By Al Spader, Star Trek Adventures Contributing Writer
Art by Carlos Cabrera
For nearly a century after the Klingon Augment virus was introduced to the Klingon Empire, the Empire toiled over the virus’s impact on the culture’s honor. Driving feuds between Houses, the use of the Augment virus had the potential to start a full-blown civil war among the Empire. Fortunately for the Klingon Houses, a distraction arose that forced them to work together to defend their borders: the Romulan War.
During the Romulan War, the Klingons became somewhat xenophobic and viciously protective of their territory. Aside from a few skirmishes on their borders, the Klingons used the opportunity caused by the Romulan War to look inward, allowing the major Houses to grow by conquering more worlds within their region of space. The Klingon Great Houses were so focused on their competition to gain the most power that they largely ignored any species outside of their borders. This all changed when a Klingon named T’Kuvma tried to unite the Houses under a common cause.
T’Kuvma was considered by many to be a zealot who followed the teachings of Kahless the Unforgettable. T’Kuvma believed that during their time of posturing and one-upmanship, the Great Houses had forgotten the path Kahless forged for the Empire. Because of this, T’Kuvma thought the Klingon Empire was acting with dishonor by squabbling amongst itself instead of stopping the rapid expansion of the United Federation of Planets.
With a common enemy, T’Kuvma believed that he could bring the Great Houses together in the name of Kahless and restore honor to the Empire. T’Kuvma devised a plan to instigate a conflict with the Federation which began with disabling an interstellar relay at the edge of Federation space. With his great Sarcophagus cloaked, T’Kuvma and his crew of religious believers of Kahless waited for the first vessel the Federation sent to investigate.
The U.S.S. Shenzhou was the ship closest to the relay and was the first to respond to the situation. Commander Michael Burnham took a spacewalk to investigate what was happening and was greeted by one of T’Kuvma’s followers. This confrontation ended with the Klingon warrior dead and gave T’Kuvma an excuse to light the Beacon of Kahless, an ancient artifact that sent a unique subspace signal to each of the Klingon Great Houses. Ships and warriors from all 24 Great Houses soon arrived to support the cause. The resulting conflict became known as the Battle at the Binary Stars, the opening salvo of the Federation-Klingon War.
While The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign is told primarily from the perspective of Starfleet, how to adapt the story and the tactical overlay to a Klingon perspective is presented in the book as well. This way, players can use The Klingon Empire core rulebook to create a crew and House to tell the story of the Klingon side of the war and bring glory to the Empire by vanquishing those who claim, “We come in peace.”
Order your copy of The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign now in either print or PDF and start creating your own Star Trek wartime stories!
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