Bravo Fleet
‘I am detecting unusual subspace fluctuations at the edge of our sensor range.’ T’Ren’s fingers moved rapidly across the panel, recalibrating. ‘Different to what we have observed in the Blackout and considerably more localised.’
‘Should we alert the admiral?’
T’Ren paused. ‘Not yet. It could be a sensor echo, or -’
Her console erupted with alerts, followed immediately by similar alarms from stations across the operations centre. The main viewscreen flickered to life automatically.
‘Major subspace disruption detected!’ Esposito called out. ‘Localised and with an intense gravimetric distortion!’
T’Ren’s hands flew across the console. ‘It appears to be some sort of aperture… matching – impossible.’
‘T’Ren!’
‘Matching records of Underspace apertures.’
A fresh blat from the sensors, and Esposito swore before he fell very silent. ‘Ships,’ he whispered a moment later as new readings swarmed their display. ‘Commander, I’m detecting ships emerging – dozens…’
In March 2402, the Blackout fell upon the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Like a smothering shroud, this subspace phenomenon has shattered the Federation and its neighbouring powers, casting ships, systems, sectors into darkness as they are cut off from each other. Now…
Wait. Let us take another step back. A year ago, Underspace apertures tore open across the galaxy, turning everything we knew about travel and borders, space and time on its head. The process was stopped, but why did it start? This was a mystery seemingly unsolvable. Until now.
In April 2402, amidst the darkest nights of the Blackout, with the Federation smothered by the collapse of communication, Underspace reawakens. Perhaps, for a heartbeat, there is hope. Perhaps Underspace is the answer to the stifling of the Blackout. Then come the ships. Into every isolated, weakened region, cut off from resources and defences, the fleets flood in. Pitiless. Unrecognisable. Only the scientists who are the worst guests at parties have even a gleam of realisation when the fleets identify themselves as the vanguard of the Vaadwaur Supremacy, believed a long-dead empire from the depths of the Delta Quadrant.
It is by their hand that the Blackout has fallen, they claim. Now they are here, in terrifying and advanced ships, harnessing Underspace to slip past the lines of defences and strike where reinforcements cannot reach. From the Core Worlds to the furthest fringes, from the Federation heartlands to the territories of the Cardassian Union, this ancient, fallen empire has reawoken. And now it claims the territories of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant, weakened and isolated, for the glory of the Vaadwaur Supremacy reborn.
It is my pleasure as your Bravo Fleet Intelligence Officer to introduce the 2025 Fleet Action: Nightfall.
Today, the mission briefing for Fleet Action: Nightfall goes live, two weeks ahead of the event launch date. In Nightfall, the Fourth Fleet stands poised to save no merely a region, but the Federation itself from the merciless invasion of the Vaadwaur Supremacy (introduced in VOY: Dragon’s Teeth). Once, the Supremacy ruled vast swathes of the Delta Quadrant, harnessing the power of the subspace network of tunnels known as ‘Underspace’ to traverse vast distances in the blink of an eye, conquering their enemy before they ever knew they were there. They were believed defeated, with only a handful of survivors found by the USS Voyager a quarter-century ago. Somehow, that lone battalion of an empire defeated a thousand years ago is resurgent, with new, advanced ships, countless soldiers, and the capacity and will to restore the fallen Supremacy – not in the Delta Quadrant, as long before, but in territories new, where none so much as whisper their name as a tale to frighten children: the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
They claim they are responsible for the Blackout, which they have used to shatter the Federation’s lines, isolate its mightiest fleets, and expose even its core worlds. Likely they would stand no chance against the combined might of Starfleet, but they do not face the combined might of Starfleet.
The Fourth Fleet, with its galaxy-wide mandate, experience of Underspace, and readiness to deploy into chaotic circumstances at a moment’s notice, is the tip of the spear of Starfleet’s response. Command has found a way to send a message through the Blackout, giving strategic briefings and orders to every ship. Through the harnessing of experimental, rare, or simply inefficient faster-than-light technologies not bound by the Blackout, through their knowledge of Underspace, forces of the Fourth Fleet will race across the galaxy to systems and sectors invaded by the Vaadwaur to repel their fleets and liberate the galaxy. While each crew’s destination and mission is different, the objective remains the same: turn the tide. Save the Federation.
As the 2025 Fleet Action, Nightfall will take place across six weeks, broken into three two-week phases. Every fortnight will see a new swathe of competitions as task forces go head-to-head for glory and victory.
In the accompanying writing campaign, members can tell tales of their ships and squadrons fighting back against the Vaadwaur invasion. You can read the complete mission briefing on BFMS here. As with the 2024 Fleet Action, Labyrinth, Nightfall features a Campaign Table: a storytelling mechanism by which members can randomly roll on a series of tables to flesh out their mission objectives, challenges, and the nature of their enemy. Crucially, the Nightfall Campaign Table also serves as an excellent tool for any writer looking for ideas on how to break down the massive task of depicting the liberation of a whole star system or sector from a brutal enemy, and I advise every writer to give it a look over – you never know what you might find. Unlike Labyrinth, the Nightfall story will not notably change across phases, though updates from the Intelligence Office may offer developments writers might choose to incorporate into their story.
Nightfall introduces a new storytelling mechanism: Areas of Responsibility. The Vaadwaur Supremacy threatens the whole of the known Alpha and Beta Quadrants, which the Blackout has carved into isolated pockets of lone worlds, systems, sectors, or even sector blocks cut off from the rest of the galaxy and, crucially, any reinforcements. Writers are free to assume responsibility for saving systems and sectors they’ve visited before in their stories, including the vicinities of their own member starbases. They may also collaborate in task force regions, uniting to liberate the Deneb Sector Block or the Typhon Frontier. The Area of Responsibility (AOR) system offers new opportunities, however, for members to write stories about saving locations from Trek and fleet canon.
You may have noticed vast updates hitting the wiki for major star systems and locations in the Federation and beyond. Each of these is available as a ‘canon AOR,’ which members may request (on a first-come, first-served basis) as the setting for their story in the Nightfall FA. From Vulcan to Freecloud to Chin’toka, now is the chance to determine the fate and make your mark in Bravo Fleet canon on a major part of the Star Trek setting. The opportunity to request a specific AOR will go live in the coming week; in the meantime, writers are invited to familiarise themselves with the Areas of Responsibility Guide.
This is a huge story; perhaps our most ambitious yet. You have two weeks to familiarise yourselves with the briefing material, two weeks to make plans, to scheme with friends or hit the drawing board alone. Remember that to participate in the Fleet Action Mission is to automatically participate in the Fleet Action’s Ribbon Race competition, where those who write the most will win fortune and glory for their task forces. This is to say: you may talk, you may plan, you may scheme. You are expected to keep your powder dry in actual writing, however. In the spirit of the Fleet Action, where nothing begins until everything begins, members will not post or draft Stories before the Fleet Action start date.
There’s a lot to keep us busy until then. For review, here’s a quick list of links useful to the Fleet Action and its story:
- Launch Story (Night Falls)
- BFMS Mission: Nightfall
- Nightfall Campaign Table
- Areas of Responsibility wiki article
- Vaadwaur Supremacy wiki article
- Blackout wiki article
- Underspace wiki article
- FTL Technology wiki article
Fleet Action: Nightfall launches midnight (server time) on Friday April 4th. Then we determine the fate of the galaxy.
