Rebellion Following the Breen's entrance into the alliance and the many actions on Weyoun's part that compromised Cardassian interests, Damar finally took it upon himself to pull Cardassia out of the alliance altogether and drive back the Dominion. Unfortunately, the Dominion had almost total control over the Cardassian military, and the forces loyal to Legate Damar were far fewer than would constitute a real threat. Yet Damar was determined to free his people, regardless of the price. Confiding in friends he could trust, he secretly plotted a rebellion that he hoped would gain momentum once he began making dents into Dominion defenses. In the past, we've seen Damar submit himself to the will of Weyoun and the Founder despite his own objections. He's always swallowed his protests or tried to dull his conscience with kanar. Now he could no longer lose himself in drink and hide from the truth. He assumed leadership of the Cardassian Liberation Front. In the process of liberating his homeland, he had to learn to put aside differences and personal feelings for the greater goal. He launched his first counteroffensive against the Dominion by targeting the Vorta cloning plant where Weyouns were produced, a strong message to his once arrogant counterpart. In his impassioned speech to the Cardassian people, he pointed out the degradation of the Cardassian Union since their entrance into the Dominion. He asked them to look around and see what has happened to Cardassia. Jem'Hadar, Vorta, and now Breen are everywhere. They're no longer masters of their own land. Damar's ending appeal to the people of Cardassia: Resist. Resist today. Resist tomorrow. Resist till the last Dominion soldier has been driven from our soil. Jump to >> The Changing Face of Evil | When It Rains | Tacking into the Wind Dogs of War | What You Leave Behind Worf and Ezri safely returned to Deep Space Nine, but grave news of a devastating Breen attack on Starfleet headquarters dampened the spirits of the station. On Cardassia Prime, the mood was celebratory, and no one noticed Damar's secret plotting with his senior officers. And when Weyoun finally remarked on the change in Damar, he interpreted it as renewed confidence in the Dominion after the successful strikes against the Federation. Damar played along. We're just one big happy family, aren't we? He said to a smiling Weyoun. The next target of the Dominion was the Chin'Toka System. Taken by the Federation, Klingon and Romulan alliance last year, the Founder was eager to reclaim it. In response, Sisko and his crew departed on the Defiant to rendezvous with Federation ships and defend the system. However, the Breen's energy dissipater weapon proved to be too devastating. It drained power from ships, rendering them useless and easy targets to pick off. Pounded by heavy fire, Sisko ordered abandon ship and the Defiant, symbol of Dominion resistance, was destroyed, as were most of the ships engaged in the battle. The Federation lost its foothold in the Chin'toka System, and morale was at its lowest in months. When things looked the bleakest, the Federation were stunned when a transmission they monitored indicated that Legate Damar had started a rebellion and attacked a cloning station as its first move. When Starfleet intelligence confirmed the attack, Sisko knew immediately that they must help Legate Damar, for he could be the key in winning the war. Read Damar's speech transcript. Weyoun still self-assured and completely oblivious to Damar's plans. Damar conferring with his trusted friend Gul Rosot. As seen from Deep Space Nine Ops: Damar calls upon all Cardassians to "Resist today. Resist tomorrow. Resist until every Dominion soldier is off our soil". His speech transcript. Damar's sincerity is unquestionable. One wonders what he must have felt, knowing he will be a wanted man for a long time afterwards. Colonel Kira was assigned to help train the rebels in how to fight a resistance with limited man-power. She had to swallow a lifetime's worth of antagonism against Cardassians and be subjected to a Starfleet uniform to carry out the orders, but the Colonel knew her duties. Before leaving, Dr. Bashir discovered that Odo was infected with the disease, though it had not yet manifested itself. Though shaken somewhat, Odo proceeded to join the Colonel and Garak on the mission to help the Cardassian resistance. At the resistance camp, Kira's bluntness and tactics offended some of the Cardassians, but Damar held his cool and agreed with the logic of Kira's teachings despite the his own misgivings and that of his fellow rebels. The mistrust of the Cardassians was hard to penetrate and one of Damar's officers tried to provoke Kira by reminding her of Odo's past "collaboration" with the enemy. Shortly after, Odo noticed the initial symptoms of the disease manifest itself. Damar putting aside his personal dislike for Colonel Kira in When it rains Damar and his rebels welcome Kira, Odo, and Garak. Kira teaches guerrilla tactics to the Cardassians. Odo's condition rapidly deteriorated as he assumed dozens of shapes during missions outside of the resistance camp. Kira received reports of the terrible losses at Chin'toka and decided that delivering one of the Breen weapons into the Federation would give the scientists and engineers a better chance of working out a countermeasure. Gul Rosot, from the start suspicious of Kira and her motives, finally confronted her with accusations that she was there to kill more Cardassians, only this time indirectly instead of directly. Infuriated at his provoking words she decked him and gave him some painful moments. Garak emerged from the shadows when Rosot left to politely warn Kira to kill Gul Rosot before Rosot killed her. En route to the targeted Dominion shipyard where they planned to steal a Jem'Hadar ship with an installed Breen weapon, Damar learned that his wife and son were found and summarily executed. They had nothing to do with the Resistance, he said quietly. Weyoun knew that. The Founder knew that. What kind of state tolerates the murder of innocent women and children? What kind of people give those orders? He said, more to himself than the audience of Garak and Kira. Kira turned to him with a faraway look and replied, "Yeah, Damar. What kind of people?" The Cardassians once occupied Bajor and they once gave the same orders to execute women and children. Kira implied that Cardassians were every bit as barbaric as the Dominion when it came to human rights. Damar gave her a long piercing look, then turned away. In everyone's life, there is one pivotal moment when you begin to see something that had never been visible to your perception before. For Damar, it was just such a moment. He realized then, more clearly than at any time, the pricelessness of freedom and the value of life. That's what he wanted Cardassia to be, and Kira had been the catalyst. Kira posed as a Bajoran prisoner with Rosot, Damar, and Garak as her Cardassian escorts, Odo came along as the cuffs she wore. After they entered the ship-building station, Odo changed into a Female Founder to fool the Vorta and Jem'Hadar into dropping their guard. "She" took a plasma rifle, handed it to Garak, and he did the rest. However, though the team had secured the bridge, the Breen had not finished installing the weapon. Tension was palpable on the bridge, with Rosot panicking and opting to leave fast. Kira quietly asserted she would not leave without the weapon, and a long, tense wait ensued. Kira masqueraded as the female Vorta Luarine when the ship was hailed. To everyone's immense relief, the Breen finished installation before anyone had noticed something amiss and the five left port. However, Odo suddenly collapsed and his true condition revealed itself. He was desperately ill. Rosot declared the Changeling useless and wanted to kill him, but Garak intervened. Then Damar took out his weapon and ordered them both to stop. Rosot, finally letting his hatred and distrust of Kira out, made Damar choose between Kira and himself. We can keep the weapons for ourselves and rebuild our glorious empire, Rosot said. Damar deliberated for a few moments, then shot Rosot. The Cardassia he knew is dead, and it's never coming back, Damar said quietly. Headquarters for the Cardassian Rebellion Front. Damar hears news of the death of his wife and son. Damar, Kira, Garak and some other rebels took the stolen Jem'Hadar ship into Dominion space hoping to gain the support of one Gul Rovok, who held sway over a hundred thousand men. The Gul could provide much-needed manpower to the Rebellion and Damar was willing to risk going deep into Dominion territory. However, when Kira, Damar, and Garak beamed down to a ledge above their rendezvous point, they notice something was wrong. Cardassians lay dead on the floor with Jem'Hadar chasing any survivors. Through the dense smoke and unsettled debris, the three caught sight of Gul Rovok strolling along with a Vorta. He betrayed us! whispered Damar. Kira signaled for their ship to take them out of there, but the ship itself was under attack and soon destroyed by pursuing Jem'Hadar. Stranded and in a precarious situation, Garak could think of only one person to turn to: the housekeeper of Enabran Tain. Mila hid the three in her cellar and ordered them to make themselves useful by cleaning the place up. Kira asked for a comm unit, and she procured one, though she said she was an old woman and beyond thinking about politics. Not long afterwards, they received a transmission of Weyoun in which he declared the Rebellion dead. In the broadcast, Weyoun announced Damar's demise, and the destruction of all 18 rebel bases. All eighteen? Damar asked in disbelief. It truly is a glorious day for the Dominion, said Weyoun before ending transmission. Stunned at this last bit of news, Damar asked how the whole organization could be compromised. They'd done everything, encrypted messages, screened every recruit... The news was too devastating and he was trapped in a cellar in Cardassia Prime. So the three of them lay on their backs in the dank dark cellar, as depressed as the atmosphere they were in. Mila came back with some news from the streets. The civilians didn't believe Damar was dead. Stories were flying of how Damar escaped death and was reorganizing for another Rebellion. Kira remarked that maybe the movement was not in vain after all. They had made Damar a legend. Maybe the organized Rebellion was gone, but they had a whole population of angry discontent Cardassian civilians to draw upon. The revolution would have to start on the streets. Heartened and ready to die for a cause rather than rot in the cellar, Damar began plotting their move. Meanwhile the Founder changed her plans for the war. The Federation had put together an effective countermeasure for the Breen weapons, so a tactical change was in order. She proposed pulling back and setting up a defensive perimeter around Cardassian territory to rest for a few years and rebuild their fleet. It was her belief that the Federation would leave them alone and give the time the Dominion needed to build more ships and better weapons so that in a few years time they could take the Alpha Quadrant once and for all. Damar, Garak, and Kira chose the nearest Jem'Hadar barracks as the first catalyst for a civilian revolution. Garak rigged a bomb and masqueraded as a maintenance personnel to plant it inside. When he was detained for questioning by Jem'Hadar and the bomb counting down to its final seconds, Damar revealed himself to the Jem'Hadar as a distraction to save Garak. The momentary surprise was all Garak needed, and the three dispatched the Jem'Hadar. When the bomb destroyed the barracks, Damar made an impassioned speech to rally the people of Cardassia to his cause. Shouts of freedom rang through the streets, and the fervor of a revolution grew intense. Damar, Garak and Kira slipped into oblivion again, but they had started something among the people. Damar, Garak, and Kira were precariously close to falling victims to the Dominion trap when their contact betrayed them. Damar, Garak, and Kira watching Weyoun's broadcast in Mila's Cellar. Garak plants a bomb in the nearest Jem'Hadar garrison, creating an explosion to sound off the civilian revolution. << Previous chapter : Legate Damar Home | Biography | Cardassia | Media | Casey Biggs | Links | FAQs | Sitemap | Email Webmaster