Breen Confederacy

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Revision as of 03:17, 15 January 2008

The Breen Confederacy and the Breen themselves are a powerful and mysterious Alpha Quadrant species and are one of the very few major species who have evolved on a non-class M world. The Breen homeworld has an average temperature of approximately -60Ëš Fahrenheit, a record low for any inhabited planet. They have evolved with a unique physiology in order to cope with this ultra-cold environment; although they breathe a fairly standard oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere at close to normal pressure, the Breen have no blood or other liquid circulatory system. Instead, their body is permeated by millions of tiny hollow tubules which are open to the skin. These allow oxygen to be carried directly into the body; once there it is absorbed directly through the skin to be used by the internal organs. A similar process carries the waste gasses back out again. The Breen reproductive cycle is also unusual, in that they commonly produce offspring at a very early age.

Normal Breen body temperature is -35Ëš Fahrenheit; exposure to temperatures above 10Ëš Fahrenheit will kill a Breen within minutes. Given that most known major space faring species live on class M planets with an average temperature far above that of Breen, the Breen have had to develop environmental suits of great capability and reliability in order to co-exist with others. Given their nature, it is understandable that the Breen have become one of the Alpha Quadrants leading experts at creating and maintaining extremely cold environments. They are acknowledged experts on cold storage of chemical compounds.

Given the environmental difficulties, casual visits to Breen worlds by non-Breen are virtually impossible. The Breen strongly discourage visitors, and all those who do visit Breen worlds are confined to purpose-designed encampments. Combined with the fact that the Breen habitually design environmental suits which hide their faces from view, this has given them their air of mystery. This has been further enhanced by the fact that some empathic species, most notably Betazoids, are unable to detect the thoughts or emotions of the Breen. It is believed by many races that much of Breen is known to be a frozen wasteland, and it is widely thought that the Breen have deliberately avoided large surface developments for cultural reasons. However there are also some races, like the Dominion, who have been to Breen and say that Breen isn’t at all a cold wasteland.

Nevertheless, much has been discovered about the Breen over the years. They have developed organic technology to the point where they routinely use rather large biological spacecraft. Some of these are fitted with cloaking devices, a technology the Breen apparently invented independently of the Romulans. They use disruptor type weaponry rather than the phaser technology used by the Federation.

The Breen have something of an aggressive history; Breen privateers have conducted raids against other species on several occasions. In 2366 the Breen attacked and captured the Cardassian vessel Ravinok, using its crew as slave labor in the dilithium mines on Dozaria. In 2372 the Breen also attacked the Bajoran colony of Free Haven. The reputation of this curious species has been summed up by the Romulan saying, "Never turn your back on a Breen".

Recently, the Breen had allied themselves with the Dominion against the Alpha Quadrant Alliance of the Federation, Romulan Star Empire and Klingon Empire. On stardate 52410.1 the Breen attacked Earth, destroying Starfleet Headquarters and severely damaging Starfleet Academy, Starfleet Medical, and San Francisco itself. Shortly thereafter, the Breen helped the Dominion retake the Chin'toka System and thus destroying an Alliance Fleet in the process including the Federation flagship of the war, the USS Defiant. The Breen showed for the first time in this engagement a power weapon, the 'Energy Dissipater'.

In mid 2375, the war came to a head. The Alliance fleet attacked Cardassia and was taking quite a beating until the Cardassian fleet changed sides in the middle of the battle thus turned the tide. If it hadn't been for the Cardassians, both sides might have fought to their mutual annihilation but none the less the Dominion surrendered! According to his own account, the changeling Odo from DS9 negotiated a treaty with the Founder after the Cardassian resistance captured Dominion headquarters. The terms, in exchange for the cure to the changeling wasting disease, the Dominion has agreed to withdraw to the Gamma Quadrant and allow trade and research missions through the wormhole. There are several other punitive measures... they're all detailed in the treaty. Soon after the Breen themselves followed suit by negotiating an unconditional cease-fire.

Since then the Breen have secluded themselves back to their territory and little has been seen of them by the Federation. However the Romulans have reported that their survey ships near Breen space have been attacked and barely escaped thanks to their cloaking devices. The future of the Breen is a mystery, much as the Breen themselves are. The breen homeworld was assimilated in 2384.