Characters of the Four Years War

Starfleet — USS Ares · Four Years War (2240s)

Captain Kelvar Garth

Garth of Izar

The hero whose victory at Axanar would become required reading at the Academy.

Garth entered the war during its darkest months. Koriana VI, Vesta, Archanis — Starfleet took major beatings in the first six months. For most of that first year, his mission was to slow the Klingons while the fleet fell back. What the Klingons found impressive, for a time, was that Federation officers died well — and there was plenty of that. Garth would change the equation at Axanar.

Portrayed by Alec Peters

Klingon Empire — Supreme Warlord · Four Years War (2240s)

Kharn

Kharn the Undying

Architect of the invasions; revered by the Klingon people with good reason.

The Klingon supreme commander who designed the early campaigns was a warlord named Kharn. Even Vulcan intelligence, for all its reach, found him a mystery until the formation of the Federation forced the High Council to take Earth seriously. His strategy of least respect — vuvHa'chu'wI' to' — treated Starfleet as beneath serious consideration until the tide turned.

Portrayed by Richard Hatch

Starfleet Command · Four Years War (2240s)

Admiral Marcus Ramirez

The name that spread like wildfire when Slater stepped down.

After two years of near-constant defeat, Admiral Slater was forced from office. Ramirez's first speech to the Federation Council declared that Starfleet faced an enemy consumed and committed to total destruction — an enemy that demands to be fought. His fear was not the Klingon Empire itself, but destroying the dream of the Federation in the act of winning.

Portrayed by Tony Todd

Starfleet — USS Ajax · Four Years War (2240s)

Captain Sonya Alexander

Second only to Garth in Klingon ships destroyed during the war.

Alexander's reputation for fierce determination made her a firebrand of the early retreat phase, when Starfleet's mission was survival and delay. The Society's record places her among the commanders who held the line while Ramirez rebuilt the fleet around the Ares-class warship.

Portrayed by Kate Vernon

Vulcan Diplomatic Mission · Four Years War (2240s)

Ambassador Soval

The voice that records Vulcan's failure to prevent war.

When the Klingon High Chancellor grew tired of diplomacy, the work of peace delegations fell to Vulcan. Soval's testimony in the documentary frame is blunt: regrettably, Vulcan failed. The twelve-hour bombardment of Archanis IV followed — thousands dead, countless missing — the first victims of the Four Years War.

Portrayed by Gary Graham

Starfleet Command (former) · Four Years War (2240s)

Admiral Conrad Slater

Head of Starfleet until two years of defeat forced his removal.

Slater commanded Starfleet through the opening campaigns when Klingon disruptors reduced Archanis to rubble and Starfleet's early losses did little to dissuade the Empire from believing it could take whatever it wanted. His successor would inherit a fleet that had learned to die well — but not yet to win.

Portrayed by Steven Jepson

Starfleet — USS Hercules · Four Years War (2240s)

Captain Samuel Travis

Sam Travis

Senior Ares-class captain who called Garth's Axanar plan one hundred percent insanity — then backed it.

Travis commanded the Hercules through the war's decisive years. Ramirez consulted him alongside Garth for the battle plan that ended the conflict. Prelude records his blunt review of Garth's strategy; principal photography captured Hertzler on the Ares bridge for the sequels.

Portrayed by J.G. Hertzler