A new Alternate Trek verse thread

[Tricky]

Cause the five or six we got are not enough!

Ok, had a random idea this morning, thought I would share it.

What if the attempt by Admiral Leyton and others to seize control on Earth as seen on the DS9 eps 'Homefront' and 'Paradise Lost' was successful? For those of you not familar with the episodes, Sisko and Odo return to SF HQ to get their security measures ready for possible Changeling infiltration. While there, there is what appears to be sabotage of the Planetary power grid, which leads to martial law being declared on Earth. Eventually it is discovered that this attack was planned and carried out by StarFleet officers and cadets, who fear that the FED isn't up to the challenge war with the Dominion is going to be. The martial law ends and Leyton resigns.

But what if it had worked? Would the FED have slowly become a military dictatorship (like the Cardassians), or would it have been ripe for Dominion take-over?
Thoughts?

[C5]

I think that, in this episode, an O'Brien-looking changeling said something to Sisko along the lines of "hey, look what we have been able to do with only a few of us on Earth", so this would imply that this coup was something they anticipated and, to some extent, staged.
Maybe they were aiming at a civil war inside the UFP, which would indeed have let it ripe for the Dominion's plucking, or they had a "phase 2" ready for overcoming the new dictatorship.

I could envision 3 interesting outcomes of this:
- The Federation slowly slips into a civil war, of which the Dominion takes heavy advantage. A few years later, the major part of the UFP has been colonized. Some of the core worlds have rebelled and are fighting a losing battle along with the remnants of Starfleet. And interesting point to consider would be what would happen to the Section 31 virus - it could very well be killing the Founders, preventing the Dominion of actually obliterating what remains of the UFP.

- The Federation turns into a dictatorship, but the Founders anticipated this. Using strategically placed changelings, they manage to steer the UFP to surrendering to the Dominion (either by causing the Federation fleet to be obliterated due to bad decisions, or by helping those who would agree to the Federation becoming a Dominion protectorate)

- The Federation turns into a dictatorship, but manages to win the war (maybe thanks to the Section 31 virus). Now a fully militarized Empire (not very far from the pre-war Cardassia in its structure), the Federation may be trying to take advantage of its dominant situation (like the spoils of war with the Dominion) to subdue the other powers in the Quadrant (Romulan Empire, what remains of the Cardassian Unions, maybe even the Klingons). Could be an interesting setting to play, as some Starfleet officers may be trying to covertly rebel against this imperialistic Federation.
Conversely, the Federation could have become a military dictatorship but while keeping, more or less, its primary objective. This Federation could be closer to the one envisioned in the last movie, with a very militaristic Starfleet, aggressive exploration where the Prime Directive is more of a guideline, and diplomatic solutions being skipped over most of the time. A much more grey area, where the ideals of the Federation would still be more or less there, but with a much harsher stance. Something a bit like the differences between Picard and Jellico, only this time extended to the whole Federation.

[Chabit Rane]

Sounds a lot like the prequels to Star Wars.