SD.net Starships

[drachefly]

Just like the SD.net SSD thread, but now we're nearly essentially insignificant.

We each get a Star Trek starship (does it really matter what kind? Take your pick from any species encountered, so long as it's in a standard configuration and not from the future) and its loyal crew, placed anywhere in the SW galaxy we want, at any point in time from just before ANH up to just after tESB. We get to confer with each other before choosing where and when to be placed.

I have some thoughts, but I'd like to see what others come up with first.

[FedRebel]

The Scimitar, the fire while cloaked and thaloron weapon will grant the ship some advantage (even if it is very minimal)

I vote for the armada to amass in the "Unknown Regions" as far from civilization as possible. We can't hope to conquer any SW civilized worlds and locating near civilization would only attract undue attention (i.e. Imperial blitz to seize the easy pickings)

[rhoenix]

Due to the technologies involved of FedRebel's choice (the Scimitar), taking into account that research into further advancement would find different configurations valuable, I'd choose the Federation Defiant-class.

I also agree with massing in the Unknown Regions, as far away from most well-known civilizations as possible. Even so, pirates and others would make life interesting, given the technological disparity involved.

[Starglider]

The Scimitar, the fire while cloaked and thaloron weapon will grant the ship some advantage (even if it is very minimal)

What the hell are you going to do with this thing? If you attack a planet or even threaten one, you will have a huge fleet after you and will be fired upon whenever you decloak. The support and maintenance demands on an experimental super-battleship will be enormous. You could try hiring out as mercenaries, but I expect nothing less than an interstellar government would be able to afford the costs involved - and only a few powers (such as the Dominion and the Klingon rebels) seem to use mercenaries. Even then, the Scimitar almost certainly uses all kinds of unique parts which you won't be able to find anywhere other than Remus, and the Romulan Empire is hardly likely to supply them to you.

I would take a Borg tactical cube with a sub-collective personally loyal to me. At least the Borg seem to carry all the infrastructure necessary to maintain/repair their ships and build new installations with them. I'd go off to an unclaimed planet, and after a decade or two of experimentation I'd have a new borg-derrived species that doesn't suck in any of the ways the Borg suck. I'd then set about 'liberating' the collective - we've seen that drones original personalities still exist, and slaughtering them all should be avoided if at all possible.

[Hawkwings]

The biggest and best research ship I could get my hands on. Filled with Section 31 scientists and engineers. Naturally, I'll be staying with the biggest group of ships we have.

[Chardok]

I don't really care as long as it has a holo-deck. You guys wont see me the whole voyage.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Take your pick from any species encountered, so long as it's in a standard configuration and not from the future) and its loyal crew, placed anywhere in the SW galaxy we want,.

ANY Species eh? Well I don't know about you, But I would take the one of "Voth City Ship" One f the few ships that is above and beyond noraml Trek Tech. Shoot it teleported an entire starship into it's hanger bay!

If we are doing the "Whole crew loyal to you" Then I would automaticlly start with a rather siezable population of people ((it IS called a "city" ship))

Now, we don't know much About this ship, but given that its talked about as the whole of thier species civilization, we can assume its self contained, self sustaining and able to defend itself.

We have NO idea what wepons it has, but by size alone it will at Least give a good base of operations given thats it is around 11km long.

[Ender]

Borg cube, drop me off in a nice young system with plenty of raw materials and a strong sun. In fact, lack of planets is a bonus, as it means I'll get less attention. You will all grow old and die, whereas I'll have a nice thriving K2 civilization that is still around in a few million years.

[Darth Tanner]

I have two plans

A) A small ship with a cloak, simply sell this to the Empire as a cheaper and easier to produce alternative to their existing cloak technology. It should provide enough cash to live comfortably enough for the rest of my life. Just pray to Vishnu that the Empire doesn't just decide to take the cloak and shoot me.

What the hell are you going to do with this thing? If you attack a planet or even threaten one, you will have a huge fleet after you and will be fired upon whenever you decloak.

Again I'd try to sell it to the Empire, they might have planet killers coming out of their arseholes but the ability to wipe a planet clean of life (assuming the weapon actually works on a planetary scale) without damaging infrastructure or leaving a significant mess to clean up could be useful to them.

B) A warbird, go find a previously ignored primitive planet far out on the rim and take over the government. Something along the lines of early 17th/18th century level of development should suffice to provide sufficient luxury goods to sustain a good enough level of living while negating any risk of being slaughtered by the natives. Just pray to Thor no pirates/rebels turn up.

Just as an aside does anybody know if that Voth ship represents the entire species or is it merely one ship of many.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Just as an aside does anybody know if that Voth ship represents the entire species or is it merely one ship of many.

In the show you get the feeling that the ship represents the majority of the Voth people as they talk of "wandering the stars" without a planet.

But the thing had to have been Built SOMEWEHRE. You don't just put togetehr an 11k ship in the middle of space.

[Darth Lucifer]

I think I'd opt for a Federation Holo-ship like the one from "Insurrection" and start a gigantic holo-brothel somewhere. Hopefully I should get enough credits to buy myself something more suitable for intergalactic travel in the SW universe.

And just like my SSD from the other thread, I'm still painting it rainbow colors with disco balls.

[Isolder74]

For me I'd want to have a Excelsior-class ship of the same class as the Enterprise-B with the Lakota upgrade. It looks elegant and it has a fair amount of firepower. I won't be taking on anyone big but I don't think I want to. I'll head off to my own little world and set up an nice little colony and hope to be left in peace.

[Darth Tanner]

But the thing had to have been Built SOMEWEHRE. You don't just put togetehr an 11k ship in the middle of space.

Yes I'd find it likely if there are several such city ships (I'd guess hundreds or thousands as your not going to fit a very large civilian population on a 11k hollow ship) and they somehow build new ones while operating from the existing ships, or simply find an empty planet/moon to set up a temporary shipyard every couple of generations.

You will all grow old and die, whereas I'll have a nice thriving K2 civilization

er Borg still age don't they? and even if they don't your going to have to be willing to become assimilated to benefit from that. Your settlement that you and your crew build may survive (unless its found by anyone) but your going to die the same as the rest of us.

Also plan C)
Arrive before Yavin/Hoth and turn in the rebel base there for massive cash reward. Live comfortably in a Kuat villa for the rest of my life.

[Starglider]

er Borg still age don't they? and even if they don't your going to have to be willing to become assimilated to benefit from that. Your settlement that you and your crew build may survive (unless its found by anyone) but your going to die the same as the rest of us.

Bah, just drop by Exo III and pick up one of these, then upload yourself with it.

[Ender]

er Borg still age don't they? and even if they don't your going to have to be willing to become assimilated to benefit from that. Your settlement that you and your crew build may survive (unless its found by anyone) but your going to die the same as the rest of us.

With the borg, to have the crew obey your command and be loyal to you would entail being the overmind/king/queen/gestalt. As such, assimilation is inevitable. Frankly, this is nothing but benefits in this case - the rest of the hive are nothing but extensions of me, so they and those they assimilate loose free will, not me. If my body died, my consciousness would remain in the network, still commanding the drones. I'd have access to the massive library of technology that Trek has, a star systems worth of resources all to myself, and all the manual labor I could ever need. Its all aces.

[Starglider]

the rest of the hive are nothing but extensions of me, so they and those they assimilate loose free will, not me.

Which is still evil. Breeding new borg drones to be in the collective from birth may not be, in that they may not have independent sentience to surpress unless they're disconnected from the collective for a while, but I'm still dubious about it. I'd start work on improved borg that can safely combine individuality and a collective link at once.

If my body died, my consciousness would remain in the network, still commanding the drones.

Maybe. The queen's memories seem to get copied from one queen to the next, but it's far from clear that this is a complete personality transfer.

[General Zod]

Just as an aside does anybody know if that Voth ship represents the entire species or is it merely one ship of many.

In the show you get the feeling that the ship represents the majority of the Voth people as they talk of "wandering the stars" without a planet.

But the thing had to have been Built SOMEWEHRE. You don't just put togetehr an 11k ship in the middle of space.

The Empire was able to build the DS1 and DS2 in the middle of space with very little notice. So it's not like it's impossible with the proper manufacturing capability.

[Darth Tanner]

The Empire was able to build the DS1 and DS2 in the middle of space with very little notice. So it's not like it's impossible with the proper manufacturing capability.

But the empire had heavy industry based on planets to supply the materials and components. The Voth would have to have everything on their ships, which is more difficult, especially if they have to remain stationary for perhaps several years during construction. Although you are correct it is entirely possible, it may even be somewhat of an advantage as the refineries/factories would be brought directly to the construction site.

the rest of the hive are nothing but extensions of me

I thought the Queen was merely a representation of the collective conscience of the Borg as a whole. Not an individual mind that controlled the Borg. If you allowed yourself to become that representation wouldn't your personality simply be morphed into the collective minds of the Borg on your ship/colony?

I know Voyager corrupted this idea greatly in favor of a big evil individual Borg but I still thought it was the original idea of the Borg.

Either way all your going to be able to achieve is to hind out on a dead end planet/space station and hope no one ever finds you. And to be honest the price you seem to be willing to pay for immortality seems rather high to me.

[General Zod]

The Empire was able to build the DS1 and DS2 in the middle of space with very little notice. So it's not like it's impossible with the proper manufacturing capability.

But the empire had heavy industry based on planets to supply the materials and components. The Voth would have to have everything on their ships, which is more difficult, especially if they have to remain stationary for perhaps several years during construction. Although you are correct it is entirely possible, it may even be somewhat of an advantage as the refineries/factories would be brought directly to the construction site.

Hence "With the proper manufacturing capability." Or did you gloss over that?

[Darth Tanner]

Hence "With the proper manufacturing capability." Or did you gloss over that?

Apparently I did. Sorry.

[Balrog]

Which is still evil. Breeding new borg drones to be in the collective from birth may not be, in that they may not have independent sentience to surpress unless they're disconnected from the collective for a while, but I'm still dubious about it. I'd start work on improved borg that can safely combine individuality and a collective link at once.

If you were worried about moral qualms, you could always get in contact with some backwater planet with a criminal overpopulation - instead of getting the death penalty, they get to be a Borg drone. You get cheap labor force, and the planet solves crime problem. As an added bonus, you can use the new drones to help fix their infrastructure in exchange for using their world as a safe haven.

[Singular Intellect]

I'd go with the Borg cube option myself, and probably stick to Ender's basic plan.

[Solauren]

I'll take a Voth exploration / 2 man science ship, thank you.

And I want to arrive over a rebel sympathic corporate planet.

I'll see them the technology on the ship for a modest fortune, and go retire somewhere.

[Starglider]

If you were worried about moral qualms,

Which hopefully you would be otherwise you'd be a psychopath.

you could always get in contact with some backwater planet with a criminal overpopulation - instead of getting the death penalty, they get to be a Borg drone. You get cheap labor force, and the planet solves crime problem.

Nice idea, but better hope you're not trapped in a TNG story, because you just know the Enterprise-D will show up just after you've got things going nicely and put you out of business (with some combination of speechifying at the locals and technobabbling your cube).

[Ender]

the rest of the hive are nothing but extensions of me, so they and those they assimilate lose free will, not me.

Which is still evil.

I'm a bit unclear here - are you saying that it was evil for them to originally lose their free will, or that it is evil for me to replace the consciousness that wiped away their free will? If its the latter, I guess I'd have to ask if you think the Prime Minister of Japan is evil for holding that position since a previous Emperor sanctioned the rape of Nanking.

Breeding new borg drones to be in the collective from birth may not be, in that they may not have independent sentience to surpress unless they're disconnected from the collective for a while, but I'm still dubious about it.

Honestly, given that you can get much higher processing density out of a computer then a brain I'd just tweak the DNA to grow them brain dead and then fill them with circuits. Initially I need zombies, not people.

I'd start work on improved borg that can safely combine individuality and a collective link at once.

That is the end goal, yes. Uploaded personalities can live in the network, or requisition and download into a meat puppet as needed.

If my body died, my consciousness would remain in the network, still commanding the drones.

Maybe. The queen's memories seem to get copied from one queen to the next, but it's far from clear that this is a complete personality transfer.

Now we are getting philosophical, and into the whole "Axe of my Father" deal. I am acting under the assumption that it is a whole transfer, if not I see no reason why I can't hire some programmers to tweak the code so it is.

the rest of the hive are nothing but extensions of me

I thought the Queen was merely a representation of the collective conscience of the Borg as a whole. Not an individual mind that controlled the Borg. If you allowed yourself to become that representation wouldn't your personality simply be morphed into the collective minds of the Borg on your ship/colony?

Well, given the constraints of the OP and hw the borg work I don't see that as the case. Thread says I have control, they obey my commands, and are loyal to me. For the Borg, that means you assume the role of the Queen. Since we don't treat any of the others as being subject to their original role's idealogical constraints (eg you can violate the Prime Directive if you choose) I fail to see why that would apply to me.

I know Voyager corrupted this idea greatly in favor of a big evil individual Borg but I still thought it was the original idea of the Borg.

Given the setup of the thread the interpretation is irrelevant. The Borg would be me.

Either way all your going to be able to achieve is to hind out on a dead end planet/space station and hope no one ever finds you.

You think in such small terms. I may start with nothing, but I assure you there is nothing that says I must end there. I'm thinking a series of dyson swarms, all connected to each other with transporters, and the computers one massive network connected by subspace channels. A quasi-transhuman society that I will rule as an eternal Emperor.

The only big question is how the galaxy will react - off the top of my head I can think of 4 times burgeoning superintelligences have been destroyed. One could make a pretty strong case for the Force being the primary superintelligence that ensures its own continuation and the destruction f any rivals.

And to be honest the price you seem to be willing to pay for immortality seems rather high to me.

Exactly what would I be giving up? Its not like I couldn't grow a clone and have it's only tweak be a transceiver connecting me to the whole of myself and send it out into meatspace to do whatever I wanted.