7.0 War in the Stars: Overview

The middle of the 22nd century was dominated by a conflict that would wind up reshaping the Federation from a loose-knit confederation of worlds into a strong interstellar alliance. In a certain sense the Romulan War (2159-2162) was already well underway, with ever increasing attacks on Federation shipping by mysterious alien marauders from beyond the New Territories. Ore freighters were spacejacked, civilian shipping destroyed, and even Star Fleet was not immune as several of its ships simply vanished, never to be heard from again. For a while they were considered a minor nuisance, a variation on common space pirates (such as some of the Orion criminal cartels) that plagued the lesser traveled backwaters of known space. Once colonies and space stations (as opposed to lone ships) began to be attacked, then suddenly the rest of the Federation sat up and took notice. The Delta IV massacre, the raid on Dinai Station, and finally the execution-style slaughter of over 200 defenseless passengers and crew of the starliner Diana were but the latest atrocities in an ever-expanding pattern that could no longer be ignored. The Federation had tried to turn the other cheek, had tried contact, had hoped that the voice of reason would be heard by this new foe. Once it became clear that the aliens were refusing all overtures of peace, then the time had come for war. Star Fleet was mobilized, additional fleets were deployed, and a tripline of picket ships strung across the New Territories border in expectation that the enemy would cross them. They did so with an invasion fleet at the Eta Leonis system, destroying the hapless destroyer Patton with a single massed volley as soon as it raised the alarm. That deadly volley marked the official beginning of the Romulan War.

Much has been said and written about the Romulan War and the events surrounding its cause. There is a whole section of Memory Alpha's databanks devoted exclusively to works on the subject, which even includes post-war Romulan submissions from our era. Perhaps the definitive work on the subject from the Federation point-of-view is The War Torn Galaxy: A History of the Romulan War by the late John Gill, onetime Star Fleet Academy instructor in history. The Romulan perspective was best given in various interviews with one of their own -- a female starship captain in the Romulan Space Navy. She was captured and held prisoner for a time as the result of a Star Fleet covert operation in 2263, and as such she was the first Romulan ever taken prisoner by Star Fleet. As the Commander later revealed to one of her interrogators, members of her own family had actually been involved in many of the major battles of the war. The edited transcripts of those interrogations, including her discussions on the Romulan War, were subsequently published in Why We Fight the Federation. It gives a rare insight into the Romulans from the enemy perspective, the likes of which was not available before or has been since. It corroborated a steadily growing mountain of evidence that the causes and effects of the War were not as clean-cut as many have believed.

To describe the Romulan War in detail would be to unnecessarily duplicate the works of Gill, the Commander, and many others who have better and more thoroughly examined the subject from every conceivable perspective. Midshipmen are directed to use the timeline in this document as a starting point for their own research. It gives a concise summary of the war from its beginnings in the 2130s to its end and aftermath in the mid-2160s.

By 2161 the Romulan War was over. The Romulans were driven from the field at the Battle of Cheron, the last conflict of the war. Shortly thereafter, over subspace radio, they agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Alpha Trianguli. It wasn't that they didn't want to keep on fighting; rather, they no longer had the resources to continue with any hope of winning. They accepted the humility of defeat in order that their people and their Empire could survive. The Neutral Zone was established and the Romulans retreated behind it, where they would not be heard from again for a century.

The Federation has always refrained from claiming an outright victory over the Romulan Star Empire even though the tide had turned in its favor by war's end. The war had ground both sides down in manpower and resources. Victory meant little when measured up against the losses of hundreds of thousands of lives and many more wounded or maimed for life. All that the end of the war brought was freedom from fighting. The Federation had survived, but just barely. Now the decades-long process of rebuilding had to begin on many Federation worlds. The Federation would rise from the ashes of war even stronger than ever, with a new government and a new sense of purpose in the Sea of Stars. Some systems, though, such as the charred ruin that had once been Alpha Omega ß, would never recover.

Shortly after the end of the Romulan War, there occurred one of those little "incidents" for which the Kzinti had become famous. This was more than just a simple incident, though. What might have been a simple police action wound up almost turning into a real war, thanks to Star Fleet's forced downsizing courtesy of the Federation Council. The M'dok, a breakaway Kzinti group, who had founded their own "empire" from a piece of the old Kzinti Empire, began attacking the Federation in 2162. They saw in Star Fleet's forced downsizing an opportunity to rebuild something of the glorious Kzinti Empire of old. Fortunately they had learned little from the defeat of their ancestors a century before. Local Star Fleet squadrons were able to hold their own against M'dok massed wave attacks until reinforcements could be dispatched. Within five months the tide of the "war" had turned into a simple task of search and destroy. Within another ten months the "war" was over. It might not have taken that long had not Star Fleet had to deal with M'dok close-in pinwheel attacks and its own depleted starship resources. The situation was further aggrevated by a number of former Star Fleet vessels in the possession of the M'dok that they had "legitimately" purchased under the guise of Caitian merchants. Star Fleet wound up having to destroy all of these former starships — many of which had risen to fame during the Romulan War, only to be turned into little more than pirate vessels at the hands of the M'dok. Even so, a Federation victory was inevitable. All of the M'dok fleets were hunted down and destroyed, their homeworlds were besieged until they surrendered, and they were eventually confined to their own "patriarchy" just like the Kzinti.

The decades to come would see a long peace settle on the Federation. All of the New Territories on all borders would eventually be secured against future such wars once Star Fleet got back to strength. A new wave of exploration and colonization took place now that the threat of interstellar war was finally gone. It would be the time of the First Golden Age of the Federation, with new members joining and new allies rallying to its cause. With peace in its hands, the Federation would finally be able to realize the lofty goals of interstellar security and prosperity that the Vulcans had foreseen so long ago —

— that is, until the Klingons arrived on the scene.