Date: 2372

Chancellor Gowron claims the Cardassian government has been taken over by Dominion infiltrators, using this as justification to abandon the Khitomer Accords and begin open war. A Klingon task force led by Chancellor Gowron and General Martok launched an attack on the Federation space station of Deep Space 9, in an attempt to force Captain Benjamin Sisko to relinquish the Cardassian Detapa Council members under his protection. Despite heavy resistance, Klingon boarding parties manage to breach the station, pushing the conflict into brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The Klingons had underestimated the station's new defenses and were unable to take the station before the arrival of Starfleet reinforcements. Faced with the prospect of considerable losses, a war on two fronts, and the looming threat of the Dominion, Gowron ordered his forces to withdraw. The Federation and Klingon Empire are now at war, Sisko’s warnings about the Dominion go unheeded, and the Alpha Quadrant enters a far more dangerous era.