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Romulan Admiral Aventeer Vokar set course for the Foxtrot Sector in Federation space. Upon reaching their destination, the ship impacted with an asteroid base, and its quantum singularity drive caused a massive explosion due to the fact that singularity containment was lost while the warp field was still active, disrupting space-time throughout the sector and wiping out dozens of asteroid bases and at least one starship, the USS Agamemnon.
Thousands of lives were lost, with only the USS Enterprise-B escaping destruction. Vokar apparently committed this heinous act in the hopes of prompting a war between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire due to his long-standing Romulan chauvinism and imperialistic stances. The Tomed Incident nearly accomplished Vokar's goal before the Klingon Empire, previously neutral, sided with Federation forces, thus prompting the Imperial Fleet to retreat from the border.
The incident led to the signing of the Treaty of Algeron, which banned Federation research into or use of any cloaking device, and led to the withdrawal of the Romulan government from interstellar affairs until 2364.
Following first contact with the Bajorans in 2318, the Cardassian Union, seeing no resistance from them, then annexed Bajor. The Bajorans surrendered peacefully to the Cardassians.
During the Occupation, the Cardassians were known to perform several brutal medical experiments on the native Bajorans. They also set up a puppet government for the Bajorans that was answerable to the Cardassian Central Command and the prefect in charge of Cardassian forces on Bajor. All Vedeks who were caught preaching of the Prophets where imprisoned.
The Cardassians interned entire families of Bajorans in labor camps for various purposes, the most common of which was to mine ore and other valuable resources. Conditions at these camps were so harsh that every Bajoran knew assignment to a labor camp was essentially a death sentence. The occupational government, however, continued to fulfill the Cardassians' requests for new laborers throughout the Occupation. The Cardassian military also used Bajoran women as comfort women.
In 2346, the Cardassians used Bajoran slave labor to build an orbital space station known as Terok Nor. Much of this station was devoted to processing ore, which was the task to which most Bajorans there were assigned. Certain areas of Terok Nor were cordoned off and designated Bajoran areas. Most Bajorans were forced to live in overcrowded community quarters, but some of the more fortunate (mostly collaborators) were assigned their own. Even the holding cells were overcrowded, with as many as a dozen Bajorans filling cells built for two.
After years of Cardassian oppression, the Bajorans formed the Bajoran Resistance, a coordinated movement aiming to free Bajor from the Occupation. It accomplished this goal with often indiscriminate bombings and other terror tactics. After fifty years of occupation, the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor in 2369.
In 2371, Vedek Bareil negotiated a Treaty between the Bajorans and the Cardassians.
Four Romulan warbirds attacked the Klingon settlement on Narendra III. The poorly defended colony soon fell prey to the Romulans' surprise attack, and issued a distress call.
The Enterprise-C intercepted the distress signal and proceeded to the Narendra system to defend the Klingons. Although the Enterprise was equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and defenses, it was simply no match for the combined destructive power of four Romulan warbirds. Realizing that defeat was inevitable, the crew nevertheless made a valiant effort to protect the Klingons, engaging the warbirds in a fierce battle. After several long minutes of intense fighting, the Enterprise eventually succumbed to its wounds and was destroyed.
The battle had significant political repercussions. With the Klingons disgusted by the Romulans' "cowardly tactics," the conflict caused their relations to deteriorate even further. It also drove the Klingons and the Federation much closer together, as the Klingons were impressed with the "honorable sacrifice" of the Enterprise and its crew.
Prolonged conflicts between the Federation and the Cardassian Union led to war. A major incident was the Setlik III massacre.
The Cardassian Union believed the outpost was a staging ground for an assault on Cardassian space, so a squad of the Cardassian militia was dispatched to the colony to destroy it. However, no such military base existed, and the Cardassian troops attacked the civilian population, with close to a hundred casualties. The Federation starship USS Rutledge, under the command of Captain Benjamin Maxwell, was the first vessel to respond to the colony's distress calls, though it was stationed some hours away.
Upon arrival at Setlik III on the morning after the massacre, the Rutledge deployed landing parties, including tactical officer Miles O'Brien. O'Brien was instrumental in saving the last surviving colonists, who were all located in an outlying district of the settlement. As part of a squad to reinforce the survivors, O'Brien became known as the "Hero of Setlik III" and was decorated after leading a group of two dozen men against a Cardassian regiment at the Barrica encampment.
By 2366, a truce enforced an end to hostilities. The Federation signs a treaty with the Cardassian Union in 2370. It established a Demilitarized Zone along their shared borders. Several Federation colonists opposed to the treaty, as well as several sympathetic Starfleet officers, organize an armed resistance called the Maquis, carrying out a series of attacks on Cardassian military targets.
The Klingon colony on Khitomer was caught completely off guard when a powerful Romulan strike force launched a surprise attack. The Romulans deployed energy-draining weapons that crippled planetary defenses and then executed a devastating orbital bombardment. Within hours, thousands of Klingon civilians had been killed, and the colony’s infrastructure was left in ruins.
The truth behind the attack was obscured for decades. Official Klingon reports initially attributed the failure to respond to a breakdown in communications, but later evidence revealed more sinister implications. Ja’rod, a Klingon officer, had provided security access codes to the Romulans, unintentionally enabling the ambush. This revelation recontextualized the event, shifting it from a tragic wartime loss to a profound betrayal rooted in internal Klingon politics and secrecy.
Despite its brutality, the Khitomer Massacre ultimately reshaped the political landscape of the quadrant. Records of survivors, especially the rescue logs of USS Intrepid, forged unexpected ties between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. One young survivor, Worf, rescued by Starfleet personnel, became the first Klingon to serve in Starfleet, symbolizing the evolving relationship between the two powers.
The Stargazer was on a routine survey mission near the Maxia Zeta star system when it detected an unidentified Ferengi spacecraft was detected near one of the moons of Maxia Zeta IV. All attempts to hail the ship failed. The ship fired upon the Stargazer unprovoked.
It was able to score two direct hits on the Stargazer. After attempts to warn the ship off had failed and with his shields nearly gone and the Ferengi closing in, Picard, devised what would later be known as the Picard Maneuver: he ordered the Stargazer to engage high warp for a split second, bringing the ship off the Ferengi's starboard bow. It appeared as though the Stargazer was suddenly in two places at once.
With the Ferengi momentarily confused, they fired on the wrong ship. The Stargazer opened fire, destroying the attacking ship. However, the Stargazer's systems were failing, and the crew was forced to abandon ship in escape pods. The crew was later rescued, although the Stargazer herself drifted to parts unknown.
A Borg Cube arrived in the Alpha Quadrant, wanting to assimilate Earth. They decide that one voice would be used to facilitate their assimilation and choose Captain Jean-Luc Picard. After a brief battle with the Enterprise-D, Picard was captured and turned into Locutus of Borg. The cube then set course for sector 001, the Sol System.
The cube entered the Wolf system, where it was attacked by Starfleet. The Excelsior-class USS Melbourne was among the first ships destroyed, with its saucer section partially vaporized while approaching. The Miranda-class USS Saratoga was quickly neutralized thereafter. When the Ambassador-class USS Yamaguchi and the Nebula-class USS Bellerophon rushed to rescue the disabled ships, they too were destroyed, along with numerous other starships entering the combat zone. Their valiant efforts notwithstanding, they did not prevent the eventual destruction of the USS Saratoga and the USS Bonestell. The Constellation-class USS Constance was also a participant in the battle.
Locutus, armed with the assimilated tactical knowledge of Picard, directed the battle from the Borg side. After barely minutes of combat, the fleet was faced with utter defeat. Admiral Hanson attempted to rally the remaining ships to launch a last-ditch assault, but his ship was destroyed shortly thereafter. Ultimately, thirty-nine starships were lost, with a total loss of nearly eleven thousand lives. Many Starfleet personnel were assimilated.
Following the battle, the cube resumed course towards Earth, completely undamaged. Locutus was captured, the Enterprise crew managed to cause the cube to self-destruct.
When evidence surfaced that Ja'rod had betrayed Khitomer to the Romulans, K'mpec conspired with Duras to shift the blame to Mogh in an attempt to prevent a civil war, leading to the discommendation of Worf. This action, however, only postponed the conflict.
Tensions came to a head in early 2367 with the sudden revelation that K'mpec was dying. He had been slowly poisoned by Veridium Six that had been introduced into his bloodwine. Because the killer had not shown his face to his victim, Klingon tradition considered the act to be without honor. Recognizing the corruption that had taken hold in the Empire, K'mpec decided that he could not trust any Klingon with the task of choosing the next leader of the Empire. Therefore, he took the unheard-of action of selecting Jean-Luc Picard, a Human Starfleet officer, as the Arbiter of Succession. Gowron and Duras where the two challengers to replace him.
The process of selecting a new leader for the Empire was almost immediately disrupted when a bomb exploded in the middle of the Sonchi ceremony confirming K'mpec's death. The Enterprise officers found that bomb was of Romulan design. The proceedings were abruptly ended when Work killed Duras, in a battle to the death, for having killed his mate, K'Ehleyr. The Duras sisters, Lursa and B'Etor, challenged his claim. They produces a son of Duras, Toral, wanting him to be chancellor.
It ignited a civil war between forces loyal to Gowron, and the supporters of the House of Duras. The war was a decisive victory for Gowron, but it was achieved only through indirect assistance from the United Federation of Planets in exposing covert Romulan assistance to the forces of the Duras family.
For millennia, Vulcan and Romulan societies developed in isolation. Vulcan evolved into a founding member of the United Federation of Planets, while Romulus established a major independent power. Direct acknowledgment of shared heritage was rare; the Romulan government often suppressed such information.
Before the late 24th century, unification was primarily a subject of Vulcan academic speculation. No organized political movement is recorded on either world. Among Romulans, discussion of Vulcan ancestry was typically considered subversive. In the 2360s, several clandestine Romulan philosophical circles began studying Surak’s writings and advocating for cultural reconnection with Vulcan. These groups operated outside the control of the Romulan Senate and the Tal Shiar intelligence service.
Federation Ambassador Spock became the central figure in the Unification Movement. He traveled to Romulus covertly to support dissident cells and encourage peaceful dialogue between the two cultures. The Romulan government attempted to manipulate and later undermine the movement. Despite these obstacles, Spock’s teachings persisted underground and spread gradually.
The destruction of Romulus and Remus destabilized the Romulan Star Empire, leading to mass fragmentation of Romulan political authority. It allowed philosophies previously suppressed by the Empire to resurface. Several Romulan communities engaged with Vulcan culture more openly, and many sought refuge or diplomatic ties with Vulcan.
By the early 25th century, Vulcan and Romulan populations coexisted on the planet Vulcan in significant numbers. Negotiations led to the political reunification of the world under the name Ni’Var, symbolizing the duality of their shared heritage.
Due to the Denorios belt being generally avoided by interplanetary traffic, the wormhole remained undiscovered until 2369, shortly after the end of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor.
When Starfleet took over the operation of the space station Terok Nor in orbit of Bajor, Commander Benjamin Sisko and his science officer Lieutenant Jadzia Dax investigated the many reported anomalies in the belt aboard the USS Rio Grande, and became the official discoverers of the wormhole. Shortly thereafter, the station, renamed Deep Space 9, was relocated to a position near the terminus of the wormhole.
It was the first major armed engagement between forces of the Alpha Quadrant and the Dominion, as well as the only large-scale conflict to take place in the Gamma Quadrant. Acting on a plan originating with Enabran Tain, a combined fleet of twenty Cardassian and Romulan warships under the control of the Obsidian Order and the Tal Shiar launched a preemptive strike on the Founders' homeworld in the Omarion Nebula. However, the effort had long been infiltrated by a Dominion agent, and shortly after attacking, the fleet was ambushed and destroyed by the Jem'Hadar, with few survivors.
The Tal Shiar was badly weakened, while the Obsidian Order was wiped out altogether. The power vacuum left behind by the end of the Obsidian Order allowed the Cardassian Underground to flourish. Eventually, it would launch a coup against the Central Command, restoring political control to the civilian Detapa Council.
The USS Voyager & the Maquis ship Val Jean, are pulled into the Delta Quadrant by an advanced being known as the Caretaker. Effectively stranded seventy-five years from Federation space, the Voyager crew, augmented by the Maquis and some Delta Quadrant inhabitants, engage in extensive exploration of the quadrant during the journey home, though Starfleet does not learn of this until 2374.
Voyager returned to Earth in 2378.
After the Dominion and the Founders are discovered in the Gamma Quadrant in early 2371, the Federation condemns an attack by the Klingon Empire, unknowingly Founder-infiltrated, on the Cardassian Union. That led to the Klingon's withdrawal from the Khitomer Accords.
Intermittent hostilities and later open war between the two powers followed from the breakdown of the Federation-Klingon Alliance. A fragile cease-fire was signed after the involvement of the Dominion was exposed, but the resumption of the alliance did not occur until the Dominion made a full-scale incursion through the Bajoran wormhole. The Khitomer Accords were reinstated in 2373.
The second major Borg incursion into Federation space began when a Federation colony on Ivor Prime was destroyed. Deep Space 5, detected a single Borg vessel. Vice Admiral Hayes was immediately informed, when it was determined the cube was on a direct course for Earth.
Hayes ordered the USS Enterprise-E to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone, while a Federation fleet mobilized in the Typhon sector to intercept the Borg cube before it reached Earth. The cube engaged the fleet soon after. The battle resulted in significant casualties for the Starfleet forces, as they were outgunned. The Cube arrived in the Sol System. Picard ultimately defied orders and joined the battle. They managed to successfully destroy the cube, due to Picard's intimate knowledge of the Borg and his residual link to The Collective.
In addition to the losses inflicted by the Dominion, the casualties due to the Borg also caused a policy change within the Federation Council. The admission of new members was accelerated and the Council tended to act more cautiously, resulting in questionable actions that against the principles upon which the Federation had been founded.
The suicide of Quinn in 2372, the first death of a Q in many years, caused chaos and upheaval in the Continuum. This was because even though he was gone, his calls for freedom and individualism continued to echo in the ears of those who believed in his teachings. One among them, Q (who had until recently been a support of the status quo), considered the ringleader. Naturally, others followed. The status quo tried to crush the Freedom Faction, but they fought back.
A cosmic struggle for supremacy ensued, battle spreading quickly and causing hazardous repercussions throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. These included anomalous supernovae, caused by spatial disruptions within the Continuum and creating a negative density false vacuum that sucked surrounding matter into the Continuum.
Seeking to bring an end to the conflict, Q proposed conceiving a child with Kathryn Janeway, whom he had met the previous year. Q hoped that a Q-Human hybrid child would unite the best qualities of both species, "an infusion of fresh blood, a new sensibility, a new leader, a new messiah". However, Janeway refused to accept Q's plan, instead proposing he mate with another Q. Q then made his proposal of conceiving a child to his old girlfriend, and she accepted.
This newborn child (nicknamed Junior) was hoped to be a herald of a whole new era of peace for the Continuum, and brought about a quick end to the civil war.
A few years after the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole, in 2369, the Domonon existence was made known to the Alpha Quadrant.
In 2373, The Cardassian Union joined the Dominion and destroyed all the Maquis settlements. The Dominion signed nonaggression pacts with Bajor & the Romulan Star Empire. Later that year, the Dominion conquered Deep Space 9, igniting the Dominion War against the Federation-Klingon alliance. Deep Spce 9 was liberated by Starfleet the following year.
In 2374, The Dominion conquered Betazed and Benzar. Later that year, the Romulan Empire turned the tide of the conflict as it declared war against the Dominion, after the murder of Senator Vreenak.
In 2375, The Breen Confederacy allied with the Dominion and launched an attack on Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. With the help of the Cardassian Rebellion, the alliance managed to repel the Dominion forces, finally capturing Cardassia Prime and ending the Dominion War with the Treaty of Bajor.
It was discovered that Romulus would soon go supernova, likely destroying the planets Romulus and Remus. The Empire requested aid from the United Federation of Planets. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard convinced Starfleet to mobilize a massive rescue armada – "ten thousand warp-capable ferries" – to aid in the evacuation efforts, which were assembled in orbit of Mars.
Oh, a half-Romulan/half-Vulcan member of the Tal Shiar and its ultra-secretive Zhat Vash cabal, held a gathering of Zhat Vash operatives on the planet Aia. She reminded them of the Admonition, showing them devastation wrought upon the galaxy by artificial lifeforms, warning it would happen again. She selected Mars as an ideal target whose destruction would push the Federation towards a ban of artificial lifeforms.
On First Contact Day in 2385, only a skeleton crew remained to work at the center of the rescue fleet, the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards, during the holiday. Multiple A500 androids suddenly went rogue. One android, F8, lowered the deflector shields protecting the shipyards and the planet itself, then hacked the Martian defense net. Once the attack began, F8 slaughtered his organic coworkers and then committed suicide.
Moments thereafter, numerous synth ships began targeting the rescue armada, the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, the Mars Orbital Facility, and other Martian facilities. The satellite network surrounding Mars was turned against the surface. The synths then began bombarding the surface, igniting the flammable vapors in the stratosphere and causing massive damage to the planet's infrastructure. Starfleet dispatched a task force to Mars at high warp in response to the attack, but was unable to prevent the destruction of almost the entire surface of the planet.
Since it was initially thought to be a programming error in the synths, the Federation Council placed a ban on synthetic lifeforms. Androids such as B-4 were dismantled, and the Daystrom Institute was restricted to "theoretical" studies on synthetics. All exploration was put on hold, after Starfleet Command was asked to "scale back" operations in light of the personnel shortage and to focus on protecting Federation citizens; ships that were only good for exploration were slated for decommission. Furthermore, Starfleet Academy suspended operation for an unknown period of time. Starfleet subsequently called off the rescue and abandoned the Romulans.
The ban was lifted in 2399 when the truth came out.
In the 2380s it was discovered that Romulus would soon go supernova, threatening to destroy the Romulan system.
The Romulan Star Empire asked the United Federation of Planets for help with evacuation efforts, and Starfleet agreed to provide aid at the behest of Jean-Luc Picard. Picard left the USS Enterprise-E to command a rescue armada of ten thousand Wallenberg-class transports, with the intent to relocate 900 million Romulan citizens to worlds outside the blast of the supernova.
The plan was not popular in the Federation. Many felt that there were better uses for the Federation's resources than aiding its oldest enemy, and fourteen member species even threatened to secede if aid was given to the Romulan Empire. The final blow came on April 5th, 2385, when the evacuation fleet was destroyed before it could depart from Mars by a group of compromised synths during a surprise attack on the planet, secretly orchestrated by a secret Romulan cabal known as the Zhat Vash. Starfleet subsequently called off the rescue and abandoned the Romulans, a move that drove Picard to resign in protest.
In 2387, shortly before the supernova was projected to occur, Ambassador Spock of Vulcan concocted a plan to use red matter to create a black hole that would absorb the exploding star's energy and promised to do so in time to save Romulus. However, the supernova began before he could arrive, and Romulus and its remaining population were destroyed. Among those killed were the wife and unborn child of Nero, who swore vengeance against Spock, Vulcan, and the Federation for letting his world die.
Shortly after Spock released the red matter from the Jellyfish, successfully halting the supernova's expansion, Nero confronted Spock from the Narada. As Spock attempted to escape, both of their ships were pulled into the black hole that had consumed the star, sending them back in time and resulting in the creation of the alternate reality.
In the aftermath of the supernova, Romulan refugees lived dispersed. While some migrated to Earth, many made a living on the former relocation hub of Vashti. Backed by the Tal Shiar, a new political entity succeeding the Star Empire was the Romulan Free State.