Terran Empire - Unity (Mirror Trek AU Fan Fic)

[HappyTarget]

[Cartman]Sweet![/Cartman]

[CaptainChewbacca]

I am likewise enthusiastic. My work will be preserved, and the story of the Battle of Bajor will live on forever!

[Crazedwraith]

*BUMP*
Anymore chapters in the work Happytarget? Or Has RL killed this fic?

[HappyTarget]

RL is severly stunting it's growth, let's put it that way. Finally able to settle into my new home, so I may finally find time to finish the next chapter (which currently sits at 2/3rds done).

(HT wanders off to finish the chapter...)

[Crazedwraith]

Quick Question HT: Are Aliens, who were orginally in the cannon Federation(eg Trill,Andorians), Slaves? or 2nd class citizens?

[HappyTarget]

New chapter is with Steve for edit as I type, so stay tuned. Sorry it took so long. Could have been out five days ago, but my net connection went on the fritz till today.

Quick Question HT: Are Aliens, who were orginally in the cannon Federation(eg Trill,Andorians), Slaves? or 2nd class citizens?

Minor power aliens, like the Trill, Andorians, Betazoids, ect., are most often Second class citizens (though in some instances they are fully accepted as Imperial citizens by most in the TE. Just some of the "Terrans First" mentality don't want to bend their beliefs very much). It's only the major players (Klingon, Romulan, ect.) that are turned into complete slave species most of the time. This is because the Terrans rightly see the powerful aliens as a greater (if not the greatest) threat to the TE's continued existance (as the TE's entire foreign policy is more than a little xenophobic/get them before they can get us sort of thing) and thus want to bring those species down as far as they can so they no longer pose a threat. What better way to do so than to make them slaves. A strong and populous second class citizen species in the TE might get to many dreams of regianing what they lost. Hence why generally only the small fry get that offered to them.

Basically, most of the canon Trek races are there under the TE government, just that they are near totally dominated by TE (read as Terran/Vulcan) culture and must conform to it or be virtually cut out from near everything.

A good example of minor races from canon Trek and their place in the TEverse is in the next chapter actually.

[Akira]

next chapter


Chapter 44 – For the Honor of the Uniform

ISS Athena, Flag Ready Room, Klach D’Kel Brakt system

Fleet Admiral T’var, commanding officer of Second Fleet, sat behind her desk sifting through a pile of PADDs while also sometimes scrolling through extra information on her personal terminal. Unfortunately, the situation aboard the captured GU ships was as logic dictated it would be. All computer cores had been thoroughly wiped and overwritten, and pertinent tech items like the GU’s internal damper and PPDs had been thoroughly slagged. She had considered adding a prohibition on acts of sabotage to her list of terms, but she knew that they wouldn’t be followed. The GU was to well aware of its tech and information edge, and would be perfectly willing to make a hash of their databanks and useful pieces of technology even if they agreed not to. So rather than make unfulfillable demands that would be broken and cause her to kill POWs, she hadn’t made the demands in the first place. She had more than enough blood on her hands and conscience as it was, she had no desire to add what would amount to murder to the mix.

Suddenly, her telepathic sense picked up the distinct flavor or her Section watchdog’s mental defenses. He was just outside her ready room and… the door slipped aside without even the simple courtesy of waiting for her acknowledgement. Commissar Augustus was at his heart a petty bully, eager to push his weight around against those whom he could get away with it. From T’var’s limited experience, most of those assigned to be Section’s watchdogs over Starfleet were of similar mindset. They reveled in tormenting and instilling fear in those who dared not fight back.

Trailing behind the Commissar was her flagships CO. Captain Detrich Filser had succeeded Ulysses as commander of the Athena, and T’var wasn’t all that satisfied with the trade. Detrich was a hard man, as were most Ekosians. Ekos had been a peaceful world that had been corrupted by a Section 31 Pre-contact Civilization Preparation Team headed by the infamous Section agent John Gill. Agent Gill was a vocal advocate of ideals virtually identical to those of Terra’s Third Reich, and it showed in most of the worlds his team was responsible for preparing for Terran rule. By the time the selected worlds were introduced to Imperial Starfleet and the Terran Empire’s envoys, they were firmly under the control of individuals the Nazi’s would have called brother with open, welcoming arms. Coincidentally, they welcomed the TE with open arms themselves, hailing them as brothers and accepting their role in TE society easily.

Detrich came about as close to the Nazi’s Slavic ideal as a being born hundreds of years after the fall of the Third Reich and of a totally different planet could. The way he looked in an Imperial uniform was downright scary, for he filled the uniform’s blackness with a determined sense of dark foreboding. In order to advance to his present position in the Terran dominated Imperial Starfleet, he had to be an exceptional individual. And he was, T’var couldn’t find any reason to complain about his competency even if his methods left much to be desired. He was a cold, calculating individual, and a downright fanatic concerning the TE’s new emperor. Considering the suspicions T’var knew Section had about her, she wasn’t all that surprised she had been saddled with such a true believer like Detrich for her new Flag Captain. He was another uncorruptable set of ears and eyes she would have to keep alert for, lest he find some scrap of information that Section could take action on.

“Admiral, what do you intend to do with the Klingon vessels?” T’var’s keeper said, intruding into her silent perusal of the after action reports.

“Do Commissar?” T’var said, turning her chair towards Julius Augustus. “Considering that the latest orders from Emperor Jack Chambers in relation to the GA powers dictated a cease fire existed between us, I see no reason to do anything with the Klingon vessels.” Julius’ eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but T’var continued. “Until such time as either the GA breaks the cease fire or the Emperor gives orders different than those he has recently issued, I will abide by the terms laid out in the agreement.”

“Admiral, we posses the power to crush the Klingons or at least demand their immediate and unconditional surrender. While their ships are admittedly few and light, there is at least a squadron of top of the line cruisers out there.” He said, gesturing to the holodisplay where the crimson banded amber icons of the surviving Klingon ships hovered with neutered menace. “The loss of those vessels would be a potent blow against the Klingon scum that dared rise up against their rightful masters!”

T’var held back the reply to such a comment cold logic dictated needed to be said. The loss of a mere five ships, even ones as potent as the KDF’s Vampire’s, would be a mere pinprick when their total number of hulls was in the hundreds of thousands. Julius continued. “We can destroy every ship and installation the Klingons have here, then glass their colony! We could arrange it to appear that the Galactic Unity was the culprit. And there would be no witnesses left to say different and just that many fewer… vermin… infesting our galaxy!”

There was a certain intensity in his voice, almost a sub-vocal snarl, as he spoke of intelligent beings who had the poor fortune to be born non-Terran in a Terran dominated galaxy. This wasn’t his act anymore, no longer the persona of carefully constructed feigned ignorance and simple mindedness. No, this was his true self showing through, the passion was too raw, the flame in his eyes to evident for it to be anything else. T’var picked her words carefully, wanting to diffuse the situation as quickly and as safely as possible.

“Commissar, until I receive orders to the contrary from the Emperor, or the Klingons attack Second Fleet, I will NOT break the cease fire agreement.” T’var stressed the word not with emotion but with emphasis. That decision is the Emperors to make, not yours or mine. To do as you suggest is both illogical and treasonous.” Like a fleeting shadow, naked hatred flashed on Julius’ face as his mask slipped when confronted with T’var’s defiance. He was definitely a bully, hating those that didn’t bow immediately to his commands. And apparently a bully blinded by his petty prejudices, for T’var’s dropping of treason into the conversation caused his hate to evaporate into fear almost as fast as it showed its vile head in the first place.

Captain Filser inserted himself into the conversation. “I believe the point Commissar Augustus is trying to make is that we can bend the rules the Emperor laid out for us if we are thorough enough. I am sure the Emperor will be pleased if we remove the Klingon scourge from the Davion system, cease fire treaty or not. However, I do feel that it is best to do as you say and err on the side of caution rather than attempt to guess how the Emperor is likely to react.” It still amazed T’var, even after being forced to work closely with him for months, that he could be so smooth in diffusing potentially dangerous situations. She could almost be grateful for that, save for the fact that it was hard to be grateful for the deadly snake in the grass that is just waiting for a chance to strike at you yet kept the rodent population under control in the mean time. T’var decided not to press the point any further, for there was nothing to be gained pressing her Commissar further on this point.

“Finish securing our prisoners and complete the engineering evaluation on the GU vessels, then recall our away teams and prepare to depart. We will destroy all GU vessels as we withdraw from the system.” Her tone of voice indicated that this uninvited meeting was finished as far as she was concerned.

As alien as the vessels were, part of her wished she could send them back to TE held space under prize crews. But the cost of refitting them to Imperial spec was prohibitive. About the only thing that would be left of their original workings at the end would be the shell of the ship, her outer hull and internal divisions with virtually everything else ripped out and replaced with Imperial systems to simplify resupply and repair. Considering that the basic hull structures were among both the cheapest and easiest piece of a modern starship to manufacture, this generally limited the true utility of captured enemy units in modern warfare. The GA powers got around this significant hurdle in using alien hardware by starting out using stock Imperial specs for all components in their hidden fleets to begin with. What better way to use your enemy’s ships when they used the same parts as your own did for virtually everything? The downside was that enemy raiding parties could use captured ships and supply convoys easily for his own forces as easily as your own could, but T’var could easily see why the Grand Alliance powers had done what they did when they set about building up their secret fleets.

“As you command Admiral.” Captain Filser replied in an even tone. Saluting with snap and panache that would have eased even the DI’s at Starfleet Academy’s first form middie training’s dour stares, he turned on the heel of his mirror like polished obsidian leather boots, saluted Commissar Augustus, then strode out her.

Augustus was back to his slightly vacant looking self, although T’var’s learned and experienced eye could still detect the faint traces of hate and genuine fear lurking behind his practiced mask. She could also just make out his discomfort with both emotions. The former because it was rendered impotent, the latter because like any bully, he detested being fearful of anything. Without even the courtesy of a nod goodbye, he spun on his heel and strode out of her office.

A less logical and more emotional being would have erupted into gleeful laughter at the sight. But T’var refused to give into her emotions, keeping them on a very short leash deep inside a prison of steely control. Instead, she merely raised a lone eyebrow very high as the door to her ready room swooshed shut, then went back to her small lake of electronic paperwork.

IKV Bortas, Klach D’Kel Brakt system

Luza had watched the ease with which the Terran’s elite Second Fleet units had cut down the foolish Galactic Unity vessels that refused to accede to their demands. The incomprehensible energies released in that brief moment of terrible, rending fury had virtually atomized the offending units, turing them into expanding clouds of energetic plasma that sleeted against the shields of their more fortunate comrades.

But the huntress in Luza couldn’t help but admire the precision of the kills, even if it was Terrans executing it. No shot went wide. No shot blew through its indented target and accidentally hit another combatant. It was the stopping power of a bat’leth combined with the finesse of a d’k tahg, and even if it was an enemy wielding it, Luza’s warrior spirit rallied in awe at the assault.

All communication attempts with Second Fleet had been rebuffed with terse commands to remain in place with engines, weapons and defensive systems offline. Not wanting to die for no return, Luza and the other members of the Imperial Klingon Defense Force could do nothing more than do just that and pray that the spirits of their ancestors in Sto-Vo-Kor held the Terrans to their end of the cease fire agreement.

And wonder of wonders, the Terrans actually HAD kept up their end of the cease fire. While standard observational sensors were constantly trained on Luza and her fellow Klingons, the distinctive spikes of fire control sensor hits remained in abeyance. Bortas’ sensors showed her the motes that swarmed out of the Terran lines, thousands of small craft of all shapes and sizes that descended upon the GU vessels. Most were Viper assault shuttles with Cobra’s riding shotgun, but there were also the blocky, bulky shapes of Forager cargo shuttles sent along to bring choice bits of Galactic Unity machinery back to Second Fleet.

GU crews, after having been picked over for select personnel, were transported down to the surface of Klach D’Kel Brakt B-4. The small Class L world, orbiting the distant Class O and F pair of Klach D’Kel Brakt’s quartet of stars, was only marginally habitable. But with a low powered food replicator provided from the ISS Athena’s prodigious stores it would suffice for the few thousand GU survivors not chosen for TE internment until the Klingon High Command decided what to do with them.

Then all the small craft returned to their motherships and Luza was treated to another massive wave of destruction. Terran slicers and xenolinguists had breached the GU vessels security measures and induced them to self destruct. Systematically, boils of bright light marked the funeral pyres of once proud warships as their scuttling systems activated, helping along the AM charges Terran engineers had added to ensure complete destruction.

“Athena Battlegroup is closing, now entering visual range.”

“Show me.” Luza replied to her gunnery officer. The main viewer shifted to show the approaching Terran ships. Out of the maelstrom of released energy, the Athena and a lone wing of Wraiths. Next to the Bastion, the mighty Terran SD’s looking like Glob Flies buzzing around a Targ. They flew ever closer to Luza’s command, looming large, covering the stars themselves.

When they got within a virtually unheard of kilometer of each other, the Athena and her consorts angled parallel to the Bortas and his brother ships. The Terran vessels’ running lights flashed twice in salute, then the Athena and the rest of Second Fleet simultaneously stretched and went translucent as they entered the blue vortexes of slipstream before disappearing altogether.

Luza let out a breath. Much as she might have detested the cease fire agreement between the Grand Alliance and the Terran Empire, she understood why it was brokered and agreed upon. All powers in the Alpha and Beta quadrants were in a fight for their very survival with an opponent more powerful than all of them together. To have any chance at all of surviving, they had to take every edge they could get. If that meant setting aside collecting of debts until after the threat to all was eliminated, so be it. She knew well the old Terran saying ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. While she wouldn’t go that far when it came to the Terrans, and she doubted she ever would, it did exemplify the current arrangement far more eloquently than most other descriptions. For today at least, the tenuous ceasefire between the powers of the Grand Alliance and the Terran Empire had held and as a result, Luza and her fellow Klingons had survived to fight another day. That was what truly mattered after all.

[JodoForce]

First post!

[Crazedwraith]

Decent chapter..when are we getting back to Uly? We have heard from him for ages.

[HappyTarget]

Next chapter is all Uly.

[Akira]

next part from Happy.



Chapter 45 – Battle on the Banks of the Lethe

Flag Bridge, ISS Nebuchadnezzar, Lethe Star System, Delta Quadrant

Ulysses Vanguard, brevet Vice Admiral in Imperial Starfleet, defacto commanding officer of Sector 2000 and its attached fleet units, rested his head on steepled fingers as he studied the strategic holodisplay before him. His hazel eyes were narrowed in concentration and thought, the skin pulled taunt around the remnants of his ocular implant because of a faint scowl as he watched the enemy maneuver deeper in-system.

The Neb was one of the fortunate few of Prescott’s Star’s defenders that had gotten through the last battle relatively unscathed. Once her basically superficial damage and slipstream nacelles had been repaired, Ulysses had claimed her for his temporary flagship while the Valley Forge completed her considerably more extensive repairs under P’tel and Clay’s watchful eyes. While he would have liked to have waited for further ships to be repaired before he began taking back neighboring star systems, he couldn’t afford to play things safe. The local Galactic Unity forces were weak for the moment, having concentrated virtually all their units for the near final push against Prescott’s Star. Uly he didn’t want to give them a chance to reinforce and make his job harder than it already was.

So he had taken a squadron of Wraith (U)s out, backed up by a Sovereign Battlegroup and a Battlecruiser Taskforce, to either scare away or blow to hell any GU pickets holding down the Imperial colonies in the sector. So far, Task Force 2000.3 had freed and repicketted 27 systems and from the looks of things was about to add 28 to the list.

The Flag Bridge was abuzz with normal pre-combat activity, with orders, status reports and the other plethora of minutiae details involved in getting a large concentration of warships ready for battle. But Ulysses tuned most of it out, instead concentrating on the angry red light beads of his opponent. Like him, they were heavy in Destroyers and Light Cruisers. Unlike him, the heaviest unit they had was a Battleship, and then only a heavy division’s worth. Any sensible opponent would have cut their losses and begun a retreat from the system by now when faced with the overwhelming superiority in weight of metal bearing down on them, and the GU were certainly not fools. And that was the cause of Ulysses scowl, for the enemy had NOT withdrawn from the battlefield. Quite the opposite in fact, the GU Task Force appeared to be falling into strike formation about six hundred thousand kilometers from Lethe’s massive Class S Gas Ultragiant, Nephthys.

Nephthys had not quite reached the levels of self sustaining reaction necessary to become a full fledged second sun in the Lethe system, but it was close enough to be throwing out fairly substantial radiation and was even briefly luminous in places. The Gas Ultragiant’s massive size had dragged in quite a few moons, with many being planets in their own right and more than a handful whipping around in rather exotic orbits. With such effective cover near by, there were ample places to hide a starship, even a whole fleet.

Ulysses, frowned as he stared into the holodisplay with his lone working eye. Something was nagging at him, nibbling at the back of his brain. He didn’t like the setup to this battle at all. While it could be just a ruse designed to scare him off from attacking, the force before him was to powerful to leave running around in his rear areas, especially considering he had only been able to spare Destroyers and Cruisers for picket duty in his recaptured systems “Order the scouting elements to concentrate on the nearside of Nephthys especially. I want detailed sweeps as deep as we can get them before I commit to battle. This entire setup smells of a trap and I’d really rather not walk right into it and make the enemy’s job overly easy.” His forces could handily keep the GU in range thanks to their slipstream capability, so he wasn’t too worried about their STL speed advantage. But they were definitely up to something, and he didn’t want to pop in unless he could at least make a solid guess as to just what that was.

By now familiar sounding “ayes” answered his even toned order. If he couldn’t have his home along with him (strange as it seemed for a child of the stars who was a follower of Spock to call an Imperial Warship home), at least he had been able to take his staff along when he had transferred his flag to the Neb. Unfortunately it also meant his watcher had come along as well. At least Commissar Stevens couldn’t possibly have anything to complain about so far. It had been an easy thing to pounce on the light GU system pickets providing orbital fire support for GU ground troops. With mostly only light handfuls of combatants present, it had been easy to use not only Ulysses superior firepower but superior numbers to clear every system visited so far.

On the holodisplay, the Imperial scouting units that had by now broadly enveloped the GU Task Force spat a volley of recon drones. His sensor systems couldn’t pick up their covert launch, all indications of their activation and course were based off of their pre-programmed course only. His sensors should only pick them up if something went wrong with their stealth systems. Most were set to curve around the enemy to stay clear of his PD, tracking instead for the massive swirling ball of gas and energy at the enemies’ backs. A handful cut straight for the heart of the GU formation, attempting to gain firmer data on their numbers and dispositions than the long ranged scans of the scouts could get.

Every now and then, a brief contact blossomed near his units. They were enemy recon drones scouting his own formation, nailed by escorting Achilles or other ships either quicker off the draw or closer to the drones to begin with. The enemy likely had fairly firm readings on him by now thanks to their damnably effective stealthing systems, and with his self evident superiority it wouldn’t really matter all that much when the battle came. But Ulysses didn’t want to give any possible edge to the enemy if he could help it, hence the enemy drones continued to be vaped as soon as they were spotted.

The recon drones pierced Nephthys’ turbulent, energized atmosphere, spreading out into a standard search grid pattern. It was tighter than was optimal due to the intense sensor disrupting disturbances present, but there were enough individual probes to provide adequate scan coverage in spite of the planets distortion.

Deeper and deeper Ulysses’ probes went, seeking the enemy with their extensive sensors suites as the pressure on their shields grew with every extra meter from the surface. Like they were caught in a giant three dimensional vice, the drone’s shields weakened at an ever increasing rate. One, likely succumbing to a design flaw, lost its shields. In virtually the same instant, it crumpled like a deflating balloon as the massive pressure unleashed itself against the drone’s weak hull. The other reconnaissance platforms smoothly shifted their formation to cover the resulting gap, but an already small net got even smaller as a result. And then, as the recon probes were nearing the deepest into the atmosphere they were rated for, an angry rash of scarlet enemy icons flared on the holodisplay.

“There you are, you sneaky little buggers.” Ulysses said softly. The frown mostly left his face and he peered intently over his steepled fingers, trying to glean anything from the red hued flecks that represented the enemy. “Designate new enemy units Force Beta.” Ulysses ordered.

It wasn’t the individual set of icons that a more thoroughly scouted formation would be. It was more of a shifting, misshapen blob of crimson as the probes could only give very general information on their targets. Every once and a while a target would firm up enough to give a rough mass reading. By CIC’s best guess, there was at least another division of GU SD’s down there. The recon drones systems couldn’t provide more fine detail with passives only, their synthetic eyes were too distorted by the interference to hope to gain hard numbers on them, let alone firm readings on what class they were, and at any rate, Ulysses didn’t want to tip his hand that he knew about the ambush,.

Fortunately enough, the GU commander had made a mistake in setting up his little trap. It relied to much on Ulysses not spotting it before hand to ensure its success. If Ulysses approached the main enemy force through Nephthys’ turbulent upper atmosphere, he could peg the hidden one as he passed, allowing him to defeat the divided enemy forces in detail rather than being caught in a murderous crossfire. The plan also had the benefit of greatly increasing his force’s effective ECM while engaging Force Alpha, at least until he broke free of the atmosphere or they came into it after him.

“Orders for the Task Force, come to heading 042 mark 355 and prepare for slipstream micro-jump to the following coordinates.” Ulysses listed the desired alphanumeric sequence. “Then come about to heading 181 mark 190 and go to full impulse. I want saturation fire on Force Beta’s location as we pass, but keep your drives at full impulse. If we start to lallygag, they’ll be crawling up our buts by the time we reach Force Alpha thanks to their superior top speeds.” As Ulysses spoke, his steepled fingers slipped apart to order the holodisplay into tactical mode. The strategic representation grew, wrapping around his chair, making the Flag Bridge disappear behind a veil of stars. In front of him was the white and gold titan of Nephthys, seven of its moons clearly visible. Lethe cast a slightly blue light on the surroundings, the massive disc of the giant star a thumb sized orb at his back. The point of view shifted as his ships came to their new heading smoothly. Icons shifted as the enemy’s sensor returns hardened or faded. The world he had come to liberate was a distant flicker, distinguishable from the stellar backdrop only by the orange edged green ID bracket around it. “Engage micro-jump in three… two… one… execute.”

Having found the trap, Ulysses still felt uneasy though he couldn’t explain why. Unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion, he put his feelings aside and concentrated on the coming battle. The slipstream cores powered up, their bottled fury transmitting through the ships alloy bones as a rumbling hum. For a brief instant, a swirling blue void flashed on the viewscreen. Then it went back to the normal backdrop of star flecked ebon vastness.

While the Nebuchadnezzar Squadron wasn’t quite up to the snap the Valley Forge’s had been when it came to maneuvers, they were getting close. Ulysses could find no fault as the entire Taskforce flipped end for end while simultaneously swerving onto the preassigned heading change. Smaller ships pulled tight half loops, but thanks to their Borg inspired STL drive, the TF’s Wraiths were easily as quick as even the smallest Nova class escort and merely began accelerating down their desired heading as they gracefully swept their prows around. The course change completed, all ships executed simultaneous barrel rolls so that they were correctly oriented with System North, the arbitrarily assigned ‘up’ from Lethe’s planetary orbits. The final maneuver, while not necessary, simplified formation maneuvers by having everyone on the ‘same page’ and made minor mistakes in helm control much easier to correct should they crop up. This was especially true once the ships started their own evasion routines inside the formation, but with everyone oriented the same way, it made it a simple thing to keep your place.

Ulysses assembled ships plunged into the charged atmosphere of Nephthys, their high speed passage turning the already chaotic maelstrom into incandescent fury as atoms smashed themselves against the carefully reconfigured shields. Leaving kilometer long tails of flame in their wake as they punched deeper into Nephthys, Ulysses Wraiths swung about so they were flying sideways. Reaching out with their powerful tractor beams, the Neb and her sisters caught a Sovereign each. Once they felt the tug of the tractors, the Sovies cut their impulse drives and swung onto the same axial bearing as the Wraiths. From the otherwise sleek Imperial Battleships and Superdreadnoughts, unsightly tubular growths detached with a series of commands from their motherships. Basically retooled Type-X orbital weapons platforms, the new parasite weapons platforms as Clay Heidberg had coined them were designed to latch directly onto their motherships outer hull matrix via molecular bonding. With a seamless bond thanks to the molecule sized velcro like effect of the molecular bonding process, the PWPs rode into battle with their motherships to greatly enhance a forces offensive firepower.

But that massive boost to firepower came at a cost. When attached, the PWPs covered shield grid sections. This weakened a ships shield levels for every extra pod that was attached. Also, if they remained attached during battle, any hit that destroyed them would cause massive damage to the mothership thanks to the PWPs individual M/AM power plants and capacitor systems blowing up in contact with the mothership’s hull. Finally, for every extra PWP present on a starship, her top speed at FTL and impulse dropped by a noticeable amount. This was thanks to the fact that Type-X PWPs had to be near cruiser class in size to house the massive Phaser Lance system and its required potent power plant. Pushing that much extra weight around at high speed could get very dangerous for a ships structural integrity, even in vessels as tough as the Terran Empire’s Superdreadnoughts.

For all the drawbacks carrying PWPs, especially the massive Type-Xs, their increase in offensive firepower made it all worth it. Ulysses was able to double his heavy long range punch with them, and he used that edge mercilessly as his ships opened fire on Force Beta. The PWPs slipped outward, held steadily by their motherships tractors as Nephthys’ atmosphere turned to plasma around their cocooning shields.

The golden orange spears of 50 Imperial Phaser Lances stabbed outward, boiling away the tortured atmosphere in their path with contemptuous ease as they saturated Force Beta’s formation. Some, more likely most, of the terraton pillars of hellfire would miss any ships present deep in Nephthys’ atmosphere. But given Force Beta’s tight formation, and the number of Lances brought to bear, the first volley was bound to have a telling effect on the concealed ambush force. Nor was it left to the Lances alone, for all other weapons that could be brought to bear volleyed as well, seeding the gaps between the heavies with weaker but still substantial energies of destruction.

Enemy PPDs, plasma torpedoes and Phaser beams were flaring around Ulysses position by now, but it was even more ineffective than his own fire because his ships were maneuvering like dervishes rather than standing still. Must have hit them good, Ulysses thought, there’s only smattering of return fire coming from Force Beta. At least I’ve managed to slip inside the PPD envelope of whatever is left hiding down there and only have to worry about Force Alpha’s heavy hitters. With the PWPs and fore Lances recharging, Ulysses nodded in satisfaction as the Neb’s Captain, Erika Benteen, ordered the Wraiths to flip end for end even as they continued to fly sideways and hammered away at Force Beta’s position with every other weapons system. After flipping end for end, the Wraiths aft lances let loose. Fire from Force Beta’s position slackened noticeably, and the recon drones indicated that most of the targets had been hit, including internal explosions as weapons magazines and capacitors were hit. Debris and spikes of oxygen rich atmosphere were also detected, easily picked up as there were no competing sources of oxygen so deep into the gas giant.

[Agent R]

Ah, excellent!

First post.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Well written. I hadn't come in here in a while, and was just starting to think I should email you to see if you're alive.

That ceasefire sure did come in handy for all the AQ powers... I wonder what brilliant, insightful author came up with such a great idea.

Seriously, all good, but how vulnerable is Prescott's Star right now, and what does Emperor Frank think of this upstart Admiral in the DQ?

[Crazedwraith]

That ceasefire sure did come in handy for all the AQ powers... I wonder what brilliant, insightful author came up with such a great idea.

Ohh modest arn't you? (when you posting more shattered empires anyway?)

HT, very good so well written it seem much shorter than it was. But of an abrupt end though.

ANd in the very first sentence you uly narrowed his eyes

[HappyTarget]

Prescott's Star is still fairly heavily defended, but it's been really cut down in mission capable platforms. Most of the loci Battlestations and ship detachments are gone, and Ulysses Fleet has taken a serious pounding. A solid assault with a CO that knows what he's gonna face (as Ulysses just kept throwing new tech and insightful uses of old tech at them) could punch out what remains, but fortunately, the GU forces in the local area are rather thin on the ground (as most of them were drawn up for Chora's failed assault), which is why Ulysses is grabbing up as many planets as he can with only a squadron of Wraiths and a BG of Sovies with a LC/DD Flot as screen. They were basically all he could safely spare from Prescott's Star's defence as virtually every other heavy cap ship is being either repaired or is required to defend the system and it's shipyards.

Fortunately, the PWPs go a long way to evening the odds, at least in the inital stages of a lopsided engagement anyway. They are rather fragile beasties given they only have at best cruiser class defences (which compaired to SD or even BB levels is rather paltry).

Emperor Jack is both happy and irritated with Ulysses. He's happy that both militarily and propaganda wise Ulysses has given the GU a series of black eyes. He's irritated that Ulysses is STILL in the public eye so much even though he's out in the back of beyond. Prescott's Star is about the only place that's been able to hold out against a concentrated GU assult (primary other one being Sisco and Co. Rest assured that The Second Battle of Bajor, complete with the destruction of a GU Monitor but with no mention of the wormwhole, the 'canon' JemHadar's appearance and minimising the Cardies involvement is getting very big play in the TE news services.).

[HappyTarget]

But of an abrupt end though.

ANd in the very first sentence you uly narrowed his eyes

Yep, sorry bout the end, it's around a 5000 word fight, so I had to break it up Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions style for length reasons.

(bangs head against desk) That's what I get for editing it past 12 AM. Sorry.

[CaptainChewbacca]

That ceasefire sure did come in handy for all the AQ powers... I wonder what brilliant, insightful author came up with such a great idea.

Ohh modest arn't you? (when you posting more shattered empires anyway?)

HT, very good so well written it seem much shorter than it was. But of an abrupt end though.

ANd in the very first sentence you uly narrowed his eyes

On the advice of my publishing agent, I am not posting any more Scattered Earth. Sorry, but I don't want to get sued for breach of contract.


^HT, I can just imagine the news talk:

Citizens of the Empire cheered today when Vice Admiral Sisko, viceroy of the Bajoran sector defeated not one but TWO enemy fleets in defense of the Bajoran homeworld.

The first was a Cardassian invasion force, which was fought to a standstill in the Bajoran outer system and was in the process of being routed when a GU war fleet dropped out of warp in the vicinity. Even though severely outmatched, the Vice Admiral along with Android Captain Lore was able to drive the Cardassian fleet THROUGH the GU fleet to distract them while enabling Jem'hadar defectors to deal many of their capital ships a telling blow.

Here is sensor footage of their Bastion-Sized command ship exploding under Imperial fire (Insert doctored images here).

Altogether more than twenty thousand Imperial troops and officers gave their lives in defense of Bajor, but the Admiral's son, Lieutennant Lafayette Sisko, was miraculously found alive after ramming a Cardassian ship with his fighter.

Section 31 sources blame the high casualties on the treachary of Admiral Riker, former protege of Admiral Picard. It is believed that he betrayed vital defense information to the Cardassians to get them through Imperial defenses which were only stopped when Bajoran defense ships valliantly rammed the invasion force. For his crimes against the Empire, Admiral Riker was summarily executed. It is believed Captain Lore will be elevated in his place.

In other war news, Prescott's Star...

[CaptainChewbacca]

BUMP!

Keep writing!

*Cracks whip*

[HappyTarget]

Section 31 sources blame the high casualties on the treachary of Admiral Riker, former protege of Admiral Picard.

Riker makes a rather convienient scape goat. All those years under the "traitor" (though he was nothing of the sort, merely a potential roadblock to Jack's plans and thus someone to be removed from the board) Picard... it's rather easy to make the public see what you want them to given Picard and Riker's "formerly close working relationship". Just draw in the dots and let the people make the connections for you rather than being obvious about it. This way, they'll more readily accept things as they feel it's their own conclusions rather than what you want them to believe.

It is believed Captain Lore will be elevated in his place.

Then the question is, who get's the cushy job of being CO of The Big E in his place? Tasha perhaps? Ohhhh, I just had a great idea! Shelby! I could see her becoming CO in Lore's place.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Which one was Shelby? I say give Tasha to the GA as a tactician. There's gotta be SOME humans on their side.

[HappyTarget]

Shelby was the woman who joined up in the "Best of Both Worlds 1 and 2" to help the Ent D fight the Borg. She was rather aggressive in her going after Riker's job.

[Crazedwraith]

Long time no chapter HT. We need more Unity!!!!

[Falkenhorst]

seconded

[Natorgator]

Thirded!

[HappyTarget]

Been rather busy of late (which unfortunately for you all and myself means I've had very little time to write). I have been able to get some work in on another In Service of Empire short story. It's about 2/3rds done now, and I hope to finish it soon. Stay tuned and bear with me. I fully intend to write more, it's just finding the time to do so is tough.