Prelude to Axanar

This is a galaxy wide transmission

of the United Federation of Planets.

The United Federation of Planets Historical Society,

in association with Memory Alpha, presents...

The Four Years War!

Stardate 2241.03, the planet Archanis IV.

Founded nearly a century before,

this research outpost has grown

into a flourishing full-scale city.

It is a shining example of Federation progress.

There could be no Federation without Earth!

And the fact that the humans could

lead the formation of the Federation

just a few years after their

war with the Romulan Empire is...

nothing short of extraordinary.

But it represents something very

different to the Klingon Empire.

Growing tired of diplomacy, the high-chancellor proclaims:

If words were water, the humans would drown us all.

The bad blood between the humans and the Klingons,

meant that the job of preventing war and

leading the peace delegations, fell to Vulcan.

Regrettably, we failed.

For 12 hours, the Klingon disruptors do not stop.

Archanis is reduced to rubble.

Thousands of its inhabitants are dead.

Countless more are missing.

The first victims of what will come to be

known as, "The Four Years War."

[Admiral Ramirez] They had been expanding their empire

for 200 years before the Federation was formed.

That there would be a conflict,

with the Klingon people, at some point,

was obvious, to most of the members of Starfleet.

Klingons were certain that they could

merely take anything they wanted.

Starfleet's early losses did little to

dissuade them of that notion.

[Garth of Izar, Captain of the USS Ares]

Koriana VI, Vesta, Archanis,

we took some major beatings, the first six months.

For most of that first year, our mission was

just to slow them down, while we fell back.

Unfortunately, the Klingons were unconvinced

the Federation was any sort of match for them.

And their belief in their superiority,

left us little room to negotiate.

Well, at that point, about the only thing we

were doing, that impressed the Klingons, was...

dying well.

And, there was plenty of that.

The Klingon supreme commander,

the architect of the invasions,

was a warlord named Kharn.

"Kharn , the undying" is what they called him.

The Klingons revered him, with good reason.

Vulcan intelligence is, if I may say, unparalleled, but...

even for us, he was a mystery!

It wasn't until the formation of the Federation,

that the high council began to take Earth, seriously.

And even after the Federation was

formed, many on the high council,

thought it is a mere political alliance.

Starfleet was never seen as

a match for the imperial navy.

Certainly not one that would

impede the growth of the empire.

Their whole civilization, their whole culture,

is a monument to the art of war.

The early campaigns. Yes, the

Klingons were toying with us.

They were using a strategy known to

the Klingon people as vuvHa'chu'wI' to'

vuvHa'chu'wI' to'

Which loosely, roughly translates as

"The strategy of least respect."

The epitome of their...

arrogance, occurred during

the ambush of Inverness V.

The Inverness system, as you call it,

was our first objective.

Inverness, five planets, all colonized.

Stardate, 2243.3

The highly populated dilithium rich

planets, of the Inverness system.

[Kharn] For your kind, those planets were

merely a source of dilithium.

For us, those planets are sacred.

God damn Inverness V.

What a mess!

It was the first time they used it on us.

It was an old Klingon tactic.

They had a word, natlhchu'wI'.

It means, "The Devourer!"

Day after day,

it was the same thing.

I get called into support some kind of counter-attack.

By the time I got into orbit,

my orders had been changed.

Attack called off, battle was already over.

We'd pull out of warp...

into a junkyard.

Fragments of starships bouncing off my hull.

Fragments of the crews, as well.

Eighteen starships destroyed

Pick up the survivors, beam them up.

We'd be beaming them up, and

one of two things would happen.

The transporters would blow out, or the

Klingons would show up and start shooting.

I could look down from orbit and see trails of smoke.

For miles.

Well that was it, something had

to change, or we were done!

An Andorian acquaintance once said:

"Don't push the pink-skins to the thin ice."

It wasn't very eloquent, but...

the Klingons found it to prove quite prophetic.

After two years of almost constant defeat, the head

of Starfleet, Admiral Slater is forced to step down.

Across the Federation, billions

wonder, who would replace him.

I was on the bridge of the Xenophon.

It was my first ship in the war.

An old Marklin class destroyer

With Lt. Cain, our comms officer said that there

was a fleet-wide broadcast from Starfleet.

I told him to punch it up on the big screen.

And that's when we heard it was Ramirez.

That name spread like wildfire.

You ask anybody where they

were when they heard it and...

they'll remember.

We are facing an enemy,

that is consumed and committed to our total destruction.

His first speech to the Federation council was, incredible.

An enemy that demands to be fought, and we will fight!

There were 40000 people in Archer Arena.

But I say to you our greatest challenge,

is not the might of a Klingon fleet.

And they all wanted one thing.

The greatest challenge laying

before us, is to do what must be done,

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