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The Lost Fleet was the fourth Bravo Fleet Fleet Action which ran from 5 May, 2023 to 18 June, 2023. It consisted of three phases that each progressed the story of the return of the Dominion's Lost Fleet, last seen[1] being removed from history by the Bajoran Prophets and the subsequent invasion of the Deneb Sector in early 2401 by Dominion and Breen Confederacy forces.
The Fleet-wide mission can be found here.
The Story
Background
Return of the Lost Fleet
In February of 2401[2] the crew of the research ship Sef under the direction of the Trill scientist Doctor Marl Trojet attempted to reproduce the work of Doctor Lenara Kahn - the creation of an artificial wormhole. Due to scientific institutions across the Federation not willing to entertain Trojet, he was forced to conduct his experiments without support and outside of Federation space.
The artificial wormhole that was created by Trojet et al however was not a true wormhole with two fixed aperture points as desired. Instead, the aperture that his team had managed to create, inherently unstable much like Doctor Khan's was in the 2370s, had pierced into whatever pocket of reality that the Prophets, the entities residing within the Bajoran Wormhole, had stashed the Dominion invasion fleet that had been transiting the wormhole during the height of the Dominion War and effectively blockading the Alpha Dominion from support from home territories.
These vessels, now free, had not experienced the passage of time and were still on a war footing, believing the Federation to still be their target. While they found themselves out past the Federation's Deneb frontier, their leaders continued with the orders they had when they had departed - assaulting, conquering and occupying Federation territory in the name of the Founders and the Dominion.
Invasion of the Deneb Sector
With surprise on their side, Dominion forces, aware of the Breen's amenable attitudes to their intentions, reached out to the Confederacy to assist in the resumption of a war long finished. Seeing an opportunity for territorial expansion, the Breen agreed with the Dominion's assault on the Federation and a series of border raids and skirmishes first started along the frontier. Remote colonies, small outposts and ships operating by themselves were the first to be hit, whittling away at the Federation's early warning systems. Those messages that did manage to get through found silence or dismissal at the claims of Dominion or Breen incursions - the results of a Changeling conspiracy within Starfleet and the Federation find advantage in the chaos across the borders.
Having managed to successfully gauge the strength of the Federation's local defenders and silence any attempt at a Federation-wide response to the attack, Dominion forces, operating still without communication with the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant, launched their full-scale invasion across the entire Deneb Border, plunging the entire sector into chaos as refugees fled from the border for the core territories, only to find a Federation and Starfleet that didn't believe them and was woefully unprepared for what was to come.
Fourth Fleet response
As reports of the Dominion and Breen incursions into the Deneb Sector began to filter through, Changeling infiltrators within Starfleet and the Federation bureaucracy worked to stifle any response at a Federation-wide level. With no orders or even acknowledgement of an issue occurring, Fourth Fleet Command opted to respond to the issue independently of Starfleet Command under the unique authorisation that had formed the Fourth Fleet in the first place to respond to rapidly developing crises.
Multiple Fourth Fleet vessels were dispatched on a variety of endeavours to buy time for a concentrated response and to address the Dominion forces from multiple angles. Other assets were ordered to assemble a defence for the sector capital before any form of large-scale Dominion attack could be arranged.
Mention the key missions that took place? ie Off to go speak with the Great Link, Operation Phone-a-friend etc etc
Battle of Farpoint
The Battle of Farpoint in the Deneb system marked the last major action of the crisis caused by the reappearance of Dominion forces assaulting the Federation. Forces of the Lost Fleet, unwilling to follow the Great Link's orders to stand down and be escorted to the Gamma Quadrant formed up for an assault on Farpoint Station with the intent to capture the regional capital and its facilities to allow for continued operations against the Federation.
Fourth Fleet, with no reinforcements from Starfleet Command, or the old Federation Alliance members, fell back to Deneb alongside elements of the Cardassian Union's 9th Order to defend the system and hopefully break the back of the Dominion assault. As preparations were made to reinforce the system as much as possible, ships that had been dispersed across the Deneb Sector to blunt the Dominion advance were recalled post-haste to join the defenders.
Dominion forces eventually arrived in the Deneb system and began their assault on the system, rapidly moving in system and engaging the defenders on multiple axes. Unbeknownst to all but a few, efforts to engage with the historical Federation Alliance members or their successor states, had been undertaken by Captain Theodoras on the direction of Vice Admiral Beckett. These efforts were largely successful and ultimately timely as the USS Atlantis arrived soon after the Dominion attack began[3], bringing with it a collection of Romulan Republic ships, a large collection of House Lorkoth forces from the Klingon Empire and a handful of Tholian vessels that were there to ensure no temporal disturbances were present or unaccounted for after the battle.
With the Lost Fleet now sandwiched between two large allied forces, the numerical advantage they had carried in against the defenders had evaporated and more importantly, their strategic and tactical positioning was completely ruined.[4]
Outcome
While a considerable number of Dominion vessels had heeded the orders of the Great Link to stand down and be escorted back to the Gamma Quadrant, a majority of the ships had instead opted for the attack on Deneb, fighting with no quarter given by either side, with none expected.
- "'Victory is Life.'"
- —Jem'hadar battle mantra
The damage and devastation across the Deneb Sector was considerable and after the fact, not something that the Federation could deny. Multiple small colonies had been abandoned in the face of Dominion attacks. Entire worlds had been ravaged and ruined in the fighting, leaving scars across the sector that will last for generations.
References
- ↑ DS9 6x06 : Sacrifice of Angels
- ↑ Lost : https://bravofleet.com/story/76502
- ↑ What Price for Peace - 20 : https://bravofleet.com/story/82569
- ↑ Lost and Found : https://bravofleet.com/story/82958