Eternal Empire Crisis

The Eternal Empire Crisis was a major threat to the United Federation of Planets, beginning in June of 2319, when Valerita Garita returned to excavate Old Orion Empire technology on the Indorian world of Delin. The crisis would continue for over a year, as a fleet of hidden Orion vessels was reactivated by Empress Hayant, who was brought out of cryogenic suspension alongside her crews. She would ultimately be killed at the Battle of Exar Draconis, ending the crisis.

Delin
In June of 2319, Valerita Garita began excavations on Delin, where she found an Old Orion console. USS Valiant arrived at Delin to find Garita controlling an Old Orion weapons cache, demanding that she be recognized as the ruler of Celos, and threatening to destroy the colony. Valiant, then under the command of Zesh sh'Rannax began to prepare transport into areas of the cache not controlled by Garita. Delin, a colony of millions, would be lost, an Orion Empire dreadnought emerging from the planet's moon, while Orion Imperial Cyaugs overran the security teams of the Valiant. Even with backup from the Yukikaze, Federation forces were unable to eliminate Imperial forces. Oric Awa was forced to take command of the Valiant, as Captain sh'Rannax was left trapped on Delin.

Deneva
At the same time, USS Pathfinder, under the command of Zara ka'Athnon, received a distress signal from the colony of Deneva. At the same time, Pathfinder lost contact with the Denveva colony, which was revealed to be the result of a massive array of signals inhibitors covering the ocean floor. At the same time, Orion shuttles were being launched from a secret facility. With no other means of disabling the array, ka'Athnon elected to lead an away team into the shuttle facility. She was ultimately forced to use orbital fire, including photon torpedoes, against much of the array, destroying all Old Orion forces on the planet.

Benecia
At the same time, the Tellarite world of Benecia lost all electrical power as a result of an EMP, and major seismic events began to take place on the world of Delin. When the USS Challorn, under the command of Jennifer Zhang arrived at Benecia, Orion cyaugs began to attack the colony. With Benecia being overrun, Zhang ordered the Challorn into atmosphere, to provide close-air support with its phaser batteries. Zhang discovered a massive Orion Empire weapons complex in Mt. Richyar, including a dreadnought. She would then collapse the mountain on top of the Orion forces, ending the assault on the colony.

Hayant
Following the loss of Delin, sh'Rannax was dragged down into a throne room, where she was introduced to then Princess Korrinna Dy Lar Som Carletta Bas Hayant, who soon afterwards declared herself Empress, making Garita Prime Minister of the reborn Orion Empire, named the Eternal Empire.

Federation Response
Following the loss of Delin, the UFP began to organize a response. VAdm. John Harriman proposed an extremely risky raid, which was accepted.

Raid on Omega Antares
The Federation vessels in range were hastily assembled, consisting of the USS Yukikaze, USS T'Mir, USS Valiant, ICS Bellow, ICS Hammer, Iprimazzi, Anzarri, Napia, and SFS Certitude''. While the main fleet distracted Eternal Empire forces, T'Mir began to beam commandoes directly into the Eternal superdreadnought. Federation forces quickly moved through the massive ship, breaking out the prisoners and capturing several Orions. An Indorian team successfully implanted a program into the ship's computer, revealed to be the OIS ''Orion Ascendant. However, the alarm was raised, and cyaug forces were dispatched to the cargo bay where Federation forces had beamed in. The cargo bay was held, but with great difficulty.

Hayant moves towards the Union
Hayant began to move towards Orion Union space, forcing the Federation to immediately rally forces there. Local Orion forces were critically understrength, many of them being in the yards with maintenance issues caused by poor reliability. However, there was still the OUS Felicity Xanathos, along with a light cruiser and 4 patrol frigates. The CAN was also out of position, with one battlegroup in the GBZ and one in refit, but deployed the group centered around Riala, which brought 2 cruisers and 3 frigates. The Tellar State Force was occupied by clean-up operations, and was only able to contribute 2 Miranda-As. Starfleet was also limited, being able to deploy 4 cruisers, without frigates or capital support. Placed in command of the joint force was Councillor Tooph Ye Holena. The fleet was rallied to the Orion world of Broken Chains, just ahead of Hayant, where she, instead of going after the inhabited planet, instead began to investigate the seventh planet. The fleet engaged Hayant, destroying 5 of her Orion Drone Fighters, in exchange for the loss of the USS Sappho, and the disabling of OUS Gessir. No damage was inflicted on Orion Ascendant.

The Imperial Continuation Project
Shortly after the Battle of Srinpal VII, archaeological examination of the site, and cross-referencing with other known Old Orion artifacts, such as those recovered from Benecia, revealed the existence of a massive array of sites, designed to create a second Orion Empire, an Eternal Empire, from the ground up. These included the oldest section of the Celos yards, known as the "Imperial Continuation Project, Reconstruction Yards V".

Aqua and Burgundy
Following these latest revelations, Starfleet formed two task forces, designed to stop Hayant. The first of these was Task Force Aqua, designed to find the locations of Eternal Empire sites before Hayant did, and prevent her from using them. Second was Task Force Burgundy, which was responsible for harassing Hayant's forces, and bringing her to battle if possible.

2319.Q3
In August, the USS Yukikaze attempted to intercept an Imperial Drone, but failed to do so. In September, the USS Endurance was dispatched to the Borath Monastery, believed to hold clues to the location of Old Orion artifacts. At the same time, the USS Odyssey was dispatched on a mission to carry Old Orion artifacts from Seyek Space Service secure storage to Indoria, as the artifacts had been part of a weapons system, and were therefore of great interest to Indorian authorities. On the Odyssey, the weapons system escaped containment, and began to manufacture nanobots and small drones, tearing several crew-members apart. The monks of Borath, however, were proving almost completely useless, refusing to help the Federation. The situation on Odysessy, however, was rather quickly resolved by Lieutenant Rachel Garret, who used dilithium to turn standard phasers into sonic anti-nanite weapons.

Far more importantly, however, the Eternal Empire successfully recovered another dreadnought, the USS Bull being unable to contest the Orion Ascendant one-on-one. It was revealed that the ordering in the Borath Monastery was based on glory, and, after a punch-out between the Chief Librarian and Capt. Abigail Taggart, the monks became willing to assist the Federation. In total, 4 facility leads were uncovered from the Borath archives. Additionally, a number of Starfleet vessels successfully prevented a drone from carrying out its mission, sending it back to Orion Ascendant empty-handed.

2319.Q4
In October, USS Thirishar and USS Bull ambushed and destroyed an Orion drone, after Eternal Empire forces had mysteriously stopped in a completely empty system. At the same time, Lt. Marco Kendig off the USS Yukikaze successfully identified several additional leads using the Memory Alpha facilities in Sol system.

In November, the USS Justice was dispatched to Gornar, to see if the Gorn Hegemony would be willing to assist in the destruction of the Eternal Empire. USS Endurance, meanwhile, was dispatched to investigate some of the leads from Borath. Endurance successfully prevented the Eternal Empire from retrieving the cache, though it turned out to have been essentially totally destroyed in the post-Hur'q period. After a series of unfortunate setbacks, Justice successfully gained access to the Gorn archives, finding several new leads.

In December, the USS Sojourner and USS Gale were dispatched to follow Hayant's second dreadnought. Additionally, the USS Salnas discovered that at least one Hishemeri Sept was coordinating with the Eternal Empire. Sojourner managed to exploit Starfleet knowledge of subspace mechanics to drop the Eternal Empire dreadnought out of warp and blind its sensors, forcing it to return to the Orion Ascendant.

Hayant's Message, 2320.Q1
In early 2320, Hayant broadcast a message, asking the Federation to cease its hunt for her, and instead negotiate. She also fired Garita, literally, out of her ship, in an escape pod. At the same time, however, EE forces planted a nanoweapon onboard a Starfleet listening post. The Sojourner attempted, and failed, to prevent the loss of the outpost, being scared off by a faked Orion dreadnought warp core signature.

In March, the USS Yukikaze was dispatched to the Leas Arai system, to investigate a potential dreadnought site. At the same time, the T'Mir and Docana were dispatched to the Romulan Neutral Zone, in order to investigate the site believed to be contained within. The USS Spirit, meanwhile, was dispatched to negotiate access into the Neutral Zone with the Romulans.

T'Mir was dispatched, alongside a single Romulan Bird-of-Prey, to the depot, with orders to destroy it in its entirely. At the same time, the USS Gale managed to hit the Orion Ascendant with a number of antimatter warheads. However, immediately afterwards, Orion Ascendant changed course towards the Neutral Zone, bypassing Task Force Burgundy's attempted ambush at Theta Vega. This would deny the Orion Ascendant the chance to repair, but put Federation forces at serious risk, as only Spirit and OUS Burdina were in formation to respond. They were joined by a Klingon K'Tinga-class cruiser seeking glorious combat.

Docana's Sprint
T'Mir inserted a company of Orion Aerocommandos into the depot, off of the cloaked IRW Rhea's Helm, hoping to confuse the base defenses and transmit them fake orders, followed by blowing the base apart. At the same time, the USS Docana prepared for a suicidal sprint against the fastest ship in known space, the Orion Ascendant, planning on broadcasting its every move, allowing Romulan and Federation forces to zero in, without giving away the tracking program.

Just as Docana was forced out of warp, it was rescued by the IRW Karethvek, which forced Hayant to leave the Neutral Zone. The Aerocommando team, meanwhile, managed to both destroy the cache and secure a complete copy of Hayant's orders, revealing her destination.

Following the incident, both the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire would commit cruisers to Task Force Burgundy. USS Agile also tracked down a destroyed depot near Qloathi space. Task Force Burgundy would lay in a high-speed course for the Horizon Border Zone, the location revealed as Hayant's next destination.

The Battle of Exar Draconis
Task Force Burgundy arrived in the Exar Draconis system just slightly ahead of Empress Hayant, joined by local forces, including a Tauni Patroller-A, the SGC Oethyeus. There they stood off against OIS Orion Ascendant, OIS Hammer of the Slain and OIS Judgement of the Heavens, and their 9 drone escorts. Hayant offered to take her ships and establish the Eternal Empire as a reborn Orion Empire somewhere else. Then, unexpectedly, her subordinate, Captain Maximia Asazi, offered to switch sides, as long as she was allowed to rebuild a more tolerant Orion Empire after the battle. Asazi indicated that Hayant would not reform, and would instead immediately turn against the Federation.

Saavik engaged the Eternal Empire fleet, destroying it, but losing her life in the process. Orion Ascendant and Hammer of the Slain were both left drifting hulks, while Judgement of the Heavens survived somewhat intact, but with most of its crew killed. Judgement of the Heavens managed to retreat from the battlefield, but detonated its own warp core shortly afterwards. The USS Kumari was destroyed, lost with all hands to a warp core breach, along with the SGC Oethyeus. Some 800 Orion Imperial Navy personnel were captured, and over 1000 more dead.

Closure
Following the battle, Task Force Burgundy was disbanded, its mission complete, while Task Force Jade was reassigned to help the Tauni in the aftermath of the Oka Incident. Task Force Aqua, however, continued its mission for some time, hunting down Old Orion weapons caches and shipyards.