INTRUDER ALERT: Internal defenses for TOS Federation Vessels

[Cdre Bob Wesley]

Okay, I need to list all of these, especially automated and/or mechanical defenses.

Here's what I got so far. . .

- Red Shirts/armed crewmembers.

- Adjust a section of gravity plating.

- Anesthizine? How far back could that go?

- "Sealing a deck" (exactly how did they DO this?)

- Holding cells/brigs.

Any others?

[C5]

- "Sealing a deck" (exactly how did they DO this?)

I expect they lock the turbolifts to prevent them reaching a deck. Possibly they can also lock every door on this deck. The only alternative would then be Jeffery's tubes, which are slow and cramped.

You could also include transporters. Though I don't remember seeing it in TOS, I expect teleporting intruders out of the corridor and into a transporter room (site to site transport did not work very well IIRC) facing an army of redshirts could be an effective way to neutralise or at least contain them.

This makes me realise that we never saw in Trek things like automated defense turrets inside a ship. I understand the Federation would not like them much, but they certainly would fit on a Klingon or Romulan vessel. And they would certainly be compliant with the TOS tech level (how hard could it be to couple a sensor with a targeting system and a phaser/disruptor ?).

[Calastir]

I agree with C5.

Adjusting a section of gravity plating was a stroke of genius by Archer, never used onscreen before or after so I wouldn't put that in as standard procedure, not unless the PC would remember Archer's strategy from either history class (Knowledge: History (Starfleet, Human) TN 15) or come up with it themselves (Tactics (Space) TN 20)

Anesthizine wasn't used during the TOS-era, it appeared rather new during TNG. Did they ever pump gas through the environmental systems in TOS? I can't remember.

With Intruder Alert during the TOS-era, I imagine fairly simple tactics such as regular crewmembers locking themselves in their departments or quarters, and small teams of armed redshirts patrolling the hallways.

[Owen E Oulton]

It may not have been called Anesthazine, but Kirk did mention flooding the ship with "Neural Gas" in Space Seed, as a standard anti-intruder measure. TNG din't invent everything, after all...

[trynda1701]

If you think that the Archer trick is too much, two things could help.

1) That happened in the Mirror Universe. It WOULDN'T be in any history tapes, as there was no inter universe contact beyond the Defiant coming through the interphase rift, and her crew were all dead.

2) If your players want to try it anyway, maybe it takes too much effort to set up QUICKLY. Therefore it needs to be used in SPECIFIC circumstances, which would fit its use by Mirror Archer.

There was one automated security system shown like C5 mentioned, the automated bridge defense system...

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Automat...defense_system

[skree]

Well If things DO get bad enough with an Intruder,
The Automated Bridge Defense could work.

The following is from the old FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game "Star Fleet Intelligence Manual Agent's Orientation Sourcebook"
AUTOMATIC BRIDGE DEFENSE SYSTEM
This device is spherical and approximately 30 cm in diameter. It has an internally
antigrav locomotion system, infared sensors, and the equivlaent of a Phaser 2 weapons system. It normally reamins in an unoccupied corner of the bridge until the vessel goes to GQ 3. At that time, it automatically stations itself near the ceiling, where it can fire on any point of the bridge.


In reguards to "Sealing a deck" (exactly how did they DO this?) question, again from the old FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game "Star Fleet Intelligence Manual Agent's Orientation Sourcebook"
SECURITY BULKHEADS
Also known as emergency or collision bulkheads, these are reinforced hullmetal barriers located in corridors and around cruical areas of the ship. Some or all can be hydraulically lowered into place if the vessel is in danger of physical collision, or the vessel goes to GQ 4. Any bulkhead can be raised of lowered in 15 seconds.

OR you could go this route for the bulkheads. This is from the fan comic Tamerlane.... "she also retained her chemical-propelled military-grade bulkheads which could seal sections of the ship in an emergency". (I would give the time for the bulkheads to close in approx. 1.5 seconds)

I hope this is helpful and useful to you.

Skree

[trynda1701]

As part of the "sealing a deck off" technique, C5 mentioned doors being locked off. This reminded me of when Kevin Riley locked everyone out of Engineering. Scotty had to cut through the WALL to get to the circuitry to reopen the door, and NOT through the door.

So along with Skree listing the FASA entry about the emergency bulkheads, that episode shows another valid security feature to protect Engineering.

Whether ALL doors are as hard to get through is another matter. Probably not.

[selek]

You could also include transporters. Though I don't remember seeing it in TOS, I expect teleporting intruders out of the corridor and into a transporter room (site to site transport did not work very well IIRC) facing an army of redshirts could be an effective way to neutralise or at least contain them.

Site-to-site transport was only used ONCE in TOS (IIRC), and was considered extraordinarily dangerous.

That does not mean, however, that it could not or would not be used in a pinch. Except, of course, on Admiral Archer's prize beagle.....

This makes me realise that we never saw in Trek things like automated defense turrets inside a ship. I understand the Federation would not like them much, but they certainly would fit on a Klingon or Romulan vessel. And they would certainly be compliant with the TOS tech level (how hard could it be to couple a sensor with a targeting system and a phaser/disruptor ?).

Yes and no- it all depends upon whether you consider the Animated Series canon.

In Beyond the Farthest Star, an automated defensive phaser turret was in place on the bridge.

I recently ran an off-the-cuff anti-intruder mission (which will eventually by uploaded to BTFF) set aboard an old Excelsior class starship.

The dirty-tricks brigade was out in force.

There are REASONS I'm not allowed to play engineers any more.....

TOS ships lacked the small-area precision forcefields that we see in Next Generation and beyond, but anti-intruder gas systems were in place.

The gravity plating trick is old-hat (though Archer's use of it was the first on-screen). Reversing the gravity is even more fun than just ramping it up. a 3-meter fall, at 4G's is the rough equivalent of falling off of a four-story building in an Earth-normal environment.

Extremes of heat and cold, gravity and pressure differentials, and many other systems can be used as inpromptu anti-intruder defenses against unarmored intruders.

One trick mentioned in the novel Final Frontier (Enterprise's maiden voyage under Robert April and George Samuel Kirk) was to over-pressurize an isolated compartment. Once the hatch opens, the pressure wave is like a small bomb going off.

The next step would be fire suppression systems that displace oxygen, or even venting the section in question to space.

Armored (space-suited) intruders are somewhat more difficult to contain, but it can be done- especially if your engineer is even half awake.

Spacesuits- armored or not- can protect against pressure and temperature extremes, and toxins, many forms radiation, energy, and conventional weapons- but they're not invulnerable, nor is the protection perfect or invulnerable.

Most suits can automagically repair small tears- but shredding the suit (such as by a fragmentation grenade or the placement of a small can or bowl packed with a small explosive charge and then with small bits of metal such as nuts, bolts, bottlecaps, or the like) can do so much "minor" damage as to render the suit unusuable.

A number of compounds readily available aboard a starship- such as plasma coolant- are corrosive or flammable- or both.

Depending upon how much time you have to prepare, upon how much of a mess you're willing to clean up afterwards (and how much damage you're willing to do to your own ship), and upon your inventiveness, a clever crew can make taking control of a ship a costly affair indeed.

As an amusing aside, I was aboard a real life, United States Navy vessel that was boarded by a SEAL team during an exercise. Their mission was to seize the Captain and control of the armory, the bridge, and engineering- effectively taking control of the ship.

It didn't quite work out that way.......


One very, very junior seaman (the kid had been out of bootcamp for three whole weeks) had been asleep when the Captain announced the exercise over the 1MC (the P.A. system), and so didn't realize.....

As he went to the messdeck to get MidRats (basically, a midnight snack before going on watch), he confronted two men dressed head-to-foot in black and carrying machine guns.

Near-frantic, he grabbed an armfull of fire-fighting hose (and the thirty-five pound brass nozzle at the end) and flung it down the passageway at the "intruders".

While these combat-trained, fully-awake SEALs stared at him, our intrepid hero opened the valves, feeding sea-water at a hundred-and-fifty-pounds-per-square-inch through the hose.

Without anybody holding down the nozzle, the hose went wild, thrashing and smashing everything in it's path- including bulkheads, bulletin boards, and two very wet SEALs. By the time the hose was shut off, there was three-inches of water on the deck and two semi-concious, battered, and very bruised SEALs. One had a broken arm, the other had a near-concussion (he was lucky- that nozzle might have fractured his skull with anything other than a glancing blow).

The SEALs managed to seize the armory before the alarm went out- and met the ship's self-defence force with raised guns when they opened the hatch. The SDF team leader slammed the hatch and sent his men forward while he ran aft.

By the time the SEALs got the hatch open and gave chase, the team leader was waiting at the next hatch aft- flipped them "the bird", and ran. The SEALs followed him- right into a Marine berthing area.......

The SEALs sent into Engineering burst in waving guns and screaming- and demanding to know where the Chief Engineer was. The Chief of the Watch pointed into a small area off to the side of engineering. The SEALs charged in and found themselves trapped in an escape trunk. While the Machinist Mate of the Watch scampered to secure (lock down) the far end, the chief calmly barred the door trapping the two SEALs inside.

One of SEALs pointed out that they were armed with hand grenades and machine guns- and they "could shoot thier way out". The Chief replied, "Go ahead. You're surrounded on three sides by six inch diameter lines carrying live steam at seven-hundred-and-fifty degrees and six hundred pounds per square inch. Please...rupture one of those steam lines. I dare you."

.....NEVER underestimate the ingenuity of a well-trained crew and a bunch of bored Marines in defending what is their own......

[Aldaron]

I hope the junior guy got a commendation of some kind.

He obviously picked up a Renown point!

[Cut]

I agree with C5.

Adjusting a section of gravity plating was a stroke of genius by Archer, never used onscreen before or after so I wouldn't put that in as standard procedure, not unless the PC would remember Archer's strategy from either history class (Knowledge: History (Starfleet, Human) TN 15) or come up with it themselves (Tactics (Space) TN 20)

Help my out please, as I have seemed to have failed my History check here. In which episode did Archer pull that little grav plating stunt off?

[Calastir]

Help my out please, as I have seemed to have failed my History check here. In which episode did Archer pull that little grav plating stunt off?

In the mirror universe, in 2155, Captain Archer used the Defiant's gravity plating to increase the gravity under the Gorn slavemaster Slar, weighing him down to the ground. (ENT s4e19: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

[The Tatterdemalion King]

In the mirror universe, in 2155, Captain Archer used the Defiant's gravity plating to increase the gravity under the Gorn slavemaster Slar, weighing him down to the ground. (ENT s4e19: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xgY...eature=related

[Cut]

Ah, thanks. I haven't watched the Mirror Universe double parter yet.

Sorry for taking the thread for a minute off topic but could you tell me if is it cross over episode, like in TOS or DS9 where characters from "our" go through the mirror, or is it a pure episode, showing only the MU characters as pratagonists?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Sorry for taking the thread for a minute off topic but could you tell me if is it cross over episode, like in TOS or DS9 where characters from "our" go through the mirror, or is it a pure episode, showing only the MU characters as protagonists?

The latter; there's no actual doubles. But since it's about the Defiant, there's a tie-back to the regular universe, and Evil Archer hallucinates Regular Archer.