Subject: FanFic: May The Force Be With Q! episode 1 Some charcters have been taken, from novels, films and TV. The copyrights belongs to the Author, Lucasfilm and Paramount respectively. No profit will be had from this piece of fiction........yada yada yada.......ya get the Idea. Talon Karrde May The Force Be With Q! Episode I (Or shall I start with IV and work back?) Picard awoke to the sound of Riker. "Captain, you're needed on the bridge sir". "I'm on my way Commander" he replied, wishing for once he could get a decent nights sleep and a good head polish. Picard washed and dressed. As he strode towards the turbolift, he felt a familiar presence, he turned as he felt someone approach. "Good morning Jean-Luc, how are you feeling this morning?" asked Dr Crusher. "Fine Beverly, a;though I will be glad when we finish this science mission, and I can take a few days off. Catalouging gaseos anomolies is hardly a fitting task for the Enterprise. I have heard that the Andorians have some wonderful animals,The Zabathu is very similar to Horses, and I am looking forward to taking one for a ride". Beverly's eyes glinted "Perhaps you could take me for a ride sometime." "Yes, of course" replied the Captain. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm needed on the bridge. Beverly sighed as she watched Jean-Luc stride off to the turbolift, If only he knew, If only she could tell him how she really felt. But he wasn't interested in her, her love would go unnoticed as it had for so may years. (The Bridge) "Report, No 1." said Picard as he entered the bridge. Riker stood up from where he was stooped over Geordie's console and walked towards his seat. "We've been getting some strange readings from the core of the sun. We're analysing them now, but we don't think it's natural." "Captain, "Geordi rose from his panel and turned to face Picard. "I have some data on those frequencies, they appear to be harmonic in resonance, I can't be sure but it may be some kind of tune." "A tune,"asked Picard, "Is that possible? "Mr Data, put it on audio." Data complies and within a second the bridge is filled with with a loud abrasive but musical sound. "I am attempting to isolate the frequencies Captain." Data stated in a monotone voice, his hands flew across the console, faster that the springs vibrating on a honeymoon bed. Within seconds the tune started to become more distinct. Everyone on the bridge stopped, as the tune became clearer, it's sound was exciting, told of dangerous pursuits, adventure and someone in a purple velvet suit. the sensuality of it was inspirational. Lt Worf found himself becoming aroused. "Captain, I believe I know what this is." Data announced. "It is an old earth tune from the late 20th century, It is the theme from Starsky & Hutch. A popular Television show from the late 1970's". "How is the music being transmitted Data?" Asked Picard. "I am unable to ascertain that at the present time Captain." replied Data "I have no indication of a transmitter of any kind". Jean-Luc turned "Geordi, run a full spectoral analysis on that star, see if you pick up anything, and turn that infernal racket off will you." A brief flash of light apperars by Data's console, and it fades to reveal Q dressed in a Captains uniform. "Jean-Luc, I'm dissapointed in you, I find the tune rather arousing," he turns to Worf "Wouldn't you agree my mars bar headed Klingon friend". Worf shifts uncomfortably at his console. "Alright Q, what do you want?" asked Picard "I thought you had agreed to leave us alone." "O' contraire Mon capitane, I never agreed to any such thing." He moved closer to Picard and whispers in his ear "I must confess Jean-luc, I have missed our little tete-a-tete's." "That's enough Q, " boomed Riker "Now get off this ship and allow us to finish our work." Q waves his hand in Rikers direction, "I don't think I like your tone of voice, maybe this one will suit you better." Riker starts to gag, then stops. "I'm ok" He says. The room falls silent, everone turns to look ar Riker who now sounds like he has inhaled too much Helium. "Why are you all looking at me?" squeaked Riker. Q laughs, "Why commander Riker, with a voice like that you could have been one of the Bee Gees, I know them, I could arrange an audition." "Q! enough of this tom foolery." Picard moved towards him, a look off anger flashed in his eyes. "Now give Commander Riker his voice back and go play you're childish games somewhere else.". At this point Q sneezes, and Ensign Timothy Jones turns into an Argalien Swamp Donkey. Picard stopped, "Q, would you be so kind as to stop transforming my crew into things." "I can't." Q said, rather a bit too quietly. "And why not?" asked Picard. "Because I'm ill, can't you see that you shiny domed buffoon." Q visibly slumped "It would seem someone in the continuum doesn't like me, they have infected me with some kind off disease, It would appear I have very little control over my powers and I can't stop it, I'm becoming less Q and more .........Human." Q's face curled up into an expression of revulsion. "I don't wish to have that experience again." Picard moved to his chair, adjusted his tunic and sat down, "So, Q, have you come to us for help?" Picard allowed himself a small smirk. "Oh you'd like that," retorted Q "To have me beg on my knees for your help. I'd rather kiss an Argalien Swamp Donkey." "I think I can arrange that." Picard motions to Ensign Jones. "Oh very funny." Q sneers. Q lapses into a fit of sneezes and coughs. For several minutes, things aboard the Enterprise, are not as they should be. Alarms start to sound as, objects and crew are transformed, moved or dissappear. Suddenly the computer comes on "Warning, anti matter has destabilised, warp core breech in 20 seconds." Picards leaaps to his feet, "Q, stop this!" "I can't." he pants. "Then do something, All hands abandon ship....All Hands abandon ship......" Q collapses to the floor writhing in agony, he screams and everything goes black. Picard awakens to find the bridge intact. "Data, damage report." upon hearing no answer, he turns to find Data slumped over his console. Picard reactivates Data and the android comes back online. "Data, are you allright." "I believe so Captain, I am rather releived I was able to deactivate my emotion chip prior to the incident. I had a strange sensation......" "Fear Data, it's something you come to live with." "Actually sir, I had the sensation that I was about to soil my tunic." Slowly they check the ship, they find most of the crew alive and in their correct form, ensign Jones has also returned to his correct shape, although the urge to bray his loud ridiculous thoughts remains. "Geordie, what's our current situation?" "Well Captain, we have run diagnostics an all systems and according to them, everything is running at peak performance, no sign of a warp breech at all." "Lt Worf?" "Three, crew members dead, Ensign Hadda, Lt Porno and Dr Galalga. 47 missing, there is evidence of a hull breach on decks 7 through 9, but scans do not reveal anything." "Thank you Lt, now then Data what have you been able to find out?" "According to our sensors, the Enterprise is no longer in the Alpha quadrant, we have been unable to ascertain where we are or when." "When, Data?" "Yes sir, It is highly likely that Q has thrown us not only across the known universe but also through time as well. Preliminary indications are in the region of 10,000 years into the past." "Good work Data, I want you to keep working on it, see if you can pinpoint where we are." "Dr Crusher, what is the news on Q?" "He has regained concousness, Q does not make a good patient, he constantly complains and whines that his head hurts or his back. further more he has not shown any ability to use his powers." Picard pauses. "Do you mean to say, we have no means to get back?" "I have run biomolechular scans on Q and he appears to be human." Beverly consults her data pad, "Age, aproximately 40, health average, he does have a high cholesterol level. but other than that he is no more than a scared sick humanoid." "Lt worf, I want a security detatchment placed at sickbay. If Q so much as sneezes I want to know what happens." "Right, until we can find out where or when we are, I suggest we do a little exploring of our own. Let's plot a course for the nearest system. Dismissed." New Stormtrooper recruit Alex Sutton slumped in his bunk. How had he got here? What on Tattoine had he been thinking! He went back over the last few days, it had started off innocently enough, a few drinks with his friends to celebrate his promotion. Then Shein Nurab the Sullastan freighter pilot had suggested a Monopoly Holoboard Cantina crawl around Mos Eisley. Which in retrospect was almost impossible, there were only five of them. Still it had all seemed like a good idea after a few drinks. They had only gotten as far as Wuher's place, when they realised no-one could remember where the next stop was. Alex vaugely remembered saying he was going to look for a street map, and then nothing. He had awoken to find himself, here on Carridia, wearing a frilly pink Twi-lek dancing girls costume and with an ID permit in the name of Sandra Henklestump. "How could I have have been so stupid, so niaive. I don't even like the Imps." "Commander, I'm picking up some strange transmissions from the Soorathna sector." Brior Devoe looked at Cadet Johnsons display. "Highlight this sector here. And bring the long range scope online, quietly." he said. As the display changed, they noticed something very strange indeed, "Cadet, bring up the star chart for the Soorathna cluster." The screen changed once more and the difference was obvious. "Patch me through to, Admiral Ackbar aboard Home One, and get Drayson on the net, I want him here asap." "Coming out of hyperspace Commander Drayson." The blue swirl of hyperspace faded and the elongated effect of the stars dropped to pinpoints in the distance. "Well well," breathed Drayson "Now where did you spring from." He looked out of the cockpit at the planet rotating slowly in front of him. A planet that had not been there the day before. "Full sensor sweep, our long range sensors picked up no power emmissions, but I want to be sure." Drayson pondered on the implications of a planet that could move, there were of couse the Death Stars, which were like small planets and even had their own gravity albeit a very slite one. But this was the real thing, a living world. "Data coming through now sir." Drayson turned from the veiw and looked at the screen. "Hmm. nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere, axial tilt, evidence of large cities, massive life readings, but no sign of power, or transmisions....wait Increase resoloution.....yes I'm seeing small power signitures all over the surface.........but..." "Commander incoming transmision from the planet." "How?" demanded Drayson. The tech looked up "It seems their carrier signal is sent sub space sir. It's like nothing i've ever seen. But appears to be like hyper transmissions." "Well lets hear it." "This is Admiral Omata, of the United Fedaration of Planets, declaring a planetwide emergency on Earth. We need assistance, out power grid has been knocked out, and we have multiple casulties all over the globe, can any one hear us. I repeat this is Admiral Omata......." The tech turned to Drayson "It appears to be a repeating beacon sir, the power isn't great, that would explain why it wasn't picked up by the long range sensors." Drayson looked out the cockpit screen once more, "Ops," he barked "what's the report of defensive capabilities." "Sir they appear to have numerous orbiting satelites, but they all appear to be powered down at the present, I'm reading nothing that looks like weapons." Hiram Drayson, thought for a moment. "Pilot, takes us in to synchronous orbit above that transmission." "But sir," the pilot argued "we were ordered to inspect the area not make contact with anyone." Drayson turned "If you don't take us in pilot, I'll see to it that your next assignment involves mucking out the nerf stables, now take us in." Hurridley the pilot complied, he didn't want to be up to his neck in nerf manure, the smell could last for months. Ensign Jonathan Boyd was working on the uplink relays to the orbiting satellite 314, he was tired and dirty, they had made him work for 27 straight hours on these damn relays, 320 of them, and they wouldn't know if the system was working until he finished this one. He removed the damaged iso chip and placed the repaired one in it's place. He hated Starfleet, he'd only joined because his parents had wanted him to, but he knew he wasn't cut out for it, his dreams told him that. He remembered the girl from his dreams. She seemed so real, so beautiful and she beckoned him...... "Ensign Boyd.....report......Dammit Boyd where are you." Jonathan snapped out of his daze, He thumbed his communicator "Ensign Boyd here Captain....I was finishing off the relays sir." "The communications came online 5 minutes ago, good work ensign, now get some rest. Report to Lt commander Hawk at 0600hrs. Hailsham out." 5 mins thought Jonathan, but I haven't even completed recalibrating the aleron matrix yet. He looked into the open panel, everything was working, he checked with his tri-corder, it was running at 98.3% efficency. "What on Titan is going on here." he wondered, I must have let my mind wander whilst doing it, slowly he got up and made his way to his quarters. "Yes that's it, i'm tired, my minds playing tricks on me." But deep down he knew it would have take anther 30 minutes to complete and he could only have hoped for a 90% efficency rating. May The Force Be With Q - Episode 2 Drayson sat in his chair deep in thought, the events of the last 48 hours still toiling in his head. He was not looking forward to the arrival of Admiral Ackbar and Leia Organa Solo. He knew he had disobeyed orders, but the people needed help, he couldn't sit by and do nothing. He had made contact with Admiral Omata, shortly after entering orbit, the satellite system had come back online and despite a few difficulties with technology incompatability, they had eventually established contact. At first Drayson had been shocked to find them human, this far out there were very few colonies, it was well off the trade routes. He was even more suprised by the story of where they were from. They were from another galaxy as far as they had been able to establish, and possibly another time. Time travel was unheard off. The theoretical equations had been dissmised during the old republic as not possible. How they got here was still a mystery. His comlink beeped "Drayson, here." "Commander Drayson, this is Admiral Omata. Would you mind meeting me in operations." "Of course Admiral. I'll head over immediately." He stood and put on his uniform jacket, and left the room. "Admiral Ackbar, can I have a moment." Leia stood at the door to his office. "Of course your highness, how can I assist?" "I have a real bad feeling about this mission, I can't quite explain it but I have felt something, a disturbance. I wish Luke was here, I haven't spent as much time on my training as I should have." Ackbar got up and poured some refreshments. "Have you heard anything from him yet." He asked. "No, I have tried to contact him on Yavin 4, but no-one has seen him for weeks. I'm worried." Acbar looked at Leia his eyes softening as he did. "Master Skywalker can take care of himself leia. Now to business at hand. We will be arriving at this Planet Earth in two days, we have been over everything Commander Drayson sent us, and it would appear this United Fedaration Of Planets have a similar government structure to our own. Futhermore they appear to be guided by a similar moral code." Leia sat down at his desk "Do you think we should offer them membership in the New Republic?" "At present we know very little about them. But it is an option." Leia rose "Thank you, now if you'll excuse me I have some Affairs of state to attend to." "Of course you highness." As Leia was about to leave Ackbar spoke again "And give my regards to General Solo and the children." Leia smiled, Ackbar knew those affairs of state were really an excuse, Han was due to call in a few moments and she didn't want to miss him. "Ah, commander Drayson, I have some good news. We have made contact with some of our ships." Omata beamed, he obviously felt great relief at the news. "How is that possible?" Drasyon asked. "It would seem that, some of our vessels were transported here along with us, we have the Hood arriving about 1300hrs and the Saratoga should be here in a few minutes." "How many ships have you contacted Admiral?" Drayson asked. "Well just the two so far, but due to the fact that the Hood was enroute to Deep Space 7 and the Saratoga was much closer........" He consulted a data pad. ".........Hmmmm we had seventy four ships stationed between the two, so it may be possible that they are all here in this galaxy. Of course there is no telling how far out the effect of this travelling extends. It is possible that there are more." Drayson thought for a moment then asked to see the positions of the craft before the incident that brought them here. After consulting them and checking back with his own team he arranged a meeting with the what was left of the Federation Council. "I have some good and bad news for you. We have located several more of your ships. As we speak help is on the way to them. Unfortunately after comparing last know positions with our own star charts, we have concluded that a possible twenty three ships may be within Imperial territory. If the Empire knows you're here, they will want to know more. And that is something you will wish to avoid." "Commander, what is the risk to our ships in Imperial territory?" Drayson turned to a small rotund man, whom he had been informed was acting as president of the UFP. "Sir, The Empire does not take kindly to unathourised vessels in it's space, If they meet them, they will be captured and interrorgated." The President grunted "We will not surrender to anyone, our mission is a peaceful one, we do not wish to become entangled in your struggles with this Imperial Government." Drayson sighed, diplomacy was not his forte, he hoped that President Solo would get here, and soon. These people had no idea what the Empire was capable of even in it's reduced state. "Captain Balham Sir." Dreyfuss Balham held up his hand to stop the Lt. He finished reading his datapad and looked up. "Yes Lt." "Sir, we have an incoming holonet transmission from Warlord Kristov." "Very well, I'll take it in my quarters." Dreyfuss adjusted his tunic before keying for the transmission, the image flickered and blurred before becoming vivid. Warlord Kristov loomed before him, he had set up his holo transmitter to show his head only, and at almost twice the size of nomal. The late Emporer had used this technique to give the illusion of power and to intimidate. However on Warlord Kristov it looked laughable, Dreyfuss had to supress a smirk as the Warlord spoke. "Captain why have I been kept waiting? This delay is inexcusable, I demand a reason." "My apologies my Lord, I responded as soon as I could." He wasn't about to tell him that he had deliberately delayed answering, Talking with the arrogant fool was not something he looked forward too, but it was an unfortunate neccesity. If Moff Geraard hadn't been such an incompetent fool then the ship and her crew would never have been in the service of Kristov. Geraad had a gambling problem and had run up debts of immense proportions in one of Warlord Kristovs Casinos a few years back, in return for clearing the debt he had to agree to the transfer of one of his Star Destroyers. "I have a mission for you Captain, we have detected a ship travelling through the outer edge of our sytem. I want you to investigate and detain them. I have enclosed co-ordinates." "Of course my Lord. We will set course at once." "Oh Captain one more thing. This vessel is using some new kind of propulsion. We were able to detect it travelling at FTL speeds, it would appear they do not enter hyperspace. I would be very interested in obtaining this propulsion system. This is to be a priority 1 mission. Tell no one of my plans." Before Dreyfuss could reply the holonet link clicked off "Stupid fool," he muttered to himself "He knew I was going to ask about those replacement Tie's and the spares I need. How am I supposed to operate a ship on patched up parts and inoperative systems." He went over the state of his fleet. His VSD only had 1 operational tractor, 4TL were down for repairs, his ion cannons needed overhauling completely. The Lancer class frigate Stormwind was struggling with her engines the reactor needed replacing. The rest of the fleet was better off. The corvettes had been aquired from a pirate group, that was squashed three months previously. And they had been refitted and were working perfectly. His Fleet Carrier had only two squadrons of Ties. The fleet was in a shambles. Will Riker stepped out of the turbolift and was almost knocked over. "Ensign Jones, Explain yourself." "I'm sorry sir, " he brayed, Timothy Jones had developed a strange voice since being turned into a swamp donkey by a rather ill Q, and although he was returned to his correct form, he still tended to bray like an ass. "I was on my way to engineering Mr LaForge, needs this data." "Well conduct yourself properly Ensign, this is a starship, not the Kentucky Derby." Will walked on, he had requested the transfer of ensign Jones several times because of incompetence but each time he had been over ruled by Captain Picard. His communicator beeped "Commander Riker would you join me in my ready room." "I'm on my way Captain." "Captain, you requested to see me." "Yes No 1. It would seem we were not the only ones brought here by Q. We have recieved word from the Sheridan, Defiant and Solstice. All are on there way to a rondevous point, and we will meet them in 28 hours." The strain on Picards face was obvious, he didn't like being kept in the dark. And out here in the middle of no where he knew nothing. They had detected a few planets and life forms but nothing conclusive, no sign of civilisation so far. Perhaps they would have more luck in the next system, after they had met with the other ships they would head in that direction. but it was 3 days away. Long range sensors had picked up faint traces of powerful emmissions. "That's good to hear Sir, what's their status?" "Good, all ships are operational, we do however have a lack of torpedoes. Will, I would like you to speak to Counsellor Troi, the crew need their spirits lifting, I think she would be best suited to the task." "Of course Sir. Umm Captain, I wanted to ask about ensign Jones, you have rejected my request for his transfer three times." Picard stood and walked to the viewport "I find ensign Jones to be a great comfort, especially now, the whole crew find him amusing, and with counsellor Troi to boost moral as well as Mr Jones clumsy, idiotic antics. What harm can he do, his security status has been demoted several times, he can't do anything to endanger the crew. I think we'll be fine Will." Luke Skywalker, climbed into his X-Wing and prepared to take off, he looked around at his home of the past few weeks, and closed his eyes, the structure shook and slowly toppled in on itself, artoo twittered and whistled, he would never get used to these occurences. He would rebuild it if he came back. He closed the canopy and wondered where he would begin his search, the search for someone very powerful. He had felt a presence so strong it rippled across the force touching all who could sense it. Whoever or whatever created it was far more powerfull than anyone he had ever heard of. Keying the repulsorlifts he rose and circled the remains of his home before blasting of towards the sky. As he sped away from Coruscant, Luke allowed himself a few moments of meditation. He slipped into a deep sleep and searched.....searched for a glimpse of the future. He snapped awake what seemed like a few scant minutes later, checking his chrono he realised he had been out for several hours. futhermore he realised he had entered hyperspace. "Artoo, did you initiate the hyperspace jump?" Artoo twittered a response which was translated and displayed on Luke's display panel. "What do you mean I did, when?" The display changed again. "Two hours, artoo can you determine our ETA." Luke relaxed back and smiled to himself as he read R2's reply, he must have programmed the jump whilst in a trance, whilst enveloped in the force, someone was calling out, not to him but for help. "Captain, contact with unidentified ships confirmed, they will be in position within 30 secs." "Thank you Lt." Dreyfuss turned to Commander Antah. "Inform the fleet to jump on my command. Now we will see just who these interlopers are?" They had been tracking these unidentified ships for several hours, they were like nothing he had ever seen before. Once they had captured them, he would have them inspected and gutted and anything of interest he would add to his collection of memoribilla. The biggest puzzle was their mode of travel, they appeared to have mastered faster than light travel within realspace. Why anyone would do this he didn't know, it appeared to be painfully slow, with hyperdrives they could have been at their meeting point within moments. Still this new proplusion would prove to be interesting, and certainly worth having. Balham had a thought, if you could combine the two engine systems......... accelerate to FTL speed then engage the Hyperdrive, why you could have ships that were faster than anything ever heard of, with a device like this you could rebuild the Empire, the Rebels would never know what hit them. "The ships have arrived Sir." "Very well. Antah, Initiate jump." Within seconds the entire fleet jumped to Hyperspace. "And so, I feel we should try to make contact, maybe we could find out more about this part of the galaxy." Picard was sat at the head of the table in the breifing lounge, also sat tat the table were Captain Benjamin Sisko of the Defiant, Captain Surak N'tlah A vulcan in command of the Sheridan and Lt Commander Allen Smith acting Captain of the Solstice. Sisko rose and tapped on the display panel in the wall. "But we know nothing about any races in this galaxy, we don't know if they are hostile, peacefull." he place both hands on the table and leant in towards Picard "We don't even know if they know about other species, if they have space fairing abilities." Picard didn't move he was well aware that Sisko didn't like him, he still held a grudge about the death of his wife. Picard caught a flicker outside the viewport, suddenly seven ships appeared streaking towards them, the largest was huge bigger than the Enterprise, there was no mistaking the battle formation. before he had a chance to react his comm badge went off "Captain Picard to the Bridge, Urgent." "I'm on my way No 1." He turned to the others "Gentlemen, I suggest you all return to your ships." All three commed the ships and moments later beamed back to there own ships. "Open transmission, wide band." Dreyfuss paused before speaking again "This is Captain Balham for the Imperial Warlord Kristov. You are tresspassing in resticted territory, and under arrest. drop your sheilds and prepare to be boarded." he turned to his comms officer "No response sir, wait I am getting something but it's being sent subspace." "Then play it." He barked at the man who visibly flinched. "This is Captain Picard of the United Fedaration Of Planets, we are on a peaceful mission of exploration." Dreyfuss keyed his comm panel "I don't care who you are, drop your shelds and prepare to be boarded, or you ships will be destoyed, Captain, you are outgunned, surrender or die." "Captain Balham, I can assure you, we were not aware that we had entered you territory, maybe you would like to meet to discuss this." "Captain Picard. do not attempt diplomacy, I have orders to detain you or destroy you, you have thirty seconds to drop your shields and prepare for a boarding party." Data spoke "Sir they have cut the transmission, the lead ship is launching what appear to be fighters along with the rear most ship. I count 36." Picard stood "Red Alert. Mr Worf target analysis." "Sir I am unable to get clear readings on their weapons, but a visual analysis suggests mutiple weapon and missile emplacements." "Open a channel to the other ships, Captains, I don't want an incident here, do not fire unless fired upon." The fool, Sisko thought, this was obviously a hostile race, very advanced. And Picard was worried about creating an incident, the man was a dinosaur, a relic, he should have been retired, but he was the senior officer here and so in charge. "Chief, do they give you the impression that even if we allow them to board, they will treat us fairly?" "No sir, they appear to be bullies and spoiling for a fight." O'brien replied. "Hmm, I wonder if like most bullies, when stood up to, they turn and run. Ensign, prepare to engage the cloak. I want to come around the back of them." A chorus of 'aye sirs' sounded from around the room, they knew and trusted Sisko, if these people wanted a fight he'd give them one. "Engage cloak." The space around the Defiant shimmered and warped then the Defiant disappeared from sight. "Captain," Said Data "the Defiant has cloaked." "What, get me Sisko," "Channel open." Replied Worf "Captain Sisko, decloak and return to formation immediately." "I'm afraid not Captain Picard, they want a fight. I intend to make sure they don't have the upper hand." "You could start a conflict by doing this." "No Captain the conflict has already started, when you didn't comply with his instructions the first time. He made up his mind to destroy us. Sisko out." "Captain, the smaller of the ships has dissappeared, it just vanished." "What do you mean vanished, did it engage it's engines?" "No sir, it just faded from view." "They have a cloaking device!" He was stunned, he keyed his comm "All batteries open fire on there last position, and track out in the last known heading. I WANT THAT SHIP!" He turned to commander Antah "Instruct the fleet to open fire. Target the lead ship, destroy it." The turbolasers on the Dauntless open up raining fire upon the Defiants last known position. The Defiant however had made small warp jump out and was even now drafting up behind the Fleet Carrier. The Dauntless stopped it's barrage and the guns turned to the Enterprise. "All ships return fire, launch torpedoes, full spread." "Bring Rancors 1 & 2 along the port side of the lead ship, we will give them a full barage down the starboard. Instruct Ties to Target the second." The two Corelian Corvettes began to move to intercept the Enterprise. The guns already scoring hits, The Fedaration ships opened up with phasers, and space became bright. "Sir, detecting multiple missiles launched from all ships, impact 7 seconds." "Target them. Instruct the Carracks to concentrate on missiles." The impact of twelve torpedoes on the starboard shields of the VSD was enough to overload one of it's generators. "Sir upper Starboard shields are down." "Roll to port, bring the rest of the guns to bear. fire concussion missiles, and get those Ion cannons online." The VSD slowly rolled bringing her undamaged shields in view and a fresh set of guns. The Enterprise was rocked by a combined broadside from the corvettes and Dauntless. "Shields at 43% Captain." Cried Worf as panels sparked around him, damage on decks 5 thru 7." "Transfer emergency power to shields." Picard replied The battle raged. The Sheridan was targeted by The Lancer class Frigate Maverick and the corvettes as they passed after the run on the Enterprise, followed by a barrage of blaster hits from two full squadrons of Ties, the Captain managed only three shots before his shields buckled. The ships targeting computer was old and needed upgrading, it went into a feedback loop because of the amount of vessels in it's targeting bracket, and went into self diagnostics, switching to manual the three shots destroyed two ties and blew the solar panel of another, the stricken Tie spun off it's flight path straight into the naycelle of the Sheridan. The effect was devastating, the resulting feedback from the explosion blew the containment field around the warp core. The ship exploded almost instantly. Debris from the blast accounted for another seven Ties and damaged the Frigate Maverick, whose engines were already being pushed to the limit, she struggled to cope with the shockwave, and her main reactor failed and shut down, effectively leaving her dead in the water. Once her shield energy was gone she had no way of recharging them. The Solstice was also an old ship, and the journey across space and time had not done any favours, what no one was aware of was that micro fractures had formed on the hull due to the stress of the journey. as the Dauntless was coming about for another run on the Enterprise, she opened up head on almost 60 turbo lasers and Ion cannons raked over the shields. It didn't take long for them to buckle, and as hits began to strike the hull, thousands of fractures began to widen soon venting the interior of the ship to the coldness of space. Balham watched in pleasure as he saw a part of the saucer like section blow out. A crewman tumbled out of the opening in to space, her eyes wide and mouth open as if to scream, but she was already dead, the explosive decompression had blown her lungs and internal organs to shreds. The Sheridans engines stopped and she slowly started listing to starboard, lights were flickering over the ship. "Cease fire, she's finished. save it for Picards ship." Antah grimaced, he turned towards his Captain, fear in his stomach. He hoped he hadn't spoken out of turn. He caught Balham staring at him, but Drefuss merely nodded once to acknowledge his order then turned back to his display's. "Disengage cloak and fire all weapons, full spread." Sisko was watching the viewscreen, they had managed to get behind the fleet carrier and were about to attack. "Sir, the Solstice has been heavily damaged, she's launching escape pods, I'm reading a warp core breach in progress, time to breach about 2 mins." "Dax, after our run on this ship I want you take us at the big one, lets see if we can play a little chase." The Defiant Dropped the cloak and ran at the Carrier, her phaser cannons blasting and launching torpedoes, the carriers shields were not designed for heavy combat, Carriers were support vessels. The shields buckled but held as the Defiant passed. her Captain glanced across the bridge, shields read 7%. He breathed a sigh of relief, they didn't appear to be coming around for another pass. He looked out of the bridge window in time to see the Defiant launch torpedoes from her rear tubes. The last thing the bridge crew heard was the Captain uttering "Sithspawn." And then the torps hit, the shields collapsed under the first hit, the second tore into the hull and buried itself 20ft into the ship before exploding, the third and fourth hit the bridge area at almost the same time. The explosions tore the ship apart, and sending several large chunks tumbling through space. The Defiant continued her way towards the VSD, taking several hits from the carrack cruiser, before bearing down on the Dauntless. "Sir, the smaller ship has decloaked and fired upon the Carrier, shields almost down, firing again. Sir the Carrier has been destroyed." Balham was shocked, such a small ship, such incredible firepower, but more importantly she could use sensors whilst cloaked,she had to in order to line up her run on the Carrier, something the Empire had been unable to do. All attempts to create a effective usable cloak for the Empire had failed, although they had produced a cloak, it rendered the ship blind, unable to see out or gather information. They had tried to solve this problem by using small ships who darted in and out of the cloak passing on sensor information. But this tended to announce their position, not a good battle tactic. This little ship was something he wanted. "Captain the cloak ship is making a run on us." "All batteries concentrate fire on the cloak ship, ion cannons as well. I want it taken intact, If that ship is destroyed I'll feed you all to a Rancor." The Defiant opened fire at almost point blank range, her weaving enabling her to dodge most of the turbolasers, but not all, several hit her the port side, damaging her port phaser cannons. Sisko was nearly thrown from his chair, "Atack pattern Delta 4. " He shouted above the rumble of the engines. The Ship pounced on the Dauntless, straffing fire down the entire length of the ship, before pulling off to starboard. "Follow her, don't let her get away, " Balham screamed "He's going to hide behind that ship and cloak again, then we'll never find him." The Dauntless wheeled slowly of to give chase, giving the Enterprise some breathing room. "Order all ties to engage the cloak ship." The Enterprise still had her hands full with the Corvettes and Carrack cruiser, both sides had taken heavy damage in the crossfire and were keeping distance from each other, it appeared no one had any torpedoes or missiles left, and with the departure of the Dauntless and her remaining Ties, ships were left taking long range pot shots at each other. Their Captains unwilling to see the destruction of their ships. The Defiant was gaining ground on the Dauntless, but not the Ties, they would intercept in 30 seconds. Dax piloted the Ship into a Barrel roll over the Solstice and ducked down behind it. "Warp 2, engage." Sisko cried. The Defiant appeared to stretch to infinity and then vanished. "Time to warp core breach on the Solstice Chief." He asked. "30 seconds." The main ship should arrive about the same time." O'brien smiled, good old Sisko he really knew how to kick ass. "Dax, bring us about on a return course. Drop us right on top of them." The Dauntless was approaching the Solstice when a report came in from Tie Alpha/1. "Sir they appear to have engaged their engines and gone to light speed." "Track them, I want to know where they go, we can catch up with them later, their engines are no match for our own." "Captain, I'm reading a massive buildup from the ship in front, I thinks it's engines are overloading. It's going to blow." "It's a trap, damn them. Evasive action, all hands brace for impact." The Solstice exploded just as the Dauntless had started her turn, the impact on her shields collapsed the starboard side completly, the debris damage peppering the hull like hot coals on ice. As the Dauntless continued her turn the Defiant dropped out of warp, and straffed the ship once more before heading towards the Enterprise. "Damage report." Shouted Balham trying to make his voice heard above the din of hull breach alarms. "Hull breaches on 27 decks, bulkheads sealing. Starboard shields down will take some time to effect repairs. All starboard batteries offline or damaged." Damn it, he thought. Whoever was in charge of that cloak ship was good, very good, he had led him around like a child looking for a lost bantha cub. And very nearly cost Balham his ship. "Fleet status." He barked. "Sir, Fleet carrier destroyed, Maverick without power engines down with no chance of repair, the Captain is asking for permission to lauch escape boats and set the self destruct. Both the corvettes and carrack have taken heavy damage." "Instruct the Maverick affirmative. we'll collect them on our way out. Order all ties to return, what we can't take on board we jettison. Issue a general retreat." "Retreat Sir, but......." Balham cut him off "We are beaten Lt, our ships were not up to the task set us. Warlord Kristov is to blame for this fiasco, and I will not waste another life serving the miserable little pile of Bantha dung. If any one disagrees they can get the hell off my bridge." He was suprised to see many of his officers appluading him, a new found respect for their captain shining in the eyes. Balham thought for a moment, Admiral Whiteheart was one of the most respected officers left in the Empire, that's who he would go to, perhaps he could provide him with the resources to fight this enemy. "Antah, as soon as we reach the rendevous, instruct the fleet to make emergency repairs and then we head for the Churaba sector. We are going to rejoin the Empire, once we have defeated this Federation, I will personally return and cut out Kristovs heart with a blunt vibroblade." Antah hurried about his tasks, it was not a good idea to delay when the captain was in this mood. The ships disengaged fom the Enterprise and Defiant turned quickly, and accelarating quicker than anyone left had seen before dissapeared into hyperspace. Picking up the last of the escape pods from the Solstice, Sisko wondered when they would meet these Imperials again, they wouldn't survive another encounter. He had set his crew to work, repairing damage and replicating new componants for torpedoes, but with a dwindling supply of anti-matter, they would have to be armed with conventional warheads. After meeting with Picard, which had not gone well. Sisko began overseeing repairs to the Defiant. The phaser cannons were operational again within a few hours. Seven hours after the battle which had lasted only 11 minutes,the Enterprise and Defiant set course away from what they thought was Impeial controlled space and hoped they wouldn't run across Balham or Warlord Kristov again. May The Force Be With Q episode 3. "Who are you? Where did you come from? What do you want? Wait..... come back....." The vision faded before him and Jonathan Boyd awoke with a start. He was in his quarters, and soaking with sweat. Why did he keep having this dream, the same girl, the same words 'Come to me. Join with me.' And then the flash, that single beam of intense light, Then nothing. Showering and getting dressed, Boyd headed of to Starfleet HQ, he was due to meet with Lt Commander Ounari to discuss his request for a transfer. He had had enough and wanted to explore, the only reason he was stuck at HQ was because his captain on the Tarantino had brought him here when he was promoted to Admiral. Boyd was a natural with mechanics, he could almost sense the problem and was rated as one of the best Engineers in Starfleet. Unfortunately he had an attitude problem, and this meant no chance of promotion, maybe oneday he might make Lt, but that's as far as he would get. Anger welled up inside him, Admiral Danook had blocked his request for transfer, but he wasn't here now. The old fart had been on leave when all this happened. Arriving at Ounari's office he knocked and waited. "Enter." Boyd opened the door, strange to find such an old fashioned door in such a modern building, but asthetically pleasing. "Ensign Boyd reporting sir." "Mr Boyd, please sit. I have been over your request, now could you explain why you want to transfer." "Sir, I have been at Starfleet HQ for 2 years, I have performed my duties well, but I am stifled here. I joined because of my parents, but I want to travel the stars, this is a new galaxy, I want to be out in it. With all due respect sir, if you won't approve my request, I feel I have to resign my comission." He could feel the anger rising in him again, it had been the cause of many of his problems. He pictured Ounari signing the papers transfering him off this pitiful planet, and out into space. Ounari looked a bit flustered for a moment, and then picked up a pen and signed the sheet in front of her. Without a word she gave it to Boyd and motioned him to leave. After Boyd had left, Ounari sat at her desk, trying to figure out what had just happened, she was sure she was going to refuse his request, but for some reason had agreed with the ensign. She was tired, she felt something trickle down her upper lip and wiped it away. Looking down she realised it was blood. "I need a holiday." she muttered to no-one. Picard sat reading Dr Crushers medical report on Q. It was quite fascinating, Q seemed to exhibit none of his powers, he was in fact showing all the signs of a 45yr old human, a very unfit human. Picard had never seen a cholesterol count this high. Dr Crusher was currently treating Q for this condition and also trying to get him into shape, the Q were a lazy people and not used to physical exhertion. His door chimed. "Come in" The door to his office opened and Q walked in flanked by two security officers. "Really Jean-Luc," he said motioning to the guards "are they neccessary?" "Q, every time you show up, something happens. Now it would seem you have taken us through space and time, and with no way of getting us back." "But that's the strange part, I don't know where we are, or when. I have been everywhere possible in every time. And I don't know where we are." Q sat in the spare chair. "I'm lost, alone, with only you pitiful humans for company, and worse I've become one of you. " He stood and looked at Picard "Help me Jean-Luc your my only hope." "Well for starters, I've assigned you quarters. And you can report to Commander Riker at 0800 hrs. It's time for you to start earning your keep Q, and with your knowledge maybe we can figure something out." "You expect me to work! Pah! I won't do it, Q do not work, we supervise." "But your not Q anymore, You will work, and work hard. Everyone on this ship puts in a days work, and you will not be the exception. Dismissed." Picard picked up his data pad and continued to read, ignoring Q completely. Q stood there for a moment and then left, he wanted to turn Picard into a yucca plant, but how he didn't have his powers, he was mortal, weak, hungry, he had a craving for ice cream. Leia Sat reading a report from intelligence, across from her sat Garm Bel Iblis, Admiral Ackbar and Hiram Drayson. She rose as did the others and turned to Drayson. "We have reached a decision Mr Drayson, you disobeyed a direct order. for that I must ask for your resignation. I am sorry it has come to this. But we must show that the chain of command is not to be ignored, your decision has become rather public knowledge." Drayson slumped inside but held his head up high, his body at perfect attention. He did the right thing, of that he was sure. So why were they doing this? It didn't make sense, Ackbar himself had spoken to him on the way home, and assured him that things would be sorted out. Now this! "Thank you for your years of service Mr Drayson." Leia smiled at him as she said it, a glint in her eyes. Is she laughing at me Drayson thought. He saluted and left the room, before he got very far he heard the door open behind him and quick footsteps. Garm Bel Iblis and Ackbar fell into step beside him. "A moment of you time Mr Drayson." Asked Garm. A few minutes later they were sat in Garm's apartment. Ackbar poured them some refreshments before sitting down. "Excuse me sir's but is there something I should know." Garm smiled. "Actually there is Mr Drayson. You see we have been watching your career with interest, you have been of great use to intelligence over the years. A lot of people respect your opinion down there." Ackbar spoke. "We have a little problem, the New Republic is becoming bigger each day, and each day we have more trouble keeping an eye on what is going on. The emergency council has passed a decree, as your are aware New Republic Intelligence is a more public office than we would like." Drayson smiled to himself. "And you would like a smaller, less conspicuous department to handle the.... " He paused "delicate issues." Now he understood Leia's smile. They had planned this all along, they made him resign, gave him no choice but to accept this new job. he leaned forward slightly. "And you would like me to be a part of this new department." Now Garm smiled "No. Mr Drayson we would like you to run it." Drayson sat back, he could not mask the surprise from his face. "We would like to offer you the job of running Alpha Blue.... Admiral Drayson." Hiram sat bolt upright in his chair. "Admiral?" "Of the record of course," said Ackbar handing him a datapad "Alpha Blue is a black project, no records of it's existence, you and your staff will be paid through a dummy corporation. Now then Admiral, If you could put together a proposal for us detailing your needs and any staff you might like to request, and have it delivered here by 1800hrs tomorrow." Ackbar stood as did the others and shook Hirams hand. "Congratulations Admiral Drayson. Now you have a lot of work to do." "Ensign Boyd reporting for duty Captain." Boyd cracked a perfect salute. Captain Detrius looked Boyd over for a moment before speaking. "Ensign, I don't know how you got this position, and quite frankly if it hadn't come from Lt Commander Ounari directly I would have refused it. But your here so listen up. I will not tolerate your temper tantrums on this ship, you're a fine engineer but that will not get you anywhere. If you so much as step out of line, I'll run you through the transporter buffers till your nothing more than an amoeba, Do I make myself clear?" "Yes sir." "Good. now dismissed. Report at 0700hrs." Boyd made his way back to his quarters, he could not afford to slip up, not yet. The news of his transfer had suprised a great many people, but the news Of Ounari's death had shocked Boyd more. She had apparently collapsed the day before from massive cerebral heamorraging. The Docs could do nothing to save her. Spooky, thought Boyd, I had been talking to her just a few hours before that. He changed, ate, and then decided to spend some time in the holodeck, perhaps that would lighten his mood. The next few hours were spent programming the holodeck. "Computer, run program Boyd,Visions." The holdeck vanished to be replaced by a swirling mist, a figure stood frozen ahead, a female. Something is missing he thought. "Computer, place a belt on the female, on the left side, attach a cylindrical device 30cms in length, diameter 6cms, place some buttons along one side." Better, much better. He checked the time, damn he thought, will have to finish this later. "Computer, save program and end." Dreyfuss watched as his new ship slid past the viewport of the shuttle. The Imperator II class star destroyer Deliverance. After the battle with the Federation ships, he and the remainder of his fleet had defected from the service of Warlord Kristov. And had now rejoined the Empire. Admiral Whiteheart had offered him the command of Dominator, and to go with it a further 2 Victory Star Destroyers, 2 Dreadnaughts, and 3 Corvettes. A new fleet carrier straight out of space dock and a full complement of fighters, 17 squadrons. 6 Tie, 6 Interceptor, 3 Tie Bomber and 2 Tie Defenders. Add to this 2 squadrons of assault shuttles and missile boats. With his own fleet almost repaired, he now had enough firepower to tear the Federation ships apart. Admiral Whiteheart had been most pleased with the information he had been able to provide, particuly the codes for Kristovs accounts. His slicers had been swift in raiding those accounts to the tune of some 40 million credits. Enough to fund his effort for a good few months. As for the Cloak ship, his techs and engineers had been working around the clock to find a way to detect it. So far all they had come up with was a chaff missile, which when detonated spread reflective particles over very large distances, although not a great offensive weapon it would be effective for defensive action, no ship could pass through with out being detected. The downside was that it could also interfere with targetting on the Turbolasers. He watched as the pilot flew the craft into the hanger, setting it down smoothly. Obviously the pilot rated himself, he would have to put that to the test. "What's your name Pilot?" "Lt Kynes sir." "How long have you been flying?" "Since I was a boy sir." "Report to commander Antah and have him check you out in the simulators, if you do as well as I think you will, we may have an opening in Tie/gamma squadron." Kynes saluted crisply, "Thank you sir, I won't let you down." "Captain," reported Kira "we're being hailed by the Enterprise." "Onscreen." replied Sisko The image of Captain Picard appeared before him, Sisko had to squint slightly, the light was reflecting of his head. "Captain Sisko, We've detected a small group of vessels ahead. They are just sitting there. We will wait for you to join us. and then investigate." "With all due respect Captain Picard, I have to object. We have no idea who those ships belong to, it could be a trap. After our last encounter with the Imperials, I advise caution." "Objection noted Captain, now I expect you to join us immediately. Picard out." Sisko held his breath, he didn't want to express his feelings to the crew. "Dax, how long to the rendevous." "Two hours at warp 8, Captain." "Very well, engage cloak, and set course at warp 9.6." One hour later the Defiant decloaked next to the Enterprise, Sisko looked the ship over on the main screen, she didn't look in good shape. The hull had been breached in three places, and the warp core was running at about 60% efficency. He had sent the chief over to assist with repairs the day before. After a short delay to transfer some suplies and spares they set out to investigate the ships ahead. "I'm reading a broad band subspace signal Captain." reported Dax. "Audio only." "Play it." "Federation starships, this is General Antilles of the New Republic Cruiser Freedom. We have come to assist in your journey home." "Dax open a channel." "open." "General, this is Captain Benjamin Sisko of the Federation Starship Defiant. State your intentions." "Captain, we're here to help. I have a message for you from Earth. If you'll allow me to send it across, it may explain a few things." "Recieving a transmission now." Answered Kira The viewscreen changed to display the Starfleet Icon. Then Admiral Benson Appeared. "To all Starfleet ships in this galaxy, this is Admiral Benson from Starfleet command. A tragedy has happened, Earth along with many of you has for reasons unknown been thrown to another part of the universe, possibly even another time. This message is being relayed to you by representatives of the New Republic, they have come to our assistance in this, our hour of need. Please co-operate fully with them, they can help you all safely home to Earth. Godspeed. Benson Out." "Captain, there is a file attached to the message, It looks like it has been ingrained into the data stream. Possibly to render it invisible to anyone looking over the message." Kira quickly decoded the file and transmitted it to a data pad. She then handed it to Sisko. "Major, you have the bridge. Contact Captain Picard, I'll be in my ready room." He sat reading when his comm beeped. keying his computer he brought up Picards image. "Captain, have you decoded the message from Starfleet?" Sisko asked "We have, interesting news. At least we know that we are not alone out here." "I was very interested in the part about witholding information on our technologies." "Yes, rather interesting that part. We shall have to wait and see why that is. General Antilles has offered us a ride back to Earth, he says there is enough room for you to dock in the main hanger. The Enterprise will dock externally. We should be ready to depart at 1500hrs." "I'll begin preparations at once Captain. Sisko out." "Admiral Whiteheart. How can I serve you sir?" said Balham as the Holo appeared in front of him. "Captain, we have recieved word from our scouts that the federation ships you encountered have rendevoused with forces from the New Republic." "Have intelligence turned up anything on this federation?" "No, not yet. but one of our scout ships has recovered some computer fragments from your encounter, they are being analysed as we speak. As soon as I have the results I will let you know." "Thank you sir. Now If you will excuse me I'll begin preparations for the capture of the Feds." "Of course Captain. but one more thing. I have just issued the order to attatch the 182nd squadron to your command." "I'm honoured you have that much faith in me sir." "As an added bonus, Baron Von Lowe is back in command of them, and...." he smiled "they have just recieved the first shipment of our new fighter. The seinar systems K-148, I'm transmitting specs now. I think you'll find them rather interesting. Whiteheart out." Balham sat down and poured over the specifications for the new fighter, 'impressive' he thought. At just over 16 meters in length, a cylindrical body tapering to a point, with twin wings each coming out of the body just behind the cockpit at a 37 degree up angle before bending back down. Twin tail fins each coming up and out at a 10 degree angle bent at the top to mount the Ion cannons. At the tip of each wing a turboblaster cannon, and in the nooks under the wings detatchable missile pods with a payload of upto 20 advanced missiles. At the front in the nose cone two torpedo launchers w ith a payload of 8 torps. Balham could barely believe his eyes, five vector thrust engines capable of delivering a speed rating 35% faster than the A-wing. This thing could turn quicker than a Tie out accelerate an Interceptor and run rings around any fighter in the galaxy. And he was getting an entire squadron of them, with the best pilots in the galaxy to pilot them. He was getting to like this job more each day. Those federation types were going to pay for what they did. May The Force Be With Q episode 3b "Three, break right on my mark." Said The Baron. "Mark!" The K-148 turned and was out of the pursuing X-Wings line of fire so quickly that the pilot had barely enough time to cry 'Where the fuck did......?' Before the Baron blew him to atoms with his blaster cannons. "I love this ship." Cried the Baron. "Ok, 182nd let the Tie's grab the rest of the fighters, Lets see what these puppies do against a cap ship. Form up and Target the Mon Cal cruiser. Single fire, advanced missiles." A chorus of replies came back over the comm. "This is ten, copy leader." Said Lt Taylor, he had only been with the squadron a short time and in his first outing had ejected from his craft, and been badly injured. It was during his time in sickbay that they had discovered he was allergic to bacta. When he had awoke after several weeks, he found that he was no longer whole. they had replaced his lower left arm and hand, his left eye and his tongue. He had been angry at this, he was an attractive man, now he was a machine. He had spent many weeks in sickbay, most of this learning to move around properly. He had to learn to speak again with his prosthetic tongue, which was made of a new flexi-durasteel. Taylor had adapted well to all of the changes, his eyesight was better, his strength in his left hand was incredible (he had paid the medics to increase it) and his tongue would never rust, in fact he joked that if he got vaped in a fight, the only thing left to identify him would be that tongue. The K-148's streaked towards the Mon Cal cruiser, each forming up on there flight leader in a diamond formation. "Getting a lock, sending sensor feed now." The Baron looked at his tactical display. "Heebee, send the info to the rest of the squad." "Yes commander." came the metallic reply. These ships were equiped with on board astromechs, like the R2s the rebels were so fond of, but these were incorparated into the design of the ship, you could remove the memory core of each one but no more. The advantage of this was a counterpart level with the fighter, rated at about 47% above astromech / fighter efficency. The Baron had nicknamed him 'Heebee' because the tech crews weren't used to them and it gave them the 'Hebe jebie's' "Ok, 182nd's fire on my command." He waited as the cap ship crew larger in his cockpit, green bolts streaking out towards them as the gunners tried to intimidate them into breaking off. "Wait......stay on target, Fire. One, away!" "This is two, away!" "Three, away! Missiles streaked towards the cruiser as each pilot pulled the trigger, the gunnery crews desparately tracking them, but without success, the missiles impacted on the shield and exploded, after 6 hits the shields around the rear quarter collapsed the remainder hit the hull and blew it away. As the squadron broke off they saw the damage they had caused, the whole back quarter was gone, vaped. A huge gaping hole was all that was left. As the ship started to list, the engines which were still at full thrust, broke the backbone. And due to the sudden decrease in mass to propel, flew forward slamming into the ship with a deadly impact. The cruiser broke apart, it's lights flickering twice before falling dark. The remains of the cruiser tumbled away, getting caught in the gravity well of the nearby planet, and being pulled down to it's final death. The Baron grinned to himself, 12 missiles to take out a cap ship, these ships would make bantha fodder out of the so called New Republic. If only Admiral Whiteheart could get his hands on some more, they were after all new and not yet in full scale production. He would submit a report recommending they purchase as many as possible. Baron checked his tactical heads up display. The remaining X-wings had taken out most of the Ties, and the B-wings were giving the ISD Vengeance a rough time. "7, 10, take your squads and take out those B-wings. the rest of you take those X-wings out." The squadron split in to two groups each forming up with their wingman. "Ok, switch to blaster cannons, full throttle. 11 with me" Lt Gavin Taylor had been looking forward to this, time for some payback! He targetted the nearest B-wing as it lined up for another run at the Vengeance. "Eat this you flying fuck!! he snarled, red death leapt from his wingtip cannons. The B-wing tried to turn, but too late. The first volley ate up his shields, the second chewed into his ventral wing. The third volley peirced the cockpit, venting it to space. Taylor screamed "Take that you fucking whore!" He wheeled to port leaving the stricken craft heading for deep space, if the pilot wasn't dead he soon would be. Taylor targeted the next B-wing and dealt it a similar blow, he was really getting into this. He dodged and weaved after the B-wings, getting two more. Finally he came upon one who was a little harder to hit. "Damn this one is good." He dived after the ship down towards the Vengeance, turbolasers lanced out at the B-wing, one missed and struck Taylor's fighter. "Vengeance, hold your fire. are you trying to kill me?" He quickly checked his shields, at least it was only a grazing shot. He concentrated on the B-wing which had gained some ground. Flying low over the structure he chased the enemy, dodging up and around TL batteries and sensor domes, barely 2 meters from the hull. The B-wing headed for the gap under the left of the main tower, Taylor swung right. The B-wing pilot swung around to the right obviuosly thinking he could sneak back the way he came. As the pilot looked up he saw Taylor's fighter come hurtling at him cannons blasting, his cockpit exploded around him, he didn't even have time to scream as his breath was ripped from his body. "Scratch one more gimp." He sneered. "We've lost 6," came the report from 3 over his comm "5 is hit." He switched frequencies, "1 this is 2 do you require assistance?" "Affirmative 10," came Barons reply "come and join us. We appear to have encountered Rogue squadron." Taylor grimaced, Rogue squadron the New Republics elite squadron, this was going to be interesting. "Vengeance this is Lt Taylor, suggest you launch some more support to tackle the B-wings." "Ok, ladies," he said to his flight group "it would seem that rogue squadron has decided to make an appearence, let's toast 'em." He kicked his throttle to full power and shunted laser power in as well. The K-148 accelerated away, the inertial compensators were already turned down to almost minimum. Taylor was pushed back into his seat under the force exherted on him. The Baron was weaving and dodging, the X-wing on his tail would not budge, it's pilot was pulling some of the most amazing moves he'd ever seen. His wingman had his hands full with yet another X-wing. "Shit!" he shouted as the x-wing scored a few hits on his shields, "Heebee, shield strength?" "148%" came the reply "Commander this is 10, turn hard to mark 278 on three." "Acknowledged 10." "one....two....three." Baron pulled hard on his flight yoke, kicked in his vector thrust, and stamped hard on his rudder pedal, he spiralled and dove away from the x-wing. The pilot tried to match his turn but over shot, running straight into Taylor's missile fired blind and at point blank range. The X-wing exploded and Taylor flew straight through the debris, his shields sparking from the clatter of micro fragments hitting them. All Baron heard was Taylor's laughter over the comm, perhaps he was enjoying this a little too much. "Nice shooting 10, BTW I think you just killed Tycho Celchu. He's leading up the rogues at the moment, and I think only Wedge Antilles himself could have pulled of those moves any better." The battle didn't last much longer, the loss of Tycho hit the rest of the rogues hard, they knew they would lose. as soon as they could they ran, engaged their hyperdrives and vanished. "Ok, Let's go home, people. The Nerf steaks are on Taylor." "Well Baron, your report makes for interesting reading." Captain Balham put down the data pad. "You say they knew exactly where you were going to make the transfer?" "Yes sir. They were waiting for us as we dropped out of hyperspace. If it hadn't been for the fact that we were prepped for departure, our losses could have been worse." "Hmmm, it would appear your transfer to us has become more knowledgeable than I would like. I will look into this Baron, and rest assured when I find the leak, I will plug it personally." He gave Baron a long icy stare. "My condolances on the loss of Lt Huthret. Would you like to take care of notifying his family?" "Yes sir, also sir I would like to recommend Lt Gavin Taylor for a commendation, his flying today was exemplary, he has battled hard with his injuries. Today was his first mission back with us, " He smiled "he had asked me to wipe his kill slate clean sir, he said that he was a new person and should start again. today he became a cybernetic ace. He was also the one responsible for the death of Celchu." "Are you sure it was him?" "Yes sir, intelligence finished breaking the comm codes and positively identified his voice." "A good days work Baron 38 kils and 1 loss. Please inform 'Captain' Taylor, that I like his fighting spirit." "Thank you sir. now if you'll excuse me sir. I have a letter to write." "Of course, dismissed" Commander Antah walked into the simulator room, and spoke briefly with the techs. He then walked over to the simulators where Lt Kynes was climbing out. "Lt. At ease. Congratulations, you have one of the highest scores ever recorded for this mission." "Thank you sir." "I have some more good news, An opening has appeared in Tie / Epsilon Beta Squadron. Report to hanger five, deck officer Raul......... Well move it Lt." "Yes sir!" Kynes spun around and jogged out of the room. "Did he really score that highly sir?" asked an aide "No, but we need some pilots, the Bomber pilot just got bumped to the 182nd. I hope Admiral Whiteheart hurries up with those recruits he promised. I'm working with grunts here." Captain Taylor walked down the corridor, security cameras tracked him but he knew they were not recording, he had seen to that a moment ago. He had three minutes before the virus he had entered was found and purged. He grinned, three minutes was long enough to do what he wanted. He arrived in section 12 and found the door he was looking for. He looked around, good no one about. Pulling a device out of his pocket he attached it to the door lock, it scanned and whirred for a moment then a green light came on. Taylor opened the door and entered into Cadet Jacques quarters. He made his way quietly to his bunk. Jacques awoke with a start as the light came on, the sight that greeted him was a frightening one, a face loomed near him a, face with a glowing purple eye. A hand reached for him and pulled him from his bed, holding him by his throat he was lifted two feet of the deck. "You, useless piece of shit, I'll teach you fire on a friendly ship. If you weren't such a fucking useless shot, you could have killed me. You won't make the same mistake again." He squeezed a little harder, and Jacques began to choke. A little harder still and his bowels let go. "You filthy little piece of bantha shit." He squeezed much harder still; Jacques convulsed twice and then went slack. Taylor threw him on his bunk. He checked his chrono, 1 minute left. Taylor left and headed back to the turbo lift. He grinned to himself. That had felt good. Too good. Ensign Timothy Jones was depressed; he had been given more light duties. Damn the Captain. To try to alleviate his mood he decided to spend some time on the holodeck. He would use his favourite program and make himself feel important again. Fifteen minutes later he was dressed in his costume, a very dark suit, sunglasses and a little earpiece radio. And standing outside holodeck 3. "Computer, run Jones alpha 7. Level 5, Setting London, 1999." "Program ready." Timmy entered and prepared to do battle. As the door closed behind him, he looked around, 'perfect' he thought. The scene lay before him. It was dark, it was wet, in front of him a building, neon lights flashing, crowds milling around. Suddenly a disturbance broke out near the entrance to the building. Timmy strode purposefully towards the antagonist, a male about 6’ 4” & 240lbs. He grabbed him, spun him round, and snarled in his face. "Sorry sir, you can't come in with jeans on. Now hop it before I get angry." The clubs bouncer had arrived. Timmy spent the next few hours indulging himself, making himself feel important. The power he had, he was in charge. He decided who came in. Three figures approached. As they drew near he saw they were historical figures, the program randomly chose people from history. Timmy greeted them. "Hitler, Goering, nice to see you, Adolph love the threads. Sod off Jesus, no fucking sandals." People came and went. A woman tried to get in wearing a T-shirt that said D.N.A on it, Timmy refused entrance. "Sorry, I said no genes." *Groan* Next a young man arrived carrying a device to inflate the tires on his bike. "Sorry mate, no pumps." *Bigger groan* Timmy was in heaven. He felt alive again. After several hours of this ecstasy he left and made his way back to his quarters. On the way back he very nearly bumped into Captain Picard. "Excuse me ensign, may I get past." "Sorry no bald headed wankers." He stopped, 'shit' he thought, I left the holodeck. "Ensign Jones, that is gross insubordination. Punishable by 21 days in the brig." Picard thumbed his comm badge. "Security, please come to deck 7 section 5, and escort Mr Jones to the brig." "Aye sir." Came the reply "Maybe the next few weeks will give you some time to contemplate you attitude ensign." Ten minutes later, Timmy sat in his cell. Head in hands. This was it, the final humiliation. He would make Picard pay for this; he would make the whole of Starfleet pay. Slowly he began to formulate a plan to contact the Imperials. Deanna Troi ran along the corridor, she had just been to see Will in holodeck 2, he was running a program of Risa, and she had walked in on him sunbathing in a thong. She had screamed, and ran. 'Riker in a thong' she shuddered 'He looked like a hippo in an elastic band' that image would haunt her for the rest of her life. Dropping to Impulse the ship slowed and took in the sight before it. The Federation fleet looked impressive. A total of 87 ships had so far been found 11 more on the way. This was more than they had originally estimated. They knew 2 had been destroyed by the Empire, and hoped that the others would make it home safely. The Crazy Horse settled into place near the leading edge of the fleet. Boyd was watching out of his window in his quarters. 'Soon' he thought, 'soon I will find you'. Three hours later the fleet broke up into 4 groups and warped out. Each group had two missions, find the rest of the ships and avoid contact with the Imperials. Baron von Lowe walked into the briefing room at a brisk pace, he moved to the podium and activated the Holo projector. “OK listen up, we have finally received word from the techs on the computer core recovered from the federation wreckage. These Feds are not from our galaxy, how they got here is unknown. But they have travelled further than anyone has ever been. They are from well beyond our known space. None of their star charts match anything we have. The Admiral is very interested in obtaining their method of transport. The techs could only recover a fragment of information on it. But it is much faster than what we have witnessed, it is apparently capable of transporting ships in an instant, to almost anywhere. We think it is called a Q drive.” He paused. A good healthy pause, let the information sink in. “Right. Our sensors have picked up a large fleet of Federation ships along our borders…” Another pause, ‘No this was a silly place for a pause’ “They do not appear to be willing to cross into our territory. We have also detected another of their vessels trespassing; it is on an intercept course to rendezvous”, he paused again ‘damn paused in the wrong place, it makes me look like I forgot what I was talking about’ he continued speaking.” with the fleet. This is today’s mission.” He quickly went over the orders for the strike. Two VSD one Nebulon Attack Frigate and three corvettes were to be detached to capture the ship. They weren’t going to take any chances. It was possible that more of those cloaked ships were out there. Force was the key you had to overwhelm your enemy. Baron looked around at his squadron, they were looking at him strangely, he had tried to use pause to good effect, but had cocked it up. ‘Right he thought, pick on someone make an example of them, that will get their respect’. Suddenly turning he pointed at Flight officer Kane. “You, what are you doing? What are you chewing?” the room all looked. “Umm tobacco Sir!” “Tobacco. Well I hope you brought enough for everyone.” He heard snickers from around the room ‘good he thought I’m winning them back’ “Well do you?” “No sir.” “Then get rid of it you fool.” Kane‘s face flushed red, he was known for his temper, that’s why Baron chose him, pick on the toughest and the rest will fall into line. Kane pursed his lips and stood. All the Baron heard was a ‘ttthhppttt’ and a big globule of sodden tobacco goop landed on his right boot. The Baron looked down at his not so shiny boot. “Right, you’re on report, one more slip up and you’re in the brig.” ‘ttthhhppptttt’ an even bigger dollop of tobacco and spit landed on his left boot. Baron sighed, “Right dismissed.” As the squadron stood and started to leave Baron said “Oh Kane” as Kane turned the Baron launched himself through the air and landed on Kane’s back. “I’ll teach you to disobey an order.” As the rest of the squadron exited the room all you could here was the rhythmic banging of Barons head on the podium. ‘THUNK’ “Tobacco, yes have as much as you want” ‘BONK’ “In fact why don’t I pop down to the stores,” ‘THWACK’ “and get you some……….” The Baron trailed of as he lost consciousness he remembered later that the last thought he had was. That’s the last time I’ll ever read ‘how to command an audience’. Admiral Sheppard looked out across space. Things where not going well for him. For the last few years he had struck at the rebels whenever he could. But supplies and money were running out. The New Republic had been whittling away at his assets. Seizing his businesses and catching corrupt officials on his payroll. His choices where limited, there was only one thing left to do. It would not be pleasant and would win few friends. But his survival necessitated it, and he couldn’t live without the power he had built up. The first part was going to be easy. Phase two however was going to take a lot more organising. “Set course for the Strowbrinia system.” “Aye sir!” Twenty hours later, Sheppard arrived at Strowbinia 4. Kristovs secret R & D facility was encased in an asteroid in orbit around the third moon. “Open a channel” He looked at his aide, who nodded once the channel was open. “Attention, this Is Admiral Sheppard. Lower your shields and prepare to receive an occupation team. Any attempt to resist will be dealt with severely.” “Admiral Sheppard this is Commander Jacobs. Explain yourself, when Warlord Kristov here’s about this….” Sheppard cut him off. “Inform the fire crews to fire on this section here three bursts at full power.” Green fire leapt out from the heavy Turbolasers on the port side of Relentless. They punched through the shields and blew the power generators. Lights aboard the facility went out. “Admiral cease fire…cease fire. I am lowering shields.” Sheppard turned to his aide, when you have control of the facility, have him executed in front of his men. The aide shuddered, sometimes the Admiral could be a little to fanatic. But he would carry out his instructions to the letter; he didn’t want to meet the same fate after all. Sheppard linked his computer up to the R & D core. He scanned through a few files until he found what he was looking for. Kristov was a fool; he never knew what he had all along. Entering a pass code he had been give by the Emperor himself, he downloaded the files into his computer.