Chapter 9: The Fall of Betazed
"When Betazed fell, I knew it was over. We had poured everything we could into that battle. We were left with barely enough to protect Sector 001 after that" – Former Federation President Jaresh-Inyo, speaking after the war
Whilst not a founding member of the Federation, Betazed was nonetheless a major core world ranking alongside Tellar and Andor in importance. Unsurprisingly then, in the autumn of 2374 Starfleet made a major effort to hold the system. Concentrating 200 vessels under the operational command of Admiral Odan of the 10th fleet, Starfleet planned to make it's first major stand since the failure of Operation Return. It was widely recognised as a gamble. In order to achieve the concentration that was believed necessary to hold the system, major fleet units were withdrawn from the Tellar, Andor and Sol systems. As a result, Sol was left with only 30 starships (excluding the rapidly growing UEN) whilst Tellar was left with 47. However, by this point, Starfleet's numbers were starting to recover as war production measures started taking affect throughout the core worlds. With production focussed on small, powerful vessels such as the Defiant class which required far fewer crew than previous types, Starfleet was starting to regain it's strength. However, this increased strength would leave Starfleet Command with an overly optimistic view of their position.
Nevertheless, Betazed's government had begun fortifying their world shortly after Operation Return. They primarily focused on preparing orbital defence platforms, to be protected by fighter craft similar to those use by the Caitians. Furthermore, they also began to train 'stay behind units' that would be ready to continue the battle should (what the Betazoid government believed to be) the worse happen. Thus, on the eve of the Battle of Betazed, Federation forces in the Betazed system consisted of a 200 starships of various classes plus the Betazoid defence platforms and fighters.
The Dominion by contrast was in the ascendant. By the beginning of September, 2374, Dominion forces occupied some 40% of the Federation and 30% of the Klingon Empire. With most Klingon and Federation forces now concentrated in their core systems, it was apparent that they could take the majority of the remainder of their enemies' territory with little difficulty. It was in this environment that the Dominion high command chose to begin their assault against the core worlds of their two foes. The first targets in the Federation would be Betazed and Tellar. Prior to the start of the offensive, both the Tellarite and Betazoid governments received demands of surrender. Both governments refused. As a result, the Dominion begun it's offensive by throwing a first wave of 500 vessels at the Betazed system with a further operational reserve of 100 vessels should they be required.
The initial engagements went well for Starfleet. Making use of asteroid belts in the outer system, Destroyer class vessels would launch hit and run attacks in the Dominion fleet and then retreat behind screens of Galaxy and Sovereign class battle cruisers when the Jem'Hadar and Cardassians tried to pursue them. These engagements carried on for several days and caused significant damage to the Dominion fleet whilst taking little in return. Finally the Dominion decided to hurl their battleships at the main Starfleet battle line. Whilst this was happening, the Jem'Hadar attack fighters would hunt down and destroy the Federation Destroyer squadrons. Had the two sides had reasonably equal numbers this approach would not have worked, however, Starfleet was still outnumbered 2 to 1 despite the damage that had been done already. As such, when the hammer fell, the Federation battle line cracked.
With the breaking of the line, the Dominion forces were able to bring their superior numbers to bear. In the course of a few hours, Starfleet lost 60% of it's forces. With no options left, Starfleet once again retreated. However, instead of abandoning the system, Admiral Odan chose to withdraw his remaining ships to the orbit of Betazed. Now joined by the Betazoid defence platforms and fighters, he prepared to fight to the last to protect this important world and allow as many civilians as possible to escape.
The Dominion meanwhile had already lost over half their fleet. Such losses were significant even for the Jem'Hadar. As such, they called for their reserve. The 30 minutes that it took for the reserve to arrive and the assault to begin allowed a further 100,000 Betazoids, including Lwaxana Troi, to escape their worlds fate. These refugees would play a crucial role in the early years of the Coalition.
Once the Jem'Hadar reserves arrived, the final assault on Betazed began. Firing barrages of photon torpedoes into the defenders, the Dominion fleet sort to overwhelm Starfleet with sheer firepower. Many of these torpedoes were fired without proper targets being identified and most of these missed their marks, only to impact on the planet below. This was the beginning of Betazed's suffering. As the battle turned into a close quarter melee within the planet's upper atmosphere, more and more Federation ships were destroyed. The Defence platforms also gave a good account for themselves, taking out 97 Jem'Hadar and Cardassian vessels alone. The fighters also fought well, although after the experience of Cait, the Dominion was more able to counter them. Still they were able to destroy many of the smaller Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships.
Despite these successes, the outcome was inevitable. The Federation and Betazoid forces were overwhelmed. With the destruction of the last Federation combat ship, the Cardassians and Jem'Hadar began to hunt down all those civilian vessels that had failed to escape in time. Meanwhile, the Betazoid government broadcast it's unconditional surrender whilst covertly preparing their stay behind forces for resistance. The surrender offer was ignored. One day after the last Starfleet vessel in the Betazed system was destroyed, the Jem'Hadar began a systematic bombardment of the planet's surface. Twelve hours later, no life more advanced than that of a bacterium survived. Betazed was now for all intents and purposes a dead world.
A little over 3 million Betazoids had survived the destruction of their world, whether because they hadn't been on the planet when the battle began or they had managed to escape before the end came. In time they would rebuild. Indeed, with the technologies that the Coalition would revive, they would be able to re-terraform their home world and return. However, much of their culture was lost.
The Battle of Betazed foreshadowed much that would follow it. For the Federation and Klingon Empire, they saw for the first time that the Dominion didn't just intend to conquer the core worlds; they intended to exterminate their key species. The Dominion for it's part should have seen that the Federation was not yet dead, that they still had fight in them and that their final defeat would take many more vessels.