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The Cardassian Rebellion, formally known as the Cardassian Liberation Front, was a popular uprising led by Legate Damar against the occupation of the Cardassian Union by the Dominion in late 2375. Although the revolt had little military impact and was quickly crushed by the Jem'Hadar, the uprising nonetheless had a great effect on the outcome of the Dominion War by forcing the Dominion to divert resources to quelling the rebellion, just as they were poised to launch a massive assault against the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans. Ultimately, the rebellion allowed the allies to win the war at the Battle of Cardassia, although their actions would have great consequences for Cardassia Prime.
Prelude
Legate Damar in early 2375.
By 2375, the Dominion's war effort against the allies was settling into a bloody stalemate. Damar, as leader of Cardassia, was becoming ever more frustrated with his Dominion allies, who had promised to return Cardassia to greatness but instead seemed intent on merely using Cardassia's resources to wage their war against the Federation and its allies. Initially, Damar tried to avoid his self-doubt by drinking excessive amounts of kanar and shirking many of his duties. (DS9: "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River")
Damar could not ignore Cardassia's problems, and after a meeting with Dukat, his predecessor as leader of Cardassia, he gained confidence, and resolved to win back Cardassia's standing in the galaxy. (DS9: "Penumbra") When it was revealed that the Dominion was negotiating with the Breen Confederacy, Damar was shocked to discover that Weyoun and the Female Changeling were planning to give away Cardassian territories in order to convince the Breen to join the war. Damar's anger only grew further when Weyoun callously sacrificed 500,000 soldiers of the Eleventh Order on Septimus III, supposedly to force the Klingons to commit more resources towards securing "a strategically worthless planet". (DS9: "Strange Bedfellows")
Military revolt
Finally, Damar could abide the treatment no further. He conspired with his friend, Gul Rusot, to launch a surprise attack against Rondac III, the Dominion's primary cloning facility. Together, Damar and Rusot recruited soldiers from the First, Third, and Ninth Orders and destroyed the Dominion's cloning facility. Although nearly half of Damar's troops were killed in the attack, the Cardassians were successful in launching a full-scale rebellion. As Damar announced the rebellion's success, he called upon Cardassians everywhere to resist: "Resist today. Resist tomorrow. Resist until the last Dominion soldier has been driven from our soil."
Damar's rebellion came at an incredibly opportune juncture, just as the Dominion was about to launch a massive assault against the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans with the Breen energy dampening weapon. Instead, the Dominion was forced to turn their energies inward to try to crush the rebellion, which gained the allies valuable time to try to find a countermeasure to the Breen weapon.
Furious with Damar's treachery, the Female Changeling ordered the resistance crushed immediately. Weyoun ordered Thot Gor, "I don't care how many Cardassians you have to kill. Find Damar." (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil")
Although Damar's initial assault had been successful, the rebellion faced many difficulties. First and foremost, the resistance had lost over half of its soldiers in the assault on Rondac, and were unable to hold the planet against a Dominion counterattack. Damar and his remaining troops were forced to go into hiding at a secret base on Vanden Prime. Recognizing the danger if his infant rebellion were wiped out, Damar reluctantly asked the Federation to send assistance. Although the allies could not spare much material support, they did send a shipment of replicators, along with Commander Kira Nerys, a Bajoran officer expert in underground resistance tactics. Odo, a Changeling, and Elim Garak also accompanied Kira to Damar's base.
Kira and Rusot face off in the rebellion's headquarters.
Tensions were extremely high when the two sides met at Damar's base. Damar had previously served together with Kira under Dukat's command on Terok Nor during the Dominion occupation of the station, and there was no shortage of mutual loathing. There was supreme irony in the fact that a Bajoran was attempting to teach a group of Cardassians how to become resistance fighters, after the Bajoran Resistance expelled the Cardassians from Bajor seven years previously. However, both managed to put their personal feelings aside in order to fight their common enemy.
On Kira's recommendation, one of the next moves of the rebellion was to decentralize Damar's forces into small "cells" spread around the Union at various bases, where they could launch small hit-and-run attacks against Dominion installations. At total of eighteen bases were established.
However, Kira ran into more resistance when she recommended launching attacks on bases that were defended by Cardassian troops, even though they were troops loyal to the Dominion. Kira pointed out that anyone not fighting with the rebellion was helping the enemy, and that once the Dominion realized that Damar wasn't willing to attack bases that contained Cardassian troops, they would spread as many Cardassians as possible across every military installation in the Union. Reluctantly, Damar bowed to Kira's logic, and the rebellion launched its first attack against the Dominion-controlled garrison on Adarak Prime. (DS9: "When It Rains...")
A few weeks later, the rebellion launched its biggest attack, and destroyed the Tevak shipyards. Odo compromised the security protocols from the station's Operations Center, and explosives were planted in the station's dilithium storage facilities. The resulting explosion completely vaporized the shipyards. Following this incident, the Female Changeling ordered that Cardassian civilians be taken hostage in and around every Dominion installation. Furthermore, no Cardassian troops were permitted to board Jem'Hadar warships while carrying weapons.
Meanwhile, Starfleet was having great difficulty developing a countermeasure for the Breen energy dampening weapon. Although Rusot objected to doing Starfleet's "dirty work", Damar agreed to launch a raid on the Kelvas V repair station, with the goal of obtaining a functioning example of the Breen weapon to turn over to Starfleet for study. In the operation, Kira, Damar, Rusot, and Garak successfully boarded a Jem'Hadar attack ship (with Kira posing as a captured prisoner of war being taken to interrogation), and took control of the ship's bridge. However, Rusot pulled a weapon on Kira and proposed that he and Damar take the Breen weapon for themselves, and use it to restore the Cardassian Empire. With few options, Damar shot Rusot, sadly observing, "He was my friend. But his Cardassia is dead, and it won't be coming back." Ultimately, the team was successful in hijacking the ship and escaping to Deep Space 9 with the Breen weapon, where it was delivered to Starfleet. (DS9: "Tacking Into the Wind")
After handing over the Breen weapon to Starfleet, Damar went to Cardassia Prime for a secret meeting with Gul Revok and Legate Goris, who were offering to lend their support to the rebellion -- a boost of over half a million soldiers to the cause. However, Revok betrayed Damar and Goris to the Dominion: Goris and his aides were killed by the Jem'Hadar, and Damar's ship was destroyed in orbit shortly after Damar, Kira, and Garak beamed to the surface. The Dominion immediately announced Damar's supposed death to the population.
The situation got worse, however -- the Dominion managed to penetrate the security of the entire resistance movement. In a massive coordinated offensive, all eighteen of the rebellion's bases were wiped out within a single day, bringing to a sudden end the military rebellion. (DS9: "The Dogs of War")
Popular uprising
With Damar apparently dead and his resistance movement crushed, it seemed that the Dominion was ready to launch a full-scale offensive against the Federation and its allies. However, the Cardassian populace refused to believe that Damar was dead. Rumors spread like wildfire: "Damar's alive -- my cousin saw him on Kelvas Prime!" "Damar faked his death; he's plotting a new offensive from his secret mountain hideaway!" Kira realized that their resistance had actually turned Damar into a living legend, a new champion for a people tired of the Dominion and tired of war.
To continue spreading the enthusiasm about Damar, the trio launched a small attack on the Cardassian capital city, destroying a Jem'Hadar barracks. Appearing to the gathered crowd, Damar called upon everyone to rise up and fight the Dominion. (DS9: "The Dogs of War")
Eager for success, Cardassians across the planet rallied together and planned for a series of work disruptions that would coincide with a planned Federation attack on the Cardassian home system. Power, transportation, and communications systems planetwide were sabotaged, cutting off the Dominion from all ground support.
In retribution, the Female Changeling ordered the destruction of Lakarian City by the Jem'Hadar. The city was subjected to orbital bombardment, and in the space of seconds, over two million men, women, and children were killed. Weyoun announced to the people that another Cardassian city would be destroyed for each further act of sabotage against the Dominion.
The Cardassian fleet changes sides during the battle.
However, the Dominion's punishment had exactly the opposite effect -- instead of giving up, the Cardassians became only more resolved to rid themselves of the Dominion. In space, as the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan forces fought their way towards Cardassia Prime, the Cardassian warships all began turning on their erstwhile allies, creating mass confusion among the Dominion's defensive lines and giving the allies a chance to seize the offensive.
Finally fed up with the unrest, the Female Changeling ordered the Cardassians wiped out -- the entire population. As Jem'Hadar troops began raging across the planet, killing every Cardassian they came across and demolishing buildings block by block, a few remaining resistance fighters, led by Damar and Kira, launched a bold attack against Dominion Headquarters. Sadly, Damar was killed in the short but sharp firefight to break into the building. His last words were an urge for everyone to keep fighting. The rest of the assault team took up the battle cry "For Cardassia!" and fought onwards.
Kira, Garak, and Ekoor managed to make their way into the command center itself, killing every Jem'Hadar they came across and actually capturing Weyoun and the Female Changeling. Although she initially refused to surrender, Odo convinced the Founder that the only option was to stand down. The war was suddenly over.
Although it took incredible losses -- over 800 million people were killed before the Jem'Hadar stopped their rampage -- the rebellion was ultimately successful in freeing the Cardassian people from the Dominion. Despite the devastation, a new Cardassia would rise from the ashes of the old. (DS9: "What You Leave Behind")
- The Cardassian Rebellion should not be confused with the Cardassian Underground, which was a Cardassian dissident movement formed to oppose the rule of the Central Command.