General Orders

From Star Trek Online Geekipedia

Contents 1 Starfleet General Orders 1.1 General Order One 1.2 General Order Two 1.3 General Order Three 1.4 General Order Four 1.5 General Order Five 1.6 General Order Six 1.7 General Order Seven 1.8 General Order Eight 1.9 General Order Nine 1.10 General Order Ten 1.11 General Order Eleven 1.12 General Order Twelve 1.13 General Order Thirteen 1.14 General Order Fourteen 1.15 General Order Fifteen 1.16 The Temporal Prime Directive 1.17 The Omega Directive

Starfleet General Orders

These are the General Orders that have existed for countless generations in Starfleet and have been the very foundation of the Federation. Of course, some General Orders are open to interpretation, but those interpretations will be attempted to be explained in this article.

General Orders may be broken, but only in order to uphold a more important General Order. The Orders are numbered in their perceived order of importance and so a Starfleet officer should place the protection of Federation citizens (General Order Two) above their own safety and the safety of their crew (General Order Five), however an officer is not required to aid a ship in distress (General Order Six) if such aid would place their crew in unreasonable danger (General Order Five). This would mean a Federation vessel in distress should be aided no matter the danger it may pose to the rescue ship while a vessel from an non-member race may be left in distress if the commanding officer feels the danger of ambush or the inherent hazard of aiding the vessel is too great to their crew.

The only exceptions to this judgment are the Prime Directive, which as General Order One can never be superseded, and the Omega Directive which overrides all others due to the extreme danger the omega particles represent.

General Order One

• No officer of Starfleet shall interfere in the natural evolution of a sapient species, nor shall any officer permit a Federation citizen to interfere in the natural course of development of a sapient species.

This is Starfleet's Prime Directive . This General Order cannot be broken in any stretch of the imagination and any attempt to willfully break this General Order can see a Starfleet officer or a member of the Federation court-martialed and imprisoned. As one take's to the stars, they should always keep this General Order in mind each and every time they approach a new world that could be teaming with life. This General Order even makes it clear that if rescuing crew members or such would endanger their natural evolution then Starfleet officers and Federation personnel are expendable in those situations.

General Order Two

• Starfleet officers and agents shall at all times protect the life and liberty of the citizens of the United Federation of Planets.

Starfleet officers swear an oath to protect the lives and liberties of the Federation and its citizens. Basically put, when Federation lives or colonists are at risk a Starfleet officer is expected to do their duty and proceed to protect them to the best of their abilities. As a side note Starfleet officers would not be classed as Federation citizens while executing their duty as these duties will often place them in harm's way (see General Order Five)

General Order Three

• In the event of catastrophe, the commanding officer is authorized to order the destruction of the ship.

This General Order allows the current commanding officer to destroy their ship in the event of a hostile take-over to preserve the secrets of the Federation.

General Order Four

• Starfleet authorizes any and all commanding officers to countermand Starfleet regulations in the event of an extreme threat to Federation security.

This General Order allows commanding officers to countermand any order given if such a situation could endanger Federation security or endanger thousands of lives.

General Order Five

• Commanding officers shall safeguard the safety and liberty of crew members and civilians under their command.

This General Order basically states that commanding officers should not take any unnecessary risks with the lives of civilians and crew under their command. This General Order does not mean not to avoid danger, but basically states do not take unnecessary risks.

General Order Six

• Starfleet personnel must aid and assist any spacefaring vessel signaling a distress call.

This General Order authorizes any Starfleet vessel to go to the aid of another ship signaling distress. This applies to even enemy ships and often confuses other spacefaring powers.

General Order Seven

• No Starfleet officer shall visit the planet Talos IV, nor shall he allow any Federation citizen to visit Talos IV.

After the incident with Christopher Pike, this General Order is practically as unbreakable as the Prime Directive. In fact, this is the only General Order on the books that the penalty is death for breaking it. Though there has been a movement to make it a life imprisonment instead.

General Order Eight

• Starfleet personnel are required to investigate any and all instances of espionage on Starfleet facilities, and within the United Federation of Planets.

This General Order gives commanding officers the ability to cancel a current mission if proof of espionage is present.

General Order Nine

• Starfleet personnel are required to protect and defend Federation property and territory.

This General Order basically authorizes Starfleet personnel to take whatever steps are necessary in protecting the Federation, its territory and its property.

General Order Ten

• Starfleet personnel shall take no hostile action unless responding to a hostile action.

This General Order states that no Starfleet officer shall take an aggressive action unless aggressive action was already taken against them.

General Order Eleven

• Starfleet personnel shall not enter the Romulan Neutral Zone or permit Federation citizens to enter the Neutral Zone without a direct order from Starfleet Command.

Starfleet officers are not allowed to cross into the Romulan Neutral Zone unless given express permission by Starfleet Command itself. Of course, this General Order can be countermanded in the event of a situation involving another General Order.

General Order Twelve

• Starfleet personnel are required to take adequate defensive precautions when approached by a spacecraft with which prior contact has not been established.

If a vessel approaches your ship but does not answer hails or give hailing calls, commanders are expected to go to yellow alert and raise the shields and energize phasers to partial stand-by. This includes Federation vessels that remain in radio silence.

General Order Thirteen

• In the event that a situation has left no other alternative, the commanding officer may give the order to abandon ship to safeguard the lives of the crew and civilians on board.

This General Order allows the immediate commanding officer to order all hands to abandon ship. Most officers tend to look at this as a last resort, but situations can end up demanding it, such as core breaches, deadly outbreaks and other such phenominon. In some cases, a commanding officer can also enact General Order Three after issuing this order if the situation is dire enough.

General Order Fourteen

• To the extent that it does not interfere with their other duties, Starfleet personnel are obligated to investigate any unusual phenomenon.

When strange phenomenon shows up near a Starfleet vessel, a commander is authorized to change their mission parameters and examine the phenomenon, whether astronomic or planetary.

General Order Fifteen

• No flag officer shall beam into a hazardous area without armed escort.

For the purpose of beaming into an unknown situation even after a battle, flag officers are expected to have an armed escort at all times to protect them as they are generally of strategic value for situations of battle and military nature.

The Temporal Prime Directive

• No interference in the proper or natural development of time and history is allowed.

This General Order was hotly debated for a long time, and debated even more if it should of been included on the official books as the evidence that time travel was possible could of been damaging to the Federation. Needless to say the idea of "proper or natural" development is relative, as this order can be interpreted for a currently altered timeline as well. Most Starfleet officers typically look at this General Order as an extension of the Prime Directive.

The Omega Directive

• Upon the discovery of an Omega molecule, the captain of any Starfleet vessel must immediately report the discovery to Starfleet Command directly through secure channels. Any and all means are at the captain of the starship's disposal to secure complete and total destruction of the molecule, up to and including violation of the Prime Directive in order to ensure its complete destruction and any information on it removed.

This is a highly classified directive. Only starship captains and higher ranking individuals actually know of this General Orders existence. Pretty much the commanding officer is required to report the existence of the molecule immediately to Starfleet Command upon confirmation scan of its existence, and do everything they can to destroy the molecule and remove all information of it from existence, which can include violating the Prime Directive to do so.