Star Trek: Boarding Tactics

Written: 1998.08.01
Last Revised: 1999.08.14

A Federation transporter room

Transporters

The Federation routinely uses transporter technology to break down living subjects into energy, transmit this energy to another location, and recombine it into matter. We find it extremely disturbing that they value their continuity of life-force so little that they are willing to undergo the cycle of death, cloning, and rebirth so readily.

We can only conclude that their societal system values conformity and usefulness to the collective so much that individual citizens are willing to ignore the philosophical and spiritual consequences of matter-energy transportation and undergo this horrific process for the sake of their society. Even the ruthless Rebellion leaders would never have subjected their citizens to such an abomination.

Fortunately, transporters are easy to disrupt. Deflector shields, ambient radiation, and even weak magnetic fields (as seen on the prison asteroid in ST6) can easily prevent transportation. The Federation will therefore be unable to board our starships in combat, unless they somehow manage to cause a shield failure, perhaps by combining phasers and torpedoes from numerous starships. Even if that occurs, sensor-jamming equipment can render transport virtually impossible by keeping the transporter operators from being able to find safe destinations for their troops.

Tactics

The Federation will not be able to capture any of our starships unless they are in a virtual derelict condition. Their tactics are unremarkable (as seen in "Way of the Warrior" when they simply positioned themselves in random locations and used line-of-sight weapons to attack boarders), and they simply don't carry enough troopers to successfully board an Imperial vessel. A typical Federation starship carries less than 100 troopers but an Imperial Star Destroyer carries thousands of stormtroopers.

Conclusion

In the unlikely event of momentary shield failure, our stormtrooper divisions should be made aware that Federation troops may appear on the ship at random locations. Tactics must be adjusted to deal with this possibility, so we cannot assume the boarders will enter through hatchways or hull breaches. Stormtroopers should take up defensive positions around critical portions of the ship, and use nerve-gas grenades upon first sight of any Federation boarders. The Federation troopers should fall easily to nerve-gas grenades thanks to their lack of environmental protection suits, and stormtrooper armour protects its wearers from nerve gas.