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You're The Admiral: Sector Beta!


Quinn

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“You’re the Admiral!” is a technology-oriented, partially-guided discussion and role-playing game. Based on the old “What Starship Would You Send?” threads on rec.arts.startrek.tech, participants assume the role of a Rear-Admiral in Starfleet. They are given authority over a sector of space, with orders to demonstrate and enforce Federation policy as best they can. Starting from a map of the sector and an outline describing the planets, inhabitants, and interested governments in the region, the Admiral must assemble a fleet of ships, and then deploy them according to circumstances that develop. It became a great platform for discussions about technology, politics, and even philosophy in

Star Trek.

Sector Beta - Written by Mark Nguyen (2002)

Rebuild the Ulian infrastructure, patronize local anti-technology colonists, and keep abreast of Klingon internal politics. The neighboring Driian Empire is rumored to possess weapons of mass destruction — should you send in weapons inspectors, or launch a massive invasion?

 

beta_map.jpg

 

For Sector Beta, assume that:

  • It is located relatively close to the Klingon border, but off the major Federation supply lines. Somewhere in the Beta Quadrant, coreward side, with the Federation to the “west” and the Klingon Empire to the “east.” In any case, reinforcements from anyone are at least two weeks away.

  • The Black Dwarf system is a proverbial gold mine of ores used for many things, like starship construction, agricultural use, and a variety of precious metals. The supernova that destroyed the system also rendered the ores into a natural semi-refined state, ideal for mining.

  • The Driian Empire is a xenophobic race with no diplomatic ties with anyone. They strictly maintain their borders and for centuries have been concentrating on their three-planet territory alone. This has resulted in the depletion of their own resources, and a population explosion.

  • Ulia is a low-profile Federation member. It has a small, planet-based Starbase, though it’s mostly for administrative purposes — Ulia operates its own facilities to maintain its commercial fleet. For raw materials, they mine the Black Dwarf System, exporting finished materials to the Federation.

  • Dawson’s Planet is home to scattered communities of humans who have pretty much renounced any technology following the vacuum tube. They were placed there centuries ago by an unregistered colony ship which never reported the colony, and disappeared thereafter. In fact, most people had forgotten they were even there until the events that caused the current situation. Still, their priorities are mostly to be left alone. The planet itself is high in natural resources, but in a state which would require much processing to become viable.

  • The Black Dwarf System is neutral territory, and is large enough such that no one race would need to stake out territory in order to ensure the flow of the raw materials from the system. In addition to the forces already mentioned, small mining operations have been known to happen, taking the raw ore to other sectors.

  • This scenario occurs shortly after the end of the Dominion War.

 

The setup of this situation is that the Klingons used to help keep the peace in the sector from the aggressive Driians, with only minor skirmishes happening as the Driians were mining the Black Dwarf system. The Klingons also operated a major communications array (think the Epsilon 9 station, but green) in the sector, and also mined the Black Dwarf system, taking the stuff directly back to the Empire.

 

Following the Klingon War of 2372-3 and the subsequent Dominion War, the Klingons almost abandoned their military presence in the sector in favor of higher-priorities. This left the sector open to aggression from the Driians, who attempted a Blitzkrieg of the sector during the final year of the Dominion War, occupying Dawson’s Planet, the Black Dwarf system and Ulia. They were eventually beaten back to their borders by a combination Klingon/Federation task force (emphasis former) with heavy losses to both sides. The current fleet composition of the Driian Empire is what remains following the hostilities; it used to be three times that much. Also, the Klingon comm station was destroyed, and both Ulia and Dawson’s Planet suffered major casualties and will need to rebuild.

Ulia
  • Population: 2 billion
  • Alignment: Federation (member)
  • Government: Democracy
  • Technology: current
  • Defense: medium-sized commercial fleet - moderate orbital defenses
  • Notes: Low natural resources, large industrial base

 

Black Dwarf System (BDS)
  • Numerous Class-D planetoids
  • Heavy raw materials

 

Dawson’s Planet
  • Population: 500,000
  • Alignment: Neutral
  • Government: No planetary government
  • Technology: pre-industrial
  • Defense: None
  • Notes: Earth-originated non-technological colony, high natural resources

 

Driian Empire
  • Population: 27 billion (total)
  • Alignment: Anti-Federation
  • Government: Dictatorship (expansionist)
  • Technology: 24th century equivalent
  • Defense: Approx. 15 warships (Defiant-class equivalent) - light orbital defenses - medium-sized commercial fleet
  • Notes: Heavy industrial base, low resources
 

Section One

  1. Define what Starfleet’s priorities in this sector should be. Note the political nature of the planets in this sector have not changed, nor of the Klingons. Also, note any gaps in the information provided and where you’d want to focus your intelligence-gathering.
  2. Following the Dominion War, resources are stretched pretty thin, with both the Feds and the Klingons wanting to focus on the rebuilding of more important sectors. However, the Klingons do want to have a more permanent presence in here, and want to build a space-based Starbase equivalent to the one you had back in Sector Alpha (think the ones over Ty’Gokor) containing a new comm station, and to assign one Vor’cha and two B’rels to it. Likewise, Starfleet is assigning you enough resources to either upgrade the Ulian starbase to a larger facility with heavier orbital defences and Starfleet repair facilities, or to build a small outpost-like station somewhere in the sector, smaller than Starbase 375 and with moderate defences and support facilities. Choose which option you’d like to pursue, and recommend where the Klingons should put their station. Justify your answers.
  3. The ship that transported you to Sector Beta from your previous assignment is now part of the fleet you’ll have to use in this sector (a generic Excelsior-class ship). In addition to that ship, recommend to Starfleet what a reasonable number and breakdown of ships should be deployed to this sector to accomplish your goals, and what their primary duties will be. A fleet based on your recommendations will be assigned there after the events of question two. Assume no more than a dozen starships of any kind will be assigned to the sector, and that in addition to this force a number of Federation and Klingon transports will be making regular runs into and out of the sector. At present, in addition to your ship there are a small number of runabouts and auxiliary craft assigned to the Starbase.

 

 

Edited by Quinn
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Okay, the Federation just gone done with a war. What we need to do is rebuild, and for that we need resources. Starfleet should solidify our claims to the BDS, and deny its resources to our enemies.

 

To that end, I would construct our Starbase in the BDS. I would move for the majority of the fleet attached to us to be Defiant-class ships, say eight of them, with four cruisers to back them up; this gives us a mobile, powerful fleet while the cruisers will be our base for large-scale ground operations. We can keep our flag on the Excelsior for now.

I think our intelligence assets should be focused on the Driians first, the Klingons second, and any independent operators (pirates, smugglers) a tertiary concern.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I agree with rebuilding.

 

However, I'm not sure about putting the Starbase into the BDS. The Driians could see it as an act of agression, flaring up open hostilities again. And I don't think we want more war for now.

But, at the same time, there's also the Klingon Base. Do we want them above Ulia or Dawson? Because if not, they'll certainly take the BDS. At that point, perhaps we could co-operate in such a way both hold parts of the BDS, and just have to deal with the Driians.

Intelligence should probably be focused on the Driians first, then the Klingons second, I agree with that. As we don't have much information on Dawson's at the moment, from what I can tell, I'd also like some extra intel about them, but they don't seem to be a high priority at the moment.

For fleet-related issues I abstain, I refer to people with better knowledge on the preferrable fleet composition.

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