Chin'toka
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The Chin'toka system was the site of the first true offensive action on the part of the Federation/Klingon/Romulan alliance against the Dominion and their Cardassian allies in the fictional series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This action became the first in a long series of twists and turns during the course of the Dominion War.
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First Battle of Chin'toka
| First Battle of Chin'toka | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Dominion War | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | Late 2374, stardate not given | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Chin'toka III | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Federation - Allied victory | ||||||||||||||||
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Background
The first year of the Dominion war consisted of two main phases; for the first six months the Allies were in a state of near constant retreat, losing several major fleet actions to the Jem'Hadar. Throughout this period the initiative remained almost entirely with the Dominion. All that changed with the operation to retake Deep Space Nine; the Federation and Klingon fleets inflicted a major defeat on the Dominion forces, smashing a 1,200 ship fleet and recapturing the station as well as convincing the wormhole aliens to deal with a further several thousand Dominion ships attempting to reinforce the Alpha Quadrant invasion forces.
For the next six months the war entered something of a stand-off. Although fighting continued almost all along the front lines, including the Dominion's invasion of Betazed, neither side made a concerted effort to push into the others territory again with the major exception of a successful Dominion attack on Betazed. Many in Starfleet advocated a policy of "containment" - recommending that Starfleet should build its forces up sufficiently to deter further Dominion attacks without launching offensives of their own. However, Starfleet Intelligence's assessments of the Dominions shipbuilding and Jem'Hadar breeding programmes indicated that the balance of power would inevitably tip heavily in their favour once again over the next year. The only possible way to win the war was to launch an all out invasion of Dominion territory. Unfortunately, the Federation and Klingon Empires combined lacked the forces to ensure success.
Planning
The entry of the Romulans into the war towards the end of the year 2374 changed that equation. With the Dominion now fighting simultaneously along the Klingon, Federation and Romulan borders their forces were being spread more thinly. The addition of Romulan forces also gave the Allies the added firepower needed to mount a full scale invasion. The boosted morale within the Federation Council led to the approval of a long-term offensive campaign. The planning of the campaign was assigned to Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of Deep Space 9. The Chin'toka system was chosen to be the site of the first major attack, largely because intelligence had assessed it as having minimal defences.
Course of the battle
When Cardassian leader Gul Damar reassigned Chin'toka's defensive fleet, Captain Sisko saw the perfect opportunity to begin an invasion. Unfortunately for the Allies, the Cardassians had developed an extremely powerful orbital defence grid for the Chin'toka system. Hundreds of weapon platforms orbited the planet, each carrying heavy phaser banks, five thousand plasma torpedoes and regenerative shielding. Aware of the problem, the Allied fleet attempted to get to the system before the grid could be completed and activated. Initially they succeeded; several dozen of the platforms were destroyed in the opening attack. In order to buy more time for the Cardassians to activate their weapons platforms the Jem'Hadar began suicide attacks on Klingon ships, but this tactic largely failed. As the fleet closed on the planet the system was activated. A fierce battle raged for some time, with many Allied vessels destroyed or badly damaged while the defence grid suffered few losses. Fortunately for the allies, the crew of the USS Defiant determined that the entire grid was powered from a single location, an asteroid in orbit of the planet. The asteroid was also protected by regenerative shields, but the Defiant was able to use her navigational deflector to imprint a Federation warp signature on the asteroids systems; the defence grid turned on its own power system, and destroyed it completely. In the aftermath of the space battle the fleet began a surface assault on the planet itself.
Results
Although the Chin'toka battle was ultimately a success, it was a battle won more by luck than anything else. Had the Defiant not been able to disable the power system, the fleet would certainly have had to retreat. On the other hand, the Cardassians new defence system has been demonstrated to have a critical flaw. Essentially, the huge effort put into developing and deploying the system was wasted. Furthermore, the Dominion was forced to station starships to bolster the defense of systems using this type of weapons grid, diverting them from the front. It also forced the Dominion to expend additional effort to redesign a system with independent power sources, giving the Allied powers a window of opportunity to press further attacks, helping to turn the tide of the war. However, the allies failed to capitalize on their success and eventually the invasion stalled.
The battle also had a significant consequence in terms of the war between the Prophets and the Pah Wraiths. Gul Dukat who had gone insane after losing Deep Space Nine to the allies earlier in the war, had learned about the Pah Wraiths. He discovered an ancient Bajoran artifact on Cardassia which he believed would release them into the Bajoran wormhole and allow Dominion reinforcements to enter from the Gamma Quadrant. When he utilized the artifact Dukat became possessed by a Pah Wraith. He then transported himself to Deep Space Nine's Bajoran Temple where he murdered Jadzia Dax and released the Pah Wraith into the wormhole. As a result of his actions the wormhole was sealed and this prompted Benjamin Sisko to go on a sabbatical from Starfleet so that he could discover a way to cast out the Pah Wraith and reopen the wormhole.
External links
Second Battle of Chin'toka
| Second Battle of Chin'toka | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Dominion War | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | Late 2375 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Chin'toka III | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive Dominion Alliance victory | ||||||||||||||||
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Unfortunately, this victory was not to last. The Second Battle of Chin'toka marked the entry of the Breen Confederacy into the Dominion War, allied with the Dominion. The battle quickly followed the Breen's lightning raid on Earth itself (a psychological attack which was actually strategically unwise, as not a single Breen ship survived the attack). Starfleet Command in San Francisco was damaged but the defense capabilities of the Alliance were not significantly damaged. The Chin'toka system was the only Federation Alliance foothold in Dominion territory, and its recapture marked the end of all Allied offensive actions.
The battle took place in two parts, with the initial Dominion assault breaking through the Alliance lines defending Chin'toka, thus necessitating a hurried counterattack by the Alliance. The second part of the battle saw the first appearance of the previously unknown Breen "Energy Dampening Weapon" which was used to disable most of the Allied fleet that tried to counterattack against their advance. The energy dampening weapon completely drains all power from enemy ships, and brought down the Federation/Klingon/Romulan fleet extremely rapidly in one of the most lopsided battles of the entire war. Among the vessels destroyed was the U.S.S. Defiant. The battle effectively ended the half-stalemate/half-defensive posture that the Dominion had taken in the war for the past six months since the initial capture of the Chin'toka system, and a new large scale offensive. In this battle the Dominion broke their usual practice of firing on escape pods, as it was thought that allowing the survivors to live would let them spread panic through the rest of their forces.
However, one Klingon Bird of Prey survived the Breen energy dampening weapon, and it was determined that this was due to an adjustment made to her warp core just before the battle. While the rest of the Klingon fleet quickly copied the modification, all Federation and Romulan fleets had to withdraw from the war until an effective countermeasure could be researched from a captured Breen weapon a month later. In the meantime, the Klingon fleets would have to shoulder the entire defense of the war, outnumbered twenty to one.
However, not long afterward Legate Damar, enraged by Dominion favoritism towards the Breen, would begin a Cardassian resistance movement against the Dominion that would distract them from the front.
External links
External link
- Chin'toka article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki