A Star Trek Story

[BigJKU316]

I have no title yet, and this is the first time I have done fiction since middle school. Don't hold back if it stinks. This is part one of a very long story I am working on for my own entertainment. The first few sections are basically introductory to the universe. The real story starts later. I have a lot of supporting material I will push out later.

September 2, 2387

Admirals Quarters, USS Lexington in orbit above Terra Nova

Vice Admiral Ethan Clark woke abruptly and in a cold sweat. It was the same dream it always was. First a Miranda Class ship was crippled by the Breen energy-dampening weapon before being blown apart as a young female Lieutenant was sucked out through the view screen. Then a flash to another battle as he watched from his own bridge as an Akira class ship tumbled out of control, dead in space.

That had been over ten years ago. The dream was less frequent now but still elicited the same reaction when it did come. Getting up to splash some water on his face he asked the computer for the time. It was 4 in the morning. First contact with the enemy was at least two hours away but he could hardly go back to sleep. Might as well get ready and head to the flag bridge Clark figured. Many of his staff would already be up, having worked all night. It was a big day for 1st Fleet.

Bridge of the USS Magellan, approaching Terra Nova

Vice Admiral Franz Gerhardt was a deeply unhappy man at the moment. 3rd Fleet was a proud unit, having distinguished itself in the Dominion War and having been one of the few fleets retained after it for defensive purposes. Deployed out of Starbase 342 in the Terra Nova sector it was responsible for defending the core of the Federation while also being in a position to support Federation forces deployed around the borders of Cadassian space and the Bajoran Wormhole. This large force of nearly 500 starships was not accustomed to having difficulty with much of anything since the end of the Dominion War.

However much to the dismay of the bridge crew the current engagement was not going well and the Admiral's frustration was starting to boil over. For three days they had tried to get a handle on just what they were up against and they still had no real idea. Finally this morning sensors had picked up 32 enemy ships which advanced into extreme sensor range and then just sat there.

They were obviously scouts or a screening force. 3rd Fleet deployed into its standard battle formation and began a cautious advance, making sure to keep an eye out on its flanks.

"Tactical, I need a report of what is happening on our left flank," said the Admiral hardly able to conceal his agitation with the present state of things.

"Sir, our Miranda and Steamrunner wings on that flank report heavy damage, they no longer appear to be combat effective and the reports we are getting are very fragmented. The Centaur and Saber wings further out report no damage. Sensors show that the enemy units engaged with the Miranda and Steamrunner wings are falling back and placing themselves between our undamaged units and the Terra Nova system."

This elicited another growl of frustration from the Admiral. They had good intelligence on the enemy, who they outnumbered two to one. Their mission was a simple one, to push through or around the enemy lines and put their units in position to deliver a devastating strike on the system of Terra Nova and the associated shipyards and industrial capacity of the enemy.

Their plan had been simple but elegant. A balanced deployment placed the heavy units of the 3rd in the center with the destroyer groups on both sides and the light units on either flank to protect against any end run by the smaller enemy force. It was a flexible deployment that Gerhardt figured would allow him to concentrate his larger force against the enemy in either direction so he could then let his numbers tell.

"Sir, " another tactical officer broke in to snap Gerhardt back into reality "The right flank destroyer groups are reporting heavy damage as well. They are not sure how much longer they can continue their advance."

"If they are pushing us back on both flanks they must be weak in the middle. All heavy cruisers in the Galaxy and Nebula Wings are to go to maximum warp and head for the system. We will split their force in two and finish them off in pieces," ordered Gerhardt hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.

Bridge of the USS Renown, Outskirts of the Terra Nova System

"They are coming right towards us Commodore Chen, 103 ships of the Galaxy and Nebula Class. We also count about 75 Akira class ships as well, they are at the edge of our sensor range so we are having a tough time getting a good count on them, should be close to that number though."

"Well, that is certainly enough to make things exciting here. Helm, go ahead and back us off towards phase line Baker. Match speed so that they come into weapons range after we hit phase line Delta. Inform fleet command of our maneuver."

With that Chen's command of thirty-two Sovereign class ships wheeled about and headed back towards Terra Nova. The group had more than enough combat power to look after itself and could outrun any of the ships now headed towards them, but Admiral Clark had a bigger plan in mind for their quarry so amidst much grumbling from the crews, who wished to prove their own worth, the squadron of battle-cruisers made course away from the enemy for the time being. Having to be content with the role they had played, while their comrades in the lighter units had started off the show with a bang.

Main Engineering, USS Essex Left Flank of 3rd Fleet

The blinking red lights told of the fate suffered by the destroyer groups of 2nd fleet. Nearly 100 vessels primarily of the Excelsior and Steamrunner classes had comprised either wing on the flank of the main force now hurtling towards the presumed center of the enemy formation as fast as their engines allowed.

In the face of heavy electronic interference destroyer groups 1 and 3, which comprised the left wing of 2nd fleet, had advanced against what their sensors told them was around 46 enemy ships, though electronic interference prevented them from identifying the types. Just before entering weapons range things started to happen very quickly.

Tactical readouts suddenly went from 46 targets to over 100. The two to one odds were suddenly even which invalidated the pre-established targeting plan that was in place. While still trying to react to that change the two fleets collided and the enemy launched a savage and coordinated attack on all section and division leaders.

USS Essex, the wing flagship, was targeted by no fewer than 9 enemies in the first 20 seconds of the conflict, while the consorts in its division were largely ignored. The initial phaser strikes had penetrated the shields and destroyed a large portion of the Excelsior Class vessels weapons. One of the older designs in Starfleet the Excelsiors had held up well over the years but were never meant to deal with the heavy Type XII phasers of the Prometheus Class ships opposing it which cut through easily. Before they could even begin damage control the ship has hit by over a dozen quantum torpedoes.

The computer was now informing the Chief Engineer Gerard, who had been on the job for nearly two years, that the ship was part of the few survivors sealed in the engineering space thought that would not last long. The rest of the crew was killed by explosive decompression as a result of critical hull breaches all over the ship. Life support for the few left alive would only last as long as the few remaining batteries held out, or so the computer told them as it recounted the details of their sudden death.

This story was replicated en mass across the whole of the left wing destroyer groups. When the flagship went down early command was supposed to fall to the division and then section command ships. But things had developed too rapidly. Each three-ship section was supposed to target one of the enemy ships and overwhelm it. When the numbers were equalized just before firing a new plan could not be transmitted in time and the defense degenerated into a melee, with each ship generally targeting the most immediate threat.

However the enemy had clearly planned for this action. Their sections, each three-ship section being one actual ship in practice, stayed disciplined. The enemy's sections each target one ship, overwhelmed it in a high-speed strike and then swung back around in seemingly random but coordinated actions that progressed faster than their opponent could react. Quantum torpedoes seemed to pour continuously in from the larger ships that were hanging well back from the main action.

Gerard had watched the battle from his display, there being little else to do. His unit had fought back as hard as they could but the disorganization wrought by the first pass, which had destroyed or crippled about 20 of his comrades ships was unrecoverable.

The numbers, which had been even at the outset, now were tilted in the favor of their notional enemy. The results were inevitable. The now fragmented group of destroyers was cleaned up over the course of a few minutes of heavy engagement. He watched with dismay as over 80 sub-sections of the enemy wheeled about to make a pass on the last 20 or so survivors of the fleet.

Moving quickly, in what seemed to be an almost random pattern the enemy ships darted up and down. What had been initially a brute force attack against division and section leaders was now being conducted as a beautifully choreographed ballet.

Gerard watched as a single Steamrunner class ship, USS Sturgis, struggled to keep three tormentors at bay. One kept up a running fire from extreme weapons range that kept Sturgis focused ahead trying to beat off the threat. The other two vessels worked their way in on either flank. Whenever the Sturgis turned its attention to one of those ships the other would press closer, always firing.

The bright red threads of energy played across the surface of their target. Eventually one of the attackers struck a major power coupling, which reduced power to all major systems. As quickly as that happened all three ships closed to killing range and poured phasers strikes into critical areas of the ship as they passed by. Finally a killing volley of quantum torpedoes silenced yet another 3rd Fleet ship which became dead along with most of its peers.

It was not entirely one sided, but it was not that far from a slaughter either.

In the end they managed to destroy or critically damage just 10 sub-sections from Prometheus group that attacked them. The remaining 86 sections comprised 25 complete ships and 11 marooned sub-sections. The sub-sections stayed behind to pickup simulated survivors and finish off cripples, the remaining 25 ships reattached themselves and headed off at high speed.

The whole affair had taken less than three minutes from the first shot. Gerard suddenly realized that his whole staff was standing watching the display screen. Finally a veteran petty officer said what they were all thinking.

"Damn, that happened fast "

Bridge of the USS Loki, right flank of 1st Fleet

Commodore Sulak was annoyed at the performance of his battle group. They had accomplished the mission but at higher losses than he had hoped for. According to the computer readout he had 25 fully mission capable ships and sections enough to cobble together another three from what he had left behind.

The Akira Class cruisers in support had not taken any damage and had fired off nearly 3,000 torpedoes during the engagement. The only major modification to these units was an increase in torpedo stowage from 300 to 1,200 rounds, which was still not really sufficient to support a weapons system with a theoretical rate of fir of over 900 rounds per minute but would have to do until the replacement for the Akira Class came off the yards.

During the Dominion War tactics for utilizing the Akira had been in their infancy. Commanders worried about running out of rounds and as a consequence had not made full use of the system. Additionally targeting could never be done fast enough to make full use of the system. 1st Fleet had worked long and hard to integrate them properly. Through the use of some advanced computer programming each Akira Class ship basically fired its weapons without any user input.

Fully integrated into the sensor and tactical information shared among the fleet the computer simply determined the number of targets in the area and started firing, simply sending rounds into the general area where it was figured they would be put to use. Mid-course guidance updates were given based on a set of instructions from the tactical officer in charge. Unless otherwise overridden targets were selected automatically based on the program being used and the system fired until it was told to stop.

Today's performance had been nearly flawless. Utilizing the sensor picture from the Prometheus class ships the torpedoes swarmed in on weakened units and quickly struck them down. Just as they had practiced the phasers of the Prometheus class tore down their opponents shields and then torpedoes from the Akira's blew them apart. Commander Sulak could not consider the first use of this system as being anything other than perfect.

More concerning to him was the fact that three of his ships had problems keeping their sub-sections firing on the same target. Those three subsections had targeted enemy ships from which they were taking heavy fire while the section was engaging another target. While this was an understandable emotional response, to return fire when being attacked, it was less efficient than a well-coordinated strike on a single ship.

"Commander, please note those ship sections that fired outside of the parameters of their orders and document it in the commanding officers file. Inform those officers to call their relief pending an inquiry. Also inform fleet command of our status and request further orders."

Discipline was hard in 1st fleet because it had to be. A first offense such as this would be a formal reprimand. Any second offense meant demotion or dismissal. Admiral Clark would not tolerate mistakes by Captain Sulak and he was not expected to tolerate mistakes by those under him. From the top down it was emphasized that you can't fight effectively as a fleet unless you trust the others around you to do their job.

Looking up at his sensor readings Sulak figured that while he was teaching a small lesson on this to his own crews he had just given a crash course on it to the opposing destroyer force that he had reduced to less than a dozen badly damaged and disorganized ships trying to limp away from the battlefield. In that respect everything really was relative.

[BigJKU316]

Bridge of the USS Renown, Outskirts of the Terra Nova System approaching at Warp 9.4

"Commodore Chen, we are approaching phase line delta. We should be there in 20 seconds and the enemy should be in weapons range 180 seconds after that. Sensors show 102 Galaxy and Nebula Class and 78 Akira Class ships now in pursuit. One Galaxy Class ship fell back with apparent engine trouble," reported an overly excited junior operations officer. It must be his first engagement; Chen would have to note how he performed under pressure.

"Acknowledged helm. Com station, signal the group to execute battle plan Epsilon Four on my mark. ECM, have you identified the squadron and division leaders in the group following us?"

"Sir we have a pretty good idea of the squadron leaders, they are staying off their com nets for the most part, we should be able to identify the division leaders once the battle is underway."

"Please transmit that information to the fleet. Execute battle plan Epsilon Four once we cross phase line delta."

The order flashed across the to the task group on secure communication nets. Timing was as precise as some of the most advanced computers in the known galaxy could make it. Warp engines cut out at precisely as the ships crossed the imaginary line in space. The latent momentum was put to good use as the formation split neatly in half with 16 of the Sovereign Class battle cruisers headed of in each direction, at roughly 60 degree angles from their previous course. Their opponent was now less than 100 seconds away from the imaginary line in space that Chen's task force had just crossed.

His eight squadrons of battle cruisers were the eyes of 1st Fleet because of their speed. That speed also made them ideal for the mission they were currently performing, which was to act as bait. Chen could imagine their eyes as their tactical station showed a picture they could hardly believe. An inferior force had divided itself once again in front of them. Nearly 180 ships were racing down on two groups of 16 that had widely separated themselves. He smiled, knowing he only needed to maintain that illusion for another minute or so and took the time to look out the view screen at the apparently empty space.

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

Hanging in that space was the iron fist of 1st Fleet. Twenty-Four of the newest Independence Class battleships waited for their prey. The first of that type ever constructed by the Federation they were not but 150 meters longer than their Sovereign Class ancestors, with whom they shared many traits, but they were substantially more muscular in appearance.

The saucer section was 6 decks taller than a Sovereign Class ship. It extended another 85 meters forward and was proportionally wider but generally formed the same shape, though the bridge area was less pronounced as the command and flag bridges we actually located on the interior of the ship, near the center of the saucer.

The engineering section was where the Independence Class departed from almost all previous Federation designs. The primary engineering hull was almost an exact copy, just expanded in length and width, of the Sovereign Class. However flanking that on either side was another hull space, much narrower construction, separated from the engineering hull by 10 meters of open space and about one third as long overall. Attached at both ends by sweeping connectors that blended seamlessly back into the main engineering hull these contained, in a zero gravity environment, the ships second and third warp cores. The combined power output of these three allowed the Independence Class to carry a staggering amount of weaponry.

Each ship mounted 32 of the heaviest phaser arrays that the Federation had created, giving them more than twice the phaser firepower of a Sovereign class ship. The power surplus let them maintain almost a continuous barrage. The ship had a torpedo launching capacity of more than triple the Sovereign Class, having added rapid-fire turrets to both sides of the engineering hull and replacing all photon launchers with quantum launchers.

However the major leap forward in this design was in something new. Across the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the saucer ran a thin blue line that looked very much like a phaser array except for the color. Developed to deal with the Borg threat it had finally been deemed ready for deployment. This would represent its first test in a combat environment.

Bridge of the USS Magellan, approaching Terra Nova at Warp 9.4

The heart of 3rd Fleet was racing after the battle cruiser group it had been following for nearly an hour. By now reports of the disaster on their flanks had made their situation quite clear. They would have no support from their destroyer groups. The light units on the flanks had been ordered to close in but ran into the oppositions Prometheus Class Destroyer wings on either side as they pulled back from the slaughter they had inflicted. The Centaur and Saber classes that comprised the frigate groups of 3rd Fleet could not outrun or outfight the ships that were between them and the main body. Their best use now was to keep running and keep those enemy ships away from the battle to come.

"Order our Frigate groups to proceeded to the far side of the system and rally there. Make their way around the enemy destroyers and await our arrival after we push through the opposition here," ordered Gerhardt. "Tell them to keep their distance, it won't take but a few quantums to pick most of them off but they can at least keep those destroyers busy and off of us."

The whole battle plan was coming unhinged. What had been a coordinated advance had disintegrated into a melee action on the part of 3rd fleet. The enemy seemed to be everywhere on the flanks. Yet what the battle staff was seeing here was almost unbelievable. Along the most direct path to their target there were just thirty-two enemy ships and they were splitting up.

Gerhardt knew the ships he faced would be in excellent condition. They were new and purpose built Sovereign Class ships. What changes had been made he did not know. Despite this he had a pretty good idea of what he was facing. Up rated or not 32 Sovereign Class ships were no match for over 100 Galaxy and Nebula Class starships supported by 78 Akira Class ships.

"Galaxy wings 1 and 3 and Nebula wings 2, 4 and 6 are to engage the opposition that has move starboard. Galaxy wings 2 and 4 and Nebula wings 1, 3, and 5 are to engage the force that has moved off to port. Order the heavy cruisers to position themselves in the center and provide torpedo fire support in both directions."

The core of 3rd fleet dropped out of warp about 20 seconds from weapons range on the opposition. Gerhardt watched his component commanders maneuver their forces into his ordered disposition. He outnumbered his opponent nearly five to one. If he could break the enemy center he would win.

"All ships are free to engage at will "

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

Admiral Clark watched the tactical situation unfold before him. 3rd fleet was handling itself smartly enough. Their troubles on the flanks was not due to incompetence so much as to a huge technology deficit in ships engaged and about a years worth of combat training that had made all of Clark's captains learn the value of aggression. Now it was time to teach a different lesson to his opposition on the danger of making assumptions.

"I think we have kept up this charade long enough, Commodore Chen would probably appreciate if we made our presence known. Order all ships in the task group to disengage their phase cloaks," ordered Clark.

The installation of phase cloaking devices was one of the many controversial aspects of 1st Fleet. After the Scimitar incident the Federation had simply abrogated the cloaking provisions as the politicians were under tremendous pressure from their constituents. Earth had been attacked once, threatened with destruction twice and several major systems had been occupied by the Dominion all within less than a decade. The message delivered was clear, see that we are properly defended or we will elect someone who will.

The move towards cloaking devices, like much with 1st fleet was not public knowledge, but was the subject of much rumor. Only a few people knew of the technical aspects involved but to say that it was a state secret would have been overboard. Everyone knew the Federation had repudiated those provisions of the Treaty of Algeron after the Scimitar incident, but few knew just what manner of cloaking the Federation had chosen to pursue.

The technical decision on what path to take really proved to be quite simple. While the Romulan cloaking device for the Scimitar was technically superior it posed several major drawbacks, the first of which is that it was useless on smaller vessels. To operate it while operating the shields and weapons took a huge amount of power and special equipment. This largely explained why those ships occupied a volume of nearly 150 million cubic meters while the new Independence class ships of the Federation, while being equally powerful and in many ways superior combatants, occupied only about a quarter of that.

Additionally the capability, while greatly improving the firepower of a single ship, made coordinated fleet operations nearly impossible. Communication signals stood out like someone shining a flashlight in the dark. Any attempt to operate in a coordinated manner would be basically impossible. In short it was too expensive to adopt on a widespread basis. Even the Federation could only afford a handful of ships the size of the Scimitar.

The Federation phase cloak on the other hand was a simple device, already designed, that would work with even the smallest of ships. It accomplished the main goal of allowing ones to hide ships in strategic and tactical environments, such as the one Admiral Clark now found himself in.

Twenty-Four Independence class battleships and ninety-six of their Defiant class escorts jumped into existence just outside of effective weapons range for 3rd fleet. Closing at full impulse they would open fire within seconds of their appearance.

"Independence wings are to open fire by division on all known identified squadron leaders in the heavy cruiser group directly in front of us. Defiant squadrons are in direct support of each heavy division and are to engage the enemy closely," ordered Clark, though it was mostly a formality. The battle plan they were now executing had been sent out over a secure network as soon as the ships emerged from their cloaked state and they had drilled on it often enough. His units were already moving to execute both the plan and their enemy.

Bridge of the USS Thunderhead, Akira Class Cruiser, 2nd Fleet

The appearance of ships directly to the front of the cruiser force came as the worst of shocks. Already leaning to both sides to provide torpedo fire support for the opposition they had known about they were badly deployed to respond. Many firing arcs were covered up and no fire plan existed to deal with this unexpected and unwelcome threat.

"Order squadrons 2 and 5 to displace 10,000 meters negative z. Order squadrons 1 and 6 to displace 10,000 meters positive z to clear firing arcs. All ships are to come about to course 019 by 084!" shouted Commodore Brand, nearly in a panic dealing with this sudden and new threat. He had to get his ships clear of one another so they could fight. At the moment only around a dozen of his ships were oriented where they could respond. The rest were facing to either side, tucked in close to one another to maximize their striking power against the Sovereign class ships that a moment ago had been so alone.

Bridge of the USS Spearfish, Defiant Class Escort, 1st Fleet

The USS Spearfish led its group of 8 escorts, including itself, right into the heart of the enemy formation. Attached to the USS Lexington as escorts it was leading that ship and its sister, USS Constitution, right into the heart of the enemy cruiser group. The two bigger ships formed one of the 12 divisions of the battle line now moving to engage the opposition. Each of the Federations new battleships had four Defiant Class escorts, whose only job was to keep their huge, expensive charges safe.

The electronic countermeasures crews working onboard the Lexington had identified the USS Thunderhead as the cruiser group flagship more than thirty minutes ago. This made her the prime target of the early phase of the battle. Located at the center of a typical 3-ship cruiser division she was situated near the center of the enemy formation. ECM reported that her communications arrays were lighting up like a Christmas tree at this point, further confirming what Commander Ito already knew. That ship had to die, and it had to die soon before it could coordinate a defense.

"Sir, Lexington and Constitution have closed to phaser range and are opening fire on the target, their shields are sustaining heavy damage."

"Order the squadron to close to point blank range before opening fire. Division 1 is to target the torpedo launcher up top. Our division is to target the bridge."

It was a surreal sight. The Thunderhead and its consorts were pumping out torpedoes as fast as they could. Dozens filled space with bright red and blue streaks. Most zipped right by the whirling group of Defiants closing in on their prey and headed on towards the main body of 1st fleet. Suddenly coming to realize the new threat the next volley tracked in on Ito's squadron. One ship took hits from five different quantum torpedoes within a few seconds and registered as a total loss. Another took three hits and hauled off headed for cover from the larger ships, nursing its nearly collapsed shields back to life.

"All ships fire!" came the order from Commander Ito.

Pulse phasers crashed out towards their targets. The Akira class ship was a stout combatant, but she was never built to stand up to an assault like this. Already badly weakened by the long-range volleys of phaser fire the shields collapsed within seconds. The strikes against the unshielded hull severed power to the weapons pod, rendering the ship largely defenseless.

The three remaining ships of Ito's division now opened up a heavy fire on the bridge. Phasers streaming into the target area while a string of torpedoes followed.

Bridge of the USS Thunderhead, Akira Class Cruiser, 2nd Fleet

"Damage report!" was the shouted question from Commodore Brand as the weapons pod fell under heavy assault. Before he could get an answer from engineering the lights went out on the bridge as it sustained a direct hit.

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

"Admiral, the enemy flagship has sustained multiple torpedo and phaser impacts on their bridge and main weapons systems, they are crippled and without communications. Attacks on squadron leaders report similar results. ECM had identified six squadron leaders, along with the flagship. All seven of those targets are total losses. We also have identified 20 different division leaders. We have destroyed or crippled 10 of those to this point. Four Defiants are total losses. Six more have pulled back to repair damage. No major damage reported on our capital units," stated the officer manning the tactical station.

Heavy losses had been expected in the initial assault by the Defiant's, but it had been worth it. Deprived of their flagship and many squadron leaders much of the enemy force was in chaos. Lines of communication were still being sorted out among the opposition and they would soon start to react. Clark had no intention of letting them stop and think.

"Pull the Defiant groups back and have them operate in close support of their heavy units. All heavy divisions are to close in and disable as many enemy units as they can as we move through their formation. Order the Sovereign group on our left to continue falling back and maintain contact with the opposition at the edge of weapons range. The group on the right is to stand fast as we come up behind that enemy formation."

Like the leviathans they were the 24 Independence class battleships turned and closed on a confused enemy. 100 Defiants and Independence class ships closed in on around 60 Akiras, the contest was a complete mismatch. Carrying significantly more than three times the conventional firepower of a standard Sovereign class ship and featuring the latest in shielding and armor technology the Federation could offer each ship was more than a match for several of the older heavy cruisers they now faced.

The 1st fleet tactical manual called for fire by division whenever possible. As the range closed the power of the weapons carried began to tell. Two of the heavy ships would open fire with most of their nearly 70 combined type XII phasers. The combined fire cut through their opponents shields in short order, exposing hulls to devastating torpedo strikes. Wherever organized resistance was put up the Defiant escorts would swing loose from their charges and commence high speed slashing attacks from multiple vectors.

The Akira class ships fought back bravely but ineffectually. Carrying most of their fighting power in the form of torpedo launchers their phasers we unable to cut through the layered and powerful shielding of the ships they now faced. Torpedoes were not nearly as effective against shielded targets. The ships they were facing were designed to take a pounding from much larger and more powerful ships than the Akira class ships that were trying to stop them. Their resistance was hopeless.

Bridge of the USS Magellan

Admiral Gerhardt watched in a combination of horror and awe as the largest Federation ships he had ever seen laid simulated waste to his formation. Like the rest of his tactical staff he was being reduced to a mere spectator at this point. Finally a report jolted him back to his duty.

"Sir, the Sovereign group in front of us has slowed will be in range shortly. The enemy heavy units and their escorts are headed this way. Our other wing reports it is unable to close the range with the opposition in front of them."

3rd Fleet was in a bad way. The enemy had turned and was ready to face him. He could certainly take on the 16 ships in his front. But now the enemy was closing from behind with 24 ships that were more than a match for anything he had. Their escorts were highly dangerous as well, carrying firepower nearly equal to his ships even if they were lacking in shields and size. His force of 52 Nebula and Galaxy class ships was about to be engaged by 120 ships from both sides. His nearest help was further away than the enemy force closing on his rear.

Attacking the Sovereign's and hoping to push through promised an easier path but it would take him further away from help. No, the only choice was to double back and hope that he could push through the opposition a reunite his force.

"Order all remaining ships in the fleet to make for this point," as he marked a point on his tactical display roughly in the center of his two forces.

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

"Sir, they are coming about, headed right for us. The group on the left is coming about as well."

"Implement targeting plan gamma, both Sovereign groups are to pursue and target engines. Disable as many as they can," ordered Admiral Clark, who to his crew seemed unusually calm. Things were going to plan though and it was time to spring his last surprise on an old friend.

"All Independence class ships are given full weapons release at this time, they are to fire at will."

Bridge of the USS Magellan

His forces were approaching extreme phaser range, Admiral Gerhardt choose to hold his fire as sensors told him he would have little effect from this far out. Then Gerhardt noticed something on his view screen he had not seen before. A glowing blue point was forming along an oddly colored phaser array on his counter parts flagship as a result of the rather cryptic order given just moments ago.

The glowing blue point suddenly pulsed and a broad, shimmering blue bolt streamed across space.

"Sir, we are under fire from what our sensor are telling us is a very heavy phaser. I have never seen anything quite like it. It appears very similar to a phaser but is orders of magnitude more powerful," reported the operations station.

His units did not stand a chance, and Admiral Clark had waited until they were too deep in to get out before springing that little surprise on his force.

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

The first live fire test of the High-Throughput Phaser had occurred just eight months ago when the Lexington fired upon a surplus Excelsior ship. The weapon had punched straight through the shields, penetrated the engineering hull, blasted through the warp core (which thankfully had been decommissioned) and continued through the opposite side of the ship, just missing an observation shuttle filled with Starfleet dignitaries as it continued out to its theoretical maximum range before fading away.

It was a balky, slow firing piece of equipment. The first of its kind in the known galaxy it fired far more slowly than the ships regular phasers and was not quite as accurate. It required the power of a dedicated warp core (in this case the work was shared by the three warp cores through a complex path of power conduits and controllers that was its own nightmare to maintain) and once charged had to be fired as the ship could not dissipate the energy stored in the array without overloading its power grid. The synthetic crystals used to control the beam produced a bluish white colored beam and needed careful maintenance to ensure proper operation.

Aiming was facilitated by three mechanically operated lenses that raced along the array on frictionless internal rails due to the inability of standard forcefields to control the output in a predictable manner. This created some difficulty in aiming the weapon as the lens assembly had to travel, slew itself onto the target and they discharge the array. Like other high energy weapons it had its faults, but was considered a far superior solution that the one the Klingons had adopted of a fixed disruptor on the nose of the ship.

The weapon was certainly not the finest example of Federation engineering. Indeed it was more of a brute force application of power generation and distribution with a small amount of new technology thrown in. But for all that it was a far more effective solution to the problem of maximizing firepower than simply increasing the number of type 12 phaser arrays carried on the ship. Though their targets were substantially more stout than the Excelsior they had fired a test shot at a few months back the effects were still devastating.

"Concentrate fire on the Magellan. I want their command taken down quickly," barked Admiral Clark, clearly ready to bring things to their conclusion.

Three different ships, along with the Lexington, unleashed shots from their dorsal and ventral arrays. The first two shots collapsed the shield generators completely, hitting with enough force to burn out the shield generators, which would take a few days in a space dock to fix. The Magellan did not have days. The next shots hit the neck of the saucer section, a deck below the primary torpedo launcher and continued through the on severing major power conduits to the saucer section. This reduced power to several major phaser arrays in the saucer section and rendered the forward torpedo launcher useless. The fourth and fifth shots did not hit critical systems, with one striking a glancing blow on the ventral saucer surface and another clipping the starboard nacelle support and for a moment it looked like the Magellan might survive.

However the sixth shot, fired by the Lexington, was already on the way. Fired from nearly head on it impacted the deflector dish of the Galaxy class ship at a slight angle. From there it passed through the engineering section and impacted the anti-deuterium storage tank located in the rear of the ship.

Bridge of the USS Magellan

"Anti-Matter storage has been catastrophically breached. All backups have failed," chirped the computer voice as it shut down most bridge systems and rendered the tactical display that so many of Admiral Gerhardt's captains had already seen today.

It was all over but the shouting. 3rd Fleet would get a few more kills on Defiant class ships but never did get close enough to really damage the big units that were wreaking so much havoc. Whenever a group did move aggressively towards them they were met with a cloud of escorts who had more than enough firepower to drive them back. The final stages of the battle played out over the next hour.

The Saber and Centaur class ships of 2nd fleet were now alone on the far side of the objective system with all of 1st fleets Promethus destroyers between them and their objective and the rest of the fleet closing in fast. The result was known, there was really no further point in playing out the string. The remaining Galaxy and Nebula class ships were retreating at high speed.

"All ships this is Fleet Admiral Lee, exercise is concluded, a well done to all involved. I would like to see Admirals Clark and Gerhardt, along with their primary unit commanders on Starbase 342 for a debrief.

With that order view screens stopped displaying the simulated wreckage, administratively dead ships had their full power restored and everyone headed off towards Starbase 342.

[Sonic Glitch]

So is this starting with a Federation Civil War or a Massive WarGame?

[BigJKU316]

So is this starting with a Federation Civil War or a Massive WarGame?

I just added part 2, but yes, it is a massive war game at this point.

[BigJKU316]

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

From the bridge of the Lexington Vice Admiral Ethan Clark watched the conclusion of the exercise with satisfaction. He had been in command of the force for just eighteen months but the process that brought him through to today had taken nearly a decade of tireless work. There had been no weekends, no vacations and little sleep. This project would be his legacy and indeed his gift to the Federation.

1st Fleet was a new concept for Starfleet. Put together in concept and in shipyards after the conclusion of the Dominion War and the encounter of the Enterprise-E with the Scimitar it represented an unprecedented commitment to the security of the Federation. There were no ships of exploration and no science vessels involved. Everything from the largest ships down to the individual members of the crew were committed to creating the foremost combat force in the Alpha Quadrant.

Existing a decade ago only as an internal memo crafted by Clark following the first attempted offensive by Starfleet against Dominion Forces in the Tyra Sector. Clark had been in command of a heavy cruiser wing during the assault and had led the 12 surviving ships (out of the 100 plus that had attacked) clear of the enemy. The report had been filed away, dumped into the Starfleet archive and dutifully cross indexed by a computer system that made no distinction between it and procedures for replicating hamburgers. There it sat through the conclusion of the war and the turbulent years that would follow.

The operational fleets of the Dominion War, which had performed admirably, had been hastily thrown together and did a lot of learning on the job. By the end of the war they represented as fine of fighting force as one could find in the Alpha Quadrant, but the cost of that learning had been tremendous. Thousands of ships and millions of lives had been lost in battles that often degenerated into loosely controlled melees.

The ramp up in organization and concentration had indeed been tremendous and was a credit to Starfleet's flexibility. In 2367 only 40 ships could be mustered at any one point against the Borg Invasion. By the time of the Dominion War less than 7 years later fleets number into the hundreds and even thousands were commonplace. Ships had been recalled from long-range exploratory missions and refitted for combat. Captains and crews learned to operate in a fleet structure rather than as independent cruisers, which had so long been the norm.

Somehow they had made it all work. Coordination amongst and within the fleets, while having solid plans on strategic and even tactical level, often broke down in the heat of combat. Ships were left to make their own way. Losses were high throughout the war.

Then Rear-Admiral Clark had, along with many others, made numerous pleas to keep a portion of the fleet together and let them train as a combat force. Too many close friends had died during the Dominion War. Despite its size the upper ranks of Starfleet were well known to one another as the vast majority of officers had worked their way through the academy. Losses which shrank to mere numbers when put into statistical terms left an open wound on the conscious of Starfleet's officer corps for whom each lost ship had comrades with names, faces and family members.

Despite these pleas the combat fleets were largely broken up. Two major combat fleets were left in place with one to watch the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and one to watch over the core systems of the Federation. This seemed destine to slowly drift back to the way they had been as political influences pulled ship after ship out on missions of exploration, science and border patrols. By 2379, less than 5 years after the conclusion of the Dominion War the continual stripping of the defensive fleets found Starfleet able to muster only seven ships, along with the Enterprise-E with which to face down the threat posed by the Scimitar.

The political leadership of the Federation was shocked into action. Absent the heroic action of Captain Picard in ramming into the enemy Earth would have been faced the possibility of total destruction. Simulations calculated that the seven-ship battle group would have had no more than an even chance of stopping the Scimitar. Starfleet, which had stood badly bloodied but proud over the defeated Dominion had no more than an even chance of defending its capital from a single, albeit highly advanced, purpose built warship.

Ships were once again recalled from other assignments. Several standing fleets were established, this time on a permanent basis. A long-term solution that would balance the missions of Starfleet was necessary with citizens of the Federation demanding better protection in the wake of no fewer than four attacks that had threatened Earth with near total destruction in the past fifteen years.

A presidential aide stumbled upon Admiral Clark's memo from the battle in the Tyra sector. Unlike many in Starfleet Clark had cited a deficiency in training and command and control as the primary cause of Starfleets initial difficulties.

Clark was recalled from his assignment with 3rd fleet near the Bajoran Wormhole. He found himself delivering a standing briefing to the President the day he arrived back on Earth. A week later he was delivering an expanding briefing to the appropriations committee and cabinet. Clark's view was one of the few that did propose building a new battle fleet from scratch and instead focused primarily on training and incremental improvements. As such it was both the most practical and the least time consuming of the various proposals and was chosen by the council the basis for moving forward.

Taking the primary role for Starfleet in a joint feasibility and implementation group a series of recommendations were produced to govern acquisition, modification and training for the whole of Starfleet.

These recommendations were formalized by Starfleet Command into the 2381 Fleet Reform Directive which set forth a series of principals which would govern all aspects of Starfleet's organization. Three specific changes were made that would reshape Starfleet over the coming decade.

First, ship construction and acquisition was changed. The day of the large-scale explorer/combat vessel in the mold of the Galaxy Class was over. The ships were too expensive and had too many functions to be viable combat ships without extensive modifications. While the theory had been nice, that they could both explore and look after themselves, losses of singular Galaxy Class ships had proven they were not fully capable of independent operation in a high threat environment.

Patrol and science ships would for the moment be drawn from the ships presently in service. The Nebula and Galaxy class ships had long service lives ahead of them and other models had proven their worth during the recent war. Future construction for these purposes would focus on smaller, more modular designs that could be rapidly refitted for combat if need be, but would likely have vastly less combat power than a Galaxy class vessel due to size constraints. New classes of explorers were sent to the drawing board with less combat capability than the Galaxy Class ships they would be replacing and a much greater focus on speed, sensors and survivability.

Contrary to popular belief among Starfleet at the time many of the vessels then serving were deemed more than adequate for combat duty, given a variety of modifications. The primary task was to modify the existing ships to the standards necessary, rather than racing to build and design new ships.

The Defiant program was reworked to allow rapid construction of major sections in surface yards. They were then essentially bonded together at an orbital shipyard. This approach had its shortcomings, the new Defiants lacked the inherent hull strength of their hand built ancestors, but allowed production to increase to very high levels.

The Prometheus and Sovereign classes were able to enter production almost unchanged as they were practically brand new ship designs. Modifications to these ships was related almost entirely to a re-working of interior spaces to allow for more torpedo storage.

The Akira class got perhapse the most extensive reworking. By far the oldest of the ships selected they were outwardly unchanged except for armor additions. The ships had gained a mixed reputation in the Dominion War. On paper they carried a fearsome armament of torpedo launchers. In practice bring their firepower to bear had been a mixed bag at best. Torpedo storage was wholly inadequate for a ship that had a theoretical rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute. The 15 torpedo tubes made the ships grossly overweight for what it could realistically accomplish in combat.

The interior was reworked to make the ships highly automated. Crew requirements were cut nearly in half in an effort to free up as much space as possible for torpedo storage. It was still a curious design with entirely too many tubes for the amount of rounds it could carry, but they were still useful to keep around in a fight even so.

For the only initial new ship design Starfleet would undertake to build classes of combatants that were second to none in the quadrant. While this represented a commitment to defense to Admiral Clark it meant something more. No longer would Starfleet crews be asked to face down enemy ships like the Scimitar at a huge disadvantage in combat power. For Clark it was a commitment to the crews that would be putting their lives on the line that they would only be asked to do so with the best the Federation could offer.

That Starfleet had built ships like the Galaxy that could compete with the newest Klingon and Romulan purpose built warships was a credit to the shipbuilders. The designers in the Federation were far more efficient than those of the other powers, it had been the only way that ships devoting little over 30% of their hull space to combat could survive against purpose built warships. Going forward the gloves were off. Short of explicitly banned weapons designers were encouraged to find the most innovative solutions to packing the most combat power into a hull they could. The first inklings of what they could achieve were seen in the pre-reform Defiant and Prometheus class ships.

New design and construction work focused on a ship powerful enough to stand toe to toe against the large warships that both the Romulans and Dominion had deployed in the last several years. This resulted in the Independence Class of ships, of which the USS Lexington was an example. Not quite designed from scratch, many basics of the Sovereign class had been scaled up to reduce time from concept to construction, they were by far the largest ships Starfleet had ever put into commission.

Finally Starfleet concluded that it would establish several new, permanent fleets in critical locations. Those fleets would operate together and train together with the goal of creating a well drilled, cohesive and battle ready force that could be called upon to fight itself or to serve as the core around which the thousands of vessels on patrol and exploration missions at the fringes of the Federation could be placed to form a more cohesive fleet during times of crisis.

It had taken the better part of ten years to go from that theoretical concept to the point where Admiral Clark now found himself. Standing on the bridge of the USS Lexington, leading thousands of men in 248 ships. In the Dominion War it would have been among the smaller fleets fielded but due to its composition it was far more deadly than any fleet, friend or foe, that had existed during that conflict. Composed of four task forces Clark's fleet featured 24 of the new Independence Class battleships, 32 Sovereign Class battle-cruisers, 32 Akira Class Heavy Cruisers, 64 Prometheus Class Destroyers and 96 Defiant Class Frigates.

A more formidable collection of warships could not be found in the Alpha quadrant, a point which Admiral Clark's men had just proven in an exercise that sure to cause much consternation among the officers of 3rd Fleet.

Clark was stirred from his thoughts by a notification over the ships PA system that informed him the Lexington had docked within Starbase 342. The crew would appreciate the change of scenery. 1st Fleet had been training hard for nearly a year and despite its defensive nature Starbase 342 had entertainment, comfortable quarters and most importantly, since it would be their home for the foreseeable future, the crew's families.

[Vic]

Very nice, for once a logical response from Star Fleet. The writing kept me engaged in the story as well, keep it up.

[BigJKU316]

Very nice, for once a logical response from Star Fleet. The writing kept me engaged in the story as well, keep it up.

Thanks, I have never been wholly satisfied with the build a new fleet for defense from scratch approach. There are plenty of good ships already out there, they just lack tactics, training and doctrine for using them. The only really huge hole was the lack of something to compete with the large Dominion and Romulan jobs.

[Sonic Glitch]

Very nice, for once a logical response from Star Fleet. The writing kept me engaged in the story as well, keep it up.

Thanks, I have never been wholly satisfied with the build a new fleet for defense from scratch approach. There are plenty of good ships already out there, they just lack tactics, training and doctrine for using them. The only really huge hole was the lack of something to compete with the large Dominion and Romulan jobs.

I'm certainly intrigued, and you're opening was just enough "wait, wtf?" to keep me reading. It was "Ok... Federation fleet at planet. Federation fleet approaching planet; said fleet is approaching the 'enemy'... wait, what?" Hence me wondering "Is this a Civil War or what?" You're second and third posts expanded on it nicely. If I may ask, what direction is this heading? Discovery of another enemy and another war or what?

[BigJKU316]

Very nice, for once a logical response from Star Fleet. The writing kept me engaged in the story as well, keep it up.

Thanks, I have never been wholly satisfied with the build a new fleet for defense from scratch approach. There are plenty of good ships already out there, they just lack tactics, training and doctrine for using them. The only really huge hole was the lack of something to compete with the large Dominion and Romulan jobs.

I'm certainly intrigued, and you're opening was just enough "wait, wtf?" to keep me reading. It was "Ok... Federation fleet at planet. Federation fleet approaching planet; said fleet is approaching the 'enemy'... wait, what?" Hence me wondering "Is this a Civil War or what?" You're second and third posts expanded on it nicely. If I may ask, what direction is this heading? Discovery of another enemy and another war or what?

I have been mapping and remapping the last half of the story for a while now. The date is key because in this timeline Romulus has not been destroyed yet and it won't happen in the near future.

Basically it is a story of major power interaction. There is not necessarily a major war coming but there is a lot of conflicting perceptions that have to be sorted out over time. The three primary players in the story are the Federation, the Romulans and the Klingons. It is basically the story of the fallout from everything that happened from the Dominion War on.

The Romulan's have a fundamental problem. The Federation is far too powerful (and becoming more so) for them to contend with. What the Federation sees as simply defensive measures alarm the Romulan Military because if they had such an advantage we all know what they would do. The tragic figure in all of this is the leader of the Romulan Star Empire. He knows enough about the Federation to know they are not really planning to attack but politics is a violent game in the Star Empire. He has a lot of balls in the air to try and juggle. He can't show weakness to the Federation, because that will precipitate a coup by the military but he has the very difficult task of getting the Federation to modify its behavior simply because the military can't be made to understand that they are not a threat. Their economy is nearing collapse trying to keep up in what they see as an arms race.

The Klingon's have a whole different set of issues. Martok is old. The empire gets weaker relative to its rivals every year. The Ngvar class turned out to be useless crap against anything that moved for the most part. Their clan based system of shipbuilding and marshaling leads to a huge amount of wasted resources building older ships because the smaller clans can't built newer and better designs. Simply put they are becoming weak and irrelevant, which they don't like. Worse they are viewed as lackeys of the Federation, which just outright enrages many older families.

The Federation is not really sure what to do. For the most part nothing has changed in their outlook on the galaxy. They just got sick of being unprepared. Taken against the whole of the Klingon and Romulan fleets, which are dedicated almost in total to combat, the smallish defensive forces they are putting together are not in their mind a major threat. They look at things from their perspective which is that the whole of the Romulan Fleet (and for that matter everyone else too) basically has nothing but combat ships.

The story moves on the Romulan attempts to redress the balance of power in a variety of ways, with most of them at least initially being good faith efforts by their present leader. Their problem will be that they simply can't be up front about why they want what they want. So you end up with an odd dynamic. If the Romulans would be up front about their worries the Feds would go out of their way to make them feel at ease. But they can't because that would be to admit weakness. The Fed's on the other hand assume that Romulans being Romulans there is some sort of angle and plot to all of this, when there really is not.

[Sonic Glitch]

Sounds like a very interesting, very involved premise. I like it. Any details on say the smaller galactic powers? I think it would be nice to see what the Tholians, the Talarians, the Gorn or the oft-mentioned but never seen Tzenkathi are doing after the Civil War, or even the Sheliak for a blast from the past.

[BigJKU316]

Sounds like a very interesting, very involved premise. I like it. Any details on say the smaller galactic powers? I think it would be nice to see what the Tholians, the Talarians, the Gorn or the oft-mentioned but never seen Tzenkathi are doing after the Civil War, or even the Sheliak for a blast from the past.

Yeah, they will likely get involved but I don't know enough about them just yet to figure out how to do so. They can't be blood enemies of the Feds or they would have pounced during the Dominion War. In my view they all, other than the Breen, are small enough that they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, at least by themselves. The Breen on the other hand are a sort of wild card. They are strong enough to matter but with the maps I am using they are somewhat isolated from the other major powers. Plus no one trust them.

That is why I picked the mapset I did. It makes the Federation harder to deal with for the Romulans because the Romulans have basically one security concern, the Fed/Klingon Alliance. But the Feds have issues everywhere with those other powers, the wormhole and the Borg. For the Romulans the Federation is the only major problem and everything that happens they see as aimed as them. For the Federation the Romulans are just one of many concerns they are trying to balance.

[Sonic Glitch]

Sounds like a very interesting, very involved premise. I like it. Any details on say the smaller galactic powers? I think it would be nice to see what the Tholians, the Talarians, the Gorn or the oft-mentioned but never seen Tzenkathi are doing after the Civil War, or even the Sheliak for a blast from the past.

Yeah, they will likely get involved but I don't know enough about them just yet to figure out how to do so. They can't be blood enemies of the Feds or they would have pounced during the Dominion War. In my view they all, other than the Breen, are small enough that they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, at least by themselves. The Breen on the other hand are a sort of wild card. They are strong enough to matter but with the maps I am using they are somewhat isolated from the other major powers. Plus no one trust them.

That is why I picked the mapset I did. It makes the Federation harder to deal with for the Romulans because the Romulans have basically one security concern, the Fed/Klingon Alliance. But the Feds have issues everywhere with those other powers, the wormhole and the Borg. For the Romulans the Federation is the only major problem and everything that happens they see as aimed as them. For the Federation the Romulans are just one of many concerns they are trying to balance.

Well we know the Talarians and the Federation, and the Tzenkathi and the Federation have fought wars in the past. Actually this has me thinking, would you mind terribly if I took your concept and did something with it from the perspective of the smaller powers? The ones who had signed Non-Aggression Pacts with the Dominion and such. While you focus on the Big 3 (or 4 or 5) I could examine the smaller powers who may feel more threatened by this new militaristic starfleet. Or do you have this pretty well mapped-out and I'm sticking my nose where I don't belong?

[BigJKU316]

Sounds like a very interesting, very involved premise. I like it. Any details on say the smaller galactic powers? I think it would be nice to see what the Tholians, the Talarians, the Gorn or the oft-mentioned but never seen Tzenkathi are doing after the Civil War, or even the Sheliak for a blast from the past.

Yeah, they will likely get involved but I don't know enough about them just yet to figure out how to do so. They can't be blood enemies of the Feds or they would have pounced during the Dominion War. In my view they all, other than the Breen, are small enough that they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, at least by themselves. The Breen on the other hand are a sort of wild card. They are strong enough to matter but with the maps I am using they are somewhat isolated from the other major powers. Plus no one trust them.

That is why I picked the mapset I did. It makes the Federation harder to deal with for the Romulans because the Romulans have basically one security concern, the Fed/Klingon Alliance. But the Feds have issues everywhere with those other powers, the wormhole and the Borg. For the Romulans the Federation is the only major problem and everything that happens they see as aimed as them. For the Federation the Romulans are just one of many concerns they are trying to balance.

Well we know the Talarians and the Federation, and the Tzenkathi and the Federation have fought wars in the past. Actually this has me thinking, would you mind terribly if I took your concept and did something with it from the perspective of the smaller powers? The ones who had signed Non-Aggression Pacts with the Dominion and such. While you focus on the Big 3 (or 4 or 5) I could examine the smaller powers who may feel more threatened by this new militaristic starfleet. Or do you have this pretty well mapped-out and I'm sticking my nose where I don't belong?

No, not at all. I have the orders of battle for starfleet along with a production schedule and deployment maps about 80% done so when I post those feel free to play around with it. The Federation Talarian war always amused me. Seems odd that it was considered a war. I mean it was the technological equal of dropping a couple of modern tank battalions into the Napoleonic Wars. The Federation was so far ahead of them it seemed silly.

[Sonic Glitch]

Yeah, they will likely get involved but I don't know enough about them just yet to figure out how to do so. They can't be blood enemies of the Feds or they would have pounced during the Dominion War. In my view they all, other than the Breen, are small enough that they don't really matter in the grand scheme of things, at least by themselves. The Breen on the other hand are a sort of wild card. They are strong enough to matter but with the maps I am using they are somewhat isolated from the other major powers. Plus no one trust them.

That is why I picked the mapset I did. It makes the Federation harder to deal with for the Romulans because the Romulans have basically one security concern, the Fed/Klingon Alliance. But the Feds have issues everywhere with those other powers, the wormhole and the Borg. For the Romulans the Federation is the only major problem and everything that happens they see as aimed as them. For the Federation the Romulans are just one of many concerns they are trying to balance.

Well we know the Talarians and the Federation, and the Tzenkathi and the Federation have fought wars in the past. Actually this has me thinking, would you mind terribly if I took your concept and did something with it from the perspective of the smaller powers? The ones who had signed Non-Aggression Pacts with the Dominion and such. While you focus on the Big 3 (or 4 or 5) I could examine the smaller powers who may feel more threatened by this new militaristic starfleet. Or do you have this pretty well mapped-out and I'm sticking my nose where I don't belong?

No, not at all. I have the orders of battle for starfleet along with a production schedule and deployment maps about 80% done so when I post those feel free to play around with it. The Federation Talarian war always amused me. Seems odd that it was considered a war. I mean it was the technological equal of dropping a couple of modern tank battalions into the Napoleonic Wars. The Federation was so far ahead of them it seemed silly.

Yes the "Talarian War" always seems to be one of those "What?" ideas. It was probably a series of border raids that Starfleet eventually put a smackdown on. We don't know anything at all about the Tzenkathi and we know just enough about the Sheliak to make things interesting. As far as I know most of the races I named signed non-aggression pacts with the Dominion so they may see the war as something started by the Federation as an effort to maintain their hegemony, something that may be enforced by the retention of "military" fleets

[BigJKU316]

Starbase 342- Command Level, In Orbit above Terra Nova

By any measure Starbase 342 was a massive facility. The newest of the line that began with Starbase 74 and traced its lineage back to the original Spacedock facility built long even it was overwhelmed by the number of ships currently calling on its services. Internally the facility could dock over 200 ships. External docking ports, extending like short, stubby arms from the bottom of the saucer shaped upper section had been added to accommodate a further hundred ships not in need of major maintenance so ships could quickly refuel while other goods were brought aboard either by transporters or the stations small armada of shuttlecraft. With a crew of 65,000 and space for about three times that many civilians the facility more often than not felt quite empty.

That was not the case today. 1st Fleet alone had nearly 80,000 crewmembers. Their families had arrived on transport ships over the past couple of weeks and now composed the largest civilian contingent onboard the facility. That would change over the next few weeks and months, as this was to be a permanent duty station for 1st fleet for at least five years, as many families would find shore side housing on Terra Nova over the course of the next few months.

In addition you had crews and command groups from 3rd Fleet rotating out. Many families were boarding transports that would take them back towards Earth and the other core worlds of the Federation as 3rd Fleet rotated towards what was home for the vast majority of the crews. Looking out his window Commodore Yel Arin Talaras flexed his antenna in frustration. In addition to all the people moving around the large display on his wall noted over 4,000 different requests by the various starships currently docked or near the station for all manner of supplies and repairs.

It never seemed to fail, in deep space Chief Engineers and Captains could repair a hull breach with chewing gum and power their ships with their hopes and dreams, but get them near a starbase and the most minor issues became part of the ever growing list of request he was trying to sift through. He needed to be here to manage this, the commander of his maintenance group was a mere Lieutenant Commander who while talented would lack the rank to allow him to standup to starship captains making request that should be carried out by their engineering departments.

Lacking the time to make a detailed investigation into the nature of every request Yel'Arin asked the computer to give priority to any major propulsion and power system work that needed to be done for the time being and froze the list in that order. Anything else would have to wait until he could get back. He checked the wall display for the location of the Lexington and confirmed it was docked at platform D-12 and headed towards turbo lift that would take him to that level. Point to point transport would be quicker (and due to the stations size was used tens of thousands of times a day) but he needed a few minutes to gather his thoughts.

The turbo lift zoomed down 83 decks from the command level to level D and deposited him at the end of platform D-12, which itself was nearly a mile long. Thankfully the group he was looking for was standing a mere 60 meters away from the lift. Letting out one last sigh he moved quickly to join them, knowing there was no way around what he considered the least productive use of his time, playing nice with Admirals who tended to look at him and his station like they were mere fuel station attendants at some distant trading depot.

Starbase 342, platform D-12 inside of the main hanger bay

"Admiral," he said as he smartly saluted Fleet Admiral Lee, who was pleasant enough but being the head of Starfleet operations was merely passing through on a visit.

"Commodore, busy place you have here. You ever service ships this big before?" Lee asked as he gestured towards the Lexington, just finishing up its mooring.

"Certainly no Starfleet ships of that size sir. We see the occasional Deltan cruise ship make its way though here and they are quite a bit bigger. But those are mostly empty spaces for drunken tourist."

Talaras received a polite nod in reply. The first crewmen were starting to come off the gangway now connected to the Lexington. The Vice Admiral aboard the Lexington would be in command of the area and that meant that he would be the one giving Talaras his orders until the next Admiral came along. It had never really made much difference. Admirals were not interested in running space stations for the most part so one Admiral was really not that different from the next.

After a few seconds a gaggle of serious looking officers descended the gangway. As they approached Yel'Arin counted the Vice Admiral, Clark was his last name he remembered, along with a Rear Admiral, 3 Commodores, a Captain, a Commander and what his briefing told him was a Colonel in the newly formed Fleet Marine Force.

"Admiral Lee," snapped the Vice Admiral as he and his group saluted. "Reporting as ordered. I have with me Rear Admiral Sofin who runs our operations group and is the fleet XO, Commodore Ito, commander of our escort groups, Commodore T'Fan who runs our electronic warfare department and Commodore Ellis is in charge of fleet logistics. I believe you already know Captain Jeffords who is in command of the Lexington and Commander Zukhov who is our liaison of Starfleet intelligence and Colonel Hancock of Starfleet's newly formed Fleet Marine Force. Commodore Chen and Commodore Sulak will meet us in the briefing room as they are docked on the other side of this place," Clark said finishing a rather lengthy introduction.

"Welcome to Starbase 342 Admiral, this is Commodore Talaras who is in command of this station. He will be taking care of your people for the duration of their stay," said Lee, finishing the introductions.

"Welcome Admiral. Vice Admiral Gerhardt beamed aboard about ten minutes ago and is waiting in one of our briefing rooms along with his staff. If you would like I can show you the way there," offered Talaras.

"Lead away Commodore."

Starbase 342- Command Level

Getting to the briefing room necessitated taking the lift back up to the command levels. From there it was a three minute walk around level 6, interior ring A which offered a spectacular view down into the heart of the stations interior, which today was packed to near capacity with starships. The view drew the undivided attention of the entire command staff of 1st Fleet, which was why Talaras had picked this meeting room among the dozens available.

"Here you are gentlemen. If there is anything I can do for you after the briefing let me know."

"Are you not attending the briefing Commodore?" queried Admiral Clark.

Talaras was not really sure what to say to that. It was a debriefing for whatever combat exercise the two fleets had just run. He knew little about it because it was not technically his problem. It also happened to coincide with the movements of one fleet in and one out of his system along with the transfer of hundreds of thousands of people through his base. He knew nothing about what had happened, what could he possibly add? With all these thoughts racing through his head Talaras searched for a response.

"Sir?" was all that the confused Commodore could come up with.

"We consider you and this base a major component of what we are doing here. It is best for you to get to know what we are doing. It will make your job easier," said Clark, making it quite clear that he was expected to be in the meeting.

"Yes sir," said Tavaras, finding himself reverting to his days as a cadet when you simply answered questions with that phrase, not generally knowing why you were being told to do something but doing it anyway because you figured the higher ups had some mysterious grand plan of which you were a tiny part. With that he took a seat at the rear of the darkened room as Admiral Lee approached the large tactical display to begin debriefing the exercise.

Starbase 342, platform D-12 inside of the main hanger bay

The debriefing had gone about as expected. It had been as functionally close to a clean sweep as one could get during a major combat action. 1st Fleet losses were light. Around a dozen Defiant class ships that were total losses. Another 15 had damage that would have necessitated some repair work that could be done at this facility. Additionally another dozen of the Prometheus class ships subsections had been destroyed during their assault on the destroyer units of 3rd Fleet. Among the heavy units a single Sovereign class ship had strayed too far from its consorts after suffering engine problems and gotten badly chewed up. The Independence class ships had suffered nothing but superficial damage. The fleet's large contingent of Akira class cruisers were never touched.

3rd Fleet on the other hand had taken a thrashing. The destroyer groups had taken heavy losses and never played a role in the main battle that unfolded. Of the 183 ships in that class 120 were simulated as total losses. Of the remainder less than a dozen were considered combat capable, which meant they could be up to 90% capability or more within 24 hours. The rest were various stages of crippled.

The scouting wings comprised of 126 starships had taken no losses, but had been effectively marooned on the far side of the planet. Not powerful enough to punch through the Prometheus class ships that stayed between them and their objective they were passive spectators to what unfolded. The exercise had ended with all of 1st fleet closing in on their position. Too slow to run away from their faster opponents it would have been a slaughter.

The Akira group of 3rd fleet was a near total loss. The Defiant and Independence class ships had press close and then rolled right through a disorganized formation that was facing the wrong way at the outset of contact. From murderously close range the heavy phasers of the Independence class ships combined with the slashing pulse phaser strikes and a liberal expenditure of quantum torpedoes by their escorts had destroyed 90% of the group and left 7 ships to limp off under emergency power.

The Galaxy and Nebula wings had done better, but not by much. The new phasers had devastated the first formation engaged. Of the 52 ships present all were badly hit. Twenty-one, including the flagship Magellan were considered total losses, having either had warp core or anti-matter containment units breached. Another fifteen were considered incapable of further combat, having either had to shut down and eject warp cores or having lost a major hull section such as a nacelle or saucer. Of the remaining sixteen all were rated in need of major repair that would have to be conducted at a proper shipyard such as replacement of major weapons systems, power grids and shield generators. In reality all would have been finished off as 1st fleet was left in total control of the battlefield.

The remaining 50 that had comprised the other wing of the 3rd fleets heavy units in the final confrontation had suffered lightly by comparison. Pursued by a third their number of Sovereign class ships as they raced to join their beleagured comrades they quickly realized it would be too late and their commander ordered them to go to maximum warp away from the battle. Forty-two got clean away, the rest had been slowed enough by the Sovereign's chasing them that they were destroyed in detail. Admiral Clark elected not to give pursuit at that time and instead focus on cleaning up the cripples already in the battle area so he could release ships to finish off the scouting elements of 3rd fleet.

All together a force of 486 ships comprised of 102 heavy units, 75 heavy cruisers, 183 destroyers and 120 light frigates had been reduced to a shattered remnant of 180 ships with only 42 heavy units, no heavy cruisers, 12 destroyers and 126 light frigates that were suited to scouting rather than fighting. Its numbers had been reduced by 73% but its combat power was a mere 10% of what it had been prior to the exercise. With the exercise over it was time to educate the command staff of 3rd fleet on just how this had happened to them.

"Admiral Gerhardt," Captain Jeffords said as cordially as he could, trying to sooth over hurt feeling, "I would like to welcome you and your officers aboard the USS Lexington. Admiral Clark will be joining us on the tour as well."

Attitudes noticeably started to soften as the senior staff of 3rd fleet approach the giant ship. Jeffords knew the ship had that kind of effect on people, hence the walk up to her on the platform rather than just using transporters.

Flag Bridge of the USS Lexington

The tour had gone well. Admiral Clark had excused himself from all the technical aspects of the tour to get some work done in his ready room. As the party from 3rd fleet approached the flag bridge he emerged to conduct the final stop of the tour personally. After all this was what made Lexington, and in turn 1st fleet, so different from everything that had come before it.

"Frankie," Admiral Clark used a nickname from back in their Academy days to greet Admiral Gerhardt, "I trust the tour went well?"

"It is a very impressive ship Ethan. Like nothing I have ever seen before, at least from the inside. Makes me remember those Dominion dreadnoughts we saw above Cardassia Prime way back when."

"Yeah, it will be nice to be on even terms with those kind of ships if we ever run into them again. Anyway, I would like to welcome you and your staff to the flag bridge. It is the first of its kind in Starfleet and it really serves as the heart of our operation," said Admiral Clark as he gestured around the large room.

Command and control of large fleets had proven a problem during the Dominion War. Lacking dedicated spaces most Admirals choose to lead from the bridge of whatever ship they were aboard. This was far from ideal as the main function of the bridge was to manage that specific ship. Somehow, like everything else they had dealt with, they made it work.

This space was a vast improvement on that. The command bridge for the USS Lexington sat directly above the flag bridge, which was significantly larger and occupied decks. In the center of the upper level of the flag bridge was the tactical command section. Three large viewers were situated evenly spaced across the front of the round space allowing for a variety of information to be displayed all at the same time. In the very center of the space was a holo-projector which gave a three-dimensional tactical display to the command staff.

Arrayed outside of the tactical command section were various support groups. Moving clockwise from the front of the ship you had logistics and communications along the port bulkhead. The rear bulkhead was occupied entirely by the plans and operations division of command staff, being as large as the previous two sections combined. Moving around to the starboard bulkhead the final three sections present were the electronic countermeasures group, intelligence and threat assessment group and finally ground operations.

On the level below each command section had a dedicated workspace for junior level officers who fed information to the stations above where it was in turn filtered by the senior officers occupying each station on the first level of the flag bridge. In all nearly seventy-five officers comprised the command section of 1st fleet. Only one in every six Independence class ships constructed contained a flag bridge. In 1st fleet the XO was located on the USS Victory and had an identical facility to this one as did each task force commander.

High capacity communication links relayed the sensor and tactical picture from every ship in the fleet to this room. While not technologically different from what had preceded it this arrangement represented a vast improvement in the ability of a commander to control his forces in battle.

"This is an amazing new concept Ethan, I had heard about it in theory but to see it in practice the advantages are stunning. Who came up with this idea?" asked Gerhardt.

"It was really not a new idea, it was actually an old one from Earth navies in the 20th century. We went looking for ideas on how they managed large fleets with comparatively primitive communication and came across this concept. It seems we simply forgot about it when building ships designed to cruise around space all alone. I am glad you like it, you should be getting your own soon enough."

3rd Fleet was departing shortly for the Federation core where it would undergo a two-year transformation from what it was into a unit that looked much like 1st Fleet. 2nd Fleet had finished drawing its units from shipyards several months prior and was just finishing its shakedowns near Earth. 3rd Fleet command would ride along during the workup phase for 2nd Fleet before they began drawing their own ships from yards and depots in about six-months. With the current production and refit schedule they would be fully outfitted about eighteen months from now. In less than two years they would emerge from the process a trim and fit fighting fleet.