The Battle near Gamma Serpentis was an engagment where vessels of the United Federation of Planets attempted to destroy each other under the control of the Vau N'Akat living construct. Non-Federation allies were also involved in the battle, attempting to stop Starfleet from destroying itself.
Prelude[]
At an unknown point after 2384, the United Federation of Planets made first contact with the Vau N'Akat on Solum when a Prometheus-class starship arrived at the planet. (PRO: "Preludes")
Afterward, a schism developed within Vau N'Akat society between those who were tempted by the promise of other worlds and wished to align with the Federation, and those who sought to preserve their old way of life and disdained joining a "primitive allegiance". Years of infighting eventually erupted into decades of civil war that left Solum irreparably devastated; extinction was thought to be inevitable. The Federation remained neutral during this conflict. (PRO: "Kobayashi", "A Moral Star, Part 2", "Preludes")
Fifty years after first contact, the USS Protostar was ejected over Solum by an unstable wormhole, having been brought from the 2380s. The surviving Vau N'Akat, bitter at how the Federation had "abandoned" them by remaining neutral during their civil war, saw this as a fateful opportunity for revenge and to save their species. They captured the ship and installed their last surviving living construct aboard, hoping to send it back into the past to destroy the Federation and avert first contact.
However, Captain Chakotay and his crew managed to escape and send the Protostar into the wormhole unmanned, losing it in time and space. With their greatest minds estimating no better than a one percent chance of finding the Protostar again, the Vau N'Akat formed the Order and sent the last of their fleet, one hundred Rev-12-type starships, into the wormhole to complete their mission. Each was crewed by a single soldier who forsook their name and former life in dedication to their cause, and was accompanied by a Drednok. Most of the ships were destroyed as the wormhole collapsed, but The Diviner and The Vindicator survived, emerging in different times and locations. (PRO: "Kobayashi", "A Moral Star, Part 2", "Preludes")
However, this plan was foiled when the Protostar was found on Tars Lamora in 2383 and taken from the Diviner by a group of young aliens whom he had enslaved to find the lost ship. (PRO: "Lost and Found") Meanwhile, the Vindicator discovered that Starfleet was also searching for the Protostar under the leadership of Kathryn Janeway and infiltrated the search party after disguising herself as a Trill.
In 2384, Starfleet caught up with the Protostar after Hologram Janeway, under the living construct's control, directed the ship to a restricted sector near Gamma Serpentis which was close to the heart of Federation space. (PRO: "Ghost in the Machine", "Mindwalk")
The battle[]
A Federation task force intercepts the USS Protostar.
Near Gamma Serpentis, the USS Protostar was met by a Starfleet armada that attacked the ship under the command of the USS Dauntless. The Protostar responded by performing many high-risk maneuvers to avoid the various pursuing vessels. The Diviner, Asencia, and Drednok beamed over, taking over the ship. Despite the young crew and even the Diviner trying to fight back, Asencia killed the Diviner and activated the living construct before escaping with her Drednok.
Under the control of the living construct, the Starfleet ships turned on and began attacking each other. In an attempt to save Starfleet, Gwyndala broadcast a distress call to all non-Federation allies in the area for help with saving Starfleet. Inspired by Gwyn, ships from a number of different cultures, including the Ferengi, the Klingons, the Vulcans and even the Gorn came to help, at first turning the tide of battle. However, automated distress calls sent by the Starfleet vessels kept bringing more and more ships which fell under the living construct's control. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 1")
With the situation having grown dire, acting captain Dal R'El decided that their only option was to destroy the Protostar and the living construct with it in order to save Starfleet and the Federation. The crew decided upon a plan where the Protostar would self-destruct while at proto-warp so as to harmlessly spread out the destructive energy over a light year. While the crew escaped in a bare-bones shuttle, Hologram Janeway took the Protostar to proto-warp, destroying the ship, the living construct and herself, but ending the battle. While all of the ships involved suffered heavy damage, the Protostar was the only ship that was destroyed. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 2")
In an alternate reality, Starfleet lost the battle and was destroyed by the living construct which then went on to decimate the Federation. (PRO: "Cracked Mirror")
Aftermath[]
In the aftermath of the battle, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway ordered searches for the USS Protostar crew who were nowhere to be found. Although Starfleet was unable to locate the young aliens, they eventually made their own way to Earth a month later. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 2")
It was later discovered that Hologram Janeway had used the detonation of the Protostar's proto-core to replicate the wormhole that had originally transported the ship into the future, opening a way for a rescue mission for the Protostar's original crew from 2436. (PRO: "Supernova, Part 2")
Admiral Edward Jellico later stated that the damaged fleets from the battle was one of the reasons that Starfleet was left spread thin alongside the Romulan evacuation and A500 androids barely keeping Federation member worlds going. (PRO: "Ascension, Part I")
Starfleet's encounter with the living construct enabled them to develop an anti-virus upgrade for their ships that rendered the living construct on a altered timeline version of the Protostar harmless over six months later. (PRO: "Ascension, Part I")
Although the living construct was destroyed, Asencia continued her efforts by traveling to the present day Solum, taking control of the planet, and attempting to use temporal weaponry extracted from the mind of Wesley Crusher to destroy the Federation. This led to the outbreak of the Vau N'Akat Civil War, the very thing that the Order had been attempting to prevent when they had sent the living construct back in time. However, the efforts of the USS Voyager-A and the Protostar crew led to the defeat and imprisonment of Asencia for her crimes, the end of the civil war, and peaceful first contact between the Federation and the Vau N'Akat. (PRO: "Into the Breach, Part II", "Who Saves the Saviors", "Ascension, Part I", "Ascension, Part II", "Brink", "Touch of Grey", "Ouroboros, Part I", "Ouroboros, Part II")