Card Extra

Vole Infestation from Kathy McCracken (07/1998)

Fans of the Romulans and Klingons tend to ignore hand weapons in deck-building, because the average personnel STRENGTH is generally quite adequate for most purposes. Ignore them now at your peril, not because you need them for STRENGTH, but just to kill off these nasty little varmints that have twice lost a ship for me. Oh, an ANIMAL will do, too, but if you're not playing Klingons, the Targ is out, and if you don't have the finicky Spot, a good old phaser or disruptor is your only choice. (Borg need a Guard Drone instead; besides upping your SHIELDS by +2, he apparently is also a pest exterminator.)

The consequences of failing this dilemma can be disastrous. Disabling of special equipment loses your holodecks (all your holos just shut down), tractor beams, and cloaking devices, and cuts all the attributes by 2, making it that much harder to return to your outpost to evacuate the ship.

Combos:

• Vole Infestation + Abandon Ship!: While the voles "stop" your ship, which gives you a chance to bail out of the mission attempt, you may be tempted to continue if you're deep in the Gamma Quadrant. If you do, you may never get home.
• Vole Infestation + Radioactive Garbage Scow: You're not taking that scow anywhere.
• Aphasia Device + Vole Infestation + "Subspace Seaweed": With RANGE reduced by 5, you probably won't be able to move far, if at all. If you're far from home, by the time you get a cure there for the Aphasia Device, they'll all be dead.
• Vole Infestation + "Subspace Seaweed" + a Badlands region + Navigate Plasma Storms: One bad probe and your ship is not just stuck, it's destroyed.