Tholian Holdfast: Difference between revisions

{{aliens}}<center>[[Image:Hydran.gif|Tholian animated logo]]</center>

The Tholian Holdfast is a race and culture unlike any other in the ASR universe; their physiology is the most non-human of any race encountered, and their xenophobia is unmatched even by the Klingons or the Romulans.

The Tholians are primarily a GOLD Fleet threat, specifically in the Krima Expeditionary Force Theater, due due their cosmic location coreward of the Federation and the Gorn governments.  It is possible for units of the NRP INDIGO Fleet and, on an extremely rare occassion, GREEN Fleet, to have encounters with Tholian assets, but it is unlikely at best that SILVER or BLUE Fleets would.

The Tholians have, since their unfortunate first contact with the USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701 well over 100 years ago, shown themselves to be extremely xenophobic, not allowing any vessel, military or otherwise to cross their borders.

After their initial contact with the Federation, a treaty of non aggression was reached, as the UFP was embroiled in the Second Klingon War at that time. One condition of the treaty, which the Federation protested vehemently, was the Tholians demanded phaser technology. Until that time they had used a weapon that was somewhat similar, but could not manufacture or repair it. Only the fact that the UFP was in a costly war with the Klingons at the same time, and could not afford to fight a war on two fronts, caused the Federation to agree to such a stipulation.

The Klingons sought to take advantage of the situation by drawing the Tholians into outright conflict with the Federation. In rare form, the Klingons attempted to use stealthy methods of entering Tholian space and stage attacks meant to appear as Federation attacks. The Klingon cloaking technology appeared useless against the Tholians. Their highly maneuverable ships and adaptive use of anchoring their web technology to asteroids (instead of between two ships) proved disastrous for the Klingons. It is believed that the Tholians were able to use their suspected psionic capabilities to track the Klingon invaders. Fully 43 ships were lost to the Klingons, with figures for the Tholians believed to be less than a dozen.

At the height of the war, a new force appeared on the edge of Klingon space. The Tholians feared that it was their old subjects who had finally tracked them down, but it turned out to be more Tholians fleeing their home space. This group, an entire battle fleet, and support craft, had not had the advantage of a wormhole, and stumbled upon their brothers by cosmic accident. The Klingons, after one short battle realized who this force was and politely pointed them to their new home. Starfleet, staying true to the non-aggression treaty, provided safe passage through Federation space.

No Alpha power has ever captured a Tholian ship intact, and therefore no one has ever been able to reproduce the web technology. With good reason, the Tholians jealously guard their one advantage, and as a condition of treaties with the Federation, Romulans, Klingons and Gorns, have extracted a promise based upon the Cloaking Treaties between the Federation and Romulans, except with regard to web technology.

OSFI has been unable to determine the size of the Tholian Navy at this time; however, projections based on actions within Gorn space have indicated that, despite being restricted to an area less than a tenth the size of the UFP, they may very well enjoy a navy nearing a tenth the size of Star Fleet's. It is possible that these estimates are inaccurate, as it is unknown the number of shipyards the Tholians possess, and the number of ships needed to protect their territory is proportionally smaller than that needed by the Federation. One analyst has theorized that one patrol group, consisting of a medium cruiser and two destroyer equivalents, could patrol and protect an area 526% larger than a similar deployment of Star Fleet vessels. Therefore, the Tholians have, proportionally, a much larger force available for conflict. This becomes especially discomforting given recent Star Fleet losses in various actions around the galaxy.

Tholian naval design appears to have remained consistent throughout the years. Their vessels, always gem-shaped with multiple facets, are smaller than their Star Fleet counterparts, but are far faster and much more maneuvrable. Their largest reported capital ships are roughly the size of an Endeavour-class cruiser. However, they can do heavy close-range damage due to the nature of the weapons used; certainly capable of disabling a starship. Once they have disabled a starship, they are almost impossible to escape from. The Tholians are not known for destroying ships, in most cases they disable their opponent and then force the crew to abandon ship. Once this is accomplished, they will tow their new prize deep inside Tholian territory.

Forty years ago, there was a Gorn colony on Beta Scorpii III, a mineral rich planet totally intolerable to either Gorn or Tholian life, so the colonies are all under force fields, pressure domes, and, in some cases, underground. A Tholian squadron, however, attacked and destroyed the colony, killing all of the Gorn on the planet. The Tholians then built their own atmospheric domes on the surface. The Gorn declared war but the hostilities dragged on for over two years until the fighting just died out. No resolution was ever reached, and the Tholians kept the planet reasonably well-protected to keep the Gorn away. In the time after, the Gorn were too busy fighting among themselves, and assessing blame for their failure to defeat the Tholians to commit a large part of their resources to fighting a protracted conflict. The Tholians, on the other hand, wisely kept from attacking the Gorn so that they would not unite against a common foe.

This series of on-again/off-again fighting has been loosely called The Tholian/Gorn Conflict. Despite facing the superior firepower possessed by the Gorn Navy, the Tholians were able to defend their new conquests, using their superior mobility and superior numbers to basically surround and capture/destroy lumbering Gorn starships which are not known for their maneuverability. There have been at least 7 or 8 distinct "skirmishes" in this conflict to date.

Both the Tholian Holdfast and the Gorn Hegemony have since asked for the Federation to mediate the conflict.