestination paradox about it, as the message could potentially have information about the Borg's future technology... and the fact their invasion failed, and how!

All that said, there is nothing wrong with the premise that there is a special team set up specifically to look into technologies designed to combat the Borg, because it canonically existed, if not in name specifically: Lieutenant Commander Shelby was listed as heading up a unit exactly for that purpose, so there's a starting character to be involved.

Creating secret organisations can always be a bit spurious not least because if this organisation did indeed disapear with all the Borg info, what was their motivation for hiding it, as it only served to weaken the Federations ability to cope with them!

Time travel stories can be horrible, but one possible plausible reason could be that the DTI from either a possible or the real future came in to clear up the mess, and indeed maybe your team could go back to observe the events of First contact, after having got hold of the 'deflector modifications' made to the Enterprise E: there are only a handful of known encounters, so the chance to see the encounters in action could make for an interesting plot. Perhaps the DTI also stepped in as 'continuity police' to remove the Borg transmission from existence, and surpress knowledge of the Borg in the past, leading to the correct version of events where there was no knowledge of the Borg threat untill the 2360's.

Actually having the unit as part of the DTI means they both have access to technology which 'does not exist' and knowledge that has been removed from history, which also leads on to the dark future seen in Enterprise, where war in space evolves into temporal wars. Just a thought

[Tricky]

I've always thought that the 'message' sent by the ENT Borg was what would eventually bring the Borg in "Neutral Zone", although it is kinda strange that they didn't give the Collective all the data they had about their encounters with Earth and their outcomes. Or maybe they did, and this is all part of some scheme by the Collective! (and why did the drones go running for home? a handful took over several humanoids and their ships; i would have stayed on Earth and go "Romero Zombie Movie" on them!)

Just a couple of ideas to toss into the ring:

1) 7 of 9's parents were chaseing the Borg, going all 'Jane Goodall' on them. I'm not exactly sure how long ago, since I'm not quite sure how old they said 7 was, but maybe they were one of many 'Borg hunts' sponsered by Phalanx (fun fact that you might know; the Phalanx was a Techno-Organic race that was defeated EXACTLY like how the Borg in First Contact were!)

2)I know it doesn't fit with the "Utopian Ideal" of the 24th Century, but maybe the Borg info was hidden much like the alien ship data in ID4; "complete deniability". Or maybe the budget/resources was cut off just prior to "Q Who", since there had been no signs of 'Archer's Cyborg Boogymen' for almost 200 years!

[Mirror_Sulu]

I quite like that idea Tricky, it's just got me thinking that maybe there's a 'Cold Station 51' containing anything that does and could relate to the Borg, acting as Phalanx's base of Operations.

And I like the idea of 'plausible deniability', because even Starfleet has secrets!

[Captain Otto]

I only once had a adventure with the Borg - taking place some years after the Borg were defeated after Wolf 359. It revolved around a secret Federation Science station that conducted research on salvaged Borg technology. Their Prized Salvage were three sleeping Borg drones. Some people at SI decided to keep these a secret especially because two of them were assimilated Starfleet personnel. Things went naturally wrong when some testing with Borg Technology awakened the Drones who started to take over the science Station (what else). Their intimate Knowledge of SF Procedures allowed them to act swiftly.
The players were sent in along with some shady intelligence Guys; (one of them a romulan infiltrator) to clear it out before the Borg drones were fully in control.

I even had one of the drones be the missing brother, filed MIA after Wolf 359 , of one of the players.

I did only have the three drones, everyone else "assimilated" had not yet any real Borg abilities so it turned out to be a even fight.
(But i was personally disappointed as the Player elected to vaporize his assimilated brother to put him out of his misery)

[First of Two]

I quite like that idea Tricky, it's just got me thinking that maybe there's a 'Cold Station 51' containing anything that does and could relate to the Borg, acting as Phalanx's base of Operations.

There's a story in the most recent "Strange New Worlds" (Volume 9) Anthology that has a similar idea as a plot point - basically, Spock is recruited by an old professor/friend to help design an impenetrable "duck blind" that will hide Starfleet's collection of recovered artifacts/derelicts/mysteries (including the Doomsday Machine) from any prying eyes.

[Owen E Oulton]

Figure it's 2153...post..what? Eugenics wars? cybernetic people, let's wake them up?

Your timeline's off. 2153 is 160 years after the Eugenics Wars, and 100 years after WWIII. Since First Contact 90 years ago, Earth has been at peace. The reports Cochrane and Lilly made regarding their contact with the Borg have been classified up to here, assuming they actually made official reports.

There was no reason for the scientists in the episode to suspect that the bodies, which were completely encased in ice, were murderous cyborgs from the future, or anything else ominous. And they didn't purposely revive them, the Borg reactivated themselves...

Just FYI.

[LUGTrekGM]

I stand corrected.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

The reports Cochrane and Lilly made regarding their contact with the Borg have been classified up to here, assuming they actually made official reports.

Cochrane made a drunken speech at Princeton University about them, but nobody believed him, cause, you know, it's crazy drunk Cochrane. When they found it in the ice in 2153 one of the dudes was like "I knew it! Bob owes me a thing of rum." They didn't reactivate them so much as the bodies weren't fully deactivated.

[Tricky]

First of Two makes an interesting plot point/idea: what DOES the FED do with all that strange tech and artifacts they come across? Just think what we've seen on the shows (ENT-VOY) Plus the movies. And that's just the stuff we've seen: the fleet is composed of thousands of ships, the FED has 150+ member worlds and they are constantly exploring new territory.

Were do they store this stuff? Who's in charge of it (SI, FED Science Council, Starfleet Corp of Engineers, Section 31?) and what do they do with it?

Marvel comics used the "guy abusing captured tech" on two occasions that I can remember (both in X-men related books): One was in the present, where a rouge Shield Opperative gathered alien tech to build a suit to hunt mutants; the other was in an alternate future, where the guy incharge of all the 'strange artifacts' that had been collected over they years (everything from magik to nanites from the future) used them to usurp control over the USA!

Not that any FED Citizen/SF officer would abuse his post !

[Mirror_Sulu]

I'll admit, that's got me thinking too, about maybe expanding Phalanx 9's MO. Maybe they're not just there to stop the Borg, but to investigate all of the strange technology that Starfleet and UFP finds, to prevent any similar, future threats.

And all of this technology end's up at 'Cold Station 51' to be tested, examined and assessed for a potential threat. Sort of like what's supposed to go on at the 'real' Area 51!, or from a purely Sci-Fi point of view, like Torchwood in Dr. Who.

Hmmm....