- For the mirror universe counterpart, see Battle of Wolf 359 (mirror).
The Battle of Wolf 359 was the Federation's disastrous first fleet action against the Borg. It was part of the Borg Incursion of 2366-2367; the battle itself became synonymous with the star's name, and thus the battle eventually came to be known simply as "Wolf 359". (LD episode: "No Small Parts")
It was identified by the Time Lord known as The Doctor as a fixed point in time. (TNG - Assimilation² comic: "Issue 7")
Starfleet officer Steven Levy by 2380 came to believe that the battle was an "inside job". (LD episode: "No Small Parts")
Sequence of events[]
In early 2367, (stardate 44002.3), a fleet of forty starships, under the command of Admiral J.P. Hanson, massed at Wolf 359, 7.8 light-years from Earth, in an attempt to halt a Borg cube en route to Earth. Using the knowledge of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who had earlier been assimilated and given the designation "Locutus", the Borg destroyed 39 ships. The one-sided battle cost the Federation over 11,000 lives. (TNG episodes: "The Best of Both Worlds", "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", DS9 episode: "Emissary", VOY - Strange New Worlds V short story: "Final Entry", TNG comic: "Second Contact"). Among the ships destroyed at the battle was the USS Columbia, one of the Federation's few Galaxy-class ships in active service at the time. (TNG novel: Vendetta, STO - Task Force Operation mission: "Battle of Wolf 359")
- Startrek.com states that the battle did not last long enough for expected Klingon aid to arrive; however, the Voyager comic Ghosts shows Klingon vessels participating in the battle.
During the fighting the USS Saratoga, trapped in the cube's tractor beam, was covertly boarded by Borg drones intent on killing or assimilating senior officers. However, a starship crew sent from 2409 by Q (Junior) defeated the drones, ensuring that the vessel's first officer Benjamin Sisko escaped the ship. (STO - Borg Advance mission: "State of Q")
Aftermath[]
One of the first ships to arrive for clean-up operations was the Miranda-class USS Cerritos. (LD module: Lower Decks - Crew Handbook)
Recovery operations were underway within 8 days. Starfleet utility vessels, among them the Annie and numerous sphinx workpods, retrieves wreckage, desolate ships, lifeboats and escape pods from the aftermath of the battle. Wreckage included at least two Constitution-class starships, a Miranda-class, a Niagara-class, a Nebula-class, a Cheyenne-class, a Nova-class, a New Orleans-class and a Type-6 shuttlecraft. (SOTL calendar: 2015 month September: "Wolf 359 + 8 days")
Debris from the battle remained in the system through 2368. (TNG comic: "The Worst of Both Worlds")
Rachel Aprile's tactics that she used against the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359 convinced Starfleet to assign her to Starfleet Academy to oversee the Kobayashi Maru scenario. (DS9 short story: "Best Tools Available")
Sisko created a holographic program of the Battle of Wolf 359 aboard Deep Space 9 in an attempt to discover if a Starfleet victory was possible. (DS9 comic: "Program 359")
Starfleet operated a memorial in the Wolf 359 system by the year 2409. (STO - Klingon War mission: "Heading Out")
By 2411, the Wolf 359 Memorial Station included wreckage from numerous ships from the battle, plus the intact, decommissioned USS Hood. (STO - Both Worlds mission: "Omega Molecule Stabilization")
Parallel universe[]
In a parallel universe, Jake Sisko died aboard the USS Saratoga during the battle, an event which destroyed his father Benjamin Sisko's Starfleet career, his marriage to Jake's mother Jennifer Sisko and almost Benjamin's will to live. (DS9 novel: Fearful Symmetry)
Ships at the Battle of Wolf 359[]
Federation vessels[]
Borg vessels[]
ship name | ship class | disposition | sources |
---|---|---|---|
Cube 632 (Locutus' cube)[10] | Borg cube[2] | destroyed (stardate 44002.3[4], 2367) | TNG episode: "The Best of Borth Worlds" |
unnamed assimilation probes (26) | assimilation probe | destroyed (44002.3, 2367) | STO - Task Force Operation mission: "Battle of Wolf 359" |
unnamed Borg spheres (3) | Borg sphere | destroyed (44002.3, 2367) | STO - Task Force Operation mission: "Battle of Wolf 359" |
Klingon vessels[]
ship name | ship class | disposition | sources |
---|---|---|---|
unnamed (2) | K't'inga-class | destroyed (stardate 44002.3[4], 2367) | VOY comic: "Ghosts" |
unnamed (1) | Vor'cha-class | destroyed (stardate 44002.3[4], 2367) | VOY comic: "Ghosts" |
Time Lord vessels[]
ship name | ship class | disposition | sources |
---|---|---|---|
TARDIS | timeship | active (2368)[11] | TNG - Assimilation² comic: "Issue 7" |
Appendices[]
- See template below for ships known to have been lost in the Battle of Wolf 359, excepting the USS Hood (NCC-42296), which survived.
Connections[]
Ships at the Battle of Wolf 359 | ||
---|---|---|
Federation, Starfleet | USS Ahwahnee • USS Anderson • USS Bellerophon • USS Bonestell • USS Buran • USS Chekov • USS Columbia • USS Constance • USS Dunkerque • USS Endeavour • USS Endurance • USS Firebrand • USS Gage (Apollo-class) • USS Gage (ShiKahr-class) • USS Galatea • USS Garrett • USS Gora bim Gral • USS Hoagland • USS Hood • USS Ibn Sina • USS Kadosca • USS Kaneda • USS Konom • USS Kumari • USS Kyushu • USS Liberator • USS Melbourne (Excelsior-class) • USS Melbourne (Nebula-class) • USS Mjolnir • USS Porksauce • USS Princeton • USS Righteous • USS Roosevelt • USS Saratoga • USS Seleya • USS Sha Ka Ree • USS Sonak • USS Star League • USS T'Shen Kovil • USS T'Pau • USS Thy'lek Shran • USS Tolstoy (Centaur-class) • USS Tolstoy (Rigel-class) • USS Victory • USS Yamaguchi • USS Yorktown • unnamed by class: Constitution • Nova | |
Borg Collective | Cube 632 (Locutus's cube) |
References and notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Star Trek Adventures - "Wolf 359" p. 48
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 TNG episode: "The Best of Both Worlds".
- ↑ TNG episode: "Redemption".
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 TNG novel: Vendetta.
- ↑ ST reference: The Star Trek Encyclopedia.
- ↑ FASA RPG module: Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual.
- ↑ ST video game: Borg.
- ↑ ST reference: Star Fleet Technical Manual.
- ↑ DS9 episode: "What You Leave Behind".
- ↑ Star Trek Adventures RPG module: Core Rulebook.
- ↑ TNG - Assimilation² comic: "Issue 8".
External links[]
- Battle of Wolf 359 article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- The Wolf 359 Research Project, which identifies and reconstructs ships lost at the Battle of Wolf 359 from production photos, interviews, and analysis of screen captures from "The Best of Both Worlds" and "Emissary", at Ex Astris Scientia.