The Gorn had enough information on Starfleet to impersonate an actual Starfleet commodore. Remember that Kirk and Co were talking with the impersonator live mere seconds before they beamed down to find the Cestus III Outpost destroyed.They were an unknown species whose territory the Federation accidentally encroached upon when they set up the Cestus III colony during the course of events in “Arena”. But shit, (NX-01) Enterprise ran into the Ferengi, the Gorn, the Romulans (who cloaked), holodecks and a bunch of other stuff that they shouldn’t have.
Fuck it… I like the Gorn and hope they go back to resembling the TOS version as opposed to the ENT version, if they even show them.
The Gorn also had other information that helped them approach as if they were a friendly vessel, and they open fire with no warning whatsoever. Also they ignored the surrender pleas from the Outpost even after they were informed that there were women and children.
Dialog from TOS S1 - "Arena", also indicates that the original message for the Enterprise to come there was also faked by the Gorn, because they destroyed the Outpost of full two days before the Enterprise arrived. The one Federation Survivor stated no messages came from Outpost personnel requesting the Enterprise to come there.
Also, the Commodore's message specifically requested that Kirk and his tactical people being burned down...
So a number of things are pretty clear:
- The Gorn had a lot of information regarding Starfleet ship deployments oh, and other very personal information about its personnel.
- the Gorn clearly set up a specific situation to determine Starfleet's military capabilities in the sector as well.
So given all of the above it's pretty clear that the Gorn must have captured and obtained information from other Starfleet vessels and personnel that ventured into their territory. The encounter set up in "Arena", was planned and carefully executed by the Gorn. It was not just some random First Contact as far as they were concerned.
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