StarDestroyer.Net BBS

IMPERIAL INTELLIGENCE SECRET BREIFING

SECURITY LEVEL 19

TOP SECRET



-SCENITIFIC INTRODUCTION

Chief Researcher Ramend Kumar

As you are probably aware most spiral galaxies contain large "super-massive" black holes near their cores. As does ours. Approximately two years ago we discovered an artefact on a dead world in the galactic core. After proper translation we have been able to discover it's function. It dates at over 50 million years old. We have discovered that it was built by a highly advanced alien race, and that it is capable of using the mass of the galactic core singularity to generate a wormhole. By locking onto and linking the singularity to another of similar mass we can travel to another galaxy potentially of our choosing.

So far we have succeeded in locking onto four other galaxies, the two satellite galaxies and two others. By chronmetric mapping we have been able to determine that the fourth galaxy is relatively far in the future and a vast distance away, and would take almost two centuries to reach with our current propulsion technology. While the first and second are already known to us, the third is largely dead, but initial explorations of the fourth galaxy prove it to be rich with both minerals and life.

We have been preparing for this new transit window for two months now. The invasion task force is ready.



-Aboard Vengeance class star cruiser - "Imperial Wrath."

-Zero Hour

Kane Koloth watched as the technicians hooked the device to the ships power grid. It looked like a piece of metal; it was a piece of metal. However the strange feeling in the force told him that it was more. The singularity key gave a distinct headache to force users. He wanted the thing as far away as possible from him, he would prefer to leave it here but the emperor had ordered him to take it.

The techs had finally completed their task and quietly shuffled away from him, most people did not like being anywhere near the emperor's proxy for long. The key glowed a light green colour; soon it would be ready. Koloth left the room deep in the bowels of the ship. Closing and sealing the door behind him, the two Royal Guards on either side of the door came to attention as he passed, then resumed their silent vigil over the emperor's new toy, as if anyone would dare to steal it. Stepping into the turbolift he was scanned, the lift would eject into space if the user was unauthorised, another of the emperor's personal security measures. Addressing the ship's computer he said "seal off level and take me to the bridge."

The turbolift came to a stop on the bridge level with a slight hiss. The doors slowly slid back revealing the imperial wrath's bridge. The layout was different from that of the usual star destroyers and super star destroyers, This was a prestige ship, and the crew pits were more hidden. With more observational space at the front of the bridge, now replaced with a tactical hologram cube. "Admiral" he shouted, he knew where the admiral was of course, but he enjoyed making people come to him. The High Admiral came walking from the crew pits aft hurrying while trying to retain his dignity in front of the lower ranks. It was a wasted effort. There were smirks at the sight of this Very senior officer rushing along the deck.

"My lord?" the naval officer asked

"What is the status of the fleet?"

"We are ready to begin my lord. We have five shockwave class heavy cruisers, twenty imperator two class star destroyers, fifteen imperator one's, fifty victory two class star destroyers twenty-five victory ones, 40 dreadnought heavy cruisers, two prefabricated modular shipyards, five modular garrison bases. One orbital manufacturing facility, one orbital training facility, one orbital penal station, four golan II defence platforms, two gencore level two planetary shields, two LNR Series II planetary defence batteries, three prefabricated material extraction mines, three prefabricated refineries, one Nebulon B class hospital ship, ten converted Corrillean corvettes, various heavy and light transports and of course the imperial Wrath."

"Then you may prepare to open the gateway."

The admiral turned and raised his hand, saying "Now!"

A lance of eerie green light shot from the front of the Imperial Wrath into the Gaping maw of the black hole it was orbiting.

The obsidian surface of the cloaked singularity rippled with unnatural distortions. Then the unimaginable power of the key completed its task, the titanic blast of the gaping maw opening below the fleet. A technician in the aft crew pit cried out; "Subspace distortions off the scale, all radiation from the black hole has ceased, wormhole established."

Kane Koloth did not turn to address the man but he walked to the observation window. "Launch exploratory TIE's"

Two tie fighters streaked away from their mothership flying to the gaping oddity below.

After a tense moment on the Imperial Wrath the communications officer finally spoke. "TIEs report wormhole safe for human travel. Kane Koloth now smiled to himself, Turning he said; "pitch down 90 degrees, and engage sublight engines, maximum velocity, and order the entire Fleet to do likewise." he paused "Engage!" In perfect unison the 200 assorted ships of the fleet tilted downwards, their prows facing the gaping wormhole ahead, Then their main engines flared, showing the light of a small star as they propelled themselves through the portal in space-time.



-Borg Collective

-Zero Hour Plus four hours

_Subspace Shockwave Detected

_Relevant Technology

_Assimilate

_90% probability of success

-Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

-Zero Hour Plus four Hours ten minutes

Koloth sat at a table with his senior officers. They were discussing the data gathered on this galaxy thus far.

"Indications are that this Voyager used a temporal anomaly to destroy the primary base of the Borg collective, the local superpower. However the remains of the 'collective' assimilated the technology, meaning that only the UFP and the 'Borg' are relevant, if we can defeat them, most of the others will probably cave in to us." Koloth listened to the Engineer with some boredom.

"What, pray tell, is the relevance of this 'Abaltive' Armour you speak of, which by the way is meant to be spelt Ablative. Mister Kumar?"

"I wished to inform you that I have discovered a few potential Methods of destroying it with ease. Even so it is nowhere nearly as effective as our Dura-Amour"

"And the 'transphasic' torpedoes?"

"They are not spectacular, a specialised weapon from what our communications taps have discovered. I have a few possible solutions in mind."

"Sometimes scientists were extremely boring, then again" Koloth thought to himself "they did invent the death star."

Koloth smiled grimly.

-System J-29, Converted Corrillean Corvette "Delphus"

-Zero hour plus five hours

Lieutenant Commander Cortsweien sat in the cramped bridge of his new ship. It wasn't quite a star destroyer, but it was a good assignment at his rank. Most officers never got a command until the rank of commander. Though his craft was nearly unarmed, it was still thrilling to be in command. His reverie was interrupted by the perimeter alert. An alien vessel was approaching them. It was time to put on the 'simple trader' act. Establishing a primitive two-way communications protocol. The veiwscreen surreptitiously displaying scan data. Length 350 meters, beam 100 meters, height 60 meters, 16 decks, mass three hundred thousand metric tonnes.

Despite having done his best trader act the aliens did not seem impressed. "Prepare to be assimilated" grated back at him. This was not good. Ordering his helmsman to flee, he would have liked to teach the arrogant aliens a lesson, but facing a ship larger than his own was not wise, his mission was only to scout out the territory. Jumping to hyperspace was the best option.

After about five minutes the ship simply dropped out of hyperspace, the urge to look for an interdictor was there, but when none could be found. Tapping the comlink to main engineering. The newly promoted Lt. commander demanded to know what was going on. His only reply was static. Stepping up the young officer walked to the back of the bridge. Pulling his Blaster from its holster he prepared to investigate, but first he needed backup.

He pressed the panel to open the door, nothing happened. He pressed again, yet still nothing happened. Taking a Code cylinder from his pocket he inserted it into the port on the panel. The door at last responded to the override and slid smoothly aside. The corridor was deserted the lights flickering. Ignoring it he strode with purpose towards the turbolifts up ahead. He had the same trouble with these as he had had with the door to the bridge; he used the same solution.

Going down a deck. One of two doors slid open. Increasingly bothered by this he stepped through sideways. Heading forward towards the crew's mess, he heard a banging on the door. Shouting to the men inside he opened the door. Stepping through he was greeted by four armed stormtroopers. Putting their weapons up at the sight of the ship's commander they stood down. Taking a blaster rifle from the table to replace his somewhat under-powered pistol he turned, unfolding the stock of the weapon, taking the safety off and setting it to kill, he put it to his shoulder. Turning to look at the expectant clones he said, "I think we have been boarded."

Heading towards main engineering the group stormtroopers and their officer halted, some of the stormtroopers dropping to one knee. Two freakish cyborg creatures were headed towards them.

The first one fell immediately. The second had some sort of energy field over its body. When a blaster bolt crossed the field it lost containment and reverted to low energy plasma, doing little damage to the creature's torso. Momentarily startled the troopers paused, before all aiming for the creature's head and pressing the firing studs on their weapons.

The creature's head, while not blasted by the full power of the bolts was bunt to a crisp. Some of the metallic parts exploding in the process. The creature was lifted bodily and hurled down the corridor by the kinetic energy it had absorbed. Three more of the creatures started down the corridor towards the imperials. The personal shields again dissipated the blaster bolts.

The lead stormtrooper produced a grenade from his utility belt. Lobbing it down the corridor white the imperials ducked under cover. Mangled parts and a percussive shockwave due to the enclosed space flew down the corridor. The stormtroopers came out firing, the remaining two creature's force fields now shorted out by absorbing the blast of a frag grenade.

Cortsweien looked at the troopers. They were all acting on initiative and resetting their weapons to stun power. He was reminded of how much more adaptable clones were meant to be.

In main engineering one creature remained, it was standing next to a systems console, it's mechanical arm attached to the controls. Repeated volleys of stun blasts hit the creature. It collapsed onto the floor it's systems overloaded. Looking around the stormtroopers could see a very disturbing sight. Many of the engineering crew had been partially transformed into cyborgs before the chief engineer had shot them and then himself with a blaster pistol. He had certainly saved them from an unpleasant fate.

-Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Converted Nebulon-B Frigate. Fleet Medical Ship.

-Zero Hour plus eight hours

The shuttle from the Imperial Wrath arrived in the landing bay. Usually this bay was used for picking up escape pods, reviving casualties etc. This time it was receiving a visitor. Kane Koloth strode down the shuttle's ramp his boots echoing on the deck. Seeing the chief medical officer waiting for him he almost smiled. The CMO was an old friend of his. Walking towards his old friend Koloth said with a sarcastic tone in his voice

"Well let's see this scary monster they brought in." Laughing the CMO gestured towards the Turbolift. Stepping inside the lift the CMO told it to go to deck eighteen. After a few minutes of reminiscing the CMO and the Fleet Commander arrived at the laboratory. Heavily strapped down to a re-enforced bed, made from dura-armour, with wrist, leg and waist binders made from hardened durasteel was a borg drone. None of this was necessary; the jury-rigged restraining bolt attached to the creature would have been enough. White clad technicians moved about the drone removing parts and examining them. A powerful signal jammer isolated the drone from the collective.

"So what have you got to help us fight these revolting creatures, Veril?" Koloth addressed his old comrade.

"Firstly remember the thing with the battle droids on skipos? Well I’ve rigged than standard, as all they need to do it turn the systems off, it doesn't have to reactivate them. They are about 2cm calibre," he held up a slug thrower, "this fires high velocity restraining bolts, they are smaller and the slugthrower carries a clip containing 12 bolts. The bolt also contains a small signal jammer, but I am not sure how well it works."

Veril picked up a boxy and primitive looking gun somewhat like an assault rifle. "You’ve got to hit the bionic parts or else it doesn't work. We’ve also found the 'subspace' frequency they communicate on. This device" He picked up a stormtrooper comlink wired to a datapad. "Locates them for you, this one's two-d if you wanted you could rig up a holo version though. Also using one of their transceivers you could conceivably upload an invasive program, or make 'em drop their shields and armour." Koloth whistled in appreciation, before saying "knew I could count on you to amaze me but this has to be a new record for finding new ways of meating out damage." The CMO smirked "yeah why else does anyone become a doctor?" he said with slight sarcasm. "That’s not the best bit, we're working on a 'Transporter interrupter'"

-Gateway System Converted Corrillean Corvette "Delphus"

-Zero hour plus one day

Lieutenant Commander Cortswein's ship was again operational, after delivering the borg bodies to the medical frigate and taking a new engineering crew aboard Cortsweien decided it was time to see about beginning his real mission. "Engage the masking systems" The sub- lieutenant at the appropriate console reached forward and pressed a few buttons. The large holo-shroud in the lower cargo bay activated. Outside the ship a Borg probe rippled into view around the corvette. The corvette began projecting sensor-masking signatures; it would now scan exactly as the probe had when they had come into contact with it. The 'borg ship' accelerated into hyperspace.

-Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

-Zero hour plus one day four hours.

Koloth read the latest reports in his inner sanctum. The use of holo shrouds and sensor masking had been effective in mapping this Galaxy. The hologram in front of him pivoted and zoomed in on one area, referred to by it's inhabitants as the 'alpha quadrant' already decimated by a war they would be eager to avoid a new conflict. More surprisingly one of the main groups there were human, he had dispatched a shockwave class cruiser to capture some samples. If they really were human it would be extremely interesting to the empire. Moving on to study the status reports he was pleased to note the success in setting up most of the pre-fabricated facilities. The primitive species that had inhabited the fifth planet of the system made excellent construction workers. The first new capital ships were about to be built.

-Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

-Ten minutes later

High Admiral Narra was on the bridge when it happened. The huge tactical hologram on the bridge showed him the tactical borg cube as it approached the fleet. The hologram zoomed in relaying sensor data gathered on the enemy vessel. As the tactical analysis had predicted the cube immediately powered towards the largest vessel in the fleet. The Imperial Wrath herself. It made the mistake of ignoring the two Shockwave class heavy cruisers and four Imperators nearby. That was a mistake.

The shockwaves waited until the cube was within the gravity well of the planet, then without waning preformed a minuscule hyperjump, using the gravity of the planet to jolt them back into realspace behind the cube. Manuvering themselves until they were immediately behind the cube, limiting it's fields of fire by only exposing themselves to the weapons on one surface opened up only with ion cannons, at the same time the Imperial wrath fired. Blasting great chunks out of the cube with her light turbolasers. The Borg deployed its ablative armour system. Armour plates seemed to come from nowhere. It did them little good. Even as the self-regenerating armour appeared the Ion cannons on ships opened fire, targeting the Ablative generators studding the cubes surface the turbolaser then continued their relentless pounding of the cube. Return fire was now sporadic the gunners were told to fire at the beam emitters, the cube tried to turn to bring new faces to bear on it's enemies, but the Imperial Wrath's tractor beam's held it securely. Admiral Narra watched dispassionately as the cube was rocked by heavy turbolaser fire. Then the hole appeared, the cube had been blasted completely through.

Narra ordered the fleet to cease-fire, and launched the 'TIE Bomb' as it had been nicknamed by the crew. Ramend Kumar's borg killer consisted of a modified Tie bomber, with a Droid brain in place of a pilot, the TIE Bomb did not need one, its mission was simple. The TIE Bomb streaked towards the heavily damaged Cube, and decelerated as it approached the devastated centre of the cube. The simple droid brain activating the 5 second countdown. The blast from the five hundred-megaton warhead that had been installed instead of the payload of the bomber was immense. The cube was completely vaporised. A cheer rose from the crew behind Narra. The tactical hologram changed, now showing the Imperial Wrath herself, two red dots indicating areas she had been boarded, The admiral grimly nodded to the General in command of the army divisions aboard the ship.

This section of the ship was rarely visited by anything except maintenance droids the lights were dim, in the darkness several figures could be seen moving stealthily, the eerie glow of the lighting reflecting from their white armour. The lead stormtrooper turned a corner, then ducked back; his enhanced vision having revealed what the enemy was doing down here. They were attempting to access the main computer, fortunately the code cylinder system was near infallible.

He signalled to the trooper behind him to bring up the restrainer gun. Quickly gesturing to the man the direction distance and angle of the enemy. The stormtroopers eased around the corner, as the special weapons trooper raised the gun to his shoulder a group of the Borg split off and began approaching them. Two quick bangs and the first on had two shutdown bolts in it's chest, it dropped to the floor and screamed, it was severed from the collective, and with the borg implants forced to shut down it's original personality was able to re-assert itself. The trooper emptied the clip of the restrainer gun, another five borg being likewise incapacitated the lead remaining borg now reached the first trooper, as he was reloading the restraining gun, smashing his head sideways and inserting the two assimilation tubes into the troopers neck. A gargled scream issued from the unfortunate trooper that was cut short as his comrade blasted him, the remaining troopers opened fire now, their blaster weapons' effectiveness slightly reduced by the personal fields employed by the borg. However the drones began to fall, and as the last one fell more approached from the access terminal they had attempted to hack into.

Quickly the five surviving stormtroopers took up defence positions. One snatched up and reloaded the restraining gun and slammed another clip of bolts into it. Firing at the oncoming borg another three fell to the new weapon. The other troopers opened fire with their blasters targeting the drone's organic parts, where the dispersed blaster bolts would do most damage. There seemed to be an endless supply of drones to replace those that were gunned down. The troopers began falling back from the borg. The restrainer gun was now out of bolts, and the four stormtroopers began backing away from the relentless borg drones. They fell back from the enemy through a pair or double doors. The borg began to pound their way through the obstacle.

Elsewhere in the ship another group of Stormtroopers were hunting. The leader held a 'borg locator' in his left hand and a blaster pistol in his right. The highlighted red dots were nearby. About ten meters ahead and a deck above. A quick cross-reference with the overlay map on his HUD showed they were interfering with a computer control panel. He could see the conduit of computer relays ahead, next to a power conduit. An idea presented itself. Telling the other men in his group to cover him he took a panel off the Computer relay, and set to work.

The borg drones pounded at the door, it was only a matter of seconds before they would be through. The hole in the door where they had battered the metal aside was growing at every punch of their enhanced arms. The first drone was through. It clambered into a largely empty room, filled with maintenance spares; there was another door on the far side. It was open, The drone, now followed by the others pursued their pray. As it entered the far corridor it was blasted into the air, a shower of parts flying in all directions. The others single-mindedly followed it, losses were irrelevant. The troopers manning the E-web sprayed the drones as they entered the corridor, blasting gaping holes in them. Very quickly the drones adapted, They were likewise blasted to components. Shortly the Trooper's leader had signalled the area cleared.

The leader of the other group of Stormtroopers took the high voltage run-off cable and thrust it into the data conduit, and was gratified by several of the red dots on the locator winking out as the panel they were interfering with exploded. Unfortunately there were several still alive, and on the move towards his position. Gesturing his men to follow him he decided to fortify one of the nearby rooms. Opening the door he saw it was filled with racks containing 'mouse' messenger droids.

The sound of the Restrainer gun, and blasters told him the borg had made contact, turning round he saw them coming out of a turbolift shaft. These were of a heavier, better-armoured variety, and even as the stormtroopers began firing the drones reached them. The screams of assimilation echoed down the hallway, The leader was the last one alive as two drones moved towards him, he took a silver object from his belt, and pressed the a switch on it. The Drones never completed their task, as they injected the assimilation nanoprobes the troopers grip on his grenade loosened, it fell, a light on its surface blinking on. The explosion destroyed the entire room. It’s proximity to the self-destruct charges in the mouse droids causing a modest chain reaction.

On the bridge Admiral Narra was disconcerted by a small explosion in compartment 489-b. Still, the area was nonessential, and would be easily repaired, plus it had been evacuated once the boarders had been located.

-Approximately half an hour later

Kane Koloth meditated in his private chambers; he reached out with the force, feeling the fabric of the universe, even here, far from his own galaxy. He could feel the other people aboard the ship, morale was high. Reaching out further from himself he felt around the sparks of life from the fleet, and on the planets below. He could even feel the massive gravity of the nearby black hole, a few light years away. Reaching back from the disturbing hunger of the massive gravity he felt the gateway system, the labourers from the fifth planet. Then at the back of his mind he felt a sharp stab of hatred, concentrating on it he felt despair, anger, fear, hatred; the dark side of the force, something was on the first planet of the system, something powerful. He began to bring himself back from the force-induced trance.

-First Planet of the Gateway system

-Approximately five minutes later

The shuttle came to rest on the rock-strewn landscape of the planet. The boarding ramp lowered and Kane Koloth stepped onto rock for the first time in a few years. The huge star in the sky glowed blood red, and the diffuse light from it gave the terrain an almost bloody look. The radiation was strong here, however it was safe for short exposure. He looked up, and saw a moderately sized mountain ahead of him. The presence he had sensed before was close now. A whispering at the back of his mind. Probing at his thoughts. Ahead of him there was a natural trail on the mountainside. Checking his lightsaber, Koloth began the ascent.

-Fringe of the gateway system

-Zero Hour Plus One Week Two Days twelve hours.

Space rippled as four enormous cube shaped vessels exited the transwarp conduit. Numerous spherical escorts accompanied them. They powered in system, heading towards the ship construction facility above the fifth planet of the system. Small one-person vehicles engaged them but were quickly destroyed. Before their destruction however the TIE fighters managed to warn their parent vessels.

-Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

The incessant ping of his comm disturbed Admiral Narra. Groggily he ordered the channel opened. "This had better be good!" he shouted. The communications officer quickly informed him of the alien task force entering the system. Almost leaping out of his bed the High Admiral grabbed a nondescript jump suit and the rank cylinders from his table and left for the bridge.

He was still fastening his collar as he arrived on the bridge he stared at the Tactical holo on the bridge. The display switched between close ups of the enemy task force, course projections and status reports. Remembering the last encounter the admiral ordered the ECM activated and the new "transport inhibitor" to be activated.

This enemy would be forced into fighting honourably this time, without resorting to dirty tricks. The holographic images of Task force commanders and ship commanders lined up against one wall, the holo flicked back to the system view, the enemy highlighted and their projected course was directly towards the shipyards. The fleet began to mass around the shipyards; The display showing them check in and their colours change from blue to green. The red enemy ships continued unabated. The officer overseeing communications told the deck officer they were being hailed, the deck officer informed the High Admiral. Admiral Narra had the alien hail put on audio.

"We are the borg, You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own, resistance is futile." Narra made a chopping motion and the comm operator dropped the channel. Turning around he said, "let's see how optimistic they are in five minutes." The bridge crew snickered. The cubes powered onwards. The fleet powered it's weapons, the borg were unconcerned, they would adapt. On the bridge of the Imperial wrath the gunnery officers waited for the order to commence firing. The huge ventral cavity of the vengeance class was studded with heavy turbolaser turrets. Turning as one to face the enemy, the gunners rested, going through whatever pre-battle rituals they had adopted. The massively powerful weapons were charged, their individual targeting computers calculating firing solutions.

The High admiral waved his arm, and the fire control officer pressed a button. The Turbolaser turrets opened fire. Several of the enemy vessels were vaporised instantly. The remaining enemy vessels diverted their course, all except one. The borg ships were pummelled by fire from the Imperial vessels. A shockwave class destroyed one of the cubes. On the bridge of the Imperial Wrath Admiral Narra shouted to a junior officer. "Commend Vice-Admiral Rale of the Persecutor" turning to the gunnery control officer he ordered "let's match them, target the closest enemy cube, maximum firepower." The cube was reduced to a cloud of rapidly expanding vapour. The cubes began to fall now the fleet moving it's attention to the spherical ships. In a short time it was over. The one remaining cube continued on it's course to the shipyard. Just before it entered transporter range green fire lanced up from the planet below, destroying the cube.

-Borg unimatrix 02

-Moments later

The queen stared at the holographic screen. The new variety humans had defeated a large fleet. These humans had advanced rapidly beyond what the future Admiral Janeway had. This technology was unique; this was not a problem the borg could adapt. The problem was that it was superior. Even the new technology assimilated after the destruction of unimatrix 01 they were outclassed in every area. If this enemy could not yet be assimilated then they must be avoided. Assimilation was futile. For now at least.

-Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

-Four hours later

The senior officers of the ship sat in the briefing room; many of the senior ship captains were here as well. High Admiral Narra and other admirals, vice admirals and general brass sat at the front of the room. Kane Koloth, the man the emperor trusted to run a galaxy in his name, sat facing the officers. He tapped a key on the control platform and an image of this galaxy shimmered into view, political and economic zones highlighted. At last he addressed the group before him.

"Distinguished officers of the fleet, the fist phase of our operation has been completed. We are now ready to begin combat operations, not of course including the events early this morning. The one area we will not be attempting this on is the area controlled by the 'borg' For now an invasion there would be impractical.

"Hence we will be dividing the fleet into five task forces. Each task force will be assigned an area of space to conquer, at first we should only intend the capture of smaller targets, such as the united federation, which is in the area assigned to task force two.

"Vice admiral Rale will be in command of task force two, Task force one will expand our current holdings in the core, Task force three will head into this quadrant, task forces four and five will invade these areas." He gestured with his arm. "Each task force will consist of One Shockwave class cruiser, four Imperator II's, three Imperator I's, Ten victory II's and Five Victory I's. All other ships will remain at gateway to give support as needed,

If you would all like to pick up your ship's orders on your way out, that will be all."

As the officers fell into small crowds in the foyer outside, discussing their orders, which group they were assigned to and the like Koloth slipped out heading for the turbolift. There were other things that demanded the attention of a force adept. Such as attending to the pettiness of his new ally, However the impressive abilities of the entity were more than worth the effort.

Mark S wrote:I remember this was the board's first fanfic. If I'm not mistaken.

Deep Space, Shockwave Class Cruiser Persecutor.

-Zero Hour plus One Week Three Days

The Persecutor drifted through space. Out of her main docking bay small specks of light fell. As they went each activated a thruster, moving, and then disappearing into hyperspace. On the bridge Vice-Admiral Grath Rale eased back in the command chair.

Around him was the usual bustle of any large starship's bridge. Section heads supervised the operators in the crew pits, higher ranking officers stalked around. The bridges usual complement of mouse droids rolled about in specially recessed tunnels, taking sensitive data to the operations area at the rear of the bridge. The extensive crew who oversaw the running of the ship had an outpost on the bridge, though their usual domain was far below, in the armoured city that made up most of the ship. Down in the left crew pit there was unusual activity,

As each probe droid reported in its data was added to a target catalogue, which was in turn used to make the recommended target list for taskforce two. Grath was looking forward to seeing what interesting prey they would find.

--Zero Hour plus One Week Four Days

Grath Rale stood in the mapping room of the ship his macabre grin highlighted by the lights from the screens. The tactical hologram in the centre of the room was being updated every moment as more data flooded in. However he was not paying attention to that, he had selected his first target.

The system in question looked like a walkover, but had been given importance by the federation. It would serve as a useful means of discovering their tactical abilities, and political resolve. He would take his taskforce there, take over and wait.

-Bajor system

-Half an hour later

The Persecutor Decelerated, the rest of the taskforce appearing with her, immediately on arrival the imperials jammed all outgoing communications. Initially the commander of the small space station had refused to surrender. The levelling of a city had rapidly changed her mind. Now Kira Nerys waited in a cell aboard the alien command ship.

She was no stranger to incarceration. She had suffered it several times. This was different though. At least when fighting the cardassians she had known their agenda and their motives, the same for the dominion. This was a different threat than before though. This time there had been no promises of assistance, mealy the business end of weapons pointed at her and her crew, continuously. She had had everything removed from her, including her ear-jewellery. She had then been thrown in a small extremely Spartan cell. Unlike those on the station this actually had a physical door. Personally she thought that was an improvement. It had not been designed for the psychological benefits of federation cells. The lighting was minimal.

Well at lest they were honest.

On the station things were a mess. Imperial technicians had begun to take it apart. They were rebuilding it in their own image. Already the crude reactors had been replaced with a small hypermatter module, and a new computer core was being installed. The old one was already removed and crated ready to be sent to gateway for analysis. The Replication system had been the source of some curiosity among the techs, whom had been endlessly imputing commands into it. One had even begun instructing it to produce a mass of every compound on the imperial material's database. It had had difficulty with heavy elements, and complex compounds.

In the midst of this chaos Lieutenant commander Cortsweien attempted to get all the technology samples crated and ready for transport. It was an uphill struggle. Whenever the techs removed something they insisted on replacing it. He stalked down the corridors barking at technicians whom he perceived to be 'slacking' Outside the bulk transports and light craft clustered around the space station like vultures. The three 'runabout' craft attached to the station were being stowed into one of the smaller transports, while the crew of the station was being transferred from the persecutor into a prison craft. The Delphus was attached to one of the station's airlocks.

Cortsweien had been assigned to oversee the transport of captured materials back to the gateway system. He would have preferred to be capturing the materials, but it was good enough for now. Outside an imperial prison ship moved into a position recently vacated by a bulk transport. The grim exterior of the ship reflected its function. Already transport shuttles were beginning to ferry prisoners to the vessel. Lord Koloth had ordered all captives to be taken back to gateway for detailed questioning. The largest one of the station's craft, the defiant class gun-ship was sitting in the docking bay of one of the imperator star destroyers. It had been left intact; the vice admiral wanted it for future missions.



-San Francisco, Earth, UFP Headquarters

-Two days later

Rumours were circulating in starfleet headquarters. Rumours of another attack by the dominion. All contact with the planet Bajor had been lost. Admiral Paris was not really concerned, his son, and his new granddaughter had recently returned from the Delta Quadrant. Voyager was now landed on earth. Teams of technicians had begun analysing the new technologies they had brought with them. Soon the federation fleet would not have to worry about outside aggressors. He was walking with Captain Janeway, hearing all the anecdotes from the seven-year sojourn to the far side of the galaxy. Up ahead leaning against one of the deciduous trees that were sprinkled liberally around starfleet headquarters was a man in a starfleet uniform. He was surprised to note that the man was in fact an admiral. Whom he did not recognise as the man got up and walked towards them. Kathryn Janeway recognised him though. It was Q. The sneer was unmistakable.

"Oh Captain I really do think that you can do better..." Q said sauntering over to her

Captain Janeway looked at Q with distaste. For an entity that claimed to be so vastly superior to humanity he really was irritating. "What do you want Q?"

"Want, what do I want? Is there anything you could give me? If you meant to ask why am I here, then the answer is that I'm staking out a good seat."

Janeway glared at him. "What for?"

"Oh that would be telling, and extremely unfair." Replied Q waggling a finger in the captain's direction. Janeway laughed. "Fair, when have you been fair? Mischievous, arrogant, self-satisfied, smug, annoying and generally unpleasant, but not fair."

Q mocked an expression of shock

"Moi, smug?" then became serious "if you knew how much I have to be smug about then perhaps you would eat your words, Mon capitane." He uttered contemptuously. With that he disappeared in his trademark flash of light

-Bajor system

At the same time the USS Centaur dropped out of warp into the Bajor system. The area was deserted, apart from the loss of communications nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Captain Tanz ordered a sensor sweep of the system. The result was nothing. All of the ship's sensors returned no results at all. The ambassador class ship moved closer to the planet. The space station was in its usual position, but it seemed very different there were new modifications made to the station. It looked more ominous than before, and it was now armoured. Then a huge and ominous wedge revealed itself. It was accelerating towards the federation ship rapidly. Captain Tanz ordered the centaur to flee. He was wasting his effort.

Green streaks of fire lanced out and immolated the centaur as if it were a sacrificial offering to some primitive, wrathful god. On board the bridge of the Persecutor Vice-admiral Rale was disappointed. He had been expecting more of a kick from the locals. Whenever the empire lost contact with its protectorates, which was a rare event, it was usually a far more aggressive response. He was becoming more confident that his mission was going to become laughably easy.

- Gateway system, Imperial base of operations. Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

-Shortly afterwards

Lord Koloth looked out of the view ports on the bridge. Ahead of him the vast dagger of the Imperial Wrath pierced the void of space, in the distance the first new ships were almost completed. Merely small patrol ships and carrack light cruisers for now, the first new star destroyers and cruisers would not yet be ready for some time, and even then there was the problem of crewing them.

A communications officer was walking towards him. "My Lord we have a report from task force two. They have engages a solitary alien vessel. It was destroyed." The man handed him a data pad and retreated back to the crew pit at the rear of the bridge.

Reading the message, and watching the accompanying visuals, He felt an urge to laugh. The contemptible locals of that region were truly weak.

Shortly afterwards the hologram of Vice Admiral Rale stood on the centre of the Desk. The various officers of the Imperial Wrath arrayed around him on the circular table. On the table in front of each officer a screen displayed the last moments of the Lambda. General Orkon spoke first. This is all very interesting, admiral, but what relevance does it have other than illustrating the weakness of the enemy. The stormtrooper commander next to him nodded. Ramend Kumar stared at the strategically, if not tactically deficient General. "It illustrated the technology involved in the enemy cloaking device, reset your images gentlemen, and you will see a clear illustration the enemy ability to detect vessels through their cloaking devices. That General is why this is relevant, not only is it a great advantage to them, it is also something we could use." The general stared at the venomous researcher. "Why can't you make devices like theirs?" he asked sceptically. "Gentlemen" interrupted Koloth "we shall make efforts to discover how they build such devices."

"My Lord," Rale spoke up "We already have a device, from the captured vessel."

"Excellent" replied Koloth, "I shall arrange for some of the prisoners to assist Mr. Kumar in making it function."

- Cell block #4, Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

-Shortly afterwards

Colonel Kira Nerys stared at the man opposite her. He was human, or at least as far as she could tell. He was tall, and dressed himself in a black padded suit. She found it strange that he wore no uniform. On either side of her stood the ubiquitous white-armoured troopers. "Now Colonel, I am sure you want to help us, it would avoid much unpleasantness" Looking down at her restraints she decided to go for the bravado option, she was unlikely to live very long anyway. "You call this pleasant?" she replied. He did not look amused "I'll take that as a no then? Perhaps I should explain this device for you. It is a simple shock table. As you can surely tell, it is off at the moment, however should you refuse to co-operate with us it will be used to cause you considerable pain by nerve induction. Used with a mild stimulant drug or two, I am informed that it can be quite, quite painful. So, Colonel, what will it be?" He arched his eyebrows.

She spat at him, unfortunately she was about a foot short. "Never mind, my dear, I'll give you some time to think it over. Flanked by his guards he left the room. The heavy door slid shut. The recessed lights in the ceiling flicked off, leaving her with only her discomfort and thoughts in the inky darkness.

-Shockwave class heavy cruiser Tormentor

-Borg space

"We are the Borg, You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own, resistance is fitile." For the umpteenth time today Captain Warren heard this boring and repetitive intimidation slogan. It was interesting to speculate on exactly how any species could become so, stupid. The phalanx of cubes ahead began accelerating towards the Tormentor. Turbolasers spat out, wreaking havoc among the cubes. The cubes continued their acceleration.

- Commander's suite, Vengeance Class Star Cruiser "Imperial Wrath"

Koloth looked out of the observation windows. They were in fact screens. The rooms he was in were buried deep in the ship. Soon he would have to open the wormhole again. The emperor had scheduled a communication. He was sure that the emperor would be pleased with his success thus far.

At least he hoped so. He knew that he was being tested. This assignment neither required nor needed his presence. The Imperial Wrath coasted near the black hole, her prow aimed as an absurd dagger against the heart of that immense mass.

An emerald glow began to trace its way along specially constructed channels. The effect of the energies being released was far slower than the speed of light. It snaked its way from pylon to pylon, finally it touched the prow of the immense vessel. An emerald beam stabbed out at the black hole. If one were to see space and gravity at that moment as a flat plane, you would see the already huge gap begin to fall, rapidly accelerating to a single point.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away another black hole began to change. Wisps of turquoise light began to form. In an instant so small that no instrument available to man was able to measure it the two black holes linked. Technology indistinguishable from magic.

In his suite Koloth turned regarding the holo-projector, awaiting contact. He did not have to wait for long. The huge cowled for shimmered into view. Stepping forwards he kneeled on the imaging pad.

Emperor Palpatine, the most powerful being in the known universe began to speak; "What have you to report?" he said, his voice had a deep resonance and a vibrating quality. Kane Koloth looked upwards. "My lord," he said "We have securely established a bridge-head and begun investigating this galaxy." The emperor nodded "We have discovered that the inhabitants are even weaker than we had anticipated." The emperor cut off his report with a shocking statement. "The Death Star has been destroyed."

Koloth was confounded. He could not believe it. A huge number of men had been aboard the massive battle station. His thoughts paused and went back over that statement. Darth Vader had been aboard that station. He looked into the emperor's eyes. "Was Lord Vader aboard at the time?" He asked.

"He was not" replied the emperor. Through the force another message reached Koloth's mind "This has been a major setback. I have a project for you. You must take this galaxy, and build a new fleet from it. I have seen the future, there is a chance that the empire will fall. This must not be allowed to happen. Details will arrive though the wormhole in a few moments. They will be encrypted in a droid brain aboard a cargo ship. It's code is TY-32. Build me a fleet" he paused "worthy of the Sith."

The hologram disappeared like a conjured daemon released. The room was unaturally cold.

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:I want more....

NecronLord wrote:

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:I want more....

I'm specifically including something you requested a while back...

remember the imperium class?

The intimidating spear point shape of the Imperial Wrath turned away from the now dormant black hole. Accompanying her was a huge fleet of automated supply ships. They contained almost a month's supplies for the fleet. In one of the ships, in a bay of droids something moved. In the darkness of the cargo hold two red dots of light illuminated the darkness.

They swept across the dormant forms of protocol and boiler droids, coming to rest on a control panel. Easing its way through the tightly packed forms the other droids TY-32 reached for the panel. The door slid aside, revealing an empty room. The droid took the controls of the ship. Working quickly it began it's task.

It began to upload the exabytes of data carried within it's shell into the ship's computer. Then it began the final process. The transmission only lasted for a few minutes. The Imperial Wrath's computer executing it's own program hard wired into the system.

The emperor, during the design of modern KDY ships, had arranged for an agent to be responsible for the basic design of the computers. There was a back door built in. The agent had, of course met with an unfortunate accident, but not before telling the emperor how the system worked.

The computer did not report the breach of the control systems to its operators. Instead, once the transmission ended, it rotated a light Turbolaser and vaporised the ship.



The USS Enterprise looked nothing like the Imperial Wrath. It was not designed with intimidation in mind. Although it was technically a fighting ship, it's main function was as a vessel of exploration.

On the bridge Captain Picard eased back into his chair, he looked at the screen ahead of him, The star lines slowly moving by at a stately warp two point five. He decided that it was as good a time as any to record an entry in the Captain's log.

Pressing the record button on the armrest he began to speak. "Captain's log, Star-date Eleventy-leven and eighty six point negative nine." He stopped. Surely he hadn't actually said that? He looked up. Commander Data turned towards him, saying "Captain, there is no such star-date."

From the armrest came the computer voice. "Well? Hurry up, I do have better things to do." Picard looked down in confusion. "What?" he asked.

"I am very busy, get on with it you useless article." Replied the computer.

Picard found that his jaw had dropped. He looked up, the entire bridge staff were staring at him in confusion. "What is going on here?" he asked.

"Surely you remember me captain? Spelt the same way backwards as forwards." It tailed off. Suddenly the explanation dawned on Picard. One letter. "Q" he stated. Abruptly he disappeared in a flash of light.

He opened his eyes. He was in a large room. The walls were made of granite blocks. There were several exits. "Q" he said aloud, "return me to my ship"

"I do not think so captain" floated the voice from above him. Picard looked up. Standing above him, on the ceiling was the familiar form of the entity that called itself Q.

"What do you want this time Q?" he shouted. Q appeared behind him. "Do I need an excuse to rescue you from those reprobates that call themselves your crew?"

"Return me to my ship immediately." Picard stated.

"I will take you back to your flying bucket soon enough, but first I have something to show you."

The being swept his arm out in an expansive gesture, indicating a corridor. Picard looked at him, and then began to walk into the corridor. Following it into another room he looked down a flight of steps. On the far end he could see the planet earth. An unimaginably vast ship passed overhead.

The ship took almost three minutes to pass, the room shook, pieces of the stonework falling around them. A montage of images flew across Picard's vision. Apes killing each other, early warfare with chariots and spears, and finally the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, from the perspectives of both the pilot and a victim.

"The Past." Q intoned

Again images bombarded picard's mind. This time images of conflicts with the Borg, the Cardassians, the Kligons and the Romulans.

"The Present." Said Q.

Finally Picard was drawn back to the vast ship, it's gloss black amour gleaming in the light from Sol.

"And That which is yet to come." Q said.

A green beam lanced out of the ship. It hit the planet below. The entire globe seemed to shudder, Before beginning to fly apart, so very slowly massive meteors were shot out of the surface. Huge gouts of magma assailed the void before beginning to crash down under their mass.

The image sped up showing the devastated planet's orbit irrevocably changed. The sphere of liberated magma began to grow closer to it's star with every orbit.

"I've seen enough" Picard snapped in anger.

"Have you really, Ebenezer Picard?" Q looked at him searchingly.

"Considering how much you claim to despise us, you do enjoy quoting our literature." He goaded

"Oh, Captive, bound and double ironed," Cried Q, with obvious relish. "Not to know that ages of incessant labour, by immortal Q, for this galaxy must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is at all developed." With that Picard was back on the bridge of the Enterprise.



Cortsweien also leaned back in his chair. His crew working efficiently. The Delphus was cruising under no power at the fringes of the Risa System. Intelligence had discovered a large amount of cargo passed though that area, and his ship had been dispatched to investigate.

So far they had discovered nothing of any major interest. He was considering the possibility that there may be nothing at all on this planet other than constant hedonism. He made a point to file this planet for his next shore leave once it was conquered.

The man at the sensor station interrupted him from formulating his plans. He looked up, "Repeat that." He instructed. "We are detecting an incoming vessel sir." The operator repeated. "How long until it arrives?" Cortsweien asked. "Half an hour sir." He responded.

"Report it to the Persecutor." Cortsweien ordered.



The guards threw Kira back into the cell. She hit the ground hard, but managed to roll into a standing position. Fortunately, she reflected later that, the disadvantage of their torture was that there were no long-term effects. Standing quickly and turning she saw the door swipe down.

Sitting on the metal bunk she looked at the door. It was almost as thick as she was. Whoever these people were, they were not underestimating her. She cursed inwardly.

She tried to recall the layout of the cellblock. There were several lifts at the far end, past the guard post there were two other corridors of cells leading away from that room, and at one end there was a junction, probably leading to the other corridors.

Firstly however she had to discover a method of escaping her cell. She looked around. Then she looked up. There was a grille a few inches below the ceiling. Standing up she touched it with the back of her hand. There was a slight shock and she withdrew her hand sharply, probably nerve induction again. It was unlikely they would let a prisoner have a means of suicide.

She began to formulate a plan.



Koloth sat at his terminal, reviewing the new designs he had found, as he had suspected, in the secret memory core of the ship. Several types of vessel there dwarfed anything ever built before. There were full schematics and notes for the executor class command ship. Opening another file he casually glanced over it.

The more he read the more powerful the ship became. It was a Behemoth. Dwarfing in size everything but the, now destroyed Death Star. It was labelled the Imperium Class. Alongside were size comparisons. An Executor would easily fit into it's docking bay.

The legend gave it a length of hundreds of kilometres. Koloth wondered how long it would take to build in this backward environment.



"Q" Riker said, "What does he want?"

"I have no idea, he seems to be putting us to the test again."

"Why does he do this? So many times? We have always succeeded."

"It seems he wants to know our breaking point. Regardless I think that something worse than before will happen."

"Nothing could be worse than the borg."

Data's voice came though the Comm-links "Captain, we are approaching the Risa system, ETA five minutes."

"We are on our way." Said Picard, rising from his chair. Looking at Riker he added. I have no idea what Q wanted, we should expect the worst.

On the bridge of the Delphus the communications officer watched two lines of text scroll across his display. He turned to Cortsweien, saying; "Message from the persecutor Sir, they will be arriving for a capture in approximately twenty minutes." The commander turned. "We are to delay them, they recommend minimum weapons settings." Cortsweien nodded.

The Enterprise dropped from warp speed. Behind it another vessel began to approach the fragile looking vessel. On the bridge of the Enterprise the sensor officer turned from her console.

"Captain we are detecting and unidentified ship four thousand kilometres off the stern and closing"

"Should we raise our shields captain?" asked Worf

"No, that could be misinterpreted."

The klingon officer rolled his eyes at the pacifism.

Aboard the Delphus the other commander was similarly perplexed. "Why have they not raised their shields?" he thought. The communications operator turned to the commander. "They are attempting to hail us." He said

"Let them eat static." Said Cortsweien, pausing before ordering; "Fire across their hull, let's get them interested."

A bolt of green light narrowly missed the Enterprise. On the bridge Worf raised the shields without being asked. "Fire aft torpedoes" shouted Riker. A fusillade of blue orbs launched themselves at the Delphus. Their detonations having little effect.

Cortsweien was rocked in his seat. Turning to the pilot he shouted. "Full sublight, now!" The engines of the corvette accelerated the ship below and away from the starfleet vessel.

On the bridge of the Enterprise the captain leaned forwards. "Pursuit course" he ordered. The enterprise pitched down and accelerated. "Fire main phasers" he added.

The continuous red beam of the particle weapons hit the Delphus' shields. The turbolaser turrets fired at lowered power settings into the pursuing ship. On the bridge of the Enterprise a console exploded, burning an unfortunate crewman.



At the same time, in cellblock four of the Imperial Wrath, Two guards opened the door to Kira's cell. The first one was unarmed; the second held a pistol in his hand. She brought the thin bar she had detached from the ceiling around whipping his shoulder with it. Ducking quickly and turning the bar was under his arm.

She spun him around, the stun blast from his companion hitting him. Somewhere in the background an alarm sounded. She charged into the other man, grabbing his weapon arm. The startled guard pulled his arm back. Kira pulled his head down and kneed him in the groin, tipping him into the cell. She hit the controls for the door, and it swished down.

She ran along the walkway, turning a corner away from the view of the control room. She could hear shouts from the far end of the corridor.



Cortsweien watched the pursing ship on the screen. It was still firing at them. "How long until the Persecutor arrives?" He asked. The communications controller replied "One minute." He watched the ship.



Admiral Narra listened intently to the report from the detention area, before looking up at Koloth. "Shall she be killed sir?" The Dark Jedi looked back at him. In a voice that sounded like a cold wind he replied; "No, I have an excellent use for prisoners, and besides, I am still interested in the possibilities of the cloaking technology, Tell the guards that I shall be down shortly." He turned and headed for the turbolift at the side of the bridge.



"Captain, Another vessel just appeared." Said the sensor officer.

"Description and range?" asked Picard.

"The vessel is over four kilometres in length, range, seventy thousand meters."

The deck shook. "They've locked a tractor beam onto us!" someone screamed. The screen began to fill with the gaping maw of the huge ship.

The ominous wedge shape of the persecutor closed in on the enterprise as a fisherman reels in his prey. On her bridge Admiral Rale was speaking into a comlink; "Colonel, set your weapons for stun, Lord Koloth has given orders that we are to take prisoners." The unit crackled for a moment, before the staccato response "Yes sir!" filtered though.

In the docking bay lines of stormtroopers stood at attention, awaiting the arrival of the target vessel. The massive dura-armour doors at the bottom of the bay began to retract. At an unheard command from the officer the stormtroopers began to file into assault shuttles and converted TIE bombers.



Kira Nerys checked the weapon again. She had been stuck at the far end of the cells for what seemed like an eternity. She heard the sound of boots on the metal grating. She took cover behind one of the doorways.

A tall dark haired man turned the corner. He was wearing a leather jacket underneath a heavy black cloak. She squeezed the trigger of the pistol. Blue rings flew through the air towards him. They hit his outstretched hand. Nothing happened.

Koloth chuckled to himself. Reaching out though the force he pulled the pistol from her hand and caught it in his outstretched palm. He pulled her arms above her head and held her mid-air with the force. Turning the pistol he pointed it at her chest. "There is no escape." He said, pulling the trigger.



"I need warp power now mister la forge!" screamed Picard.

"It's no use, their tractor beam is causing a phase variance in the nacelles, if we try to go to warp they'll explode captain. I'm gonna have to shut down the core before feedback gets it." Came the response. The ship shook. A console exploded at the back of the bridge, burning the sensor officer.

On the screen ahead was the menacing sight of the massive docking bay of the persecutor. "Mister Data, can you locate the source of the tractor beam?" The android turned to look at the captain. "I believe so captain, however it is within the vessel's shields."

"Prepare to fire quantum torpedoes." Said Riker.

Admiral Rale watched the struggling ship dispassionately. The enhanced image showing the ship moving inexorably closer to its doom. "Fire ion cannons" he ordered. Red beams shot from the barrels of the weapons. They danced across the ship, overloading every system onboard.

Oblivious to the hastening disability of the enterprise, Picard leaned forwards in the captain's seat. "Fire!" he ordered. The red lightning-like wave crawled across the ship, ready to engulf the torpedo launcher. A blue torpedo exited the barrel in the moment before the device was disabled.

It shot into the persecutor's docking bay, whose shields were now lowered. It impacted few metres from the tractor beam. Everything exposed in the docking bay was incinerated in a moment. Behind their force field the stormtroopers had time to turn for a moment before the field collapsed. They were jerked from their feet and flung into the void.

The Admiral turned pale. In his mind came, unbidden, an image of Kane Koloth using his arcane powers to kill him as punishment, as Darth Vader was rumoured to do. His was the first ship to experience serious damage in this campaign. "Damage Report" he shouted.

"Primary docking and tractor beams are out. Atmosphere loss now contained, our fighter complement are gone, we're still getting damage reports sir." Came the quick response.

He turned to the lieutenant who operated the hyper-drive. "Is it possible to tractor a ship of that type through hyperspace?" The young man looked at him quizzically.
"Yes Sir, Hyper-drives adjust faster-than-light "hypermatter" particles to allow a jump to light-speed without changing the complex mass and energy of the ship. If we get them in close enough we can pull them with us." He said, part of it seemed memorised.
"How close?"
"Approximately ten meters will be enough to allow the affixation to procreate onto their vessel sir."

The Persecutor moved closer to the stricken enemy, Using its remaining tractor beams to embrace the other craft. Turning on the spot it manoeuvred its prow to aim at the centre of the galaxy. Pulling the disabled federation starship closer, it began to fire it's faster than light drive. With a flicker of pseudomotion the titanic vessel and it's captive were gone. A moment later, with another flicker the smaller Delphus vanished.


On the bridge of the enterprise, picard watched as the officers attempted to bring some systems back online. Most of the integrated circuits had been damaged beyond repair, however some chips survived intact. Commander Worf had proposed that they attempt to get the weapons operational, but Riker had more vision, and insisted they attempt to use the replicator in the captain's ready room.

They had successfully replicated three hand phasers, and were attempting to make a functioning phaser rifle. Meanwhile, Data, who was miraculously undamaged, had begun work using freshly replicated parts on repairing the sensors and veiwscreen. He replaced one missing board, and the screen came to life.

The display cycled through a test phase, starfleet-xp briefly flashing though the cycle. Picard turned to the screen. He had expected to see the huge shape of the other ship still there, but there was one very striking problem. "The stars" he said. His jaw dropped, he stood facing the screen with the demeanour of a lobotomised puppy.

"Data, are the sensors functioning?" asked Riker.

"In a moment Commander."

Data replaced another board and several panels on the bridge lit up. The android stood up and tapped the keys of the panels in a rapid sequence. "The Quantum Phase variance of the ship indicates that we have been transferred to a subspace domain of some description, our velocity appears to be grater than warp factor nine point nine recurring to the four hundredth decimal sir."



A scant few hours later, at the gateway system the Persecutor dropped out of hyperspace. The huge vessel adjusted itself to slowly coast into a stable orbit of the planet below. Now the enterprise was truly dwarfed by the massive form of the Imperial Wrath, heading directly towards the sovereign class starship.

Cpt_Frank wrote:But it's really nice.
Anyways, a question: Shockwave class cruisers? Have a pic or a link?

LENGTH:
over 1.6km; less than 8km
MANUFACTURER:
Kuat Drive Yards (?)
SIGHTING:
Deep Core, year +8 after Palpatine's fall.
Shockwave was the flagship of a post-Palpatine strongman who called himself Supreme Warlord Harrsk. The ship was described as being significantly larger than an Imperator-class star destroyer and mounting more high-energy weaponry. In a single volley it was capable of knocking a Victory-class destroyer out of battle.

Unfortunately, physical descriptions of Shockwave are scant, so it is not yet possible to identify its design class. It could be similar to Allegiance, or one of the anonymous warship classes seen in Dark Empire or the Marvel comics. It could be a just as easily belong to aclass which has not yet been seen in illustrated literature.