Having established peace with the Klingon Empire, the United Federation of Planets once
again came into conflict with the Romulan Star Empire in 2311, at a cost thousands of
lives. The Tomed Incident ultimately resulted in the Treaty of Algeron which forbid the
Federation from developing cloaking technology, and led the Romulans back into isolation for
another 50 years. In the meantime, Starfleet continued to send ships on deep space missions
into the Alpha and Beta quadrants, sexpanding their influence thanks to a great number of
explorers like James Tiberius Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise, who led a famous five
year journey into deep space which brought many new worlds into the Federation.
By the mid 24th century, a new conflict emerged as they neared the borders of the Cardassian
Union, an emerging Superpower which grew their strength by colonizing worlds, stripping them
of resources and enslaving the population. Ruled by a deceptive and paranoid government,
the Union was convinced conflict was inevitable, and so launched a sneak attack against Setlik
III, in the mistaken belief the Federation was using the planet as a staging ground for
invasion. This battle was then followed by decades of war, ending with the Armistice
of 2367, and a formal treaty in 2370, marking a new demilitarized border. With the war ending
in a stalemate, a number of concessions were made on both sides, leaving several Cardassian
worlds under Federation control, and Federation planets as part of the Union. Feeling abandoned
by the terms of this treaty, many of these colonies rebelled and resorted to guerrilla
and terrorist tactics to fight the Cardassians, using the harsh environment of the badlands
as cover for their ships. Demanding their independence, these freedom fighters became
known as the Maquis and were officially condemned by the Federation, though some actually sympathized,
even abandoning their careers to join the struggle.
In addition to the Cardassians, the Federation found themselves in conflict with the Talarians,
Tholians, Tzenkethi and entered a state of cold war with the Romulans when they re-emerged
from isolation in the 2360s. Yet their growing friendship with the Klingon Empire, meant
no known enemy could pose a serious threat. Throughout these years, when the Federation
found themselves as one of the two most powerful Superpowers in the region, captain Jean-Luc
Picard of the Federation Flagship USS Enterprise D, emerged as one of their greatest leaders,
earning fame as an explorer, ambassador, diplomat, warrior and man of deep moral conviction who
proudly championed Federation laws but wasn’t afraid to violate them when absolutely necessary.
Armed with knowledge, wisdom, experience and a gifted crew, Picard soon found himself on
the frontlines of war with a new and entirely unexpected danger threatening to destroy everything
they’d created. In 2365, Captain Picard and the Enterprise
Crew were visited by a member of the Q continuum. Highly advanced beings able to manipulate
matter, time and space, Q transported them 7000 light years away in order to show them
the Borg, a highly advanced and hostile cybernetic species based out of the Delta Quadrant who
sent one of their powerful cube shaped ships towards Earth. Later they learned that the
Borg were responsible for the disappearance of several Federation and Romulan colonies
throughout the 2360s, with hostilities ultimately culminating in the Battle of Wolf 359 when
an armada of 40 Federation starships led by Admiral J P Hanson, engaged the enemy ship.
Not only were the Borg more advanced, without fear, and working with machine like efficiency,
but the attack was led by Locutus of Borg, formerly known as Jean-Luc Picard, who was
captured and assimilated into the collective. Providing the invaders with all the information
available in Picard’s mind, the Borg won a resounding victory, destroying 39 of 40
ship and leaving thousands dead or assimilated. Emerging practically undamaged, the Borg Cube
continued on towards Earth but was ultimately defeated when Locutus was recaptured by the
crew of the Enterprise, who used him to communicate with the enemy vessel and order it to self-destruct.
Despite being returned to his human state, Picard was forever traumatized by the experience,
as was the Starfleet and the Federation government, who dedicated themselves to learning as much
as possible about this threat, making them far more prepared when yet another Cube invaded
6 years later. Although they suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Sector 001, they
destroyed the cube as it neared earth, only for a smaller spherical ship to emerge and
escape by opening a temporal vortex. Chasing them into the past, Picard and the Enterprise
E found themselves in 2063, where the Borg planned to prevent first contact between Vulcans
and Humans. Fortunately, the Enterprise crew destroyed the Borg sphere, and played a part
in ensuring First Contact occurred, before opening another temporal vortex to return
to the 24th century. This temporal encounter with the borg would then have further ramifications
as some of the debris from the borg sphere landed on Earth and was discovered in 2153,
causing several drones to activate and wreak havoc upon those they encountered. Although
Jonathan Archer and his crew eliminated the threat, the Borg sent a signal to the collective,
pointing the way towards Earth. Because they were so far away, the message would take 200
years to arrive at its destination, meaning that this was likely the reason a cube was
headed towards Earth in the 24th century. Yet the Borg threat was ultimately minimized,
significantly, when they suffered a number of devastating defeats in the Delta Quadrant,
losing ships, worlds and even a transwarp hub, which allowed them to travel quickly
into other areas of the galaxy. Some of this damage was done by the Undine, also known
as species 8472, but the most devastating blows came from Captain Janeway and the crew
of the USS Voyager, a Federation ship pulled into the Delta Quadrant by a mysterious alien
being in 2371, forcing them make the long 70,000 light year journey back to Earth. Despite
the difficulties they faced, Voyager survived and prospered, not only recording their findings
for the Federation, but also making allies and discovering technologies which allowed
them to defeat and escape from the Borg on a number of occasions. In the end they won
their war with the borg by infecting them with a virus which cut off communication between
drones, and hijacked a transwarp hub, using it to return to Earth before destroying it
to further damage the enemy. Throughout the 2370, as Voyager was busy exploring
the Delta Quadrant and fighting the Borg, the Federation they left behind faced a number
of new and terrible challenges, beginning with discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole, a
gateway into a part of the Gamma Quadrant, 70,000 light years away. Excited by the potential
for exploration and profit, many ships began to make their way through the wormhole, bringing
them to the attention of the Dominion, a large and ancient superpower ruling over this part
of the galaxy. Led by a species of highly intelligent and technologically advanced non
humanoid shapeshifters, the Founders were viewed as gods by their subjects, with their
most faithful servants being two genetically engineered creations called the Vorta, who
administered their holdings and Jem Hadar who fought their wars. Believing they were
under threat from the humanoid species of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant, they Dominion
took pre-emptive action, sending spies and infiltrators through the wormhole to destabilize
the enemy before invasion. As a result of their sabotage, the Dominion
lured the Espionage agencies of the Cardassians and Romulans into a trap, massacring them
in the Battle of the Omarion Nebula while presenting themselves as the aggrieved victims
of an unprovoked attack. The Dominion’s shadow campaign also led the Klingon Empire
into short but devastating wars against the Cardassians and Federation, temporarily destroying
their powerful alliance. By 2373 the Dominion had successfully accomplished many of their
early goals, signing non aggression treaties with the Tholians, Miradorn, Bajor, and the
Romulan Star Empire, while weakening the Cardassians, Klingons and Federation. Soon, open war erupted
throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, seeing the Federation ally with the Klingons and
Romulans while the Cardassians and Breen sided with the Dominion. Leading the Federation
War effort, was Admiral William Ross, aided greatly by his Adjutant Benjamin Sisko, the
commander of Deep Space 9 who fought prominently on the front lines in addition to providing
crucial strategic and tactical advice. The war resulted in billions of casualties and
saw attacks levied against Earth, Betazed, Cardassia Prime and many other planets, but
in the end, the Federation Alliance was victorious, with all parties signing the Treaty of Bajor
in 2375. Among the terms of this treaty, pre-war borders
were reinstated, meaning the Dominion lost all new territories and had to withdraw back
into the Gamma Quadrant. Although peace was restored, the balance of power in the region
shifted and the Federation soon found themselves as the most significant superpower in the
region. Having been on the front lines for much of the fighting, the Klingon Empire was
left severely weakened while the Cardassian Union was utterly devastated, enduring most
of the war’s collateral destruction. Although the Romulan Star Empire remained a rival for
a few more years, they suffered a number of tragedies in the final decades of the 24th
century, leaving them a shell of their former selves.
The first step towards their downfall came in 2379, when the former Slave turned war
hero Shinzon, led a coup against the Romulan government, killing many to gain control of
the Star Empire. Once in command, he launched a genocidal attack against the Federation,
only to be stopped by the Enterprise E and Captain Picard at the Battle in the Bassen
Rift. After the death of so many within the Romulan government, they struggled to re-establish
stability, and matters only grew worse in 2387, when Ambassador Spock was sent to stop
a supernova from destroying Romulus but failed, resulting in the destruction of their homeworld.
Two years earlier, when evacuation efforts began on Romulus, the now Admiral Jean Luc
Picard helped organize an armada of rescue and support ships, yet while they were away,
a group of rogue synthetic lifeforms destroyed the Utopia Planitia ship yards of Mars. This
attack was perpetrated by a secret Romulan cabal, who continued to infiltrate and influence
the Federation for years to come, eventually bringing Picard out of retirement to investigate
this hidden threat. As the decades and centuries went on, the
Federation returned to their roots of exploration and peaceful cooperation, continuing to expand
bringing in new species like the Xindi and Klingons, and together developed new technologies
including the ability to travel through time and manipulate the past. In the 26th century,
the Federation defeated the Sphere builders who to conquer the galaxy, and by the 31st
century they were engaged in a temporal cold war with a number of rival factions. Yet even
so, the Federation continued to their ideals, with their agents protecting the timelinefrom being altered.