Expansion of the Federation into the Briar Patch and beyond was not without opposition. The main outpost in the sector was the fledgling colony in the Serenity system, defended by Starbase 901--at the time, the most far-flung of the Federation's permanent bases. Conflicts with the Son'a and the expansionist Mulluran Empire tested the personnel aboard the starbase to a limit very few in Starfleet before or since have experienced.
In 2384 the station was commanded by the legendary Richard Wallace, a mustang officer known both for his tactical genius and his outspokenness. He found himself running a badly aging K-7 class space station and attempting to defend not only the Serenity system but the entire sector.
The situation on Serenity and other outposts such as Morristown had deteriorated to the point that Starfleet's conventional security forces were unable to control matters on their own. In response to the situation, Starfleet dispatched the 28th Marine Expeditionary Force. Commanding this force was then-Captain Tarik, a Romulan born to expatriates on Vulcan and something of a pariah within the Starfleet community. Under his command, the 28th MEF quickly helped to restore order to the restive sector and end the threat posed by the Son'a.
No sooner than the Son'a conflict ended than the Federation crossed swords with the Mulluran Empire. Expansionists with a long history of conquest and enslavement of surrounding peoples, the Mullurans regarded the Federations as interlopers in their rightful domain. Forging an alliance with the G'kra, former slaves of the Mullurans, the Federation quickly routed the first attempt by the Mullurans to dislodge its presence in the Briar Patch. Wallace, Tarik, and many other Starfleet officers were finally recognized by higher command for their talents and efforts. Wallace was promoted to commodore and reassigned to Starfleet Command as Chief of Operations. Tarik was promoted to colonel and executive officer of the station. Command of the station itself devolved to Captain Kitty Mallory, whose earlier career had been primarily as a diplomatic attache.
The Serenity colony grew in economic and strategic importance, and had always attracted commerce from throughout the region. Two significant players in this commerce were Eugene Loomis and Kassia Atrelle. Loomis, a down-on-his-luck merchant who established a retail business on the station, soon became one of the leading economic players in the area. Kassia, a being from the nearly-extinct Albacetian race, possessed extraordinary psi abilities and established a business catering to the spiritual and psychological needs of the station and the colonies it protected. Both would play a very prominent role in the lives of many of the station's personnel, particularly Tarik. Tarik would eventually marry Kassia and count Loomis amongst his closest friends and confederates. All three, along with Mallory, Wallace, Science Officer Paul Deveraux, and many others, would establish one of the most remarkable clandestine efforts in Federation history.
After a brief period of internal disruption, the Mulluran Empire was taken over by Generalissimo A'dal Francona, whose bombastic speeches and unmitigated hatred for the outside universe put many Federation analysts in mind of Earth's Hitler or Stalin. Francona started a massive program of rearmament and expansion, fueled by a booming slave trade. Tarik in particular, having a sizeable personal fortune, turned his efforts toward undermining Francona's agenda. With the help of Wallace and certain Federation and G'kra politicians, he started a volunteer guerrilla force known as the La'kon Legion, named for one of the G'kra's greatest leaders. This guerrilla force interdicted Mulluran shipping, liberating slaves and gathering evidence to be used to support an all-out effort against the Empire.
Despite these efforts, by 2385 the Empire absorbed the piratical Nausicaan race almost without effort. Intervention by the Federation was anemic at best and mainly a result of individual initiative rather than any coordinated policy. Tarik's organization absorbed the Nausicaan refugees and put them to work in an industrial concern funded by his personal fortune. This concern, the Yukon Synthetics Company, provided additional funding for the La'kon Legion. Corporate security for Yukon Synthetics was headed by Sikal, ex-Romulan Star Navy admiral and Tarik's maternal grandfather. Tensions mounted still further, but Starfleet refused to act decisively.
And men and women of character and honor would be forced to take the situation into their own hands, lest yet another domino fall...
---excerpted from Duty and Honor: The Briar Patch Wars by Fleet Admiral Jonathan Lataro (ret). San Francisco: Starfleet Academy Press, 2431
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