‘The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.’ – Antonio Gramsci

On April 12 2401, the 250th anniversary of the launch of the Enterprise NX-01, Starfleet Command hosts ‘Frontier Day.’ Across the Federation, celebrations will be held cheering on Starfleet’s spirit and mission of exploration, with none more significant than the ceremony at Earth. With ships representing every one of Starfleet’s numerous fleets, the largest gathering of vessels outside of wartime will come together for an impressive demonstration. Crowds will cheer. Admirals will give speeches. The Federation will be uplifted.

It will also be the moment the long-term conspiracy of the renegade Changeling infiltration of Starfleet and the Borg Queen comes to fruition in the brutal events depicted in the final two episodes of Picard Season 3.

It is a key moment in Trek canon. On-screen and behind-the-scenes information confirms that several ships assigned to the Fourth Fleet are present for the dramatic events at Earth. And from July 17th, 2023, Frontier Day will be coming to Bravo Fleet.

Overview

All members who wish to participate in Frontier Day activities are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the events of Picard Season 3, Episodes 9 and 10.

At the climax of the Frontier Day ceremony, Starfleet personnel under the age of 25 change. In one heartbeat, they transform from living, breathing individuals to Borg drones. They have none of the cybernetic implants, but nanites flow through their veins, and their thoughts and very will are subsumed by the Collective. They turn on their crewmates in violence, killing those they find as they march in coordination to seize control of their ships. Then they set about the next part of the Collective’s plan in a blood-chilling return to the galaxy that seems unstoppable.

Ultimately, it is stopped. The heroic former crew of the Enterprise-D band together to stop the Borg signal that activated the nanites. The Borg ship nestled in the atmosphere of Jupiter is destroyed, along with the Queen who orchestrated the attack. Ultimately, a way is found to remove these nanites that lay dormant for weeks, months in these people without their knowledge. But first comes the cost. Countless ships lost. Countless people killed. Countless lives ruined.

There are three locations where members may engage in Frontier Day:

– Earth, where the main ceremony and canonical events take place (especially if your ship was listed as being at the ceremony);
– Avalon Fleet Yards, where many ships of the Fourth Fleet have been berthed for repair after the events of the Lost Fleet Crisis;
– Deep space, or a non-canonical location, where your starship may, alone, try to survive the events.

Members are not obligated to participate in Frontier Day. The nature of the nanite-activating Borg transmission is unclear. Distance from Earth, interference by stellar phenomena, or any other issue may protect your ship as it goes about its journey. You do not need to provide a complicated explanation and may continue freely writing your stories.

Due to the interference of the Paulson Nebula, Starbase Bravo is unaffected by the Frontier Day transmission. OOC, this is to allow the fleet to focus on activity at Avalon Fleet Yards.

Earth

The events at Earth are, again, depicted in Picard Season 3. The Intelligence Office does not encourage members to write stories set at Earth, but some starships are forced by canon to be there. If you want to write this story, you may add a Mission to this fleet-wide Frontier Day Mission and depict the events from your crew’s point of view. Your ship might be a part of the fleet, or your characters could be on Earth or Starbase One.

Please note that every starship other than the USS Titan is either taken over by Borg drones or destroyed. Stories at Earth are not a place for your characters to be heroic, fighting successfully against the Borg drones. They will not assume command of Starbase One or push back the tide. Trying to hold or retake the bridge or engineering, for instance, will result in defeat. ‘Defeat’ means running or dying. The crew of the USS Excelsior recovered control – the ship was immediately destroyed by the fleet.

Stories set at Earth will be horrific and grim, tales of helplessness and desperation. Survivors will almost certainly have hidden to avoid being cut down by their own crewmembers. Those on Starbase One will have watched helplessly as the might of Starfleet turned on them.

If you wish to slaughter your entire crew, go ahead. Assuming that you don’t, your characters might have survived by, for example, locking themselves down in the mess hall and thus being a low enough priority that drones did not break in before Jack’s signal is broken. Shuttles will be unaffected by the fleet formation mode, but unless they go to ground – or warp – immediately, they will be targets of other ships and destroyed. Your crew could indeed run from the battle, but will not be able to do more than look on helplessly from afar until it’s over.

Earth is where Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise save the day. You’re just a bystander. Write accordingly. Any requests to the IO of ‘something clever’ your crew might have done to affect the Borg will be denied. Tales of heroism would be few and far between, fleeting and personal.

Frontier Day at Earth is, simply put, a horror movie.

Avalon Fleet Yards

Avalon Fleet Yards is the main shipyard servicing the Fourth Fleet. It is a massive, system-wide complex stretching across multiple starbases, drydocks, and other research, maintenance, residential, or construction facilities. It is the setting for Bravo Fleet’s latest ‘sandbox’ RPG, open to all members of the fleet. It is also the setting for the main Frontier Day storytelling for Bravo Fleet.

After the events of the Lost Fleet’s invasion, many starships of the Fourth Fleet are recalled to AFY for repairs and maintenance. It is one of the largest peace-time gatherings of the fleet in one place. These ships and crews are still present at Frontier Day, and unlike Starbase Bravo, AFY does receive the Borg activation signal.

Members may thus participate in Frontier Day at AFY either as members of the sandbox, writing their characters who live and work at the fleet yards, or by writing on their own Command as their crewmembers, aboard their ship or disembarked, as they recuperate in the system. It is not necessary to be a formal part of the sandbox if you do not wish to write the events of Frontier Day with other members. AFY members can take part in a Frontier Day Cooperative Writing Event. Details are forthcoming, but it will be a chance for members to team up to tell a complete story over the three weeks of the event.

While the events at the Sol System are intended by the Borg to be a bloodbath with the destruction of Starbase One and a devastating attack on Earth, the Collective’s intentions at Avalon are a little more complex. Their ultimate goal at AFY is to seize control of its facilities, perhaps in order to rebuild the Collective once Earth is defeated.

As such, storylines at Avalon are not necessarily as helpless as at Earth. Drones are prioritising seizing control of the fleet yard facilities. The populace of the system are being treated as potential future drones, once their capacity to assimilate returns. They will kill anyone who gets in their way – but otherwise will seek to contain people, not slaughter them. Characters at AFY have more opportunities to fight back. They may try to deny the Borg control of AFY’s assets and facilities. They may try to usher people to escape the system. Or perhaps there is some way to interfere with the Borg signal?

AFY is where Starfleet may be more heroic and proactive, where their ingenuity may slow the Borg or save lives. This is so that stories in the AFY sandbox can have more variety and richness. Ultimately, the day is still saved by the Enterprise-D – but victories at Avalon may save lives along the way.

Other

Members may write stories on their Commands about Frontier Day set somewhere other than Earth or Avalon. These may only occur at non-canon (including fleet canon) locations; you may not depict the events of Frontier Day at Vulcan, Starbase 72, or Qualor, for eg. As with anywhere else, the signal will activate the young crewmembers of your ship, and they will fall to the will of the Collective.

While you may have more freedom in these stories than those at Earth or Avalon, again remember that the calamity of Frontier Day is stopped by canon characters. Any victory is one of surviving the Borg, not beating them.

If you do not wish to write a story about your characters barely surviving a horrific event as their comrades turn on them and they are left desperate and helpless until everything inexplicably stops, where they seem saved by the stars and not by their own hand, then do not write a story about Frontier Day.