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Imperial Phoenix Gold - A Fanfic Rewrite

Prologue

Kersis System, Outer Rim

The escape pod tumbled slowly, end over end, transmitting a plaintive
wail from it's homing beacon. After almost two weeks in space, nearing
the end of it's battery life, the beacon was finally heard.

From out of the darkness of space, a bulky shuttlecraft carrying
the New Republic's logo on it's stabilizer fins with the words
BRAXTANT SECTOR SEARCH AND RESCUE emblazoned
below the logo.

On board the craft, the pilot exchanged choice words with his co-pilot,
over the condition of the pod.

"Kriff, that thing's really blasted up. Must have been a dicey ejection."

"Yeah. I'm reading only one life sign aboard; very faint. Activicating
docking procedures now." replied the co-pilot.

The grasp of a tractor beam reached across the gulf between the pod
and the shuttlecraft. Slowly, the pod began to draw closer to the docking
port on the underside of the shuttle as the shuttle rotated to bring the
docking port in alignment with the escape hatch of the pod, all the while
the laser cutting heads on the docking port were readied just in case.

Moments later, the shuttle and the pod mated with a muted thump that
reverberated through both of the craft.

While they waited for the decontamination lasers to finish running
over the pod's escape hatch, the medical crew on board the
shuttle began suiting up. You just couldn't be paranoid enough;
Hive viruses were nasty things.

"Think we got a live one here, or just a Mrrshan that's been eating
it's master's body for the last two weeks?" cracked the MedTeam
leader. Working on SAR missions tended to desensitize one rather
fast to the horrors of death.

"Dunno. You owe me ten if it's a live one." another MedTeam member replied, to
which everyone else, the pilots included, responded with, "You're on."

A beep signalled that the decontamination system had finished it's work, and a green
light began to glow on the docking port control panel.

"Let's do it."

As the hatch opened, the stench of foul air rolled into the shuttle, causing everyone
to gag involuntarily.

"Kriff, that's fucking rancid!"

Inside, still strapped into their seats, blood congealed on their horrible wounds, were
corpses wearing the uniform of the New Republic Fleet.

As the rescuers gazed on the horrific sight, one of them moved weakly.

"Look! He's still alive!"

The survivor coughed up a gobbet of bright red blood, and tried to speak, causing
the medtechs to rush him. "Don't move! Don't waste your energy, we'll fix you right up!"
shouted the lead Medtech.

The crewer ignored the medics, and continued coughing up blood. Reaching out with a
bony hand, he grabbed the lead Medtech on the shoulder and pulled him to his mouth.

"Sh...Sh...Sheppard." he croaked out in a strangled gasp before the life went out of his eyes.

Federation Arms Committee room - Senate Building - San Francisco, Earth, January 23rd 2374

Senator Thomas Stravo stood before his fellow committee members, and began his
speech.

"Gentlebeings, these new reports out of the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire
are very disturbing. The Block II Negh'vars are over 750 meters long, and dwarf
our biggest ships, the Sovereigns. Meanwhile, rumors are emerging that the
Romulans have begun construction of a ship that dwarfs even these beasts."

"I'm sure you all remember the Dominion War, where the ships that were constructed
under the Dominion Bill, despite being strenuously opposed by many on this
committee, were the only things standing between Earth and the Dominion."

"We cannot rely on Federation industry to build ships only when we are at war,
Senators. We must have those ships ready before the war starts."

"That is all," finished Stravo as he took his seat at the committee's table.

Another man rose to speak. Stravo sighed inwardly. Senator Kast was one
of the strongest opponents of a rational buildup of military strength to protect
the peoples of the Federation from the enemies which lurked in the darkness
of interstellar space.

"I have this Note, delivered personally from the Klingon Emperor himself, that
assures us that those Negh'vars are to be used only on the Romulan frontier,
and will not be deployed against the Federation!" shouted Kast, who took a pause
to catch his breath before he continued with more bombast.

"Furthermore, I have this report, written by the Senate Budgetary Office, which proves
that PellCorp took advantage of the waves of construction ordered heedlessly and
without regard for fiscal oversight to rake in obscene amounts of profits! Why should
we give those Ferengis in disguse another chance to rob the people of the Federation
blind once more?"

The sound of a fist banging down on a table interrupted Kast's tirade. Everyone looked
over to see the grey-haired patriarch of the PellCorp colossus, Charles Pellegrini rising
from his seat in the back of the Committee room.

"That's utter garbage! I have here, a report compiled from the official shake-down cruises
and routine engineering reports from PellCorp-constructed starships. In every case, the
captains and engineering officers all unequivocally state that our starships are superior
to the government produced ones."

"We may cost more, but you get quality, as opposed to sheer garbage. And I would
like to remind the committee members of what happened when PellCorp was removed
as the primary drivetrain contractor for the Galaxy-class!"

A hushed silence filled the room. Nobody liked to admit that having PellCorp shut out
from their traditional engineering integration contract with Starfleet for the Galaxy-class
and their subsequent replacement by a Starfleet-led team from Utopia Planita had led to
massive core problems with the Block I Galaxies, including several preventable
LOSes (Loss of Ship).

Kast stood there, knocked off his carefully written tirade by Pellegrini's counter-accusation,
and was saved by the voice of the Chief Senator of the Committee announcing that this
day's meeting was adjourned.

Damn him, he made me look like a god-damned fool! I'll get him back, somehow...
fumed Kast as he gathered up his datapads. He had a meeting in an hour with Leah
Brahms, who was unhappy about her team being shut out of the latest engineering
contract by those Ferengis at PellCorp.

Kileak System, Imperal Remnant

High Admiral Michael Wong (retired), grumbled as he tinkered with the open
innards of a holovid tank with a hydrospanner. Damned thing had gone on the fritz
in the middle of a particularly good sex disc. Another tweak with the hydrospanner
caused the hyperwave tuner to get back on track, albeit not on the channel he'd been
watching before.

Some pretty newsanchor was talking about some strange new alien invasion in the
Outer Rim, and how the New Republic was sending a fleet to check it out.

"Newfie idiots will probably screw this one beyond all belief," growled Wong
as he turned off the holovid in frustration.

I'd like to thank Stuart Slade, who introduced me to multiple overlapping
Plot threads going on at the same time, and the judicious use of detail;
I learned a lot from reading The Big One and it's spin offs on how to
improve my writing.

Of course, five years of additional fanfic writing also does help me too
with this remake.

wOOt! Kast is against military?

wOOt! Kast is against military?

My world has turnned upside down...

I don't suppose we'll be seeing more gueststars will we?

frigidmagi wrote:I don't suppose we'll be seeing more gueststars will we?

You obviously have not heard of IP

MKSheppard wrote:

frigidmagi wrote:I don't suppose we'll be seeing more gueststars will we?

You obviously have not heard of IP

Imperial Phoenix Gold - Chapter 1

ISS Revenger, Somewhere in the Outer Rim

Admiral Mark Sheppard sighed as he looked around his shattered
bridge. That Bothan Assault Cruiser had come out of nowhere, and
had tried their damndest to destroy them; it was only the brave actions
by "Donuts" Dalton and his TIEs that had saved their asses.

Now, they were fleeing through the starless space that made up
most of the Outer Rim, where systems were easily a hundred light
years away from each other.

A noise came from the sensor pit below him, and Sheppard looked
into the face of Chief Petty Officer Bucher, who was in charge of
the sensors. Normally, that'd be a Lieutenant's job, but they were
so damned short handed...

"ComScan is picking up faint energy traces in the Fendar system, just
off our port bow."

"How powerful's the trace?"

"Not big, sir, it keeps fading on and off our sensors."

Nodding, Sheppard turned around and faced his second-in-command,
Vice-Admiral Glasgow. "Your opinion?"

"Probably a heavily shielded smuggler base. No one will give a rusty
kriff if we hit 'em."

Sheppard considered it for a moment before replying. "Good. We need
supplies, and badly. We're down to the 'hundred year' consumables
in the mess. I can't stand that shit anymore."

Task Force Black Knight HQ - an undisclosed location -January 24th 2370

Rear Admiral Jonathan Boyd looked at his comrade in this murky twilight world,
Admiral Alex Sutton. Sitting in front of them at the head of the table was the
man known only as 'Sloan'. Nobody knew who the fuck he was, or where he
came from.

"Admirals, Section 31 is in need of your services once again. The Klingons and
Romulans look like they're starting to kiss and make up again. This is clearly
unacceptable from a strategic standpoint. The Federation needs them to
hate each other, so they will divert manpower and ships to looking over each
other's borders."

"I don't like the sound of where this is going, Sloan," replied Boyd.

"You don't have to like it, Admiral. Because you're going to do it for the
greater good of the Federation."

With that, Sloan threw a datapad over the table to Boyd.

"Your target, Admiral. The Klingon world of Hkraakh. Four hundred million
Klingons. Major manufacturing center for disruptor crystals. I want it destroyed
in a week, and I want it to look like the Romulans did it."

Boyd shifted uneasily in his seat. "Do we really have to do this? Can't we blow up
a few ships at random instead of an entire world?"

"We've tried that, Admiral. They seem to accept it as the price of a heavily militarized border."

"I suppose...we can take one of the D'deridex warbirds that we recovered during
the war for this job. We're running out of original photon torpedoes for them though."

"We can always get more," replied Sloan in a voice which caused the temperature
of the room to drop several degrees.

Pellegrini Estate, Earth - January 24th 2374

"Father, why do you play this dangerous game with the Federation?" asked Carl Pellegrini,
the 23-year old son of Charles Pellegrini, and heir apparent to the family business.

"There are plenty of governments who would want PellCorp in their territories...such as the
Cardassian Hedgemony. Hell, those guys have let even the Orion Pirates settle there!"

"Carl, Carl..." muttered Charles. "If we moved to the Cardassian territories, we would lose
nearly all of our contacts in Starfleet, and the Federation's government. Contacts which we
have built up over decades. No. We shall suffer their indignities for only a little while longer."

"You've said that ever since the Nationalization Decree of 2348! How much longer do
we have to wait?"

"Not much longer, my son. Soon, it shall be time to make our move."

ISS Revenger, Outer Limits of the Fendar System

Sheppard listened as CPO Bucher shouted out from the pit that
they'd localized the emissions to the second planet of the system.

"Shall I lay in a course?" asked Lt. Commander Mike Gillis, the Revenger's
OOW for this watch.

"No. I've got a strange feeling about this. Send the TIE Droids instead."

Several minutes later

Sheppard watched as the bright engine glows of the TIE Droids faded into the
black starfield as they accelerated away from their mother ship.

"Approaching the asteroid belt between the second and third planets." came
the voice of CPO Bucher as he monitored the readouts from the TIE Drone.

"Picking up debris."

"What kind of debris?"

"All kinds, sir. Most of it's of alloys used in civilian craft, along with some alloys used
only by the Rebels."

Suddenly, a howl of static rose from the control panel in the Pit from where they were
controlling the TIE Droids.

"They're gone, sir."

"What happened?" demanded Sheppard.

Bucher studied the readouts for a few moments before replying. "Sir, before the loss of
all the TIEs, they picked up large energy readings from inside the belt, probably from
hidden guns emplaced on the asteroids themselves."

"Good," replied Sheppard, drawing several puzzled stares from the men around
the bridge. "This is no smuggling base," added Sheppard.

"Kriffing right, sir."

"They're protecting something. Something important." chimed in Glasgow.

Sheppard considered his options for several moments, before deciding on a course of
action. "Have tractor control grab one of those asteroids. A big one. One a lot bigger
than this ship. Burn a hole big enough to hide this ship in it with our main battery. We'll snuggle
up into there, and fire our main engines long enough to get us on a course that will take us
through the field and near the second planet before we die of old age."

"Then we shut down. Go cold. It'll take a day or two to get close enough to that planet.
Tell General Schmidt to begin drilling his troops. Their services will be needed soon."

Imperial Phoenix Gold - Chapter 2

ISS Revenger - The Fendar System

Lt. Commander Gillis walked across the darkened bridge of the Revenger
and looked out the window towards the blackness of the huge bubble that the
ship had been hiding in for the last two days as it drifted towards the planet.

He barely noticed CPO Bucher walking up behind him until Bucher announced
his presence.

"Chief Petty Officer Bucher, reporting for duty, sir."

"Damnation, do you have to speak so loud? We're in a power-down sequence!"
replied Gillis in a hushed tone of voice.

Bucher fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"Sir, with all respect to the Lieutenant Commander, perhaps he hasn't noticed
that we are sitting in a armoured citadel which can resist turbolaser blasts, and
outside these walls is a vacuum. Somehow, I don't think even an officer's voice
can carry that far in hard vacuum."

"Damnit, Bucher, I've told you before, don't make an ass of me in front of the men!"

"Sorry, Sir." replied Bucher with a faint smirk.

"Break it off you two," came a voice from behind them. They both turned around to
see Line Captain Paul Howedar looking at them with an amused look on his face.

"Sorry sir," replied the two rivals as they saluted simultaneously.

Howedar watched the two of them walk away before shouting out orders to begin
the power up sequence. It wasn't very often that he got to command the Revenger,
even though he was her captain, due to the fact that either Sheppard or Glasgow was
always around on the bridge, and you always deferred to an admiral.

Above his head, the faint blue emergency lighting went out as the cool white normal lighting
came on, and status displays all over the bridge came to life. God, I love this job.

ISS Revenger, Flag Plot, Deck 20

Flag Plot on an Imperator-class Star Destroyer was truly a thing to behold. Deck after
deck all devoted to an Admiral's staff, with even a throne room for the Emperor, in case
Palpatine ever felt the need to personally come aboard one of his Star Destroyers.

In one of the numerous briefing rooms, Sheppard and Glasgow were conversing, while
their assistants walked around in the background, checking background information that
the two admirals demanded from time to time and coming back with answers.

"I think I know what that planet is." said Glasgow confidently.

"What?"

"You know all about Mount Tantiss."

"Unfortunately."

"Well, there have always been rumors that Tantiss wasn't the only storehouse, which makes
sense; as Palpatine would have demanded a backup plan, such as the Galaxy Gun design,
which would have replaced the Death Stars if the Empire hadn't fallen apart."

"Makes sense," murmured Sheppard. He watched as Glasgow slowly got up. "No. No. Let
Paul have command this time; he doesn't need to have us old fogies always stealing it
away from him."

Glasgow sat back down in his seat. "What now, then?"

"We watch as General Schmidt goes and gets us our toys."

ISS Revenger, Main Troop Briefing Room, Deck 130

General John Schmidt looked at the officers gathered around the holotank and rubbed his
chin. It'd been a long time since they did a ground assault. Hopefully nobody would kriff up
catastrophically.

Gathering his breath, he began the briefing.

"Men, we will be executing a ground assault today, with a reinforced repulsorlift
company to investigate some mysterious anomalies on the planet below. The
planet is listed on our charts as being uninhabited, so we don't expect resistance."

"Even so, we'll be treating this as a assault against defended territory. The anomalies
we're to investigate lie within a five kilometer radius of each other, so we don't have
much ground to cover today."

This bought a cheer from the gathered troopers.

"Now, for the environmental conditions at the surface. It's a nice warm -20 Celsius, so
those Snowtrooper suits we swiped will be the order of the day. If you come under hostile
fire, don't be a hero. Take cover and call in fire support from the armour platoon, or if
it's bad enough, get the Revenger on line for some multi-gigaton orbital fire support."

Everyone cheered even more loudly at that. Everyone knew the story about their
General, and how he was notorious for massive unneeded displays of firepower.

Almost a decade ago, he'd been a High General, answerable to no one except the
local Moff. But that was before he'd razed a forest that was full of Rebels using Juggernauts
chained together to clear multi-kilometer stretches of forest at a time. But that wasn't
enough for Schmidt. He'd ordered his men to use L-42 defoliant, which was banned
on most every civilized planet. It had gotten rid of the Rebels' tree cover allright, but that
forest had been the private hunting preserve of the Moff for that Sector.

So down he went in rank to a mere General and had been ejected into a backwater
posting in the Outer Rim, where he pushed around misfits while the Empire collapsed.

A few more minutes were spent while Schmidt detailed the individual platoons and
what they were to do. Finally, he was done.

"That concludes our briefing. Does anyone have any questions about anything?"

No one raised their hands, and Schmidt smiled at that. He'd trained his boys well.

"Good. We launch in ten minutes."

woo hoo!!!

Most excellent

Imperial Phoenix Gold - Chapter 3

Surface of Fendar II

Slowly, the cargo door of the landing craft opened onto a desolate landscape,
and howling winds filled the craft's bay, tearing at the sides of the AT-AT inside
the cavernous bay.

The AT-AT was suddenly picked up by the LCA's internal loading crane and
lowered onto the ground outside, where it slowly unkneeled and stood up.

The walkers carried by the Revenger were no ordinary stock AT-ATs. They
had been modified through hard-earned experience to carry thicker armor along
with a pack of VLS cells for Merr-Sonn PLX-2Ms so they could provide their own
organic indirect fire support, and not be limited to line of sight fire like an ordinary
walker.

Behind the heavy AT-ATs, the smaller repulsorlifts carrying most of the troops
followed, their repulsorfields barely disturbing the snow underneath them, while
the AT-ATs left their customary deep footprints.

Leading this deadly assortment of armour was a remote-controlled TIE Crawler,
which crunched through the snowdrifts well ahead of the reinforced company
as a sacrifical lamb.

As the crawler crested a ridgeline, a brilliant green bolt leapt out of the mist, and
speared it dead center, vaporizing it in a ball of indecandescent gasses.

From his command post in the lead AT-AT, Schmidt looked at the dissipating
fireball from the crawler. "Well, we've found the enemy," he remarked, as
he reached and clicked on the commlink to the Revenger, which was
orbiting just over their heads in a geoschrynous orbit.

"Get me Commander Degan. We are in need of his turbolasers."

A voice crackled in Schmidt's helmet. "Revenger fire control here."

"Schmidt here. I have a fire request for you. I want grid squares 121, 122, 123 and
124 wiped off the map. One megaton per strike, I want the surface scoured
clean of all non-hardened hostiles."

"Roger, request recieved. Fire mission being computed....on it's way in fifteen."

As the repulsorlifts and AT-ATs dropped to the ground to minimize the effects of
the airblasts from the turbolaser strikes, several bolts of brilliant green fire lanced
through the wind-swept sky and impacted the ground, sending shockwaves that
rumbled through the vehicles, and lit the sky up with brilliant light from the thermal
flashes when the bolts struck solid targets.

When the shockwaves had faded, Schmidt ordered the advance to continue. As
they crested the ridgeline, the macro-optical scanners in the AT-ATs picked up
the charred, melted stumps of what had previously been gun turrets sticking out
of the smooth blackened craters that were the result of turbolaser strikes.

A few kilometers beyond the craters was massive blast door dug into the side of a hill.

"I guess that's what we're after." muttered one of the pilots driving the AT-AT. Schmidt
merely nodded. "Charlie platoon, get your ass up there and peel that door open!" he
shouted over the Company comchannel.

Charlie platoon was the assault platoon, and they toted around heavy weapons and
demolition charges that could make short work of any fortification, if they could get
close enough to it. That looked like it wouldn't be a problem.

Suddenly, the door ground open, and sunlight gleamed off the beetle-browed
carapices within as several platoons' worth of X-1 Vipers swarmed forth.

"KRIFF! KRIFFF!" screamed Schmidt as he saw them swarm forth,
firing their heavy arm-mounted cannons, which could put a dent in even AT-ATs.

"FIGHTING WITHDRAWAL!" he shouted, even as he raised Degan
on the fire support link."DEEGAN! TWENTY KILOTON CREEPING BARRIAGE RIGHT THE
KRIFF NOW ON GRID SQUARE 152!"

At that moment, the AT-AT shook from a heavy blaster bolt from one of the Vipers, it couldn't
penetrate the armor at this range, but it was enough to shake everyone up.

And then the Fist of God began raining down from above their heads...

Arnatis IV, somewhere in the former Demilitarized Zone between the UFP and Cardassians - January 26th 2374

Nathan Fortner looked at the man who was sitting at the back of the bar. Could it be him? Well,
there was only one way to find out...

"That seat there taken, partner?"

The man looked up at Nathan, and he could see that the man's eyes were the eyes of someone
who had seen far, far too much combat. "No. It isn't taken."

Nodding, Nathan sat down next to the man. "You see much combat during the War?"

"Some."

"I flew off the USS Lexington, one of the new Ranger-class carriers during the war, I saw
a lot of action up and down the Chin'toka chain, and after the war, I returned home. You?"

"I spent most of the war right here, fighting the Cardies," replied the man.

Ah, could it be him? thought Nathan.

Nathan cleared his throat slightly. "I...ah...represent a group of people who are slightly...displeased with
the way the Federation has ignored the way that the Cardies have let the Orions ravage their way through
the DMZ from Cardie worlds."

"So? My war's over. I don't need a new one." replied the man.

Nathan sighed. His boss had said that the man would be hard to convince.

"Valdemar said you'd be a tough one."

The man looked up at the mention of the name. "Bullshit," he replied, and in a flash, a knife was at
Nathan's throat.

"How do I know you're just not name-dropping?"

"Valdemar also said you'd be like this; so he told me about Operation Babylon. How you infiltrated the
Cardie sector headquarters and blew away their head Admiral like it was a stroll through the park."

Slowly, Nathan felt the pressure on his throat from the knife ease up, until it was gone.

"Keep talking."

"We need a man of your calibre, Mister Wilson. The Federation has been breathing down our
necks rather heavily as of lately. We need them off our backs. We don't care how you do it."

Wilson merely nodded as he got up from the table. "I'll think about it," was the cryptic reply.

NICE!

Most definately kickass. Orbital Bombardment is much fun to see.

Great thought the original is still the best for me...

Hey Wilson and some of the others are here as well, and he's not playing favorites.....

Crazedwraith wrote:Great thought the original is still the best for me...

Which is why I told dalton to keep the Original up on daltonator.net

Seriously, I'm having a ball rewriting it; I can't believe how Mary Sueish
I made Admiral Sheppard five years ago. What the fuck would an Admiral
be running around with the Stormtroopers on a combat mission for?

Why would you have a battle in an arctic wasteland when you have an ISD
in orbit

And why in god's name did I write a full page describing stormtrooper gear
when my target audience already know's it's capabilities.

Seriously, it's fun seeing the action kick right from the beginning

Whoo, my FanFic debut! Great writing Shep! I especially like the TBOesque overlapping plots.

Imperial Phoenix Gold Dramatis Personae
To be constantly updated

IMPERIAL

Naval

Admiral Mark Sheppard: Leader of the motley band of renegades on the Revenger

Vice-Admiral Charles Glasgow: Sheppard's immediate subordinate.

Line Captain Paul Howedar: Captain of the Revenger.

Colonel Rob "Donuts" Dalton: Leader of the Revenger's Starfighter Wing. Ace of Aces with 355 kills to his credit.

Commander Patrick Degan: Head of the Revenger's Weapons Department.

Lieutenant Commander Michael Gillis: Head of the Revenger's Deck Department.

Chief Petty Officer Robert Bucher: Head of the Revenger's sensor section - Lieutenant's job, but given to him due to personnel shortages.

Intelligence

Coming soon, mehehhehe - nobody to interrogate.......yet.

Army

General John Schmidt: Imperial Army; head of the Revenger's detachment of Army troops and Stormtroopers.

STARFLEET

Admiral Jonathan Boyd: Head of Task Force Black Knight, top secret Section 31/Starfleet task force.

Admiral Alex Sutton: Starfleet Admiral attached to TF: Black Knight.

CIVILIANS

Senator Thomas Stravo: Influental reformist senator.

Robert Wilson: Former Federation Special Forces officer; Retired to the DMZ.

MAQUIS

Valdemar: Maquis Leader in the Badlands, no known name or face, just a codeword seized from a captured maquis
cell by the Cardassians and passed on to the Federation to see if anything turns up. So far, nothing has. The man is a complete
blank.

Nathan Fortner: Former Starfleet Lieutenant; Flew tactical fighters during the Dominion war. Now works as a undercover
Maquis operative

I remember when you first wrote the story years and years ago. It was good then and its even better now. Keep it up.

Damnation, my Federation dates are off......the year should be 2374, not 2370!

So edit them.

Imperial Phoenix Gold - Chapter 4

ISS Revenger, Flag Plot, Deck 20

The commlink on the table chirped; causing Sheppard to reach over
and activicate it.

"Sheppard here," he replied.

"Schmidt here. We've cleared the area of hostiles with orbital fire;
hostiles appear to have been X-1 Viper wardroids."

"Sithspit," muttered Sheppard. "Lose anyone?"

"No, only light casualties from broken bones caused by our men being
knocked around in the AT-ATs when they came under weapons fire."

"Good." Turning to Glasgow, Sheppard spoke. "Looks like your theory
was right after all. No two-bit smuggler would have that many X-1s. Only
the Empire in it's glory days could have afforded that many."

"But how did they hide all that hardware for all these years? Tantiss stayed
hidden for so long because it was just a Dark Jedi walking around, and not
a massive military base spewing energy all over the galaxy. Which seems
to be the case here, what with all of these droids and gun emplacements."

Sheppard hit the commlink button again.

"Schmidt, investigate that base, I want an answer to why nobody ever
detected this until now."

"Sir, we're having problems getting the door open, that last orbital bombardment
jammed it into position, we can't get it open."

"Then blow it open, General."

"Yessir."

"Wait! I want whatever's inside intact, General. No playing with proton warheads."

"Damnit."

Fendar II

Schmidt lowered his hand away from his helmet in disgust. Damnit. Oh well, orders
were orders.

"Charlie platoon, bust that door open!" he shouted over the comnet.

Stormtrooper Lieutenant Magi nodded and motioned for his platoon to move forward.
It was time to play with high explosives and have fun.

Fifteen Minutes Later

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" shouted Magi just before he pushed his thumb
down onto the detonator trigger in his hand.

The earth rumbled beneath their feet and smoke and flame roared into the sky as the shaped
charges they'd placed on the door detonated. When the smoke and dust cleared, the door was
still standing there, severely dented where the charges had gone off.

"Kriff."

ISS Revenger, Flag Plot, Deck 20

"Sir, we've detected a large explosion in the vinicity of the entrance, sir."
crackled the voice of CPO Bucher over the commlink.

"How big?" asked Sheppard.

"Less than a kiloton, sir."

"Good."

The comlink beeped once more.

"Schmidt here; we're having problems cracking that door. Request permission to double the
explosive charges."

Sheppard pondered this for several moments.

"Granted."

Fendar II

"DOUBLE THE CHARGES!" shouted Schmidt.

Magi nodded, and looked at the door with a critical eye. They'd put a couple kilotons of force
on that door, and it had merely dented it. This was going to need some thinking....

Calling together his platoon, he announced his new plan. "Guys, I want a frame charge on that
door, stuff a couple kilotons worth of charges around the door, and a few kilotons in the center,
we'll blow that bitch in like it wasn't there."

Once the charges were emplaced on the charred door for the second time, everyone scampered
away to safe firing positions, and the cry went out once more:

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!", and the world shook once more with sound and fury.

As the smoke slowly faded, it revealed a gaping hole where the door had once stood. Smiling
underneath his Snowtrooper helmet, Schmidt motioned with his hands for one of the other
platoons to search the interior of the base for hidden traps. He just couldn't afford to lose his
only assault platoon. They were far too good at their work, and he had no source of replacements.

Several minutes later, they reported back in, saying there were no traps they could find,
and that there were no casualties.

"Allright, lets get out of this damned wind. It's annoying." shouted Schmidt, motioning for
everyone to move into the base. Even Snowtrooper suits started to let the cold in after a
while, much less suits that had been patched together over and over.

As they stepped inside the door, past the shattered entrance section that had been ruined
by the blast of the shaped charges, everything was working like it had been empty for only
ten minutes, rather than abandoned for nearly twenty years. The lights were burning brightly,
and small mouse droids scuttled underneath their feet, already vainly attempting to clean up
the debris from the door. At least that explained why there was no dust on the floor.

As they moved deeper into the base, they saw cargo bay doors labelled clearly as "Droid Parts
Storage".

"That's bullshit." muttered Schmidt. "Check it out."

One of the troopers walked to a door and pushed the open stud. With the whine
of well-oiled hydraulics, the door opened, and the lights inside the cargo bay
snapped on, revealing a full squadron of TIE Defenders hanging from the ceiling,
their distinctive tri-winged silhoulette unmistakeable.

"Sithspit," muttered the trooper as he turned around and motioned for the officers.

ISS Revenger, Flag Plot, Deck 20

The comm bleeped again, only this time it was Glasgow who answered it.

"Yes?"

"Schmidt here, we're finding a lot of stuff here, from TIE Defenders to
Missile Boats, along with a lot of advanced manufacturing equipment,
stuff we haven't seen ever since the Fall."

"Why is it no one knew about this base before us?"

"Oh, that. The techs are reporting that a cloaking shield was used to
hide the base's emissions, but due to a clerical error when this base
was orginally staffed, a crucial piece failed, and there was nothing on
base that the maintenance droids could use to repair it."

"Lucky for us. Our colonization idea may not be as risky as we'd originally thought."

Kharo II, UFP Frontier HQ, along the old DMZ - January 27th 2374

The transporter chiefs manning the console looked at each other wearily. Another
transport before their shift was over. Damnit.

"Right. Let's get this one over with."

"Energizing."

As the figure of the humanoid they were beaming over appeared on the pad in a
shimmery translucent form, alarms began going off everywhere.

"Shit! Biofilter's not interfacing properly with the pattern buffer! We're getting corruption here!"

"Compensate!"

"I can't!"

"Shift him to another transporter room!"

"I CAN'T!"

As the transport continued, even more alarms began to blare; and with a final convulsive
set of alarms going off, the figure materialized fully on the pad; a quivering mass of flesh
turned inside out, which stood upright before collapsing with a guttural moan.

Kharo II, UFP Frontier HQ - Office of the late Admiral John Clark

Wilson deftly ran his hands over the laptop datareader in the late admiral's office, deftly
erasing all the evidence of resurgent Maquis activity in the former DMZ with a few touches
of his hand after guessing the late admiral's passcode after a few tries. He'd already
cleaned out the admiral's private quarters minutes ago; now all he had to do was inform
the computer core to write over the erased data fifty times with random garbage before
removing all trace of him in the system's access log.

Well, he was done here. Time to get out before they came to lock down the admiral's
quarters for the post-accident investigation. It had been so easy to exploit that bug in
the biofilter's programming, not many knew about it; and even fewer knew how to
exploit it.

PellCorp Pantex Plant, Texas, Earth - January 27th 2374

Both Pellegrinis walked down the gleaming antiseptic assembly line where a good 20% of
Starfleet's photon torpedoes were made. Final assembly of the system, with deuterium and
anti-deuterium slugs was done off site at a secured Starfleet station well beyond the orbit
of Pluto.

"Good to hear about your assignment to the Valkyrie, Carl."

"Thanks."

"It's time to begin, son. We've waited long enough."

Carl immediately stiffened upon hearing those words.

"So early?"

"Yes. The Federation is starting to look too closely into the affairs of the Maquis
in the former DMZ. If they look any closer, I fear they shall find out things they
do not need to know."

"I'm still a bit unprepared, Dad. I don't know who I can trust on the Valkyrie,
it's a new assignment."

"Don't worry. You won't be asked to do your part yet. The wheels have started to turn, however."

that's good stuf it is.

Stormtrooper Lieutenant Magi

Sweet! I can now raid the officer mess with impunity!!!

ALL HAIL ADMIRAL SHEP Or Else.

frigidmagi wrote:

Stormtrooper Lieutenant Magi

Sweet! I can now raid the officer mess with impunity!!!

ALL HAIL ADMIRAL SHEP Or Else.

Make me.

Very good Shep. Keep it up.