Battle of Kareka

The Battle of Kareka occured on Stardate 52691 in the System of the same name during the Dominion War. It was a defense action between Dominion and Cardassian forces on one side and Federation refugee transports and their escorts on the other. The escorts have been headed by the USS Chesapeake, an old Miranda-Class cruiser. The ship was heavily damaged early in the battle due to a suicide attack by a Jem'Hadar fighter, loosing her senior staff, leaving the young pilot Jaime McNemerra in command of the ship, which had lost all weapons.

Consequently the burden of the battle was mostly on then Commander Allison McNemerra commanding USS Steamrunner, namesake of her class and leading three runabouts who also acted as escorts.

The battle losses were grim and the Dominion kept sending reinforcements of their Cardassian allies. Two cruiser had hid in the Ferris-Nebula and continued to press on the already small number of Federation ships. The transports carrying the refugees were separated during the fighting into two groups, one receiving most of the attacks. When a single Jem'Hadar ship in addition to the Cardassian cruisers was approaching the second group of transports, only accompanied by the USS Chesapeake and too far distanced for Steamrunner to intervene, the Starfleet ship released its crew in escape pods and despite Cmdr. McNemerra's attempts to stop that action, conducted a suicide attack itself, destroying the fighter in the process.

Minutes later Starfleet reinforcements arrived in the form of the large explorer USS Independence, lead ship of her class, which was able to drive away the Dominion forces together with Steamrunner.

However the losses during the battle were dramatic. Over 6000 lifes were lost, the majority being civilian refugees. While Federation news services considered the battle a victory, most Starfleet personnel present that day, regard it a bitter one.