Imperial Phoenix Gold

[MKSheppard]

Fixed a major major oversight that Carl Pellegrini pointed out to me....

Imperial Phoenix Gold - Chapter 5 version 2

ISS Revenger, Flag Plot, Deck 21

Every officer of significance was clustered in the auditorium, along with
several of the civilian leaders who had elected to join Sheppard and
follow him into Wild Space six months ago.

In the podium at the center of the auditorium, Commander Kazuki Shimazaki,
who wore the gold stripes of the Imperial Naval General Staff on his trousers,
was briefing everyone on the importance of the depot.

"Greetings, everyone. I am here to explain to you the implications
of our recent discoveries in what is being called the Fendar II Depot.
What we've found in the depot simply staggers the imagination.
Two full wings of TIE Defenders and a missile boat wing, to
begin with."

"Excuse me," broke in Sheppard. "But I thought the majority of missile boats
built had been destroyed in putting down Admiral Zaarin. So what the kriff is
a full wing of them doing here?"

"They were. Obviously the Emperor was farsighted enough to plan ahead. From
what general files I have managed to recover from the depot's computers, this was
one of several dozen other depots built all over the Galaxy during the later years
of his reign, to provide pre-positioned equipment for his praetorian guard. "

This time, it was Glasgow who interrupted. "Do you have the locations of the
other depots?"

"Unfortunately, no. Palpatine was very paranoid. It appears after the Zaarin fiasco,
he began thinking seriously about how to crush any future rebellion against his rule
by his own officers, and also about ensuing that the advanced technologies of the
TIE Defender and Missile Boat remained firmly under his control."

Shimazaki paused, and took a sip of water before continuing.

"The solution he came up with, as far as what I've been able to piece together, was
to have these depots filled with the best technology, whether it be ground vehicles,
starfighters, or manufacturing equipment, to allow a entirely-self contained strike force
to appear out of nowhere, crush the uprising, and then disappear back into the darkness.

The only requirements for the strike force would have been to have fast couriers to
transport the personnel to the depot; from there on, they would use the depot's equipment
to crush the uprising quietly, with no additional support needed from the Navy or Army."

A pause.

"This also means we have come into control of enough ground vehicles to equip two
complete mobile corps, as well as the transports to move it."

The auditorium erupted into a sea of voices, everyone arguing what this meant
to their plans, until Debi Caroc, one of the civilians who had chosen to join their group,
walked up to the podium and cleared her voice.

Slowly, the roar of conversations in the auditorium died down to a low murmur.

"Thank you all for paying attention. I have information that you need to know; which
is as important as Commander Shimazaki's. In room 18B of the depot, we found
several piles of unidentified wreckage."

A holo image of the wreckage began to float in the center of the auditorium,
many times larger than life-size, and everyone could see the strange markings
on it, a arrowhead, and markings reading out USS Ranger, NCC 12341.

"I searched our computers for any kind of markings which matched these,
and came up with blanks. The material that this wreckage is made out of is also
very primitive from what the engineers tell me. And in my professional interpetation
as an anthropologist, this clearly was not made by any interstellar culture at all
in this galaxy."

Caroc paused to let this sink in, and to let her audience ask questions.

"So where did it come from, then?" asked Sheppard.

"We've found that a large portion of the data in the depot's computer system is
encrypted behind security level black," replied Debi.

A hushed pause gathered around the auditorium. Black was the second-highest
classification level in the entire Imperial military. Only one level was even higher,
open only to the Emperor himself. Since his death, that level had fallen into
disuse.

Sighing, Sheppard asked the inevitable question.

"How long?"

"Admiral, I have my best men working around the clock on this, and they tell
me that we won't have it cracked for a few more days. Just too many permutations
to run through, and we can only go so fast before we trip the self-erase routines,"
replied Lt. Commander Phong Nguyen, the Revenger's Electronics Division's
head.

Sheppard nodded. "Keep at it."

At that moment, the General Quarters alarm began to wail, before it was abruptly cut
off. Moments later, the OOW's voice came on the 1MC.

"Talen here. The Vengeance has just arrived, along with her escorts."

"Excellent. The others can't be far behind."

Outer Edges of the Fendar System

The mighty Imperator-class Star Destroyer, a gleaming city teeming with life in the
eternal void of space smoothly accelerated away from her hyperjump point, escorted
by the smaller shapes of her escorts, three CR90 Corvettes.

Bridge, ISS Vengeance

The tall figure stood at the bridge windows, staring at the blackness of space. Nobody
wanted to approach the captain when he was meditating.The last time anyone had gone
near him when he was in this mood, the unfortunate soul had gotten broken down all
the way to buck spaceman.

It was with good reason everyone tiptoed around Michael January. There were rumors
that he'd been mentally unstable since the day his wife and children had been killed by
a Rebel attack on a research center that they had had the bad luck to be walking next
to when the bomb went off.

So what everyone did when they needed to tell the captain something that wasn't
critically important was to simply stand at attention until he finished meditating. Which
was what Lieutenant Rye was doing right now.

Finally, January finished meditating, and turned around, the dim red glow from his
artificial eye playing across the young lieutenant's face.

"Yes?"

"Captain, we're on course to rendevous with the Revenger. At our present speed,
we'll be there in ten minutes."

Bridge, Corellian Corvette ISS Dagger

The fly buzzed through the fetid air on the bridge of the corvette, until someone killed it
with a flyswatter. The air fresheners had long ago given up the ghost, along with the
anti-vermin systems. The crew of the Dagger simply cursed and went about their
business like they always did.

Lieutenant Arnad Katol, the captain of this besotted little ship, raised a cup containing
an unidentifiable greenish liquid and swallowed half of the cup's content in a single gulp,
so he wouldn't have to taste it any longer than possible. The crew was now down to the
emergency rations, and if they didn't get any fresh food soon, there'd be a mutiny, he
was sure of that.

"Time to rendevous?" asked Katol.

"Ten minutes, sir. And the word is, there'll be replenishments waiting for us there."

At this, a low cheer ran around the bridge, before Katol cut it off with a glare at his crew.

"Good. I can't stand this damnable green juice any longer."

USS Bellerophon, NCC-87224, Sol System, January 27th 2374

Rear Admiral Timothy E. Jones stalked through the corridors of his flagship, his anger building.
How dare that captain of all people, do this to him? Didn't he know that there was a fleet-wide
review coming up?

He finally came to the quarters he wanted, and entered them without any formalities.

"Captain Alyeska! What's the meaning of this?"

Captain John Alyeska looked up from the PADD he was working on at the Admiral.

"Meaning of what, sir?"

"Why is the sensor department manned with only one officer? Regulations state that
it must be manned with five people at all times!"

Alyeska sighed. Not more bullshit from Jones.

"Sir, with all due respect sir, we're in spacedock now, and there's no need for an full sensor
watch, all we need is someone to keep an eye on the system to keep it from breaking down
while in dock. Secondly, regulation states that sensor watch bills should have four people,
not five."

"I don't care! Get those people back on their job!"

"But sir, they've already been granted leave shoreside."

"Are you deaf, Captain. I said I want them back!!"

"Yessir. I'll recall them immediately."

This brought a smile to Jones' face, and he exited the quarters as abruptly as he had entered it.

Back in his quarters, Alyeska waited until the doors had closed completely, before replying to
the Admiral's back.

"Fucking incompetent prick."

Arnatis IV, somewhere in the former Demilitarized Zone between the UFP and Cardassians, January 28th 2374

Once again, Nathan was sitting in the bar, waiting for Wilson to show up. He was about to get up and
leave after several hours of staring into the smoky interior of the bar, when he felt a hand on his back.

"I did the job for you."

Turning around, he saw Wilson standing in the shadows, a disruptor pistol trained square at his
chest.

"And a damn good job it was. Valdemar wanted me to send his compliments on your...creative
method of dealing with the problem."

Wilson's face remained unchanged.

"Tell Valdemar that we're even now." With that, Wilson lowered the pistol and backed away.

"Wait!" shouted Nathan, just before Wilson disappeared completely into the darkness.

"Why should I do any more work for you? I saw enough killing during the war."

Nathan licked his lips. Here was his big chance.

"Do you remember when the Federation used to fight piracy?"

"Depends."

"Do you remember when the Federation used to imprison pirates instead of looking the
other way in exchange for kickbacks?"

"I have a vague recollection of that."

"Do you remember when the Federation used to protect it's people, rather than looking
the other way for fear of offending the other side?"

"I remember something along those lines, yes."

"Why should we lay down our lives for the Federation if they ignore our sacrifices once
we're no longer desperately needed?"

"Good question, son."

"I can't tell you any more than this, unfortunately, I'm not high enough in the loop to know
more. But I do know enough to ask you this; are you with us?"

Wilson thought it over for several moments. They were asking him to betray the oath he'd
sworn to uphold the Federation ten years ago at Starfleet Academy. On the other hand,
the boy had a lot of good points. The various peoples of the Federation had surrendered
their sovereignity to the Federation in exchange for protection. If the Federation was no
longer listening or giving them protection, were those people bound by their oaths as
Federation Citizens?

He remembered an incident several years ago, of a woman pleading with them not to
leave, when the Federation had transferred their colony in the DMZ to the Cardassians.
Back then, he'd thought their sacrifice was merely for the greater good of the Federation,
but now...he wasn't so sure.

Wilson took a deep breath, and then uttered the words which erased a decade of service
to the Federation and it's ideals.

"I reckon so."

Editors Note: Thanks much to the Mess for helping me develop Admiral Jones; they
are providing me with real life examples of incompetence to elevate Jones to the level
he so deserves as the original troll

[The Yosemite Bear]

Just so long as ol' G2k gets reamed badly....

puhaps raped to death and devoured by a diagino creature.

[darthdavid]

That's better. It seemed a little jarred when I read through version 1...

[Nathan F]

Looking nice, Shep. Keep it coming!