Mission Summary:

While en route to patrol the Talarian border, long-range sensors detected a Borg transwarp signature just beyond Federation territory. When it suddenly disappears with no trace, Starfleet orders the Columbia to investigate. 

Upon arriving in an uninhabited unexplored star system, the ship discovers the remains of a Borg Cube smashed to pieces across the star system. Wanting to find out why the Cube was so close to Federation space and what happened to it, Captain Corbin orders his crew to collect the remains and find the pieces to this puzzle. Nevertheless, they must move quickly before the Borg return and investigate what happened to one of its assets. 

In Play:

This storyline will take place over the entirety of the FA. This will focus on retrieving the debris from the destroyed Borg Cube and the dangers it may entail across an unexplored system, which may have natural hazards that could slow the crew’s efforts down. The storytelling should be quest-like, where members can write together in a mixed department team or individually as they work to retrieve the Borg ‘treasure’. Along the way, your characters may have to overcome a range of obstacles – this isn’t a simple locate and retrieve sort of mission. Treacherous terrain and sophisticated technology that is alien to your character, coupled with the unnerving realisation that if you’re not quick enough, the Borg may appear to get their hands on what you’ve been sent to search for. Just how well will your ensign character deal with all of this? What frustrations will your characters encounter as they move through their journey?   

What should your characters be doing?

All: Captain Corbin is sending multiple away teams across the system to retrieve the Borg debris and return it to the Columbia to determine what happened to the ship and why it was so close to Federation space. The groups are being sent out via support craft or through the use of transporters. 

If you need inspiration for your storytelling, perhaps your team will be assigned to one of the following away missions/ideas:

Frozen Antics:

A small M-class-like moon, where pieces have been found to be spread across a few kilometres in the northern polar pole area. Your team must wrap up warm as they walk across the snowy conditions to find the pieces. Along the way, just how strong and brave are your characters as they endure the deep chills of this arctic environment? Once arriving, your team must dig deep underneath the thick layers of snow before they freeze to death! 

Tug Away:

Several shuttles and runabouts must enter one of the asteroid fields to tractor some larger parts of the Borg’s hull. The shuttles must work together to prevent breaking the debris any further. However, the asteroids are not making it easy to perform this operation. There are many smaller pieces that can heavily damage your little ship and the hull fragments. Working together, can you pilot and find a solution to get yourself out of this dense area of floating rocks?

Among The Clouds:

A section of the Cube has been found within the upper atmosphere of a class 7 gas giant. There is no way this section can be retrieved. However, there is enough time to board it and recover anything significant. An away team must go over in EVA suits and find any data nodes to help explain why the ship was so close to the Federation. There’s a race against the clock before this section falls too deep into the gas giant and becomes crushed by the external pressure. Will your team get in and out in time before they squished like a tin of sardines? 

Demon Eyes:

Most of the Cube has crash-landed on a Y-class planetoid. Transporters cannot be used to beam anyone down or up. Shuttles and runabouts must be used, and EVA suits must be worn as teams are sent down to this inhospitable world to retrieve the remains of the Cube. Sensor sweeps show that some Drones may have survived and are attempting to regenerate. Away teams are ordered to avoid the drones at all costs but observe their behaviour from afar. While avoiding interacting with the drones, your ensign must locate anything valuable. This is a hide-and-seek mission with a twist – you don’t want the drones to find you!

A Needle In A Haystack:

As the debris is returned to the Columbia, a team has been tasked with cataloguing the different pieces. What interesting parts and treasures does your team find? Remember, when a Borg ship is destroyed, its most critical parts self-destruct; you may not find a transwarp coil but something else of interest. What is it, and how does it work? However, as you start to get somewhere with the technology, you may find Borg fail-safe software among it that prevents you from accessing its secrets. How will you bypass this to unlock the information? How good is your ensign at cracking codes? 

Or is there something else that is just as dangerous and is among a hazard that is worth the risk to get? What else could you find sifting through so many pieces of Borg junk? The choice is yours, but hurry up before the Borg return – the Columbia cannot get assimilated!