A/N: I will be refreshing all the chapters posted so far before posting new chapters. Obviously, I do not own Star Trek
"Let the galaxy burn..." - Unknown Starfleet Captain, Second Battle of Saturn
" Let me tell you something about The Federation. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes" - Quark, former owner, Quark's Bar, Deep Space 9/Terok Nor
If sometime before the Dominion War you had asked the average Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian or Ferengi what humans were like, you would have heard variations on a theme. They were soft, weak and decadent. They believed themselves superior but never stirred themselves from their holodecks and replicators, from their easy lives. They were easy pickings, just waiting for an outside power to step in and conquer them. In fact, if it were not for a series of frankly freak occurrences this would already have happened! There was much truth to this assessment of 24th Century humanity. It was soft, it was weak, it was decadent. However, it also missed a core truth. Replicators and holodecks were simply a modern version a very old means of control, that of bread and circuses.
The ancient approach, pioneered by civilisations as diverse as Egypt, China and Rome to ruling mobs reached its apotheosis during the time of the UFP. Homo Sapiens, a species almost uniquely capable of both supreme acts of kindness and supreme acts of depravity were kept quiet and content with unlimited access to food and entertainment. As a result, they became decadent, soft, complacent and appeared to become weak. But at their core they were still the species that had perpetrated such horrors as the Holocaust, Eugenics Wars and countless other acts of genocide. Likewise, the true nature of the Vulcans and Andorrans was also supressed in the utopian society of the UFP. The Vulcans by logic and the Andorrans by similar means to the methods used on humans. These controls would come crashing down in the fires of the Dominion War
The 2360s and early 2370s would provide a slow increase in shocks to the UFP. Alien infiltration of Starfleet, a resurgent Romulan threat, the first encounter with the Borg, subsequent invasion and defeat at the Battle of Wolf 359 plus continued conflict with the Cardassians would slowly erode the feeling of safety and security that had been the birth right of all Federation citizens for 100 years. Nonetheless, each of these were invariably seen as standalone events and not warnings of what was to come. Some preparations were made, especially in response to the Borg threat, but these were few and far between. Without these lacklustre attempts at preparing however, Starfleet would have been even less ready for the disastrous first contact with the Dominion in 2370.
If the Federation had respected the borders of the Dominion after first contact was made, perhaps events would have unfolded differently. However, the Federation was nothing if not proud. It had been over 100 years since they'd last been truly tested in battle. Of course, wars had happened, but these had been on the periphery and involved perhaps a few dozen starships at most. The core members of the Federation hadn't truly fought a war for survival since the Earth-Romulan war, prior to the foundation of the Federation. In no small part, this was due to the undoubted potential of the Federation. The Romulan and Klingon Empires, the other two major powers in the local area on the border of the Alpha and Beta quadrants were able to match the Federation for power, but only by maintaining a virtual war economy at all times (this was especially true of the Klingons). In contrast, the Federation barely put the effort in to matching these powers. The leaderships of these two empires were aware of this and hence focussed most military effort on undermining their rival empire whilst leaving the sleeping giant alone.
This bred a hubris in the Federation like none that had been seen before. Without trying they were superior to all possible competitors. Even the Borg were defeated! True, it had been a close run thing, so the naysayers said, but to the average citizen that fact was lost. For them, the Federation had yet again triumphed. And so they arrogantly sauntered into the backyard of a power like none they had faced before. A power that was as convinced of it's own superiority as the Federation was of it's. A power that would ultimately bring about the fall of Utopia.
Starfleet was woefully ill-prepared for the start of the war in 2373. The core issue that the fleet faced was the belief and culture within it of being primarily an exploration body. This culture was seen at all levels of the organisation. Indeed, many senior officers were actually offended if Starfleet were referred to as a military organisation! This mind-set resulted in Starfleet building ships that were veritable pleasure cruiser - replete with all the facilities you might expect of such craft including the replicators and holodecks the Federation was famous for. Weaponry and defensive systems were of distinctly secondary importance and Federation starships were generally under-armed compared with similar ship classes from other powers. When serving on larger ships officers and enlisted personnel often brought their families with them which only underlined the fact that these weren't warships.
The situation was further underlined when looking at the personal equipment of individual officers and enlisted men (most definitely not soldiers). When facing hostile forces at close quarters, Starfleet personnel would generally be equipped with their standard uniform and hand phasers. Phaser rifles were very rarely issued, generally in only the direst of situations. In contrast, most other powers going into similar combat situations would arm their soldiers with their native equivalent of a phaser rifle and at least some form of body armour as protection. Local versions of hand phasers would only be issued as side arms. Is it any wonder then that Starfleet was seen by other powers as weak and unwilling to fight? Yet these vessels and equipment was what Starfleet had to face the Dominion onslaught with. They were pitifully inadequate for the task at hand.
And what of the Federation's approach to the production of the sinews of war? It can only be said that they tried to avoid it all costs! What other excuse can there be for a system which prior to the war took upwards of a year to produce less than a dozen starships? Especially when it's remembered that during the Siege of Sol, the shipyards at Earth, Mars and Jupiter were able to churn out entire fleets of warships in less than 6 weeks. In fact, at the height of production, they were being produced so quickly that the majority of ships had less than 30 biological crew members on board!
The irony of course is that all the technologies and tactics required to win the war already existed in 2370. What the Federation lacked was the will to use them. Indeed, most Federation citizens would have been appalled at the mere suggestion of genetically altering soldiers to be more effective on the battlefield (and indeed of the thought of soldiers existing at all) or of using cloaking devices, or of creating biological weapons etc. It would take the devastating defeats of the first 2 years of the war to alter this mind-set.
Not all sections of Starfleet supported the status quo. Certain officers, coming together under the name of Section 31 saw to it that whatever the intention of the UFP leadership, the ability to do whatever it took to defend utopia remained. They created novel viruses for use against the Founders, preserved blueprints of the Genesis Device. They even maintained a working phasing cloaking device and the necessary materials to rapidly replicate additional units. These preparations proved invaluable during the crisis of 2375.
In the final analysis, the Federation of 2370 was a clawless superpower. It had the potential to dominate all other powers but chose instead to be an inoffensive giant, constantly worrying about scaring its neighbours and so wrapping itself in chains and fetters of its own making. It's successor, the reborn Coalition of Planets of 2380, would be a very different beast indeed. The Dominion on the other hand was a vast power in the Gamma Quadrant. Were it not for the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole, the two powers would probably not have met for several centuries. Fate however had other plans, and so, in 2370, the Federation decided to start exploring the Gamma Quadrant without bothering to ensure the local powers were happy. The ultimate end result of this blundering was the fall of not one, not two but five major powers, including two superpowers, and the rebirth of an old one, the Coalition. And in the resurrection of the Coalition, the Dominion would learn how fatal it was to strip humanity of it replicators and holodecks, it's bread and circuses.
The galaxy's age of innocence was over...
