Gamma Mission

[Sonic Glitch]

"Sir" reported Lorcan, "we're receiving a signal....I think from the Daystrom."
Lewis raised an eyebrow, "You 'think'? What do we pay you for?"
"With respect sir, you don't pay me. And the signal's distorted, as if they weren't trying to be obvious about us being the recipient. They're reporting what looks like one capital ship and numerous smaller vessels bearing 280.112. The Valkeryie has been copied."
"Patel?"
"Confirmed sir, motion and mass detection sensors confirm starship-like objects on that bearing."
Lewis looked at his XO, "Looks like we we're right, there will be an ambush." To engineering he added, "MacDuff, begin the start up routine. Lorcan, is the weapons pod ready?"
"Yes sir."
"Very good. Devi, signal the Valkeryie of our intentions, we're going for a long range torpedoe bombardment, and then move in for CQB."
"Yessir. Transmission sent."
"Uzume, ready your teams just in case. MacDuff, our we ready?...Nevermind" finished Lewis as the bridge lights came up to full and the formerly quiet systems started chirping. "Lorcan, set the torpedoes for proximity detonation. Heading 280.112"
"Aye sir."
"Fire."

---Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser, heading 280.112--
Third Umet'iKlan scanned his board and then did something Jem'Hadar almost never due. He was busy concentrationg on the blip which signified a Starfleet Intrepid-Class when the second appeared "First! New sensor contact, Federation Nebula-Class, same area as the Intrepid."
First Ubeck'SuKlan glanced at his subordinates board in time to see the blip separate into numerous smaller blips which almost instantly disappeard. "Brace for impact!" he cried.

[Mark]

USS Paladin - Main Bridge

The main viewscreen was alive with weapons fire. The Daystrom had fired on the inbound Jem'Hadar ships, engaging the battle cruiser and forcing the bugs to scatter. They dodged on all sides of the Paladin continuing to strafe her, just as Mark acquired a target lock.

"Phasers, fire" Fletcher ordered.

Devastation incarnate rained out of the Paladin, as numerous phaser arrays lanced out at the six bugs attempting to dance around the ship. Two of the bugs shields were quickly overwhelmed and phaser fire ripped threw their hulls, setting them adrift, powerless.

The other four bugs quickly flew clear of the big battleship and executed perfect U turns, to come upon her again from the rear.

Mark glanced quickly at his tactical console and reported, "Shields holding at 90%, Captain. Two of the attacking ships are completely disabled and drifting. The others appear to be setting up for a concerted attack from astern."

"Quantum Torpedoes, Lieutenant." Fletcher commanded, "Let's break up that formation."

"Aye sir." Mark replied, initiating the firing sequence "Torpedoes away."

A full spread of brightly glowing sapphire torpedoes launched from the aft bay, aimed at the enemy formation. At the very last second, two of the bugs fell back behind the other two, letting the two leading vessels take the full wrath of the torpedoes fury, easily buckling the shields and vaporizing both lead ships. The other two cleared the debris field and with a sudden and unexpected burst of speed accelerated towards the Paladin's aft quarter.

"Sir," Mark reported, his voice raising a fraction, revealing only a hint of nerves "The remaining two bugs have set a collision course."

"Brace for impact!" Fletcher shouted, gripping the arms of his command chair tighter.

[Lt. Staplic]

Lt. Corrin stood in the Armory staring at the large Breen Officer that was the XO of the ship.

"I had to lose the weakest link of the mission. Don't be the weakest link." he said to the gathered marines.

After this the Secuity Chief Lieutenant Cix walked into the armory and Commander Munro passed off command to him.

"We've just recieved word from the Daystrom of an ambush moving in. The Ravage and us are movng in to intercept the formation now. They have a Battle Cruiser and several bugs in their unit and it's quite possable there will be boarding parties, you will all have assignments on board to defend the ship should any Jem'Hadar beam aboard." Cix commandeed occasionally looking down at a PADD. "I have already briefed the Company commandeers to your postitions check with them. Dismaissed. Lt. Corrin a word."

James walked from where he was overlooking his men as they checked out their rifles to speak with the large Xindi Lieutenant. James suppressed a shiver as he looked at the hulk that was the security cheif. Cix was technically a supirior officer to James wich only added to his intemidation effects; however, James didn't want to apear afraid or inconvienienced at all and so fixed his familiar stone expression accross his face.

"Sir." James said stopping infront of the Xindi.

"We have a special mission for you and your men." Cix started. "It is our intention to capture a Battle Cruiser during this mission, and now will be the best garenteed chance. Your platoon along with a few Black Ops marines will be transported aboard the ship when their shields begin to fail. Your mission is to capture and hold the bridge. Once you do this, you are to contact us, and we will beam aboard additional support to supprss the crew and pilot the ship. The Black Ops soldiers will be there with their own mission, they will be aiming to take Engineering so the crew can't take control from there. They will also be able to destroy the ship from the inside should you fail. Do you accept this mission."

"Yes sir." James said without pausing. He knew this was exactly the type of mission his team was capable of, and he was eager as he knew they would be to prove their abilites.

"Good. Get your gear together quickly and report to the mass transporter in Cargo Bay 3, you'll be transported aboard as soon as their shields drop to acceptable levels." Cix ordered.

"Understood." James replied

"Dismissed." Cix relesed him.

[Reliant121]

"Sensor, report on contact," D'tyra said softly. The situation reminded her of what she had read of the Terran "Submarine" warfare of the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth. The Lacron was drifting almost aimlessly through the particle cloud, hiding in the darkness from the rest of either fleet. After letting off another few torpedoes, they had coaxed the battlecruiser into the field as well. Now the battle was on terms that a Romulan knows best. Cloak and dagger warfare was the perfect situation for D'Tyra.

"Still proceeding deeper into the cloud at 1/8 impulse speed. I'm surprised they haven't blanket charged the area with phased polaron blasts," Mi'serna said, monitoring the panel closely. He glanced upward, "On further analysis of the cloud composition, there appears to be high concentrations of hydrogen, accompanied by minor pockets of metreon."

"An explosive mixture to be sure," The commander commented. Her fingers played across her chin, stroking the slender cheek bones elegantly as she pondered. "Centurion....are there any pockets of radiation...specifically, pockets that would disrupt shields?" She smiled at him, and he returned it.

"Yes commander, bearing 345.12, of the dominion ships bow." (The Lacron was sitting off the port stern corner of the Dominion ship, facing her)

"Is the port engine responding?" She asked, receiving a nod as a reply. Gently, she slid her hand along the speed indicator, bringing the ship up to full impulse. The temperature monitor quickly began to rise. She'd have to draw power from the weapons to keep the coolant flow in ample quantities. She drew power, and stabilized the flow.

"The weapons are gonna be strained at that level, commander," Mi'serna commented.

"I know, concentrate on disruptors. let off enough of them to catch the battlecruisers attention. And now the shadows strike."

The Lacron burst free of the section of cloud she was in, swinging past the battlecruiser. A series of disruptor blasts spewed forth from the cannons, slamming into the battlecruiser. In turn, it fired some small beams, each time barely missing the Romulan craft. Once again, it ducked into the abyss. Only this time, the cruiser was hot on its heels.

"Shields failing....i'm reading the battlecruiser's going down too. I believe, the human's would say..."The game's afoot, commander."

[Mikey]

"Evasive maneuvers, captain?"

"No, dammit!" Mikey answered the helm as the ship rocked under the weight of a salvo from the Jem'hadar battlecruiser. "Our fighters are coming in hot, and won't have a chance if they have to track us down. We're stuck - the Jemmies have figured out that their best chance against the Paladin is to outmaneuver it - but to do that, they have to go through us first." The ship rocked from yet another barrage and the lighting flickered and hummed. "Report!" Mikey demanded.

"Shields are holding," Ge'haan answered, "but power feeds to non-central systems are diminished. Shields and SIF won't regenerate too quickly, and inertial dampers are at half capacity. Any hard acceleration will mean a real bumpy ride."

"Good thing that our tactical situation means we can't maneuver, then," Mikey said ironically. "Commander?"

Jon glanced at his console and said, "Beta flight is down two fighters - both pilots wiped their cores before beam-out. Two bugs left, closing with the Paladin from dead astern."

"Launch the Tigerfish and attach it to Beta flight. Keep those bugs off of the Paladin. Nice work handling the sensitivity of those codes."

"Aye, sir," Hewer responded. He relayed the commands to the flight deck, then peered intently at his console for a moment. "Perhaps it wasn't such nice work, though," he continued in a dejected tone. "Alhazred didn't get out in time."

Mikey recalled the seemingly bookish, intense young man; it wasn't difficult to imagine him ignoring the warning countdown in order to complete his task. Mikey's antennae drooped as he turned to his XO and said quietly, "It wasn't because of you, Jon. He would have hung in until the end no matter what." Hewer looked blankly at the Andorian for a moment, then simply nodded. Mikey gave a last steadying stare to Hewer, then turned toward Moncano. "Lieutenant, can you prep torpedoes for maximum ambient EM radiation?"

Puzzled, Moncano answered, "Sure, but at the expense of destructive yield. I don't-"

"Good. Give me a full spread like that along the battlecruiser's lateral line, then secondary tubes with standard loads at will."

"Aye, sir, but..."

Mikey gave a lopsided grin, even as another concussion rocked the ship. "They'll win a battle of position, lieutenant, because we effectively can't move. But they can't outmaneuver us if they can't see. Just make sure those follow-ups count."

[Mark]

USS Paladin - Main Bridge

"Impact in ten seconds!" Teaos announced from his station "The Daystrom is moving to intercept, but they won't get here in time."

On the main viewscreen the bugs continued to bob and weave, evading the incoming fire.

"Sir, I have an idea." Mark announced.

"If it's a good one, do it Lieutenant." Fletcher ordered.

"Aye sir." Mark's fingers flew across his console.

"Impact in five seconds!" Teaos announced.

"Almost there!" Mark called out, beads of sweat from concentration forming on his forehead.

"Impact in three two ." Came Teaos's countdown

"Lieutenant" Rochey said, "now would be the time."

Teaos announced "One" and took a tighter grip on his console just as Mark called out "Got it!"

Two blue beams shot out from the stern quarter engulfing the two bugs just short of impacting against the Paladin's rear shields, holding them in place and halting all of their forward momentum, giving the Paladin the needed fraction of a second to target the last two ships.

"Fire" Fletcher ordered.

Another phaser volley and a half spread of quantum torpedoes turned both attacking bugs in clouds of expanding gasses and free floating particles, giving the Paladin a brief lull in the battle.

"Damage report" Fletcher ordered.

"Shields at 87% sir." Mark announced, "And they've begun regenerating. Approximately 60 seconds until they are back to full strength.

"Aft tractor beam emitters are pretty seriously damaged, sir" the Operations Officer annonced, "I wouldn't suggest relying them for anything until the can be repaired." Glancing over at tactical he continued, "You DO know that our tractor beams were never rated for catching an incoming ship at full speed, don't you Lieutenant? You're damned lucky the generators didn't overload and blow."

Looking back at the Operations Officer, Mark canted his eyebrow, Vulcan-style "I'd say we're all quite lucky, Commander. Wouldn't you agree?"

Quiet chuckling ensued for a brief moment from the bridge crew before Fletcher punched the comm button on his armrest, opening a direct line to Engineering

"Engineering, this is the Captain. Get the phaser lance up and running ASAP, and start work on those tractor emitters."

"Aye Captain" came the reply.

Rochey, who had come up behind the tactical console, spoke very quietly "Nice catch, Lieutenant. Try not to ever have to do it again."

[Teaos]

"Sir we can't get the Lance back on line any time soon" A junior tactical officer announced from one of the secondary stations around the bridge.

"Very well, if a boxer gets his arms ripped off it doesn't mean he still can't kick the crap out of the other guy" Fletcher announced with an obvious edge to his voice. He was displeased with this turn of events, he was the captain of the most advanced ship in the fleet and it can't even function in its first battle.

Fletcher had full faith in his crew, but if he found out the lance malfunctioned due to crew error heads will roll.

"Keep us between the station and Daystrom, lets soak up the damage while their fighters soak up the bugs, we're gonna do some big game hunting"

"Sir the enemy cruiser is trying to break away from position and flank us" Teaos announced from his station to fletchers left.

"They will have to pass through the firing arc of out pulse cannons to make it through sir" Mark announced.

"Excellent, power up the cannons, line up the turrets, lets make them hurt" Fletcher ordered to his crew.

[Tsukiyumi]

" Ready full impulse on my mark, O'Carroll." Captain Lewis stated calmly. He was perched near the edge of his seat, fingers poised over both armrest consoles as the moment approached. They watched as the Battlecruiser and its escorts cruised past on the viewscreen; the enemy had their sensors trained on the attacking fleet, and didn't even slow as they passed the trailing arm of the nebula.

" Now, Commander." Lewis ordered; Lorcan engaged the engines, and Devi excecuted McDuff's impulse protocol.

The Ravage shot forward hard enough to press everyone back in their seats, and sent a few standing crewmen to the floor as they raced toward the enemy fleet.

" Forward photons, full spread, fire!" Lewis shouted, inputting commands with both hands. The sleek, orange-red torpedoes streaked from the forward tubes, splitting a few hundred meters from the Battlecruiser, and detonated over a large section of it's rear shields.

" Quantums, fire!" Lewis ordered, and Ravage unleashed her power in a massive barrage, the weapon pod spraying two dozen quantum torpedoes into the Battlecruiser's rear shields. Its starboard impulse engine ruptured, spewing violet plasma as the ship spun out of control momentarily.

" Their aft dorsal shields are down, Captain. Impulse engines disabled." Devi reported as the bridge shuddered. On the viewscreen, the aft end of the Battlecruiser quickly began to fill the entire image. Another blue-white polaron beam lanced from the ship and struck the Ravage's forward shields.

" Getting a bit close, O'Carroll..." Lewis began, before Lorcan rotated the ship, swinging past the Battlecruiser in a tight half-loop. Ravage's dorsal phasers tore into the unshielded sections, rupturing key plasma conduits and destroying the aft shield emitters completely.

" Target the nearest Bug. Aft tube, half spread, close group... FIRE!" Lewis' timing was impeccable; the tight cluster of photon torpedoes impacted the Bug's ventral section as one, obliterating the ship in a brief but massive detonation.

An alarm shrieked from Devi's console; the impulse manifolds were about to explode from McDuff's modification. She acted quickly, shunting the increased power into structural integrity before throttling back the reactor output, " That's it for the Chief's turbo-boost, sir. Impulse output normal, sir." she reported.

McDuff chimed in over the comm. " It'll be a while before we can try that again, Captain. Blew out an EPS conduit, and I've got a couple of fires to put out down here..."

" Worked like a charm, Master Chief," Lewis smiled, " Let me know as soon as we can use it again."

McDuff chucked over the comm. as the ship rocked with weapon fire, " No promises, Captain."

Lewis grinned, " Bring us about; target the Battlecruiser's weapons and engines, and fire at will. Devi, coordinate our attacks with the Valkyrie; make sure they're going after the Bugs, not wasting their fire on this beast." Nearly as he said the last, a hail of torpedoes and polaron beams from the Battlecruiser slammed into the dorsal shields, mostly near the bridge. The lights flickered momentarily, but the reinforced power conduits held, and the bridge only shook with the impacts.

Lorcan began to sing as he re-oriented the ship, " I hear you knockin' but you can't come in! I hear you knockin' but you can't come in! I-"

" Lorcan! Dammit, I hate when you do that!" Devi growled at him. Lewis and Sinclair both chuckled, sending various commands through their armrest keypads. Devi distributed power from other shields to reinforce the dorsal section as the Ravage fired all loaded forward torpedoes at the Battlecruiser ahead. All fifteen hit the ship, briefly obscuring it behind a wall of explosions.

" Minor damage to the enemy's forward sections. Their shields are holding," she reported, as Lorcan closed the distance with the much larger vessel.

As a number of torpedoes launched from the Battlecruiser impacted on the forward shields, Lorcan spotted the incoming Attack Ship's kamikaze trajectory on his console.

" Lorcan, HARD TO STARBOARD!" Sinclair shouted; Lorcan had seen the ship's course a half-second before the XO, and had already begun the maneuver. Ravage's shields flashed intensely as the Bug impacted at a shallow angle.

The Bug's port nacelle tore loose on impact with the shield, and the ship was flung away violently, spinning end over end. The Ravage lurched downward, tilting on it's axis as it swung beneath the Battlecruiser.

" Resume firing!" Lewis barked, lifting himself back into his chair; most of the bridge crew were climbing back to their feet. " Target their shield generators. And all of you, keep an eye out for the damned Attack Ships!"

" Port shields at 20 percent, Captain," Devi stated through gritted teeth, as the ship shook from more weapons fire.

" Okay then," Lewis scowled. He was a shrewd tactician, Devi knew, so she refrained from pre-empting his next logical order.

" Uzume, ready our security teams. If they can, they'll try to board us. Instruct your staff to take prisoners if possible, but otherwise... terminate with extreme predjudice." Lewis stated flatly, as Ravage's aft torpedoes impacted the Battlecruiser's ventral shields.

The Dominion ship responded with another barrage to Ravage's dorsal section. Uzume swayed with the impacts, and saluted, smirking slightly, " Of course, sir."

As she rushed into one of the bridge turbolifts, Uzume winked to Devi, and she smiled back. Both of them had said what needed to be said before the ship moved into position, but Devi was still terrified that Uzume would do something crazy, and get herself killed.

Ever observant, Captain Lewis said, gently, " Hopefully, that order won't be needed. Keep those shields up, Commander."

" They'll stay up, sir, even if I have to replace the emitters myself."

[Mark]

USS Ravage - Main Bridge

A soft chime pulled Sinclair's attention to the small display monitor on his armrest. He looked at the coded message with coordinates that had been transmitted to his screen without understanding what he was looking at, until he saw the message had originated in the cargo bay.

"Devi" Sinclair called out. "I'm sending some coordinates to you. I want you to it with a full phaser volley and a quantum torpedo spread."

Lewis looked over at Sinclair with some confusion, until his XO looked down in a meaningful way at his armrest, where Lewis read the same message.

"Lorcan, I'm transferring the same coordinates to you." Sinclair continued. "I'm not even going to try and tell you how to do it, but get us in a firing position however you have to, and make it damned quick.

Glancing back over his shoulder with a grin, Lorcan replied "Aye sir. Now, THAT's how I like to fly!" and began punching commands into the helm.

Devi quickly locked the numbers into her targeting computer and said with a note of uncertainty, "I don't see any vital systems here. And another solid hit to the port shields WILL bring them down. Are you sure these numbers are correct, Commander?"

Sinclair glanced at Lewis who was smiling, "I sure hope so." Sinclair replied.

"Ok, boys and girls." Lewis said. "On my mark ..EXECUTE!!!"

The Ravage executed a hard to starboard snap roll that again sent everyone not seated or braced to the deck, then quickly reversed itself and flung itself in a position inverted to the battlecruiser. The maneuvers would have been impressive being executed in a Defiant Class ship, but the fact that this was a Nebula Class was just staggering. Sinclair was again amazed with Lorcan's skill at the helm.

"Now Devi," Lewis commanded. "Fire!"

Both vessels unleashed a simultaneous barrage. The Jem'Hadar's polaron beams and torpedos slammed into Ravage's port side again buckling her shields scoring on the hull, as Ravage's phasers and torpedos impacted exactly on the desired spot. The battlecruiser's shields held for a moment under the torps, then failed allowing the phasers to inflict precision damage on the unprotected hull.

"Report!" Lewis ordered.

"I've restored our port shields with auxiliary power Captain." Devi reported. "We have hull breaches on decks seven, eight, and nine. Emergency forcefields are in place. No critical systems were damaged, and there were no personnel in those sections."

"Thank god for small favors" Lewis muttered.

"Whatever we hit on the battlecruiser must have been important." Devi announced with a smile. "They're entire shield grid was knocked offline."

"Signal the Valkyrie." Lewis said. "Let them know that ship is ready for boarding if they can take her."

"Captain, Commander" Devi said with a look of concern on her face "According to our sensors, there were several transporter signals engaged while our unshielded side faced the battlecruiser."

Lewis sat back with a grim look. "Notify Lieutenant Uzume of the situation." Taking a deep breath, he announced "Sound Intruder Alert."

[Mikey]

"Recall the fighters," Mikey called as the Paladin's unorthodox move finished the last of the bugs. "Get me the status of the Tigerfish."

Hewer consulted his console and said, "Shields holding, fully operational."

"Good," Mikey replied, "have her attack at the Paladin's focus of fire. Helm, bearing 155.35 at one-quarter astern."

"We're backing off?!" asked an incredulous Hewer and Ge'haan simultaneously. Darel continued, "At that heading, the Jem'hadar ship will come between us and the Paladin."

"I'm counting on it. I think I've learned a little about how to fight this ship," Mikey answered sarcastically. "What's the state of the battlecruiser's sensors?"

Sternstrom answered deliberately, "Impossible to tell for sure, but it looks like the forward array is at half sensitivity and the lateral pallets are functioning minimally." As if in defiance of Amy's opinion, a salvo of torps shuddered against the Daystrom's shields.

Before Mikey even asked, Lt. McKenzie at the engineering station called, "Shields are up, but regeneration is zero. Port warp coil is out of alignment. We're not going anywhere faster than impulse."

"Advice as to the shields?" Mikey asked.

"Honestly?" McKenzie replied. "Don't get hit again."

Mikey's antennae pitched forward and his mouth twisted sardonically. "I'll take that under consideration. Helm, mark as soon as our course takes us out of the scope of their forward sensors, and stay there no matter what. Moncano - at the helm's mark, fire at will. Sternstrom - I hope you're right." He paused a moment then continued, "Ge'haan? Get a message to the Paladin - ask them if they could kindly get that tub in gear."

[Lt. Staplic]

James stood out ahead of his men as they finished filing into the cargo bay, waiting for the go signal from the Bridge. The Black ops guys had already arrived, but were standing off by themselves. The plan was to send James's platoon on first. Then those guys, that way they would hit about the same time, and prevent any of the Jem'Hadar in either section from exterminating the other group. They'd all just stopped in sickbay where they were given some bio suppressor agent that could help mask their bio signs from the Dominion ship's computer and keep it from alerting the crew of their presence.

James could feel the rocking of the ship from enemy bug fire, as well as feel the energy pulsing through the ship as it launched phasers and torpedoes at them. It was turning into a heck of a fight. He wasn't sure how much more the Valkeryie could take, but it had certainly dished out its own beating. He'd heard several reports and seen the battle while walking the corridors. She'd already taken out three bugs, and was in pursuit of a fourth when James entered the cargo bay.

James now turned towards his men, the last of whom were finally getting back from sickbay. He wasn't sure how much longer they'd be there, so he decided to go ahead and brief them of their mission.

"Listen up," He called out silencing his men. "Right now the Valkyrie and Ravage are working to take down the ambushing battle cruisers shields. When they do this, we will be beamed aboard, as close to the bridge as possible. Our mission is to move in, capture and hold the bridge, then call for reinforcements to fly the cruiser back out of the nebulae. This will not be as easy as it sounds. The Black Ops team is going in as support and as our backup. They will take engineering so the crew doesn't take over from there. If we fail, they will set charges on the Warp Core and blow up the ship, taking it out of the battle. We do not want this to happen, we must succeed. Any questions?"

The men didn't say anything, they all looked at James with a mix of awe, fear, and determination on their faces.

"When we board the pad I want a 360 cover formation, with everyone ready to fire as soon as we're beamed in. If there are any Jem'Hadar I want them taken out before they can sound any alarms. From there I will issue new orders. Understood!"

"Understood!" They all said in unison.

"Lieutenant. We've just got the green light from the Ravage. Let's go" The Transporter chief called.

"You heard him, let's go!" James called out.

The platoon moved forward onto the transporter pad, James stood in the middle of them, with the outer line of men crouching down, everyone had their rifles ready to shoot when the cycle ended.

"I'm getting you as close as I can. When their shields went down the bug put up force fields around the bridge engineering. It should still be a pretty straight shot to the bridge however." The Transporter chief called.

"Understood, Energize!" James yelled back.

The familiar blue transporter beam surrounded the marines. A second later the backdrop of the cargo bay was replaced with a long bare corridor. The cycle completed and there was a single shot blast behind James. He looked over to see a Jem'Hadar soldier that had been walking down the corridor lying motionless on the ground.

"Good shot corporal." Said Kyfro, the shooters squad leader.


"Keep quiet, we'll celebrate later. Move out!" James whispered pointing ahead.

The Group moved in unison, most of them pointing their guns forward, with a few of them covering the rear. They turned the corner at the end of the hall, running into a few more Jem'Hadar, who they dispatched before they could raise their wepons.

At least the bio suppressors are working, James thought.

"Here it is sir." One of the marines in front of James said.

"Set charges, prepare to move in." James ordered.

Several of the marines quietly set some small explosive charges to the door hinges and locks. While James and the rest of them set their backs to the walls ready to turn the corner and move in guns blazing.

Just then a group of Jem'Hadar turned the corner, moving toward the bridge. Several of the men started firing, but they weren't fast enough. Two of the Jem' Hadar started firing back taking cover behind the corner. They hit a couple of the Marines nearest to them then ducked back behind the wall. Something moved on James' Right as he took aim and shot one of the two in the head as he emerged to shoot again. The second one started to yell, when Kyfro suddenly sprang out at the soldier smacking him in the head, crushing his Ketrocel White tube, and breaking his jaw. The soldier paused while it tried to process the move. Kyfro quickly shot him then before he could get his wits back and alert the crew.

"Good work." James muttered when Kyfro got back to where he was standing next to James.

The comment went unanswered as was necessary. The charges had just been activated. The one setting it nodded at James, awknoledgeing they were ready.

James looked around, making sure everyone was ready, and then said, "Blow it."

[Mark]

USS Ravage - Main Engineering

The ship's intercom sounded off with Commander Patel's voice "Intruder Alert, General Quarters."

McDuff spun on his heel and began barking orders, "Collins, secure all computer panels and functions. Preston, get the forcefield up over the warp core. Burke, break out the weapons. Svetlana, lock down the ."

The old engineer's orders were interrupted by the whine of weapons fire. A party of eight Jem'Hadar warriors burst threw the door into Main Engineering, and began firing. Lieutenant Stern took two intersecting beams in the chest, catapulting her over the main diagnostic console, while Ensign McPherson took a polaron beam directly in his face, which exploded his head like a melon. Petty Officer Svetlana was forced to take cover beneath the main plasma relay console, as two of the Jem'Hadar opened fire on the warp core itself. The emergency forcefield came up just in time, protecting the core and the ship, but McDuff knew it wouldn't hold for very long.

Tapping his combadge, he barked "McDuff to Security, we have intruders in Main Engineering. They're going after the core."

"Acknowledged, Master Chief" came the terse reply "We're on our way. Try and hold them off."

Muttering to himself, "Yeah, no problem" the Master Chief belly crawled to some cover by the antimatter flow regulator control panel.

Seeing that all of the engineers were pinned down, the Jem'Hadar began to advance further into engineering, continuing to concentrate they're fire on the warp core. McDuff could see the field generator begin to labor under the sustained fire. He had the sinking feeling that security wouldn't get here in time.

"Chief!" came the shout, half a second before he saw something spinning directly at his head. Reflexively, he caught the object, which, to his amazement was a hand phaser. Lieutenant, or rather CREWMAN Burke had thankfully made it to the weapons locker and had begun to arm the engineering crew. The man had guts, McDuff acknowledged. He must have kept moving even after the bastards killed those two other engineers.

The forcefield generator began to smoke and spark and McDuff knew he HAD to stop the Jemmies quickly, or everybody on this ship was dead. He quickly decided they could fix whatever they broke later, and barked out "Shoot to Kill!!!" as he reset his phaser to setting eight.

He popped up from cover, and opened fire. His first shot went wide, but with his second, he vaporized the lead Jem'Hadar. Capitalizing on the distraction he provided, four other phaser beams lanced out at the Jem'Hadar scoring two more kills. As McDuff ducked back behind his panel, he counted four Jem'Hadar still standing.

"Wait." The old man thought, "There were eight of them."

With a feeling of dread, he looked up. He saw that somehow, the last Jem'Hadar had made his way to the second level, and was moving so that he could fire on the unprotected anti-matter pods. While destroying those wouldn't cause an explosion big enough to destroy the ship completely, it WOULD be powerful enough to cripple her, and a crippled ship in the middle of a battle zone is as good as dead. McDuff saw quickly that he was the only one there with any kind of angle to take the bastard down. But doing so would certainly expose him to enemy fire.

"Hell," McDuff muttered to himself "I've had a damned good run."

He then suddenly popped up and broke cover, taking a quick aim on the Jemmie who was just about to blow them all to hell and fired, quickly encompassing the Jem'Hadar warrior in scarlet energy, and reducing him to his component particles.

McDuff heard the telltale whine of weapons fire, heard three beams wiz by him, and then suddenly felt his body explode with pain as he took a direct hit in the right side of his chest. The force of the beam blasted him backwards into the wall behind him. As he felt the world begin to fade to black around him, he heard the reassuring sound of additional phasers firing, and realized security had finally got here.

The last sound that he heard before the darkness overtook him was Mr. Burke's sudden shout, "The Chief is down!"

[Monroe]

"That's all our marines." The reply came from the transporter bay as the ship rocked under another attack.

The captain nodded, "Good let's get some distance between us and the battle cruiser."

"Sir, the Ravage is reporting enemy boarding parties. They're requesting we move beyond warp core breach range." The communication officer said looking up at the captain.

"Screw that bring us in closer and prepare to energize the crew if you detect their core overloading." He replied.

Another salvo from the enemy disruptor banks caused the lights to mementarly blink out as the shields drop, "Intruder alert." Came the calm voice of the computer that Munro and the over paranoid captain, (who I forgot the name of) had programed to set off automatically.

Munro unstrapped his rifle from his back and rolled out of his chair as two phaser shots came flying downwards from the rear of the bridge. Turning around the Breen saw five Jemmies and two dead crew already. Lifting his rifle as he fell into a prone firing position he fired off two quick bursts into the nearest intruder's chest knocking him backwards onto the science station.

"Engineering to bridge we have intruders!" "-ransporters offline." "Environmental controls--" "Hanger control offli-" came a hurried burst of calls from around the ship as Jem'hadar came pouring in. Perfect,, Munro thought, Just perfect.. He and the captain ran towards naviation keeping low as the helms man took a shot to the chest leaving a smoldering craytor in the young officer.

[Lt. Staplic]

Cix had taken place around Engineering with several marines after the debriefing in the Armory. They'd been standing around for a few minutes when the intruder alert signaled that the Jem'Hadar had beamed aboard.

Cix turned to two corporal standing near the door to main engineering and said, "Get inside, anything that beams in is dead before it fully materializes. Understood."

The two marines nodded and entered engineering. Cix then turned back to the three others standing guard there. There was around a full platoon scattered around this area on the deck. Cix had decided early on that it was best to make sure Eingineering was well defended, and it was a decision the XO had strongly agreed with.

Wepons fire suddenly sparked around the corner, meaning that the Jem'Hadar were comming. Cix took three of them and they ran to reinforce the group there. As the came around they realized the extent of the problem. Cix had stationed two security officers and around four marines to this hallway. In front of him were two Marines, and one security officer, the other one lye halfway donw the hall, with sever burns on his chest, clearly dead. Advancing towards them were around twelve Jem'Hadar soldiers, still down on the opposite side of the corridor. They were taking cover and mooving effectively through the corridors only having lost about three since their initial beam in.

"Computer, activate forcefields at every possable point between my location and main Engineering." Cix ordered.

Instantly the computer activated a forcefield at the emmitters about five feet behind him. and continued to do so all the way to engineering.

"We defeat them here or die." Cix ordered.

Cix pulled his rifle around from his back, set the thing for triple fire mode, and began shooting at the Jem'Hadar. Follwed soon by the rest of the present men.

Cix stood with his men for ten minutes, exchanging fire with the Jem'Hadar. They had the advantage of not having to move forward and find new cover, like the Jem'Hadar had to, and hence had only lost a couple more Marines in the fighting. The Jem'Hadar had lost over half their number already however, Cix having shot four of them.

The Jem'Hadar seemed to realize their lack of success because a sudden barage of fire issued forth, killing another marine and hitting the other security officer in the arm. Cix grabbed him and pulled him back behind the rest of them for cover.

"Computer site to site transport, get Ensign Marxe to sickbay." Cix called out.

Instantly the computer enveloped the injured security officer in a transporter beam pulling him out.

"I'm sick of this." Cix said under his breath.

"Only six left sir." A marine said pulling his head back around inside cover just as a poloron burst flashed by.

"Cover me." Cix ordered at the three remaining marines.

"In this! Their not letting up sir." The same marine said.

"I'll make them pull up." Cix said, making an adjustment to his rifle.

With that he dove out from behind the wall he was using as cover towards a blown open jefferies tube door on the opposite wall. As he moved accross the hall. He pulled the trigger initiating a continueous phaser blast. He swept the beam accross the halway, blowing out consols but also forcing the Jem'Hadar to take cover or be hit. By the time he landed he'd scored at least one more kill.

Cix pulled himself behind the door, and made a remodification to the rifle. "FIRE!" He yelled at the remaining marines.

The Marines layed down a heavy layer of fire at the still hidden Jem'Hadar, keeping them with their heads down. Seth took this oppertunity. He ran forward toward teh enemy Jem'Hadar, firing at anythign he saw. If a few seconds he'd shot and wounded one paralyzing him, and killing another. as teh Marine fire began to slow he ducked down on their side of a wall outgrowth being used on the other side by a Jem'Hadar. As the soldeir peeked over the wall, Cix shot him in the head.

Cix looked back at the hidden marines and waved to get them to move closer. Then turned and started putting down some cover fire for them, at the last Jem'Hadar. This one was very elusive however and Cix couldn't hit him. He was just about to pull back around the wall pylon when the solder reache around and shot. The beam didn't hit Cix square, but it plowed it's way through half of Cix's arm.

The approaching marines layed down a few rounds on the exposed Jem'Hadar killing him.

"Are you okay. We'd better get him to sickbay." The Marines started.

"Don't be rediculous, I'm fine. Get back to Engineering, make sure their okay there." Cix orderd, using his good arm to stand up.

"Sir really, the Jem'Hadar have been known to use neurotoxins and other chemicals in their wepons fire." The Marine's persisted.

"I said get back to Engineering!" Cix ordered. "There are no distructive chimicals in their wepons, I know this because of the wounds the others sustained, as for neurotoxins, if they have one I haven't been innoculated against they deserve to kill me."

"Where did you get inoculated for that many neurotoxins?" The Marine asked awed.

Cix ignored the question, not really wanting to talk about it. "Computer deactivate my orderd forcefields. Authorization Cix Iota 774."

The energy fields dropped allowing Cix and the three remaining marines to move back to Engineering. When they reached the doors, the same Marine Cix had leaft was still guarding the post. Cix left him with the three others before heading into Engineering.

"Status?" Cix asked.

"We're all good in here, but no one's heard from the Bridge in a while. Every other major facility has reported here. There's a few Jem'Hadar parties still operating on Deck 8 and Deck 14, but securty says they've got it handled." Reported one of the Marines.

"Tell the security on the nearby decks to go support the groups on those decks, I want the Jem'Hadar taken down." Cix ordered. "And get four marines off Decks 2/3 to meet me on the Bridge."

[Reliant121]

The bridge of the Lacron was silent, apart from the machined bleeps of the various panels. The screen was a dark mass of nebula gasses, swirling like a thick fog. No-one spoke. The silence was the kind that stabbed straight through you, the kind that you wanted to drive away with every vestige of your voice, but you couldn't quite bring yourself to disrupt. The kind that captivated and held your thoughts with an iron grip, that dominated your mind and presence. Finally, someone drew the power to overcome it.

"The battlecruiser is closing...800 metres....700 metres....600 metres...commander the resolution of her scanners will see us at 400...currently at 500..." Mi'serna said, almost whispering so as not to incur the non-existent wrath of the silence itself.

"Coming hard starboard...burst firing impulse engines," D'tyra commanted as she delicately played across the intricate and ornate controls. Grr'lek had only now noticed the patterning on the console. Running up and down the length of its pedestal were supremely complex carvings of some unknown object, emblazoned into the metal work itself. The art form was beautiful, even in its drab green tinted grey colouration. "Is she turning with us?"

"Negative commander, she is proceeding along original course," Mi'serna said with evident excitement. Enjoying the thrill of combat a bit much, I think D'tyra pondered. "We have them!"

"Indeed centurion. Bringing us about on her stern quarter. Tactical station, standby weapons. Attack pattern Ti'heien sha'an, all weapons," She ordered, watching the screen as the tail end of the immense battlecruiser appeared. The smooth crafted hull of the purple ship was difficult to see against the background of the nebula, but the bright engine's provided the illumination necessary to distinguish her from the rest of the nebula.

Casually, D'tyra got up from her seat and walked to the tactical station, much to the shock of the attendant centurion.

"I'm sorry, S'daren....but I simply must have this honour," She said, smiling at him, laying her hand just over the firing control. "And now, the shadows....Strike!" At the end word, she gently tapped her finger on the control.

The full brunt of the Norexan class ship's weapons came to bear on the defenseless rear of the cruiser, tearing mercilessly into the hull. Several torpedoes found their mark on her impulse engines, overloading the manifold and ripping a gaping hole right through her stern. The nacelles lost their luminosity as the power dropped, and she fell adrift, helplessly sauntering through the depths of the cloud.

"Bring us about, Mr. Grr'lek!" D'Tyra said, gesturing to the helm console. Grr'lek rushed over and sat down. And was immediately confronted with a problem. The console was in Rihannsu, and he had not quite mastered reading it as of yet. The crew stared in horror, hoping quite badly that he didn't overload the impulse engines or something of a similar ilk.

"Most right hand button on the central group of them. then press the central one once we are about, and slide the circular bar next to it round to full to engage the impulse engines," D'Tyra advised, jovially smiling at her officers. Many of whom stared back at her with utter shock or contempt. Luckily, Grr'lek managed to find his way.

"Commander, the cruiser has drifted into an isolated Metreon pocket," Mi'serna reported.

"Really? oh what a shame," She replied, beaming with sarcasm. "Aft torpedoes...fire."

The explosion engulfed the cruiser, and shifted the gases exponentially. The Lacron shook softly at the shifting, but no other effect was felt.

"Time to help our Federation friends! 'Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war!'" She hollered, 'accidentally' tapping the intercom to the rest of the fleet as the ship rode out of the nebula, weapons blazing at the remaining Dominion ships.