Prism teams consist of the brave beings who guard the Federation and its Allies in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, standing, ever ready, to meet whatever threat may present itself, and complete whatever mission is sent their way.
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Prism teams consist of the brave beings who guard the Federation and its Allies in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, standing, ever ready, to meet whatever threat may present itself, and complete whatever mission is sent their way. |
They operate by sea, air, and deep space, appearing from the night sky, striking their targets with deadly efficiency, then vanishing into the darkness from which they emerged.
In 2368, Starfleet felt that one of the best ways of executing Federation policy in border worlds, along with preventing full-scale war between the Federation and the Cardassian Governments, was the formation of a new organization that was dubbed Special Operations, a designation derived from Starfleet Intelligence, whose operational teams in the field were given the same name in 2364. Starfleet allocated 2,300 personnel slots for the unit and assigned it to New Berlin, Luna. In the spring of 2385, Special Operations were placed under the command of Commander Johnathan Wolfe, who went to New Berlin to choose a suitable location for a Psychological Operations/Special Operations center. He chose a remote area of the post known as Monolith Hill, not knowing that within ten years it would become one of the busiest places in the Army.
He then went about assembling a cadre of officers and NCOs who would serve as the hard-core foundation of the new unit, and who would act as a training staff to perpetuate and flesh out the fledgling organization. Wolfe didn't want raw recruits. He wanted the best troops in Starfleet, and he got them: former Starfleet Intel officers, Security troops, ex-undercover troops and combat veterans of the Maquis and Tzenkethi Wars. They were an unusual lot, a motivated bunch, men who were looking for new challenges to conquer - the more arduous the better. Virtually all spoke at least two languages, had at least a Petty Officer’s rank, and were trained in infantry and covert operations. They were all volunteers willing to work behind enemy lines, in civilian clothes if necessary.
That last item was no small matter. If caught operating in civilian clothes, a Starfleet Officer was no longer protected by the New Geneva Convention and would more than likely be shot on sight if captured. But these first volunteers didn't worry about the risks: they were long accustomed to living with anger. Many of them had come straight from the Tzenkethi War, where Starfleet had taken frightening losses in nearly every engagement.
After months of intense preparation, Wolfe’s unit was finally activated June 19, 2369, New Berlin. It was designated the 1st Special Forces Group, with Wolfe as commander. On the day of activation, the total strength of the group was ten individuals - Wolfe, one warrant officer, and eight enlisted men. That was soon to change.
Within months, the first volunteers reported to the 1st Group by the hundreds as they completed the initial phase of their Special Forces training. As soon as the 1st Group became large enough, Wolfe began training his troops in the most advanced techniques of unconventional warfare. As defined by Starfleet, the main mission of Wolfe's unit was "to infiltrate by land, sea, air, or space, deep into enemy-occupied territory and organize the resistance/guerrilla potential to conduct Special Forces operations, with emphasis on guerrilla warfare." But there were secondary missions as well.
In 2369, two Starfleet Special Operations teams, designation Project: Prism, were established. Called Prism for short, the teams drew their name from devices used to refract multitudes of individual colors from one whole. Commissioned to operate up behind enemy lines, they would act as commandos whose functions were to gather intelligence, raid, ambush, capture prisoners, and create havoc in enemy territory. These two Teams, Prism Team One and Prism Team Two were the end product of decades of political maneuvering and hard lessons learned on the field of battle.
The first Prism units came to being in May of 2370, when twenty Starfleet Officers, ranging in rank from Lieutenant to Commander, were formed into the two Static Prism teams. In most of their operations, they were limited to direct support of defensive forces against Dominion attacks in the Beta and Alpha quadrants. Later a few of these men and women served with guerrilla units behind enemy lines on Betazed and other Occupied worlds, and many more were blended in with the Klingon Special Forces and Romulan Tal Shiar involved in the counter-intelligence and terrorism campaigns against the Dominion in Alliance space. The teams were reconstituted shortly before 2376, and participated in Operation Whirlwind in November of 2376 (the liberation of Betazed), and in other operations in Dominion/Cardassian Space during the war. About a year after the formation of the Prism One and Prism Two, the first Starfleet Special Operations Volunteer Teams were formed. These units are generally considered the direct ancestors of the original Starfleet Prism teams. In June of 2376, Prism established its headquarters aboard the USS Olympus, and began training. Most of the volunteers selected came from the very ranks of Starfleet in which the original teams were constituted, the legendary Starfleet Engineering Corps, and others were recruited from civilian Police units, Rescue Teams, and places of Higher Learning.
They included deep-penetration raids, intelligence missions and counterinsurgency operations. It was a tall order, one which demanded a commitment to professionalism and excellence perhaps unparalleled in Starfleet military history. But Wolfe's men were up to the challenge.
They had been through tough training before; their previous duty billets were proof of that. But working for Special Forces was not going to be simply a rehash of Starfleet Intel techniques. If the volunteers didn't appreciate the difference between Intel and Special Forces when they first signed up, they did when they went through Wolfe's training. As Wolfe put it, "Our training included many more complex subjects and was geared to entirely different, more difficult, comprehensive missions and complex operations."
Special Forces, however, were designed to spend months, even years, deep within hostile territory. They would have to be self-sustaining. They would have to speak the language of their target area. They would have to know how to survive on their own without extensive resupply from the outside.
After less than a year and a half together as a full Special Forces group, Wolfe's men proved to the Army's satisfaction that they had mastered the skills of their new trade. So, in response to growing tensions along the Cardassian/Federation border, half of the 1st Special Forces Group was permanently deployed to Starbase 375. The other half remained at New Berlin, where they were redesignated as the 177th Special Forces Group.
The split of the 1st and the 177th was the first sign that the Special Forces had established themselves as an essential part of the Starfleet's basic structure. For the rest of the decade, Special Forces would grow slowly but consistently into a formidable organization. On April 1, 2389, the 177th was transferred to the USS Olympus along with a promotion for Commander Wolfe to the rank of Admiral and reassigned as Deputy Director of Operations for Starfleet Intelligence. In growing response to fears of Counter-Operations conducted by Cardassian and Dominion forces, the 177th’s primary goal was no longer deep penetration and guerrilla warfare, but became counterinsurgency and counterterrorism tactics and placed directly under the command of Admiral Wolfe. A highly mobile force of over 2000 people, the 177th, known by its less formal title of Prism, is Starfleet’s answer to Terrorist threats and a premier Counter-Intelligence force.
In preparation for the invasion and Operation: Return, Prism teams joined frontline Starships and facilities. These units scouted and collected intelligence from the Bajor system so the allied invasion could proceed as smoothly as possible. During the invasion these units were hampered by heavy casualties, but still were able to complete the intelligence gathering. Some of the braver ones even continued inland with the ground troops to help secure the liberation of Bajor.
On the home front, Prism teams were being created to assist in counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism activities. These teams participated in the strategy of "active resistance", by plugging Intelligence leaks and keeping major locations within the Federation secure from enemy activities. These teams were much greater in size than their frontline Prism teams. These units often contained more than 20 men and women. These teams helped in almost every major counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operation after the retaking of the Tarawa System.
After the end of the Dominion War, the Prism units were drastically reduced in size and their role became increasingly diminished. They served in the clean-up and restabilization of the Cardassian infrastructure. The Prism units were also used as guerillas, sent on commando missions in possible occupied Starbases and planet-side facilities.
Even as you read this, Prism teams are quietly conducting their missions in systems all over the Federation. The Prism operators rarely receive any formal recognition for these "quiet" missions. Yet they continue to deploy, and train to deploy, for arduous and isolated missions, demonstrating that they are truly "the quiet professionals."
In 2377, President Jaresh Inyo, realizing that guerilla warfare was the battle of the future, ordered Starfleet and the Federation Council increase funding and allocation of resources to Starfleet Prism. These two teams, One and Two - still in active service - were the first in a long line of teams to come. Many Prism officers started out by serving advisory roles to the Alliance forces in Klingon Space. Serving with Klingon Special forces is where Prism teams learned and perfected their tactics and they became they finest fighting force in the Federation.
Prism Team History: