Chapter 86:

The Federation planned for a focused attack to take over Ganalda and its inhabited planet Ganalda 4. It was a mining colony of the Klingons that had native sentients. It wasn't an obvious or an especially important target. The goal of the mission was to learn about Klingon defenses at a target that would likely only have a small part of Klingon resources defending it. After that the next goal was to actually seize the system as a base to use for further attacks on the Klingon Empire.

The Federation copied the Gorn tactic of a huge number of warp capable drones to confuse defenses. Even though the Klingons would know about this tactic, it should still slow down their response to the actual attack on Ganalda. Every major Klingon world and many uninhabited systems in Klingon space were targeted with drones. If the drones weren't intercepted, they would send back some information about their targets and the Klingon fleet response. They also dropped subspace relays on their routes.

The Klingons responded decisively to the drones, intercepting each one, and then quickly attacking each subspace relay. Their warp capable drones also each contained a photon torpedo. While the Klingons clearly identified the Federation fleet heading to Ganalda, they only approached it with a few drones that seemed to try to observe instead of attack.

The Federation fleet arrived at Ganalda and searched for mines, drones, and stealth fleets. It found normal planetary defenses, which were eliminated, and setup a phaser web around and within the system to find any enemy ships or drones. The scans of Ganalda 4 were not as expected. The Federation found the native Ganaldans, but no signs of Klingons.

After a while a Starfleet ship reported finding a magical anomaly originating in the system's asteroid belt and appearing to move. Every ship started continuous phaser sweeps. Drones were sent to also add phaser sweeps and the dispersal of smart pebbles, which would fill an area with objects, so that if they collided with stealth objects they would be detected. Where some enemy drones were detected a huge number of torpedoes were exploded in the area along with drones firing disruptors at any identified targets.

Some of the enemy drones got close to ships and exploded their photon torpedo. Most the effects were blocked by shields, but some damage occurred. The enemy drones ignored small Starfleet drones and only attacked large targets. Eventually the attack wave was dealt with.

After Starfleet regrouped, they sent out scans throughout asteroids, moons, and planets near the system to find more drones and they did find another wave of drones that had not been launched yet, and which didn't produce detectable magic or other signals. Apparently it was only when activated that they could be detected, but a thorough going through of every cubic meter could find inactive Klingon stealth drones.

When the all clear occurred, a group of marines went to the planet and helped them stabilize any emergencies that the planet had.

A few days later there was a wave of attacks on Starfleet personnel on the planet. Something similar to the Imperio spell was used to create sleeper agents. The Marines isolated themselves from possible threats but did not attack the areas that they were attacked from. Eventually they sifted all sentients on the planet with magical detectors for magical influence and also for intention to attack Starfleet on the planet. Objects on the planet were also scanned for being drones or mines that would be triggered.

The planet itself was not needed as a base, so Starfleet continued to send assistance to the planet, but minimized contact with the inhabitants. Those under magical influence had that influence reversed. Those loyal to the Klingon Empire were put in off-planet confinement with the same standard of living as Federation Basic Living Centers, but with no possibility of leaving the centers until the war was over.

Starfleet setup a Starbase and a center of operations to launch the next attacks and also as a place to expect a Klingon fleet to attack. This time, Starfleet would have the drones and mines ready for a Klingon attack.

About two months later the Starfleet drone and mine net, which was arranged as a sphere around the star system, was attacked. We later learned that the Klingons had a fleet waiting some light days away from the star with older former ships crews. These ships operated at sub-light speeds and were armed with a huge number of photon torpedoes and an ant-drone disruptor. The disruptor would send out a blast to a complete sphere around the ship to destroy unshielded or lightly shielded threats. It was similar to the Starfleet phaser sweeps, but with a shorter range and including the entire sphere at once. The Klingon ships when moving forward in a suspected mine or drone field, would keep sending photon torpedoes ahead of its path. It was an effective method of countering the Starfleet system defense method. We also later learned that they expected Starfleet to build a Starbase or a least a space port, past the orbit of a mid to outer planet with the defense net a sphere a little beyond that, since that was done on almost every Federation system.

Starfleet had many starships based in the system, and the location of the enemy ships were obvious when they started firing disruptors and sending out photon torpedoes. The warp capable starships could quickly intercept the enemy fleet. They did get close to the Starbase and caused minor damages, but its shields held and the responding fleet were able to quickly destroy those ships. They probably assumed that Starfleet would have mostly moved on to other attacks by then and only leave a few ships in the system. It did show the need to garrison every system that might be taken over with warp capable fighting ships.

Starfleet research performed a lot of analysis of the Klingon use of magical stealth, including trying to discover new countermeasures. While in the past Starfleet was trying to discover new ways to use magic in combat, now its main emphasis was in finding ways to counter the use of magic in combat, as well as learning any techniques other civilizations have discovered.

It was assumed that the Klingons had information from the battle of Ganalda. Radio jamming is more useful to prevent a recipient from receiving a weak signal then preventing a sender using spread spectrum methods from sending a signal.

Starfleet command now debated whether to attack one minor system at a time or attack Qo'nos their capital planet. One attack vector which was mentioned from canon but universally condemned and not in any way considered was the mirror universe's Terran Empire method of destroying the entire planet Qo'nos or Cronos as they called it, with a hydro bomb, which is not the same as a hydrogen bomb, within a volcano.

Starfleet wanted more information about the Klingon defenses. The next target was Alhena, not to actually take it over but to get more information. The usual warp signatures everywhere initial approach was made. An actual fleet was sent to the vicinity of Alhena and then went sub-light speed and stealthy. A concentrated magical wave was sent out to areas where drones might have been hiding. A huge grid of small drones was deployed to send out waves and particle beams to reveal anything hidden. There wasn't a Tholian grid technology yet, but a detection grid was deployed. A Klingon technique was imitated with many photon explosions. Power stations were setup to generate new photon torpedoes. The stations themselves were considered bait for Klingon attacks, but no attacks occurred. Finally Starfleet packed up and left the system, blowing up anything left behind.

Now the researchers came up with a plan for attacking the core worlds of the Klingon Empire. The advantages of Starfleet was a greater production ability and faster research. It also had more of a depth of knowledge of magic, while the Klingon and Gorn had some stolen ideas and techniques. The Federation Alliance could quickly develop new counter-technologies based on what was seen, while both the Gorn and Klingons were slower in development and mostly relied on acquired technologies, including the use of magic.

The way this war was being fought was not the way the Klingons preferred to fight. They would rather fight warrior to warrior, ship to ship, not clouds of drones fighting each other, but they adapted to the available technologies. The Gorn managed to fight in their preferred manor, but didn't think that a repeat of their raid would work.

September 2042 was when the main attack on the Klingon Empire started. After the usual false warp trails caused by drones, a huge fleet arrived outside the Qo'nos system. Blocking fleets faced every direction, and a drone net was placed to put the system under siege. Magic waves helped reveal some hidden assets of the Klingons which were then attacked by drones. Klingon ships with crews in the system were disabled and not destroyed, when it was possible to do so.

At the same time a fleet was sent to Gorn space and arrived at one of the Gorn five core worlds. A similar careful approach was made to screen against attacks and destroy discovered assets. The Gorn physical attacks did not work against proper shielding and screening by drone fields. No attempt was made to land on or even attack the planets.

The same message was send to both the Gorn and Klingons, "You have fought well. You made effective use of your resources and technology. However, the balance of forces are not in your favor.

You are welcome to try to lift the sieges, but the time draws close where you must concede that you will not prevail.

The terms being offered are generous. We will not attack nor occupy your core systems, listed later. You will peacefully withdraw from all other systems. Members of other species will be allowed to leave your core systems.

After that you can decide what to do. You can be our enemy, you can be our allies. As long as you do not attack others or occupy other sentient worlds, you will be at peace with us."

There were attempts to break both sieges, but Starfleet prevailed in those battles. As the Federation Alliance built new fleets, additional sieges were started.

On February 18th 2043 both the Gorn and Klingons accepted the terms offered.

The Federation Alliance did not demobilize. It was understood that at least in the short term, the Gorn and Klingons could attack again if they thought they had the advantage. The ships remained in the areas of the Klingons and Gorn, and new ships continued to be built. Ships were rotated back for upgrades when possible. Starfleet Academy increased its incoming class size considerably.

At the same time that the Federation Alliance budget increased considerably, the benefits of magic was about to start to become a considerable part of the economy of most of the Federation. The magical children born throughout the Federation in 2027 were mostly going to be working in 2044, with numbers increasing each year. The Federation worlds were teaching some magical work abilities that can be done part time while in school.

It was discovered that both the Gorn and Klingons had native magical abilities, but that both also had been using genetic engineering to increase magic for a while.

The freed worlds in the Former Klingon Empire provided a counter-weight to the Klingons resuming the war in the future. There was less in the Gorn Hegenomy since they had earlier wiped out some of their neighbors. Some of the rescued worlds in the Gorn Hegenomy had sentients treated as ranch animals. The Federation helped them rediscover their own cultures and become functioning societies again.