Terran Empire

The Terran Empire was the repressive interstellar government dominated by the Terrans from Earth and the mirror universe counterpart of the United Federation of Planets.This version of the Terran Empire never fell to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. Kirk became Emperor with his Tantalus field and the Empire continued to conquer.

First Contact
Humanity's first contact with an alien species in the mirror universe began exactly as it did in the traditional universe. Upon detecting Zefram Cochrane's warp signature, a Vulcan scout ship landed in Bozeman, Montana to make first contact with humanity. Instead of welcoming the Vulcans in a spirit of friendship and understanding, however, the mirror Zefram Cochrane killed the first Vulcan to set foot on Terran soil, as the Humans boarded and ransacked the Vulcan ship.

Instead of the Vulcans gradually releasing technology to Earth over time, the Terran Empire applied the stolen Vulcan technology to a policy of aggressive expansion. Because of this, the Empire was able to engage in technological research and development considerably earlier than its traditional counterpart. Thus, the Starfleet of the mirror universe was somewhat more advanced than its counterpart. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

22nd century
Due to the rapid initial expansion made possible by the captured Vulcan technology, The Empire's hold on its territories was initially weak. In the 2150s, some of the worlds conquered by the Terrans were begining to rebel against Terran rule, leading to a long-running conflict in which the Empire came to the brink of collapse. Propaganda, however, conveyed the message that things were going in the Empire's favor and that the war would be over soon.

By 2155, the Terran Empire had already conquered the Vulcans, Denobulans, Andorians, Orions,Betazoids and Tellarites and had launched attacks against the Klingons and Xindi. However, the flagship of the Empire, the Enterprise, under the command of Captain Maximilian Forrest, had a much more racially-diverse crew than its regular universe counterpart, with numerous Vulcans and Tellarites serving as crewmembers.

In that year, the USS Defiant, a Federation ship launched in the 23rd century of a parallel universe, was reported in Tholian space. The first officer of the ISS Enterprise, Commander Archer, reviewed the reception of this distress call and proposed a bold surgical strike at the asteroid base at which the Tholians were keeping the Defiant. Archer's proposal was quickly rejected by Forrest, causing Archer to mutiny against his Captain and take control of Enterprise to retrieve the Defiant so its technology could be utilized against the rebellion. Enterprise arrived and dispatched a boarding party to gain all information they could about the ship, and destroy it to prevent the Tholians from being able to use it. Unfortunately, during the retrieval operation, the Tholians attacked Enterprise and destroyed it, stranding the boarding party aboard the Defiant. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

Following the destruction of the ISS Enterprise and the death of Captain Forrest, Commander Archer and his away team commandeered the USS Defiant. They proceeded to destroy the Tholian hangar in which the ship was being held and rescued a number of former Enterprise crewmembers, including Hoshi Sato, after apparent consideration of leaving their comrades stranded. Archer made a rendezvous with the ISS Avenger, the flagship of Admiral Black. Archer vaporized the admiral and took command of both vessels. Commander T'Pol and Crewman Soval led a mutiny of the non-Human crewmembers on board the Avenger and attacked the Defiant in hopes of destroying it. They were destroyed after Commander Charles Tucker reinitialized the power systems that Phlox had attempted to disable. Commander Archer, acting as Captain, then set a direct course for Earth, where he intended to declare himself Emperor of the Terran Empire. However, Hoshi Sato poisoned him with the assistance of his bodyguard Travis Mayweather. The two then took control of the Defiant, and upon arriving at Earth, Sato declared herself Empress. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

23rd century
In 2267, crewmembers of the USS Enterprise, including Captain James T. Kirk, were accidentally transported to the mirror universe aboard the mirror-version of the Enterprise, the ISS Enterprise. Before Kirk left, believing that the mirror Spock would one day become captain of the ISS Enterprise, he planted a seed of doubt about the inevitability of the Empire, asking Spock if violence was the only logical answer. Spock promised to consider Kirk's words, after realizing the Empire would only last about 240 years before being overthrown. (TOS: "Mirror, Mirror")

However, Spock's new vision only lasted until his own Captain Kirk returned. The mirror Kirk, realizing he was in another universe and the Empire could conquer that one as well, had Spock killed for his ideas and later became Emperor himself. (ODSY: "Objects in the Rear View Mirror")

24th century
The Terran Empire started the Dominion war and took control of the Dominion. However, unlike the Federation, the Empire did not send Voyager into the badlands because there was no reason to send them which resulted in Voyager staying in the Alpha Quadrant and no contact with any Delta Quadrant species except the Borg. (ODSY: "Advent")

This particular version of the Terran Empire would not make anymore contact with their Federation counterparts until 2380 when Counselor Christine Nycz was sent on a mission to the other side aboard USS Alexandria to kidnap Lt. Commander Dustin Zofchak for information he possessed about the transphasic torpedo. They wanted the transphasic torpedo so they could deal with their own Borg problem. (ODSY: "Objects in the Rear View Mirror")

Now with the transphasic torpedo in their hands, they took the fight to the Borg and eradicated the Collective. They have set up some outposts in the Delta Quadrant to have a foothold in that area of space as well. (ODSY: "Advent")

During Zofchak's torture interrogation, he coined the phrase "Mirror Universe" to describe the other side; the mirror Captain Allensworth even liked the phrase enough to start using it himself. (ODSY: "Objects in the Rear View Mirror")

On stardate 57645.8, forces from the Terran Empire made their way into Federation space in the Talos star system. A battle ensued with both versions of the Alexandria going head to head. Due to the existence of the battle, the Mirror War between the Federation and the Terran Empire had officially begun. (ODSY: "Advent")