We Are the Borg Key Missions

This article is an Out of Character article relevant to Bravo Fleet's second 2023 Fleet Action, 'We Are the Borg.' For an overview of Mission Briefings, please consult the main article.

Key Missions depict some of the most important engagements with the FA plot

Key Missions are intended to have the scope to keep a writer busy across the FA’s six weeks. Choose one if you want to be a part of the briefing system, but still have the freedom to flesh out details and direction. These will be the most numerous and typical of what the IO offers. As only the introductory briefing is available, each mission has classifications so members have a clearer idea of what it entails before making their choice. The classifications are as follow:

• Briefing structure. This explains how tightly structured the briefing is:
  • Highly Structured. This means that most of the key points of the story are laid out for the member. This is normally reserved for intense mysteries. These almost never dictate how such key points should be reached or written.
  • Structured. This is the most common. This means that several key story beats are laid out for the member, but only up to a point. This is usually about setting up the main conceit of a mission, giving members freedom after that point.
  • Loosely Structured. This means a mission gives a premise or concept and additional information on the situation, but how a member gets there is up to them.
• Resolution. This explains how much freedom a member has in how the mission ends.
  • Open Ended. This is the most common. After the situation is set up, a member can choose how to resolve a situation.
  • Closed Resolution. At least one point of the story’s conclusion is dictated by the briefing.
• Engagement with the Borg. This explains whether the Borg Collective is directly encountered in this mission. Note: in most cases, members are free to introduce additional elements to their stories, which may include direct engagement with the Collective.
  • Direct Borg Engagement. This means that Borg ships and drones will feature as challenges for characters and ships to overcome. This includes sites such as destroyed Borg ships that need investigating.
  • Indirect Borg Engagement. This means the Borg Collective may feature as a threat or source of pressure but will not feature directly.
  • Borg Technology Only. This means only Borg technological devices will feature in this story. This is reserved for stories about elements such as xBs and the Borg technology black market.
  • No Borg Engagement. The story will deal with a plot element of WATB that stands apart from the Collective or their technology. What this entails will usually be clear from the introduction.
• Story Theme/Genre. Most briefings are written to support a certain kind of story. Make sure you pick a genre you want to write. Some missions may offer multiple genres, and members can thus pick how to depict the story.
  • Mystery-Horror. This story is about investigating a mystery against a backdrop of fear and tension.
  • Survival-Horror. This story is about trying to survive a terrifying threat. It may include elements of action, but rarely as the solution to peril.
  • Action-Adventure. This story is about high-stakes adventures of overcoming peril with wits and firepower.
  • Diplomacy-Investigation. This story is about uncovering facts through scientific enquiry or diplomatic engagement.
  • Thriller. This story is about tension, paranoia, and drama.
• Away Team Focused. This briefing focuses on an away team dealing with the main storyline. The rest of the ship can usually be involved in some way.
• Critical Plot Point. This briefing gives the writer an opportunity to uncover something critical about the FA’s mystery. Members should assume other missions still flesh out the mysteries and challenges of the campaign.

The Key Missions available for the We Are the Borg FA are as follow.

The Race

Structured/Open Ended/Engagement with the Borg/Action-Adventure or Thriller

A Borg homing signal has been detected within the Betreka Nebula. Your ship has been dispatched to investigate, but soon finds they are not alone - ships of the House of Mo’Kai are chasing the same prize. Your ship must reach the Borg signal first, negate any threat, and stop dangerous technology from falling into the wrong hands.

The Black Box

(Assigned to Fleet Captain Keziah Nazir)

Highly Structured/Open Ended/Direct Borg Engagement/Mystery-Horror

The Starfleet ship USS Marlowe has gone missing. Dispatched on a rescue mission, your ship tracks her down to find wreckage, no survivors, and a damaged log buoy. In reassembling these degraded logs, your crew learns of the Marlowe’s mission trailing a Borg Cube showing erratic behaviour. Reassemble the logs to uncover the truth, finish the Marlowe’s mission to understand the Cube’s behaviour - and survive.

The Haunting of CR-718

(Assigned to Commodore Alexandra Sudari-Kravchik)

Loosely Structured/Open Ended/Engagement with the Borg/Survival-Horror/Away Team Focused

Your ship is dispatched to render technical assistance to relay station CR-718. But an away team sent over becomes trapped aboard by a lone, dangerous Borg drone on the station. It has its own mission, one your away team must survive, and one your ship must try to stop.

K3LLY

Loosely Structured/Open Ended/No Borg Engagement/Mystery-Horror

All manner of projects have been dusted off since the synth ban was lifted

Your ship has been assigned border patrol to keep watch for reported increases in Borg activity in the distant corners of the Beta Quadrant, but no threats emerge from beyond Federation space.  Rather, deadly danger is lurking within.  Given Starfleet's staffing shortages after Frontier Day, Federation designs for a babysitting synth have been dug out of the Daystrom Institute's deep storage.  Styled after a 10-year-old Human, artificial lifeform K3LLY has been charged with protecting the lives of Starfleet's children with her very life.  When young ensigns among your crew start getting murdered, fears arise that K3LLY might be taking her charge too literally.  Especially when K3LLY's new mantra becomes: "Eliminate all assimilated!"

Sphere of Terror

(Assigned to Commander Khim Samnang)

Structured/Open Ended/Indirect Borg Engagement/Survival-Horror/Away Team Focused

When your ship cautiously reaches the source of a Borg distress beacon in the Delta Quadrant, your crew locates no signs of life on the uninhabitable planet, nor any indications of Borg ships on long-range sensors.  Your away team climbs deep into the cave system beneath the surface to search out the origin of the distress signal. However, instead of finding any Borg tech, ravenous members of Species 8472 crawl out of the darkness to find you.

Children of the Borg

(Assigned to Fleet Admiral Alex Grayson)

Structured/Open Ended/Indirect Borg Engagement/Mystery-Horror

For 1 minute and 35 seconds, your vessel picked up a distress call from the Federation colony on Beta Serpentis III, an icy world in the Alpha Quadrant. The message warned of Borg activity in the area, but Starfleet’s long-range sensors cannot verify that claim. When you contact the colony, they deny sending a transmission, but you decide to investigate anyway, as the situation feels strange. This mission deals with the mysterious behaviour of a fringe colony and the colonists’ experience of the Borg Collective.

Zero Survivors

(Assigned to Lieutenant Commander Varen Wyll)

Loosely Structured/Open Ended/No Borg Engagement/Diplomacy-Investigation/Critical Plot Point

In response to a faint Borg signal, your ship is sent to investigate. Upon arrival, your crew discovers the Sphere to not be of the Collective, but some of the last survivors of Unimatrix Zero. You now have a prized opportunity to reach out to these renegade Borg.

No Designation

(Assigned to Commodore Imya Jori)

All manner of business takes place on Freecloud, no matter how illicit

Loosely Structured/Open Ended/Borg Technology Only/Thriller/Away Team Focused

Word has reached Starfleet Intelligence of a secret, illegal auction on Freecloud to sell Borg technology. This includes not only recently-recovered equipment after the activation of the Borg homing signal, but cybernetics seized from murdered xBs. Your ship has been sent to infiltrate the auction, recover the technology, and, if possible, shut the operation down.

Gradin Belt Negotiations

Structured/Open Ended/Indirect Borg Engagement/Diplomacy-Investigation/Critical Plot Point

Your ship has been dispatched to the far reaches of the Gradin Belt. Vague reports have come in of Borg ships being sighted on long-range sensors. Your mission is to negotiate and secure sensor readings from as many local powers as possible, all of whom have reason to be fearful of the Borg and wary of Starfleet. Only by putting together this tapestry of information can Starfleet understand the wider movement of the Borg on this dark frontier.

Sampling Methods

(Assigned to Captain Geronimo Maverick Fontana)

Structured/Open Ended/Direct Borg Engagement/Mystery-Horror

A Borg Sphere has ventured beyond the Collective’s territory in the Delta Quadrant with an unknown purpose. It has engaged and reportedly destroyed lone, small ships but has only approached inhabited star systems at a distance, seemingly scanning before moving on. Your ship is ordered to monitor the Sphere and ascertain its purpose, or at least provide early warning if it shows itself to be a major threat.

xB Harvest

(Assigned to Commander Kosev Thiren)

xBs are some of the most hated people in the galaxy

Structured/Open Ended/Borg Technology Only/Thriller or Mystery-Horror

Former Borg drones from the Artifact living on and near the old Romulan Neutral Zone have been reported missing by Starfleet Security. Your ship has been sent to investigate in a mission that will point your crew at the black market, where murdered xBs are brought to illicit cybernetic labs for their precious Borg implants to be harvested and eventually sold to the highest bidder.

Exit, Pursued by a Cube

(Assigned to Lieutenant Commander N'Vea)

Structured/Open Ended/Direct Borg Engagement/Survival-Horror

Your ship has been directed to respond to the homing signal of Borg technology originating from a world in the old Neutral Zone. But upon securing this technology, long-range sensors pick up signs of a Borg Cube heading straight for the signal. Your mission is to head for uninhabited space before cutting the signal, drawing the Borg ship away from any area it may do harm. Stay one step ahead of the Cube, then escape with your life.

Omega

Loosely Structured/Open Ended/Indirect Borg Engagement/Thriller

Omega molecules were a key part of the Echoes of the Tkon (FA 2021) storyline; this mission is most suitable for a member who did not participate.

On a deep space assignment beyond Federation borders, a sensor reading triggers the Omega Protocol aboard your ship. But upon accessing the records, the commanding officer discovers something more horrifying: you are not the only one to detect an Omega molecule. The Borg have, too, and they are on their way to claim their prize. Destroy Omega before the Borg arrive, and escape.

Spare Parts

Structured/Open Ended/Borg Technology Only/Thriller

Federation Science Station Armitage doesn't attract the same calibre of researchers as the Daystrom Institute, because its scientists care more about the cause than the academics.  They're far more likely to care for missions of mercy rather than pursue hard science.  With Borg paranoia on the rise following Frontier Day, a cross-functional team of Armitage's doctors and engineers have committed to assist in the plight of former Borg drones.  Their mission is to design new cybernetic implants that will allow them to remove and replace the last of the xBs medically-necessary Borg implants.  With the rise in Borg activity in recent days, your crew has been assigned to add your own medical and engineering expertise to speed the xBs’ final freedom from the Borg Collective. This story is focused on the challenges and ethics of using Borg technology, and what people will do to harness this power.

Locusts of Borg

Loose Structure/Closed Resolution(Deep Space 17 must be saved)/Indirect Borg Engagement/Action-Adventure or Investigation or Thriller

A couple of Federation freighters, travelling spinward of Coppelius, have reported navigational hazards in the form of space-dwelling locusts.  According to their indistinct audio logs, space locusts numbering in the hundreds have been drawn to their Bussard ramscoops and jammed up their warp nacelles.  One or two crew members on each ship further reported hearing the song of the locusts: they sang of being abandoned by their benevolent cybernetic gods.  For centuries, this species of space-borne locusts has been thought to be extinct.  Myths of them echo across dozens of worlds across the galaxy, but there have been no confirmed sightings of them for ages.  Until now.  Until millions upon millions of them have infested Deep Space 17.

The Heist

A damaged Cube still holds secrets

Structured/Open Ended/Direct Borg Engagement/Action Adventure or Mystery-Horror/Critical Plot Point

A damaged and nearly-disabled Borg Cube has been sighted. Rather than merely react to these encounters with the Collective, Starfleet has dispatched your ship to investigate - boarding, if possible, and securing computer records. It is the hope this will provide insight on the Collective’s recent movements - if your crew can survive to tell the tale.

The Graveyard Shift

(Assigned to Lieutenant Nitus)

Highly Structured/Open Ended/Direct Borg Engagement/Mystery-Horror

Reports and rumours have arrived at the Markonian Outpost of a Borg Cube’s destruction near Chaotic Space. Your ship has been dispatched to find the truth of these reports and, if possible, locate the Cube and discover what happened to it.

Infection

(Assigned to Captain Ryoko Takato)

The neurolytic pathogen crippled the Borg once before.

Structured/Closed Resolution/Engagement with the Borg/Thriller or Mystery-Horror/Critical Plot Point

With the Borg reawakening, Starfleet wants to be ready to strike back, but the neurolytic pathogen that ravaged them for decades is lost to the Federation. Your ship has been sent to find a sample of it from a devastated Borg site, secure the neurolytic pathogen, and, if possible, reinfect the main Collective.