Breen attack on Earth

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The Breen attack on Earth was a surprise attack against Earth launched by the forces of the Breen Confederacy in late 2375. Although most of the attacking Breen interceptors were destroyed by Starfleet defenses, the raid caused massive damage to its intended target of Starfleet Headquarters, and the greater city of San Francisco including the Golden Gate Bridge.
The attack was a major blow to Federation morale and an equally major boost to the power of the Dominion. This bold military strike marked the Breen's entry into the Dominion War. Klingon General Martok remarked on the daring of the act, saying "even my people never attempted that." ()
Several days later, Chief Miles O'Brien cited the attack as likely being responsible for Commander Hilliard's odd behavior towards Doctor Julian Bashir. () The damage caused by this attack was repaired by 2376. ()
In 3191, as a Breen dreadnaught approached the , Commander Rayner reminded Admiral Charles Vance and President T'Rina of the devastating attack on Earth which was the last time that the Breen had crossed into Federation space. Vance insisted that the Breen had only pulled it off because Starfleet was caught flat-footed and it wouldn't happen again. Shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly brought up the attack to Commander Paul Stamets, stating that the Breen had destroyed an entire city. ()
== Appendices ==
=== Background information ===
The attack may have been the first successful attack on Earth to occur in nearly two centuries. Dialogue in and suggests that the last such occasion was during either the Xindi incident or the Earth-Romulan War.
The damage caused by the Breen attack was limited in comparison to the massive planetary damage depicted in previous examples of orbital bombardment, such as in . This suggests that perhaps Starfleet was able to mitigate the damage somehow or that Breen were reluctant to inflict massive civilian casualties, fearing retaliation.
In the first draft script of , the Breen were established as having used highly effective cloaking devices to carry out this attack. Weyoun speculated that the Federation would be finding bodies in the rubble for days after the incident.
=== Apocrypha ===
The non-canon short story "Eleven Hours Out" from the anthology Tales of the Dominion War tells of major involvement of Jean-Luc Picard and the in stopping the raiding Breen ships. It also states that an orbital defense platform was taken over by an agent of the Dominion and used to destroy any incoming vessels. "Safe Harbors" in the same anthology mentions that New York was attacked as well, But as Scotty and McCoy are piloting a runabout, they are relieved to see the Statue of Liberty survived intact. After the attack, the Breen officially announced that they were breaking off diplomatic relations with the Federation and entering into an alliance with the Dominion.
The non-canon Dominion War supplement for the Last Unicorn game goes further in-depth on the attack, stating that Beijing, Paris, and New York City were also attacked by Breen fighters, and a total of 22 million people were killed. Star Trek Online, however, claims that the attack only killed 2,147 people.
In the Star Trek Online Agents of Yesterday mission "Vorgon Conclusions", the player character is dropped off at this timeframe in pursuit of the Vorgon Ajur and Boratus. They are able to defeat a number of Breen ships and drive off an invasion of Starfleet Headquarters before confronting the two. Several "News Reports" that can be accessed during the mission reveal the state of the ongoing battle, including that the and the participated in the battle, the latter would reinforce the Tales of the Dominion War short story.
===External link===
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bg:Брийнска атака на Земята
cs:Nálet na San Francisco
de:Überfall auf die Erde
ja:サンフランシスコ襲撃
nl:Aanval op San Francisco
Category:Earth conflicts