Starfleet Archives: The One-Week War

Posted on Wed Oct 9th, 2024 @ 10:30am by The Commander

846 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Histories
Location: Alpha Quadrant, numerous theatres
Timeline: Stardate 75931.64 - 75953.41 (7 December 2398 - 14 December 2398)

THE ONE-WEEK WAR (2398)
Result: Federation Victory
Significant reductions in Cardassian and Breen territory
Federation protectorate status granted to Ferengi, Tholian and Sheliak worlds
Annexation of Gorn Hegemony by Klingon Empire

BELLIGERENTS:
Federation Alliance - Defenders
Ferengi Alliance
United Federation of Planets
Romulan Free State
Klingon Empire (Disputed)

Typhon Pact - Aggressors
Breen Confederacy
Cardassian Union
Talarian Patriarchy
Tzenkethi Confederacy
Miradorn Regime
Gorn Hegemony (Defected)
Tholian Assembly (Defected)
Sheliak Corporate (Defected)
Romulan Imperialists

COMMANDERS:
Alliance
Executive-Admiral Flayk
Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy
Admiral Donatra

Pact
Legate Illisk *
Thot Tok
Admiral Tomalak
Patriarch Arvoshillian *
Command Director Loskene (Defected)

LOSSES:
Alliance (non-Ferengi)
45 starships
67 starbases

Pact (Non-Gorn)
4,834 starships
593 starbases
Patriarch Arvoshillian
Legate Illisk


SUMMARY

Since the end of the Dominion War and the appointment of the starkly progressive Grand Nagus Rom, the Ferengi Alliance had been in negotiations with the Federation with the supposed intention of membership. Despite the support of the Nagus, many elements within the Alliance resisted the push and worked actively to sabotage it.

After more than a decade and a half of protracted negotiation, talks finally broke down completely when Rom seemed likely to lose his Nagal status, and withdrew in the face of overwhelming pressure. With the election of President Jellico in the aftermath of the attack on Mars and the Hobus supernova, the Federation entered a long stretch of uncharacteristically authoritarian governance, and attempts to persuade or befriend the Ferengi were abandoned. This would later be determined to be a result more of manipulations by Romulan infiltrator Commodore Oh than of the Jellico Administration.

Still humiliated by their losses in the Dominion War, in the aftermath of the Romulan collapse the Breen and Cardassians began efforts to build a secretive alliance dedicated to conquest of a mid-sized neutral power. They had easy success in securing the loyalty of nearby and distant factions concerned about the suddenly aggressive and undiplomatic Federation. With the support of the Tzenkethi, Miradorn, Tholians, Sheliak and others, the Typhon Pact was re-established.

It was decided that the Ferengi, having pushed their luck too far with the Federation, were the obvious target for the Pact, possessing more material wealth acquired through their merchant fleet than many of the other Pact factions combined, despite their limited territory.

The aggressive action began early on 6 December 2398 with a surprise attack on more than two dozen outlying trading posts. Later that day, more than half the Alliance’s Marauder fleet was destroyed in a series of ambushes and sneak attacks.
The Invasion of the Ferengi Alliance began shortly before midnight Paris time, but within three hours of the first ships entering Ferengi space, President Jellico announced that the Federation had accepted a Ferengi petition to join as a new classification of protectorate. They would keep their merchant fleet and currency-based economics, while also guaranteeing rights and freedom from exploitation to all Ferengi and their clients, without making them Federation citizens. The Federation in exchange would guarantee their security and maintain their border.

Typhon pact leadership proceeded under the assumption that the Federation was bluffing, and that as ever they would prioritise peace over conflict, and each power would be able to secure a reasonable portion of Ferengi holdings for themselves so long as they made good fast gains.

Fleet Admiral Clancy, under the orders of President Jellico mobilised Starfleet to defend Ferengi space. The fighting was fierce and battlelines progressed all the way to Ferenginar in the space of four days as Starfleet scrambled to reorient its forces and counter the overwhelming force arrayed by the Pact.

The final battle for Ferenginar was costly to the Federation, but with the bulk of its reserves arriving, the Pact forces were outgunned. With the exception of the Romulans who had only provided strategic support, every Pact member suffered significant losses, the Talarians retained fewer than a dozen ships, almost a quarter of their male population was lost in unwinnable assaults on Federation defences.

While the pact withdrew and sued for peace, Jellico only accepted surrender from the Tholians and Sheliak under the condition that they, like the Ferengi, also became Federation protectorates, with specific cultural concessions. The Gorn Hegemony meanwhile was annexed by the Klingon Empire, the only significant action taken by the Empire in the conflict, starting and ending on the fifth day.

With the bulk of Pact forces now resigned, the Cardassians and Breen once again incorrectly gambled that the Federation would end the war as soon as possible, over the next few days a Federation incursion destroyed military infrastructure and liberated conquered peoples across dozens of worlds in Union and Confederacy space, reshaping the galactic map significantly. Only once Jellico was satisfied that the Breen and Cardassians could never again wage war on this scale he accepted their surrender.
The treaty was signed shortly before midnight on 14 December 2398, and the brief, bloody chapter had closed, leaving the Federation in an almost unassailable position among its neighbors, with only the Klingons maintaining anything close to tactical parity.

The Federation would not know loss or battle approaching this scale again until the Borg siege of Earth in 2402.

RSS Feed