TREKCORE > GAMING > STAR TREK LEGACY > Story Synopsis

This section is broken into three components:

ORIGINAL STORYLINE
ACTUAL STORY SYNOPSIS
CUT STORYLINE

Quote from Feb 2006 edition of GameInformer shows the ORIGINAL storyline of the game.  This storyline was completely rewritten later by DC Fontana and Derek Chester.

"The campaign is split into three distinct eras: Enterprise, The Original Series, and Next Generation-plus.  In each of these phases you will encounter familiar foes (Romulans for Enterprise, Klingons for TOS, the Borg for Next Gen), but there will be an overarching mystery connecting the events of each stemming from an episode of Next Generation entitled "Contagion."

An ancient species known as the Iconians once possessed a unique technology that allowed for instant teleportation in space, and though Picard learns of this eventually it was actually uncovered in an ealier era by an archeologist named Sovak. Intent on creating a logical utopia, Sovak vows to use the power to bring order to the universe, making shady alliances and bargains with the prominent species to achieve his goal.  These dealings happen largely in the background during the game's first two campaigns, but Sovak's machinations become a much greater concern when he makes an unfortunate partnership with the greatest threat ever faced by the Federation: The Borg.

With all of civilization on the brink of assimilation, the last battle spans time and quadrants, resulting in you having all the ships and captains working together to shut down this Borg-Iconian abomination."

For more information and screencaps of the TNG episode "Contagion" please visit TrekCore's coverage of the episode.  The Iconian gates were also featured in the DS9 episode "To The Death".  Several Star Trek novels have been written about the gateways, most prominently the seven book Star Trek Gateway's series.

The ENT era picks up in 2159 in this story. So much later than fourth season of the show, but before the last episode with the signing of the Federation charter.

MISSION 1: Enterprise Era
TITE: Those in Need

Enterprise is requested by Starfleet to help the Vulcans find a missing scientist.  While scanning for the ship in its last known location, Enterprise is attacked by Romulans.  After defeating them, the search is resumed and the USS Coto is discovered hiding and stranded in a nearby nebula.  It had taken refuge there after a Romulan attack.  After towing the USS Coto out of the nebula with a tractor beam, the Romulans mount another attack and are defeated by the combined power of the two ships.  The USS Coto then reveals that it received a Vulcan distress signal and provides the coordinates.  When Enterprise arrives at the coordinates, it receives a distress signal from the Seleya, which is under attack by the Romulans.  The Enterprise and Coto destroy the Romulans, saving the Seleya.  T'Uerell, a female Vulcan scientist, is in command of the ship and reveals that the Vulcans do not approve of her research.  She is cryptic as to the nature of her research, but asks for Enterprise's help in rescuing her research team at a nearby outpost before the Romulans find them.  Archer agrees.

MISSION 2: Enterprise Era
TITE: Breakwater

T'Uerell's Outpost is under attack when Archer's fleet arrives.  The Romulans do not respond to hails, forcing Archer to defend the outpost while the Seleya evacuates the researchers.  Instead of rescuing the researchers, T'Uerell recovers protomatter stored on the outpost and flees the area.  The Outpost is destroyed with all hands.

MISSION 3: Enterprise Era
TITE: Be My Shepherd

There is an outbreak of a mutagenic virus in the Epsilon Theta planetary sector.  Starfleet sends aid in the form of medical ships, but the Romulans are attacking the conoys that enter the system.  Archer's fleet is sent to ensure the convoys are safe and heal the Epsilon Theta planets, in the midst of Romulan attacks.

MISSION 4: Enterprise Era
TITE: Poisoned Well

It is discovered that the mutagenic virus infecting the Epsilon Theta planets is artificial and manufactured by the Romulans. There is a possible link to the plot with Enkaria and Archer is sent to investigate.  Upon arrival, Archer discovers that all life on Enkaria has already been destroyed by the same virus.  A drone ship carrying the virus is discovered in the system and tries to flee.  Archer's fleet follows the drone and discovers a network of Romulan stations and drone ships producing and transporting the toxin.  After destroying the network, one drone ship escapes with the virus...

MISSION 5: Enterprise Era
TITE: Stirring the Hive

Synopsis coming...

MISSION 6: TOS Era
TITE: The Squeeze

Klingon aggression has been escalating and intelligence indicated that the Klingons are building a weapon in the Kathra system.  Starfleet Intelligence also discovered that a powerful new cloaking device is being developed in the Makus system.  A Bird of Prey has been equipped with the prototype, but the ship's other systems are not completely online, making it vulnerable.  Kirk leads a fleet to capture the Bird of Prey and take it back to Starfleet.

MISSION 7: TOS Era
TITE: Behind Enemy Lines

Starfleet Command requests further intelligence on the Klingon weapon in the Kathra system before planning an assault.  Kirk uses the captured Bird of Prey to scan strategic targets in the system.  During the scans, Kirk finds T'Uerell's ship near the Klingon weapon.  Through intercepted communications, it is learned that T'Uerell has built the weapon for the Klingons in exchange for dilithium and deuterium.  Before leaving to meet up with the Starfleet task force, Kirk disables the weapon's sensor array and leaves.

MISSION 8: TOS Era
TITE: Firestorm

The battle has already begun.  Kirk leads his fleet to take out the shipyards repairing the Klingon ships and then reinforces other Starfleet ships engaged in battle.  Once they are neutralized, the Klingon weapon is destroyed.  T'Uerell escapes.

MISSION 9: TOS Era
TITE: At the Gates

Years later, Kirk comes across T'Uerell's ship.  She hadn't been seen since the battle in the Kathra system where the Klingon weapon was destroyed.  T'Uerell has taken control of defenses around a Federation research facility.  Once Kirk takes out the defense and retakes the station, the remnants of T'Uerell's research point to cybernetics.

MISSION 10: TOS Era
TITE: Omega

T'Uerrell is discovered at Dr. Ketteract's research station.  She destroys an entire Federation fleet with a dampening weapon network.  It is discovered that if you send a feedback pulse to the weapon platforms, the network collapses.  Once Kirk accomplishes this, he retakes Ketteract's station.  T'Uerell escapes, leaving a rudimentary Borg sphere behind that is eventually destroyed.

MISSION 11: TNG Era
TITE: Revelations

The USS Stargazer encounters the Romulans attacking T'Uerell's ship.  To escape, T'Uerell destroys a planet, which wipes out the Romulans.  Picard must take command and coordinate ships to protect the surrounding planets from being impacted by the debris.

MISSION 12: TNG Era
TITE: Ambush

During Sisko's test flight of the Defiant, he detects a Romulan ship dead in space in Federation territory.  The area is being affected by Romulan emitters that prevent warp bubbles from forming.  While scanning, three Romulan Warbirds decloak and destroy the wreckage.  They reveal that they are from the Tal'Shiar, and are trying to lure T'Uerell in for capture.  T'Uerell has been attacking Romulans in the years since her last encounter with Kirk.  The Tal'Shiar believes the Federation sent her, as she is Vulcan.  The Defiant takes refuge in a nearby nebula.  The USS Enterprise D arrives to back up the Defiant, but discovers that the Defiant was captured and is being held at a nearby Romulan base.  After destroying the Romulan emitters, the Defiant and crew are rescued...

MISSION 13: TNG Era (Post Nemesis)
TITE: Anger and Mercy

Admiral Janeway and Captain Picard confront T'Uerell, who now controls a part of the Borg Collective.  She wishes to eliminate illogical thought in the universe.  Picard command the fleet in the fight against T'Uerell while Janeway goes for reinforcements.  T'Uerell begins assimilating planets in the system, so Picard must protect refugee ships fleeing the system.

MISSION 14: TNG Era (Post Nemesis)
TITE: Generals

T'Uerell's Borg fleet is lured to DS9 so that the combined power of the station and the combined Federation/Klingon/Romulan ships can take the Borg out.  After securing DS9 from attack and rallying the Klingons and Romulans, Picard leads the attack on T'Uerell.  T'Uerell, yet again, escapes, but Picard lays in a pursuit course...

MISSION 15: TNG Era (Post Nemesis)
TITE: Logical Conclusions

Picard follows T'Uerell to a nebula with a string anomoly.  T'Uerell places her ship in the string, and harnesses the power to create a very powerful shield and open a transwarp conduit.  Borg reinforcements begin coming through the conduit.  A large battle ensues until a Starfleet ship arrives with modified sensor pods that will disrupt the string anomoly protecting T'Uerell.  Once the pods are in place, Picard destroy's T'Uerell's ship, ending the problem that has plagued the Federation from its founding...

Legacy was rushed to be released to coincide with the franchise's 40th Anniversary.  As a result, a lot of material was cut out of the story that was intended to be there.  Derek Chester, writer for Legacy, has been filling in the gaps on Bethesda's Official Board, and we are presenting this material here.  The Extras released with the game are also featured here, as parts of the story that did not get put into the game.

Q: What was cut from the ENT storyline?
Derek Chester: The way the story had been sliced up, it was definitely a lot shorter than intended. Originally, there was supposed to be a prologue where you would see a bit of T'Uerell's motivations. Dealing with the Sundering and her hope of reunification with the Sundered under the teachings of Surak. After the inital framework was in place, we then were to pick up with Archer coming off a shore leave during which the NX-01 was being refit with newer technologies finally provided by the Vulcans and Andorians, such as tractor beams.

Dorothy and I wanted a sense of scale to show Starfleet actually coming of age as it were, building many new vessels and of course the bridging of older design with newer technologies that would begin to resemble what we know in TOS.

T'Uerell was assigned by the Vulcan High Command to research a new technology salvaged after the NX-01 had destroyed the transport ship carrying Borg. After a long period of research, she began to notice the true applications for which the nanoprobes discovered were intended. Modifications were made by her for over a year before she was able to control exactly what the nanoprobes would modify. She injects herself, and begins to build a collective of her own.

Also, since she has now absorbed the collective information of 24th century Borg, she now has great knowledge of the future and also of more sophisticated technologies than currently exist in the ENT era. But she needs things...to make her fleet of ships and build her power base. At this moment in time, her ship is a standard Vulcan vessel. But to modify her vessel with newer technologies, materials are needed. By this time, the Romulans, whom she secretly knows are the sundered, possess protomatter. She requires this substance to power her new vessel, and arranges to trade the Romulans metagenic weaponry in exchange for the protomatter. She uses her knowledge of the many assimilated cultures now within her to design the metagenic weapon.

Since we're in the later phases of the Earth Romulan war...the Romulans see this as an opportunity to bring swift victory. With the items she needs, she give the Romulans the weapon, but also steals from them a singularity drive. This is what they are after when they attack her research post. She has what she needs, so she heads off deep into the beta quadrant to build up her private collective and improve her vessel.

Archer at this point has to deal with the ramifications of the metagenic weapon being unleashed, and it culminates in the Romulans making an attempt to destroy the population of Earth. Here Dorothy and I really wanted to tie into TOS, so the nuclear reactors were put into the story so we could justify the fledgling Earth Starfleet defeating the multitudes of Romulan warships.

What also wasn't addressed in the game was that later on the final battle with the Romulans, having a greatly depleted fleet, lose that confrontation. At that point the subspace radio treaty would have been agreed to establishing the neutral zone...and later of course, the signing of the Federation charter. We would have been able to put in a much larger arc, if we had the original seven missions per era that had been originally planned.

Q: Why does the game use a starbase for the Ketteract research station?
Derek Chester: Dorothy and I made it clear that in the episode "Omega", Janeway shows in the briefing that the Ketteract research station was a "Regula" style research station, not a starbase. However, even though we made that clear, a starbase still appears in the place in the game where you encounter the Ketteract research station.

We did supply all Canon based information, but we couldn't control every aspect of what was implemented. Some battels we won, some we lost, but we fought hard to keep everything as far as assets in the game Canon, since our storyline was already firmly rooted in it.

Q: Any extra information on the ending?
Derek Chester: After Picard destroys T'Uerell and you can see this partially in one of the extras vids...as the Starfleet ships are searching the debris fields of the battle site making sure nothing survived, they miss a Borg vinculum. It was not operable when they scanned, but as they leave, it slowly comes back to life, glowing green. That was meant to be portrayed in a rendered cinematic. But, such as it is, its doesn't come across perfectly. So yes, we left room for T'Uerell to come back because we liked her as a villain.

Q: Did the Klingons give T'Uerell soldiers to be assimilated?
Derek Chester: The Klingons didn't give her soldiers on purpose no. What was meant to be portrayed there was that she created the particle beam weapon for them in exchange for a fleet of Klingon ships to help her take and hold the Ketteract research station. They complied and did this, but she also used them. There originally was supposed to be a cinematic where the beam weapon is tested and destroys a starbase. Starfleet then becomes aware of the depth of the problem with the Klingons. So while Starfleet is busy mounting and offensive to destroy this massive weapon in Klingon territory, she strikes the research station and manages to hold it for quite a length of time before anyone knows, and begins constructing her own Borg Omega vessel. Incorporating both Borg design and her own as well. Without knowing it, the Klingons handed a quarter of their fleet to aid T'Uerell, and she assimilates them all, building her collective to greater numbers. They are all of course neatly destroyed by the Ketteract explosion so they don't interfere with Trek Canon in later events.

Q: What is Captain Kirk talking about in reference to the USS Phoenix?
Derek Chester: This also was cut. Originally there was supposed to be a rendered cinematic where the Klingon beam weapon, given to them by T'Uerell, was to fire and destroy a Starbase...alerting Starfleet to this weapon. At that point, section 31 appears, Kirk then receives orders to go into Klingon space and rescue a vessel...the USS Phoenix. They tell him that the Phoenix's warp engines had a malfunction as it drifted over the line. But Kirk doesn't buy that explanation.

But nevertheless, he follows orders taking the TOS pre-refit Enterprise into Klingon territory and tractoring the Phoenix back home. It turns out that the Phoenix was a much smaller vessel which was equipped with a prototype cloaking device that was developed from the one Kirk stole in "Enterprise Incident" in TOS. The cloaking device required a great sum of power overloading the Phoenix's warp core, and rendering it helpless. Kirk is now tasked to take the Enterprise in and finish what the Phoenix started...the thinking being that the larger and more powerful Constitution Class ship should be able to adequately power the cloak.

It goes on from there, but as you can see there were many design changes to the story and things that were simply cut all together. So the reference to the Phoenix is still in the game...but the events that they refer to were originally supposed to be in the first two missions, when the game was still going to have seven per era.

Consequently, there was originally also a Captain Pike mission in there, where the Farragut made an appearance, Kirks old assignment...but again I digress.

Q: Was anything cut from the TNG era?
Derek Chester: Actually yes, quite a bit. Since there were originally supposed to be seven missions per era, we had more with Sisko and Janeway in there...and of course a lot more background on Picard. One of the big things I was disappointed didn't come across well was that the reason the Romulans are so isolated for so many years in the TNG era up until the episode, "Neutral Zone", was that T'Uerell after the loss of her Omega ship to Kirk and the bulk of her assimilated Klingon forces has gone deep into the Beta quadrant to hide. At this point she was for many years harassing and striking Romulan interests to build up her collective. Implying that the neutral zone outposts destruction was her doing. Gathering materials and drones to fill up her collective once again. Also the reason in which she destroyed that planet was never explained properly. And of course, we were trying to explain some of the paranoia of the Romulans when it comes to the Federation. They see T'Uerell as a Romulan assassin. So, yeah, there was quite a bit cut out of that era as well. We also were trying to fit the Titan in there as well.

Q: Was there supposed to be more with Sisko?
Derek Chester: Besides the Defiant's test run, at one point we had Sisko involved in the story as a prophet showing Picard these events from the past to better show him the threat T'Uerell posed. But...that also was cut.

Q: What timeframes are the missions set in?
Off the top of my head I'd have to look up the dates from the notes of lengthy research I did into the timeline. I know in the ENT era we put it in 2159...but I'd have to pull all the dates for the other eras from my notes which aren't in front of me at the moment. However, the two TOS missions take place in roughly the fifth year of the original five year mission...while the TMP missions take place between TMP and STII:TWOK. It was an error that put the Enterprise A on the saucer section of the refit. First mission of TNG...being "Revelations", takes place in 2333. The next TNG mission "Ambush" takes place not too long after the events in TNG ep "Unification", so thats fifth season and I think somewhere like 2368. The final three missions of TNG are something like a year after the events in Nemesis. Without my notes being in front of me, that's my best recollection...hope it helps.

Q: Can you tell us more about Admiral Janeway's role in the game?
Derek Chester: First off...let me state that I truly love Kate. As an actress...she's amazing and getting to write for her was a thrill. In the cinematic originally envisioned for the scene where Picard and Janeway talk with T'Uerell...the log was supposed to play over a long shot of the Ent E and Voyager moving towards the dark side of a planet, and as the camera panned we were to see a large Federation fleet behind them. Then as the log plays through...the Enterprise and Voyager crest the planet, revealing the day side, where T'Uerell and her cubes come into view.

In this...Janeway was supposed to be the "voice of Starfleet", since she was the one who had the most experience with the Borg. As an Admiral, she was in full command...but leaves after the negotiations fail to rally Romulan and Klingon forces as Picard fights a delaying action with the Federation fleet and evacuates the inhabited planets in the system. Janeway later is supposed to show up in, "Generals" and "Logical Conclusion". This was supposed to be the mission where Janeway really shined because of her knowledge of the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. There was a very different level in mind at one point where Janeway makes use of her knowledge of future technologies to make a difference in fighting T'Uerell while she is tapping into the polaric ion nebula. Consequently the nebula was turned into a string...so that changed the mission dynamics a little bit. Hope that answers at least some of your questions. There is really so much I could go on for days, but I'm hoping a better venue will eventually make itself available to put that all out there.