These 5 web pages describe a SFB campaign I ran at Penn State, giving full storyline and some 500 SSDs. The campaign will eventually be posted in 5 parts, the first of which is available below.
This is a piracy campaign, where the players run a "party" of starships (each player has 1 ship). Most of the campaign takes place in the 0Xs (standard tech) to 0Xl (late tech) era; around Y160 in SFB. There are individual parts of the campaign that took place in different times and alternate realities, as you will see.
ROMULAN EMPIRE, 4Xe / 01 Jan 2365 / Y259 / Stardate 51996
Play began after Deep Space Nine's 6th season finale, when the combined Federation/Klingon/Romulan force defeated the Dominion forces at the Chin'taka system. (If you are not interested in Next Gen SFB, feel free to skip ahead to the next main section, the bottom of this web page is standard 0X/1X tech stuff).
The Romulans received a distress signal from the Breen, who mention being attacked by the Dominion (at this time, the Breen had not yet joined the Dominion). The Breen also mentioned the attackers were heading for a Romulan base on their north border. A small unified Romulan/Federation/Klingon/Gorn force went to intercept the attackers at the base.
All along, the Romulans were having trouble with Jem'Hadar raiding squadrons along their border, and were slowly teaching the "lesser races" within their borders to defend themselves.
The HiuR-Loo was a Romulan 4X Heavy Scout assigned to one of these tasks. The HiuR-Loo was docked at the Romulan Base above (about to be attacked). Aboard was two commanders from the Barbarian and Hispaniolan militias within the Romulan Empire. In my timeline, all of the races from Module C4 (Fleet Training Centers) are real; most of them are located to the north and east of the ISC and eventually (along with the ISC) join the Romulan Empire. The exception to this is the Frax, which I will deal with in part 4 of this campaign write-up.
The Barbarian and Hispaniolan commanders stepped into the conference room of the HiuR-Loo. Romulan Commander Tan'eer was talking with Fury, a Tholian. Fury was surrounded by a continuous shimmering transporter beam; his environment being beamed into place around him as he moved. Tan'eer was attempting to explain to Fury that the Dominion posed a considerable threat to their people, and that the Tholians should join the Alliance. Fury was watching charts and maps flurry by on a viewscreen with a dull bored expression. Seated and watching was Sub-Commander Vartec, a Veltressai (a race of the former ISC). He had a smirk on his face as he watched his Commander's foolishness. Also in the room was Tlusok, the token Tal-Shiar operative for this vessel. He stood in the back of the room completely silent and expressionless. Fury glanced at the Barbarian and the Hispaniolan, and got a slight glitter in his eye. He said, "In a different reality, the two of you held a vast empire."
A communication notice sounded, and Fury suddenly declared, "Gentlemen, everything I have seen today I have seen previously. The Tholians are not interested in war, only to be left alone. The Tholians will not break their non-aggression pact with the Dominion." With that, Fury disappeared into a swirling red whirlwind. Accessing a panel on the wall, Vartec announced the Tholian Courier ship previously docked to the HiuR-Loo had just left at warp 9.94.
Tlusok suddenly rushed across the room past the Hispaniolan and the Barbarian.
Tan'eer yelled after him, "Where are you going?". Tlusok half-turned, and said,
"Isn't it obvious? We are about to be attacked."
Expecting to see a grouping of Jem'Hadar fighters, imagine the HiuR-Loo and the arriving fleet's surprise when TWO Borg Cubes attacked!
[Old SSD converted to new style] Borg Cube
The Borg Cube is huge; it's 5 sheets wide by 5 sheets high. The following table will let you assemble it.
Print and assemble the pieces in the positions shown.
Note that several pieces are re-used.
If you want the entire Borg Cube as 1 file, Here it is but be warned it's quite large (over 1 Meg).
Here's the second Borg Cube (uses SuperBoxes so it fits on one page, and is a bit smaller than a regular cube):
Soon after the Borg Cubes arrived, three more local ships arrived to help deal with the menace:
The combined fleet destroyed one cube, but the only ships remaining was the Fed Barracuda, the Klingon 3X B-10, and the Romulan HiuR-Loo Scout.
When the second cube destroyed the base, the last three ships disengaged.
The HiuR-Loo, with its scouting abilities, detected TransWarp signatures to the north of Romulan space, and the three ships went to investigate.
They found the Dominion Battleship and a Fighter that was supposedly attacking Breen space, but they were horrified to discover the ships had been assimilated!
The Breen had a Ketrecel White facility nearby which was also building some Jem'Hadar fighters; the facility was also assimilated into constructing yet a third incomplete cube.
A strange temporal field suddenly appeared nearby, and Vartec ordered the ship into it. The Borg fired again, and the HiuR-Loo was crippled as it coasted through the field...
DEEP SPACE (Map square J-32), 0Xs / 01 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2935
The only people still conscious aboard the HiuR-Loo's bridge was the Barbarian and Hispaniolan. Looking at a display, the Hispaniolan could see they had stayed in the same location, but had travelled exactly 100 years into the past. There were 9 ships a few dozen hexes away, all at WS-0, apparently having some sort of meeting (based on the communications traffic). There were CA's from the Deltan, Hispaniolan, Can'adien, Britanian, Qari, Flivver, Triaxian, Barbarian, and Sharkhunter empires; exactly one ship for each race. In order to keep the ships similar in power level, I provided 1 Tournament ship for each:
Additional units for C4 races:
The computer core pod from the HiuR-Loo ejected (as per Tlusok's orders), and sped off at high speed towards Romulus (in this time). Several other escape pods also jettisoned and sped off in various directions. The HiuR-Loo was still in the temporal field, its remaining shields having been disabled. The 9 local ships had by this time closed the range and was at WS-III.
The Hispaniolan was beamed to the Hispaniolan ship's bridge. The Captain of the ship approached him, and said, "We detected one of our kind on the ship, so we beamed you aboard. Your uniform and that Romulan ship are unfamiliar to us. What is going on?" The Hispaniolan looked around, and said, "I have apparently travelled through time." The Captain considered this, then ordered 2 security officers to watch over the Hispaniolan.
At the same time, the Barbarian was beamed to the Barbarian ship's bridge. The Barbarian captain said, "I am Growf, Slayer of the ISC / Voyager to the Omega Sector / Dined caviar with the World-Fleet / Traded secrets with the Sunfire Khanate. Who are you?" This was typical of a Barbarian greeting, the number of bogus "attachments" you put to the end of your name signified your importance. These "attachments" became more outrageous as time progressed, and the Future Barbarian had a whopper of a title. The Barbarian said, "I have no name (as the players had not named their characters!), Outbid the Ferengi / Outsleazed the Cardassians / Outspoke the Tamarians / Played building blocks with Borg Cubes / Shook hands with an Andromedan / Looked at myself in the Mirror Universe / Has a Species 8472 as a Cleaning Lady / Q, the Masters, and the Prophets are in my Bridge partners / even have a Veron-T Disruptor and a Hand Photon as personal weaponry." The Barbarian captain bowed down, and said, "Master! You are the new commander of this ship! What's a Species 8472, anyway?" The Barbarian brushed him aside and said, "Never mind."
A Borg/Jem'Hadar Alpha Quadrant fighter emerged from the temporal field, and appeared low on power and unshielded. Several of the ships sent communications to it, asking if it need assistance. The Barbarian ship opened fire, and when the Borg/Jem'Hadar destroyed both the Qari and the Sharkhunter ships, the others joined in. Without shields, and being at short range, the fighter was destroyed by the combined alpha strikes of the 0Xs tech ships. During the combat the Hispaniolan Captain was killed, and the future Hispaniolan took over command.
Suddenly another object appeared in the field and rammed the HiuR-Loo, destroying it. The Barbarian and Hispaniolan thought it might be another member of the Borg/Jem'Hadar squadron, but a strange power signature was eminating from the object before it was destroyed. The field then closed as quickly as it had appeared.
The Hispaniolan and Barbarian ships immediately took off at high warp, trying to catch up with the computer core pod from the HiuR-Loo. If the Romulans were to receive that pod, it would alter history in the Romulans favor (something the Hispaniolan and Barbarian did not relish). They eventually caught up with the pod, and examined it. Most of the pod's sensitive information was encrypted using Borg encryption codes, something the Tal-Shiar enjoyed using. The history database was still intact, and they were able to retrieve a map for this time.
On this map, 1 square = 100 light years. The races are in generally the correct places, but I adjusted it somewhat to allow for a lot of new races to be added. The table below shows the travel times at various warp speeds. It also lists how many warp boxes at each warp factor you need to travel those speeds. The warp factors are old (non-Next Gen) scale.
| Speed: | Warp 1 | Warp 2 | Warp 3 | Warp 4 | Warp 5 | Warp 6 | Warp 7 | Warp 8 | Warp 9 | Warp 10 | |
| Time /square: | 1 year | 45 days | 14 days | 6 days | 3 days | 1.5 days | 1 day | 18 hours | 12 hours | 8 hours | |
| 0Xs boxes: | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 22 | 35 | 52 | 73 | 100 | |
| 0Xl boxes: | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 18 | 28 | 42 | 59 | 80 | |
| 1X boxes: | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 15 | 23 | 35 | 49 | 67 |
Note that due to time-space compression and other technobabble, Warp 1 is effectively faster than the speed of light. I also had fuel rules: each Hull box on your ship carries 10 fuel units. Each Cargo box can be filled with 50 fuel units. To move 1 square at Warp N requires N fuel units. You can exceed your maximum warp rating by 1, which requires you to spend 10*N fuel units per square. You can exceed your maximum warp rating by 2, which requires you to spend 100*N fuel units per square. For example, a Fed CA (which is 0Xs with 30 warp) can move 1 square at Warp 6 for 6 fuel, at Warp 7 for 70 fuel, or at Warp 8 for 800 fuel (if it could hold that much). Each fuel unit costs 1/10th of a BPV point.
As the players adventured, they on occasion captured and modified a ship. To assist in this, I wrote (I believe) the largest systems list ever made for SFB. It has over 900 systems, giving Tech Level, # of spaces, BPV, Repair Cost, and inventing race for each system.
UPF SPACE (Map square L-33), 0Xs / 04 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2939
The party left the other minor races behind, and decided to attempt a bit of piracy on a race called the UPF. The UPF are one of the empires in the game Star Frontiers. They do not have shield or transporter technology. Instead they use huge plates of armor to absorb damage. They also have screens which provide some minor ECM benefits. Proton and Electron Screens provide 4 ECM vs. phaser weapons. Masking Screens provide 2 ECM vs. all weapons. Stasis Screens provide 3 ECM vs. torpedo weapons and 1 ECM vs. drone weapons. All of the screens cost 1 energy to use and are used up after 1 turn. Multiple screens can be raised at once, and the ECM can be countered normally by ECCM. They also use Grapples instead of tractors; these act as range 0 tractors which cost no energy to use and have a strength of 1.
A passenger on the Hispaniolan ship strolled onto the bridge. She was an El-Aurian, a member of the same race as Guinan of the USS Enterprise. She introduced herself as Breivan, who was working with the minor races in this area to come to some sort of peaceful arrangement. She also explained that the El-Aurians were concerned with a sudden hostile 'feeling' coming from the direction of the ISC. She was not very happy with the Hispaniolan and Barbarian's plans to raid the UPF for no reason. The Hispaniolan offered her a shuttle to leave, but she refused, saying she was familiar with a certain time-travelling friend of theirs. The Hispaniolan asked who this person was and were they responsible for the temporal anomoly, and she said they would meet the person for the first time in a few months and that he was not responsible for the anomoly.
The party approached the UPF's space, and detected a convoy at long range. Breivan left the Hispaniolan bridge to sit in her quarters, preferring not to see what would happen next.
The convoy was moving at high speed due to the Propel-based technology. Propel is a variant type of Warp. A ship moving at speed 20 with Propel would continue to move at speed 20 (at no energy cost) until it used Propel to speed up or slow down. Thus, if it allocated energy for 16 movements, it could accelerate to 36 or decelerate to 4. Ships with Propel cannot Emer Decel, HET, or use mid-turn speed changes, and are often in trouble if at high speed with all of it's Propel boxes destroyed. The convoy slowed down to a reasonable speed when they noticed the two ships approaching.
The Hispaniolan and Barbarian ships took heavy damage, but were able to capture or destroy every ship in the convoy. The lack of shields made boarding actions quite simple. Unfortunately, the UPF Destroyer was able to send a distress signal and a UPF task force soon appeared at long range.
The Hispaniolan and Barbarian were forced to leave all of the surviving ships except the Frigate. They did manage to attach two of the cargo pods and a lot of the cargo to the Frigate's Grapples. They successfully avoided the UPF task force when the ISC stopped to examine the left-behind ships. The party sped off towards Hispaniolan space to get repairs done.
By the way, if anyone's curious, the main enemies of the UPF are an evil worm-like race called the Sathar. Here's a Sathar ship to give you an idea:
The Sathar have a system called "SD". Each can act as an APR or add the ship's explosion strength to it's normal explosion strength. This ship could have 5x the normal explosion strength if all SDs were in the latter mode. The mode may be changed during Energy Allocation.
HISPANIOLAN SPACE (Map square J-31), 0Xs / 07 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2944
Having avoided the UPF's wrath, the party entered Hispaniolan space. Their computers had been studying the data obtained on the anomoly that originally brought them here. It was a phasing subspace distortion that recurred every 30 days. The party predicted the anomoly would reappear on 30 Jan 2265 in Map square H-18, the coreward border of the Federation. If the party travelled into the anomoly, they would reappear 10 years later from now, a slight improvement towards getting back to their own time.
It was about this time that Q appeared on the Barbarian's bridge. The Barbarian was furious, suddenly convinced that Q was behind all of this. Q was quick to respond: "Why does everyone blame me? I am not the troublemaker here." The Barbarian said, "Yeah right, Q, your reputation is well known." Q replied, "Well, believe my motives or not, I am here to tell you that nothing you do will affect the timeline permanently." The Hispaniolan summoned Breivan to the bridge, and asked Breivan if this was true. Breivan reluctantly agreed with Q, saying that time has a way of repairing itself.
The party discussed their options and decided to not try for the anomoly. After all, the anomoly will reappear in another 30 days after that, and its location can be calculated with a week's calculation. They decided to continue their piracy, after all, with the knowledge they had, they should do quite well. Breivan said the party would always find themselves always in front of the anomoly when it appeared, whether or not they looked for it. The party could not see how this could be true, so they ignored Breivan's prediction.
The Hispaniolans welcomed the party, and officially gave the Hispaniolan free use of his ship, as long as the technology was shared with the Hispaniolan Empire. The party docked to a small Hispaniolan base (called "Port ES-7" by their people), and modified their three ships using the money from the sold cargo. The UPF Frigate was given some "normal" technology (except shielding, which didn't seem to work well with the Propel) as well as non-UPF crew, and the Barbarian fabricated and put UPF Laser Cannons in some of it's Option Mounts. The party had been very impressed with the range advantage the LC had over normal weaponry, and at the time of running the campaign, I mistakingly made the LC a 1 space weapon. This made the weapon far too good of a deal to pass up. The Hispaniolan "tunnel bay-ed" his weapons (an experimental Hispaniolan refit), making the weapons on the sides L+R instead of L or R. This gave him the ability to fire all of his weapons to one side of the ship, doubling his alpha strike.
After spending a day in Hispaniolan space, and convinced their three ships could beat even a mid-sized fleet of ships, they decided to raid Hoshan space next.
HOSHAN EMPIRE (Map square L-31), 0Xs / 10 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2948
The Hoshans (and the Zeator) appear in the Star Trek novel "Chains of Attack". They use very small ships with primitive "Early" (Y0.0) technology. The Hoshans and the Zeator have been sending ships to this galaxy through a space teleporter that the USS Enterprise found. Since that first contact, they have made some improvements, but are still behind the main galactic races. The Hoshans and Zeator are at war, and they go to extreme measures to destroy each other. Recently a third race from their galaxy called the Xarians (also known as the "Destroyers") have appeared. The Xarians are high-tech (1X and better) and have developed wide angle, proximity, and spherical Mauler systems (I will present the Xarians someday when I have time; I have perhaps 50 SSDs for each of these 3 races on my old computer which can't upload).
The party found the Hoshan's transmissions easy to translate once they realized how compressed it was (a Hoshan paragraph lasts only a microsecond in transmission). They discovered that a Hoshan fleet was moving from the south-west corner of Hoshan space towards the north. The party roared in pursuit, and quickly caught up with the Warp 3 fleet.
Ships in the Star Trek universe do not fight while "in warp" because shields cannot be raised. Even in the Next Generation, shielding is not very effective at high warp speeds. If the two units are moving in the same direction at near equal warp factors (such as when 1 ship is chasing another), then shields operate normally. Generally a fleet will exit being "in warp" when a combat is expected to avoid excessive internal damage.
Combat occured, and the two freighters and the Feh-Bleah were captured. Even though no pursuit was evident, the party took off towards Deltan space quickly.
DELTAN SPACE (Map square J-30), 0Xs / 13 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2953
The party arrived at a Deltan starbase, and sold the two freighters. They modified the Hoshan Feh-Bleah for their use. Unfortunately the rooms and quarters were quite cramped, so they had to compelety redesign and redecorate the interior. The party got a lot of money by selling the Hoshan freighters' cargo, which contained a lot of ground tanks and planetary bombardment weaponry.
After a day or so, the party was given word that a Hispaniolan base called "Port ES-7" was destroyed by a combined UPF and Hoshan force. They were apparently looking for some ships who had invaded their systems, and believed they were at that base recently.
The party decided to leave this region of space, and asked the Deltans if they knew of any races hiring any "private help" lately. The Deltans had heard the Gorns had recently discovered a large grouping of Paravians who had escaped the original Gorn-Paravian war. The Gorns were hiring extra ships to deal with them, since they could not afford to send a large fleet with the Romulan threat on the opposite border.
GLOID EMPIRE (Map square K-28), 0Xs / 16 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2957
The party encountered a Gloid Transgalactic Offender and a small freighter on the border of Gloid space. The Gloids are a "Micro Machine" race. "Micro Machines" is a series of really cool miniatures that Galoob puts out, you may have seen the ones for Star Trek and Star Wars. They also made a bunch of "alien" ships, which I decided to make into minor races for SFB. There is very little information on their technology, so I made most of it up. The Gloids physically appear as giant skeletons with only a little flesh attached to it. Apparently a virus or disease infested their race, and they transformed into a different form of life (or unlife as the case may be).
The Gloids and most of the other Micro Machine races use "Early" (Y0.0) technology. For example, they only have SemiWarp (SWARP). SemiWarp works exactly like Warp in combat, except ships with SemiWarp move before ships with Warp (a disadvantage), and SemiWarp units cannot "go into warp". SemiWarp units thus are usually limited to a maximum speed of around Warp 3 (speed 27 in SFB).
The Gloids were surprisingly friendly, and offered to give the party safe passage through their space and refuel them, in exchange for a small technology transfer. The party docked at a Gloid base, and received ABR technology. ABRs act as APRs, except they each also include a 1 point battery. Burning the battery does not harm the APR function of the ABR. The party did not want a minor race to have full Warp, so they gave the Gloids other minor systems instead.
JUST OUTSIDE GORN CONFEDERATION (Map square I-24), 0Xs / 21 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2965
The party approached Gorn space, and noticed a large group of ships at the extent of their scanner range (1000 hexes). When they closed to 800 hexes, the 6 units suddenly disappeared from their scanners. The party presumed (correctly) the units were cloaked Romulans spying on Gorn space. The party continued on their way and ignored the Romulans.
Three Gorn ships approached the party, who explained their intentions to join the attack on the Paravians, if the pay was right. The Gorns said the were having trouble getting their government to fund this war; as last time it led to the death of several billion Paravians when their sun went nova and they could not save their people. These Paravians are much nastier than the previous ones, and are determined to destroy the Gorns whenever possible. They seem to have a new secret home world north of known Gorn space, somewhere in squares K-24 or L-24. The new home world must have an incredible production facility, as the Paravians are able to construct several dozen new cruisers every 3 month period.
The Gorns offered payment of 10% BPV value of each Paravian ship destroyed, plus refits and fuel at their bases. The party agreed, and were sent to the front lines.
PARAVIAN SPACE (Map square K-24), 0Xs / 23 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2968
There was a network of Mobile Bases, FRDs, and support ships in Square J-23, leading from Gorn space to Paravian space. Here Gorn ships repaired and refueled, waiting for reports from the scouts as to where the Paravians were moving. Groups of 3 to 20 Gorn ships would take off in various directions to the north and east of this square to intercept one Paravian group or another. A report of a small Paravian military convoy was submitted, and the party was assigned to destroy it.
The Paravians were surprisingly vicious, and did not seem to mind sacrificing themselves for any gain possible. They used a weak form of Engine Doubling that works as follows: Each cargo box on Paravian ships are filled with 50 units of fuel. An engine may be "doubled" to produce 1.5 times its normal power by burning 1 fuel unit per box from the cargo. This can be done once a turn per engine. Thus, a 10 box warp engine could produce 15 energy by burning 10 fuel units from the Cargo. Paravian Engine Doubling does not destroy any boxes and cannot be combined with Orion Engine Doubling. It does not work on Auxiliary Reactors. If a Cargo box with fuel in it is destroyed, a six-sided die is rolled and multiplied by 10. If the result is less than the number of fuel units in the Cargo box, the ship suffers another six-sided die worth of damage from the fuel exploding.
The battle did not go well for the party, and they were lucky to survive. The UPF and Hoshan ships took heavy damage, but were able to be repaired. The Paravian LTT was captured, and was modified, recrewed (mostly with Gorn Marines who detested the bird perches all over), and added to the party. The pay was very good, though, and the party went on another raid 2 days later with the Gorn Plasma cruiser (above) supporting them.
Not in fight but new Paravian units:
This battle was more desperate than the last one, and the Gorn was destroyed as it exploded in the middle of the Paravian ships. Every ship in the party was heavily damaged. The PF was captured and put into a Mech link on the Barbarian. Just as the party was cleaning up and preparing to leave, a nearby Gorn force reported another Paravian coming towards the party. It was unlike any other Paravian ship ever seen, and was moving at very high speeds (Warp 9 or better). It had already destroyed several Gorn units on its own, and seems to have originated from the new Paravian home world, which the Gorns had just located in the Minos system. The strange ship quickly caught the already crippled party.
"Regen" is Damage Control which can only be used on Shields. "Intel" is a form of Lab used for strategic planning. The ship the party saw was equipped with Ph-5's, Drn-CX's, and Pulse Quantum Wave Torpedoes. It was also equipped with 2-point TransWarp and an Energy Sheath, which made it difficult to detect at far range. The ship was completely robot controlled, and was receiving a continuous subspace signal.
The party already had 1 or 2 Special Communications boxes in their fleet; used to spy on races they planned to raid later. Instead of fighting the Echo Papa, they tried to evade it for a turn, while they tried to jam the signal it was receiving. They did notice that the Echo Papa was ignoring their Paravian LTT, even though it was obviously a captured ship. They succeeded in jamming the signal, which they translated as "destroy all non-Paravians" repeated over and over. The Echo Papa immediately stopped and hovered in space, apparently awaiting new orders. The party could not see how they could keep the Echo Papa, as they could not keep the jamming up for much longer. Instead, they gave it a new order: "destroy itself". The Echo Papa immediately destroyed itself, actually directing weapons at its own hull.
The party left quickly after hearing the Gorns had discovered other Echo Papa units coming from Minos. When they got back to the Gorn support line, they told the Gorns how to defeat the Echo Papas. Impressed, the Gorns payed them handsomely and offered them more ships if they would assist in the eventual attack on Minos itself. To aid in this, the Gorns were constructing perhaps the largest ship ever seen in known space: a Battleship, even bigger than the newly constructed Klingon B-10.
The party was amused by its design, as they were expecting a "wider" version like the conjectural Gorn BB in Module R5. The Gorns said they would never build a BB like that, instead it made more sense to install another center section to a DN. The Gorns were having trouble building the large engine nacelles, but reasoned that even if they failed, they could mount four 16 box engines on it instead (two on each of the two rear saucers).
Yes, the Gorns had big plans for the party, and were very enthusiastic about all the big battles they could get into, given the party's knowledge. The Echo Papa Starbase facilities at Minos must be heavily protected, for example. Of course the party was liking this attitude less and less, and decided to leave this area before the situation got any worse for them. They requested free passage through Gorn space, and the Gorns (after a fit of disappointment with the party) agreed.
GORN CONFEDERATION (Map square I-22), 0Xs / 27 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2974
The party headed south towards Romulan space. One thing they needed to make their piracy job easier was Cloaking Devices. The Orions had them, but at this time there wasn't enough Orion ships equipped with cloak to make finding one easy. Besides, the Orion Syndicate was something not to toy with, as they had operatives in almost every empire. The Bolaar also had them, but they were on the other side of the Alpha Quadrant. This left the Romulans, and the party were perfectly happy to cause their ruling race in the future a little grief.
Deep in Gorn space, a security alarm went off on the Hispaniolan ship. Apparently someone accessed the Tal-Shiar computer pod from the HiuR-Loo, and transmitted a file into subspace. The party decided to spend all their computer resources trying to break the encryption, which they did 2 days later.
ROMULAN EMPIRE (Map square G-22), 0Xs / 29 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2977
The players were entering Romulan space as they broke the encryption on the file that was copied. No one at this time should have been able to read the file, at it used codes from the Next Gen era, but the party was still curious. They were surprised to see what they found.
Tal-Shiar Data Module 3487-3F7: Concerning Slip-Stream Technology. The Federation is currently experimenting with Slip-Stream Drive, an alternate form of faster than light travel other than Warp. Since our alliance with the Federation to force the Dominion out of the Alpha Quadrant, the Federation has been willing to share this data so possibly the Romulan Empire could perfect it (or possibly the Klingons, but that outcome seems unlikely). A Slip-Stream is a large "rift" or "wave" in space that carries objects in it at very high velocities, similar to how the Nr'ran'een Sheet-Bird on Romulus carries it's young. There are 2 problems: controlling the size of the Stream (the first time the Federation did it the Slip-Stream grew huge and had to be destroyed with Photon Torpedoes), and making sure objects in the stream do not get ejected (as this causes a great deal of damage). If Slip-Stream technology is perfected, it could mean a shift in the balance of the war. [At this point a huge mass of technical data scrolled by, and the report ended.]
Puzzled by which file was stolen, the party continued, and detected a Romulan convoy at long range. They had just sent out a transmission: "Tlusok, the back-up convoy is on route, estimated 6 hours until arrival". Tlusok was the Tal-Shiar operative from the HiuR-Loo! The party roared to intercept the convoy to possibly get some answers.
The battle was a little bloody, but the party prevailed. A small ship was watching the fight at a range of 900 hexes, and sped off at high warp when the party started to approach it. It seemed to be going the direction the convoy was heading, so the party followed.
ROMULAN EMPIRE (Map square G-23), 0Xs / 30 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2978
The party detected a small base and a Romulan ship. The ship was powering up an unusual energy source, which appeared to be a prototype Slip-Stream Drive.
SFB Data on Slip-Stream Drive: Falls between VWARP and HWARP for initiative purposes. Slip-Stream field is formed (which covers the entire hex of the generting unit) with 1 Slip-Stream energy. Each turn, the field loses 1 energy during Damage Control. You may add energy to a Slip-Stream during Energy Allocation. Speed of Slip-Stream is Warp Factor = (Energy in Stream)/10. Thus a Slip-Stream with 60 energy moves at Warp 6. Maximum Warp Factor = (Number of Slip-Stream boxes)*3. Thus, the Slip-Stream cruiser above can eventually work up to Warp 36 (old scale; SFB speed 46656) if it keeps allocating energy to the stream. Ships in the Slip-Stream can raise shields, arm weapons, cloak, and otherwise act as normal. All units in the Slip-Stream move with it, the generating ship having control. A ship cannot exit the stream unless it "goes into warp" and its speed is greater than the Slip-Stream's; at which point the ship suffers X damage (where X is the energy in the Slip-Stream) and must make a number of breakdown rolls equal to the Warp Factor of the Slip-Stream. Thus, if a ship broke away from an energy 60 Slip-Stream, it would take 60 damage and would have to make 6 breakdown rolls. Ships breaking down from leaving a Slip-Stream may tumble (as per normal HET). The Slip-Stream may be damaged by Anti-Matter (such as in Photon Torpedoes), each 100 damage causes a loss of 1 Warp Factor (the energy of the Slip-Stream is not reduced). If the Warp Factor of the stream becomes 0 or less, the Slip-Stream explodes, ejecting all units with damage and breakdown as above. BPV 100 (5X only), Repair Cost 20, 1 space, hit on "WARP".
The Slip-Stream cruiser started moving slowly, and Tlusok sent a message to the party. "Hello, good friends! You neglected to check the other escape pods from the HiuR-Loo, but then again, I guess you were busy at the time. I hope you like this little toy I've been working on for the last few weeks. I had to 'borrow' a little bit of information from you a few days ago to finish it, though."
The party armed weapons and jumped into the Slip-Stream, which had just worked up to Warp 5. Tlusok said, "Now wait, I did not give the Romulans this technology. They have been very helpful under the mistaken impression that I would give them my knowledge when we are done. I have no intention to do that." The party said, "Then what are you trying to accomplish?" Tlusok said, "Saving the Alpha Quadrant from destruction!"
The Slip-Stream was now moving at Warp 10, and the Romulan Empire was being left behind, the ship moving towards the Federation. Tlusok said, "After I escaped the HiuR-Loo and got back to Romulan space I have been studying that little temporal anomoly we came through. I have determined the anomoly will reappear in a few hours at Map square H-19, in the Federation. At that time, another HiuR-Loo will appear, and another Borg/Jem'Hadar fighter." The party said, "What?!"
Tlusok explained, "The anomoly 'splits' into many pieces; each piece landing in our reality every 30 days. The only way to contain the disruption is to expose it to a static warp shell. The only way to seal it permanently is to use a Slip-Stream drive, which I have constructed. This of course assumes the original cause of the anomoly cannot be found, which is something I have no clue how to even begin looking for. We must have the Slip-Stream ship at the proper location as soon as the anomoly reappears, before the Borg/Jem'Hadar Fighter emerges. If it appears, the Fighter will certainly seek out the main collective, and alert the Borg to our presence decades before they should know."
At that time, an alarm klaxon sounded on the Slip-Stream Cruiser bridge. A message was received: "Romulan Cruiser, this is Federation Outpost 23. Your high speed towards our space and your location in the Neutral Zone is an act of war. Turn back immediately or be destroyed." The Romulan Helmsman turned towards Tlusok, and exclaimed, "Sir, Federation Task Force on intercept!" Tlusok looked at the party in the viewscreen and said, "Help me, and we can save the entire Alpha Quadrant."
The party had a quick conference and decided to help Tlusok, but decided he must eventually be killed, as he is far too dangerous to leave around and cannot be trusted in any case. The Hispaniolan called Federation Outpost 23, and said, "I wish to speak with Section 31." The Federation Commander looked at him blankly, and said, "Why? Who is Section 31?" The Hispaniolan grinned, and said, "Just get them. They are a minor branch of Federation Headquarters." The viewscreen went blank, and a blond human woman appeared on it. "Accounting, Section 31, Nikita speaking. How many I help you?" The Hispaniolan rose out of his chair, and said, "I am a member of the Romulan Empire from 100 years in the future. In that time we are allies. We need to close a temporal anomoly in your area. I can prove that I am from the future. I know of the Guardian of Forever, the fate of Christopher Pike at Talos IV, and how you plan to use the Enterprise to steal a Romulan cloaking device. None of these events I will interfere with; I simply want to resolve this matter and leave the rest alone." Nikita blankly looked back, and said, "I believe you have the wrong department. Your message has been recorded and will be given to the appropriate department. Good evening." The viewscreen once again turned blank.
Just as the Federation fleet was about to meet Tlusok and the party head-on, they suddenly disengaged. A message was received: "Romulan & Alien Fleet, this is Federation Outpost 23. You have been granted clearance to a specific location on the outskirts of our space. Due to your high speed, our previous fleet will not be your escort. Another group of ships will observe at the agreed location."
FEDERATION (Map square H-19), 0Xs / 31 Jan 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2980
The Slip-Stream Cruiser and the party arrived at the specified location about an hour early, so they drove in a huge circle around it as they gave instructions to a small group of ships the Federation had thrown together. The small Federation fleet was led by Commodore Decker in the Constellation, which I'll present as a variant Tournament Cruiser (replaces 2 Ph-3 with 1 Drn-G). There was also a 'Battle Battle Frigate', which is a SFB Captain's Edition FFB with a SFB Commander's Edition FFB rear hull. The Federation ships layed a minefield around the location, in case things did not go as planned.
Everyone was surprised when a trio of First Federation ships left their nearby space to observe what was going on. First Federation ships have only 1 crew unit each (actually only 1 person); their crew is protected by "Crew Unit Armor", which absorbs Crew damage. Their shuttles are completely autonomous; having no crew and no weaponry. Besides having shields, First Federation ships can generate a sensor and visual effect called a "Visual Glamer". This makes the ship appear to be much larger than it actually is, and makes targetting the "real ship" difficult. The energy cost is listed in parentheses on the SDD, the die shift is in brackets. Both the First Federation ship and his enemies suffer this penalty. The penalty may be countered by Special Sensors, each Sensor reducing the penalty for 1 ship by 1 for 1 turn. The penalty cannot be countered by ECCM. First Federation ships also have an array of unusual weaponry, shown and described on the SSDs.
The temporal anomoly opened, and the Romulan Slip-Stream Cruiser was there waiting. The Slip-Stream got 'latched' onto the anomoly, and Tlusok transferred the energy from the stream. The HiuR-Loo appeared, and suddenly the Hispaniolan and the Barbarian had the strange feeling of being in 2 places at once: here on their ships, and at the same time on the HiuR-Loo. The HiuR-Loo rammed the Slip-Stream Cruiser, and both ships were critically damaged. The Hispaniolan and Barbarian could feel one of each of their bodies being beamed off the HiuR-Loo onto the awaiting ships 30 days in the past. Tlusok boarded a special PF he had constructed in case things did not go well, and he disappeared into the anomoly.
The anomoly flickered and went out just as the Borg/Jem'Hadar Fighter appeared, once again without shields. This time there were not enough ships immediately around the Fighter to combat it, and the Fighter took off at high warp away from the Alpha Quadrant. The Slip-Stream had collapsed, so the party could not pursue fast enough.
The El-Aurian Breivan stepped onto the Hispaniolan's bridge, and Q appeared on the Barbarian's bridge. They explained the anomoly had been partially fixed; the next time it appeared it would only be a one-way gateway which the party can use to travel 10 years ahead. It would reappear in 30 days, on 01 Mar 2265, in Map square M-13, just north of Lyran space. Q mentioned that once again it is certain the party will find themselves there on that date. The party expressed their concerns about the Borg/Jem'Hadar Fighter on the loose, and Breivan said they should not worry too much about that ship, it could not create an interplexing communication beacon and it will never make it home.
The party bid the Federation and the First Federation farewell, and turned north on the map. They were soon met by a representative of the WYN, who had heard of the party's enterprising nature and wondered if the party wished to join them. The party agreed, as having a safe port in WYN space was a very good thing, and the WYN ship escorted them.
The Borg/Jem'Hadar Fighter fled into the Beta Quadrant and started to follow the alien communications network towards Borg space. The ship was eventually intercepted by the Hirogen and destroyed.
WYN CLUSTER (Map square K-13), 0Xs / 06 Feb 2265 / Y159 / Stardate 2989
The party and the WYN ship approached the WYN cluster. The WYN asked if the party could move at Warp 7 or better, as the radiation gets rather severe if you move slower than that. Hovering nearby was Lyran scout scanning the cluster itself very carefully. The scout was from the Blood Star County, one of the more brutal counties in the Lyran Empire, who also invented the ESG. The party considered attacking the Lyran, but the WYN stopped them. The WYN said, "Don't bother. They've been scanning the cluster for years looking for a way to be immune to the radiation. They'll never find one."
The party and the WYN entered the cluster, and emerged on the other side. The party was breathtaken by the beauty of the Cluster's interior, and at the same time surprised by the huge amount of activity going on. The WYN said, "Welcome home."
***** END OF PART 1 *****
Well, that's part 1 of 5. Probably took me longer to type it in than it took us to actually play it out, but I think it was worth it. I wish official SFB modules took this type of format, a more "AD&D Adventure Module" sort of feel.
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