Khitomer Peace Award Winner

Reason for the award

Recently, the crew of the USS Discovery completed a special mission called Vox Populai. This mission ties directly with the events of Picard Season 3, episodes 9 and 10.
This was a rare and exciting opportunity for the members of the Discovery SIMM (as well as any guests from other SIMMs on the site) to follow along with a canon Star Trek episode from the point of view of a Starfleet ship participating in the Frontier Day celebrations and subsequent Borg incursion. It was a bit of a challenge to run, given the complex nature of the episode, with the younger members of the crew being assimilated, the crew splitting up amongst the chaos, and our role in the background of the greater canon story, but it gave our characters awesome story arcs, brave acts of heroism, phenomenal writing and growth opportunities that have reverberated across our characters and the forum at large.

Commander Rayek Tr’Lhoell, one of the primary GMs for this SIMM said: “We knew after the Picard season 3 wrapped up, that this HAD to become a part of our Shadow Fleet story. Adhering to canon is a huge component of Shadow Fleet. And with so much of the Fleet being involved in the Frontier Day festivities, we knew it would be impactful to our crew to be a part of it. We held off on the mission until the very last one of the year so that we could avoid spoilers to many of our members. It was challenging to maintain that canon aspect and not have the crew solve the crisis themselves. Most players loved it. Some didn’t like that they were constrained by canon or our need to avoid disabling Fleet Mode since doing so assured that the ship would be destroyed by the Borg assimilated. Overall, it is a mission that I will not forget and I have yet to see a more impactful mission for the crew.”

Synopsis:
It’s Frontier Day and the Federation is celebrating the 250th year since the launch of the first Warp flight. To celebrate that, Starfleet wishes to show off the newest Technology: Fleet Formation. A program that allows ships to move in synchrony, but locks out all individual control of the ship. The Discovery is a part of the Honor Guard for the Enterprise-F as it goes to be retired into the annals of history. Suddenly, a call from a hidden Borg cube essentially assimilates all of the young officers under 25 years old.

The unassimilated crew must fight for their lives as Discovery is taken by the newly-assimilated Borg, who have quickly overrun the ship. One team makes it to the besieged Starbase to assist as it is being attacked. Meanwhile, a ragtag team of the crew that didn’t or couldn’t make it off the ship congregates in the Jeffries tubes to try to survive or return control of the ship.

Fortunately, the attack ends, and the assimilated officers return to normal, leaving a changed Starfleet in its wake.