Terran Empire rebellion The Terran Empire rebellion was a war fought between the Terran Empire and members of a rebellion comprised of conquered slave races in the 22nd century and 23rd century . The rebellion included at least some Andorian s , Tellarite s , and Vulcan s , and later also Klingon s . 2155 . By January 2155 , the war was going badly for . Twelve ships had been lost in a recent battle at Tau Ceti , though Terran propaganda stated that the battle had gone well . It was against this backdrop that Commander of the received word through his contacts that a Terran vessel , reportedly from the future of a parallel universe , had been captured by the Tholian Assembly . After unsuccessfully trying to persuade Captain Maximilian Forrest to divert " Enterprise " to Tholian space to investigate rather than rendezvousing with Admiral Black ' s assault fleet as ordered , Archer staged a mutiny and locked " Enterprise " on a course to the Vintaak system , where the future vessel was being held . He then had his information on the vessel to Fleet Admiral , which turned out to be a fortuitous decision when Forrest regained his command with the help of Archer ' s first officer , Commander . Now with official orders from Gardner , " Enterprise " entered the Vintaak system ( using a Suliban cloaking device to sneak past the Tholian patrols ) and beamed over an assault team to the future vessel , the , that was being gutted in an asteroid drydock at the time . " Enterprise " was eventually detected by several s and trapped inside a Tholian web . While the " Defiant " powered up , " Enterprise " was destroyed , but not before several escape pods escaped the ship with roughly half the crew . These pods were recovered by the " Defiant " once it broke free from the drydock and destroyed the Tholian ships . With a crew of only 47 , along with several alien slaves the Tholians had been using to disassemble the starship , Archer ordered the " Defiant " to rendezvous with Black ' s assault fleet . There were delayed due to sabotage from the Gorn slavemaster Slar , who was eventually captured and killed by Archer and several s . Meanwhile , a massive rebel force attacked the assault fleet . By the time " Defiant " arrived , only Black ' s flagship , the , remained . The " Defiant " quickly made short work of three rebel ships ( one Andorian battle cruiser , a Tellarite cruiser , and a Vulcan . The lone remaining rebel ship ( an Andorian battle cruiser ) was allowed to flee , to spread word of the " Defiant " s overwhelming power . In a speech to the crew of both the " Defiant " and the " Avenger " , after killing Admiral Black for trying to take his command , Archer laid out his plan to take the " Defiant " to Earth and overthrow the Emperor and the rest of the " corrupt and arrogant criminals " at Starfleet Command . However , T ' Pol , , and – afraid that Archer ' s xenophobia would make the Empire even more brutal towards non - Terran s than it already was – attempted to stop Archer by having Phlox sabotage the " Defiant " while the " Avenger " attempted to destroy it . Their plan was foiled by Chief engineer , and " Avenger " was destroyed with all hands . Archer himself was shortly removed as well by his consort , with the help of Archer ' s bodyguard . When the " Defiant " arrived at Earth , " Empress " Sato demand that Starfleet surrender , or be destroyed . ( ) 23rd century . In the early 23rd century , rebels were successful in stealing information concerning the origin of the " Defiant " from Imperial computers . The data was then stored in a computer core aboard a Klingon vessel . ( ) Despite the rebellion ' s early successes , the Terran Empire ultimately survived well into the late 23rd century . As of late 2256 or early 2257 , the Empire , now controlling all of known space , was still combating rebel groups consisting of Vulcan s , Andorian s , Tellarite s , and Klingon s , among other races . ( ) These were led by , known as the " Fire Wolf " , from a camouflaged base on Harlak . ( ) That year , several Klingon ships ( manned by Andorians and Vulcans ) were destroyed by Starfleet at Porathia . ( ) The managed to locate and destroy much of Harlak while the rebels were still in the midst of evacuating . ( ) ' s first action as captain of the was to suppress a Gorlan uprising by destroying the rebels ' homeworld . ( ) In the face of Imperial aggressions , two former enemies , the Klingons and the Cardassian s formed a Klingon - Cardassian Alliance . Eventually the Empire underwent some pacifistic reform s by , leaving it vulnerable against the hostile forces around it . The Alliance found an opportunity to strike against the Empire and succeeded it as a dominant power in the Alpha Quadrant throughout most of the 24th century . ( )