User:Tarinzix/Sandbox/Romulan Neutral Zone
< User:Tarinzix | Sandbox
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| Romulan Star Empire | |
| Basic information | |
| Major Species | |
| Capital(s) |
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| Founded |
938 AD (Official founding of the Empire) |
| Warp Capable |
320 AD |
| Official Language |
Rihannsu |
| Official Currency |
Talons |
| Political Information | |
| Military Branches | |
| Template:Government | |
The Romulan Neutral Zone was an area of neutralized space established between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire. The Neutral Zone was located in the Alpha Quadrant close close to the Alpha/Beta Quadrant Boarder, and was established in 2161 as apart of the Treaty of 2060 which ended the Earth-Romulan War. Detailed in the Treaty, entry through the boarder by either side into the Zone would be constituted as an act of war, of which the opposing side could opt to either act upon, or dismiss.
Within the span of its 225 year history, the Neutral Zone was breached by both sides a number of times. None of these instances however, ultimately resulted in an actual declaration of war being deployed by either side.
While the total number of times that a Federation Starship has entered and violated the Neutral Zone is known, the total amount of times a Romulan Vessel has done the same can only be guessed at, as there was no known way to peer through the Rumluan Cloaking Device Technology until the early 24th Century, with the introduction of the Federation Tachyon Detection Grid.
Contents
History
Conception & Establishment
Immediately following the end of the war, tensions between the two interstellar powers remained high, with each side accusing the other of subterfuge. Many within the mysterious Romulan Star Empire were furious at the thought of being "defeated" by such a small, and comparably inferior, both technologically as well as militarily force of loosely-allied worlds and colonies. Thus, to defuse the tensions, an amendment was inserted into the peace treaty, also known as the: "Barradas Treaty", in honor of the world which was used a meeting place where both parties met (though not face to face) to sign the treaty.
With the subsequent creation of the Neutral Zone, Earth and its fledgeling alliance, established a series of outposts along the Federation-side of the Neutral Zone. Initially, twelve of these outposts were planned to be constructed, however, due to the internal politics of the new "United Federation of Planets", citing concerns by the new Federation High Counsel that the construction of so many new bases along the boarder could be seen by the Romulans as a prelude to an aggressive action and possibly, another war, the number of bases was cut to eight.
During the construction of the outposts, many of the High Counsel's fears began to prove to be coming true; intelligence reports from the time spock of the Romulan Star Empire mobilizing its forces in a defensive posture. This of course forced the Federation to once again begin mobilizing its own ships in preparation for a possible Romulan invasion. The event to have defused the entire situation, as it turned out, was when the Klingon's took the opportunity to invade the Romulan Star Empire in a surprise attack that took both the Kemp'ra system as well as the Marless Belt.
As the Klingon's provided an appropriate distraction, the Federation took the chance to complete the first three outposts and bring them online. The Romulan's however, suspecting that the Federation had allied itself, or had otherwise manipulated the Klingon Empire into initiating the surprise attack, they still kept a large contingency of ship's stationed on their side of the Neutral Zone. In a dual attempt to both reassure the Romulans and to also reinforce their own boarder with the Klingon's in the case that they should also launch an invasion into Federation Space.
Romulan Emergence, Aggression & Isolation
Following the next century as technology on both sides of the Neutral Zone grew, the Zone itself remained quiet. With both sides appearing to obey the Barradas Treaty, the Federation began moving less and less resources away from the Neutral Zone. By the mid 23rd century, the only thing securing the Federation-side of the Neutral Zone were the eight Outposts and several Federation Starships within calling distance should an emergency arise.
In 2266, one such emergency arose when two of the outposts went silent without cause. A short while later, an emergency signal was briefly received by one such closely-stationed Federation Starship, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, which seemed to show a massive attack in progress before the signal was lost all together. In the end, four of the eight Outposts were destroyed, along with the aggressor Romulan vessel as it was attempting to flee back into the Neutral Zone.
Over the next thirty or so years, the Neutral Zone was violated several times by both sides: Thrice by the Federation (two of which were excused as either emergency situations by both sides), and fourfold by the Romulans; two of which those instances were chalked-up to exentuous foreign circumstances.
In 2293, when the Klingon Moon Praxis exploded due to a mining accident, and the subsequent signing of the Khitomer Accords, which created the first, lasting peace between the Federation and Klingon Empire. Fearing what this new alliance between the Romulan Star Empires may bring, the Romulans retreated back to their side of the Neutral Zone to watch and observe.
Romulan Re-emergence
Although their next, official encounter with the Federation would not come until much later, several Warbirds were confirmed to have crossed into Klingon Space and attacked and destroyed both the Klingon Outpost on the Narendra III as well as the Federation Starship which had come to its aide; the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C, in an attempt to start a war between the two powers. However, the attack had the opposite effect, in that survivors spock of the Enterprise and its honorable destruction, which had the end result of bringing the two closer together than ever before. The Romulans did however, capture several prisoners from the Enterprise before it was destroyed.
Following the incident at Nerendra III, the Romulans again crossed the farthest edge of the Neutral Zone during an escalation of hostilities between the Federation, and the Cardassian Empire. While the details of this mission are vague, it has been presumed that the intent was to stoke hostilities between the two powers in order to cause an all-out war. Instead, the Klingons declared war on the Cardassian Empire after several of their own colonies were attacked and at least one station destroyed by a Cadassian task force.
As the Federation entered into a war with the Cardassians as well, the Romulans were known to have made at least forty-seven incursions into the Neutral Zone; each time, apparently, to stop as a means of deterring any kind of aggression from the three powers. However, those instances where only recorded by passing Klingon vessels, which had developed a much more accurate method of detecting cloaked ships from afar. This would later be adopted by the Federation in the form of its technologically modern version of the Tachyon Detection Grid, whose range was extended to cover much of the Neutral Zone's interior.
It wasn't until 2364 that the Romulans began noting the sudden silence and disappearance of several Romulan outposts along the Neutral Zone, that the Romulan Senate sent a ship to investigate. At the same time, after a similar string of occurrences happened on the Federation side, Starfleet sent its own vessel to investigate. These identical mission eventually lead to the first face-to-face contact between both the Federation and the Romulans in decades. While their separate missions ended without the completion of their shared objectives, the truth would eventually become known in the years to come as the entirety of the quadrant began entering a period of political instability.
The Borg
In 2366, the [[USS Enterprise-D] was thrown into the path of a cubical-shaped vessel belonging to a species called "The Borg". While it is unclear as to how long the Romulans had known about this pseudo-species before the Federation made them and the threat they posed known to the entire quadrant, the fact that the powers on both sides of the Neutral Zone on several occasions had added an amendment, which became known as the "Arious Amendment" to the Barradas Treaty which nullified the "Act of War" clause specified in article two, section one, paragraph one; in the case of a Borg Incursion into either territory, spoke volumes about how seriously the Romulan Star Empire took the threat.
Over the course of the next fourteen years, the Arious Amendment was employed in a total of seventeen occasions; eight requests where made by the Federation, and during nine major instances by the Romulans. However, in five of the eight occasions in which the Federation invoked the amendment, the Romulans were only able to render aide during three requests due to the the threat either being neutralized by the more local forces, or, in one case, the colony under attack was destroyed.
The Dominion War
The state of the Neutral Zone during the Dominion War was a hotly debated aspect on both sides. Among the allies, the Federation was warned on several occasions that crossing into the Neutral Zone during skirmishes with Dominion forces constituted as a violation of the treaty. The Romulans, on the other hand were more than willing to allow Dominion ships to cross over into their territory in order to engage Federation ships. All of this came to an abrupt end however, when a Romulan Senator by the name of "Vreenak" was killed on stardate 51721 when his shuttle was destroyed by a bomb while returning from a diplomatic mission to the Dominion. Among the debris was a Cardassian Optolythic data rod, which appeared to indicate a meeting between the highest echelons of the Dominion Government planning the invasion of Romulus.
Shortly following the death of Senator Vreenak, the Romulans declared war against the Dominion, and launched a full-scale assault on all of the Dominion bases and installations along their boarders, destroying many of them. In the coming weeks, the Romulan Senate and Federation High Counsel agreed upon the "Vreenak Amendment", which specified that so long as both the Romulan Star Empire and the United Federation of Planets remained allies in their war against the Dominion, entrance into the Neutral Zone by either side would be excused so long as both sides announced any and all vessels entering the Neutral Zone for the explicit purpose of fighting the Dominion.
The Romulans made use of the amendment during the war, crossing the Neutral Zone with both ships and supplies several times a month in order to reach the Front Lines, which were located primarily in Federation Space. This continued throughout the war, as Romulan involvement increased, the Federation also began making use of the treaty; primarily sending single ships on diplomatic envoys to the capital of Romulus. By the the end of the war, with Dominion defeated and the Federation-Klingon-Romulan alliance victorious, many Romulan vessels simply returned to their side of the Neutral Zone. Although there was much debate about the necessity of the Neutral Zone now that many had seen the productivity and trade it brought to the empire, a measure by the Romulan Senate to allow for limited trade between the Federation and Romulan Empire was voted down by a paper-thin margin.
Current Statues
Although there has been several attempts to open up the Neutral Zone, ranging from allowing limited trade to attempts to out-right abolish it by two separate Praetors, the Neutral Zone has remained more or less intact. However, popular sentiment about the Neutral Zone has shifted in favor of its opening, after much of the Romulan peoples saw their own quality of life slightly rise during the Dominion War. When the Hobos event occurred which destroyed the Romulan Capital, throwing much of the Empire into chaos, many of the colony worlds along the outskirts of the Neutral Zone began to open up trade with the Federation aide ships continued to come through.
Although officially the Neutral Zone is still in place, in practice, its enforcement by the Romulan Star Empire has become increasingly sporadic as several minor factions have attempted to claim the authority of the original Romulan Senate. Starfleet has taken to patrolling and strictly enforcing the Neutral Zone boarder that was in place prior to the Hobos event until such a time as a single government can come to power.
Credits
| Information on what Pegasus Fleet considers Trek Canon on this topic can be found at: Memory Alpha. |
| Some or all of this information may have been made up by the Galactic Anthropology Committee. |