"Ancient Enemy" = Andromedans?

[Alekks]

Just kicking around the idea that the "Ancient Enemy" might be the Andromedans. In the TOS episode "By Any Other Name" the aliens were an Andromedan scout force sent to determine if the Milky Way Galaxy was worth invading.

Now here come the IFs

1. Given the fact that their scout force never returned to Andromeda or made contact with their superiors, the ones who gave the original orders might believe the scout force was wiped out, thus the Milky Way Galaxy is home to a potential adversary worth conquering.

2. The scout force might not have been in on the full strategy and the Invasion force from Andromeda was launched approx 100 years later, arriving just after the beginning of the 25th century and would be belligerant to all races/factions of the Alpha Quadrant, including the Breen, Tholians and, by extention, the races who are home to the Delta Quadrant (Borg, Species 8472) and the Gamma Quadrant (Founders, Jem'Hadar, Vorta).

What would this allow Cryptic to do?

Short answer: Anything they'd like. Such as;

1. Complete freedom to flesh out the race or racial mix of the Andromedan Invaders. Their appearance, motivations (aside from invading) etc.

2. Complete freedom to design an entire fleet of Andromedan starships of all types. They could choose to touch upon the old tabletop game of Starfleet Battles for design technology and configuration or dream up entirely new configs/weapons/shields/armor etc.

3. This could be rolled out in piecemeal fashion as live events. They could keep the players in the dark as to the capabilities of the Andromedan vessels and their technology, both offensive and defensive.

4. Since the Andromedans would have to possess extra-galactic transportation, the vessels could arrive from almost any attack vector.

5. It could be done in a way where it is very gradual. Maybe both Klingon and Federation Intelligence Divisions start getting information that the Romulans have pulled many Warbirds away from the borders and redirected them to deal with a situation, with scant actual details. Maybe the Klingons are the first to encounter the Andromedans...do they keep it to themselves and try to deal with it or do they turn to their on-again, off-again allies, the Federation? Maybe it's the Federation who first encounter the Andromedans....faint distress calls about being under attack and then all that is found is a debris field. Make it close to the borders and it could be blamed on the Klingons or Romulans. Make it interior and it could cause a Borg alert.

Lots of choices to go with and if we are indeed using the "One Big Server" concept, imagine the flurry of forum traffic as scattered and incomplete information begins to trickle in. Anyone remember the avalanche of forum posts during the Holocron unlock craze in SWG? Everyone and his brother had THE secret unlock formula, this could dwarf that.

Many possibilities exist, just throwing this out for discussion.

[Silverspar]

It's an interesting prospect, but an enemy that powerful would be a dangerous enemy indeed.

[RandomRedshirt]

My money is on the Iconians. After all, it's what PE was going to do, so I wouldn't be suprised if Cryptic follows suit. PE had some hairbrained scheme involving Species 8472 as well, and I know there was mention of them in the Game Informer article, so expect the PE story to pervail.

[Azurian]

OP's refering refering to the Kelvan's. It's possible, but I'm doubtful since they aren't really "ancient", and the fast that Kirk arranged peace with them. Where they live on some world and have contact with civilizations. For Worf in DS9 bragged about fighting one.


To me, when I think of an "ancient" enemy in of Star Trek, I think would think of a dead civilzation like the Hur'q or the Iconian's. One Star Trek game did elaborate on the Hur'q's return. And the Iconians were suspected of surviving disaster by escaping through their portals to some remote planet, waiting for the time to restablish their Empire.

[Misteretc]

Originally Posted by Azurian

OP's refering refering to the Kelvan's. It's possible, but I'm doubtful since they aren't really "ancient", and the fast that Kirk arranged peace with them. Where they live on some world and have contact with civilizations. For Worf in DS9 bragged about fighting one.


To me, when I think of an "ancient" enemy in of Star Trek, I think would think of a dead civilzation like the Hur'q or the Iconian's. One Star Trek game did elaborate on the Hur'q's return. And the Iconians were suspected of surviving disaster by escaping through their portals to some remote planet, waiting for the time to restablish their Empire.

The Andromedans from Star Fleet battles are loosely based on the Kelvins from the original Star Trek series. You might recall in that episode that when Spock tried to do a vulcan mind meld with one of them, he was bombarded with images. One of those images was of a 50 armed (tentacled?) robot. I remember reading in that edition of Star Fleet Battles (and I still have it), that the time it took the Kelvins to reach our galaxy was the same (about 300 years)...

"By Any Other Name"
Stardate 4657.5
Star Trek: The Original Series, episode 50 (2.21)

Synopsis
When the U.S.S. Enterprise answers a distress call from a small planet, the landing party is captured by a group of agents from the Kelvan empire, located in the distant Andromeda galaxy. The Kelvans' purpose is to find planets suitable for colonization. However, their own ship was destroyed and now they need the Enterprise to make the 300-year journey home. To utilize the starship, the Kelvans - huge, tentacled creatures - take on human form. After several attempts at escape, Kirk accepts his fate and agrees to let the aliens take over his ship. The Kelvans use their technology to transform all but essential Enterprise personnel into small "cubes" which, unless broken or damaged, can be restored to human beings.

Recognizing that the Kelvans, in their new human bodies, are discovering human sensation and emotion, the remaining crew attempts to foster dissent amongst the aliens: Scotty succeeds in gettting one of them drunk, McCoy injects an irritant into another, and Kirk makes romantic overtures to the Kelvan leader's woman. With the Kelvans thus distracted, Kirk and the crew are able to regain control of the ship.

Kirk points out to Rojan, the Kelvan leader, that the Kelvans are already becoming less like they were before by encountering the humans. In 300 years, their descendants will be so human-like that they won't be able to live among their people on Kelva. Rojan sees the logic in his argument and sends a robot probe to Kelva, reporting what has happened. Pledging to restore the Enterprise crew, Rojan accepts Kirk's offer that the Enterprise find the Kelvans a Class-M planet to colonize.

***So this was the inspiration for the invading Andromedans from Star Fleet Battles. Of course Task Force Games created something truly unique with the Andromedan...

[Misteretc]

The Andromedan Invasion

The Andromedan Invaders are a mysterious race of extra-galactic beings from M31 which ruled the Lesser Magellanic Cloud Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy [i] in orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy for several decades and launched a devastating invasion Andromedans of the Milky Way Galaxy, sparking a war lasting from Y188 to Y204.

Racial characteristics

No evidence regarding the physical appearance of the Andromedan race has been catalogued by an Alpha Octant government - the only Federation Marine to witness one could not be brought to recall his experiences. It has been postulated that the race is none other than the Kelvans from TOS, though this has neither been confirmed nor denied.

Andromedan boarding parties are comprised entirely of robotic combat systems. This has led to speculation that the Andromedans could, in fact, be artificial entities.

Location

While information on the holdings of the Andromedans in their home galaxy is unknown, it can be postulated that they held sway over a significant portion of Andromeda at the time of the launching of the invasion - enough to provide logistical support for a fleet of starships travelling the 200-year journey from M31 to the Milky Way.

As noted, their holdings included the LMC, as well as significant portions of the Alpha Star Fleet Universe and Omega octants during the War, yet their success in other regions of the galaxy - not least, their fate against the formidable Xorkaelian Empire Xorkaelians are as of yet undocumented.

Andromedan starships are divided into two main categories - Motherships and Satellite Ships . Each kind possesses Tactical Warp engines - allowing them to fight at FTL speeds - yet Satellite Ships are transported by Motherships for strategic deployment and usually operate in tandem with the parent vessel.

Andromedan warships operate on quite different principles to those of races in the Alpha Octant or Lesser Magellanic Cloud. Instead of shields, their vessels are protected by efficient power absorption panels, which are able to absorb incoming fire and use it to power their own systems.

In terms of weaponry, Andromedan vessels were armed with Phaser-analogues, as well as Tractor-Repulsor Beams - capable of tearing a target warship apart. In addition, they used the formidable Mauler cannon on one of their Satellite Ships to attack enemy installations.

Perhaps the most prominent example of superior Andromedan technology, the Displacement Device allows an Andromedan Mothership to literally displace itself several thousand kilometres simultaneously - or do the same to a target starship! However, this technology is also a strategic weakness, as no more than two Displacement Device-equipped Motherships can safely operate in the same region of space.

In all, a combination of an Andromedan Mothership and accompanying Satellite Ships are a threat to even larger squadrons of Magellanic or Galactic vessels, with fleets of Andromedan ships a danger to heavily fortified systems - as their many enemies discovered first-hand...

History


The Launch from Andromeda

Although there is no direct information regarding the initial deployment of Andromedan forces, it can be postulated as occurring sometime in the century prior to Y1 .

Year after year, successive waves of Andromedan warships were launched from Andromeda, heading for the Lesser Magellanic Cloud - the springboard for an invasion of the Milky Way. Included were the components necessary to construct the first Desecrator - the starbase which would provide the hub of Andromedan operations in the LMC.

War in the Cloud

The LMC had been home to several star-faring races, such as the Eneen, the Baduvai and the Maghadim, who had their own history of conflict. Indeed, the Andromedans launched their first strike against the Baduvai and the Eneen a year after a costly war between the three aforementioned Magellanic Powers, fought over the contested Neutral Worlds.

Unfortunately, these races could not stand against the onslaught of the Andromedans, and were crushed as the invaders used the Cloud to gather resources and launch raids into the Milky Way. The Eneen and Baduvai fell first, while the Maghadim held out behind their radiation shell until Y183. The Chomak, the last Magellanic race to hold out, fell in Y185. While elements from these races struggled for survival out in the Fringe of the Cloud, these groups were only saved when the Unity races arived in Y202.

Preparations for Conquest

Once established in the Cloud, the Andromedans prepared a chain of Satellite Bases linking the LMC to the Milky Way, as well as a Rapid Transport Network in the galaxy proper - which allowed their vessels to travel at superior strategic speeds

The first official contact with the Andromedans for the Federation United Federation of Planets

The United Federation of Planets widely referred to and known as the Federation is part of the Star Trek [i] ...

and Klingon Empire came in Y166, when an Intruder was engaged by Galactic vessels. Over the next decades, further sightings and ship classes were encountered, yet the fires of the General War General War

Alliance:

Coalition:
...

swept these accounts from the minds of the Alpha races.

In Y186, the ISC War of Pacification began, and the Alpha Octant races were primarily concerned with the buffer zone created by the Interstellar Concordium Interstellar Concordium (ISC)

In the fictional Star Fleet Universe [i] as represented in the range of games from Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. [i] ...

. However, that was soon to change...

The Onslaught
In Y188, the Andromedans launched their operations against the Alpha races.

In the Alpha Octant, the ISC bore the brunt of the initial attacks - as it was the largest power and was spread across the octant in its peacekeeping role - taking severe losses to the invaders, with the renowned Echelon of Judgement rushed all the way from the Klingon-Federation border back to defend the capital world of Veltrassa from an Andromedan deep strike. Over the coming years, the War spread to other races in the Octant - the Federation was asaulted by the Invaders in Y192 - and former enemies were forced to co-operate for mutual survival.

In the Omega Octant, which was less advanced technologically than the Alpha races, the Andromedan invasion corresponded with a Souldra expansion into the octant. Each race inflicted great losses on the Omega races, with the prospect of eventual defeat looming. While the Loriyill managed to defeat the Souldra, the only bright spot in the war against the Andromedans was found in the successful liberation of Iridani Star Fleet Universe

The Star Fleet Universe is the variant of the Star Trek [i] fictional universe [i] detailed in the serie ...

space from Andromedan control, which was followed by a Crusade into the Milky Way to aid the Omega allies. However, without external assistance these efforts would not be enough to hold back the tide.

At present, nothing is known regarding the Andromedans' fortunes in other regions of the galaxy - yet it is possible that the massive Xorkaelian Empire proved a formidable adversary for the invaders.

Operation Unity

Things looked bleak for the Alpha races until the discovery of the RTN in Y195 by the famed Federation Galactic Survey cruiser Darwin, which was soon realised to be the Achilles' heel of the invasion force. Over the next few years the Alpha races severely disrupted the Network, facilitating a rolling back of Andromedan successes. The Magellanics had long known of the RTN, and the Iridani had made a similar discovery in the liberation of their Cluster, but neither were able to fully capitalise on their findings - unlike the allied Alpha powers, who took to the destruction of the RTN with great effectiveness.

Finally, in Y201, the allied races of the Alpha Octant launched Operation Unity, a three-pronged strike against the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, where in Y202 the Unity powers and the remaining Magellanic fleet assets destroyed the two remining Desecrator starbases, breaking the back of the invasion.

This action rescued the Omega Octant from the spectre of Andromedan domination, as well as cutting off support for any Andromedan forces in other parts of the galaxy. The last known stronghold in the Milky Way, in the Omega Octant's Ryn Nebula, was destroyed by the Omega allies in Y204, as a result of Operation Concerted Strike.

Afterwards, the Andromedans remained a nuisance for the Galactic and Magellanic races, but the spectre of full-scale war was finally removed.

[Azurian]

I still doubt that "ancient" enemy is the Andromedians. Because when you think of "ancient enemies", you know of them in the ancient past. And TOS isn't "ancient history".

My money is still on Ancient Races that we know all too well like the Iconians and the Hur'q. And they fit the "ancient enemy" better than a race that travelled from another galaxy.

[The.Grand.Nagus]

Originally Posted by Misteretc

The Andromedan Invasion

If your going to copy/paste, give a source. And if your going to copy/paste that much, just post a link

[Gryphon_Darkcrest]

Anyone else getting excited just from reading all the prospects for future exspansions? Long live the ST universe, and when do we get our parallel universe missions and ships? Oh the glorious battles and discovery we are all about to embark on.

"On the edge of the Universe we stand, beyond it is where I must go." - Xavier Darkcrest

[Cormoran]

hmmmm, ancient enemies.... i hope we don't meet a bunch of space persians! though it would give us all a good reason to scream "this is starfleet!' like that funny avatar i've seen around.