Well Veel'Riz has also made an enemy of the sole surviving Valdez family member, no Romulan will be safe around her. As far as Trianna Valdez is concerned, the romulans killed her father and she wants retribution for her loss. Admiral Valdez and the now Rear Admiral Solat were a team.
The Andorians having witnessed Valdez's self sacrifice have made an oath to avenge him, he had their respect as a warrior. The Vulcans have also signed on with Solat, Solat knows a thing or two about Romulans.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Rear Admiral Solat walked into the war room, she had to rebuild her command staff. As BG inquisitor was a multi planetary force, all species were to be equals. "What would Nathan do if he was here?" she asked to herself. The loss of the admiral hit the crew hard, they had been with him since the beginning and Solat knew she had some big boots to fill.
The first thing she did was appoint a first officer, she called in Lt Cmd Flores. "Maam, you need to speak to me" Lt Cmd James Flores said saluting. "Lt Cmd, at ease" said Solat. "Lt Cmd Flores, you tried to help the admiral by staying behind, that shows strength. A quality I need in a first officer." Solat said. Flores pointed out he and Krasnova had to ordered off the Oudenarde. Solat considered her choices on promotions, both Flores and Krasnova had shown selfless courage in volunteering to stay behind with the admiral. Solat then called Lt Kranova in, Krasnova saluted and asked why she was being called in. "You both showed courage in what you did, you are both to be decorated and promoted."
The crew were demoralised, a public decoration and promotion in front of the crew would restore their pride as a unit. On the bridge of the Valdez, Solat ordered Lt Adrienne Krasnova and Lt Cmd James Flores to rise and stand to attention. "As per Admiral Valdez's last orders to me, Lt Cmd James Flores, for showing that courage and loyalty I'm promoting you to full commander and my first officer. Lt Adrienne Krasnova, for your courage and loyalty, you are promoted to Lt Commander." The bridge crew all clapped and congratulated Krasnova and Flores.
In an award ceremony in the shuttlebay, Trianna Valdez presented Lt cmd Krasnova and Cmd Flores with the order of Terra, the highest award for extraordinary bravery in the empire. "Flores, my father would have been proud to have you as a son. Krasnova, my father always saw you as a daughter to him" Trianna said as she presented the awards. Solat wanted a member of the Valdez family to present the awards as a morale boost.
In the war room, Solat presided over a new military council. General Solux was the Vulcan representative and General Shar was the Andorian representative. Cmd Flores was the Terran representative on the council.
In the meeting the overall strategy was agreed, BG Inquisitor would stay in defensive positions in the Nukara system. Solat knew romulan strategy was to draw out an opponent and then defeat in detail.
BG Inquisitor would not take the bait, any attempt by Romulan union forces to enter the sector would be pinched off and defeated.
Post edited by theraven2378 on
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Stardate 12/17/ 2411
Defera sector, Levtro System (Prime Universe)
Citadel class Star-fortress: Vanguard
Chief Engineers log
We've finally gained control of starship and clone production on military zone south after 3 years of lockout of them.... I'm releaved i admit.
But equally concerned. These ships and troops are cut from a different cloth in more ways than specialized training. Their weapons and gear includes, anti-personal Thaloron missile launchers, Tholian crystalline short swords. A double barrel auto-rifle with Plasma grenade launcher attachment. The body armor is fairly standard with several enhanced stealth modifications and additional shield generators.
We have several new ship designs here as well.
There was 34 Phalanx cruisers that had most of the weapon emplacements removed and replaced with outer hull hologram-emitters, and an enhanced cloaking device.
There was also:
3 Invinticus (scimitar) dreadnoughts,
55 Immortal type battleships, 38 Valour cruisers, with 72 Kronos corvet escorts.
200 Romulan Star Empire drone ships.
And 45 "Crusader artillery warbirds"
Finally a new design: the "Crusader artillery warbird"
It's based on the 4 winged design of the Valour class, but they are parallel to each other. They also have several satellites to deploy that appear to replicate cloaked mines, with stealth and self replication capabilities. Although the wings have multiple high yield plasma warheads. The range of which is supposedly 99% accurate up to 75,000 kilometers. The design however claims that the range could extend over 3 times that distance, and still deliver critical damage if not destroy a shielded target. The advanced battle cloak would make these a deadly sneak attack. With 16 launch tubes carrying 4 projectiles, the entire magazine could fire in just 10 seconds if desired.
The problem was after that those are empty the crew is only left with two, 360 degree beam arrays, if forced to drop the cloak.
_______
They all just left an hour ago after we met them for the first time... Opened the hangers and left the message: "For the future... We shall fight in the past."
Stardate 2390
Anranis (Mirror Universe)
Veel'Riz was surprised at his survival... He'd literally been blown into an escape pod by an explosion, and had woken up hours later looking at his ships chef.
The man had hidden within the wrecked open hull of an Immortal warbird and gone to minimum power settings- which had explained the near freezing cold.
The Phoenix.... The engines had taken a hit and then the enemy was heading right for him... He hadn't even considered his actions as he ordered the crew to abandon ship... Based on the debris it must have been a heck of a light show.
Once it became apparent that the fleet assumed no one was left alive they sent a open message as the encryption was damaged. "R-E-A-P-E-R-S--W-I-N-G-S"
Now back inside the Vanguard, after being picked up.... And just beating the Terrans who where hot on his rescuers warptrail, he called for his best tactical, science, and engineering minds... It was time for a new strategy and eager to design a long range vessel... Valdez had used a false retreat effectively- but that also cost him ships.
The man was Terran, so the odds of him going down with the ship were probably low...
He'd speak to the Molindrans about the RSE drones ship he'd read about, and see about building their own version.
He'd show Valdez why the Terrans called him the Reaper.
Post edited by zionus0 on
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Rear Admiral Solat was sat at her desk at the daily war council meeting, General Shar was pushing for an offensive operation. His plan was to draw out the Romulans by paying another visit to Molindra, intelligence had revealed the existence of a underground facility which had survived the first attack. Solat and General Solux knew an assault on the planet would be a pointless waste of resources, what they had in mind was the total destruction of the entire system.
"I need suggestions for the destruction of the Molindra system" Solat said to her council. Flores suggested trilithium torpedoes fired directly at the star to turn it supernova. Solat looked through all the options, turning to Flores she asked "How long will it take to build 12 trilithium devices". Flores said "give me 36 hours and you will have your weapons". Solat calmly said "you have 24 hours, time is essential here". Flores saluted and left for the armoury to start work. "The rest of you, I need you on your ships. In 24 hours we are heading back to Molindra, Operation Valdez is a go" Solat said in her dry Vulcan tone.
24 hours later Solat was ready, keeping most of her ships back in Nukara, she took a small raiding force with her. 2 hours later, the raiders were infiltrating the system under cloak. Solat led the attack from the I.S.S. Bulldog, a Hestia class escort. Approaching the Molindran star, she gave the order to load the torpedo tubes with the prototype trilithium torpedoes. At 10,000 Km she gave the order to fire and 12 trilithium devices sped at the star as the raiders turned their ships around and hit transwarp before the shock wave hit them.
As the star imploded in on itself, the stresses built up and then turned the star supernova, the shock wave obliterating everything in the system as Romulan and Molindran ships caught in the shock wave were unable to engage their warp and transwarp drives. Any attempt to go to warp just increased the load on their engines. Within a matter of minutes all planets and ships in the system were utterly destroyed as the shock wave spread out of the system.
"Status on the star, Flores?" Solat asked, "it's gone as is the whole system" replied Flores. "Excellent, what ever they were up to in that facility it's over". The raiders were back in Nukara within 2 hours and a report was dispatched to fleet command. It read, "Molindran system completely destroyed. 4 Molindran battleships and 10 Romulan ships wiped out for no losses."
Solat now tightened security even more, she suspected that the Romulans knew Nukara was the base of Terran operations. "Flores, take a security team and execute our Molindran guest" was her next order. Flores and his team deactivated the containment field in the Molindran's cell and before the Molindran could react, Flores had shot him through the head. "Vaporise the body Sgt" Flores ordered and Sgt Maxwell carried out the order. "Guest eliminated" Flores reported back to Solat.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Star date 2310
Dewa system (mirror universe)
Battle group Scythe
All things considered Veel'Riz was in a good mood this morning, and he had more than enough reason to be. His plan of placing several programs in Vanguard stations computer and knowing they'd activate later had worked. He was still waiting for some calculations as he updated what he needed, and situation changed but this was still something. His troops needed a moral bonus and he'd just learned that the Sword of Raptor Star had been found on New Romulus- he was going to find it in this universe.
Currently there was a Terran force in the system: 5 dreadnought , 9 battleships, 12 escorts and 4 frigates.... Against every Romulan under is command.... The Molindran ships were staying docked in the Citadel- better to let the Terrans think they'd been eradicated... They'd be controlling the key element of this next attack from sectors away: the Drone ships.
The fleet had closed to 100,000 km and then his new Crusader artillery ships fired, the cloaked barrage taking down 26 hostiles turning them to metallic space trash. He'd underestimated the effectiveness it seemed... He aimed for indirect shots to disable the Terrans... Still... The remaining four vessels scrambled to split up as 20 of the Drones now appearing as Tholian orb weavers warped in on top of them. Disabling all but one frigate, which was allowed to escape as it was soon chased down- and had more "lucky" escapes with more Tholians.
Veel'Riz smirked 30 enemy ships, and not even a drone lost... He closed in on the hapless ships. "Fire the parasites!" He ordered and watched as the special marine carrying torpedoes drilled into enemy ships. "Transporters you may send over more of our brothers and sisters now."
As his elite captured the enemy ships, he took a team to the surface and within the hour had found the location he was looking for, his men finished taking the enemy ships as well... Transporting back to his new dreadnought the RDW Vanquisher, he was glade to note that another group of the drones had attacked a nearby Klingon outpost, taking the guise of Tholians and Terrans.... Another group had attacked Andoria. A good morning indeed!
Still he had one more thing to do here, before he could allow the Terran scouts which would surely be coming in a few short hours arrived... "Tactical is the device ready?"
"Yes Sir the Molindran machine has been modified to your specifications."
Veel'Riz nodded... He narrowed his eyes at the planet in front of him imagining it were Terra. "... Fire...."
A torpedo raced from the ship towards Dewa 3, and opened up in the atmosphere firing smaller similar devices that began firing streams of energy across the planet, before each disintegrated into dust.
From orbit, the Romulans watched as purple ripples spread across the sphere like a ocean, and then vanished.
What had once been a pristine M class world was now nothing more and a Demon planet... Class Y. The entire force had never even decloaked and set course for Vanguard, after placing the new mine deploying satellite as they did... Tractor beams and swarm detonation...
The Terrans wanted to play God? To potentially eradicate an entire sentient species? Let them, he would just have to become their devil.
He'd lost no ships...
Not a single drone....
Captured his enemy's vessels...
And left no trace of his involvement....
Moral was higher than it had been in weeks....
He'd call that a victory for now.
Post edited by zionus0 on
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
1st November 2410- Gateway system (Prime universe)
U.S.S. Oudenarde.
Captain Nathan Valdez was looking through the daily reports of his officers. He then heard his ready room door chime, "enter" he said. Commander Solat passed him a message, Captain Walker needed to meet him over a critical manner. The U.S.S. Pastak emerged alongside the Oudenarde and Valdez beamed over.
What ever it was to be requested by name was something critical. "Captain Valdez, there has been an incursion into the past. The Romulan Union has asked for your help in dealing with a problem, a problem you are uniquely ideal for dealing with. I'm sending you and the Oudenarde to the Haakona system, it's in the other universe at stardate 2390." Valdez asked why him, Walker said "Star Commander Veel'Riz will brief you on that" Walker finished with.
Soon the Oudenarde was in 2390 at Haakona, "Flores scan for any cloaking signatures" Valdez ordered. Flores carried out a full scan and picked up the Vanquisher on sensors. "Put us on yellow alert number one", Solat said "this is the XO, yellow alert all decks". " Permission to raise shields Captain?" asked Flores, "no not yet" Valdez said calmly. "Sir" Flores said to Valdez as Valdez turned round to see the Vanquisher decloak.
"Hail them" Valdez ordered. The reply was forthcoming, Star Commander Veel'Riz appeared on screen. "I'm Captain Nathan Valdez, commanding officer USS Oudenarde". "You may call me Veel'Riz, I need your help captain Valdez. as it's such a delicate matter, lets talk on board my ship and you can bring two officers with you" Veel'Riz said in a cold manner.
Transporting over to the Vanquisher, Captain Valdez, Ensign Valdez and Commander Solat were greeted by Veel'Riz. "Trianna, you picking up anything?" Captain Valdez asked Ensign Valdez. "Anger and pain among the Molindrans and distrust from the Romulans Captain" she replied back.
In Veel'Riz's office, he revealed the reason why he asked Captain Valdez for help. "Captain, the reason I requested you by name is your counterpart can match me move for move. I've studied the records about you." "You need my help in defeating my counterpart" Valdez said going to straight to business. Veel'Riz respected that quality, from the historical records Valdez never minced words. "I'll help you" said Valdez. His counterpart was one of those responsible for the Lysian massacre and the Kinjun massacre, he was also wanted for aiding a known war criminal. Sito Thay had escaped with his counterpart's assistance. Officially, Valdez and his crew were observers, unofficially they were combat advisers.
Valdez then handed a book over to to Veel'riz, it was Sun Tzu's the art of war translated into Rihan. "Star Commander, this was written by an ancient Earth general on how to fight a war. You'll find it enlightening" Valdez said.
"I will need every after action report from all your engagements with my counterpart. He'll have a pattern in his tactics. He's very intelligent and dangerously unpredictable. Your first engagement with my counterpart, he used an old Earth naval tactic of splitting a battle line with two columns" Valdez said. He finished with, "he reads military history, every battle is different. You prepare for one strategy and he blindsides you with something completely unexpected, that is the nature of your opponent"
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
As Battlegroup Scythe positioned itself outside the perimeter of Nukara’s defences (gained from a captives memories) the acting captain of the Vanquisher, the Vulcan Chevalier T’Nae, looked over at Veel’Riz who gave her a silent nod of his head. She’d been more than happy to reunite with the rest of the fleet- and its latest additions. She believed her ability to perform her current assignment in a satisfactory and believable manner if they were hailed. Technically the Star-Commander was still in control of their overall stragedy as he manned the tactical station, to coordinate the fleet. Her job was to claim to have taken command after his ‘disappearance’ with the destruction of the Phoenix.
The fleet had been positioned in three main groups: the majority of the fleet had formed into wedges with each squadron and its supporting/ supported squadron briefed on the order of the engagement. Formed up around the Vanqiusher, were I’s two sister dreadnoughts, 100 battleships, 62 cruisers, and 40 escorts. Thirty kilometres above and below on either side of this these waiting in ambush were 20 frigates, supported by 6 Falcata class Destroyers.
Waiting sixty kilometers behind them, lurked group two 52 heavily modified Phalanx cruisers, 120 of the Drones, and 34 Dagger Frigates.
Finally 80,000 Kilometres behind the main line were 30 Crusader artillery warbirds, accompanied by an escort of 2 cruisers, and 15 frigates. Having been provided with a cloaking device he U.S.S. Oudenarde, accompanied this group, which intended to stay out of the fighting.
Every ship had one Molindran onboard- Valdez suggested a mental assault could turn the battle’s tide, and keep the enemy telepaths occupied. The other reason was to see if the Terrans had any real understanding of how dangerous the species could be. Veel’Riz and Captain Valdez had both agreed a prolonged and direct assault (as this intended to appear) wouldn’t be feasible, but the objective here would be to see how the Terrans reacted to an attack... The question was where had those two positioned the remaining 15 artillery ships and 10 Phalanxes?
It was time... She took a breath and ordered 15 drones to decloaked as Klingon birds of prey, racing past the front line ships as another 4 took on the form of Terran frigates.... T’Nae could feel here heart beating in her chest, she battled to control her anxiety, emotional response would impede her peoples goals. Every soldier felt their heart beating as they waited the enemy.... It was always the worst part of this kind of operation- the flow of combat brought the “fight or flight” instinct to an end as their training prepared them. They watched as the drones played ‘tag ‘ with each other firing their weapons to get the enemies attention... Finally it worked, as several Terran vessels appeared and engaged the ‘Klingons’. Then each of the drones began to focus their fire on the confused Imperials.
The distress call was sent, as the Vanquishers communications officer intercepted it. The drones cloaked and bolted at full speed as one took a hit, but maintained control. Then with a massive blast of plasma fire, 20 plasma artillery shells disintegrated the hostiles coming in so quickly the Romulans hadn’t seen them fly past.
Then the reinforcements arrived only to see the wrecks... The center of group one opened fire with a cloaked barrage, and loosed 10 parasite missiles, 6 found their marked sovereign class, the 4 were shot from the stars. Upon learning his peril, the captain of the I.S.S. Kraken told his crew to tell Admiral Solat he’d found her Romulans, and had been boarded.
Task force Inquisitor arrived quickly, eyes, sensors seeking the targets of their vengeance. Then they to faced a widespread volley from the Crusaders, taking significant damage, loosing multiple ships. Fortunately they’d been prepared to be ambushed and had spread out wide so as to minimize the chances of a cloaked ship slipping past them. Veel’Riz had given a difficult order to his troops: the Vulcan ships would be priority targets today.... Having their sensors jammed needed to be avoided.
The Vanquisher hailed the enemy. “This is acting commander T’Nae, of the Romulan Star Union Battlegroup Scythe, allow us to parlay in order to negotiate for the release of one of your prisoners. There is no need for further violence today... Let us act logically.” Veel’Riz has instructed her to attempt this, although conversing would allow the enemy to encircle them, he’d planned for that.
Solat returned the hail, realizing that a Vulcan was apparently leading the enemy force. “This is Rear Admiral Solat of the ISS Valdez, there will be no negotiation with you- traitor or your forces. Valdez taught me all he knew, and we intended to hour his sacrifice by destroying every last one of you.”
“You are the traitor to Vulcan Admiral. I was not the first to be liberated by-“ The channel went dead, neither side waited a moment longer, the center of the Unions fleet went to combat speed and the Terrans began a 360 degree spread of phaser, and anti-proton fire to find the oncoming attackers, as the Romulans began the engagement using their new advanced battle cloaks to maintain their shields and use of their weapons while it was in use. The first five minutes the Unions advantage was clear, despite the enemy’s attempt to create a tachyon grid.
They couldn’t keep it up forever- the drain on their power was to great on the smaller vessels, and so they adopted Veel’Riz’s “Scourge” tactic of swapping in and out of stealth as they weaved into the enemy force. Realizing this Solat closed her engaged forces into a tight group of formations, and concentrated their firepower on available targets. She knew that the Romulans wouldn’t have attacked unless they felt they had a chance at victory so what was their plan?
She was distracted from that thought however as the Vanquisher and its escorts opened a spread of fire on the I.S.S. Valdez, which was happily returned, with the destruction of four escorts. Then she called in the encircling ships of the task force- and the tide turned again.
Now it was the Romualns who bore the full force of the Terran onslaught, ship after ship fell just as their own had before. “Close the-!” T’Nae began.
“Not! Not yet Chevalier let them think they’ve won... Hold for now.” Vee’Riz warned. T’Nae obeyed but over the next 14 minutes Solat was forcing them into an increasingly tight ring, and picking them off. As she was hit by sparks as the secondary shields buckled T’Nae looked at her leader.
Finally the Star-Commander gave the word, “Close the talons!” The support released a renewed volley upon task for Inquisitor as the Molindrans began their own much more subtle attack. Focusing on the minds of Imperial Telepaths they quickly found most of the enemy was no match for their strength of will. As Solat watched several of her ships ram their fellows -the I.S.S. Lilith a Batazoid pilot- she felt a intruder in her mind, and a powerful one.
She felt like a candle compared to this bonfire of a telepath... She felt the begging of a migraine from strain, she couldn't fight back! It was all she could do to keep this being from obliterating her will to crush her mentally. She tried a counter attack, but regretted it immediately she may as well have been an ant trying to move a wall of stone. All her training and she couldn't push this invader from her mind! She heard screaming millions of voices.... She'd helped cause these deaths. This intruder wanted her dead.
The attack on her mind suddenly stopped, leaving her with a splitting headache, and green blood coming from her nose. "Who- what was that?" She wondered.
The Molindran had been on the R.D.W. Vulture- which had taken a direct hit to its singularity core.
The Romulans had sent in the Phalanx squadrons by this point, and they had immediately began fielding multiple holographic warbirds, spreading further mayhem on the battlefield. One of the dreadnoughts had used a Thaloron weapon.
As additional Imperals arrived still this fight seemed to be going nowhere. The Union called up the Drones which took on the guise of Herald Frigates! How!?
On the Vanquisher the Tactical officer informed her commander of multiple Tholian Taratula groups inbound. They were met with the full complement of the artillery ships payloads. One the titanic ships went down instantly another took critical damage, the third took only moderate damage. Most of the smaller Tholian ships had had no chance. The Crusaders and their escorts set course away from Nukara.
It was time to withdraw Veel'Riz decided, and ordered every ship to foucus their fire in the direction of the Vulcan sector. The Molindrans did their part now, via a massive Telekenetic wave they cleared the path of of hostile ships, crushing them, or throwing them aside like rag dolls, an Oddessy lost a navel as did multiple other cruisers. Battlegroup Scythe used the opportunity and went to warp.
No one pursued... Much to their thanks as a shuttle pilot accidnetly found a small mine field in the direction they'd gone the day later.
"I still have a Romulan problem on the kraken ion case anyone cares to know!"
"Including the Tholians the Terrans lost 5 ships for every 1 of ours." Veel'Riz was pleased to see the report.
Veel'Riz realized that with Admiral Valdez dead they had an opportunity...
By the end of the week he'd repaired the stolen Terran ships. Brought them out to the Arcanis sector, used their systems to send a distress call, opened fire on them, and beamed a data rod into the damaged wrecks.
----Data rod recording----
'Admiral' Valdez was seated in a holding cell, as T'Nae came into view.
"I didn't go to the trouble of time travel and saving you to not get what I came for Admiral."
"You'll find I won't be easily broken." Valdez retorted.
"I have no doubt of that.... In the reality I come from your people have had a name for the man you killed: Veel'Riz, the Reaper of Romulus.... Taught me everything he knew... He was forged by war.... He was the Darkness your people feared between the stars."
"I need you for a prisoner exchange.... The truth is we're here for a single individual, and we know she's at Nukara... I don't need you-"
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Captain Valdez reviewed the after action report from the Battle of Nukara, Admiral Solat had revealed her defensive strategy. She had pinched off and repulsed an assault on her lines, "Number one, what do you make of this?" said Valdez. "I would do the same if I was in her shoes" replied Solat. "Look at it this way Nathan, it's a logical defensive strategy in play here" said Solat. "To defeat the logical, we must use the illogical" said Valdez.
"Trianna, I need you to be a liaison officer to Veel'riz, call it a lesson in diplomacy" Valdez said. "Yes Captain" replied Trianna. "You are to be an advisory officer to Veel'riz. Later at a meeting with the Romulan Union leadership, Valdez pointed out the key engagements at Nukara were around the flanks. "It's a classic double envelopment manoeuvre, the key to defeating it is not to take the bait in their centre. That's what she wants us to do." said Valdez. Solat and Trianna added their input. "Chevalier T'Nae, Star Commander Veel'Riz, we may have identified a weak link." said Solat, to which Trianna pointed out, "She's a powerful telepath, I'm not strong enough to break through her mind". Solat said "Her strategy is logical, she's also completely detached. Humans have a saying, when facing the logical, use the illogical."
Veel'Riz then revealed news that changed everything, "Our target at Nukara was executed this morning on the orders of Admiral Solat". The Molindrans wanted retribution, Valdez staying ever cool, calm and collected pointed out "She wants us to react, don't take the bait. Vengeance is a very powerful weapon, a lesson I learnt from my universe's Sela. She wants to draw us into fights in her home turf, we need to draw her to a battlefield of our choosing." The revelation had changed the whole course of the war.
"Lets keep the Molindrans as our ace in the hole, they did an excellent job. The Terrans think they've exterminated them, lets keep them believing that" said Valdez.
..............................................................................
2390 Nukara System, (mirror universe)
ISS Valdez
Rear Admiral Solat was reading the after action reports in her ready room, it was her daily meeting with her first officer. Captain Bashir had been called in, Solat just glared at him. "Captain Bashir, why did you send an open message in a combat situation? You put the battle group at risk and we were detected." said Solat in her cold calm manner. "The enemy were bearing down on me, I needed to get the message out fast." replied Bashir in a vain attempt to defend his own incompetence. Solat just got up and walked up to Bashir before grabbing him by the throat. "The admiral would have had you flushed out the shuttlebay for this failure, what am I going to do about you?" said Solat. "The crew of the Kraken paid with their lives and you lost your ship" she said as she snapped his neck. "Remove this thing from the ship" she ordered to Flores, "Maam" replied Flores as two security troopers dragged the body across the bridge.
Later in the war room, Solat mentioned something strange. "Commander, we were brought under sustained telepathic assault today" "It was fleet wide maam, all captains reported that telepaths just lost control" replied Flores. "All telepaths are to be equipped with psionic shields on their belts, the enemy can only play that card once." Solat said. "I also sensed that the admiral's counterpart was there". "That complicates things" replied Flores. "Agreed, our counterparts helping the enemy presents a problem." replied Solat, Solat then went to her communications console and ordered "ops, check the sensor logs for any Federation signatures". Clemens obeyed the order and reported back "There was a Federation starship hidden by a cloak".
"The U.S.S. Oudenarde" Solat noted to herself, "Commander, find out about this Captain Valdez. If he's anything like the late Admiral, he could be a problem." "I'm already onto it maam" said Flores as he saluted the admiral.
Post edited by theraven2378 on
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Stardate 2390
Haakona system (Mirror universe)
Vanguard Station- U.S.S. Oudenarder
Veel'Riz had managed to pull some strings so the Federation ship could dock on the Star-Fortress, although it hadn't been easy. "You have a fine vessel Captain Valdez." Veel'Riz stated, as he followed the man into his ready room. "I owe you quite a bit more than a favor in the future."
"Thank you Star-Commander, now what's the real reason for this visit?" Valdez took a seat.
Veel’Riz looked at Solat and Trianna, before turning to T'Nae. "Teksion please... Chevalier, what I'm about to say is classified, wait outside."
She reluctantly obeyed. Veel’Riz sighed as he explained the original purpose of his mission- which had never been meant to involve this horribly bloody trip to the past. He'd intended to rescue a member of an endangered species, then the temporal defense initiative sent a man named Walker to inform him that that particular Molindran was vital to the timeline- being involved in the development of temporal drives. The humans at least shared his concern visibly on their faces.
"When I expressed my resignations about what he wanted. He told me the Terrans had used time travel and the Commander was in the past... " Veel'Riz went on. "I believe Starfleet has similar regulations about time travel to my people, but at present I think I need to put everything on the table."
"Go on Veel'Riz, we're all ears."
"According to Walker, my people and the Molindrans eventually join the Galactic Union. That process is slowed by my peoples possession of Thaloron weapons, an Omega generator-" Noting the shocked expressions he quickly added: "Which we do not stockpile and use only to transport our last Starbase. The particles are stabilized and disposed of! We're aware of the danger, and not insane enough to keep any laying around.... All the cloning was never an easy choice for my people either, and they quickly earn citizenship..." He was silent for a moment. "Constantly being attacked by our Galactic neighbors, it changed our culture more than I like to think about."
"You are rambling, star Commander, what is the point you wish to make?" Solat asked.
"Are we beaten in your opinion?" The Romulan lamented. "Temporal mechanics aren't my area of expertise.... The only option I see is either to remove the Snake's head, or try to weaken the Terrans enough to delay their rise to put everything on even footing... Other than that I'm at loss."
Pre-destruction Molindra system (Mirror Universe)
G.S.S. Agatha (Molindran Mercy class Frigate)
Captain Bleekoo had- with great difficulty- managed to convince the Guardian of Forever to help him, and his crew get here an hour after the Terran's first attack.
Beaming into the massive chamber he decided to forgo trying to open the hanger entirely, and set his small crew to jump start the power, and run wormhole calculations... Thankfully they'd started beforehand using fairly accurate estimates of the ships mass and size of the deflector.
After eighteen hours they'd set up a area on the bridge shielded from sensors, and locked out most of the ships controls, as they prepared for the small force arrived in orbit.... Foolishly forgoing stealth- why had they done that?
Once the ships arrived in orbit they knew it wouldn't be long now before the star went supernova... They could feel the other Molindran landing teams, and their confusion at the system lockout. Bleekoo was informed that they'd gained access to transporters, the subspace cloak and the wormhole generator was nearly theirs. The bridge was silent as they went through their mental conversation.
The alarms started sounding.... "Start transporting the crews! Status!"
"Shock-wave impact in 200 seconds!"
"Deflector?!"
"I've almost got it! Creation of the anomaly commencing now... Particle stream is stable! Power levels optimal.."
"120 Seconds until impact!"
"We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" "Transport complete Captain!"
"Raising cloak."
"32 seconds!"
"Now would be a good time Adept!" Banging was heard on the door.
Captain Valdez was called to the bridge, "Sir, the entire Molindran system, it's gone. It's star turned supernova 72 hours ago" replied Solat. "Lt Krasnova, set a course for Molindra. Maximum warp" ordered Valdez. "All hands to battle stations" was his next order, the crew got to their battle stations as the red alert sirens blared all over the ship.
Three hours later, the Oudenarde arrived at Molindra and immediately commenced scans of the remains of the system. "Was this supernova natural or artificially created?" asked Valdez. Getting to the bottom of this mystery was his first goal, if the Terrans had access to weapons that could wipe out a star system it was worth Veel'Riz's attention. "Picking up trilithium signatures near the star's remains" reported Clemens. "Transport a sample to your science lab and analyse it." Valdez ordered to Clemens. "Five, consult the Collective's records on trilithium weapons. If the Borg have encountered them, they will have left information of them in their files" was Valdez's next order.
Solat now consulted Federation records of trilithium weapons. The only results that came back was the Soren incident in 2371 and a Dominion attempt to turn Bajor's sun supernova in 2373. "I want reports on my desk by 0730 hours" Valdez said to his officers. "Lt, get us back to Haakona". The Oudenarde left the system after leaving a memorial in the debris of what was once a thriving system.
Within three hours, the Oudenarde was docked with Vanguard Station and Captain Valdez, Commander Solat and Ensign Trianna Valdez beamed over and passed the report of their investigation to Veel'riz. "Star Commander, we have a problem. The Terrans have access to trilithium weapons, the Molindra supernova was deliberately created." said Captain Valdez. "To my counterpart that is logical, destroying an enemy's ability to wage war by targeting military installations is a sound move." pointed out Solat. "The first attack led by the captain's counterpart was aimed at the Molindran military installations, the civilian population was nothing more than collateral damage in his view. This last attack suggests the Terrans missed something, they must have come back and wiped out the system to wipe out any last military installations" Solat finished with. "Weapons of mass destruction are banned for a very good reason" Trianna pointed out.
"Remind me to lodge an official protest" said Valdez in his usual dry tone.
Post edited by theraven2378 on
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Captain Valdez was in his quarters studying the records about Strike Group Inquisitor, at the Battle of Nukara Admiral Solat had handled her ships very well. Something Veel'riz had asked was a cause for concern, morale in the Romulan Union forces was at a all time low and even their commander had doubted himself. Valdez worked out what was needed, though a decisive victory over Rear Admiral Solat was unfeasible due to near shattered morale, maybe an assault on a softer Terran target might give the Romulan Union that morale victory they needed.
What Valdez had in mind was an attack on a weaker target, something to draw parts of RA Solat's fleet away from Nukara. His train of thought was interrupted by Trianna coming back from her duty shift on the bridge. "Some days, I miss your mother" Valdez said to Trianna. Trianna asked "what's that you are working on father?". Valdez replied "A possible way of making this RA Solat make a mistake. I've also arranged for you to finish your telepathic training, I've noticed you wanting to embrace your Betazoid heritage." Trianna looked over her father's idea for baiting out RA Solat. "Clemens may have identified a Terran base in the Dinasia System, we were checking the Terran channels and Dinasia was mentioned repeatably" Trianna said.
Captain Valdez looked up and smiled, maybe this was the break they needed. Nukara was a fortress but Dinasia could hold potential. "Valdez to bridge, launch a class VI probe to Dinasia. Send the telemetry data to Veel'riz." he ordered. "If it checks out then we can work on a strategy" Captain Valdez finished with. "You're concerned father" Trianna said. Valdez knew that look on Trianna's face, nothing got past her.
On the bridge several hours later, Valdez was awaiting the probe's data burst. A Terran supply base had been found with several Terran convoys shuttling supplies to the Nukara being based there, no temporal readings detected. "Hail the Star Commander, Clemens" he ordered. Clemens sent the hail and it was returned. "Star Commander, I'm sending you data on a softer target. No temporal signatures detected, Dinasia is one of the key Terran supply hubs. We also intercepted military channels about their convoy routes and timings" said Valdez.
Veel'riz reviewed the data, a couple of successful convoy attacks could improve morale and draw out parts of Strike Group Inquisitor from Nukara. Hitting Dinasia would cut Terran supply lines to Nukara forcing an Imperial Response.
...............................................................................................................................................................................
I.S.S. Valdez, Nukara System 2390 (Mirror Universe)
Rear Admiral Solat was in her war room, the Romulan attack on Nukara had been repulsed though tactically it had been a costly draw. "Commander Flores, you have that information I requested?" she said in her cold calm manner. "Maam, this is what I've found on this Captain Valdez. He's defeated Leeta three times over the space of a year." Solat listened to the briefing by her first officer. Maybe this Federation captain was a threat after all, for Leeta to be defeated three times by the same captain meant that this Federation captain was going to be no push over after all.
"Anything else Commander?" said Solat, "We picked up that Federation Signature again at Molindra." replied Flores, "Then it's logical to assume that Captain Valdez discovered that the supernova was artificially created." replied Solat. "I asked Lt Valdez to find out the nature of the telepathic assault that hit at the Battle of Nukara" replied Flores. They were interrupted by a call, it was from Lt Trianna Valdez. "Maam, not all the Molindrans have been wiped out. Strike Group Inquisitor were lucky to get out of that situation. Telepaths all over the system were affected by that blast of telepathic energy." Lt Valdez reported. "That will be all, Solat out" Solat replied. She could trust Lt Valdez, admiral Valdez was a friend and any relation of the admiral's was also to be counted on as an ally.
Red Alert interrupted the meeting as both Flores and Solat were called to the battle bridge. An Alliance squadron attempted to launch a raid on the Terran base at Nukara. Solat put the strike group to red alert and advanced her forces to the system's edge. Facing the remaining 350 ships of Strike Group Inquisitor were 25 Klingon Bird of Preys being supported by 15 Vor'chas and 20 Cardassian Galors.
Solat formed her lines up, "scan those ships, let's not repeat the drone experience." she ordered. Clemens scanned all ships, "they're real ships maam." reported Clemens. "Cruisers and dreadnoughts form up in the centre, escorts to the wings. Put our Vulcan ships behind the cruisers in the centre" she ordered. Now she waited for the Alliance forces to arrive. 20 minutes later the attack force decloaked and launched the assault. "Let them charge our lines" ordered Solat. Looking at her tactical display, she ordered the centre to pull back in a controlled manner.
The Alliance raiders had taken the bait of an apparently weakened centre and attack head on. This was what Solat was waiting for, "Centre group, keep pulling them further into our lines, flanks wait for my signal" was her next order. The Alliance attack soon began to bog down as their sensors were being jammed, at this moment Solat gave the order "witch's cauldron" and her flanking force swept around the back of the Alliance attack and swarmed them from every direction, the Terran centre now advanced squeezing the Alliance assault ever tighter and tighter. Solat knew the Klingons would not surrender and gave the order to wipe them out. After seeing the destruction the Klingon vessels, the 5 remaining Cardassian Galors powered down and surrendered having seen their weapons and shields destroyed. "Transport all prisoners to the booths commander" ordered Solat. "I want them kept alive, they may have vital information that could be of use to us." was her next order.
Flores obeyed the order and some 6000 Cardassian and Bajoran prisoners of war were transported to the booths at Nukara Station. "A result, but this Alliance attack was not random, the Romulans and our counterparts are up to something" Solat said to her first officer.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Centurion T’Raul of the R.D.W. Blight-Bird looked back at his unsuspecting prey, as his dreadnought closed in on the docked freighters, followed by 8 battleships, 20 escorts, 12 Destroyers, 10 cruisers, and 25 frigates. He’d taken out two convoys already, now his real target was in sight. Still he had to use every asset he had while T’Nae was still leading other parts of BG Basilisk in several skirmishes in other nearby sectors, and another drone group played deception with a now former Cardasian colony, as Terrans and Tholians again.
He first, had the Molindrans mentally infiltrate the enemy ranks; and in a matter of moments he had the shield frequencies of the small station, and Imperial communication codes… Jackpot.
Checking the hour one last time as it signalled 0300, his ships accelerated to attack speed as several of Molindrans used hand phasers on four of the freighters warpcores from the safety of their true locations. Then the nimble Kronos escorts targeted communications, as the rest of the warbirds opened fire on various docked and military targets. The surprise had been complete and it was over in less than five minutes… Freighters, ships, the dock, and supply station were rubble…. Success without complications- at least it appeared that way, until the Klingons opened fire.
Hailing the lead cruiser, T’Raul attempted to negotiate. “I have no conflict with you, and we share a common enemy. It would be foolish to waste our strength fighting each other!”
The Klingon was as stubborn as he expected. “You took the battle I came for from me Romulan, I will have to take that honour back by defeating you.”
The Warbirds regrouped- a few of the Alliance wrecks could be beneficial to covering their tracks… Every moment would count now. As the two forces clashed the Klingon’s numerical advantage became clear despite the Union’s technological superiority. As another Immortal battleship went down two flanking Alliance groups warped in… Thankfully engaging the holograms created by the single Phalanx class.
T’Raul’s force was in trouble… If the Klingons reported their presence here, or worse if the Terrans found out- He had to prevent the Klingons from leaving this system alive! Outflanked and outnumbered, he didn’t know what to do…
Then the enemy was taking a fleet’s worth of fire, as the largest ship T’Raul had ever seen appeared seemingly from nowhere in the middle of the combat zone! The new arrival became the enemies main target now as the survivors of the initial onslaught tried ramming into it, only to find their ships held in place as the hull collapsed, or crashing into their allies. The last bird of prey tried to make a run at the ship using its warp engines- and still found its movement halted! The bridge crew questioned their eyes; then they died.
“This is the newly-named Molindran Celestial class dreadnought, Tsunami.” Captain Bleekoo said as he contacted the Romulans. “What do you say we get out of here before the enemy comes knocking?” As one all the vessels entered subspace, towing the Romulan wreckage behind them.
Haakona System (Mirror Universe)
Vanguard Station- Civilian section Alpha
Trianna Valdez, sat with the youngest female Molindran known to be in this reality. Gal’azia Yarloop’s superiors had felt it would be best if a Molindran from a similar stage in life assisted the Ensign with her telepathic training. That was relatively speaking of course there was almost than 70 millennia between their true ages.
Still Gal’azia was a first level mental adept- meaning she had slightly above average mental abilities for her species, and she could sense Trianna’s untapped potential, as they found this mostly quite ‘diner’ on the Vanguard’s civilian section on entertainment module B2.
“So whats the real reason for using this area?” Trianna asked, having sensed the original reason of a ‘calming’ environment to be inaccurate.
“To avoid my elders, interrupting us… I also find the sound of the ocean calming.” Gal’azia answered as the room became a small sandbar, with meditation candle. As the two women sat down and began sensing the emotions of the other, Gal’azia instructed her mentee to imagine their two minds as being small dots of light separated by a black lake (symbolic of true physical distance and the defenses another mind might possess).
Not wishing to try anything to advanced being unsure of how much training the young hybrid had previously had, the Molindran decided to start with a short telepathic conversation. She was surprised at the ease they were able to read the others thoughts- whether her own experience or not she wasn’t sure.
“So much pain… The loss of your home-world still lingers in your people’s memories generations later… Val’Rikith, was beautiful.” Trianna quietly said opening her eyes at the Molindrans solid navy blue ones.
“Thank you… But that isn’t why you’re shocked right now is it?” Gal’azia stated.
“The Molindran you were looking for… The reason you delayed applying for Starfleet academy…” Trianna didn’t want to offend this one, sympathizing with her pain. “She was your mother, your people don’t change surnames but rather middle ones.”
Gal’azia responded telepathically genuinely surprised and impressed. “I hadn’t intended to share that… Shall we continue?” Now she was wondering if the young Valdez was powerful enough to sense the location of indiviuals.
“Yes.”
R.D.W. Vanquisher
Veel’Riz didn’t think that day could have gone any better… The Terran communication frequencies and cypher codes could be an essential part of any future engagements or plans.
He hadn’t known that his allies would try to retrieve the Celestial class, but he was glad that they’d waited to reveal themselves to keep the timeline intact. He had further reason to celebrate he’d found a nebula similar to the great bloom(in regards to interfering with long range communications) that he hopped could be used for an ambush once he was ready to lure Solat out of Nukara… By taking the life of Commander Wol'oop, that Vulcan- no that Imperial may have cost him his people’s future, and the future of an entire galaxy. But if Walker had sent Valdez here to help him- maybe all hope wasn’t lost, he realized now, that he was missing a piece of this temporal puzzle.
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
The Oudenarde took up position in the centre of Veel'riz's line, there was no point hiding his presence now RA Solat had figured out he was helping the Romulans. "Let's keep the Molindrans in reserve for the moment, revealing them too early could be costly" Captain Valdez said tapping his personal communication console. Veel'riz came to the same assessment. Hidden on the flanks were lighter and faster escorts and destroyers.
Veel'riz ordered "send the message". The Vanquisher's communication officer sent the signal to activate the data stick. The trap was set, now all Valdez and Veel'riz had to do was wait. "All hands, this is the captain, all hands to battle stations" ordered Valdez to his crew. Soon the Oudenarde was an hive of activity as the well drilled Federation crew got to their posts. "Trianna, start messing around with their defense networks when they appear" was Valdez's next order. "I saved a few Iconian virus programmes for a special occasion" she replied. "Polymorphic probes are ready sir" Solat said.
The Terran force soon arrived, Solat was not present as she was being tied down by Alliance raids. Veel'Riz's drones had done their work well in causing confusion among the Terrans. Commanding the Terran force was Commodore Lindermann, his orders from Solat were to find and destroy the Romulan fleet. Lindermann got his rank by killing his competition, tactically he was aggressive to the point of recklessness. Charging his 4 squadrons of cruisers into the nebula he crashed into the Romulan union centre. Valdez watching as the Oudenarde started taking fire ordered, "Krasnova, crazy ivan". Krasnova understood what Valdez meant and soon the Oudenarde was dodging photons and taking less beam hit. "Veel'Riz, lets pull back our centre." Valdez suggested.
Veel'riz had judged the moment right to pull the Terran force deeper and into the Romulan centre and the Romulan centre seeme to start pulling back, Lindermann took the bait and ordered another charge. Trianna all the while was working her magic pulling down Terran shields and infecting the Terran ships with her collection of Iconian programmes. Polymorphic probes also caused havoc. Lindermann now found himself in an impossible situation as Veel'riz called in the Tsunami and the flanking forces cut off Terran escape. Lindermann was trapped and with communications and other systems going haywire, he hailed both the Oudenarde and Vanquisher.
"What are the terms of my surrender?" Lindermann asked to both Valdez and Veel'Riz. Both allied commanders considered what terms would be adequate, both agreed on unconditional surrender. Veel'riz delivered the terms by hail to Lindermann. Lindermann facing no other choice ordered his forces to stand down and surrender. The battle was over and 4 squadrons of cruisers were wiped from RA Solat's order of battle. Allied losses were minimal. Valdez had convinced Veel'riz to go for a morale victory and it had done it's objective. As the allied fleet left the nebula towing the captured surviving Terran ships out, Valdez and Veel'Riz surveyed the fleet and their prizes.
"I recommend giving the captured Terrans prisoner of war status, let's not go to their level" Valdez suggested.
Post edited by theraven2378 on
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Stardate 2390
Haakona system (Mirror Universe)
R.D.W. Vanquisher
Veel'Riz looked over his latest intelligence reports, happy to see that the drones had done their job. The more the Alliance fought the Terrans the more resources both used up. It was only a matter of time until one of revealed their hand. Eventually the Alliance would have to realize they weren't dealing with a small poorly trained and equipped Imperial remnant, and the hammer would fall.... That or the Terrans would launch their offensive as history recorded....
Either way, it was a battle he intended to use to his advantage.
That said.... He looked over to the report from the telepathic assault research teams.... They'd been testing the Telepathic shields by attaching them to tribbles and trying to overpower it. The results both worried and intrigued him... Remans were finding it almost impossible to breakthrough, where as the Molindrans had had some succsess, on the tribbles and each other. When they'd gone in bringing their full mental strength upon facing the shields they'd taken from the prisoners, the shi d either overloaded, or the target had died.... But this left the Telepath drained.
What had worked was slowly building up their mental attack over a few moments.... The Terrans had refused to talk about where they'd gotten the technology.
The POWs had been taken to the Hobbuss system penal colony.... Vanguard was designed to be an arc, fortress, factory, research center, last refuge, and so much more..... If the enemy ever believed it had a prision, then they wasted resources trying to get in, the simplicity was marvelous.
Veel'Riz put his PADD aside as his door sounded. "Come in please."
Commander Solat entered, asking why he'd requested to speak.
"Ah, Commander thank you for your time, I'm sure you've other deities to attended to. I have an odd request I hope you might be able to help me with. Your being here is an advantage we have that the Terrans do not- who knows how you think better than you? In regards your counterpart- and before I ask I married a Vulcan, so I do know you have emotions. If you where in her position, what would be the greatest fear...? Goal- what is it exactly driving her? How would you personally confront RA Solat?"
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Commander Solat had been asked by Veel'Riz how she could face herself. "She's like me, her strategy is logical, if I was in her position now, I'd be sending out scouting patrols. Losing Dinasia is setback but the loss of 4 whole cruiser squadron will be my biggest problem. I would wait until my forces are back up to strength and I would want you to come into the system and then I would encircle you." Solat said, "We need to find and eliminate all her supply depots, without supplies she cannot fight. Captain Valdez refers to it as a scorched Earth strategy, we destroy everything that could be of any use to the enemy in effect starving her of supplies." Solat finished with.
This got Veel'Riz thinking, RA Solat could be defeated without engaging her forces. Solat then explained her counterpart's psychology, "She's driven by one thing only, revenge. If my close relationship with the captain occurred in this reality, then to her it's like losing a brother. The main reason me and the captain work well together is we understand each other clearly, the same could said in this reality. We are stronger together, without the captain's counterpart there, she's too stuck to logic in her doctrine. Me and and the captain have different approaches, the captain fights in a unconventional manner whereas I'm logical. We balance each other out. She no longer has that balance"
"How would I confront her?, I wouldn't directly, I'd find an indirect way of attacking her" Was Solat's answer. "I would enlist the help of the person who knew him best, his daughter Trianna." Solat finished with.
.....................................................................................
Nukara System (Mirror Universe)
I.S.S. Valdez
RA Solat was not is good mood, her war against the Romulan Union had suffered setbacks, "Scouts reported back, maam" said Commander Flores. Solat read the report, "Dinasia Station completely destroyed." Solat put down the report, "Commander, can you answer this question, how can the Romulans suddenly learn of all our supply bases?" she asked. "Could mean one of two things maam, one someone was careless or two we got compromised." replied Flores.
"The scouts also recovered a federation buoy, it had a message to you." Solat ordered Flores to play it. It said "You know who I am, I'm guessing you are having a very bad day. The Romulans thank you for the extra cruiser squadrons by the way, it seems your commodore did not have much fight in him. Have a nice day"
"Valdez" shouted Solat, "why did it have to be Valdez?" she was thinking in her head. "Commander, are there any remaining Valdez family in Nukara?" asked Solat. "A Lt Trianna Valdez maam, she's Admiral Valdez's daughter." replied Flores. "I want her transferred to the Valdez, she knew her father best". ordered Solat.
The transfer was approved, Lt Trianna Valdez reported to Solat in the war room. "Why might I ask am I being transferred here?" asked Trianna. Solat explained why, "Trianna, your father's counterpart is helping the enemy". "You knew him best, how would you fight this Veel'Riz and your father's counterpart?" Solat asked.
"From the records, Veel'Riz is a veteran commander, he frequently outfought and out smarted many a Terran admiral" Trianna said. "My father was very unconventional, assume his counterpart is too."
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"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The U.S.S. Oudenarde was on patrol looking for any Alliance ships. One the bridge Captain Valdez stared at the viewscreen. "Klingon Bird of Prey decloaking at 12 o'clock" reported Clemens. "Hail them" ordered Valdez, Clemens sent out the hail. Valdez said "This is Captain Nathan Valdez of the Federation Starship Oudenarde, I'm not here to fight you. Where I'm from, the Klingons are a strong people with a strong sense of honor."
The Bird of Prey returned the hail, "Commander Kagran of the Bird of Prey Rotarran, how may I help you Federation?" Valdez replied back "Your people are warriors, I've served under a Klingon in my reality's biggest war to date and even helped save their homeworld" Kagran knew a warrior when he saw one. "Captain, What would the Alliance get out of pact with the Romulan Union?" asked Kagran. "Trianna, send Kagran some Terran convoy routes and timings." ordered Valdez. "My officers managed to get into their command network. We know where the Terran bases are" said Valdez, "Your people want an honorable battle, the Romulan Union is willing to provide you with targets. If you don't believe me, ask your Lethean officer to scan me" finished Valdez. The Lethean turned to Kagran and confirmed the Federation captain could be trusted. "My government will be in touch with Romulan Union within the hour, Kagran out" replied Kagran as he cut the hail.
"Krasnova, set a course for Haakona, Warp nine and punch it" ordered Valdez. "Number One, I'll be in my quarters, you have the conn" he told Solat. Solat acknowledged the captain, "Keep us at Yellow Alert for the moment, Mr Flores" Solat ordered as she turned to Flores. "Aye Maam" replied Flores. "Valdez, Clemens, you two discovered anything new?" Solat asked as she looked over both officer's shoulders. "That message we left in the buoy, I may have left a little surprise in it." Ensign Valdez reported. "We've also intercepted Terran transmissions, I don't think they are aware that we're in their network yet." Clemens reported. "They should start experiencing computer failures across the Nukara system any time now, it'll take them weeks to fully clear out the programme I had in mind" replied Trianna. "Carry on" said Solat. "Pass the results to to the good Star Commander, he'll find them fascinating" she said to Clemens as she took to the Captain's chair.
..........................................................................................................................................................................
2390 Nukara System (Mirror Universe)
RA Solat was in her war room on the ISS Valdez, her forces were down four whole squadrons due to incompetent command. Most of Admiral Valdez's veterans were either dead or missing with younger and inexperienced captains taking their places. "General Shar, General Solux, I need suggestions." said Solat. Shar proposed an attack on the Haakona star. Solat dismissed the notion, "Haakona is a fortress, any attempt to get past their defenses will fail." said Solat, "Our forces are-" she was about to finish with when suddenly the entire task group suddenly started experiencing multiple computer failures.
Flores reported, "It's not just us, the entire computer network system is failing all over Nukara", Trianna took a look at the network and her report said it all, "It seems my counterpart has been a very mischievous gremlin, she's remotely compromised the entire network. It'll take at least six weeks to clear out the programme she infected us with, it keeps multiplying and interfering with communications, power and sensors". Solat now realised that the Romulan Union's new ally was more dangerous than she initially thought.
Her Task Force had been crippled without a shot even being fired. To make matters worse, the Alliance were now knocking out her convoys and supply stations. Without supplies, she could not fight and now she could not even defend her convoys as her ships had been remotely crippled. "Could be worse maam, at least our life support is still running" said Flores. Solat looked up at her first officer, "A consolation Commander, nothing else" she said.
"Trianna, get a software repair crew together. I need the task force's computers all up and running as soon as possible". Solat ordered. "Maam" replied Trianna, she got her software repair kit and set off for the computer core.
Post edited by theraven2378 on
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
So ... I've been playing 'War Thunder' recently ...
and found this
Ponies from the MU are kicking the **** out of every other nation in the game!
Quick, where's the phasers gone?
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
@thay8472 How would Sito and Naynta react to being hunted by a dead Terran's counterpart? The Federation having passed him arrest warrants for Sito and Naynta over the Lysian and Kinjun massacres, also add breach of Temporal Accords to the list of charges.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
* The timeline was reset when the Federation fired the krenim do-hickey ship and Admiral Leeta's genocide against the Iconians thus altering/reseting all the events of Mirror Wars 1 (Lysian Massacare , Ask'kaar Empire - Terran Empire alliance etc) So in a sense they never happened. (Maybe the Temporal Investigation guys know about it)
* Kinjun still happened. (I'm working on a series for the prime characters that explains the Federation was partially aware of the 'Yellow Empire.' However with little to no evidence to go on they assumed it had something to do with different factions within the MU, not two MU's.
* Temporal Accords ... I'm not sure how to answer this one as I still believe the Federation is responsible for the actions that lead to the downfall/rise of the Terran Empire(s).
That said if you want a list of incidents the two are involved in (Temporal wise)
* (30th Century - Prime Universe) Terran victory against the Galactic Union at New Khitomer
* (2155, 2380 - Yellow MU ) Resurrecting the Terran Empire
* (2268 - Prime & Yellow MU) Observing the events of TOS: 'Mirror Mirror'
* (2380 - Yellow MU) Doing stuff on Dewa III.
* (2390 - Yellow MU ) Observing 'Operation: whatever I called it.'
* (Between 2390-2408) Seduces Captain O'Brien into killing his own father to eliminate any chance of the peaceful Terran faction forming.
* (2408 - Yellow MU ) Advising the Terran Empress to invade the Prime Universe
* (2409/10 - Prime Universe) Observing the [Player Character] blowing up the Terran Odyssey on Nukara Prime]
As for how Naynta and Sito would react to someone they 'knew' hunting them ...
(Again I'll ask for @galatt 's opinion on this - his character)
Naynta probably wouldn't take it seriously, she would likely just shrug it off as a joke until X becomes a serious threat to her unless Sito declared X a threat, then maybe the two of them would hunt X.
Sito however has more experience dealing with people 'popping up from the dead' so would take it more seriously than Lot. If she saw X as a threat then she would move to eliminate X before he/she became a threat to her or Naynta.
I'll ask Galatt. It would be interesting for Sito and Naynta to have an opponent who will not back down and can match them tactically and strategically. Federation Valdez has been working with the Romulan Union as an "advisor". His tactics and strategy has been very unconventional, things like suggesting avoiding head on assaults against the Terran fleet and instead hitting Sito's supply lines and bases.
Sito would consider someone hitting her supplies to be a serious threat.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Would it truly be a threat if you can just pop back in time and stop said event from occurring?
Anyway ... what universe is this 'Romulan Union' in?
Prime (Fed)
Yellow MU (Sito's Empire's Universe)
Red MU (Admiral Leeta's Empire's Universe)
You'd have to ask Zionus, but I suspect Red. It's red, the Romulan Union were driven to war with the Red Terrans by a Terran Invasion. The Admiral defending Vulcan Sector took his forces back in time forcing the Rom Union to follow him. Captain Walker sent some covert help to the Rom Union in defeating the red terrans from 2410
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
If the Union is from the 'Red' Universe ... are you okay with them being one of many Romulan factions?
I.E.
The Romulan Union opposes the Terran Empire
The Romulan Aristocracy supports the Terran Empire
The Romulan Republic (Mirror) is 'neutral' and hates both of the above.
Yup that'd be cool... The original Romulan Union in my foundry missions was from the yellow version (I started writting before the time change/ iconian war). But Id be honored, I think I have some slider pics of their armour colors (by rank- its easier to tell from a story POV, not taking tactical realism into account),
Actually that would make a bit of sense with all the time traveling Rishis did/ does.... Having bits of the RSU 'bleed' into another timeline as time tries to as Anoraxx said 'fight back".
Post edited by zionus0 on
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Would it truly be a threat if you can just pop back in time and stop said event from occurring?
What ever happened to a straight up fair fight?
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Question awnsered above- I don't think the Terrans care about a fair fight.... I don't think real soldiers care about a fair fight anyway, war is by nature terrible.
Why do I still play and put money into STO?
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
It's anything goes with the Terran approach to warfare. Ruthless is their doctrine, in their eyes a win is a win and it does not matter how they achieve it as long as they achieve it. Doctrine wise, it's Total War.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
* The timeline was reset when the Federation fired the krenim do-hickey ship and Admiral Leeta's genocide against the Iconians thus altering/reseting all the events of Mirror Wars 1 (Lysian Massacare , Ask'kaar Empire - Terran Empire alliance etc) So in a sense they never happened. (Maybe the Temporal Investigation guys know about it)
* Kinjun still happened. (I'm working on a series for the prime characters that explains the Federation was partially aware of the 'Yellow Empire.' However with little to no evidence to go on they assumed it had something to do with different factions within the MU, not two MU's.
* Temporal Accords ... I'm not sure how to answer this one as I still believe the Federation is responsible for the actions that lead to the downfall/rise of the Terran Empire(s).
That said if you want a list of incidents the two are involved in (Temporal wise)
* (30th Century - Prime Universe) Terran victory against the Galactic Union at New Khitomer
* (2155, 2380 - Yellow MU ) Resurrecting the Terran Empire
* (2268 - Prime & Yellow MU) Observing the events of TOS: 'Mirror Mirror'
* (2380 - Yellow MU) Doing stuff on Dewa III.
* (2390 - Yellow MU ) Observing 'Operation: whatever I called it.'
* (Between 2390-2408) Seduces Captain O'Brien into killing his own father to eliminate any chance of the peaceful Terran faction forming.
* (2408 - Yellow MU ) Advising the Terran Empress to invade the Prime Universe
* (2409/10 - Prime Universe) Observing the [Player Character] blowing up the Terran Odyssey on Nukara Prime]
As for how Naynta and Sito would react to someone they 'knew' hunting them ...
(Again I'll ask for @galatt 's opinion on this - his character)
Naynta probably wouldn't take it seriously, she would likely just shrug it off as a joke until X becomes a serious threat to her unless Sito declared X a threat, then maybe the two of them would hunt X.
Sito however has more experience dealing with people 'popping up from the dead' so would take it more seriously than Lot. If she saw X as a threat then she would move to eliminate X before he/she became a threat to her or Naynta.
@thay8472 How would Sito and Naynta react to being hunted by a dead Terran's counterpart? The Federation having passed him arrest warrants for Sito and Naynta over the Lysian and Kinjun massacres, also add breach of Temporal Accords to the list of charges.
I'm ok with both of these.
Papela would be curious how her daughter handles a real threat.
Comments
The Andorians having witnessed Valdez's self sacrifice have made an oath to avenge him, he had their respect as a warrior. The Vulcans have also signed on with Solat, Solat knows a thing or two about Romulans.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I.S.S. Valdez.
Rear Admiral Solat walked into the war room, she had to rebuild her command staff. As BG inquisitor was a multi planetary force, all species were to be equals. "What would Nathan do if he was here?" she asked to herself. The loss of the admiral hit the crew hard, they had been with him since the beginning and Solat knew she had some big boots to fill.
The first thing she did was appoint a first officer, she called in Lt Cmd Flores. "Maam, you need to speak to me" Lt Cmd James Flores said saluting. "Lt Cmd, at ease" said Solat. "Lt Cmd Flores, you tried to help the admiral by staying behind, that shows strength. A quality I need in a first officer." Solat said. Flores pointed out he and Krasnova had to ordered off the Oudenarde. Solat considered her choices on promotions, both Flores and Krasnova had shown selfless courage in volunteering to stay behind with the admiral. Solat then called Lt Kranova in, Krasnova saluted and asked why she was being called in. "You both showed courage in what you did, you are both to be decorated and promoted."
The crew were demoralised, a public decoration and promotion in front of the crew would restore their pride as a unit. On the bridge of the Valdez, Solat ordered Lt Adrienne Krasnova and Lt Cmd James Flores to rise and stand to attention. "As per Admiral Valdez's last orders to me, Lt Cmd James Flores, for showing that courage and loyalty I'm promoting you to full commander and my first officer. Lt Adrienne Krasnova, for your courage and loyalty, you are promoted to Lt Commander." The bridge crew all clapped and congratulated Krasnova and Flores.
In an award ceremony in the shuttlebay, Trianna Valdez presented Lt cmd Krasnova and Cmd Flores with the order of Terra, the highest award for extraordinary bravery in the empire. "Flores, my father would have been proud to have you as a son. Krasnova, my father always saw you as a daughter to him" Trianna said as she presented the awards. Solat wanted a member of the Valdez family to present the awards as a morale boost.
In the war room, Solat presided over a new military council. General Solux was the Vulcan representative and General Shar was the Andorian representative. Cmd Flores was the Terran representative on the council.
In the meeting the overall strategy was agreed, BG Inquisitor would stay in defensive positions in the Nukara system. Solat knew romulan strategy was to draw out an opponent and then defeat in detail.
BG Inquisitor would not take the bait, any attempt by Romulan union forces to enter the sector would be pinched off and defeated.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Defera sector, Levtro System (Prime Universe)
Citadel class Star-fortress: Vanguard
We've finally gained control of starship and clone production on military zone south after 3 years of lockout of them.... I'm releaved i admit.
But equally concerned. These ships and troops are cut from a different cloth in more ways than specialized training. Their weapons and gear includes, anti-personal Thaloron missile launchers, Tholian crystalline short swords. A double barrel auto-rifle with Plasma grenade launcher attachment. The body armor is fairly standard with several enhanced stealth modifications and additional shield generators.
We have several new ship designs here as well.
There was 34 Phalanx cruisers that had most of the weapon emplacements removed and replaced with outer hull hologram-emitters, and an enhanced cloaking device.
There was also:
3 Invinticus (scimitar) dreadnoughts,
55 Immortal type battleships, 38 Valour cruisers, with 72 Kronos corvet escorts.
200 Romulan Star Empire drone ships.
And 45 "Crusader artillery warbirds"
Finally a new design: the "Crusader artillery warbird"
It's based on the 4 winged design of the Valour class, but they are parallel to each other. They also have several satellites to deploy that appear to replicate cloaked mines, with stealth and self replication capabilities. Although the wings have multiple high yield plasma warheads. The range of which is supposedly 99% accurate up to 75,000 kilometers. The design however claims that the range could extend over 3 times that distance, and still deliver critical damage if not destroy a shielded target. The advanced battle cloak would make these a deadly sneak attack. With 16 launch tubes carrying 4 projectiles, the entire magazine could fire in just 10 seconds if desired.
The problem was after that those are empty the crew is only left with two, 360 degree beam arrays, if forced to drop the cloak.
_______
They all just left an hour ago after we met them for the first time... Opened the hangers and left the message: "For the future... We shall fight in the past."
Anranis (Mirror Universe)
Veel'Riz was surprised at his survival... He'd literally been blown into an escape pod by an explosion, and had woken up hours later looking at his ships chef.
The man had hidden within the wrecked open hull of an Immortal warbird and gone to minimum power settings- which had explained the near freezing cold.
The Phoenix.... The engines had taken a hit and then the enemy was heading right for him... He hadn't even considered his actions as he ordered the crew to abandon ship... Based on the debris it must have been a heck of a light show.
Once it became apparent that the fleet assumed no one was left alive they sent a open message as the encryption was damaged. "R-E-A-P-E-R-S--W-I-N-G-S"
Now back inside the Vanguard, after being picked up.... And just beating the Terrans who where hot on his rescuers warptrail, he called for his best tactical, science, and engineering minds... It was time for a new strategy and eager to design a long range vessel... Valdez had used a false retreat effectively- but that also cost him ships.
The man was Terran, so the odds of him going down with the ship were probably low...
He'd speak to the Molindrans about the RSE drones ship he'd read about, and see about building their own version.
He'd show Valdez why the Terrans called him the Reaper.
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
I.S.S. Valdez war room.
Rear Admiral Solat was sat at her desk at the daily war council meeting, General Shar was pushing for an offensive operation. His plan was to draw out the Romulans by paying another visit to Molindra, intelligence had revealed the existence of a underground facility which had survived the first attack. Solat and General Solux knew an assault on the planet would be a pointless waste of resources, what they had in mind was the total destruction of the entire system.
"I need suggestions for the destruction of the Molindra system" Solat said to her council. Flores suggested trilithium torpedoes fired directly at the star to turn it supernova. Solat looked through all the options, turning to Flores she asked "How long will it take to build 12 trilithium devices". Flores said "give me 36 hours and you will have your weapons". Solat calmly said "you have 24 hours, time is essential here". Flores saluted and left for the armoury to start work. "The rest of you, I need you on your ships. In 24 hours we are heading back to Molindra, Operation Valdez is a go" Solat said in her dry Vulcan tone.
24 hours later Solat was ready, keeping most of her ships back in Nukara, she took a small raiding force with her. 2 hours later, the raiders were infiltrating the system under cloak. Solat led the attack from the I.S.S. Bulldog, a Hestia class escort. Approaching the Molindran star, she gave the order to load the torpedo tubes with the prototype trilithium torpedoes. At 10,000 Km she gave the order to fire and 12 trilithium devices sped at the star as the raiders turned their ships around and hit transwarp before the shock wave hit them.
As the star imploded in on itself, the stresses built up and then turned the star supernova, the shock wave obliterating everything in the system as Romulan and Molindran ships caught in the shock wave were unable to engage their warp and transwarp drives. Any attempt to go to warp just increased the load on their engines. Within a matter of minutes all planets and ships in the system were utterly destroyed as the shock wave spread out of the system.
"Status on the star, Flores?" Solat asked, "it's gone as is the whole system" replied Flores. "Excellent, what ever they were up to in that facility it's over". The raiders were back in Nukara within 2 hours and a report was dispatched to fleet command. It read, "Molindran system completely destroyed. 4 Molindran battleships and 10 Romulan ships wiped out for no losses."
Solat now tightened security even more, she suspected that the Romulans knew Nukara was the base of Terran operations. "Flores, take a security team and execute our Molindran guest" was her next order. Flores and his team deactivated the containment field in the Molindran's cell and before the Molindran could react, Flores had shot him through the head. "Vaporise the body Sgt" Flores ordered and Sgt Maxwell carried out the order. "Guest eliminated" Flores reported back to Solat.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Dewa system (mirror universe)
Battle group Scythe
All things considered Veel'Riz was in a good mood this morning, and he had more than enough reason to be. His plan of placing several programs in Vanguard stations computer and knowing they'd activate later had worked. He was still waiting for some calculations as he updated what he needed, and situation changed but this was still something. His troops needed a moral bonus and he'd just learned that the Sword of Raptor Star had been found on New Romulus- he was going to find it in this universe.
Currently there was a Terran force in the system: 5 dreadnought , 9 battleships, 12 escorts and 4 frigates.... Against every Romulan under is command.... The Molindran ships were staying docked in the Citadel- better to let the Terrans think they'd been eradicated... They'd be controlling the key element of this next attack from sectors away: the Drone ships.
The fleet had closed to 100,000 km and then his new Crusader artillery ships fired, the cloaked barrage taking down 26 hostiles turning them to metallic space trash. He'd underestimated the effectiveness it seemed... He aimed for indirect shots to disable the Terrans... Still... The remaining four vessels scrambled to split up as 20 of the Drones now appearing as Tholian orb weavers warped in on top of them. Disabling all but one frigate, which was allowed to escape as it was soon chased down- and had more "lucky" escapes with more Tholians.
Veel'Riz smirked 30 enemy ships, and not even a drone lost... He closed in on the hapless ships. "Fire the parasites!" He ordered and watched as the special marine carrying torpedoes drilled into enemy ships. "Transporters you may send over more of our brothers and sisters now."
As his elite captured the enemy ships, he took a team to the surface and within the hour had found the location he was looking for, his men finished taking the enemy ships as well... Transporting back to his new dreadnought the RDW Vanquisher, he was glade to note that another group of the drones had attacked a nearby Klingon outpost, taking the guise of Tholians and Terrans.... Another group had attacked Andoria. A good morning indeed!
Still he had one more thing to do here, before he could allow the Terran scouts which would surely be coming in a few short hours arrived... "Tactical is the device ready?"
"Yes Sir the Molindran machine has been modified to your specifications."
Veel'Riz nodded... He narrowed his eyes at the planet in front of him imagining it were Terra. "... Fire...."
A torpedo raced from the ship towards Dewa 3, and opened up in the atmosphere firing smaller similar devices that began firing streams of energy across the planet, before each disintegrated into dust.
From orbit, the Romulans watched as purple ripples spread across the sphere like a ocean, and then vanished.
What had once been a pristine M class world was now nothing more and a Demon planet... Class Y. The entire force had never even decloaked and set course for Vanguard, after placing the new mine deploying satellite as they did... Tractor beams and swarm detonation...
The Terrans wanted to play God? To potentially eradicate an entire sentient species? Let them, he would just have to become their devil.
He'd lost no ships...
Not a single drone....
Captured his enemy's vessels...
And left no trace of his involvement....
Moral was higher than it had been in weeks....
He'd call that a victory for now.
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
U.S.S. Oudenarde.
Captain Nathan Valdez was looking through the daily reports of his officers. He then heard his ready room door chime, "enter" he said. Commander Solat passed him a message, Captain Walker needed to meet him over a critical manner. The U.S.S. Pastak emerged alongside the Oudenarde and Valdez beamed over.
What ever it was to be requested by name was something critical. "Captain Valdez, there has been an incursion into the past. The Romulan Union has asked for your help in dealing with a problem, a problem you are uniquely ideal for dealing with. I'm sending you and the Oudenarde to the Haakona system, it's in the other universe at stardate 2390." Valdez asked why him, Walker said "Star Commander Veel'Riz will brief you on that" Walker finished with.
Soon the Oudenarde was in 2390 at Haakona, "Flores scan for any cloaking signatures" Valdez ordered. Flores carried out a full scan and picked up the Vanquisher on sensors. "Put us on yellow alert number one", Solat said "this is the XO, yellow alert all decks". " Permission to raise shields Captain?" asked Flores, "no not yet" Valdez said calmly. "Sir" Flores said to Valdez as Valdez turned round to see the Vanquisher decloak.
"Hail them" Valdez ordered. The reply was forthcoming, Star Commander Veel'Riz appeared on screen. "I'm Captain Nathan Valdez, commanding officer USS Oudenarde". "You may call me Veel'Riz, I need your help captain Valdez. as it's such a delicate matter, lets talk on board my ship and you can bring two officers with you" Veel'Riz said in a cold manner.
Transporting over to the Vanquisher, Captain Valdez, Ensign Valdez and Commander Solat were greeted by Veel'Riz. "Trianna, you picking up anything?" Captain Valdez asked Ensign Valdez. "Anger and pain among the Molindrans and distrust from the Romulans Captain" she replied back.
In Veel'Riz's office, he revealed the reason why he asked Captain Valdez for help. "Captain, the reason I requested you by name is your counterpart can match me move for move. I've studied the records about you." "You need my help in defeating my counterpart" Valdez said going to straight to business. Veel'Riz respected that quality, from the historical records Valdez never minced words. "I'll help you" said Valdez. His counterpart was one of those responsible for the Lysian massacre and the Kinjun massacre, he was also wanted for aiding a known war criminal. Sito Thay had escaped with his counterpart's assistance. Officially, Valdez and his crew were observers, unofficially they were combat advisers.
Valdez then handed a book over to to Veel'riz, it was Sun Tzu's the art of war translated into Rihan. "Star Commander, this was written by an ancient Earth general on how to fight a war. You'll find it enlightening" Valdez said.
"I will need every after action report from all your engagements with my counterpart. He'll have a pattern in his tactics. He's very intelligent and dangerously unpredictable. Your first engagement with my counterpart, he used an old Earth naval tactic of splitting a battle line with two columns" Valdez said. He finished with, "he reads military history, every battle is different. You prepare for one strategy and he blindsides you with something completely unexpected, that is the nature of your opponent"
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Nukara System (Mirror Universe)
As Battlegroup Scythe positioned itself outside the perimeter of Nukara’s defences (gained from a captives memories) the acting captain of the Vanquisher, the Vulcan Chevalier T’Nae, looked over at Veel’Riz who gave her a silent nod of his head. She’d been more than happy to reunite with the rest of the fleet- and its latest additions. She believed her ability to perform her current assignment in a satisfactory and believable manner if they were hailed. Technically the Star-Commander was still in control of their overall stragedy as he manned the tactical station, to coordinate the fleet. Her job was to claim to have taken command after his ‘disappearance’ with the destruction of the Phoenix.
The fleet had been positioned in three main groups: the majority of the fleet had formed into wedges with each squadron and its supporting/ supported squadron briefed on the order of the engagement. Formed up around the Vanqiusher, were I’s two sister dreadnoughts, 100 battleships, 62 cruisers, and 40 escorts. Thirty kilometres above and below on either side of this these waiting in ambush were 20 frigates, supported by 6 Falcata class Destroyers.
Waiting sixty kilometers behind them, lurked group two 52 heavily modified Phalanx cruisers, 120 of the Drones, and 34 Dagger Frigates.
Finally 80,000 Kilometres behind the main line were 30 Crusader artillery warbirds, accompanied by an escort of 2 cruisers, and 15 frigates. Having been provided with a cloaking device he U.S.S. Oudenarde, accompanied this group, which intended to stay out of the fighting.
Every ship had one Molindran onboard- Valdez suggested a mental assault could turn the battle’s tide, and keep the enemy telepaths occupied. The other reason was to see if the Terrans had any real understanding of how dangerous the species could be. Veel’Riz and Captain Valdez had both agreed a prolonged and direct assault (as this intended to appear) wouldn’t be feasible, but the objective here would be to see how the Terrans reacted to an attack... The question was where had those two positioned the remaining 15 artillery ships and 10 Phalanxes?
It was time... She took a breath and ordered 15 drones to decloaked as Klingon birds of prey, racing past the front line ships as another 4 took on the form of Terran frigates.... T’Nae could feel here heart beating in her chest, she battled to control her anxiety, emotional response would impede her peoples goals. Every soldier felt their heart beating as they waited the enemy.... It was always the worst part of this kind of operation- the flow of combat brought the “fight or flight” instinct to an end as their training prepared them. They watched as the drones played ‘tag ‘ with each other firing their weapons to get the enemies attention... Finally it worked, as several Terran vessels appeared and engaged the ‘Klingons’. Then each of the drones began to focus their fire on the confused Imperials.
The distress call was sent, as the Vanquishers communications officer intercepted it. The drones cloaked and bolted at full speed as one took a hit, but maintained control. Then with a massive blast of plasma fire, 20 plasma artillery shells disintegrated the hostiles coming in so quickly the Romulans hadn’t seen them fly past.
Then the reinforcements arrived only to see the wrecks... The center of group one opened fire with a cloaked barrage, and loosed 10 parasite missiles, 6 found their marked sovereign class, the 4 were shot from the stars. Upon learning his peril, the captain of the I.S.S. Kraken told his crew to tell Admiral Solat he’d found her Romulans, and had been boarded.
Task force Inquisitor arrived quickly, eyes, sensors seeking the targets of their vengeance. Then they to faced a widespread volley from the Crusaders, taking significant damage, loosing multiple ships. Fortunately they’d been prepared to be ambushed and had spread out wide so as to minimize the chances of a cloaked ship slipping past them. Veel’Riz had given a difficult order to his troops: the Vulcan ships would be priority targets today.... Having their sensors jammed needed to be avoided.
The Vanquisher hailed the enemy. “This is acting commander T’Nae, of the Romulan Star Union Battlegroup Scythe, allow us to parlay in order to negotiate for the release of one of your prisoners. There is no need for further violence today... Let us act logically.” Veel’Riz has instructed her to attempt this, although conversing would allow the enemy to encircle them, he’d planned for that.
Solat returned the hail, realizing that a Vulcan was apparently leading the enemy force. “This is Rear Admiral Solat of the ISS Valdez, there will be no negotiation with you- traitor or your forces. Valdez taught me all he knew, and we intended to hour his sacrifice by destroying every last one of you.”
“You are the traitor to Vulcan Admiral. I was not the first to be liberated by-“ The channel went dead, neither side waited a moment longer, the center of the Unions fleet went to combat speed and the Terrans began a 360 degree spread of phaser, and anti-proton fire to find the oncoming attackers, as the Romulans began the engagement using their new advanced battle cloaks to maintain their shields and use of their weapons while it was in use. The first five minutes the Unions advantage was clear, despite the enemy’s attempt to create a tachyon grid.
They couldn’t keep it up forever- the drain on their power was to great on the smaller vessels, and so they adopted Veel’Riz’s “Scourge” tactic of swapping in and out of stealth as they weaved into the enemy force. Realizing this Solat closed her engaged forces into a tight group of formations, and concentrated their firepower on available targets. She knew that the Romulans wouldn’t have attacked unless they felt they had a chance at victory so what was their plan?
She was distracted from that thought however as the Vanquisher and its escorts opened a spread of fire on the I.S.S. Valdez, which was happily returned, with the destruction of four escorts. Then she called in the encircling ships of the task force- and the tide turned again.
Now it was the Romualns who bore the full force of the Terran onslaught, ship after ship fell just as their own had before. “Close the-!” T’Nae began.
“Not! Not yet Chevalier let them think they’ve won... Hold for now.” Vee’Riz warned. T’Nae obeyed but over the next 14 minutes Solat was forcing them into an increasingly tight ring, and picking them off. As she was hit by sparks as the secondary shields buckled T’Nae looked at her leader.
Finally the Star-Commander gave the word, “Close the talons!” The support released a renewed volley upon task for Inquisitor as the Molindrans began their own much more subtle attack. Focusing on the minds of Imperial Telepaths they quickly found most of the enemy was no match for their strength of will. As Solat watched several of her ships ram their fellows -the I.S.S. Lilith a Batazoid pilot- she felt a intruder in her mind, and a powerful one.
She felt like a candle compared to this bonfire of a telepath... She felt the begging of a migraine from strain, she couldn't fight back! It was all she could do to keep this being from obliterating her will to crush her mentally. She tried a counter attack, but regretted it immediately she may as well have been an ant trying to move a wall of stone. All her training and she couldn't push this invader from her mind! She heard screaming millions of voices.... She'd helped cause these deaths. This intruder wanted her dead.
The attack on her mind suddenly stopped, leaving her with a splitting headache, and green blood coming from her nose. "Who- what was that?" She wondered.
The Molindran had been on the R.D.W. Vulture- which had taken a direct hit to its singularity core.
The Romulans had sent in the Phalanx squadrons by this point, and they had immediately began fielding multiple holographic warbirds, spreading further mayhem on the battlefield. One of the dreadnoughts had used a Thaloron weapon.
As additional Imperals arrived still this fight seemed to be going nowhere. The Union called up the Drones which took on the guise of Herald Frigates! How!?
On the Vanquisher the Tactical officer informed her commander of multiple Tholian Taratula groups inbound. They were met with the full complement of the artillery ships payloads. One the titanic ships went down instantly another took critical damage, the third took only moderate damage. Most of the smaller Tholian ships had had no chance. The Crusaders and their escorts set course away from Nukara.
It was time to withdraw Veel'Riz decided, and ordered every ship to foucus their fire in the direction of the Vulcan sector. The Molindrans did their part now, via a massive Telekenetic wave they cleared the path of of hostile ships, crushing them, or throwing them aside like rag dolls, an Oddessy lost a navel as did multiple other cruisers. Battlegroup Scythe used the opportunity and went to warp.
No one pursued... Much to their thanks as a shuttle pilot accidnetly found a small mine field in the direction they'd gone the day later.
"I still have a Romulan problem on the kraken ion case anyone cares to know!"
"Including the Tholians the Terrans lost 5 ships for every 1 of ours." Veel'Riz was pleased to see the report.
Veel'Riz realized that with Admiral Valdez dead they had an opportunity...
By the end of the week he'd repaired the stolen Terran ships. Brought them out to the Arcanis sector, used their systems to send a distress call, opened fire on them, and beamed a data rod into the damaged wrecks.
"I didn't go to the trouble of time travel and saving you to not get what I came for Admiral."
"You'll find I won't be easily broken." Valdez retorted.
"I have no doubt of that.... In the reality I come from your people have had a name for the man you killed: Veel'Riz, the Reaper of Romulus.... Taught me everything he knew... He was forged by war.... He was the Darkness your people feared between the stars."
"I need you for a prisoner exchange.... The truth is we're here for a single individual, and we know she's at Nukara... I don't need you-"
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Captain Valdez reviewed the after action report from the Battle of Nukara, Admiral Solat had revealed her defensive strategy. She had pinched off and repulsed an assault on her lines, "Number one, what do you make of this?" said Valdez. "I would do the same if I was in her shoes" replied Solat. "Look at it this way Nathan, it's a logical defensive strategy in play here" said Solat. "To defeat the logical, we must use the illogical" said Valdez.
"Trianna, I need you to be a liaison officer to Veel'riz, call it a lesson in diplomacy" Valdez said. "Yes Captain" replied Trianna. "You are to be an advisory officer to Veel'riz. Later at a meeting with the Romulan Union leadership, Valdez pointed out the key engagements at Nukara were around the flanks. "It's a classic double envelopment manoeuvre, the key to defeating it is not to take the bait in their centre. That's what she wants us to do." said Valdez. Solat and Trianna added their input. "Chevalier T'Nae, Star Commander Veel'Riz, we may have identified a weak link." said Solat, to which Trianna pointed out, "She's a powerful telepath, I'm not strong enough to break through her mind". Solat said "Her strategy is logical, she's also completely detached. Humans have a saying, when facing the logical, use the illogical."
Veel'Riz then revealed news that changed everything, "Our target at Nukara was executed this morning on the orders of Admiral Solat". The Molindrans wanted retribution, Valdez staying ever cool, calm and collected pointed out "She wants us to react, don't take the bait. Vengeance is a very powerful weapon, a lesson I learnt from my universe's Sela. She wants to draw us into fights in her home turf, we need to draw her to a battlefield of our choosing." The revelation had changed the whole course of the war.
"Lets keep the Molindrans as our ace in the hole, they did an excellent job. The Terrans think they've exterminated them, lets keep them believing that" said Valdez.
..............................................................................
2390 Nukara System, (mirror universe)
ISS Valdez
Rear Admiral Solat was reading the after action reports in her ready room, it was her daily meeting with her first officer. Captain Bashir had been called in, Solat just glared at him. "Captain Bashir, why did you send an open message in a combat situation? You put the battle group at risk and we were detected." said Solat in her cold calm manner. "The enemy were bearing down on me, I needed to get the message out fast." replied Bashir in a vain attempt to defend his own incompetence. Solat just got up and walked up to Bashir before grabbing him by the throat. "The admiral would have had you flushed out the shuttlebay for this failure, what am I going to do about you?" said Solat. "The crew of the Kraken paid with their lives and you lost your ship" she said as she snapped his neck. "Remove this thing from the ship" she ordered to Flores, "Maam" replied Flores as two security troopers dragged the body across the bridge.
Later in the war room, Solat mentioned something strange. "Commander, we were brought under sustained telepathic assault today" "It was fleet wide maam, all captains reported that telepaths just lost control" replied Flores. "All telepaths are to be equipped with psionic shields on their belts, the enemy can only play that card once." Solat said. "I also sensed that the admiral's counterpart was there". "That complicates things" replied Flores. "Agreed, our counterparts helping the enemy presents a problem." replied Solat, Solat then went to her communications console and ordered "ops, check the sensor logs for any Federation signatures". Clemens obeyed the order and reported back "There was a Federation starship hidden by a cloak".
"The U.S.S. Oudenarde" Solat noted to herself, "Commander, find out about this Captain Valdez. If he's anything like the late Admiral, he could be a problem." "I'm already onto it maam" said Flores as he saluted the admiral.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Haakona system (Mirror universe)
Vanguard Station- U.S.S. Oudenarder
Veel'Riz had managed to pull some strings so the Federation ship could dock on the Star-Fortress, although it hadn't been easy. "You have a fine vessel Captain Valdez." Veel'Riz stated, as he followed the man into his ready room. "I owe you quite a bit more than a favor in the future."
"Thank you Star-Commander, now what's the real reason for this visit?" Valdez took a seat.
Veel’Riz looked at Solat and Trianna, before turning to T'Nae. "Teksion please... Chevalier, what I'm about to say is classified, wait outside."
She reluctantly obeyed. Veel’Riz sighed as he explained the original purpose of his mission- which had never been meant to involve this horribly bloody trip to the past. He'd intended to rescue a member of an endangered species, then the temporal defense initiative sent a man named Walker to inform him that that particular Molindran was vital to the timeline- being involved in the development of temporal drives. The humans at least shared his concern visibly on their faces.
"When I expressed my resignations about what he wanted. He told me the Terrans had used time travel and the Commander was in the past... " Veel'Riz went on. "I believe Starfleet has similar regulations about time travel to my people, but at present I think I need to put everything on the table."
"Go on Veel'Riz, we're all ears."
"According to Walker, my people and the Molindrans eventually join the Galactic Union. That process is slowed by my peoples possession of Thaloron weapons, an Omega generator-" Noting the shocked expressions he quickly added: "Which we do not stockpile and use only to transport our last Starbase. The particles are stabilized and disposed of! We're aware of the danger, and not insane enough to keep any laying around.... All the cloning was never an easy choice for my people either, and they quickly earn citizenship..." He was silent for a moment. "Constantly being attacked by our Galactic neighbors, it changed our culture more than I like to think about."
"You are rambling, star Commander, what is the point you wish to make?" Solat asked.
"Are we beaten in your opinion?" The Romulan lamented. "Temporal mechanics aren't my area of expertise.... The only option I see is either to remove the Snake's head, or try to weaken the Terrans enough to delay their rise to put everything on even footing... Other than that I'm at loss."
G.S.S. Agatha (Molindran Mercy class Frigate)
Captain Bleekoo had- with great difficulty- managed to convince the Guardian of Forever to help him, and his crew get here an hour after the Terran's first attack.
Beaming into the massive chamber he decided to forgo trying to open the hanger entirely, and set his small crew to jump start the power, and run wormhole calculations... Thankfully they'd started beforehand using fairly accurate estimates of the ships mass and size of the deflector.
After eighteen hours they'd set up a area on the bridge shielded from sensors, and locked out most of the ships controls, as they prepared for the small force arrived in orbit.... Foolishly forgoing stealth- why had they done that?
Once the ships arrived in orbit they knew it wouldn't be long now before the star went supernova... They could feel the other Molindran landing teams, and their confusion at the system lockout. Bleekoo was informed that they'd gained access to transporters, the subspace cloak and the wormhole generator was nearly theirs. The bridge was silent as they went through their mental conversation.
The alarms started sounding.... "Start transporting the crews! Status!"
"Shock-wave impact in 200 seconds!"
"Deflector?!"
"I've almost got it! Creation of the anomaly commencing now... Particle stream is stable! Power levels optimal.."
"120 Seconds until impact!"
"We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" "Transport complete Captain!"
"Raising cloak."
"32 seconds!"
"Now would be a good time Adept!" Banging was heard on the door.
"Planetary destruction in- (Subspace transition in), five..., four.., three..., two... One.
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
U.S.S. Oudenarde
Captain Valdez was called to the bridge, "Sir, the entire Molindran system, it's gone. It's star turned supernova 72 hours ago" replied Solat. "Lt Krasnova, set a course for Molindra. Maximum warp" ordered Valdez. "All hands to battle stations" was his next order, the crew got to their battle stations as the red alert sirens blared all over the ship.
Three hours later, the Oudenarde arrived at Molindra and immediately commenced scans of the remains of the system. "Was this supernova natural or artificially created?" asked Valdez. Getting to the bottom of this mystery was his first goal, if the Terrans had access to weapons that could wipe out a star system it was worth Veel'Riz's attention. "Picking up trilithium signatures near the star's remains" reported Clemens. "Transport a sample to your science lab and analyse it." Valdez ordered to Clemens. "Five, consult the Collective's records on trilithium weapons. If the Borg have encountered them, they will have left information of them in their files" was Valdez's next order.
Solat now consulted Federation records of trilithium weapons. The only results that came back was the Soren incident in 2371 and a Dominion attempt to turn Bajor's sun supernova in 2373. "I want reports on my desk by 0730 hours" Valdez said to his officers. "Lt, get us back to Haakona". The Oudenarde left the system after leaving a memorial in the debris of what was once a thriving system.
Within three hours, the Oudenarde was docked with Vanguard Station and Captain Valdez, Commander Solat and Ensign Trianna Valdez beamed over and passed the report of their investigation to Veel'riz. "Star Commander, we have a problem. The Terrans have access to trilithium weapons, the Molindra supernova was deliberately created." said Captain Valdez. "To my counterpart that is logical, destroying an enemy's ability to wage war by targeting military installations is a sound move." pointed out Solat. "The first attack led by the captain's counterpart was aimed at the Molindran military installations, the civilian population was nothing more than collateral damage in his view. This last attack suggests the Terrans missed something, they must have come back and wiped out the system to wipe out any last military installations" Solat finished with. "Weapons of mass destruction are banned for a very good reason" Trianna pointed out.
"Remind me to lodge an official protest" said Valdez in his usual dry tone.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
U.S.S. Oudenarde
Captain Valdez was in his quarters studying the records about Strike Group Inquisitor, at the Battle of Nukara Admiral Solat had handled her ships very well. Something Veel'riz had asked was a cause for concern, morale in the Romulan Union forces was at a all time low and even their commander had doubted himself. Valdez worked out what was needed, though a decisive victory over Rear Admiral Solat was unfeasible due to near shattered morale, maybe an assault on a softer Terran target might give the Romulan Union that morale victory they needed.
What Valdez had in mind was an attack on a weaker target, something to draw parts of RA Solat's fleet away from Nukara. His train of thought was interrupted by Trianna coming back from her duty shift on the bridge. "Some days, I miss your mother" Valdez said to Trianna. Trianna asked "what's that you are working on father?". Valdez replied "A possible way of making this RA Solat make a mistake. I've also arranged for you to finish your telepathic training, I've noticed you wanting to embrace your Betazoid heritage." Trianna looked over her father's idea for baiting out RA Solat. "Clemens may have identified a Terran base in the Dinasia System, we were checking the Terran channels and Dinasia was mentioned repeatably" Trianna said.
Captain Valdez looked up and smiled, maybe this was the break they needed. Nukara was a fortress but Dinasia could hold potential. "Valdez to bridge, launch a class VI probe to Dinasia. Send the telemetry data to Veel'riz." he ordered. "If it checks out then we can work on a strategy" Captain Valdez finished with. "You're concerned father" Trianna said. Valdez knew that look on Trianna's face, nothing got past her.
On the bridge several hours later, Valdez was awaiting the probe's data burst. A Terran supply base had been found with several Terran convoys shuttling supplies to the Nukara being based there, no temporal readings detected. "Hail the Star Commander, Clemens" he ordered. Clemens sent the hail and it was returned. "Star Commander, I'm sending you data on a softer target. No temporal signatures detected, Dinasia is one of the key Terran supply hubs. We also intercepted military channels about their convoy routes and timings" said Valdez.
Veel'riz reviewed the data, a couple of successful convoy attacks could improve morale and draw out parts of Strike Group Inquisitor from Nukara. Hitting Dinasia would cut Terran supply lines to Nukara forcing an Imperial Response.
...............................................................................................................................................................................
I.S.S. Valdez, Nukara System 2390 (Mirror Universe)
Rear Admiral Solat was in her war room, the Romulan attack on Nukara had been repulsed though tactically it had been a costly draw. "Commander Flores, you have that information I requested?" she said in her cold calm manner. "Maam, this is what I've found on this Captain Valdez. He's defeated Leeta three times over the space of a year." Solat listened to the briefing by her first officer. Maybe this Federation captain was a threat after all, for Leeta to be defeated three times by the same captain meant that this Federation captain was going to be no push over after all.
"Anything else Commander?" said Solat, "We picked up that Federation Signature again at Molindra." replied Flores, "Then it's logical to assume that Captain Valdez discovered that the supernova was artificially created." replied Solat. "I asked Lt Valdez to find out the nature of the telepathic assault that hit at the Battle of Nukara" replied Flores. They were interrupted by a call, it was from Lt Trianna Valdez. "Maam, not all the Molindrans have been wiped out. Strike Group Inquisitor were lucky to get out of that situation. Telepaths all over the system were affected by that blast of telepathic energy." Lt Valdez reported. "That will be all, Solat out" Solat replied. She could trust Lt Valdez, admiral Valdez was a friend and any relation of the admiral's was also to be counted on as an ally.
Red Alert interrupted the meeting as both Flores and Solat were called to the battle bridge. An Alliance squadron attempted to launch a raid on the Terran base at Nukara. Solat put the strike group to red alert and advanced her forces to the system's edge. Facing the remaining 350 ships of Strike Group Inquisitor were 25 Klingon Bird of Preys being supported by 15 Vor'chas and 20 Cardassian Galors.
Solat formed her lines up, "scan those ships, let's not repeat the drone experience." she ordered. Clemens scanned all ships, "they're real ships maam." reported Clemens. "Cruisers and dreadnoughts form up in the centre, escorts to the wings. Put our Vulcan ships behind the cruisers in the centre" she ordered. Now she waited for the Alliance forces to arrive. 20 minutes later the attack force decloaked and launched the assault. "Let them charge our lines" ordered Solat. Looking at her tactical display, she ordered the centre to pull back in a controlled manner.
The Alliance raiders had taken the bait of an apparently weakened centre and attack head on. This was what Solat was waiting for, "Centre group, keep pulling them further into our lines, flanks wait for my signal" was her next order. The Alliance attack soon began to bog down as their sensors were being jammed, at this moment Solat gave the order "witch's cauldron" and her flanking force swept around the back of the Alliance attack and swarmed them from every direction, the Terran centre now advanced squeezing the Alliance assault ever tighter and tighter. Solat knew the Klingons would not surrender and gave the order to wipe them out. After seeing the destruction the Klingon vessels, the 5 remaining Cardassian Galors powered down and surrendered having seen their weapons and shields destroyed. "Transport all prisoners to the booths commander" ordered Solat. "I want them kept alive, they may have vital information that could be of use to us." was her next order.
Flores obeyed the order and some 6000 Cardassian and Bajoran prisoners of war were transported to the booths at Nukara Station. "A result, but this Alliance attack was not random, the Romulans and our counterparts are up to something" Solat said to her first officer.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Dinasia system (Mirror Universe)
Centurion T’Raul of the R.D.W. Blight-Bird looked back at his unsuspecting prey, as his dreadnought closed in on the docked freighters, followed by 8 battleships, 20 escorts, 12 Destroyers, 10 cruisers, and 25 frigates. He’d taken out two convoys already, now his real target was in sight. Still he had to use every asset he had while T’Nae was still leading other parts of BG Basilisk in several skirmishes in other nearby sectors, and another drone group played deception with a now former Cardasian colony, as Terrans and Tholians again.
He first, had the Molindrans mentally infiltrate the enemy ranks; and in a matter of moments he had the shield frequencies of the small station, and Imperial communication codes… Jackpot.
Checking the hour one last time as it signalled 0300, his ships accelerated to attack speed as several of Molindrans used hand phasers on four of the freighters warpcores from the safety of their true locations. Then the nimble Kronos escorts targeted communications, as the rest of the warbirds opened fire on various docked and military targets. The surprise had been complete and it was over in less than five minutes… Freighters, ships, the dock, and supply station were rubble…. Success without complications- at least it appeared that way, until the Klingons opened fire.
Hailing the lead cruiser, T’Raul attempted to negotiate. “I have no conflict with you, and we share a common enemy. It would be foolish to waste our strength fighting each other!”
The Klingon was as stubborn as he expected. “You took the battle I came for from me Romulan, I will have to take that honour back by defeating you.”
The Warbirds regrouped- a few of the Alliance wrecks could be beneficial to covering their tracks… Every moment would count now. As the two forces clashed the Klingon’s numerical advantage became clear despite the Union’s technological superiority. As another Immortal battleship went down two flanking Alliance groups warped in… Thankfully engaging the holograms created by the single Phalanx class.
T’Raul’s force was in trouble… If the Klingons reported their presence here, or worse if the Terrans found out- He had to prevent the Klingons from leaving this system alive! Outflanked and outnumbered, he didn’t know what to do…
Then the enemy was taking a fleet’s worth of fire, as the largest ship T’Raul had ever seen appeared seemingly from nowhere in the middle of the combat zone! The new arrival became the enemies main target now as the survivors of the initial onslaught tried ramming into it, only to find their ships held in place as the hull collapsed, or crashing into their allies. The last bird of prey tried to make a run at the ship using its warp engines- and still found its movement halted! The bridge crew questioned their eyes; then they died.
“This is the newly-named Molindran Celestial class dreadnought, Tsunami.” Captain Bleekoo said as he contacted the Romulans. “What do you say we get out of here before the enemy comes knocking?” As one all the vessels entered subspace, towing the Romulan wreckage behind them.
Vanguard Station- Civilian section Alpha
Trianna Valdez, sat with the youngest female Molindran known to be in this reality. Gal’azia Yarloop’s superiors had felt it would be best if a Molindran from a similar stage in life assisted the Ensign with her telepathic training. That was relatively speaking of course there was almost than 70 millennia between their true ages.
Still Gal’azia was a first level mental adept- meaning she had slightly above average mental abilities for her species, and she could sense Trianna’s untapped potential, as they found this mostly quite ‘diner’ on the Vanguard’s civilian section on entertainment module B2.
“So whats the real reason for using this area?” Trianna asked, having sensed the original reason of a ‘calming’ environment to be inaccurate.
“To avoid my elders, interrupting us… I also find the sound of the ocean calming.” Gal’azia answered as the room became a small sandbar, with meditation candle. As the two women sat down and began sensing the emotions of the other, Gal’azia instructed her mentee to imagine their two minds as being small dots of light separated by a black lake (symbolic of true physical distance and the defenses another mind might possess).
Not wishing to try anything to advanced being unsure of how much training the young hybrid had previously had, the Molindran decided to start with a short telepathic conversation. She was surprised at the ease they were able to read the others thoughts- whether her own experience or not she wasn’t sure.
“So much pain… The loss of your home-world still lingers in your people’s memories generations later… Val’Rikith, was beautiful.” Trianna quietly said opening her eyes at the Molindrans solid navy blue ones.
“Thank you… But that isn’t why you’re shocked right now is it?” Gal’azia stated.
“The Molindran you were looking for… The reason you delayed applying for Starfleet academy…” Trianna didn’t want to offend this one, sympathizing with her pain. “She was your mother, your people don’t change surnames but rather middle ones.”
Gal’azia responded telepathically genuinely surprised and impressed. “I hadn’t intended to share that… Shall we continue?” Now she was wondering if the young Valdez was powerful enough to sense the location of indiviuals.
“Yes.”
Veel’Riz didn’t think that day could have gone any better… The Terran communication frequencies and cypher codes could be an essential part of any future engagements or plans.
He hadn’t known that his allies would try to retrieve the Celestial class, but he was glad that they’d waited to reveal themselves to keep the timeline intact. He had further reason to celebrate he’d found a nebula similar to the great bloom(in regards to interfering with long range communications) that he hopped could be used for an ambush once he was ready to lure Solat out of Nukara… By taking the life of Commander Wol'oop, that Vulcan- no that Imperial may have cost him his people’s future, and the future of an entire galaxy. But if Walker had sent Valdez here to help him- maybe all hope wasn’t lost, he realized now, that he was missing a piece of this temporal puzzle.
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
The Oudenarde took up position in the centre of Veel'riz's line, there was no point hiding his presence now RA Solat had figured out he was helping the Romulans. "Let's keep the Molindrans in reserve for the moment, revealing them too early could be costly" Captain Valdez said tapping his personal communication console. Veel'riz came to the same assessment. Hidden on the flanks were lighter and faster escorts and destroyers.
Veel'riz ordered "send the message". The Vanquisher's communication officer sent the signal to activate the data stick. The trap was set, now all Valdez and Veel'riz had to do was wait. "All hands, this is the captain, all hands to battle stations" ordered Valdez to his crew. Soon the Oudenarde was an hive of activity as the well drilled Federation crew got to their posts. "Trianna, start messing around with their defense networks when they appear" was Valdez's next order. "I saved a few Iconian virus programmes for a special occasion" she replied. "Polymorphic probes are ready sir" Solat said.
The Terran force soon arrived, Solat was not present as she was being tied down by Alliance raids. Veel'Riz's drones had done their work well in causing confusion among the Terrans. Commanding the Terran force was Commodore Lindermann, his orders from Solat were to find and destroy the Romulan fleet. Lindermann got his rank by killing his competition, tactically he was aggressive to the point of recklessness. Charging his 4 squadrons of cruisers into the nebula he crashed into the Romulan union centre. Valdez watching as the Oudenarde started taking fire ordered, "Krasnova, crazy ivan". Krasnova understood what Valdez meant and soon the Oudenarde was dodging photons and taking less beam hit. "Veel'Riz, lets pull back our centre." Valdez suggested.
Veel'riz had judged the moment right to pull the Terran force deeper and into the Romulan centre and the Romulan centre seeme to start pulling back, Lindermann took the bait and ordered another charge. Trianna all the while was working her magic pulling down Terran shields and infecting the Terran ships with her collection of Iconian programmes. Polymorphic probes also caused havoc. Lindermann now found himself in an impossible situation as Veel'riz called in the Tsunami and the flanking forces cut off Terran escape. Lindermann was trapped and with communications and other systems going haywire, he hailed both the Oudenarde and Vanquisher.
"What are the terms of my surrender?" Lindermann asked to both Valdez and Veel'Riz. Both allied commanders considered what terms would be adequate, both agreed on unconditional surrender. Veel'riz delivered the terms by hail to Lindermann. Lindermann facing no other choice ordered his forces to stand down and surrender. The battle was over and 4 squadrons of cruisers were wiped from RA Solat's order of battle. Allied losses were minimal. Valdez had convinced Veel'riz to go for a morale victory and it had done it's objective. As the allied fleet left the nebula towing the captured surviving Terran ships out, Valdez and Veel'Riz surveyed the fleet and their prizes.
"I recommend giving the captured Terrans prisoner of war status, let's not go to their level" Valdez suggested.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Haakona system (Mirror Universe)
R.D.W. Vanquisher
Veel'Riz looked over his latest intelligence reports, happy to see that the drones had done their job. The more the Alliance fought the Terrans the more resources both used up. It was only a matter of time until one of revealed their hand. Eventually the Alliance would have to realize they weren't dealing with a small poorly trained and equipped Imperial remnant, and the hammer would fall.... That or the Terrans would launch their offensive as history recorded....
Either way, it was a battle he intended to use to his advantage.
That said.... He looked over to the report from the telepathic assault research teams.... They'd been testing the Telepathic shields by attaching them to tribbles and trying to overpower it. The results both worried and intrigued him... Remans were finding it almost impossible to breakthrough, where as the Molindrans had had some succsess, on the tribbles and each other. When they'd gone in bringing their full mental strength upon facing the shields they'd taken from the prisoners, the shi d either overloaded, or the target had died.... But this left the Telepath drained.
What had worked was slowly building up their mental attack over a few moments.... The Terrans had refused to talk about where they'd gotten the technology.
The POWs had been taken to the Hobbuss system penal colony.... Vanguard was designed to be an arc, fortress, factory, research center, last refuge, and so much more..... If the enemy ever believed it had a prision, then they wasted resources trying to get in, the simplicity was marvelous.
Veel'Riz put his PADD aside as his door sounded. "Come in please."
Commander Solat entered, asking why he'd requested to speak.
"Ah, Commander thank you for your time, I'm sure you've other deities to attended to. I have an odd request I hope you might be able to help me with. Your being here is an advantage we have that the Terrans do not- who knows how you think better than you? In regards your counterpart- and before I ask I married a Vulcan, so I do know you have emotions. If you where in her position, what would be the greatest fear...? Goal- what is it exactly driving her? How would you personally confront RA Solat?"
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Haakona System (Mirror Universe)
Commander Solat had been asked by Veel'Riz how she could face herself. "She's like me, her strategy is logical, if I was in her position now, I'd be sending out scouting patrols. Losing Dinasia is setback but the loss of 4 whole cruiser squadron will be my biggest problem. I would wait until my forces are back up to strength and I would want you to come into the system and then I would encircle you." Solat said, "We need to find and eliminate all her supply depots, without supplies she cannot fight. Captain Valdez refers to it as a scorched Earth strategy, we destroy everything that could be of any use to the enemy in effect starving her of supplies." Solat finished with.
This got Veel'Riz thinking, RA Solat could be defeated without engaging her forces. Solat then explained her counterpart's psychology, "She's driven by one thing only, revenge. If my close relationship with the captain occurred in this reality, then to her it's like losing a brother. The main reason me and the captain work well together is we understand each other clearly, the same could said in this reality. We are stronger together, without the captain's counterpart there, she's too stuck to logic in her doctrine. Me and and the captain have different approaches, the captain fights in a unconventional manner whereas I'm logical. We balance each other out. She no longer has that balance"
"How would I confront her?, I wouldn't directly, I'd find an indirect way of attacking her" Was Solat's answer. "I would enlist the help of the person who knew him best, his daughter Trianna." Solat finished with.
.....................................................................................
Nukara System (Mirror Universe)
I.S.S. Valdez
RA Solat was not is good mood, her war against the Romulan Union had suffered setbacks, "Scouts reported back, maam" said Commander Flores. Solat read the report, "Dinasia Station completely destroyed." Solat put down the report, "Commander, can you answer this question, how can the Romulans suddenly learn of all our supply bases?" she asked. "Could mean one of two things maam, one someone was careless or two we got compromised." replied Flores.
"The scouts also recovered a federation buoy, it had a message to you." Solat ordered Flores to play it. It said "You know who I am, I'm guessing you are having a very bad day. The Romulans thank you for the extra cruiser squadrons by the way, it seems your commodore did not have much fight in him. Have a nice day"
"Valdez" shouted Solat, "why did it have to be Valdez?" she was thinking in her head. "Commander, are there any remaining Valdez family in Nukara?" asked Solat. "A Lt Trianna Valdez maam, she's Admiral Valdez's daughter." replied Flores. "I want her transferred to the Valdez, she knew her father best". ordered Solat.
The transfer was approved, Lt Trianna Valdez reported to Solat in the war room. "Why might I ask am I being transferred here?" asked Trianna. Solat explained why, "Trianna, your father's counterpart is helping the enemy". "You knew him best, how would you fight this Veel'Riz and your father's counterpart?" Solat asked.
"From the records, Veel'Riz is a veteran commander, he frequently outfought and out smarted many a Terran admiral" Trianna said. "My father was very unconventional, assume his counterpart is too."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
and found this
Ponies from the MU are kicking the TRIBBLE out of every other nation in the game!
The U.S.S. Oudenarde was on patrol looking for any Alliance ships. One the bridge Captain Valdez stared at the viewscreen. "Klingon Bird of Prey decloaking at 12 o'clock" reported Clemens. "Hail them" ordered Valdez, Clemens sent out the hail. Valdez said "This is Captain Nathan Valdez of the Federation Starship Oudenarde, I'm not here to fight you. Where I'm from, the Klingons are a strong people with a strong sense of honor."
The Bird of Prey returned the hail, "Commander Kagran of the Bird of Prey Rotarran, how may I help you Federation?" Valdez replied back "Your people are warriors, I've served under a Klingon in my reality's biggest war to date and even helped save their homeworld" Kagran knew a warrior when he saw one. "Captain, What would the Alliance get out of pact with the Romulan Union?" asked Kagran. "Trianna, send Kagran some Terran convoy routes and timings." ordered Valdez. "My officers managed to get into their command network. We know where the Terran bases are" said Valdez, "Your people want an honorable battle, the Romulan Union is willing to provide you with targets. If you don't believe me, ask your Lethean officer to scan me" finished Valdez. The Lethean turned to Kagran and confirmed the Federation captain could be trusted. "My government will be in touch with Romulan Union within the hour, Kagran out" replied Kagran as he cut the hail.
"Krasnova, set a course for Haakona, Warp nine and punch it" ordered Valdez. "Number One, I'll be in my quarters, you have the conn" he told Solat. Solat acknowledged the captain, "Keep us at Yellow Alert for the moment, Mr Flores" Solat ordered as she turned to Flores. "Aye Maam" replied Flores. "Valdez, Clemens, you two discovered anything new?" Solat asked as she looked over both officer's shoulders. "That message we left in the buoy, I may have left a little surprise in it." Ensign Valdez reported. "We've also intercepted Terran transmissions, I don't think they are aware that we're in their network yet." Clemens reported. "They should start experiencing computer failures across the Nukara system any time now, it'll take them weeks to fully clear out the programme I had in mind" replied Trianna. "Carry on" said Solat. "Pass the results to to the good Star Commander, he'll find them fascinating" she said to Clemens as she took to the Captain's chair.
..........................................................................................................................................................................
2390 Nukara System (Mirror Universe)
RA Solat was in her war room on the ISS Valdez, her forces were down four whole squadrons due to incompetent command. Most of Admiral Valdez's veterans were either dead or missing with younger and inexperienced captains taking their places. "General Shar, General Solux, I need suggestions." said Solat. Shar proposed an attack on the Haakona star. Solat dismissed the notion, "Haakona is a fortress, any attempt to get past their defenses will fail." said Solat, "Our forces are-" she was about to finish with when suddenly the entire task group suddenly started experiencing multiple computer failures.
Flores reported, "It's not just us, the entire computer network system is failing all over Nukara", Trianna took a look at the network and her report said it all, "It seems my counterpart has been a very mischievous gremlin, she's remotely compromised the entire network. It'll take at least six weeks to clear out the programme she infected us with, it keeps multiplying and interfering with communications, power and sensors". Solat now realised that the Romulan Union's new ally was more dangerous than she initially thought.
Her Task Force had been crippled without a shot even being fired. To make matters worse, the Alliance were now knocking out her convoys and supply stations. Without supplies, she could not fight and now she could not even defend her convoys as her ships had been remotely crippled. "Could be worse maam, at least our life support is still running" said Flores. Solat looked up at her first officer, "A consolation Commander, nothing else" she said.
"Trianna, get a software repair crew together. I need the task force's computers all up and running as soon as possible". Solat ordered. "Maam" replied Trianna, she got her software repair kit and set off for the computer core.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The Empire recruiting killer ponies with machine-guns? That's it abandon all hope, the end has come! Game over we're all dead!
.... Well off to the midnight shift.
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
Quick, where's the phasers gone?
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
* Kinjun still happened. (I'm working on a series for the prime characters that explains the Federation was partially aware of the 'Yellow Empire.' However with little to no evidence to go on they assumed it had something to do with different factions within the MU, not two MU's.
* Temporal Accords ... I'm not sure how to answer this one as I still believe the Federation is responsible for the actions that lead to the downfall/rise of the Terran Empire(s).
That said if you want a list of incidents the two are involved in (Temporal wise)
( @galatt Is this cool with you for Naynta? )
* (30th Century - Prime Universe) Terran victory against the Galactic Union at New Khitomer
* (2155, 2380 - Yellow MU ) Resurrecting the Terran Empire
* (2268 - Prime & Yellow MU) Observing the events of TOS: 'Mirror Mirror'
* (2380 - Yellow MU) Doing stuff on Dewa III.
* (2390 - Yellow MU ) Observing 'Operation: whatever I called it.'
* (Between 2390-2408) Seduces Captain O'Brien into killing his own father to eliminate any chance of the peaceful Terran faction forming.
* (2408 - Yellow MU ) Advising the Terran Empress to invade the Prime Universe
* (2409/10 - Prime Universe) Observing the [Player Character] blowing up the Terran Odyssey on Nukara Prime]
As for how Naynta and Sito would react to someone they 'knew' hunting them ...
(Again I'll ask for @galatt 's opinion on this - his character)
Naynta probably wouldn't take it seriously, she would likely just shrug it off as a joke until X becomes a serious threat to her unless Sito declared X a threat, then maybe the two of them would hunt X.
Sito however has more experience dealing with people 'popping up from the dead' so would take it more seriously than Lot. If she saw X as a threat then she would move to eliminate X before he/she became a threat to her or Naynta.
Sito would consider someone hitting her supplies to be a serious threat.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Anyway ... what universe is this 'Romulan Union' in?
Prime (Fed)
Yellow MU (Sito's Empire's Universe)
Red MU (Admiral Leeta's Empire's Universe)
You'd have to ask Zionus, but I suspect Red. It's red, the Romulan Union were driven to war with the Red Terrans by a Terran Invasion. The Admiral defending Vulcan Sector took his forces back in time forcing the Rom Union to follow him. Captain Walker sent some covert help to the Rom Union in defeating the red terrans from 2410
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
If the Union is from the 'Red' Universe ... are you okay with them being one of many Romulan factions?
I.E.
The Romulan Union opposes the Terran Empire
The Romulan Aristocracy supports the Terran Empire
The Romulan Republic (Mirror) is 'neutral' and hates both of the above.
Actually that would make a bit of sense with all the time traveling Rishis did/ does.... Having bits of the RSU 'bleed' into another timeline as time tries to as Anoraxx said 'fight back".
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
What ever happened to a straight up fair fight?
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
The Foundry, and my love of Star Trek
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I'm ok with both of these.
Papela would be curious how her daughter handles a real threat.