The Tarikon VIII Disaster was an unforeseen side-effect of the Romulan Star Empire testing a new kind of superweapon in the polar regions of Tarikon 8.
The Mission[]
The Romulans, at that time lead by Admiral Narok, managed to capture a Metar leader on Hrimfraxi, after which Narok's scientists wanted to conduct more experiments to see if the Metar leader could form the basis of a new Shiva Device. Tarikon 8 was selected as the testing site of the weapon. In order to get the right information, the Romulans had to capture the Science Station of the nearby colony from the United Federation of Planets, after which the research allowed the construction of the weapon. Admiral Narok had ordered the weapon to be tested on the colony from the Klingon Empire.
The Disaster[]
The weapon, under escort by Romulan units, succeeded in reaching its destination and completely obliterated the Klingon base, but as an unforeseen side-effect, 1/6th of the planet's mass was also vaporized in the blast. This caused the planet Tarikon 8 to spin out of its orbit and into open space, which not only doomed whatever remained of the Klingon colonists, but also the Federation and the Romulan bases as well as an outpost of the Metar were lost in the process.
Aftermath[]
Both the Klingons and the Federation wanted to know who was responsible for the disaster and, according to Sarek and the Hubrin, it was soon revealed that Admiral Narok was the responsible figure, due to his desire to goad the Klingon Empire into an 'unwinnable war'. This was because Admiral Narok held a grudge against the Klingon Empire for the defeat the Romulans suffered from the battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt. To prepare himself for this war, Narok manipulated the Romulan commander responsible for overseeing the expansion into the Tabula Rasa by first collecting a specified amount of dilithium on the planet Taphet, followed by the capture of the Metar-occupied Klingon Arsenal on Al-Fadir and the capture of the Metar Ras on Hrimfraxi. To 'persuade' the commander into co-operating with him, Admiral Narok also took the initial superior to the Romulan commander as well as the commander's own family hostage. Once that was made clear, Admiral Narok's plans were eventually defeated, his hostages freed and the secret experiments he had undertaken would become public knowledge, the only irony being that the technology used for this was in fact the key to victory... but over the Metar and NOT the Klingons. (TOS video game: New Worlds)