The Death Throes of an Empire

[Cptn Corizon 0]

The Dominion War, Month 12 of Hostilities

 

The brilliant rays of the triple suns that surrounded Dameon Prime shone down brightly on the ancient capital of Tykoo. When humans wandered naked, Tykoo was a bustling city of over 300 million Dameon. Today, it was a bustling space port, for a race whose Golden Age long since faded away.

 

In the skies high above the city, the Dameon Defense force patrolled, ever watchfully. For generations, they protected the Empire from her enemies, while the Dameon Army conquered every planet in sight.

 

Before the Vulcans developed logic, before the Klingons knew of honor, before the Federation was a glimmer in the eyes of an oppressed human looking up at the stars, the Dameons walked as gods. For years, no one stood against the Dameon war machine. Unbridled, they expanded outwards, thinking themselves invincible. Indeed, the mighty Dameon raged across the quadrant with claws of fire; amassing an Empire that would not be again rivaled in the Alpha Quadrant till the Birth of the Federation.

 

But they would pay for their hubris. Long in the shadows of the Dameon Empire, the Gorn destroyed all that was Dameon. The pride, the power, the people—broken and shattered.

 

But even then, the Dameon survived. They persevered. Even through out the terrible ravages of the Gorn War, the homeworld had been just that—home.

 

On this very bright, sunny day, The Dominion, the new scourge of the Galaxy, would harm the Dameon deeper than the darkness of the Great War. With the Federation embroiled in conflict; Starfleet couldn’t spare any ships to protect the homeworld. Disaster waited for opportunity to strike.

 

The initial attack on Dameon caught everyone on the planet off guard. Someone dropped the ball, and the attack fleet of over sixty warships entered the system catching the Dameon home fleet out of position. Before they could even be called to help, the communications network was disabled and the siege upon the planet began.

 

Automated defenses were little match for the battle hardened Dominion, and the Jem’Hadar death squads were able to land on the surface. For the first time in the history of the Dameon, alien forces set foot on the homeworld. It was a blow deep in the heart of the Dameon People but they did not have time to sulk. Backed against the wall, the warrior blood flowed.

 

One of the Cardassians aboard the lead Dominion ship later recalled, that only the Klingons had fought so evenly with the genetically enhanced protectors of the Founders.

 

In the early stages, the death tolls on both sides were staggering. For every four Jem’hadar killed, seven more Dameon died. Still, it was among the worst losses for the Dominion during the entire war.

 

The fighting was so intense, that at one point, two units of Jem’hadar attacked each other, mistaking the other unit for Dameon forces. By the third hour of the attack, it was clear to the Dominion that before they could win a ground war, they would have to crush the Dameon forces from the sky.

 

And thus, they rained hell, fire and brimstone on Dameon Prime. The death toll, which still to this day remains only an estimate, was in the hundreds millions, Starfleet’s own estimates listed the attack as killing nearly a billion.

 

But before the Dominion could completely devastate the homeworld, like knights in shining armor, the Dameon Warfleet and three Federation battle groups stormed to the rescue—sending the Dominion fleet home, licking their wounds.

 

The damage, however, was already done.

 

The ground smouldered for weeks following the attacks, With nearly a billion dead, and even more left homeless, the Dameon people searched for answers. Three hundred years ago, disaster of this nature was unthinkable, but no longer did Dameon control her destiny as she once did, years ago.

 

The Dominion destroyed the last vestiges of Imperial Pride. The attack had proven to the Dameon that they would never be able to stand alone again in the galaxy, and that the Federation was their only hope for survival. Battle scarred, the Dameon people did what they have always done—survive and advance.

 

Almost 5 years after the brutal Battle of Dameon Prime, the memories seared into the hearts and minds of the Dameon were constant reminders of the savageness of war. The landscape recovered, and buildings rebuilt.

 

Never would they forget, the day that beneath a silent blue sky, the empire finally died.