The species from the games

Discussion in 'Trek Gaming' started by Ghost, Jul 6, 2016.

  1. Ghost

    Ghost Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Leeuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands
    Hello all,

    I am not sure if I should perhaps put this thread in the general Trek forum, but as this is gaming related I hope Daedalus is okay with it.
    I would like to talk about the various species that have been introduced in the Star Trek games and which ones people liked the most and would have liked to have seen again in games.
    Being a story/new species nut I remember a lot from my most favorite gaming entries.

    Star Trek 25th Anniversary/Judgment Rites

    The Vardaine: a human offshoot, the Vardaine are the descendants of humans who settled the planet Vardaine and used genetic engineering to adapt themselves to the harsh climate of the planet as well as later improve themselves over baseline humanity.
    I think during the game Doctor McCoy somewhere mentions them as "Khan's grandchildren".
    The Vardaine has a somewhat difficult relationship with the Federation though it was a member of it, it requested that the Federation council postponed an investigation into the genetic engineering programs the Vardaine were involved it, the Vardaine also used refugees from another planet on their world as cheap labor.

    One of the most notorious Vardaine was Dr Ies Bredell, the head of the science council who sought to take over the Vardaine Council and isolate the planet from the rest of the Federation.
    He planned a coup d'état but his plan was joined by a then lieutenant James T Kirk of the Farragut.
    Around the time he was also heading a program to copy Constitution class starships as part of a plan to create a fleet. Years later this would result in a copy of the Enterprise that Bredell used to destroy the unsuspecting USS Republic.
    Dr Bredell also worked together with Elasi pirates who he assisted by incorporating Romulan cloaking technology into their ships.

    Kirk and the Enterprise crew would eventually confront Bredell and his duplicate Enterprise and defeat him over Vardaine, the scientist however survived by being transported onto a cloaked Elasi frigate.

    Bredell then tried to create a super weapon on Espoir station that powered by a proto matter event would have enough firepower to destroy Earth and other Federation worlds.
    Once again Kirk and the Enterprise crew stopped him and finally arrested the renegade scientist.


    The Elasi Pirates: A group of pirates that have been plaguing Federation space, they are renegades from the planet Menalvagor, a world that is currently undergoing a revolution after several decades of tension when Andorians came to colonize the planet.
    The Elasi Pirates are made up members of several clans that seek to destabilize the Federation and they have made alliance with elements within the Vardiane government and Romulan Star Empire.

    They operate their own type of starships that resemble early Klingon battlecruisers though the Klingon High Command denies the connection. These ships are armed with a variety of weapons and other systems.

    Some people wondered why the designers of the games did not use the Orions instead of creating a new race but I think there are some major differences between the two species/groups.
    Where as the Orions are more interested in profit, the Elasi seem to use their pirate operations to acquire resources and weapons for their campaign against the Federation and they are more akin to terrorists.


    Star Trek Starfleet Academy

    The Venturi: a somewhat reptilian species that might have just been made up for the holographic scenarios the students at the academy train with though I fancy the idea that they are a real race within the Federation.
    The Venturi are one of the more older and respected species within the Federation, unfortunate their system's star is reaching the end of its lifespan and as a result their world's life sustaining abilities are diminishing.

    The Federation seeks to relocate the species to a new star system but a group of renegade Venturi that believe that the Federation is not doing enough to help them has turned to piracy.
    The Venturi pirates managed to acquire unique chips and technology of their own when they crossed the great barrier around the galaxy and discovered derelicts once belonging to another species.
    The Venturi repaired these ships and have used them as a template to build new ones.

    For a time their leader was a Venturi named Alshoff who during exposure to the great barrier started to develop the same mental abilities as Gary Mitchell.
    Before he could become to powerful he was apparently stopped by Starfleet.

    I like to think this is all based on real events.

    The Meclanti: named after the 22th century cyberneticist Joseph Meclanti, this was a species of cybernetic intelligence that caused a number of incidents along the Federation/Klingon border when it attacked a number of ships and colonies and nearly started a war between the two civilizations.

    The Meclani's cybership wave of destruction was stopped when the Enterprise, temporary manned by a group of newly graduated Starfleet Academy students led by Captain Forrester confronted the Meclanti and learned during their interaction with the species that the damage it caused had not been on purpose.
    Due to their own version of logic and reasoning the Meclanti did not realize that some of the targets they attacked where actually ships and worlds with intelligent beings while it searched for energy to sustain itself.
    The Enterprise crew managed to establish a dialogue with the Meclanti and soon after saved it and a Klingon colony from a Klingon Defense Force ship that sought to destroy the Meclanti by making a star flare.


    Star Trek TNG "A Final Unity"

    The Gardians: a vulcanoid species from the plane Garid that are allies of the Romulans. They are possibly descendants of one of the ships that left Vulcan right before the awakening that also brought the Romulans to the Romulan star system.
    In general Garidians and Romulans looked the same but have some physical differences such as some Gardian individuals having brown hair.
    They control their own territory and are a separate political power though some Gardians felt that the Romulans treated them as subjects.
    As part of their alliance the Romulans sold the Garidians warbirds as well as other classes of starship.

    Garidian culture was divided into two classes: the Patricians and the Plebians, and its society had was based on the four scrolls written by the lawgiver thousands of years earlier.
    The first scroll defines the Garidians' code of honor. The second defines the relationship between the military and the government. The third scroll outlines the Garidians' religion. Finally, the fourth scroll defines the privileges and responsibilities of the Patrician class.

    A fifth scroll was also rumored to be written that included the rights and privileges of the Plebian class but the lawgiver and his followers were forced to leave Garid before he could reveal it.

    During the 2360s a group of rebels came to Federation space to search for possible descendants of the lawgiver and his followers and the location of the mythical fifth scroll.
    The Enterprise D was on patrol at the Neutral Zone at the time and came to the rebels' aid when their ship suffered engine problems. Soon after a Gardian warbird appeared, its commanding officer demanding that the rebels would be turned over.
    Picard offered the rebels sanctuary on board the Enterprise and forced the Gardian warbird to leave Federation space.

    The Enterprise crew then helped the rebels with making contact with the descendants of the lawgiver's people and locate the fifth scroll.
    Unfortunate the discovery of the fifth scroll led to a conflict as opposers to the fifth scroll were executed by the revolutionaries.

    The Chodak: Actually two versions of this species exist within the Microprose Star Trek game, the blue mollusk esque Chodak that use advanced shells or pods to move around, and a more traditional humanoid green reptilian like species that appeared in the TNG Genesis and SNES games "Echoes from the past/Future's past".
    I am mostly going to write about the mollusk ones but I wouldn't mind if the reptilian Chodak would return in some fashion, perhaps as soldiers working for the mollusk Chodak (sort of how the Jem'Hadar worked for the Founders and the Remans worked for the Romulans).

    The Chodak were introduced in Star Trek TNG "A Final Unity" as an ancient civilization and empire that ruled what is now Romulan space 1.000.000 to 900.000 years ago.
    After having lost a powerful machine called the Unity Device that could be used for stellar engineering and altering reality their empire collapsed and the species seemed to have become extinct until they returned during the 2360's to launch an invasion of Romulan and Federation space with the goal of rebuilding their empire and reclaiming the Unity Device, events shown during the game.

    Later on in the game adaptation of Star Trek Generations the Chodak were working together with the renegade scientist Dr Soran, providing him with the means to make more trilithium for his star destroying weapon as well as warships for his attacks on star systems.

    The Chodak are technologically very advanced, possessing technology that even surpasses that of the Federation such as powerful transporters and chameleon field generators.
    They also have powerful dreadnought warships and robot attack drones to support their ships and ground forces.


    Star Trek Voyager Elite Force

    The Forge/Reapers/Vorsoth:

    An alien mechanism designed for conquest and colonization. Created unknown thousands of years ago by a species that may be from outside the galaxy, the Forge was a form of a Von Neuman machine that used available resources to expand itself and eventually create 'seeds' that would grow into new Forges.

    The Forge encountered by the crew of Voyager was a space station structure located in the middle of an interstellar ship graveyard were a powerful dampening field prevented ships from fully functioning.
    From there it send out heavily armed drone ships that were programmed to intercept and engage ships of other civilizations. Those ships capable of destroying a drone ship would be transported to the ship graveyard.
    Once there the Forge would send out harvester ships to retrieve information from a capture ship and claim raw material such as technology and even crew members and bring them back for study and processing.

    Retrieved technology was used to improve and enhance the Forge while captured crew were used as genetic templates and raw material to create soldiers or warrior drones called Reavers that are perfectly suited to conquer worlds and sectors from which the captured crews originate.

    Running the Forge was a powerful telepathic creature called the Vorsoth, a biological construct that served as the overseer and leader of the Forge.

    During the time it was active the Forge captured a number of ships of a variety of species including Klingons, Malon, Hirogen, a Terran Empire warship from the Mirror Universe, and even a Borg vessel that was unable to fight and assimilate Forge technology.

    Eventually a Forge attack drone encountered the USS Voyager and after its defeat teleported the ship to the graveyard. There the crew had to visit some of the other captured ships in order to retrieve resources to repair Voyager and bring it back online and gain information on where they had been transported.
    With help from the crew of an alien ship the crew of Voyager learned about the Forge and eventually launched a mission against it to free Voyager and other captured ships and prevent the Forge from launching its campaign of conquest and spread out across the milkyway galaxy.


    Star Trek Bridge Commander

    The Kessok:

    A silicon based humanoid alien lifeform encountered in the Maelstrom sector.
    The Kessok were in league with a renegade Cardassian faction that had formed after the Dominion War with the intention of waging war against the Federation. The faction's leader, Matan, had convinced the Kessok that the Federation and other galactic powers were a threat to them and to form an alliance with the Cardassians.
    The Kessok provided the Cardassians with newly build Galor and Keldon class ships and some of their own technology such as defense satellites that can cloak and some of their warships to support Cardassian forces.

    At some point the Cardassians either got a Solarforming platform or stole one from the Kessok and altered the device's normal workings.
    Original the device's purpose was to alter the energy/radiation output of a star in order to make its system more suited for the Kessok's biological needs. The Cardassians modified a device so that it could make stars go nova and destroy star systems.
    One Federation colony in the Maelstrom sector was destroyed this way


    The Kessok are civilization on par with the Federation and other galactic powers, possessing advanced starships, positron weaponry, cloaking devices, and the earlier mentioned Solarforming platforms.


    Star Trek Deep Space Nine The Fallen

    The Grigari:


    More from me later on this post (it is late here)
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2016