Chin'toka

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The Chin'toka system is the site of the first major offensive action on the part of the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan alliance against the Dominion in the fictional series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A subsequent action occurs in the system a year later, and both battles are turning points in the course of the Dominion War.

1 First Battle of Chin'toka
2 Second Battle of Chin'toka
3 External links

[edit] First Battle of Chin'toka

See also: Tears of the Prophets (DS9 episode)

[edit] Background

The first year of the Dominion War consists of two main phases, and for the first six months the Allies are in a state of nearly constant retreat, losing several major actions to the Jem'Hadar. Throughout this period, the initiative remains almost entirely with the Dominion. All that changes with the operation to retake Deep Space Nine; the Federation and Klingon fleets inflict a major defeat on the Dominion forces, smashing a 1,254-ship fleet and recapturing the station as well as convincing the wormhole aliens to eliminate several thousand Dominion ships meant to reinforce the Alpha Quadrant invasion forces.

For the next six months, the war is something of a stand-off. Although fighting continues along the front lines, neither side makes a concerted push into the other's territory (with the major exception of the Dominion's capture of Betazed). Many in Starfleet advocate a policy of "containment," recommending that Starfleet should sufficiently build its forces to deter further Dominion attacks without launching offensives of their own. However, Starfleet Intelligence's assessments of the Dominion's shipbuilding and Jem'Hadar breeding programmes indicate that the balance of power will inevitably tip heavily in the Dominion's favor over the next year. As such, the only possible way to win the war is to launch an all-out invasion of Dominion territory.

The Romulans' entry into the war toward the end of 2374 provides the Allies with enough resources to take the offensive, while also spreading the Dominion's forces more thinly. Planning the invasion falls to Captain Benjamin Sisko. The Chin'toka system is chosen to be the site of the first major attack when Legate Damar removes Chin'toka's defensive fleet, leading Starfleet to believe it is poorly defended.

[edit] Course of the battle

In lieu of defending starships, the Cardassians deploy hundreds of automated defense platforms, each carrying heavy phaser banks, a thousand plasma torpedoes and regenerative shielding. Aware of the problem, the Allied fleet attempts to get to the system before the platforms are activated. In order to buy more time for platforms' activation, six squadrons of Jem'Hadar attack fighters undertake suicide attacks on Klingon ships. Although this tactic largely fails, they destroy or cripple 15 Klingon vessels. Allied forces destroy a dozen platforms, but their power system comes along soon after the fleet's arrival. A fierce battle rages for some time, with many Allied vessels being destroyed or badly damaged while the defense grid suffers few losses.

The crew of the USS Defiant determine that the platforms are powered by a facility on an asteroid in orbit of the planet. The Defiant's crew uses the ship's navigational deflector to imprint a Federation warp signature on the asteroid, causing the platforms to fire on their own power system and destroy the asteroid. With the orbital defenses neutralized, the surface assault begins.

[edit] The Prophets

The aliens who live inside the Bajoran wormhole try to persuade Sisko not to participate in the attack. Once again torn between his duties as a Starfleet officer and as Emissary of the Prophets, Sisko chooses to fulfil his obligations as the former. During his departure from the station, Gul Dukat, possessed by a Pah Wraith, boards Deep Space Nine and murders Jadzia Dax. He uses a Bajoran orb to release the Wraith into the wormhole. This causes the wormhole to seal and incapacitates Sisko aboard the Defiant.

[edit] Second Battle of Chin'toka

See also: The Changing Face of Evil (DS9 episode)

The Second Battle of Chin'toka marks the Breen Confederacy's entry into the Dominion War, allied with the Dominion. The battle quickly follows the Breen's lightning raid on Earth itself (strategically a psychological victory, if tactically questionable due to the complete destruction of the Breen attackers). Starfleet Command in San Francisco is damaged but the Alliance's defense capabilities are not significantly damaged. The Chin'toka system is the only Federation Alliance foothold in Dominion territory, and its recapture marks the end of all Allied offensive actions.

The battle takes 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 sees the first appearance of Breen energy dampening weapons that disable most of the Allied counterattack fleet. Upon impact, the weapon drains all power from enemy ships; the battle rapidly becomes one of the most lopsided battles of the entire war. Among the vessels destroyed is the USS Defiant. The Dominion here breaks their usual practice of firing on escape pods, as the Female Changeling thinks that allowing the survivors to live will let them spread panic through the rest of their forces. The battle effectively ends the Dominion's six-month-old half-stalemate/half-defensive posture since the initial capture of the Chin'toka system.

One Klingon bird-of-prey survives the Breen energy dampening weapon, due to an adjustment made to her warp core just before the battle. While the rest of the Klingon fleet quickly copies the modification, all Federation and Romulan forces withdraw. This forces the Klingons to shoulder the Allies' role in the war – outnumbered 20 to one – until an effective countermeasure is devised one month later.

However, not long afterward Legate Damar, enraged by Dominion favoritism toward the Breen, begins a Cardassian resistance movement against the Dominion that would distract them from the front.