Section 31

[Cmdr Corellis]

Is there currently anything that contains Section 31 or is that something that narrators have free reign?


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Never trust Romulans they are too emotional


[This message has been edited by Cmdr Corellis (edited 02-05-2001).]

[Dan Stack]

The First Line has a brief sidebar on Section 31. If I recall, the DS9 Corebook mentions it in passing. Other than that, it is pretty wide open.

As a narrator, I'd be cautious in using them - a little goes a long way...

[Capt.Hunter]

A recent idea of mine for a R,R&R campaign would have had a group of "noble rogues" led by an ex-Starfleet officer who had uncovered a conspiracy by a Starfleet Admiral (actually an S31 operative) and who'd been set up and court-martialled out of the service before he could bring the evidence to light. Eventually, they'd get the chance to work with elements in Starfleet Intel who were working to root out S31, whilst performing black ops for Starfleet (sort of an A-Team type thing I suppose). S31 is great for similar ideas when you need Starfleet to screw over a character and it ordinarily wouldn't due to its high moral standpoint.

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"The more top brass briefings I attend, the more I want to take a phaser to the whole lot of them..."

Captain Matt Hunter, USS Tempest, NCC-81205

[J T]

Here's something I whipped-up/researched. Most of it is my own ideas but it fits everything from the show (and LUG RPG).

Notes-
That Secret Organization that Calhoun (from New Frontiers) use to work for has to be Section 31.
And yes I did rip off a few ideas from "The Avengers".

--SECTION 31--

"You gaze into the abyss, and it gazes back."

"Starfleet Intelligence shall, from time to time and as deemed reasonably prudent and necessary to protect the security and safety of the Federation, conduct both domestic and foreign intelligence and counterintelligence activities"
- Federation Constitution, Article I, Part 4, Chapter 7, Section 31.

Section 31 (Sec 31) is a secretive "Third Branch" of SF Intelligence. It is listed on no table of command and it doesn't report to Admiral Tilamon (Chief of SF Intelligence). It is a covert operations unit that was established under the SF charter (in the UFP Constitution). It is responsible for searching out, identifying and dealing with extraordinary dangers to the UFP. Sec 31 performs the most devious and necessary jobs if SF Intel. Much of its efforts are devoted to spying on UFP citizens. Section 31 agents are allowed to break any of SF General Orders to safeguard the UFP. Their primary opponents are the Romulan Tal Shiar, and the Cardassian Obsidian Order.
Sec 31 has no HQ but they often make use of the Black Building under SF Intelligence’s HQ (see The First Line). Very few people know about Sec 31, and it takes special efforts to hide evidence of its existence or activities. If there is a risk of someone exposing Sec 31 the Agency will make it impossible for that person to report the information. If necessary it terminate the individual.

The Family supervises Sec 31's operations. Its members know all of Section 31's secrets.

Some members of The Family-

Godfather (#1) is the first President of the UFP. He is currently located in the Black Building (see The First Line) and is kept alive by advanced life-support systems. (Officially the first president was assinated right before he stepped down.) Since he never officially handed over the title of presidency to the next president he is still legally the president of the UFP. All other Presidents are technically illegal. His brain serves as a database and coordinator for Section 31 activities. (Secretly he longs for death.)

Three Star Fleet Admiral Nechayev is the current Grandfather (#2) (formally Grandmother. Her official job is supervising border patrol along Cardasian space. She commands the Mobile 16th Fleet from SB 310. The 16th fleet includes the Excelsior class USS Gorkon NCC-40512 (her flagship) and the Sovereign class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E.

Luther Sloan is Father (#6). Expert in biological warfare. He stayed married to his wife (Jessica Sloan) after he joined Sec 31. He headed up the team the designed the biological weapon used against the Founders. Dies in 2375

Mother (#7) is Bolian who is confined to a wheel chair.
Mother travels in a Runabout or a TOS Shuttle. He is assisted by Commander Stone a 6' 5" female Zakdaorn (humanoids with webbed fingers) of few word and dangerous looks.

Calhoun was an on call Agent from 2369 to late 2373. Most of the time he pursued his own activities but occasionally Necheyve would give him missions. While working for Sec 31 he used a small battered freighter.

Jack McNicol was a well-respected, clever and dedicated Agent who worked with Calhoun. He is killed in late 2373 after Calhoun leaves Section 31.

The Professor is head of Section 31's R&D. He has a long face, dark curly hair and the habit of appearing and disappearing whenever your back is turned. He is stationed on SB 310 but goes where Grandfather goes. He is responsible for equipping Agents. Sec 31 also has a series of "Q men" who provide resources for Agents.

Sec 31 receives it's funding through resource allocations within SF Intelligence’s budget. These allocations are usually described as listening post upgrades, and "Black Bag" missions. Federation Council members, who are sympathetic to Sec 31, hide the allocation request in the budget aid this. SF Intel officers insure that the resources reach Sec 31.

All Sec 31 agents have Neural Depolarizes that they can mentally trigger to kill themselves. This is done only when all other options have been expended.

Compressed tetryon beam weapons are undetectable by sensors.

Notes on Calhoun's specially modified freighter:
The vessel is wider than it is tall.
The vessel's computer is voice activated, and can figure out most basic commands. It can hack other computers fairly well.
The command "Execute offensive preprogrammed one" results is the vessel gassing everyone outside the ship. The gas is Cryo-Mist, which temporarily paralyzes its victims.
It is equipped with torpedo counter-measures. A false beacon leads the torps away from the vessel. (This only works for self guided torps)



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Just remember, even though it’s a vacuum,
In space no one can hear you Clean.
-J.T.

[Cmdr Corellis]

Thanks for the help guys but i got a few more questions. What would be some good advantages and disavantages for Section 31 characters? And would they recruit others like enemy agents or Starfleet officers to do their dirty work occaisonaly?

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What do you mean we are in the neutral zone?
This could be bad!!!!!!
--Commander Daniel Correllis, U.S.S. Daytona NCC-1847

[qerlin]

We've had 'em show up for time to time. They would be -- IMO -- really black. Only a small council subcommittee and the Feeration Security Advisor would probably know they ACTUALLY exist. Otherwise, I would figure they've got little exposure and the people that do meet them are told to quiet down about them.

Figure it to be a small group, probably based on Earth in some small corner of Starfleet HQ. Probably they dress in civvies for the most part & don't look very Starfleet-ish. they probably have a catchy name for themselves - like 'Army of Northern California' or som crap. Some kind of in-joke to allow themselves and others in the know to discuss them wihtout ever saying that dreaded number.

I figure their vessels are either heavily upgraded civilian things like the Abraxis, or they use Defiants or some other small vessel to get around (probably cloaked against treaty...)

I wouldn't have 'em come around unless the ship is into something REALLY embarrassing, or it they've been targeted to be cleaned. Otherwise, use the bureaucratic spy-types from FIS and Starfleet Intell...they're much more annoying.

[Aldaron]

Originally posted by Cmdr Corellis:
Thanks for the help guys but i got a few more questions. What would be some good advantages and disavantages for Section 31 characters? And would they recruit others like enemy agents or Starfleet officers to do their dirty work occaisonaly?

Oh, definitely! Don't forget, Sloan recruits Dr Bashir to run several "operations" (in Bashir's defence, he was pretty unwilling most of the time) in several several episodes.

Things like "Dark Secret", "Obligation" and "Deep Cover" would be appropriate to Section 31 characters.

I once played Lt Michael Declin in a Prime Directive campaign a couple of years ago who was a former Section 31 operative. His most "famous" activity was during the Cardie occupation of Bajor. Declin was surgically altered to appear Bajoran and (along with several other agents) dropped on Bajor to train the Bajoran resistance in advanced intelligence and counterintelligence techniques. The way we had it, Starfleet had access to many Cardassian codes, which the Cardies were unaware of (much like the Enigma code during WWII) and they shared these with the Bajorans, allowing them to really do some damage to the Cardies.

The reason? Section 31 suspected that the Obsidian Order was using Bajor as a staging post for covert ops in the Federation, and wanted to put a stop to it. The best way was to oust Cardassia from Bajor - since it wasn't legal to help the Bajorans, they went ahead and did it anyway...

Memorable campaign, that one...(it was also the one where Declin decked a Gorn with one punch and nobody saw it! *sob* )



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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."

[Owen E Oulton]

From on-screen evidence, Section 31 was pretty small, and mostly used non-members to do its dirty work - Dr. Bashir, Adm. Ross, Koval...

Also, it would appear that for a few years after the end of the Dominion War, Section 31 is going to be in a fair bit of turmoil - its public exposure (not everyone is going to be fooled by the charade on Romulus), the revelation of its genocide plot, and the death of Director Sloane. This last is going to be the most serious problem for them. After all, indications are that he played everything very close to his vest. A lot of ongoing operations are going to be disrupted by the loss of the info he kept in his head, and there's likely to be a helluva power struggle within the organisation.