Federation/Klingon War (Alternate)

GM's Note: For the purposes of the USS Lexington simulation, the Federation-Klingon War plays out exactly as depicted both on screen through Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery. The point of divergence is when the Discovery is at Qo'nos and Specialist Burnham failing to convince Empress Georgiou from destroying the Klingon Homeworld. Everything from that point has created this Alternate Universe.

Destruction of Qo'noS

With Klingon forces on the verge of striking Earth, and considering standard tactics to have failed, the Federation Council was forced to adopt a plan suggested by the stranded Terran emperor, Philippa Georgiou. As a result, it authorized Discovery to use its spore drive to jump into the subterranean caverns of Qo'noS in order to map the planet's defenses and infrastructure, ahead of an all-out assault on the planet, with the aim of forcing the Klingons to retreat from Federation space. The mirror Georgiou was disguised as her counterpart and placed in command of Discovery for the duration of the mission.

In reality, the mission was to detonate a hydro bomb within a volcano on Qo'noS. By the time Discovery's crew became aware of this, it was too late to prevent the bomb from being planted, but not to talk Cornwell out of the mission. Specialist Burnham confronted Empress Georgiou on Qo'noS, only for her to smile and press the trigger.

Qo'noS fractured instantly. A series of seismological disturbances silenced a third of the planet's population and crushed the USS Discovery. The atmosphere dissipated within a few hours, killing those who were unable to make it to transports. More than 11 billion Klingons perished in all.

The Battle of Earth

At the time the USS Discovery appeared in a subterranean cavern, five Klingon Houses had already entered the Terran system aboard fourteen birds of prey. Four Starfleet vessels were stationed in the system, and all four were quickly overwhelmed by the enraged Klingons. Earth's point-to-point defense system reduced the Klingon attackers to five ships before the Houses punched enough holes in the defensive grid. These five ships fired lethal weapons into the atmosphere, turning several regions into toxic wastelands. One badly damaged bird of prey released warp plasma above Greece, fatally poisoning five million people. The remaining ships retreated to await reinforcements.

Over the course of a week, Starfleet pulled vessels from Vulcan, Andor, and Tellar to defend Earth. These actions were initially met with resistance, but once it became clear that the Klingons' full attention had shifted to Earth, these planets continued to shift resources to the fight. Six other Houses brought sixty vessels to Earth throughout the week, each one being destroyed but not without damage to the Federation and Earth.

On Day Eight, Starfleet Intelligence learned that the Klingons had vowed to seize Earth, or die trying. Based upon limited sensor readings, the Klingon vessels outnumbered Starfleet three-to-one. If Earth was to survive, more than a miracle would be required. Starfleet developed two plans. The first plan was to shift tactics into a two-fold approach. First, Earth would be fortified, a difficult task given the constant attacks and the inability to build and deploy new defense platforms. To assist with this effort, the Federation Council agreed to temporarily suspend Starfleet's primary mission to explore strange new worlds and instantly recalled more than seventy percent of its starships, including the only twelve Constitution class starships in service. The remainder of the fleet was ordered to counterattack the Klingons, and stop as many vessels as they could before they had a chance to reach Earth.

One by one, the Constitution classes warped towards the Sol System. Of the twelve, the Lexington, Defiant, and Farragut were destroyed before they could reach Earth. A fourth, the Kongo, was captured by the enemy. The Kongo was recrewed and arrived at Earth, utilizing captured defense codes to cripple the Federation fleet and reprogram Earth's defense network, instructing it to open fire on the world below. The Enterprise and the Exeter destroyed the Kongo and managed to recover the defense network, but the damage had been done.

Day Fifteen was the first day of the battle to not see weapons fire. The Klingons, having somehow managed to set aside their primal rage, began amassing ships and soldiers near Nibiru. Starfleet used the break in the fighting to focus on rebuilding the defense grid and redeploy its starships throughout the system. Two days later, the Klingons dispatched their first wave in the form of several cloaked bird of preys. These ships slipped past the Neptune and Jupiter checkpoints and decloaked around three of the Constitution class ships. In a matter of minutes, the Hood, Intrepid, and the Enterprise had been overwhelmed and destroyed. These run-and-gun attacks also took down twenty other starships, further reducing Starfleet's capability to defend itself.

On Day Eighteen, the second Klingon wave was dispatched. At the cost of eighty Klingon vessels, the Neptune and Jupiter perimeters were overtaken, and the entire Klingon fleet surrounded Earth. Both the Federation Council and Starfleet Command recognized the gravity of the situation and immediately offered terms of surrender. These cries were ignored by the Klingons, who instantly charged Earth. For a full day, the battle raged in orbit. Starfleet ships fell one at a time, unable to match falling Klingon vessels one-by-one. By nightfall in Paris, the Starfleet armada had been completely disabled, as was the defensive perimeter. Klingon troops began to appear in the major cities and were not selective with their adversaries. The bloodbath was extreme.

On Day Twenty-One, a bombed Paris had yet to fall. The Federation President sent a coded message to Starbase 11 and initiated its second, and dreaded, plan. All Federation starships not defending Earth would gather there under Remnant protocol and await further orders.

Twenty minutes later, Paris fell.

Aftermath

After twenty-one days, the Federation had lost over two hundred starships, and the Klingons one hundred and sixty two. Earth had been devastated. Fifteen percent of the planet had been irradiated, the Atlantic Ocean posioned, all major cities destroyed or captured.

2.47 billion people, most of them humans, had been killed. Among them were the Federation President, every member of the Council, and every flag officer at Starfleet Command.

The Klingons no longer pressed forward. Their thirst for revenge had been settled.

Peace at Last

Ever the logical, the Vulcans assembled leaders from all Federation worlds, captured and free for an armistice. By now, a month had passed, and the Klingons had organized the Twenty-Four Houses into an Empire with Chancellor D'Ghor presiding. Though the Klingons had the better position, D'Ghor knew that conquering the remainder of the Federation would not be worth the cost.

On August 7, 2257, the Armistice was signed. The Klingons walked away with Earth and the Sol System, and several resource-rich worlds such as Corvan II. Most of the member worlds captured by the Klingons were released as the Klingons did not have the troops to police them.

The resource concessions were not the only costs the Federation incurred. Aside from guaranteeing that the Klingons keep the homeworld of the very species that organized the destruction of Qo'noS, the Empire required a guarantee that their new Imperial border would be respected. This guarantee required that the Federation be dissolved immediately. The alternative would be the continuation of a costly war and all Federation member worlds eventually subjugated. Remembering the promises in the Federation Charter to protect the sovereignty of its membership, the sudo-Council barely achieved an agreement to concede to this demand.

The Federation initiated its dissolution, taking the full course of a year to disappear into the night. Starfleet was left to the remnants of humanity who had not been on Earth when it fell. With no hope of reclaiming Earth in the near future, the M-11 system and Starbase 11 became all humanity had left.

External References

• Federation-Klingon War of 2256-2257 at Memory Alpha