The Others was a reference used by the twelve Iconians overseeing the invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy in the year 2410 to a group responsible for saving them from their doom, when their homeworld, Iconia, suffered an orbital bombardment 200,000 years ago by an alliance of several species which had rebelled against the Iconian Empire's rule. For the Iconians, the Others had died during the assault in order to save them. It was later discovered that these Others were actually a group of the Alpha Quadrant Alliance which was sent back in time, intending to prevent any Iconian from escaping the orbital bombardment, meaning there would be no survivors to fight the Iconian War.
Origins[]
After being helped by the Others, the three Iconian sisters, L'Miren, M'Tara and T'Ket, alongside another nine Iconians, hid themselves from the rest of the galaxy for over 200,000 years, slowly rebuilding their once powerful empire, but this time as a more aggressive civilization so as to prevent another devastation of their people. In the early 25th century, the Iconians returned and launched their campaign of conquest through the Milky Way, thus leading to the Iconian War.
After six months of open conflict, the Iconians chose their last target, the Sol system. Members from all four quadrants of the galaxy were united striving for their freedom against the Iconian forces. During the battle, a Krenim ship designed to create a time portal arrived in the system. Their goal was to send a small group of ships back to ancient Iconia 200,000 years ago and eliminate any chance for the Iconians to escape their destruction. Only three ships made it, an Imperial Klingon Ship commanded by Captain Kagran, a Dominion Dreadnought carrying former Empress Sela of the Romulan Star Empire and another Alliance vessel.
Kagran's ship arrived two weeks earlier than the other two ships. Sela, the Alliance vessel's captain and four of his officers beamed down to the planet 2 hours before the bombardment. However, upon seeing the ancient Iconians' peaceful nature, the team decided to help them instead of committing genocide against innocent people. While the Iconians escaped through a gateway, however, Sela changed her mind and started shooting them, killing two of the Iconians and wounding L'Miren's leg, and stole the Iconian's most valuable artifact, the World Heart, from L'Miren's hands. Kagran was able to stop her before she could finish the work, leaving twelve Iconians alive. Because of that treachery, one of the Iconians, T'Ket, swore that one day she would extinguish Sela's people. Realizing she was the cause for the destruction of Romulus, an Iconian plot, she returned the World Heart to one of the Alliance officers and travelled back to the future.
As they returned, Kagran ordered the Alliance fleet to stand down and one of the Alliance captains hailed the Iconian flagship and showed them the World Heart. Realizing that they were the Others, L'Miren ordered the Iconian forces to stand down, thus finishing one of the most devastating conflicts in all galactic history. The Alliance then returned the World Heart to the Iconians, which returned to their devastated homeworld in order to rebuild their civilization. (STO mission: "Midnight")