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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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SynchronizedWritersBlock said:
Even then, many such incidents have passed without a SOE. The bombing of the Amarkian capitol comes to mind. The question I ask myself when considering a SOE is: are dictatorial powers necessary to get us the assets we need to deal with the current threat? Given that the President just told us to give her a list of what we need, I would say that dictatorial powers are not needed, because I cannot come up with assets that we need but cannot acquire without an escalation of circumstances. We need ships. That is the short of it.
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I would like to have the rapid science and diplomatic assets at our disposal, but I suppose we can make do with just ships and a talented commander. However, I'd say that a confirmed deployment of a Licori system-scale superweapon-deliberate use and not a test-absolutely requires a SoE so we can marshal all necessary resources as a countermeasure.
 
ClawClawBite said:
We are planning on doing a lot, we are sending ships, we are asking for member world assistance, we are likely sending some explorers. We are quite likely to have a zero Licori ships in Federation space without a prior negotiated diplomatic permission policy.

What specifically do you want to do that we need an SoE to do?
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Specifically? Crash research into superscientific countermeasures, ala what we did in the Biophage crisis. Our ordinary research procedures are too slow and too general to produce that sort of result, and going without leaves us at the mercy of hoping for really good rolls from our Explorers... and given that this is explicitly a foe that has out-scienced our Explorers, that's a fairly slim reed. We need astrophysicists unravelling the mechanisms of the artificial core collapse with an eye towards figuring out how to stop it from happening in combat time. We need subspace theorists working out better prediction mechanisms for subspace storms, so we have more warning time to evacuate or shield our vulnerable colonies. And there's definitely going to be other weird things going on, so we need interdisciplinary teams of experts seconded to whatever fleets are going after the Licori, so we have more of a chance to stop whatever charming doomsday devices we haven't seen yet.

More generally? Repairs. Our logistics are stretched to the breaking point already, and we're about to get in another fight, which will mean more damage. We need our ships repaired faster, and an SoE is the only mechanism we have for prioritizing repairs higher than we already are.

To be honest, if there was an option on the table to bring extra Science! to the battlefield for Biophage-style crash research projects besides a SoE, I'd be favourably inclined towards that option. But since we don't have such an option, and since an SoE not only meets that need, but also neatly resolves our unfavourable buckets/fires ratio...

Also, given that existing plans seem to have no solid plans for dealing with Licori superscience other than 'hope our Explorers can think of something at that last second' (which they're good at, except against the Licori, based on their track record), I'd really like us to hit that button in advance of us taking a ton of civilian casualties.
 
ThoughtMaster said:
Is this the point where we consider this a too many fires, not enough buckets situation?
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Depending on the dice rolls/QM whim, just remember, it can still get worse.

Even if the Licori situation is resolved within a year or three of the fleets going in, and the GBZ remains at Cold War level sniping, the Romulan/Klingon War has been brewing for over a decade now. Someone is going to take the lid off that sooner or later ...

Meanwhile, The Kadesh/Stargazer journey could awake a terrible foe ... (seriously, we are surrounded by 'peer' powers on three sides, there has to be someone large to the map north, we just haven't met them yet.
 
Goat said:
Meanwhile, The Kadesh/Stargazer journey could awake a terrible foe ... (seriously, we are surrounded by 'peer' powers on three sides, there has to be someone large to the map north, we just haven't met them yet.
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At a guess, the Ferengi, Breen, or Tzenkethi might lie thataways, if not another new species.
 
Blackshard said:
To be honest, if there was an option on the table to bring extra Science! to the battlefield for Biophage-style crash research projects besides a SoE, I'd be favourably inclined towards that option. But since we don't have such an option, and since an SoE not only meets that need, but also neatly resolves our unfavourable buckets/fires ratio...
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Actually, since we're talking with the President about that right now...could we ask her for a massive science drive to preemptively work on Licori mad science countermeasures? There's so much about the SoE we don't need, stuff that's not related to mad science or possibly repairs and diplomacy.
 
Goat said:
seriously, we are surrounded by 'peer' powers on three sides, there has to be someone large to the map north, we just haven't met them yet.
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I would bet actual money on the Ferengi being in that neighborhood. Star Trek cartography remains a total mess, and none of that is canonical in this quest for a good reason... but the Ferengi are canonically in the Alpha Quadrant, and maps usually stick them not far 'north' of the Cardassians, which is not coincidentally in the same general area that the Kadeshi are travelling through.

Edit: Of course, it you're looking for a more worrying power in that area, there's always the Breen.
 
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aeqnai said:
At a guess, the Ferengi, Breen, or Tzenkethi might lie thataways, if not another new species.
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Hmm. Wonder how things will work out once we have expanded our borders until they all end in [X] Border Zone and we are completely surrounded by 'peer' polities and their affiliates.
Development will be happy to build tall, but the Expansion faction will be grumpy. Hawks/Doves - well that depends on who our neighbours wind up being and how well we get along. Merchants will be looking for trade deals.

The Federation tends to grow through Diplomacy, not force of arms, but if Diplomacy isn't working and the Hawks/Expansionists have the numbers in the Council to push things ...
 
Goat said:
Hmm. Wonder how things will work out once we have expanded our borders until they all end in [X] Border Zone and we are completely surrounded by 'peer' polities and their affiliates.
Development will be happy to build tall, but the Expansion faction will be grumpy. Hawks/Doves - well that depends on who our neighbours wind up being and how well we get along. Merchants will be looking for trade deals.

The Federation tends to grow through Diplomacy, not force of arms, but if Diplomacy isn't working and the Hawks/Expansionists have the numbers in the Council to push things ...
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I kind of doubt that would ever happen, if only because it would take away one of the more fun parts of this quest. Being able to explore past our borders is a major part of what we do, so if we ended up completely fenced in that would detract from the quest.
 
If we keep warming things up with the Romulans, I expect that the neutral zone will get cut down in size and we'll be able to absorb the Sotaw without much fuss. That will likely trigger a minor landrush.

That said, close to 50% of the Federation is not bordered by a major power. I have my doubts that we will be fenced in anytime soon. Ferengi/Breen/Tholians or no.
 
Forgothrax said:
If we keep warming things up with the Romulans, I expect that the neutral zone will get cut down in size and we'll be able to absorb the Sotaw without much fuss. That will likely trigger a minor landrush.

That said, close to 50% of the Federation is not bordered by a major power. I have my doubts that we will be fenced in anytime soon. Ferengi/Breen/Tholians or no.
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Ultimately, our ability to expand and secure paths to our affiliates through expansion is still superior to any of our "peer" powers. If things with the Cardassians don't go too badly, I predict we will be exploring past their space within the decade, linking up with the various First Contacts that Maryam and the Stargazer make on their journey with the Kadeshi.
 
We could also wind up with Quest Canon peer powers corewards of us as well.

Who knows what's out there?
 
Light Stuff:


I like @Briefvoice 's original ADVICE vote quite a lot, but think I owe it to everyone to compare the options. I note that chriswriter90 has already endorsed SynchronizedWritersBlock's vote.

chriswriter90 said:
How can you even read that?
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[Puts on a Duke Nukem buzz cut and sunglasses]

I've got brains of steel. :p

Iron Wolf said:
@Leila Hann SIX!! SIX FUCKING!! NACELLES!!

YOU MADWOMAN!!!!!!
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Why are you screaming at the mentat Layla Hahn who designed that ship? She is a nice mentat, who we are almost sure never murdered anyone for science, and does accounting for charities in her occasional five-minute bursts of spare time. :p
 
To clarify a couple things: this declaration of war will bring with it a localised state of emergency involving those member worlds that are called to action. Just as well I'm about to go on a month's leave, since I'll need to adapt some mechanics :p

The President's aims for this is to neutralise the threat of untethered mentats. To this aim, force the capitulation of the Arcadian Empire so that they will accept terms relating to the mentats.
 
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