Battle at the Binary Stars

In 2256 the USS Shenzhou, commanded by Captain Philippa Georgiou, investigated damage to a Federation relay near a binary star system on the edge of Klingon space. There it found a Klingon vessel led by T'Kuvma, a fervent leader who wanted to reunite the fractured Great Houses against the Federation. Fearing a war, First Officer Michael Burnham tried to have the Shenzhou fire first, as Vulcans had once done with Klingons, and was relieved of duty for mutiny.

T'Kuvma lit a beacon that summoned ships from the twenty-four Great Houses, and Starfleet reinforcements arrived. A ceasefire offered by Admiral Anderson was answered by a cloaked Klingon ship ramming his flagship, the USS Europa, which self-destructed. Georgiou and Burnham then boarded T'Kuvma's ship to capture him; T'Kuvma killed Georgiou and Burnham killed T'Kuvma.

The battle was a heavy defeat for Starfleet, with several ships lost and thousands dead, and it opened the Federation-Klingon War. T'Kuvma became a martyr who united the Klingons behind his cause, while Burnham was stripped of her rank and sentenced to life in prison, until she was brought aboard the USS Discovery.