USS Daystrom Beta Mission

[Mikey]

"Icy hells!" exclaimed Mikey. "How by the great hearth are these new interplexing pallets supposed to sync with fire control?"

"Oh, relax," laughed M'real. "Stressing too much won't help anything."

Mikey slid from behind the panel in the cockpit of the almost-complete craft and sat up. "You try running full-tilt all day with five adrenal glands and see if you don't have some stress." He sighed, stood, and stretched. "Besides, you should appreciate the help - I seem to remember assigning this project to you."

"And I'm getting it done ahead of schedule because I don't have a full day of everything else to do, besides. Hey McKenzie!" she called out into the bay. "Think you can integrate some non-standard sensor feeds?"

"Aye, sir," came the reply, "no problem."

"See?" M'real said, turning back to Mikey. "Now go get some sleep, or whatever you Andorians do to relax."

"I suppose you're right," Mikey replied. He spent the next hour in his quarters devising alternate worst-case-scenario ship's procedures and reviewing Hewer's plans for a new ground vehicle, and the following 90 minutes in the holodeck practicing with his kar'takin and Nausicaan knife. It might not have been what most people call relaxation, but it worked for him. Besides, he had a feeling that the practice would soon come in handy.

[Monroe]

"What the hell is that sir?" One of the ensigns asked Munro as they looked at the brand new vehicles.

"Substandard." Munro's reply came.

The technician smiled by the three hundred men and women's reactions. "This here is the new W-1a. A brand new kind of vehicle for the ground warfare concious Star Fleet."

"I told them that we didn't need these things but the Admiral expressed key interest in these things." Commadore Ford growled then glared at Munro. "Take it away tech. Waste of resources if you ask me." He muttered as he walked off.

The vehicle in question looked like a standard shuttle craft but with four large legs coming out of the sides. On the sides new compartments had been installed each one carrying one torpedo and four more in the vessel for a full compliment of six. A standard phaser ran along the roof of the walker that could cover the craft in 360 degrees. It also housed a pulse phaser in the nose.

"Its got shields, six torpedoes, reinforced armor, and can get running pretty fast." The technicion nodded towards the craft. "All in all it represents a new way of thinking for Star Fleet. These will be used to support ground forces. Since Lieutiant Munro will be in charge of three hundred, you're getting one to yourself."

"Just one?" Munro asked, "These things would be better used enmasse not as singular crafts."

"Sorry Br-Sir. But those are the rules. If they perform well enough Star Fleet might consider using them for mass production. You've got a few days to learn it, good luck." The technicion tossed a padd to the nearest crewman and walked off after the Commadore.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

While M'Real had spent her duty shift working on the prototype, she had decided to spend some of her off duty time getting back into shape. She challenged one of the squadrens(a full squadren) into a dogfight and won 2 out of 3 fights with them.

She eating dinner and cooling off in the lounge when two of the pilots approached her. One of whom had shot her down in the first fight of the three dogfights. "If I may ma'am, how did you get so good?"

"If I was so good how did you shoot me down?" asked M'Real.

The second pilot spoke up, "you shot down an entire squdren by yourself twice. And you were in an old Peregrine against far more modern fighters. You barely hesitated at all."

M'Real shrugged, "I was rusty. I only took your boys down because I knew a few tricks that you didn't."

"And took more risks," said the first pilot, "you took out a pair of pilots that were between you and a civie station." In that fight the battle field had a civilian station, which pilots weren't allowed to hit or else the station would fire and destroy them. It wasn't the most realistic scinario but it did force pilots to be careful about 'friendly fire'. Normally pilots would position themselves between the enemy and the station so that the enemy pilots wouldn't risk a shot. M'Real had taken the shot without hesitation.

M'Real shrugged and walked away. Piloting had come naturally to her. She then learned a few tricks from Blackstar and became, in a word: awesome. But she was out of shape and rusty. In the old days she wouldn't have needed to pull out all the stops to wipe the floor with these kids. She had to get back in shape if she was going to command the new shuttle and impress him

[Teaos]

Teaos was sending out another load of the modified flak torpedoes as Ensign Sternson approached him.

"How's it going boss?" She said with a smirk taking in his five o'clock shadow.

"Die" Teaos mumbled as he checked off the latest load heading for the Freeman.

"Oh is that anyway to speak to the person who's here to relieve you?" Sternson said taking a PADD off Teaos.

"Huh?" Teaos said rubbing his eyes.

"Fletcher wants to see you" She said as she looked down to see the nest order.

*****

Teaos had managed to shave and change before his meeting with Fletcher, he was briefed on his duties for the mission and fill the captain in on what had been happening on the station.

*****

Walking down the passage leading away from the Daystroms dock Teaos passed Hewer speaking to several crewmen.

"Hewer a word please" Teaos said as the two crewmen walked away.

"Commander?" Hewer said looking puzzled not having much contact with the science officer much since docking.

"The captain wished for me to tell you he has traded most of our surplus stock of Proton torpedoes-" he held up his hand to stop the protest form the tactical officer "he traded them with one of the stations materials officers for eight thousand square meters of 12cm ablative armour. He wants you to apply it to the bridge and what ever other key areas you feel need the most protection, it will only cover maybe ten to fifteen percent of our hull unfortunately" Teaos said handing him the PADD with the details of the materials on it.

"Another thing to do " Hewer said to himself.

"Yeah its been a long week, well only two days until we launch" Teaos said as he left to do the rest of his work.

[Reliant121]

"Right everyone. Time for your fun time. You are taking each other on in your respective ships. Now I know the oldf warhorses like the Helios wont be able to take onthe new cruisers like [i[Daystrome[/i] or Dakota. So thats why you get to choose your ships. We are having a full devide. 10 on one side, 10 on the other. The federation fleet is choosing its ships, but you are limited to a certain number of each type. The Pirate fleet has a full selection from the suspected ships. Good luck. We'll begin in 15 minutes!" Said Commadore Mendoza to his flock. This was going to be interesting.

Darel chose a ship from his home land. The ever dependable Hideki. It wasnt a powerful ship, by any standards but she was fast and durable. Two other light scout ships, both B'Rel's were in the fleet as well.

"All ships. Concentrate your fire on the designated targets. Standby on my command to open fire!" Said the commander of the pirate fleet, one Lieutenant Fervant.

The federation fleet were bearing down on them. A fleet of modern cruisers. A difficult opponent. Excellent.

"This is the IKV Gr'tagh. Open fire at will!"

Darel's Hideki drove forward. He locked on to one of the Federation ships, an aging Miranda. It was the Helios. He let off a burst of phaser fire into the shields, blasting at the coverage over the nacelles. The Helios fired a torpedo.

"Evasive starboard, pattern omega-7!" he cried. The Hideki wheeled to the right hand side, just missing the torpedo. He returned fire, breaching a tiny hole in the shields.
"Concentrate fire on those coordinates."

The forward phaser cannons let off a trio of shots, all crashing through the shields. They each hit the port nacelle, blasting it open. The trailing edge of the last phaser shot struck the leaking plasma, detonating it. The rear half of the ship was enveloped by flame, sending it drifting.

The battle continued. In the end, the superior experience on the pirate side won out. The Federation fleet retreated, with a battle damaged Dakota and Colossus limping home under tow from two smaller cruisers, both Excelsior class.

Not good news.

[Tsukiyumi]

The first thing Captain Thompson noticed as he strode through the turbolift doors onto the bridge was the scent; it was sharp, but quite pleasant. He'd been present at a number of rituals his first officer had performed over the past year, but this particular blend of scents was certainly different.

" Commander 'He Walks Between The Pillars Of Sanskot', I acknowledge your efforts to bring us success, and thank you, and the Children of Tamar greatly." His strange Tamarian XO had set up a number of candles around his station, and the combined scent is what had caught the Captain's nose. The Tamarian smiled, and presented a much larger candle to Thompson with a respectful bow.

" Temba, his arms wide " The seasoned Tamarian warrior stated.

The universal translator didn't need to correct this one; the captain already knew the meaning. The damn candle was for him...

I'll never get used to this ritual behavior Thompson couldn't hide his bemusement at the new rite, shrugging, and smirking a bit as he took the oversized candle and placed it next to his chair.

Sanskot, as the crew had come to call him, bent and lit the large, burgundy candle with a plasma burner he produced from one of his various pockets. The new scent was different, and invoked a vague sense of urgency in Thompson's mind.

" I am finalizing my strategy now, Commander. I'll need input from the entire senior staff before we're underway. I want you all to study the current intel on the Brotherhood's defense platforms, and point out any design flaws my old eyes may have missed "

Thompson grinned, his eyes meeting the gazes of his young charges, " Or maybe you can't keep up? I'm sure I can find a replacement crew on the station if I pull some strings "

" They'll have to pry my corpse from the helm, Captain; you know that..." Lieutenant O'Carroll shouted over his shoulder; he was running combat simulations on his LCARS interface as he kept station with the starbase.

" Shut up, Lorcan! Some of us intend to survive this mission!" Lieutenant-Commander Patel shouted her indignant protest from the Ops station.

" I intend for all of us to survive this mission, Devi. If we all focus on our duties, like Lieutenant O'Carroll, we may just do that. Let me know when any new intel comes in from our border posts, yes? And, please inform me when the station is ready to begin shuttling the new flak torpedoes over." Thompson didn't wait for a response, settling into his chair with a small groan. Sanskot lowered himself into his chair with considerably less effort, despite his advanced age.

" How you keep in such great shape is a true mystery to me, Commander." Thompson glanced at his odd Tamarian XO, " Any thoughts on why I can't seem to do the same?"

He Walks Between The Pillars of Sanskot leaned closer for a moment, a small, knowing grin on his face.

"Kiteo, his eyes closed " the Tamarian said. The captain took it to mean he had closed his eyes to his diminishing health for a long time. The long hours were starting to wear him down; he had been planning on taking his accumulated leave on Risa before this business with the Brotherhood popped up

Thompson grinned back, " You are a wise individual, my friend."

The smile on Sanskot's face said the translation software was performing much better after the upgrades.

[Monroe]

"See that ship?" Doctor Bonebreaker pointed to the Olympic class ship out the window. "My new home."

"Not bad." His friend said. She smirked at him, "Anyone give you trouble about your name?"

"Not yet." He grinned, "Here let me take some pictures of you in front of the fleet."

Rolling her eyes she replied, "You know we're not suppose to take pictures of the fleet."

"Oh come on who's going to notice, besides, I'm not going to send them until we get back." He shrugged and took a step back to take a few snap shots.

Sighing she relented, "Okay fine. But I better not end up in the Admiral's office for espionage."

After she had left he took the memory chip out of the camera and walked over to the public terminal. Using a few key strokes he logged onto a profile his contact had given him and transmitted the encrypted information with a tag that said "-One Week-". Closed out of the program then smiled. Time to check out his new duty station.

Several lightyears away the messaged arrived safely being redirected by another agent of the pirate fleet to their home base.

[Mikey]

Mikey sat at the desk in his dim quarters, silently reviewing various section schedules and reports. He corrected a few schedules to allow for the completion of refresher combat training, and then found Hewer's report - a full combat load-out of QT's was aboard, launcher conversions were complete, and protocols were in place to keep the magazines full. The power feeds to the new type XII's were a little dodgy, but the arrays would remain online. M'real's report was next: the "Shadow Fox," as she had dubbed the new craft, would be ready for a live trial in 36 hours - if that went right, a full-warp test flight would follow one day later.

Mikey lit a pair of bitter-smelling candles in a makeshift hearth on his table. Before beginning his meditation routine - which for his people was meant to heighten awareness and somatic responses, rather than the opposite, before battle - he sat again in front of his desktop console. Calling up his personal records, he checked and updated the instructions for the disposition of his personal effects and other final wishes. He relaxed somewhat when that was done - he certainly didn't look forward to dying; but victory in battle, the success of the mission, and the safety of his ship and crew definitely came well before his own personal survival. He smiled ironically as he thought that there were few better ways to die than as the 2iC of a victorious combat vessel - and even fewer better ways to live.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

M'Real was having the time of her life as she drove the new light reconisans vehicle around the Daystrom's massive shuttlebay. Some of the crew down there had helped set up an obsticle course with jumps of various sizes, twists and turns, and a few cardboard cutouts to dodge. She was doing very well, although she had hit the one cutout that looked a lot like Commander Rochey, which got a lot of cheering out of the Daystrom veterns. Now if the invitation and her timing was correct he'd be walking right through the door right about now....or not. M'Real frowned, as she had been hoping to stop the jeep-like vehicle right in front of Mikey as he walked in. Oh, there he was...too late. M'Real slammed the brakes, but while she made sure the vehicle was manuverable and capable of driving over most terrain she had made the brakes too small. Mikey was looking the other way when he first entered, but whiped his head around to see the jeep almost on top of him. M'Real had the wheel hard right, giving Mikey a clear view of her grinning and giving him a wink. She hit one of the buttons on the steering wheel and the vehicle did a jumping barrol role over his head, with the jeep landing a few feet away from Mikey landing on all four wheels.

Mikey turned and stared at the primitve looking contraption. "M'Real, what in the icy hells is that and what were you trying to do with that stunt?"

M'Real visably shrank, as the rest of the deck crew made themselves scarce. "Sorry about that sir, you came a little late. I was planning to stop right in front of you, but I think the demonstration of the anti-grav stabalizer's unconventional abilites went well."

"What? What is that thing?"

M'Real's ears perked up, "May I introduce the LRV-A-2b. It's got four-wheel steering, 4x4 transmission, independent suspenesion systems, an anti-grav stabalizer, and standard seating for 3 passangers in additon to the driver. It's also moduler, allowing the aft seating and guns to be removed and replaced as necessary. I like to call it the Puma."

Mikey looked the vehicle over, "what's wrong with standard anti-grav vehicles?"

"Their energy signature can be easily detected from miles away by even a handheld tricorder. This baby is much more subtle," M'Real explained as she petted the steering console. "I also discovered that if you only activate a certain section of the anti-grav you can do flips, like the one I just did to not kill you. The anti-grav is a light unit that is usually only used to prevent the thing from rolling over when I don't want it too, or for fancy stunts like barrol roles."

"When did you have time for this?" asked Mikey.

"Well, we were almost done with the Shadow Fox so we used some of the spare parts and some replicated parts to build this thing. Figured it would help optimize the Fox's scouting abilities," explained M'Real.

"And how is the Shadow Fox almost finished already?" asked Mikey.

"A lot of overtime, trading some favours, sleeping with the station quartermaster, and you can get anything done," M'real said with a smile on her face.

"Ya...wait. What?"

"I was joking sir. Mostly...anyway, I got to get back to work. Those last few relays won't connect themselves." M'Real gunned the engine and speed away towards where the Shadow Fox was almost compleated, the 'Puma' preforming a power slide before being parked in the scout ship's belly.

[Sonic Glitch]

Onboard USS Katana--Saber Class NCC-61932

Captain Ruhalter had gathered his first officer, engineer and tactical officer in his Ready Room for a little impromptu merging of minds. They had only a little time left before the fleet departed for the asteroid. He had decided to brief his staff on what they were up against. Predictably, his relatively new XO spoke up first "Do I understand this correctly? We expect a total of 10 Defense Platforms which we expect to take out fairly easily and fairly quickly using devices which would need to be carried on three ships at most?"

"You understand correctly so far..." Captain Ruhalter replied hiding a slight smile..he suspected where his compatriot was going with this.

"So why are we sending NINE ships after them!?!"

"In case something happens for which we three ships are not enough Commander" replied the Chief Engineer Lt.Cmdr T'lavvik logically.

"Of course..my mistake." replied the commander with a slight smile.

"If I may, how are the preparations going?" the captain inquired.

"As you humans are fond of saying, the good news is: we're finally getting systems fixed that have needed fixing since the end of the Dominion War. The bad news is this ship requires a major refit."

"Also, we're having difficulty finding space for the "flak torpedoes" what with our normal crew complement and torpedo complement. We had to make room for the quantams, I'm not sure to go with these extras." groused the tactical officer.

"I've also heard some complaints out of the security section about the treatment of those selected for the ground force by the Breen, Lt. Munroe." mentioned Commander Lewis

"Why was this not brought to my attention?" asked Captain Ruhalter.

"With all due respect sir, crew welfare is primarily the responsibility of the XO. I am trying to get a more complete picture of the situation before deciding a course of action."

"Perhaps you should have a discussion with this lieutenant." It was phrased as a question but definitely seemed an order.

"I'm considering it. Also sir, I'd like to suggest we conference with the other captains/bridge officers in the task force. If theres one thing I learned in the war, it's a lack of communication leads to anhilation." The ending of that statement left an akward silence in the room.

"{Ahem}",the captain cleared his throat as his officers continued to look around akwardly,"I'll see what I can do about that conference. You're dismissed."

[Tsukiyumi]

" Chief San'dral, report!" Captain Thompson growled through gritted teeth. The bridge, and presumably, the rest of the ship, were shaking hard enough to vibrate his coffee mug toward the edge of his console. He caught its handle before it went over, and set it further back; it proceeded to march toward the other end.

Thompson chuckled, bringing up readouts of the Warp Core's current status on the viewscreen. He spotted an anomaly almost immediately, " Throttle it back, Commander "

The shuddering gradually settled as San'dral reduced the output of the matter and anti-matter injectors. Thompson sighed, " Do I have to come down there, Chief? I told you to adjust the flow regulators and disengage safeties on the plasma conduits to accommodate the increased flow after the last test. I'd really prefer it if my ship didn't explode when the fleet goes to warp. It might look bad on my record "

Lieutenant O'Carroll chuckled, and Thompson caught a smirk on Patel's face as well before San'dral responded.

" Your method of calculation was abstract, and your conclusions illogical. I thought a test using more conventional operations was the best course of action."

" Kadir beneath Mo Moteh, San'dral," Sanskot indicated his displeasure at the lack of communication. "Chenza at court. The court of silence... Shaka, when the walls fell." San'dral had failed to listen to Thompson, and the test had been a failure.

Thompson nodded to Sanskot, " Now we try it my way, San'dral. Adjust the safety tolerance up to 150% on all warp plasma conduits. Bring flow regulators to increased standard, and take the core to maximum output."

There was a short silence, followed by a small sigh from San'dral, " Of course, Captain. Adjustments complete - stand by "

The ship began to vibrate again as the warp core was brought near it's maximum output; Thompson smirked as the rumbling peaked at 98% and quickly dropped to near imperceptible levels.

" I'd say that finishes this dispute, San'dral. We use my configuration unless we sustain damage to the conduit system " He paused, checking the status of the fleet; he'd received a message from Admiral Davidson a few hours ago about an imminent departure, almost entirely on schedule. He certainly wasn't going to be the one to hold the fleet up while he sorted through technical nits with his stubborn Chief Engineer.

" Have the new targeting subroutines for the flak torpedoes been tested yet, O'Carroll?" Thompson turned his attention to other matters.

The copper-headed young Lieutenant rotated his chair, smirking at the Captain, " We finished work on the "party poppers" two hours ago, sir. Devi and I had plenty of time to finish programming your um, surprise, and brief the tactical and ops officers from the Adams and the Katana on how they're supposed to deploy 'em."

" Good," Thompson glared at the new intel readouts on the Brotherhood's defense platforms, " They should eliminate most of the platforms, if not all of them then we can help Task Force Beta against the fleet, or provide ground support to Alpha if Beta already mopped up the Brotherhood's ships. This shouldn't be anything tougher than what we pulled off during the Dominion War "

O'Carroll swiveled around in his seat again with a raised eyebrow, and Patel was rubbing her temples nervously.

" Right, I keep forgetting how young you all are. Your professionalism is throwing me off We can do this, people. As long as I'm not overlooking anything "

O'Carroll groaned, and Patel buried her face in her folded arms. Sanskot rolled his eyes, and whispered in Thompson's ear, " The river Temarc, in winter "

Thompson snickered; shutting up probably was the best option at this point. Anything he said would just make it worse

" Remain at station keeping, O'Carroll "

" Aye, Captain!" the young Lieutenant shook his head and smiled as he returned to his duties.

[Teaos]

The docking clamps let go with a clank as the Daystrom left its docking port.

Almost the entire fleet had left the Starbase over the last four hours, now only the Daystrom, the Dakota and the Shoshone were left to depart.

The fleet had been given orders to start assembling at 0800 hours. The lower priority ships had left first and were now awaiting the three strike force flagships to join them.

As the Daystrom swung around inside the massive docking bay she pulled up behind the Shoshone as the massive doors opened. Following the Daystrom was the massive form of the Dakota with Commander Rochey onboard. But even a Galaxy class starship looks small compared to Starbase T-12.

Swinging out to the left, the Daystrom split from the other two ships to go take her place at the head of her strike group.

The force of over twenty starships all pulled into formation with the forth smaller supply fleet following behind all jumped into warp in the direction of the Brotherhoods system.

In a little over a week the Federation would be facing its first fleet action since the end of the war

[Blackstar the Chakat]

M'Real walked into the security office where one of Munroe's subordinates was left in charge while Monroe was training his ground team. "Is Munroe around?"

The ensign practically jumped in surprise, "jeez, where did you come from? You made me jump out of my skin."

M'Real was used to this reaction,"but humans can't jump out of their skin. I know, and not from a lack of trying either. I did date a guy who jumped out of his skin. Boy was that embarrassing."

"Ya, wait what?" A look of confusion crossed the ensign's face. "Um...what did you want sir? Ma'am?"

M'Real's patience was starting to grow thin. "Yes, I believe a pair of wrist gauntlets are in security storage locker 12. I'm ordering them to be handed over to me."

"And why is that?" came a voice from behind. "They don't even work."

M'Real turned to face Munroe who looked pissed. "Oh, Lieutenant Monroe, I thought you were busy with training."

"I'm sure you saw that as a chance to go behind my back about this, which wouldn't have worked since confiscated items cannot be release without my approval," said Monroe.

"I see. A wise procedure, however I didn't go behind your back Lieutenant. You were in training and would have been equally angry had I interrupted it," said M'Real emphasizing his lower rank. "I'm hoping to use them in case I'm boarded and find myself fighting, they can be quite a surprise when an enemy assumes you're unarmed. Since Blackstar won't be needing them anymore I figured I would make use of them. Now if you could be so kind as to hand them over Lieutenant."

Monroe hated the fact that she was right about interrupting his training. "Very well, sir. However they don't work, my staff tried several times," he said as he removed the gauntlets from their locker.

"Maybe they didn't like you for taking them away from their owner," teased M'Real.

Monroe shook his head, "they're tools. They don't happy, they don't get sad. Actually they don't do anything."

M'Real put the gauntlets on her wrists, pointing one at the young ensign, and it emitted a red beam that made him double over and collapse on the floor. Monroe was about to call sickbay when he noticed his ensign was...laughing? M'Real grinned, "the tickle setting was a real hoot at the academy."

"How did you get it to fire?"

"Sub-dermal security implant," M'Real said taping her wrists, "excellent security device. Blackstar's idea actually. Well, I'll see you around Mr. Monroe. Good luck with training the ground pounders"

Once M'Real was down the hall she let out a sigh. Males, can't live with them, can't rip their throats out and eat them for dinner. Males had their uses, some very pleasant uses, but once you got them talking it could be hours before anything meaningful got done. And it seamed so regardless of species. Speaking of which, as she walked into the shuttlebay the crew that was supposed to be finishing the shuttle was listening to Chief Grif telling one of his stories. "...and that's the story of how I saved Christmas," he said finishing his story.

"Wow," said one of the young ensigns there, "I did not even know earth's north pole was in San Fransisco."

"Ya, and I don't think Santa's outfit is a leather biker outfit," said an older ensign.

"Great," said M'Real, "now get back to work."

"Sweet Jesus," said Grif, "someone needs to put a bell on you! um...sir. Seriously, how are you so quiet?"

"It's all in the feet," said M'Real indicating her digitigrade feet, "female Caitians are born hunters, and stealth is key in stalking prey. Now if you excuse me I'm actually going to get some work done." She climbed the nearly frictionless side of the Shadow Fox and began working on the inter-pleaxing sensor array's power regulators.

[Monroe]

Munro tossed the set of keys to the ensign. "Keep a tight lock down. Don't go over 20% fatalaty rating during the battle."

The ensign's face softened, "Munro if I didn't know better I would say you're going to miss us."

"I wouldn't miss you if I ordered you to charge a hundred Jem'Hadar." Munro replied quickly. "Just don't screw up."

The ensign smiled, "Sure thing sir. We'll miss you too." Munro paused a moment then strode out of the security office. Secretly he wondered if the overly happy ensign was correct.


Within five minutes he was onboard the USS Dakota greeted by Commander Rochey and Lt Commander Shivlak. "Welcome abord Lieutiant." Shivlak nodded to the Breen.

"Good to be onboard. Take me to the bridge, sir. I don't need a welcoming ceremony." Munro replied giving a salute to Shivlak.

Sighing the near human alien nodded, "Right this way. An astrometric lab has been refitted for Commadore Ford and your command during the battle." Shivlak said as they walked towards the nearest elevator.

"I would perfer to be in the field, sir." Munro said to Shivlak as he nodded to Rochey.

"I already informed them." The Tholian replied, "They're willing to give you command of your three hundred on the surface."

"While I and the Commadore of course oversee all operations from the astrometric lab." Shivlak piped in.

"Of course." Munro said with a small hint of sarcasm.

When they arrived at the bridge Admiral Davidson stood to greet them. "I'm highly interested in your reputation of unorthadox tactics, Lieutiant." He said to Munro. "And yours too Commander Rochey."

Both aliens nodded in turn, "Thank you sir."

"Commadore Ford informs me that the W-1a isn't needed but I disagree. I think we rely too much on our air superiority in general. So don't disappoint me, Munro." Davidson told the Breen.

"I won't sir."

[Sonic Glitch]

~USS Katana

"Captians Log Stardate 58119.48

We have just under a week until the assault begins on the asteroid. Command is expecting this to be fairly easy, especially in comparison to the fleet actions of the War, but I'm not so sure. I have this strange feeling in my gut that something is going to go wrong. I tell myself its the usuall pre-action jitters...at my age there are more than a few. Katana is one of nine ships in a wing assigned to take out the Brotherhood Defense Platforms, after which we are supposed to disperse to support either the strike force or the fleet attack force. The Katana is as ready as she'll ever be. I would have prefered a refit before departure but--"

The voice of Commander Lewis intruded over the intercom"Red Alert, Captain Ruhalter to the bridge!"

"...what does that sumb*tch have planned now I wonder?" Ruhalter muttered with a slight smile, his commander had said something about random surprise drills...he hadn't realize when Lewis said "surprise" he meant surprise for everybody. It was one of the thing he liked about his new XO, he got things done and he had his own unique way of doing it. "Computer, delete that last statement and end recording."

{Bridge USS Katana}
"Report!" called Captain Ruhalter as he entered the bridge and shared a knowing look with his XO.

"Sir, sensors have picked up tachyon signatures dead ahead." the viewscreen shifted to show a view of decloaking weapons platforms.

"Our shields are up, the crew is at battlestations and the weapons are prepared." reported Commander Lewis

"Keep us out of their weapons range launch the first weapon when ready!"

"Weapon is away"

The screen shifted to show the modified torpedo streaking toward the platforms.

"Not bad," commented Ruhalter, "tell em they got about half."

"Sir! the platforms are reconfiguring their weapons, bringing them to bear on us."

"Evasive manuevers, pattern Delta! Launch quantum torpedoes, continue remodulating the deflector shields."

Thirty minutes and some fancy simulated footwork the drill was over, with only a few simulated casualties, all of them injuries.

"Commander, I must say when you say "surprise" you don't joke around do you?"

"Well sir, I didn't think it would be fair to let everyone on the ship in on the schedule." Commander Lewis replied with a scarcely concealed grin.

"Sir?" chimed in the Ops officer who happened to be listening near by, "remind me never to tell you my birthday."

They ran the drill two more times that day, the second time there were major consequences...