The Evacuation of Ardan IV was the only major engagement of the brief undeclared war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire
History[]
Prelude[]
Securing the Ardan system as a beached was the first step in the Klingon Empire's plans for the invasion of the Federation. The Klingon Defense Force dispatched only a small task force in order to quickly gain control of the Starfleet outpost on the dilithium rich planet. A week prior to the attack, the USS Essex captured the IKS Gantin and under interrogation its captain, Worik, revealed the location, timing and the scale of the assault. Essex's commanding officer, Captain Bryce Shumar contacted Admiral Jonathan Archer at Starfleet Headquarters, who tasked Shumar with the defense of Ardan and diverted two Andorian battlecruisers from that sector to aid him.
The battle[]
The Essex was in orbit of Ardan IV, conducting the outpost's evacuation via shuttlecraft, when the Klingon strike force consisting of two D5-class cruisers and a Bird-of-pray arrived. The two Andorian warships, the USS Atlirith and the USS Docana immediately moved to intercept the three Klingon vessels. Captain Senthofar ch'Menlich, commander of the Docana issued a warning toward the invading forces, who answered by opening fire. Following the intense opening salvos, the Bird-of-pray managed slipped through the Andorians screen and headed for the Starfleet evacuation shuttles. They managed to disable one of the small crafts which begun to fall back into the planets atmosphere, but was soon saved by the Essex. The Bird-of-prey turned it's attention on the Daedalus-class ship, which now had the Starfleet outpost's entire personnel onboard. After destroying one of the Klingon cruisers and disabling the other's warp drive and weapons, Atlirith and Docana moved to assist. Seeing that the battle was lost, the commanders of the Klingon ships decided to set a collision course for the planet and the Starfleet vessels were unable to stop them from ramming into it.
Aftermath[]
Starfleet was able to evacuate all 220 of the outpost's personnel, but the Klingon vessels' suicide run ignited the planet's dilithium deposits, wiping out almost all life on the surface. Starfleet lost one of its important outposts in the region, weakening the border for the next assault, which ultimately never came. Furthermore, with the loss of Arden IV's mineral mines, the Federation was forced to rely even more on the resources provided by the tyrannical ruler of Sauria, Maltuvis. (ENT - Rise of the Federation novel: Live by the Code)