Birth of the Federation: Re-Birth of Cardassia

Prologue

…for in the struggle of survival, every resource is critical.

What was in his mind was not what he call a dream; No one, who was alive, able and lived would forget what he recalled. The days when the Dominion switched from allies to betrayers turning their ships and guns to the defenseless Cardassia, her no one could protect when the betrayers started their slaughter, death rained and billions were vanished from the lives of the remaining millions with her beauty lost and ravaged. He can recall how the Sky coloured to a mixure of fire and flashes of burning superweapons heated with plasma and other deadly projectile. Will history ever learn that their soon to be leader was once a whimpering teen begging the war to end, screaming and sobbing, begging the very attackers to stop?

He would sit down when those memories got too much and shut his eyes, originally and rather foolishly he thought he could forget and dream of something else, he wouldn't talk about the trauma. Cardassia needed every man and woman to be strong. To come out and admit all of that would have meant he be in some clinic for the discarded and shamed, and never be where he was now.

A place of power.

Instead he dreamt of the carnage, and the humiliating aftermath where those Alien parasitic groups preyed on the ravaged victim. In his own perverse reasoning the trauma became his dream, a reminder to keep his anger his "justice" alive. For it was the atrocity that he saw how they were trampled under the champions of injustice.

How many Cardassians have been murdered by traitors from the Gamma?

How many were forced to see Klingons, who started the war! Who marched into Cardassian cities, waving that daggered thug of a flag while belting out their egos singing of their atrocities on Cardassian ships!

How much did the opportunistic Romulans stole? both in knowledge and of Cardassia's daughters whenever a Romulan officer noted one.

And the Federation. The hypocrites!

The ones who watched by playing the harp of peace but simply biding its time only to arrive and erase Cardassian heritage, rejecting traditional authority of state to mob driven populists. A "utopia of equality" indeed!

At the same time that was what broke his sleep and made him walk round anxiously trying to calm down and to resign briefly the fact the actions happened that aliens came and people suffered because of them.

The last part of his though was the hardest thing he had to see and endure for it was ever present. An active dismemberment of a system devised to tear up the once unified state now broken up into a million squabbling segments of individual self-interests he wish he could break his façade and just shout at them, tell them they were just herded animals, oblivious to the slaughter factory of their culture and heritage while the Federation mocks them. While every other power that killed a Cardassian was never brought to justice but her own leaders were!

He paused and breathed, he nearly screamed all of it out, he could not risk losing his avatar of facade, if he did that he would lose everything and be nothing more than the ranting imbecilic wanting to make things they were by shouting really loud and doing nothing.

Tonight he knew the trauma in his dreams will at least strengthen his resolve for another time but this wasn't to be any other. This was the time when the wait was nearly over.

At some point after the deaths insanity and surrender of the old Cardassia there was a void of identity. With the right people and skills any one could assume the name of anyone.

It was morbidly preposterous at first over how many took on the names as the "lost" son of Damar, Lemec, Tain and other "heroes" that was martyred in that great moment of defiance…which was inevitably a defeat. But nobody wanted to think that.

Every political rival or one setup by the aliens had with them some candidate that claimed to have a mythical heritage making him a candidate to know what is best for everyone. He remembered the occasion he kindly told one "self-declared child" that if they were really the lost son of "so-and-so" it was not because they could be re-found and declared the messiah, no, it's because they were the discarded bastard that the named above could not be bothered with. While that did paint him as a normal and right minded thinker, it was also because he found those pretenders a nuisance that tested his own tolerance to the limit.

But with a sip of his drink did he admit he too joined the "heritage claim" there were options of course, over a billion deceased to pick from.

He could have stuck with his original name but that came with some…stigma and he needed to reach places.

He was careful with the name choice, there was no denying they were all seen as war criminals by the aliens but ten or more years of puppet administration will not change the minds of those raised by the Obsiden. That can be revised. No he was more concerned with picking a name that wasn't hijacked by an army dreamer and was ridiculed to the ground with it. He needed one that and carried with it "respect"

Even more so he had to be careful with the reveal, letting people discover his heritage for him as opposed to being the basis of a brag, laying evidence of the discovery within one of the few untainted landscapes of Cardassian in a quaint small historical town by a lake where the sun was known to rise and set at its most brightest. Fitting for the intellectual name he had given himself, something that will tie in nicely, providing it all went accordingly.

Adopting the new name was one thing, laying low was another, the genocide of the past made him witness to horrors unimagined but opened a newer and even stronger aspect of him, one he did not think he had. He had courage now, to take life, by his own hands even, to grasp and crush the throat all the while maintaining his dignity. It was a necessary action to his rise and shown a calm and professional approach. He would not mock taking the life of another Cardassian but to progress and keep his identity a secret he must be strong as he moved up the political ladder, but not too high up…He had no wish to mingle with traitors when the intent was to rid Cardassia of them.

In a way the so-called sons of previous war heroes were a blessing, their loud obnoxious nationalistic war drumming was perfect, they created an identity people could see as insane, even if he did share those views, the difference was he had the sense to keep quiet and make sure the political power aligned to his agenda as opposed to just screaming with a banner hoping for a moment of coverage.

There was a feeling of danger that the system of the corrupt would consume him that the revenge would never be achieved and the handshakes and fixed grins with the aliens and their puppets would become a routine occurrence, and for a time it was. He had dark days of just staring at the ceiling wondering that if that was all he would reach out to when it should had been the stars. For a time he was a failure till the opportunity was present. No more was he eyeing the ceiling but the TV screen. The success was about to come.

The coverage was live; it had to happen live for the impact to be felt, to be real. There was even the non-intended causalities, the tragic converts to the failing federation created system, but their deaths will have meaning, the greater the loss the more of impact to his favour it will create. For now they waited and cheered to see their elected lead and other sell-outs members of the failing regime arrive. some were not present but that was fine he could take care of them, they were unimportant and he can be generous to those who were of no threat.

Retirement. Reassignments. And failing those two generous offers…accidents.

His breath held as the figures beamed into the outside of the "civilian" assembly, they came by federation transporters to a federation approved named building of government. He took another swig, the alcohol was strong and he bit his teeth into the metal cup thinking again of the erosion of our ways. It was therefore fitting that the bomb that suddenly came to them was a federation one.

The only tragedy was that he had to kill a few good people for it, people who would had been fine Cardassians under his command but instead will take solace knowing they died to someone who will make their people great once more.

The people on screen vanished in terror as it detonated, the footage shook and he was a realist to know the statistics, they were just strangers. If he to be frank about it the higher then predicted turnout affected would help make his case. The turnout wasn't proof the puppet regime was working he'll have to word that one carefully. His biggest challenge, besides condolences was to make the inevitable argument that it was the federation no longer needing it's puppet. He just needed to point out to history.

The changeling in the Klingon Empire, the changeling disease, the supernova of the Romulas star. All of them the federation knew and very conveniently solved when it was an advantage, with the outcome to their benefit.

This attack would become no different, a blatant assassination he would say after the investigation. Why? So the federation can establish a permanent foothold, by claiming extremists framed them and will get their remaining puppets of this attack to vote for "security measures" A starbase will be built and it will never leave. Terok Nor never left Bajor, it switched hands and name but the base remained and Bajor was in check. Constant suppression, and eradication of culture, by Federation surveillance. They would do this; he just had to fabricate things to counter the inevitable.

No so-called son of Tain or Damar would ever sell that as the truth, they need to be swayed by a right minded thinker, "one of the people" to quote the humans.

He had exchanged several years of Cardassian pride for appeasement, playing to the tune of a moderate's song that made him fit into the gloves of the puppet regime. If only people could understand that sacrifice.

He will be involved in the investigation for this, working hard to be trusted and fooling his way within and when emergency votes come, will it be slipped about his heritage, adding support to be a worthwhile leader in this time of crisis for the name matters.

He will get the leadership by then that investigation will be concluded where he will act up his heartbroken shock at the evidence of Federation betrayal.

Everything upto now has worked so far, so why fail now?

Calls were ringing in, internal security were calling out for his name "Are you ok?" "There's an accident" and many other frantic calls, He took it in, this was a good sign already people were focused on him. It was beginning and he'll reply soon, playing the "people's politician" the mass favourite before acting with shock on the truth and gambling the mass trust he earned will favour him to his actions. An election on the basis the alien control will be severed and Cardassia will find her destiny among the stars once again.

It would be a challenge, any such fleet was relegated to scouts, and schematics for the ninth generation of agriculture and energy facilities that were once of the threshold of producing was a long way away, the aliens had relegated everyone to the first generation of everything and what happened outside the home system was not clear. He had some intel, himself and trusted few other had revived Phoenix facility bringing some clarity on the interstellar affairs and some fixed grin conversations with federation diplomats revealed the shock of Romulas star but that was the last incident he could confirm that would have an impact on his plans.

Replying to the messages with the same deceptive character as before did he laid out his plans to those that communicated, while to himself taking mental notes on who could be his ally, who secretly shared his views. Observing and subtly testing for their true persona and if it was one he could make use of.

He resided on the highest floor of the apartment, walking to the balcony to gaze at the frantic filled skies, civilian authorities flying about, alerts shouted and unrest was clear. He eyed the night sky, the stars shining; the arrogant heavens presided over the fair Cardassia.

Yet he knew that there was disunity out there, the Federation and Klingons were quite far and did not know why…and the Romulans? Did they recover from their supernova?

It took some discipline but he blanked out the noise around him and gained a sense of tranquility, but in truth it was his rage finding clarity. Finally, the machinations to take charge of Cardassia and to see her repay kindly to those heavens will be returned. Then maybe he will be at peace with the injustice. He felt his comm, woven onto his "people's" uniform just where his heart was. A neat symbolic gesture.

"Minister Moset. You are ready for beam up"

"Moset" smiled, soon "Minister" will be replaced with Legate. A title that will be revived when it all goes as he expects it to.

'Proceed'

He took another look up to the stars, his new frontier before being beamed up, recalling the wisdom one of his old friends vowing to recite it one day to the world when everything was under his way, the old way of Cardassia.

Control is the only thing that matters, methods are not important, efficiency is what counts in the end. Exploit what you conquer for in the struggle of survival every resource is critical.

History is written by the victors.

Very different from me, I decided to something I never got round to doing but somehow managed to do, write up a novelization of my campaign as the Cardassians based on the 'Birth of the Federation' Game which exists as freeware and is still a good 4x game. And indeed this is all about playing as the villain. Bit of difficulty in picking out characters some will be lore, others self made and some based on lore.

(To clarify lore is canon content not Data's twin)