A green injectable serum developed during the Klingon War that briefly gives its user heightened strength, speed and resistance to pain, carried in secret by Dr Joseph M'Benga.
Protocol 12 is a battlefield drug that floods the body with adrenaline and suppresses pain, turning a soldier or medic into a formidable fighter for a short time. Its after-effects are severe.
It is first seen, unnamed, in the Strange New Worlds episode The Broken Circle, when M'Benga and Christine Chapel, trapped among Klingons, each take a dose and fight their way through a ship. Under the Cloak of War gives it a name and a history.
Flashbacks to the moon J'Gal show M'Benga as a field surgeon with a past in special operations, connected to the serum's creation and reluctant to use it again. The episode ties the drug to the killings for which the Klingon defector Dak'Rah had taken the credit.