Your in charge of the Federation or the Empire

[Ryag Han]

consider these scenarios:
1. The federation is hit with a coup d'état and your its new leader. your duty is to make a better Federation that its predecessor. better the Starfleet and lead the new federation to a better era.
what do you do?

2. Palpatine has died, followed by Vader, before the Rebellion could get any significant support. you are now in charge. your duty is to clean up the mess in the galaxy, if you think so, make a better imperial armed forces, do a better job at crushing the Rebels and if you can't for whatever reasons, find a compromise. then maybe handle the Yuuzhan Vong War if you want. what do you do?

for a little fun, the Empire and the Federation enter in a war. how would you handle the job of fighting a war, in either cases?

[Dr Roberts]

Scenario 1
Create and train Ground forces
Create a full time military fleet
Concentrate resources on military fleet building and transwarp research
Halt creation of exploration vehicles to allow easier construction for the military
Build at least 5 large battleships.
Do best to get more races to join the Federation.

Scenario 2
Build 2 deathstars
Accompany with huge ass fleets
Destroy the rebellion once and for all

[The Romulan Republic]

To start with:

Federation:

-Ban children on Starfleet vessels.
-Grant AIs like holograms full rights.
-Bring down Section 31. A rogue organization with the willingness and capability to commit genocide is far too dangerous to justify, no matter how much it benefits Federation security.
-Improve relations with the Romulans with the goal of ending the Neutral Zone and repealing the ban on cloaking devices.
-Focus on developing transwarp.
-Mandate that Starfleet Security be equipped with body armour, grenades, vehicles, and artillery.


Empire:

-I'd demolish the entire regime. Basically:
-Prosecute Palpatine's lackies.
-Draw my subordinates from the ranks of the anti-Palpatine crowd.
-Free all Imperial slaves and political prisoners, and offer reparations.
-Pardon all surviving Jedi.
-Write a new Constitution with a system of checks and balances closer to the US Constitution and a ban on "emergency powers".
-Shut down the Death Star project.
-Commission more Star Dreadnoughts in preparation for the Yuzhan Vong.

[NecronLord]

Thread move underway.

[dworkin]

1. Bring back the TOS miniskirt.
2. Zap the Yavin Gas Giant from a safe distance. Not to get the rebels, but just to see what happens. Observe results from another system.

For war with the Federation, I will repaint the Death Star yellow, drive up to Earth and announce they've got 30 minutes to clear out before we demolish the planet to make a hyperspace bypass.

[Ryag Han]

Federation: tell the Federation council to keep doing whatever they do day to day, and I'll sign off on anything that doesn't look completely insane. They seem to be quite fine the way they are.

well, i don't know about that. first thing id do would be refine the prime directive. that's top on my list. fuck the Alien Non-Interference Clause! if people will die, its your duty to help, not sit around and read Shakespeare! if their culture is gonna be extinct, at that point you can't talk about interfering with their natural development, cuz, you know, they'd reach the end of their natural development, but im way off the subject. next thing id do would be to banish all the people who designed the Awesome, but Impractical spaceships to the tribble home planet, just cuz!i would be rich if id get payed for every design flaw in those ships. if the shield goes down, their very god damned fragile! then id order the defiant class to be made bigger, and make a whole lot of them. next, force the members of the federation to build some fucking defense mechanisms around their planets. and then i would start make things right for the Maquis and other colonies. they were poorly threaten in the past.

on the empire, The Romulan Republic said it best.

EDIT: id turn the tribble home planet into the federation Rura Penthe! you think palpatine was evil?? think again! this would be just plain maddeningly for the convicted!

[StarSword]

2) I'll demand that they build a massive space palace for me, like 5,000 square feet with central air and heat. I might as well live lavishly.

No need.

[Stark]

ITT we learn regime change is really easy and a single leader can effortlessly change an organisational culture.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'll add some more things:

Federation:

-As Ryag Han's post reminded me, the Prime Directive does need reform. Perhaps a provision authorizing officers to violate it if the likely result of not doing so is the loss of a sentient race. However, I would increase penalties for unauthorized violations, especially of the Temporal Prime Directive. Seems a lot of officers get off with little in the way of penalties for violating it.

-Speaking of discipline: I'd order an investigation into Captain Janeway on charges of murder (Tuvix) and prisoner abuse (during the Equinox affair) as well as violations of the Prime Directive (not for the Caretaker's Array, but for other points in the series).

Empire:

-Fund construction of more planetary shielding. At the very least, by the time the Yuzhan Vong show up, every sector capital or major industrial world must have a full planetary shield grid, with lots of redundancies built in.

-I'd also consider mass producing droid troops again, because I find it ethically preferable to using clones or conscripts and because it would be an insult to the technology-hating Yuzhan Vong. Though this does raise another issue:

-Droid rights. Its one thing to use droids who are just machines without real intelligence or personality. But using an intelligent life form as property is repulsive.

[Ryag Han]

how about banning the transporter? fuck easiness in transportation, that thing is murder every time used on a living creature!

[Stark]

Institute transhumanism!

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Free Geordi Visors in every meal.

[Stofsk]

how about banning the transporter?

how about no

[The Romulan Republic]

ITT we learn regime change is really easy and a single leader can effortlessly change an organisational culture.

Regarding this: I at least am quite aware that a lot of these changes would be difficult to enact. Hell, realistically if I found myself head of an interstellar power, I'd probably resign and catch the first ship out of there.

[Whiskey144]

Just thought I'd chime in on some of the others' suggestions, as I have no idea how I would go about the process of either of these scenarios.

3) The people will be free to eat cake.

I like it. Very simple, and very constructive. Cake=happy. Unless the cake is a lie.........

1. Bring back the TOS miniskirt.
2. Zap the Yavin Gas Giant from a safe distance. Not to get the rebels, but just to see what happens. Observe results from another system.

For war with the Federation, I will repaint the Death Star yellow, drive up to Earth and announce they've got 30 minutes to clear out before we demolish the planet to make a hyperspace bypass.

First off, let me say that I have never seen TOS but fully support the revival of said miniskirt. It can only be an improvement over the silly pajamas everyone wheres nowadays.

Secondly, YES YOU MUST MAKE THE HYPERSPACE BYPASS. It is sheer awesome in the making.

Free Geordi Visors in every meal.

This can only be for the better.

[Stark]

how about banning the transporter?

how about no

How about 'make the transporter effect more funky'?

[The Romulan Republic]

You've never seen TOS? You don't know what you're missing. Granted, it can come off as low-budget and melodramatic now, but it has some great characters and stories.

[Stark]

^--- do not listen to this man.

I would immediately enact the Primary Colour Bill 2369, whereby the colour of all warp drives, official insignia and spaceships is changed to green. Let's are the Romulans get out of THAT!

[Crateria]

Feddies:

Get their starships to be more efficient in power and size as well as making their warp cores not explode easily.
Have Section 31 or whatever make a weapon that will kill the Changelings by somehow working around the vaccine.
Have the Fed military actually resemble a real one in training and equipment. Invoke 40k's various weapons, including lasguns, chainswords and many of the awesome vehicles. Try to build a phaser-equipped Necron Monolith.
Arrange for a secret test on the Klingons for sheer sadism as the new army mows down the batleth waving hordes.
Make the military somehow totally loyal to me.
Do whatever against the Cardies, Roms or Ferengi.
Go into Borg space and start filling them full of lead. Try adapting against that.

Imps:

For rebel-smashing, intercept and destroy the Tantive IV. Failing that, capture the droids and if possible Obi Wan and Luke.
Or prevent Tarkin from destroying Alderaan, and instead tell him to go after Yavin IV and later Dagobah. If he protests, have somebody loyal knock the bugger off. Perhaps make him die in a hail of stormtrooper gunfire?
For the hell of it, go to Dagobah directly and head inside the Dark Side Cave and find out what happens to me inside there. That'd be pretty awesome
Build lotsa star destroyers and other ships and position a lot of them near where the Vong will strike so the Empire will be prepared.

Otherwise, have the Death Star destroyed. Also bring a return to democracy. Or perhaps glorious communism?

[Bakustra]

Given that the general tenor seems to be in terms of actively increasing misery in both universes, I would, for the Federation:

1. Build giant subspace communications systems to try and lure the Borg in.

2. Taunt the Organians.

3. Rewrite the Prime Directive to include a modifier clause: "If any mysterious superbeings are found, personnel are to make as many rude gestures and hurtful comments about their parents as possible. Suggestions of sexual, emotional, or personal inadequacy are to be kept in reserve until confirmation of their status as social creatures or social mimoids."

4. Ban transporters? Hell, I'd ban warp drive altogether, issuing a pronouncement that all the sissy planets that just aren't autarkies will have to "suck it up" and "not be such babies anymore."

5. Economically, I'd look to the market "reforms" of the former Soviet states in the 1990s and use those as a starting point.

6. Petty revenge against minor officers on ridiculous grounds would extend to not just Janeway, but literally everybody whose name crosses my desk on a odd-numbered day.

The ultimate goal would be to prompt an ethical dilemma over whether it's acceptable to launch a coup against someone who, for all intents and purposes, is acting to destroy the Federation and kill a great many people through privation and war.

For the Empire:

1. Everybody gets cooler names. COMPNOR? Pfft, how about "Falangists?" Or "Oliveshirts?" Or "Galactic Socialist Democratic Action Party?"

2. Oh you'd better believe that there'd be shitloads of impractical superweapons, designed specifically to take out innocent bystanders. E.g. If we find a planet inhabited solely by Rebels, this baby fires missiles through hyperspace at other populated planets just so we can have some collateral damage here!

3. Can you say, "Year Zero?" I knew you could.

4. I would use Zapp Brannigan as inspiration for everything. "The Rebel base is here. If we can hit them in that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."

The basic goal here? Well, if you ever read Wanted (don't), then this is basically the this-is-my-face-while-I'm-fucking-you-in-the-ass speech, only with you so removed from it that you won't care about the "killing systems" or the fact that I'm making the fascist iconography so blatant that if it were in 3D, it would slap you around until you got it. So I don't know.

------

You want a serious answer? For the Federation, I'd probably continue doing what was being done, possibly see if there are any ways to ensure greater security from the Borg or other extraquadrantal powers. I really don't see any need for major shifts, apart from possibly altering officer training to emphasize that the Prime Directive is a guideline, not a divine commandment, for the benefit of the slower ensigns.

For the Empire, I'd try to democratize it and get killed. Probably the most effective means at my disposal would be to encourage admirals and the like to defect to the Rebellion. If people are guaranteed to listen to us unconditionally, then it's time to play-act Juan Carlos I as best I can in the absence of any nonviolent opposition.

[The Romulan Republic]

What, you don't like TOS Stark?

Ah well, we can't all have good taste.

[Cesario]

Scenario 1:

Identify the members of the coup that put me in charge, and have them brought up on charges of treason and sedition before rebuilding the Federation Council, setting into place better safeguards against coup attempts, and handing power back over to the people as soon as possible. The United Federation of Planets is a democracy, not a dictatorship, and any attempt to turn it into a dictatorship will make it worse, not better, regardless of how benevolent a dictator I become.

While I'm forced to remain in power due to the need to get new representatives sent in to the new council, however, I have a few reforms that I do feel ought to be implemented.

Assuming Section 31 wasn't responsible for the coup in the first place, have them identified and imprisoned. Rogue black agencies are not a good thing for the security of the federation. We have Starfleet Intelligence if we need spy work done. We don't need people committing genocide in our names without our approval. If the Federation wants to wipe out an entire species, we can damn well own the decision ourselves.

I'd also like to implement more regular psychiatric assessments for the admiralty. More problems in Star Trek have been caused by rogue admirals than the Romulans and the Klingons combined.

While I'm tempted to create a department within Starfleet to research and weaponize the so-called "lost technologies", the reality of the situation is that all the myriad of one-shot-wonder technologies that the Federation should theoretically have access to would only make the neighboring powers nervous. And I do not want to kick start another arms race with the Klingons and the Romulans.



Scenario 2:

Demote Tarkin to scrubbing carbon scoring off the outer hull of an Imperial garbage scow. That man singlehandedly did more damage to the Empire than Palpetine himself. Without him and his doctrine, the Rebel alliance would never have gained the support they did. Even ignoring his ethical failings, the man is an overconfident idiot who has no place in my command structure.

Re-establish the Senate if Palpetine's already dissolved it before I arrived. Start gradually seeding more power to it over time. This won't be an easy fix like with the Federation, since in the Old Republic, democracy explicitly failed. As a previous poster noted, establish constitutional provisions against "emergency powers", and moreover try to improve educational standards. Make sure that the people in general recognize why this is a bad idea.

Abolish slavery within Imperial territory and use that fleet of warships that would have been hunting down rebels to "encourage" the Hutts and other powers to give up the policy.

Stop building rediculus superweapons. We're a government, not a terrorist organization. We don't need doomsday devices. We need police and firefighters. Shift that production capacity into anti-piracy and shift the military funding into fighting organized crime.

Sure, I'll probably be targeted for assassination by one of the major crime powers, but I've got the resources of Palpetine's empire at my disposal. I arrange for clones of myself to be prepared, educated in my policies and ideals, and instructed to carry on in my place should I die. I'll probably need them anyway, because the mess that this galaxy is in will take more than my lifetime to clean up.

Get as many force users as possible on my side. I don't need Jedi enforcers or bodyguards. I need them in their proper role as councilors and advisors. I need people who can warn me of long-term trends, and without the shroud of the dark side fucking with their abilities, they should be very good at that job. Get the knowledge in the Jedi temple and Palpetine's secret stash (if I can find any of it) into the hands of said force users, and encourage them to study history so we can avoid repeating it. Sure, I might end up with another Sith style coup, but the Force can't be ignored in this universe.

Do what I can to bridge the religious divide that fucked over the universe time and time again in this galaxy's history. Sure, it's hubris to think I can singlehandedly end a cycle that's been ongoing for twenty-thousand years, but I have to try. Get the Jedi to take an honest look at the Sith teachings, and integrate the positive aspects of self-improvement and emotional self-acceptance. Try not to let them become so close minded and crystallized that their students think that the only alternative to strict adherence to their codes is joining the Sith.



Prosecuting the versus war:



Federation side:

Ignore what I said above about lost technology. The feelings of the regional powers are far less important than the existential threat the Empire represents. Send some diplomatic teams over to those powers to try to make them see that what I'm doing is necessary, but whatever their opinions, use every weapon in my arsenal to stop this Evil Empire and free its people from the clutches of the Evil Wizard who rules over it.

Start by abusing the hell out of Time Travel. I'm prosecuting the war effort, so my opinion about temporal causality is informing the policy decisions, and I know for a fact that the Many-Worlds theory has precisely jack squat to do with time travel in Star Trek. We have functional time machines, so we'll use them to our best advantage.

The main function of time machines in my war strategy is to neutralize the advantage of the Emperor's precog. He can get vague visions of things to come. We can get detailed briefings of precisely what's going to happen in the next few hours, days, weeks, or years.

Additionally, use time travel to grab any bits of truly "lost" lost technology that we find are needed for the war effort. Need the plans for the Genesis device for some reason and it turns out those really were all destroyed in Star Trek II? Send the Defiant under cloak back in time with the mission of retrieving copies while polluting the timeline as little as possible. (Just like we did when we realized we desperately needed humpback whales.)

Send teams of personnel on secret missions to link up with the Rebel Alliance and offer them support. They can provide heavy weapons, manpower, and weapons comparable to what we'll be facing, and we can provide them with the best tools any terrorist organization could ever find a use for. Subspace transporters to get people in and out of shielded ships and facilities, plant bombs anywhere within a few lightyears of the transporter device, or abduct officials for interrogation or ransom. Planet-killers like Genesis that can be smuggled onto worlds by a charming young Harrison Ford in a hidden compartment of his ship, past planetary shields. Biological weapons that can be tailored to kill entire biospheres or assassinate specific individuals as the need arises. The Rebellion has better intelligence than we do about appropriate targets and the political situation, so supplying them with those weapons turns out better for us than using them ourselves. Obviously provide the actual devices rather than the know how for building them.

Beg for help from the Medusans, our friendly neighborhood Cosmic Horrors. The Imperial Starfleet is mostly human, and I'd love to turn the Empire's racist attitudes against them. The appearance of the Medusans is a mind-virus for human beings, and will kill or drive insane any human who sees them. Holograms in the corridors and outside the ships can help force the Empire to only use the small part of their starfleet that's made up of aliens to fight us, and help cut down their considerable numbers advantage.

And of course, number one priority, keep the fighting away from any planet known or suspected to be protected by godlike aliens. In a versus context, the omnipotents are a fiat non-issue, but as a Federation military commander, they're an issue I can't just ignore. Sure, it's likely that the omnipotents will lay an unholy smackdown on the Evil Empire for being an Evil Empire, but that means a lot of potential collateral damage. We can't have a Dowd scenario and have every man, woman, and child in an entire galaxy wiped out in a fit of pique. And that's assuming the omnipotents don't decide to punish my faction equally. You can never tell how they're going to react, and it's better for both sides to keep them out of it. Send diplomats to the Empire with warnings not to target those planets and why. Make sure the diplomats know they're going on a suicide mission, but the message needs to at least be delivered.



Imperial side:

Tread carefully in a war with the Federation. They're the most technologically advanced power in their part of space, and have not been on a war footing in a long time. They fight their wars with astrological survey ships and scientific vessels, yet they still end up winning their wars against powers with dedicated fighting ships. They've got a history of pulling solutions to hopeless situations out of their asses, and they're on good terms with a handful of godlike aliens who just might decide to help them out.

So the first step is to avoid unnecessary brutality. Focus on military only targets, and leaving the civilian governments as intact as possible. Leave ships in place to handle protection and shipping in conquored areas, and do everything possible to integrate the newest protectorate of the Empire. Provide conquored areas with advanced power generation, planetary defenses, and generally make them the envy of their neighbors, even as the Imperial Starfleet blows anything sent to attack them to space debris.

Meanwhile, intelligence-gathering is top priority. Starcharts to aid in navigation through unfamiliar territory, technology we can use to improve lives back home and thus justify this extragalactic war effort, and potential threat assessments of other powers in the area, including single-system omnipotents that are everywhere in the Milky Way.

[StarSword]

2) I'll demand that they build a massive space palace for me, like 5,000 square feet with central air and heat. I might as well live lavishly.

No need.

That looks a lot bigger than 5,000 square feet!

It is. According to at least one of the books, the Imperial Palace easily dwarfs the Senate building. It's less a building and more a self-contained city.

[Cesario]

To be perfectly honest, I'm still not entirely convinced Section 31 exists.

Sloan is the only confirmed agent, and I find the Romulans' theory of him as a lone lunatic convincing, since that's how he's acted in every known appearance. He probably got the name from Riker's bad holonovel.

Besides, if we are to believe Enterprise actually happened, then it isn't the Federation charter they're referring to. It's the old Earth Starfleet charter. Their legal authority expired when that government expired.

And even if I go with the idea of them being legally in the right, I'm less concerned about the legal technicalities of shutting down the genocidal black agency answerable to no one inside my organization, and more concerned with the practical matters of doing so. I'm willing to spend whatever time is necessary in a cushy Federation prison for the price of stopping this dangerous organization.

Fortunately my increased focus on the mental health of the admiralty should be a lot of help in depriving Section 31 of support, since non-crazy admirals will recognize what a horrifically bad idea letting people like Sloan act out their own agenda is. And if Section 31 doesn't exist, non-crazy admirals will be less inclined to fall for the deceptions of lone madmen claiming to be part of an organization you didn't know existed.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Start by abusing the hell out of Time Travel. I'm prosecuting the war effort, so my opinion about temporal causality is informing the policy decisions, and I know for a fact that the Many-Worlds theory has precisely jack squat to do with time travel in Star Trek. We have functional time machines, so we'll use them to our best advantage.

I really hate this set of ideas in Trek. What time travel methods are actually apparent in ST, circa 2380?

Off-hand I can think of the slingshot maneuvre and the Bajoran Orb of Time. The Orb is a dodgy one because the Prophets may or may not permit to use it, and more to the point, there is only one of them.

The slingshot has been used a few times that I can recall, but puts a hell of a strain on the ships using it. What other time machines have the federation got lurking? If you'd said 29th or 31st century feds I would understand, but 24th century feds have rather limited time travel.

More to the point, in-universe, time travel as a technique has been studied by people far smarter than us and is not in common use for solving problems. This alone should tell us something about the nature of it in Trek.