The Badlands

The "Badlands" was a region of space located in Sector 04-70 of the Alpha Quadrant. A segment of the border between the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union was located in this region. The Badlands were known for intense plasma storms and gravitational anomalies. Additionally, in the late 2360s, a few ships had disappeared in this region. For these reasons, it was commonly avoided by most interstellar traffic.

HISTORY
During the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, the Bajoran Resistance frequently used the Badlands as a refuge from Cardassian patrols. Because of the severely limited sensor ranges in the area, the Bajorans used echolocation techniques to navigate and detect other ships.

Because of its strategic location inside the Demilitarized Zone between Cardassian and Federation space, the Badlands became a favorite hiding place and staging area for the Maquis during their insurrection against Cardassian control from 2370 to 2373.

n their first major operations, the Maquis took the kidnapped Gul Dukat to a class M asteroid in the Badlands. When Thomas Riker and a Maquis cell hijacked the USS Defiant from Deep Space 9 in 2371, they piloted the Defiant to the Badlands to rendezvous with other Maquis attack ships prior to launching an assault on Cardassian space.

Around stardate 48300, the Caretaker abducted several starships from the Badlands, including a Maquis raider piloted by Chakotay, and the Federation starship USS Voyager, which had been sent to track Chakotay. A Cardassian Galor-class warship was also abducted from the Badlands around the same time.

After the Maquis learned that he had informed Starfleet of Michael Eddington's location, Cing'ta was marooned on a "particularly nasty" planet in the Badlands.

When the Cardassian Union was annexed by the Dominion in 2373, the remaining Maquis cells that managed to escape the Jem'Hadar took shelter on Athos IV, an abandoned mining colony on the edge of the Badlands. The Maquis sent a disguised distress signal, coded as a confirmation of the launch of a missile strike against Cardassia Prime, to send word to Michael Eddington that the Maquis remnant had survived. Those few survivors were rescued by Starfleet a short time later.

The Badlands remained a strategic location during the Dominion War from 2373 to 2375. Fleet movements in the region required additional escorts to guard against ambushes from inside the plasma storms. In 2375, the IKS Koraga was destroyed by the Jem'Hadar near the edge of the Badlands.