Second Battle of Chin'toka

Federation, Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire vs. The Dominion, Cardassian Union and The Breen Confederacy

The Second Battle of Chin'toka in 2375 marked the entry of the Breen Confederacy into the Dominion War. This culminated in a second attack against the Chin'toka system, a territory of the Cardassian Union currently held by the allied forces of the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Star Empire. It was considered the worst tactical defeat of the Allies throughout the entire war, with 99.6% of the fleet destroyed in this battle. However, it was also the last major Dominion victory of the war.

The USS Chin'toka, CA-1375 is named in memory of the crews and ships lost in this battle.

Prelude

Though the Federation had previous contact with the Breen for at least the previous decade, very little information was known about them. Xenophobic and physically isolated behind their full-body refrigeration suits, the Breen as a species remained shrouded in mystery. As a result, the Federation and its allies considered the Breen to be little more than a minor regional power.

In the second half of 2375, the Dominion was faced with the prospect of their war in the Alpha Quadrant dragging on for several more years. Their original plans had projected their invasion of the Federation and the Klingon Empire to take six months at most. Known only as a Founder or the Female Changeling, the Leader of the Dominion was suffering degenerative effects of the morphogenic virus, and so sought additional allies in order to increase the Dominion's numbers, to bring a quicker end to the conflict. After initial contact between the Breen and the Founders, the Breen eagerly agreed to join the war and support the Dominion.

Within days, the Breen launched a massive offensive against the Federation and its territories. Perhaps the most damaging was an attack against Star Fleet Headquarters on Earth. This marked the first time that open combat had taken place on Earth in over 200 years.

After the First Battle of Chin'toka, the system was the only foothold the allies had in Dominion territory. Even so, Jem'Hadar forces for the Dominion were constantly attacking the Alliance's positions, and its hold on the system was growing weaker by the day. The Dominion and their allies decided to re-take the system using a combined attack from Jen'Hadar, Breen, and Cardassian forces. With most of their forces engaged with the Romulans, the Founders were forced to rely on technology from their newest addition, the Breen.

The Battle

With the Romulans bringing additional forces, the allies were able to launch a defense against the Dominion's second attack against Chin'toka. However, the Dominion was able to break through and flank the allies, negating their defenses. The Dominion fleet re-took the planets in the system, and the allied fleets retreated and withdrew. As the Jem'Hadar, Cardassian, and Breen ships firmed their positions, General Martok of the Klingon Defense Force rallied for a counterattack to drive the enemy from the system.

312 allied warships rallied to take on the enemy fleet, with all available reinforcements coming from outside the system, even as far as Bajor (45 lightyears away). With no battle plan, leaving reserve forces on the edge of the system, the Allies resolved to destroy the enemy fleet with brute force. The Jem'Hadar and Cardassian warships held back, giving their new Breen allies a chance to prove themselves as worthy combatants.

When the Allied Fleet opened fire, destroying several Breen warships, the Breen attack wing retaliated by firing a volley of a new kind of energy weapon. Never seen before, this weapon completely disabled all of the Allies' primary systems. The Allied warships now adrift and free targets for the Breen ships, the Breen switched to conventional weapons, and targeted the adrift targets with their torpedoes. The entire allied fleet left totally vulnerable, unable to take evasive action or fire back, fell as ship after ship exploded or was rendered uninhabitable after volleys of destructive torpedo fire. Unable to retaliate, the survivors of the heavily damaged allied ships launched their escape pods in a desperate bid to survive. The Dominion leadership allowed the pods to escape, under the justification that the survivors would spread fear through the Alliance with tales of the destruction during the battle. The Breen warships proceeded to destroy the crippled allied ships and re-took the system.

The Allied escape pods were picked up by emergency rescue ships, dispatched from the reserve force held back at the edge of the system. The Allies quickly retreated to Federation-held space.

Aftermath

The Second Battle of Chin'toka was arguably the worst defeat suffered by the Allies throughout the war. The battle ended all Allied offensives against the Dominion for the next month, while Allied engineers scrambled to develop any sort of defense against the Breen weaponry. The IKS Ki'tang, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, was the only allied ship unaffected by the Breen's energy dampening weapons, thanks to a chance modification made by its chief engineer.

The entire Klingon fleet made the same adjustments, making them the only Allied ships invulnerable to the Breen's weapons. However, the Federation and Romulan fleets were unable to adjust their engines as such, leading to them being temporarily withdrawn from the front lines of the war. General Martok brought 1,500 Klingon ships to the front to fight the war while the other Allies worked on their defenses. Unfortunately, the Klingon ships were against no less than 30,000 Jem'Hadar, Cardassian and Breen warships, outnumbering them twenty to one.

When Legate Damar led a Cardassian rebellion against the Dominion, he unintentionally brought the Allied forces enough time to develop defenses against the Breen. The Dominion re-focused its energy into defeating this rebellion, which cost them an opportunity to launch a massive offense into Allied territory. The Allied fleets, now that the Dominion's only advantage was gone, organized their forces for a single, destructive blow to the Dominion at the Battle of Cardassia.