Federation-Vau N'Akat conflict

The Federation-Vau N'Akat conflict was a conflict between the United Federation of Planets and the Vau N'Akat that threatened to escalate into a full-scale war. It was instigated by the efforts of Vau N'Akat from the future attempting to stop their homeworld from being destroyed in a civil war by destroying the Federation.
==Prelude==
At an unknown point after 2384, the United Federation of Planets made first contact with the Vau N'Akat on Solum when a starship arrived at the planet. ()
Afterward, a schism developed within Vau N'Akat society between those who were tempted by the promise of other worlds and wished to align with the Federation, and those who sought to preserve their old way of life and disdained joining a "primitive allegiance". Years of infighting eventually erupted into decades of civil war that left Solum irreparably devastated; extinction was thought to be inevitable. The Federation remained neutral during this conflict. ()
Fifty years after first contact, the was ejected over Solum by an unstable wormhole, having been brought from the 2380s. The surviving Vau N'Akat, bitter at how the Federation had "abandoned" them by remaining neutral during their civil war, saw this as a fateful opportunity for revenge and to save their species. They captured the ship and installed their last surviving living construct aboard, hoping to send it back into the past to destroy the Federation and avert first contact. (
==Hunt for the Protostar==
However, Captain Chakotay and his crew managed to escape and send the Protostar into the wormhole unmanned, losing it in time and space. With their greatest minds estimating no better than a one percent chance of finding the Protostar again, the Vau N'Akat formed the Order and sent the last of their fleet, one hundred starships, into the wormhole to complete their mission. Each was crewed by a single soldier who forsook their name and former life in dedication to their cause, and was accompanied by a Drednok. Most of the ships were destroyed as the wormhole collapsed, but The Diviner and The Vindicator survived, emerging in different times and locations. (
The Diviner and his partner ended up in the Delta Quadrant around the year 2363, where he embarked on his mission to locate and secure the Protostar. By 2366, The Diviner had narrowed down the location of the missing starship to Tars Lamora, and established a prison colony there in an effort to find it. Believing himself to be the last of his kind, The Diviner produced a clone "daughter", Gwyndala, to continue his mission if he were to die before its completion. ()
At the same time, The Vindicator and her arrived in the Alpha Quadrant in 2381 where she decided to infiltrate Starfleet. () Disguised as the Trill Asencia, the Vau N'Akat female eventually became an ensign and was assigned to the under Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway when it was sent to look after the missing Protostar in the Delta Quadrant. ()
In 2383, the Protostar was found by Dal R'El and Rok-Tahk in the Northwest Crevasse of the prison colony. Working together, the pair, as well as fellow prisoners Jankom Pog, Murf, and Zero, managed to reactivate the Federation starship and escape, kidnapping the Diviner's daughter Gwyn. The makeshift crew reactivated the Protostars Emergency Training Hologram who taught them how to properly fly their new starship. ()
The Diviner began a search for the Protostar using the Rev-12, eventually being contacted by Gwyn who directed her father to Murder Planet after escaping from her bonds. However, the Diviner chose to protect the Protostar over his daughter when she fell into trouble from the planet's superorganism. After being rescued by the Protostar crew, Gwyn joined forces with them, activating the protostar drive to escape from the Rev-1. The proto-warp took the ship 4,000 light years into the Gamma Quadrant, placing it beyond the Diviner's reach for the time being. ()
DaiMon Nandi later contacted the Diviner to give up the Protostars location in exchange for a reward. With the ship beyond his physical reach, the Diviner hacked into the Protostars vehicle replicator and constructed Dred 2, a copy of his Drednok. However, Dred 2 was destroyed by Gwyn, although a time anomaly left him partially constructed in the shuttlebay afterwards. ()
==Rescue of the Unwanted==
As the Protostar crew prepared to jump to Federation space, the Diviner sent them a message through Dred 2, demanding their return to Tars Lamora in exchange for the release of the Unwanted, threatening that the miners would pay the price otherwise. The Protostar crew decided to embark upon a rescue mission, donning the Protostars uniforms and sacrificing their last proto-warp. At Tars Lamora, the crew offered a deal where they exchanged the Rev-12 for the Protostar, only to have the Diviner disable his ship and leave them on Tars Lamora to die.
Having anticipated a double-cross and planned one of their own, the Protostar crew had secretly removed and hidden the ship's proto-core which they used to repower the Rev-12. They had also upgraded Hologram Janeway to be immune to the Diviner's override codes, giving them the upper hand. After the crew used a combadge and the prisoners' manacles to give the Unwanted a universal translator, the miners rose up and destroyed Drednok, launching the Rev-12.
On the Protostar, the Diviner used the Solum-1 holoprogram to reveal the truth about Solum's destruction to Gwyn and revealed to her the existence of the living construct weapon on the Protostar. When the Protostar crew attacked the Diviner, Zero exposed their true form, driving the Diviner insane, but also affecting Gwyn who caught a reflection of the Medusan's true form in Dal's combadge. The Diviner was abandoned on Tars Lamora while the Unwanted took the Rev-12. Although Gwyn recovered, she lost her memories of what the Diviner had revealed to her as a result. With their protostar drive recharged, the crew set course for the Federation. ()
==Uncovering the Living Construct==
In 2384, the Protostar crew attempted to seek political asylum at Federation communications relay outpost CR-721. However, they were still unaware of the living construct which was inadvertently activated and destroyed the station. This event restored Gwyn's memory and she showed the others a recording of the Diviner's revelations on the holodeck. ()
An attempt to learn how to disarm the Vau N'Akat from the Borg revealed that it was impossible to remove or deactivated, meaning that the Protostar could never go to Starfleet. ()
==Janeway and Asencia's Search==
Unbeknownst to the Protostar crew, their reactivation of the protostar drive was detected by Starfleet and Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway began searching for the ship in the . One of her crew, Ensign Asencia, was actually the Vindicator, the other surviving member of the Order from the future. ()
The search led the Dauntless to Tars Lamora where the crew rescued the Diviner and to the remains of the destroyed comms relay, the latter of which caused Janeway to realize that the Protostar was no longer in Chakotay's hands. ()
The Protostar crew later landed at Denaxi Depot in hopes of finding transport to the Federation. However, the Dauntless arrived at the same time to pick up Lieutenant junior grade Barniss Frex, the officer from the destroyed relay station. The Protostar was forced to flee, chased by the Dauntless, which disabled the ship. The Protostar managed to escape into the Romulan Neutral Zone where it was briefly targeted by the Tal Shiar. During this time, Janeway learned the truth about the young crew of the Protostar from a bounty that the Diviner had put out on them. ()
With the situation spiraling out of control, Asencia revealed herself to the Diviner and reminded him of their history and mission, restoring his memory. ()
==The Living Construct is Unleashed==
Shortly thereafter, fell under the control of the living construct and directed the Protostar to a restricted sector near Gamma Serpentis which was close to the heart of Federation space. ()
Near Gamma Serpentis, the Protostar was met by a Starfleet armada that attacked the ship under the command of the Dauntless. The Diviner, Asencia, and beamed over, taking over the ship. Despite the young crew and even the Diviner trying to fight back, Asencia killed the Diviner and activated the living construct before escaping with her Drednok.
Under the control of the living construct, the Starfleet ships turned on and began attacking each other. In an attempt to save Starfleet, Gwyn broadcast a distress call to all non-Federation allies in the area for help with saving Starfleet. Inspired by Gwyn, ships from a number of different cultures, including the Ferengi, the Klingons, the Vulcans and even the Gorn came to help, at first turning the tide of battle. However, automated distress calls sent by the Starfleet vessels kept bringing more and more ships which fell under the living construct's control. ()
With the situation having grown dire, acting captain Dal R'El decided that their only option was to destroy the Protostar and the living construct with it in order to save Starfleet and the Federation. The crew decided upon a plan where the Protostar would self-destruct while at proto-warp so as to harmlessly spread out the destructive energy over a light year. While the crew escaped in , Hologram Janeway took the Protostar to proto-warp, destroying the ship, the living construct and herself, but ending the battle. While all of the ships involved suffered heavy damage, the Protostar was the only ship that was destroyed.
In the aftermath of the battle, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway ordered searches for the Protostar crew who were nowhere to be found. Although Starfleet was unable to locate the young aliens, they eventually made their own way to Earth a month later. ()
Admiral Edward Jellico later stated that the damaged fleets from the battle was one of the reasons that Starfleet was left spread thin alongside the Romulan evacuation and A500 androids barely keeping Federation member worlds going. ()
In an alternate reality, Starfleet lost the battle and was destroyed by the living construct which then went on to decimate the Federation. ()
==Rescue in the Future==
It was later discovered that Hologram Janeway had used the detonation of the Protostars proto-core to replicate the wormhole that had originally transported the ship into the future, opening a way for a rescue mission for the Protostars original crew from 2436. ()
Over the next six months, Starfleet built the for a rescue mission through the Janeway wormhole, discovering that Chakotay's distress call had been sent at a time before the Protostar was sent back through time to Tars Lamora. As a result, Starfleet had to wait for Chakotay and Adreek-Hu to launch the ship before a rescue could be attempted. ()
Six months after the destruction of the Protostar, Janeway took the to the wormhole under the guise of studying it as a part of the ship's maiden voyage. Having been invited to accompany Janeway, the Protostar crew discovered the hidden Infinity and learned the truth about the mission. A scuffle between the crew and Nova Squadron accidentally led to the premature launch of the Infinity with Dal, Jankom, Rok, and Maj'el aboard. ()
Crashing on Solum in 2436 four hours before the Protostar was going to be launched into the past, the makeshift crew were captured by the Vau N'Akat and imprisoned with Chakotay and Adreek. Discovering that the two Starfleet officers were not ready to make any kind of an escape, the Infinity crew came to the conclusion that these events were a temporal causality loop and that they had always helped Chakotay and Adreek to escape. Staging a breakout, Dal and the others provided a distraction for the Starfleet officers to launch the ship. However, Dal accidentally dropping his disruptor allowed Chakotay to escape with Adreek on the Protostar, changing the past so that the ship was never sent to Tars Lamora. This created a temporal paradox that threatened the prime universe. Recieving a message from a mysterious source that Gwyn was in trouble, phasing in and out of existence because of the paradox, the Infinity crew rebuilt their spaceship into a timeship and traveled back in time to present day to Solum to rescue their friend. ()
==Asencia's Rise to Power==
Following the defeat of The Order's plan to destroy the Federation using the living construct, Gwyn traveled to Solum to make peaceful first contact with her people on behalf of the Federation, hoping to prevent the civil war. Even if the Federation were to not initiate first contact, Gwyn recognized that outside contact was inevitable someday, and sought to unite the species to see such contact in a positive light. However, by the time that Gwyn arrived six months later, Asencia had already arrived and won the trust of the council, revealing to them the devastation that would come and convincing them that Gwyn was a spy and a puppet. ()
With the help of her father Ilthuran, Gwyn challenged Asencia to Va'Lu'Rah in order to prove herself to be a true Vau N'Akat and get the council to listen to her. Asencia expressed a belief that the civil war was inevitable as long as the outsiders came to Solum, so she intended to make sure the right side won. Due to the circumstances behind the Protostars launch in the future being inadvertently altered, Gwyn began phasing in and out of existence, allowing Asencia to win. Asencia was hailed as a true Vau N'Akat who would lead her people unto their greatest future while Gwyn was rescued by her friends in the . ()
Asencia subsequently overthrew the council and rose to power as the tyrannical ruler of Solum. Capturing Wesley Crusher, an omnitemporal Traveler, Asencia extracted temporal technology and weaponry from his mind to launch war against the Federation, intending to destroy it in order to save Solum from destruction. In response, Ilthuran organized the Uprising to stop her with Asencia's younger self being one of his supporters. Unbeknownst to anyone, Wesley deliberately allowed himself to get captured in order to manipulate Asencia into building the technology that would be needed to send the Protostar back in time to Tars Lamora and repair the broken timeline. ()
During this time, with Wesley's help, the Protostar crew located their missing ship and its captain on Ysida where it had been marooned for ten years. After convincing Chakotay to leave his self-imposed exile, the crew worked together to repair the Protostar and rendezvous with Voyager. Although this Protostar from an altered timeline still had the living construct onboard, Starfleet's experience with the Vau N'Akat weapon allowed them to neutralize its danger with an anti-virus update to their ships. ()
==Brink of War==
Having consolidated her power, Asencia was on the verge of all-out war with the Federation, a war that the Federation could lose with how spread thin Starfleet already was. Using the wreckage of the Sacagawea, Ilthuran connected to the Watson Subspace Relays and made contact with Voyager to warn them of the danger of Asencia's new temporal weaponry and fleet. Capturing Ilthuran as he communicated with the ship, Asencia traced the transmission and sent the Rev-1 to destroy both Voyager and the Protostar. With its advanced technology, the Rev-1 outmatched both ships, but it was eventually destroyed by Nova Squadron using the Boothby Supernova. Starfleet Command ordered the two ships to Solum to find and neutralize Asencia's temporal weaponry to prevent all-out war with Starfleet. ()
After arriving at Solum, Gwyn suggested that since she wasn't Starfleet and neither were Dal, Rok, Jankom, Murf, and Zero, they could go to the planet and find the source of Asencia's weaponry without a provoking a war between Starfleet and the Vau N'Akat. As it wouldn't technically violate their direct orders or the Prime Directive and seeking a peaceful solution, Janeway agreed to the plan. Although the Prime Directive prevented Starfleet from taking sides in the civil war, Janeway agreed to allow the team to rescue Ilthuran and to grant him political asylum aboard Voyager as Ilthuran's contacts might know Asencia's plans, and he could be the key to achieving peace. By the time Voyager and the Protostar arrived, Asencia's fleet was nearly ready to launch.
The Protostars crew, joined by Maj'el who resigned from Nova Squadron to be able to be a part of the mission discovered managed to rescue Ilthuran, Kathon and Borom, sending the latter two and the younger Asencia who had helped with the rescue to the Uprising. Although the crew also rescued Wesley, he revealed that in the future that he had foreseen, the crew didn't split up and rescued him alone. By sending the Protostar into the past, Ilthuran would've been safe and led the overthrow of Asencia, but with this change, Wesley didn't know what would happen next. The entire crew, Ilthuran and Wesley were then captured by Asencia and her forces and Asencia declared that she could keep Wesley and his knowledge and crush the insurrection against her by killing Ilthuran, thus ensuring that Solum's future was Asencia's alone. However, on Gwyn's signal, Dal used a site-to-site transporter to beam Wesley and Ilthuran to Voyager as Asencia attempted to execute Ilthuran, removing them both from Asencia's clutches. ()
On Voyager, Wesley's injuries were treated by The Doctor, although the torture left Wesley without his Traveler powers for the time being. Asencia made a subspace broadcast revealing the Protostar crew's capture as proof that alien spies had infiltrated Solum and sowed discord amongst them, challenging Janeway to come herself. Accompanied by Chakotay, The Doctor and Wesley, Janeway launched a rescue mission for the Protostar crew using a Vau N'Akat ship built using the Protostars vehicle replicator with Ilthuran's help as Asencia had initiated transporter scramblers planet-wide to prevent beaming in or out. Janeway instructed Ilthuran to remain on the Starfleet vessels in asylum as he was the best chance for a peaceful future for Solum. Although Asencia attempted to execute the Protostar crew by feeding them to her captured Loom, Janeway's team successfully slipped past her defenses, rescued them and released the Loom which briefly attacked Asencia and her forces before departing.
Afterwards, Ilthuran made a broadcast encouraging the people to reject Asencia's war and revolt against her, announcing that he had met the off-worlders and they were not the enemy, pointing out what Asencia had turned their once-peaceful planet into. Solum broke out into a full-scale civil war between Asencia's forces and the Uprising. Gwyn was dismayed that even with the changes to the timeline, Solum had still fallen into a civil war. Having been reminded that boldness wasn't only for the young and that when Starfleet was united, they could always overcome, Janeway agreed to help save Solum. ()
==Battle of Solum==
The situation quickly turned against Asencia with the city being thrown into chaos by the resistance being mounted and the Uprising demanding peace with Starfleet. Desperate, Asencia began to launch her invasion of all key Federation targets despite the fact that opening up that many wormholes would tear apart the fabric of subspace. Asencia declared that Solum was already tearing apart, and their enemies could join the Federation in death. Voyager detected dozens of rifts leading to every major Federation starbase across three quadrants, but it also gave them the chance to send the Protostar back in time and fix the dying timeline. Rok realized that they could merge the energy of the rifts to create a temporal wormhole which would stop the invasion and allow them to send the Protostar to the past where it belonged.
As Dal, Jankom, Murf, Gwyn, and Ilthuran beamed to the surface, Wesley, Rok, Zero, and Maj'el figured out the science regarding the opening of the wormhole and Voyager and the Protostar engaged Asencia's fleet to buy time. At the research spire, Ilthuran stayed behind to hold off the Drednoks while Dal, Jankom, Gwyn and Murf climbed the spire. At the top, Asencia and her attacked. While Gwyn fought off Asencia, Murf attacked and ultimately destroyed Drednok, allowing Dal and Jankom to open the wormhole, causing the other rifts to close on Asencia's ships, destroying them and ending her attempted invasion of the Federation.
With Gwyn about to be killed by Asencia, Ilthuran and the rest of the Vau N'Akat, including the younger version of Asencia, united together behind her, giving Gwyn their strength. Gwyn was able to reclaim her heirloom and overpower Asencia, seemingly burning out Asencia's powers, causing her tendrils and facial markings to take on a darkened look. With the defeat of Asencia and her plans, the civil war ended and Asencia was taken to be imprisoned for her crimes. ()
==Aftermath==
However, immediately afterwards, the Loom started to attack, threatening to consume the entire prime universe starting with Solum due to the dying timeline. With the help of Voyager, the Protostar crew sent the ship through the wormhole to Tars Lamora, fixing the broken timeline and ending the Loom attack.
After the timeline was repaired, Voyager landed on Solum where the Federation, represented by Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway and her crew, and the Vau N'Akat led by Ilthuran, made peaceful first contact, leaving them facing a brighter future together. Voyagers crew dismantled Asencia's temporal technology and removed it from Solum to ensure no one could ever use it again. ()
Category:Federation
Category:Conflicts