NationStates Jolt Archive

The IDF space empire had grown in recent years. The control over the Bajoran Wormhole had led to much economic growth for the empire. Unfortunately, few there was less and less profit to be made as tolls for the wormhole were removed at the request of the Bajoran people. They were less than pleased that people were charged to travel through what was the Cellestial Temple for the Prophets, who were the Gods of Bajor.

Admiral Ross had to come up with a new way to make up for some of the lost money. He convened a meeting with the heads of the top secret organization Section 31. "Gentlemen, you all know what this meeting is about. We have been searching for a legitamite way to get more money out of the trade routes to the Delta Quadrant, but the Jem Hadar and the Dominion have made taxing people on the Delta Quadrant side nearly impossible."

"We have recently had a foreign firm purchase 20 older configuration Miranda class destroyers. While we ourselves operate this class, we use a different configuration of the class. These older Mirandas are operated by probably half of the powers in the Alpha and Beta quadrants. To further distinguish these Mirandas from our own fleet, their usual starfleet phasers have been removed and replaced with klingon disruptors that our Ferengi friend Quark obtained."

"We have recently found an old Maquis base in the Badlands that has been deserted. Some of our trusted engineers have refitted it to support our little fleet. Our hope is to begin ambushing some of the cargo runs leaving DS9. There has to be no linkage between these operations and IDF. We need to make sure people believe that these operations are the work of an independent pirate network. Afterall, the Orion Syndicate has already shown that such organizations do exist.

I do not need to remind you that the information concealed is all classified. I trust that you will do as Section 31 has done for centuries. We need success and secrecy. No one has yet discovered the fact that Section 31 exists. We must keep it that way. Is this clear?" The Section 31 members nodded to this question. "Dismissed!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The Badlands

The base was now 100% completed. It was built on a solid nickel asteroid that had been hollowed out by the Maquis years ago. The base had a dampening field which would result in false sensor readings and also limited the Electronic output from the equipment in it. It would be difficult to find anyways. The plasma storms of the Badlands did a good job concealing the base.

Admiral Ross had never set foot on it, and he never would. Section 31's leader though was on the base and running the operations. That man was Luther Sloan. He was a human, but he seemed different. He always wore dark clothes and seemed to always believe that no matter what, the ends could always justify the means. He was the shady type of person that IDF's starfleet would never bring into its ranks. That was completely different with the top secret Section 31. He was the perfect fit for that organization.

Before Luther Sloan sat 20 refitted Miranda class vessels. They were of the original configuration. They looked much like the USS Reliant that had fought Kirk at the Mutara Nebula decades ago. These ships were now being painted black though. Their duranium plated hulls would never again have the white painted look that all other IDF ships had. Their disruptor cannons further made them stand out. It was hoped that they could pounce on targets that would have their sheilds for phasers. They would get a rude awakening when disruptors were fired and pierced their shields.

Sloan had to give his ships names. He decided that these destroyers deserved the names of birds of preys. These ships needed names such as Falcon, Hawk, or Harrier. Sloan had not even stopped to realize the irony that the ships he thought of as his birds of prey were ironically armed with the same disruptors that a Klingon ship of the same name would have.

(Usually I tag in silent, but... AH!!! IDF I LOVE YOU!!! I missed you >.>)

A white space plane blasted out of hyper space. Inside the cockpit was a dark haired girl named Ayame, an Angel Piolit. "Everything seems calm and clear right now Command."

"Roger, keep on patroll over."

"Roger that. Woah there's a lot of activity down there. Might as well check it out."

She sharp turned left, heading to seek out the strage readings on her scope. She flew right into the badlands, and right into the military activity. "Wow, what's up here? This certianlly is a lot for a simple badland.

"Command this Angel 36 over."

Static.

"Too much interferance. Well I guess I could photograph. Ah come on Ayame it's probably just military exercises. But I'm bored so I might as well.

And she flew on

A white space plane blasted out of hyper space. Inside the cockpit was a dark haired girl named Ayame, an Angel Piolit. "Everything seems calm and clear right now Command."

"Roger, keep on patroll over."

"Roger that. Woah there's a lot of activity down there. Might as well check it out."

She sharp turned left, heading to seek out the strage readings on her scope. She flew right into the badlands, and right into the military activity. "Wow, what's up here? This certianlly is a lot for a simple badland.

"Command this Angel 36 over."

Static.

"Too much interferance. Well I guess I could photograph. Ah come on Ayame it's probably just military exercises. But I'm bored so I might as well.

And she flew on
The black painted destroyer Raven detected the space plane with the help of the asteroid's long range sensor array. Sloan took command of the ship and ordered her to pursue. "Red alert! Shields up!" he ordered. "Helm, ahead full impulse. Plot an intercept course."

(ooc: I intended to join this thread as my other nation, The Caribbean System, but am having trouble logging onto the forums. For the meantime, I'm going to use this nation.)

IC:

John Bradley sat at the helm of his ship. It had taken many years, but now he finally owned the Fighting Falcon (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Piratecruiser.jpg). The old YJ-class freighter had been modified to serve as his personal pirate ship. Now, he intended to make a name for himself outside of the Caribbean system.
"Find any freighters yet?" he asked.
"None," replied the 1st mate. "That Ferengi must have been wrong."
"Not Quark," said Bradley. "He's got a rep to maintain. Set course for the Badlands. We'll hide there and wait for a while..."

OOC: If I can get my puppert TSL logged on at any point, I'll post with it, until then I am posting with my main nation, as my puppet.

IC:

Solari Freighters always charged a higher prive to haul their cargoes, when compared to other polities. On the balance, their customers were more than willing to pay the increased cost. No one else could make the Solari Guarantee. Pirates had a tendency to steer clear of any but the smallest Solari freighters, and this massive Wayfarer was nowhere near one of the smallest. As it approached the wormhole, the crew prepared to transit over into the Delta Quadrant. It was always a routine, but the captain still insisted on having all hands at their stations. This time it was liable to save their lives...

OOC: I might be interested, whether as the Alliance or as the Empire I dunno. I'm having the same problem MM is havin' with my pupet.

OOC: If I can get my puppert TSL logged on at any point, I'll post with it, until then I am posting with my main nation, as my puppet.

IC:

Solari Freighters always charged a higher prive to haul their cargoes, when compared to other polities. On the balance, their customers were more than willing to pay the increased cost. No one else could make the Solari Guarantee. Pirates had a tendency to steer clear of any but the smallest Solari freighters, and this massive Wayfarer was nowhere near one of the smallest. As it approached the wormhole, the crew prepared to transit over into the Delta Quadrant. It was always a routine, but the captain still insisted on having all hands at their stations. This time it was liable to save their lives...

IC:
The Solari had been sighted by an IDF runabout acting as a scout. A somewhat routine message was sent out stating that they were heading back to DS9 because they only had a day of rations and their replicator had failed. This message was picked up by Sloan and the other pirates at the asteroid base. It meant that a freighter was heading towards DS9 and should be attacked before it arrived.

Three Miranda class vessles, the Sea Gull, Eagle, and Hawk were dispatched to intercept the ship. They left the plasma storms of the Badlands and moved at speed warp 9.2. The sight of Miranda class starships in the area would be noted as routine, but nothing about this mission would be routine. Their mission was to attack and loot the Solari ship.

The Solari had a good record against pirates, but then again, most pirates didn't have a squadron of Miranda class vessels to send in against a freighter. Captain Kirk himself would have a problem stopping this sort of attack.

Captain Sollock, a Vulcan, led the squadron of 3 destroyers. They were currently running on green alert to avoid suspicion. Even at green alert, their shields had been raised. Even this wouldnt't draw suspicion If asked, he would say it was a precaution in case any Dominion ships decided to cross into the Alpha Quadrant.

OOC: I might be interested, whether as the Alliance or as the Empire I dunno. I'm having the same problem MM is havin' with my pupet.
OOC: Post at Huntaer if you wish

(ooc: I intended to join this thread as my other nation, The Caribbean System, but am having trouble logging onto the forums. For the meantime, I'm going to use this nation.)

IC:

John Bradley sat at the helm of his ship. It had taken many years, but now he finally owned the Fighting Falcon (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Piratecruiser.jpg). The old YJ-class freighter had been modified to serve as his personal pirate ship. Now, he intended to make a name for himself outside of the Caribbean system.
"Find any freighters yet?" he asked.
"None," replied the 1st mate. "That Ferengi must have been wrong."
"Not Quark," said Bradley. "He's got a rep to maintain. Set course for the Badlands. We'll hide there and wait for a while..."

OOC: How do you want to RP this? Do you want to RP it as Quark selling you out?

http://www.startreksite.com/crews/quark.jpg
"Come to Quark's, Quark's is fun! Come to Quarks don't walk RUN!"

IC:
The Solari had been sighted by an IDF runabout acting as a scout. A somewhat routine message was sent out stating that they were heading back to DS9 because they only had a day of rations and their replicator had failed. This message was picked up by Sloan and the other pirates at the asteroid base. It meant that a freighter was heading towards DS9 and should be attacked before it arrived.

Three Miranda class vessles, the Sea Gull, Eagle, and Hawk were dispatched to intercept the ship. They left the plasma storms of the Badlands and moved at speed warp 9.2. The sight of Miranda class starships in the area would be noted as routine, but nothing about this mission would be routine. Their mission was to attack and loot the Solari ship.

The Solari had a good record against pirates, but then again, most pirates didn't have a squadron of Miranda class vessels to send in against a freighter. Captain Kirk himself would have a problem stopping this sort of attack.

Captain Sollock, a Vulcan, led the squadron of 3 destroyers. They were currently running on green alert to avoid suspicion. Even at green alert, their shields had been raised. Even this wouldnt't draw suspicion If asked, he would say it was a precaution in case any Dominion ships decided to cross into the Alpha Quadrant.

"Captain, we have a trio of ships approaching at very high speed. Call it warp 9 and ten some. They have not yet identified themselves." The sensor tech didn't seem at all distressed. This was a BIG ship, and outmassed any destroyer with ease. Unidentified warships of any stipe tended to make most merchants nervous. The merchant marine of the Solarin League just ran out their guns.

Captain Kransitsky paused for a moment, looked at his Exec, and chuckled. "Whatever they are, they better have some serious balls to take us on. Prepare all hands for action."

The massive Wayfarer class freighter was armed as heavily as a dreadnought, but was several orders of magnitude larger, and less well armored and shielded. Either way, it was big and mean, and poowerful enough to face down numerous smaller pirates. If the approaching ships failed to identify themselves, they'd see exactly what it meant to tangle with the Solari.

"Comm, see if you can't get their attention. If they don't stop, be ready to wreak some havoc."

"Aye sir. Standard interrogation is en route. Reply should arrive soon."

"Good. Just in case they're hostile, bring up the shields, and prepare firing solutions for the battery. If they want to dance, we'll let them. Oh yeah, get our passengers into armor. Any boarding party is going to be right upset seeing those Marines walking towards them."

"Aye sir. What if they AREN'T hostile?"

"Then they'rew idiots for not identifying themselves. Either way, I'm not taking any risks."

"I think we're lost."

They were beyond lost. This is was a Royal Mining Corporation convoy. But it wasn't any convoy, it was one of the few being escorted by Government ships. It was carrying that oh so special material that makes the Cassiopeian Navy go round, Uranium. Lots of it. Nuclear missiles were the mainstay of the Navy, they could outrange an ISD and well, they looked cool. It was a particulary large convoy. Seven transports that look like they're from Star Wars but are not, promise (http://starwars.wikia.com/images/e/eb/GR-75_Medium_Transport.jpg) consisted of the main convoy. There were also ten CF-7s that just happened to look like the Wolven from Starfox (http://www.geocities.com/djmikeymikes/art/wolfen.jpg) and a corvette that just happened to look like the Endar Spire (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/B001.jpg).

Of course, why were they lost? While on a trade route to the Minbari Homeworld, the great leader of this operation (who was captain of the corvette) decided to take a shortcut... via a wormhole. Of course. Now, Cassiopeians being ignorant as they are about the universe outside their mere system of seven planets, thought you know... you can go back via a wormhole, yah you could. But then they ended up in another part of the universe. This part, the Badlands. As such now the Captain had to deal with this. They didn't know where they were, in fact, they were pretty much cut off from the Commonwealth. They were alone, like Voyager but you know, more crappier (and Voyager was quite crappy let me tell you) and things of that nature.

Captain Joseph Stalin (no relation to the Dictator of the USSR) was lost on what to do. "Okay, so let me get this straight." He said. "We're in a Galaxy totally away from the Commonwealth. We cannot send any communications except to ourselves and we might be in an area full of pirates since the sensors said so?"

An Ensign nodded. "Yes Sir. Except, that we can send messages out... in the form of songs stored in the computer's memory bank."

The Captain sighed. "That sounds like a really bad sitcom."

Another Ensign chimed in. "Well look who's the author."

Joseph nodded. "True. Okay, so what song is in the computer's databanks can we use that is more descriptive our situation?"

The Ensign coughed. "Have you ever heard of Pink Floyd...? Umm, Comfortably Numb sir."

"Bah!" Joseph said in exhasperation. "Fine, play it. Curse you author and your Pink Floyd fetish! May ye be condemned to death via lemmings and other forms on nasties!"

I snorted. "Shut up or I'll have you die of snoo snoo."

The Captain shut up. The fighters and freighters were unaware of the situation on the corvette, but I've yet decided whether they forgot to do it or because I dunno, point is. They were lost. Now whether pirates, a foreign power, of the resident owner of this part of the Galaxy greets them. It doesn't matter. They'd have an annoying guitar solo going through their communications system.

Hello hello hello, is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at all...

The Captain cringed. "This music sucks."

(IDF, it's up to you who greets these people. And only IDF can greet them since, IDF is my homey since the NATO days yo! So errr, hope you like my post.)

on DS9 Samurai-Commander Yukiko Mishima was trying to ignore the ferengi bar keeper. She still had her wakizashi sword if she needed it to get him out of her personal space.

Still he was persistant and she drank her green tea unable to get away just yet.

Her ship, the 'Shen Lung' was one of the new class of Tenpeku class cruisers in the Kirisuban exploration fleet and had stopped off for shore leave before returning to its new base of Unity. with 25 others of her all female crew around she wasn't the only target for the stations romeos.

her leave would finish at dawn station time and then the other half of the crew would get their turn.

Still she had got interesting rumours out of Quark. A new group of space pirates operating in the badlands should make the return trip interesting and if they ran into them the pirates wouldn't know what hit them..

ooc:

the ships are silver and look like this except for the big bird:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/nihongaz/capsize.jpg

they also have cloaking devices,heavily armed and shielded and are extremely agile craft. the crew is 50 people, all female humans

She was flying dead on, but suddenly a shield alarm went off. "Oh shoot!"

She pulled a hard left, and out of a stall.

"That was too close. What are these people hiding I wonder?"

"Captain, we have a trio of ships approaching at very high speed. Call it warp 9 and ten some. They have not yet identified themselves." The sensor tech didn't seem at all distressed. This was a BIG ship, and outmassed any destroyer with ease. Unidentified warships of any stipe tended to make most merchants nervous. The merchant marine of the Solarin League just ran out their guns.

Captain Kransitsky paused for a moment, looked at his Exec, and chuckled. "Whatever they are, they better have some serious balls to take us on. Prepare all hands for action."

The massive Wayfarer class freighter was armed as heavily as a dreadnought, but was several orders of magnitude larger, and less well armored and shielded. Either way, it was big and mean, and poowerful enough to face down numerous smaller pirates. If the approaching ships failed to identify themselves, they'd see exactly what it meant to tangle with the Solari.

"Comm, see if you can't get their attention. If they don't stop, be ready to wreak some havoc."

"Aye sir. Standard interrogation is en route. Reply should arrive soon."

"Good. Just in case they're hostile, bring up the shields, and prepare firing solutions for the battery. If they want to dance, we'll let them. Oh yeah, get our passengers into armor. Any boarding party is going to be right upset seeing those Marines walking towards them."

"Aye sir. What if they AREN'T hostile?"

"Then they'rew idiots for not identifying themselves. Either way, I'm not taking any risks."
Sollock ordered his science officer aboard the Hawk to do a sensor scan. The results showed that the ships were too heavily armed for his destroyers to take on.

"Damn," remarked the Vulcan. "It wouldn't be logical to lose our lives fighting this ship. We will have to wait until either we find more vulnerable ships or we get something like a Sovereign class ship. Helm, let's change course and continue ahead warp factor 9.2."

She was flying dead on, but suddenly a shield alarm went off. "Oh shoot!"

She pulled a hard left, and out of a stall.

"That was too close. What are these people hiding I wonder?"
The Raven was now tracking the space plane. "Science officer! Activate scanners," barked Sloan.

"Sir, the ship is quite armed, but she is no match for our destroyer," responded the LT who held the post of science officer.

"Helm," began Sloan. "Continue on intercept course. Tactical, power up disruptor banks and load torpedo bays."

The 223 meter long ship was now prepared for battle. She was at red alert with all shields and weapon systems online. It would hopefully just be a matter of minutes until the Raven got her first kill.

"I think we're lost."

They were beyond lost. This is was a Royal Mining Corporation convoy. But it wasn't any convoy, it was one of the few being escorted by Government ships. It was carrying that oh so special material that makes the Cassiopeian Navy go round, Uranium. Lots of it. Nuclear missiles were the mainstay of the Navy, they could outrange an ISD and well, they looked cool. It was a particulary large convoy. Seven transports that look like they're from Star Wars but are not, promise (http://starwars.wikia.com/images/e/eb/GR-75_Medium_Transport.jpg) consisted of the main convoy. There were also ten CF-7s that just happened to look like the Wolven from Starfox (http://www.geocities.com/djmikeymikes/art/wolfen.jpg) and a corvette that just happened to look like the Endar Spire (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/B001.jpg).

Of course, why were they lost? While on a trade route to the Minbari Homeworld, the great leader of this operation (who was captain of the corvette) decided to take a shortcut... via a wormhole. Of course. Now, Cassiopeians being ignorant as they are about the universe outside their mere system of seven planets, thought you know... you can go back via a wormhole, yah you could. But then they ended up in another part of the universe. This part, the Badlands. As such now the Captain had to deal with this. They didn't know where they were, in fact, they were pretty much cut off from the Commonwealth. They were alone, like Voyager but you know, more crappier (and Voyager was quite crappy let me tell you) and things of that nature.

Captain Joseph Stalin (no relation to the Dictator of the USSR) was lost on what to do. "Okay, so let me get this straight." He said. "We're in a Galaxy totally away from the Commonwealth. We cannot send any communications except to ourselves and we might be in an area full of pirates since the sensors said so?"

An Ensign nodded. "Yes Sir. Except, that we can send messages out... in the form of songs stored in the computer's memory bank."

The Captain sighed. "That sounds like a really bad sitcom."

Another Ensign chimed in. "Well look who's the author."

Joseph nodded. "True. Okay, so what song is in the computer's databanks can we use that is more descriptive our situation?"

The Ensign coughed. "Have you ever heard of Pink Floyd...? Umm, Comfortably Numb sir."

"Bah!" Joseph said in exhasperation. "Fine, play it. Curse you author and your Pink Floyd fetish! May ye be condemned to death via lemmings and other forms on nasties!"

I snorted. "Shut up or I'll have you die of snoo snoo."

The Captain shut up. The fighters and freighters were unaware of the situation on the corvette, but I've yet decided whether they forgot to do it or because I dunno, point is. They were lost. Now whether pirates, a foreign power, of the resident owner of this part of the Galaxy greets them. It doesn't matter. They'd have an annoying guitar solo going through their communications system.

Hello hello hello, is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at all...

The Captain cringed. "This music sucks."

(IDF, it's up to you who greets these people. And only IDF can greet them since, IDF is my homey since the NATO days yo! So errr, hope you like my post.)

OOC: And what was your nation back in the good ole days of NATO's supremacy?

IC: DS9's sensor readings had been forwarded to the target's base via a Danube class runabout. "Interesting," observed Captain Pike. "They look to be well escorted yet still vulnerable."

Captain Sollock was on the other side of the secure comms link. "They are escorted, yet they are still vulnerable."

"10 heavy fighters and a corvette," said Pike as he thought aloud. "We can take them."

"That's good Captain," began Sollock. "Becaue I know that a stolen load of uranium would be worth a lot to us."

"Captain Sollock," began Pike. "take your squadron of 3 ships to the coordinates I'm sending to your screen. I will be there with 2 more squadrons. 9 destroyers will easily take out those fighters and that corvette."

"I'm looking forward to meeting up with your fleet Captain," remarked the Vulcan. "We'll come up with our attack plan when we meet."

Aboard Deep Space Nine

Captain Benjamin Sisko sat silently at his desk. The glass windows on his office door allowed the crew manning Ops to look into his office. "He looks like he's sleeping," remarked Chief Miles O'Brien with his distinctive Irish accent.

"No, I know better," responded LT CDR Jadzia Dax. "Curzon used to think the same thing, but he's just thinking over some problem. I've learned over the years it's best to leave him alone. I just the Captain to come up with something."

Dax was right. Sisko was wondering what was going on. Admiral William Ross was someone who Sisko had become friendly with over the years. Sisko wondered why Ross was avoiding him lately. Was it something he had said or done? "No, it couldn't be," Sisko thought to himself. If that case the case, then what was Ross thinking? Something was wrong. Dominion activity in the Alpha Quadrant was quite rare over the past few months. As far as Sisko could tell, there were no special ops against the Dominion right now. If that was the case, then why all the secrecy?

Sisko decided to summon Dax to his office. "Yes Captain," began the joined Trill who's symbiont was now well over 300 years old

"Is there anything odd you have noticed about Admiral Ross?" asked Sisko.

"He seems to be avoiding the other starfleet personnel on the base," responded Dax.

"Is there anything else you have noticed Old Man?" asked Sisko using a name for Jadzia that he had used with Curzon, his mentor and the 7th host of the Dax symbiont.

"Oh, there is one thing," responded Dax. "Quark mentioned something about the Admiral and Klingon disruptors during a game of Tongo. He was asking me why starfleet wanted 40 disruptors."

"Thank you Old Man," said Sisko. "Can you have Quark and Odo come up to my office now?"

(It's me, TIOR. The Island of Rose, Iberia from Nations Online etc etc. Gosh darn it IDF! Oh and post the attack when you want to. Don't be too hard I wanna establish some diplomatic relations >_>)

"Oh crap I'm being painted!" She flicked a few switches to jam their systems. "I'll just have to out run them. Angel Star Full Spead!"

She accelerated, but the large ship just kept on the chase.

"Command this is Angel Star 6, I have been engaged!"

(It's me, TIOR. The Island of Rose, Iberia from Nations Online etc etc. Gosh darn it IDF! Oh and post the attack when you want to. Don't be too hard I wanna establish some diplomatic relations >_>)
OOC: Don't worry, when this RP is over, everything will be fine diplomatically.

IC
Edge of the Badlands

"Sollock," began Pike as he went over the plans while sitting in the wardroom of the Harrier. "I want your squadron to go after the freighters. My bet says that they run while their escorts try and hold us off. It is imperitive that your 3 ships stay out of the fight until they flee."

"That sounds good Captain," responded the green blooded vulcan.

"My 2 squadrons will take out the escorts for you," said Pike. "Of course, they might all go to warp. If that is the case, our destroyers are faster than the freighters so we will fight them while we chase them."

"I will be standing by on comms in case the tactical situation changes so we can coordinate. I must be heading back to my ship Captain."

--------------------------

A few hours later

The Royal Mining Corp's convoy was now at its closest point to the furthest reaches of the Badlands. There was no way they would enter it though. The disrupted sensor readings were helpful though. The plasma storms masked Sollock's 3 ships as he waited. At warp factor 9.2, they could reach the convoy in 1 minute's time.

Captain Pike's ships were now just exiting the badlands and making the false report to all ships in the area that a Maquis Rebel base was destroyed in their operation. Due to recent Maquis raids, Miranda class warships were not an uncommon sight in the area. This also explained why sensor readings would show them at red alert.

"Helm, slow to warp factor 6 and continue intercept course!" barked Pike from his center console chair. "Science officer! time til weapons range."

"Sir, we will be in weapons range in 30 seconds at current velocity," responded the Bolian science officer.

"Tactical, lock disruptors on the corvette," ordered Pike. "Prepare to fire on my mark."

30 seconds had passed and the corvette was now within weapon's range. "FIRE!" ordered the Captain. At an instant, the Harrier and 2 other of the Miranda class vessels fired both of their disruptor cannons at the lead ship hopefully catching them off guard. Even if shields were raised, the hope was that they were set for starfleet phasers and not for the klingon disruptors few would expect on this class of vessels.

"Tactical, order the rest of the 1st squadron to continue firing at the corvette," ordered the Captain. As the order was finished, 2 photon torpedoes shot out of the roll bar like structure that featured the torpedo bays. The disruptors were weapons that took little time to recharge so the ships were firing them quite often,

Squadron 2 under the command of Captain Batesman had orders to target the 10 fighters. The fighters were maneuverable craft, but with the help of computers, the disruptors could be precisely targetted on them. If that failed, there was always the photon torpedo which would home in on them.

Squadron 3 sat in the Badlands ready to chase after the 7 freighters should they run.




http://www.battleclinic.com/docks/files/images/52789d02c0c5d87695694b5e5d14c76f.jpg
The Harrier

"Oh crap I'm being painted!" She flicked a few switches to jam their systems. "I'll just have to out run them. Angel Star Full Spead!"

She accelerated, but the large ship just kept on the chase.

"Command this is Angel Star 6, I have been engaged!"
The sleek Raven was now in full pursuit. Her powerful warpcore allowed the massive ship to maintain her speed of warp 9.2 for over 12 hours. "Tactical, how long until weapons range?" asked Sloan.

"Sir, we can fire in 5 minutes," responded the Tactical officer.

"Helm, contune on present speed and course. I want to overtake this ship and fire on her."

By the time 5 minutes had elapsed, the Raven had her disruptors powered up and locked. "FIRE!" ordered Sloan. With that order, 2 green disruptor blasts were launched at the enemy fighter.

"Ah I'm hit! I'm going down!" Her plane spirald down to the unforgiving soil bellow.

She woke from the mometary relaps. "I'm alive!" She reached down for her blaster and shot open the cockpit.

"Not again. Commander Roberts is going to kill me. Just let the homing beacon do it's job."

She reached back into the cocpit to pull out a provisonal kit. "Strange world. Very alien. Maybe I should find a near by instalation or something incase they start looking for me. Or maybe I should just stay and wait for the Angels to show up. Even Delta would be good right now."

She looked at her wrist watch which gave CO2 and O2 read outs. Postive Oxygen readings made her feel better.

(OOC: IDF, lets say that Bradley happened to talk to quark while posing as a feighter captain. we don't need to take it any further then that.

Hok-Tu, if you were talking about me, feel free to have your ship bump into mine.)

IC:

"Captain, we've got a battle here!" yelled a sailer.
"Perfect," said Bradley. "Let's keep our distance for now, see what happens. We can pick over any crippled ships after they're done playing."

The warp was undoubtably a fairly efficient method of travel. It was reasonably fast, not to hard to activate, and the only constraint on time spent there was increasingly likelyhood of being devoured, body, mind, and soul, by a physically impossible demon whos mere sight was enough to make your brain liquidate and dribble slowly out of your sensory organs.

This was why whenever a rapidity, rift, or in this case wormhole was available, you took it, blast all consequneces.

That was why five hulking modular "liberty ships", escorted by a pair of Schnapsemarine destroyers, were emerging from the Bajoran wormhole, they knew not where.


A Kommodore strolled lazily across the bridge of his flagship, marveling at the expanse of bright pinpricks before him. But were the smaller ones stars, planets, or perhaps even engines?

"Ms.Hitzig, send a standard hail in every available language, we should be able to get through. Major wormhole like this, there's bound to be a trading outpost somewhere nearby. If not, we just hit more cash than what you could get from selling this entire convoy, crew included, to the galaxy's most financially inept trillionair. Either way, this is probably the end of the road. Oh, and Coxswain? Have a shuttle primed for flight, if you please."

"Yessir."

"Yessir."

Over a large radius, every ship and station would here the following message, played in various lingua-francas and a variety of more obscure languages, including Boozian German.

"Attention, all local ships and stations, this is a merchant convoy from the Schnapsereich. We are here in peace, and are willing to negotiate any diplomatic or economic deals we can, but any attack will be responded to with force. Excessive force."

The corvette shook, hard.

"Ah!" The Captain shouted as he fell off his chair. Most of the crew fell down too. Joseph was angry, very angry. "Agh!!! Ensign! Can we fight them?"

A random Ensign, just standing up and getting on his console gave the Captain the bad news. "Sir, the ship might be destroyed. But the convoy might survive. Sensors indicate that the fighters outnumber the enemy. By the blessing of God we may survive."

The Captain sighed. "Transfer life support to shields! Communications to engines and the gravity simulator thing to weapons!"

"What?!" Another Ensign said.

Joseph nodded. "Yes! Put on your breathing masks and put on your seatbelts because well, we gotta protect this convoy at all costs."

"With no communications?" The Ensign said agasp.

Joseph nodded. "You don't need to communicate the fact to defend yourself when you're being under attack Ensign, now then. Get under one of those ships and start firing!"

The corvette speedily approached one of the ships, taking fire and its shields constantly being battered. But as it did this it fired its laser cannons gallantly at the destroyer, and faster too. Plus they were more powerful due to the transfer of energy etc etc. Of course by now the conditions on the ship was bad. Anything not strapped in was floating around, it was cold as hell and taking off yer breathing mask meant death, and well, that sucked majorly. The question is, how can my crew survive without all these systems?

I don't know to be honest, but they should blow up in the next post.

The squad of fighters, led by a Commander William Riker (no relation to the Star Trek officer) was, well confused. "Squadren we're under attack." He said immediately. He then opened a hail to the three large ships. "This is Commander Riker of RMC Convy 42 of the Cassiopeian Star Navy, stop your firing!"

"Sir." Another pilot said. "Three fighters incoming fast, they seem hostile. What are we gonna do?!"

Riker tapped his foot. Even inside his small cockpit. "Me and F-2 and 3 will deal with the fighters. The rest of you distract those bigger ships. We're not giving up this Uranium without a fight. Now usually Cassiopeian Doctrine demands a peaceful resolution, but um, I'm willing to make exceptions."

Seven of the fighters veered off towards the ships. Usually capital ships dealt with capital ships but they didn't have that luxury. Gosh darn it I am not a Star Wars nation I don't usually do this, honest! I just use the pictures. Anyway. Two fighters (well three since there was an extra one) headed towards each of the ships, firing their laser cannons and torpedoes. And as soon as they got too close, they ran. And they did this. Now when they stop is up to IDF's tactical knowledge.

Meanwhile Riker quipped. "Hell at least it isn't any of those daggers, what are they called again?"

F-2 responded. "Star Destroyers I think... we rarely see them now though."

F-3 interjected. "Sir we are within firing range, do we try to see who they are or do we fire?"

F-2 found something interesting. "Sir these fighters might have a weak spot. Their engines are sticking out like a sore thumb. If we target them they won't be able to move and we could find out what's going on."

Riker raised his brow. "Oh? Very well, firing two torpedoes at each of those engines. If this works then we can help out the squadren."

The three fighters fired their two torpedoes at their individual targets. One came out and then a second later another. After that they fired their cannons at the shuttles. Head on mind you. Granted that's stupid but it looks cool. But if things went right the three enemy fighters would be disabled. If anything there could be like a cool pew pew pew fight!

Meanwhile the most confused in the area were the freighters. They weren't even told what happened, they could just see.

On each convoy by the Royal Mining Corporation was a Director. His or her job was simple, tell people what to do.

This particular Director sighed. "Okay... so let me get this straight Ensign. We are currently being attacked but they have no idea what it is? Recommendations?"

The Ensign nodded. "Yep. But since we're in the middle of nowhere, we might as well stay. Who knows they might be merficul."

Another Ensign took out what looked like a pistol. "If anything if they board us we'll shoot ourselves out."

The Director conceeded. The temptation to run was there but then they'd probably subject to an even worse attack. "All right. We'll stay." He opened communications. "This is the Director. Stay where you are, all of you. Shut down engines and wait it out."

"Screw this!" A freighter captain said. It was the one that was leading the convoy. "I'm getting out of here!" Suddenly he warped away to the great unknown, to be screwed over by pirates. Good on him.

The rest of the convoy didn't follow, because well, they needed the job and didn't want to get fired... or die any faster.

The Director then tried to contact the large destroyers of doom. "You are attacking an RMC Convoy, ceasefire and explain yourself."

Probably wouldn't work but meh.

(IDF my corvette should blow up in the next post don't worry. I'm not one for wanking unless it's like required (i.e. character RPs or small skirmishes that lead to a character RP) anyway, where were ya hiding? :P)

"Ah I'm hit! I'm going down!" Her plane spirald down to the unforgiving soil bellow.

She woke from the mometary relaps. "I'm alive!" She reached down for her blaster and shot open the cockpit.

"Not again. Commander Roberts is going to kill me. Just let the homing beacon do it's job."

She reached back into the cocpit to pull out a provisonal kit. "Strange world. Very alien. Maybe I should find a near by instalation or something incase they start looking for me. Or maybe I should just stay and wait for the Angels to show up. Even Delta would be good right now."

She looked at her wrist watch which gave CO2 and O2 read outs. Postive Oxygen readings made her feel better.
Sloan was delighted as he saw the fighter spiral down to a planet within the Badlands. He didn't bother see if anyone had survived the crash. He told his crew to stand down from red alert and set a course for where the 3 squadrons were engaging a convoy. He ordered his ship to maximum warp.

Angel Command

Angel is a unique group, composed entirely of young female star piolts. The Minium age to join is 13 years old now. As the universe becomes more unstable, more and more piolts are needed to do the things Angel hopes to do.

Everyone had sat down to a Christmas party feast. "Threw a hell of a party ma'am."

"Yes we like Christmas." The Young tall and pretty General Snow responded. She certianlly had her looks and work cut out for her. She was the best of the best.

"Ma'am we have reports of an Angel Star gone missing."

They enterd the command chamber.

"We've lost a piolt?"

"Yes ma'am. The homing beacon has been activated. Now we have the flight path of the fighter."

"AX-Angel Star 36 that's Ms. Tanazaki. Was she shot?"

"It's belived so."

"Then she's likely stranded on hostle territory. We need to retrive her immedatly, tell the girls to gear up."

Just like that everyone dropped what they we're doing to go rescue their downd piolit. It was likely they would be meet with confontation so they took the super transports.

"Science!" yelled SLoane. "Can you report on the corvette?"

"Sir," responded the LT. "They have heavy damage. I'm reading that they have hull bucklings on multiple decks."

"Tactical, I want you to fire at those weak spots on the hull," ordered SLoane. "Conn, line up rear torpedo tubes!" With that order, the destroyer swung around and and maneuvered for a shot. "Aft torpedoes! FIRE!!!" The 2 orange photon torpedoes shot out of the rear tubes of the ship and closed in on the damaged ship.

--------------------------------

Squadron 2 was having difficulties with the fighters. Captain Batesman was surprised by the fighters. "I don't get it," he called to his XO. "I've never seen fighters so strong."

"Sir!" called the tactical officer. "We have incoming torpedoes."

"Brace for impact!" shouted the XO. At that moment, 2 torpedoes struck the port nacelle.

"REPORT!" yelled Batesman.

"Sir, shields are down to 40%!" reported the XO. "The port nacelle is heavily damaged and venting plasma into space."

"Chief, reroute auxiliary power to the port shields," ordered Batesman. At that moment, 2 more torpedoes struck the port side of the ship."

"Sir, port shield has collasped!" reported the Chief Engineer. "Auxiliary power is offline."

"Conn! hard to port!" ordered Batesman with the hopes of allowing future fire to strike the bow where the shields were still holding. It was a futile attempt as just then another fighter approached to fire on the vulnerable port side. Another fighter fired its laser at the port nacelle. The nacelle's hull plates exploded along the side of it. A torpedoe was then fired severing the remains of the nacelle.

"Sir! We've lost the port nacelle!" called the chief engineer from his post in Engineering.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:USSReliantDisabled.jpg
Batesman's ship after losing nacelle

Batesman's ship was now being pummeled by multiple fighters. He was still fighting. His disuptors were still operational and the Tactical officer kept firing. Batesman knew it would take a miracle for his ship to survive.

The bad news finally came. "Sir, that last hit may have done it" called the Chief Engineer. "We have lost our warp core containment field." That meant that the field that kept the matter-antimatter reaction under control had been lost. The captain knew what his Chief Engineer's next words would be. "I estimate 3 minutes until warp core breach."

Batesman and his crew's fate had been sealed. Escape pods would be useless in this case. There was no way they could get the ship far enough away from the tremendous blast that would occur within minutes. "Let's keep fighting!" he yelled out at his crew. "Continue firing disruptors and torpedoes! We aren't finished yet!"

--------------------------------
Sollock's ships were now ordered to engage. They came out at maximum warp to intercept the 7 freighters with orders to fire on their shields and engines. Their goal was to cripple the freighters and then take the cargo.

Angel Command

Angel is a unique group, composed entirely of young female star piolts. The Minium age to join is 13 years old now. As the universe becomes more unstable, more and more piolts are needed to do the things Angel hopes to do.

Everyone had sat down to a Christmas party feast. "Threw a hell of a party ma'am."

"Yes we like Christmas." The Young tall and pretty General Snow responded. She certianlly had her looks and work cut out for her. She was the best of the best.

"Ma'am we have reports of an Angel Star gone missing."

They enterd the command chamber.

"We've lost a piolt?"

"Yes ma'am. The homing beacon has been activated. Now we have the flight path of the fighter."

"AX-Angel Star 36 that's Ms. Tanazaki. Was she shot?"

"It's belived so."

"Then she's likely stranded on hostle territory. We need to retrive her immedatly, tell the girls to gear up."

Just like that everyone dropped what they we're doing to go rescue their downd piolit. It was likely they would be meet with confontation so they took the super transports.

OOC: Can you please have your distress call go out to DS9? I need to have a way for Sisko to discover what has happened.

Sollock ordered his science officer aboard the Hawk to do a sensor scan. The results showed that the ships were too heavily armed for his destroyers to take on.

"Damn," remarked the Vulcan. "It wouldn't be logical to lose our lives fighting this ship. We will have to wait until either we find more vulnerable ships or we get something like a Sovereign class ship. Helm, let's change course and continue ahead warp factor 9.2."

"Sir, they have not responded, and are changing course."

The captain thought for a moment, considering the merits of simply leaving, or pursuing and collecting the bounty that was put out on any pirate vessel. Of course, they'd need some sort of evidence that the pirates had intended to pirate them. Pursuit was in order. "Follow them. See if you can't make some sort of contact with them. If not, just keep on them. They're rather...suspicious."

(sure nither my self or Kurona have gripes with that)

Seeing Quark beng talked to by a Bajoran security officer and him leaving her was a relief in itself.

Yukiko now had the chance to call her ship and spoke in Kirisuban into her comm badge.

Captain Arisu Tanaka listened with interest to the report from her first officer and said "I'll meet you in the bar in a few minutes times and we can talk more about these pirates"

with her Captain on the way and knowing Arisu the first thing she would do was try and contact the 'bridge' of the station. she was so predictable..

Ayami sat and waited patiently. The beacon was working fortunatley for her.

"I wonder if anyone else can pick this up?"

She pulled her blaster out just in case. She scanned the horizon, but it looked like a desolate waste land.

The ships had left Earth, bound for the mysterious planet.

"Ma'am we are preparing to enter hyperspace, we have the cooridinates marked out."

"Very well, let's go."

"All ships Prepare to enter Hyperspace."

The ships all blasted off into hyperspace. Some time later they came out right into the system. "That is where our signal is coming from. Okay watch for hostels."

"Showing positve readings of life, and technology."

"Prepare to enter the atmosphere, shields up just in case."

"Oh schnapps."

Those were the last words of the Captain as the corvette gloriously explored underneath one of the ships, I assume. Its debris flying all over and striking some of the corvettes even, though their shields held.

Riker's eyes widened. "Agh! We lost the corvette. Even if we do win won't have alot of supplies to escape."

F-2 interjected. "Sir, the ship is breaking apart but I'm picking up high energy readings. That baby is gonna blow!" He paused. "This might be dangerous."

F-3 was going in for another run when all of a sudden a heavy salvo hit him. "I'm hit!" He shouted. His fighter lost all four of his wings, his shields were down and his engines were barely functioning. "I'm okay but, I don't think I can make it." He transferred his life support to his engines. "Tell my wife I love her!" All of a sudden his ship's speed increased quite extremely, by now he was already dead due to a lack of oxygen. It headed right towards one of the ships close to Bateman's ship, now whether it'd crash is another story.

William watched this unfold. "That nigga's crazy..." He mumbled. "F-2, I'll handle this group. You go take care of that first group."

F-2 veered out of the group. Now it was only Riker in his cockpit, alone. "This is Commander Riker to the convoy, activate your retrograde rockets."

The Director picked him up. "Wha? What happened? Why are there ships blowing up each other? I demand answers Commander!"

Riker coughed. "No time! Just go backwards!"

The freighters, all in a neat line, started moving backwards. It would've been a strange sight to anybody not familiar to retrograde rockets, but still, Riker found it surrealistic.

Riker smiled. "Good... they'll be safe." He headed straight to the second squadren led by Batesman. "I have no idea who you people are but this Uranium is staying with us." He fired the rest of his load (four torpedoes) at the third ship. All aimed at the engine, with one second intervals between them. After that he became more of a hornet, distracting the big bad ships while the rest of his mates tried to destroy the first squad that arrived.

The Director tried to end the battle. "I repeat this is Convoy 42." He said to the enemy. "Ceasefire!"

Then he saw it, more ships. Out to get them.

Admiral Ackbar suddenly ran up to the Captain and held the Director by his throat and looked deeped into his soul. "It's a trap!"

But Riker saw this too. He sighed. "F-4 and F-5 get off your attack! Intercept the new ships! Now!"

The two ships that were called veered off the attack and headed towards the new group arriving out of warp. The question was, would they be able to get there?

(IDF six of the seven freighters stayed, only one left. But I'll assume it joined the current battle. Also I sent seven of my ships to squadren one so they should be suffering heavy damage. Oh and tell when I'm doing anything wrong.)

Captain Arisu Tanaka left the airlock where the kirisuban ship was docked and confidently strode down the promenade turning quite a few heads on the way to the bar.

Like her XO she was wearing the red wrap round jacket, a knee length skirt and tall boots which certainly looked like they were made for walking.

the two women talked and Arisu ordered a synth-ale from one of the other ferengi staff.

Kirisubo had previous contact with the IDF when they helped out the 'ISS Trump' which was in distress and they were in a position to help if assistance was required.

"Sir, they have not responded, and are changing course."

The captain thought for a moment, considering the merits of simply leaving, or pursuing and collecting the bounty that was put out on any pirate vessel. Of course, they'd need some sort of evidence that the pirates had intended to pirate them. Pursuit was in order. "Follow them. See if you can't make some sort of contact with them. If not, just keep on them. They're rather...suspicious."
OOC: I doubt your ship will be able to catch them. Destroyers are by definition usually the fastest warships out there.

OOC: I doubt your ship will be able to catch them. Destroyers are by definition usually the fastest warships out there.

OOC: Who said anything about catching them? I just have to keep an eye on where they're going. Then, using my FTL, I jump ahead of them(assuming they maintain their heading) and intercept. The only reason they're using the Wormhole is because it takes less energy than generating their own.

OOC: TIOR, all is well at this point. I'm new to FT too. I'm finding it allows me to be more creative than MT did

IC: Batesman's ship was now 90 seconds from a warp core breach. "Full impulse!" he called to the conn. "Try and get as close to those fighters as we can."

"Sir!" yelled the Tactical officer "We have a fighter on a suicide run." There was nothing that could be done. The fighter came in and struck the already crippled ship.

The impact was on the port underside of the saucer section. The ship's collision created a fireball which exited through the dorsal side of the port-bow saucer section. The Miranda class vessel's course was changed by the momentum of the explosion. The damaged systems included inertial dampening fields leading to the ship's crew literally being crushed against the bulkheads. No survivers would result. This collision also had the effect of speeding up the warp core breach. 15 seconds after impact, the 223 meter long ship exploded with great force. There were no sizable portions left of the ship. THere was nothing but dust.

----------------------------------------------

Pike's 1st squadron was now engaging the fighters since the corvette was gone. 4 torpedoes were fired at his ships. He ordered the helm to take evasive maneuvers, but that did him little good. "Ventral shield is down to 20%!" called the Tactical Officer. as ODN cables and consoles all over the bridge exploded in a shower of sparks.

"Conn, expose our dorsal side!" ordered Pike. "Tactical, continue firing disruptors! Engeineering! Get me auxiliary power to the forward and dorsal shields!" The ship continued taking fire as well as firing. at the enemy ships. ODN cables continued to explode across the bridge as enemy lasers hit the ship's shields."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Sollock's 3 ships saw that all was going perfectly. The 2 other squadrons had flushed the freighters out and now Sollock's ships were within weapons range and pummeling the freighters engines and shields with disruptor fire and photon torpedoes.

OOC: Who said anything about catching them? I just have to keep an eye on where they're going. Then, using my FTL, I jump ahead of them(assuming they maintain their heading) and intercept. The only reason they're using the Wormhole is because it takes less energy than generating their own.
OOC: Sollock's ships are now engaged in the battle. They have already entered the Badlands where sensor readings are hard to come by. When I get Sisko and the Defiant involved, you can join in the search for the base.

Deep Space Nine

Captain Benjamin Sisko was sitting in Ops when the comms alert came. "Put it through," he ordered to Major Kira Nerys."

They heard what was a distress call from the convoy currently being attacked by a secret element of Starfleet. Sisko of course didn't know this at the time. "Major, tell Admiral Ross I'm going out there to rescue them."

Major Kira got Admiral Ross on the comm link. "Admiral, this is Captain Sisko. We have picked up a distress call from the edge of the badlands. I want to take the Defiant out there."

"I'm sorry Benjamin, but that is stricly forbidden," responded the Admiral.

"May I ask why!" replied an angry Sisko.

"I'm sorry Benjamin, but you aren't cleared for this," responded Admiral William ross.

"God Damnit Admiral!" began Sisko. "There are hundreds of innocent lives at stake here."

"I'm sorry, but you have your orders Benjamin. I expect you to follow them." With that, Ross terminated the comm link.

Sisko thought for a minute before speaking. "Major! the station is yours. Have Bashir, O'Brien, Worf, Nog, and Dax meet me at the Defiant."

The crew of the Defiant was assembled within minutes and the small ship departed DS9 and proceded to the coordinates at maximum warp.

http://www.northrim.net/kmaniak/graphics/defiant.jpg

"That seals it. Unless there is something we don't know about those freighters, then these certainly ARE pirates. We're outnumbered, but they ARE just destroyers..."

"Sir, I advise at least putting out a call. We might have SOME backup in the region."

"There's nothing on the charts Cord. Oh well, you're right. Call for backup anyway. Signal General Quarters, and prepare to fire. Start with the far left and work your way right."

"Aye sir. This region is hashing everything we're getting. Effective range is greatly reduced."

"Understood. Continue to close until you have a solid lock." Kransitsky knew there was little hope of even his massive ship tipping the balance overmuch, but perhaps he could tag a pair of ships... "SIR! I've lost them!"

"What do you mean you've lost them? They're right there!"

"I mean that our sensors have suddenly ceased functioning. I no longer detect any of the opposing vessels, or the freighters they were engaging."

"Very well. We'll withdraw. Maintain general quarters until we reach DS9. If he has enough buddies at his back, our friend may decide we look like a nice prize, even if we are huge."

Relctantly, the gargantuan Wayfarer and her crew broke off the chase, no more than a few hundred thousand kilometers from their targets...

The freighter's engines were being beaten profusely. By now they were barely functioning and the shields were struggling to work. The freighters had all but stopped. They could be repaired in a few hours, but, they probably wouldn't have enough time since they were about to die but no worries, for Riker was coming!

"All right, F-4, 5. Get into delta formation." Riker said. The ships suddenly got into that formation that like is from A New Hope with Vader at front. Except Riker was at front and the ships didn't suck, cause they were Wolvens.... I mean CF-7s. "We're closing in and... open fire!" The ships fire their cannons in tight formation at the port nacelle of Sollock's ship, and they were coming in fast... very fast. As they got too close they did a very very tight turn and started firing at the same ship as they came back. But of course, they could always be blasted out of the sky... which is really most likely.

Meanwhile the the fighters dealing with the 1st Squadren were fairing a bit worse. "This is F-2! Fire on those blue thingies, those tend to make 'em go boom."

The fighters, now out of torpedoes, focused on their individual ships and focused on those nacelles. Hoping to recreate the explosion of Bateman's ships, they fired with all their might. Though, some had to die.

While avoiding the disrupters were easy, mistakes happened. "This is F-8 going in for another run." He said. All of a sudden a disrupter hit his engine from behind, it blew out while he was making a turn to attack again. "I'm hit, I'm goin' down!" His last words as his fighter spiraled towards one of Pike's ships.

F-2 grunted. "Stay clear of those lights, whatever they are! I just know they hurt."

The Director sighed. He looked at the battle, he was going to give peace one more shot... though, less subtle. "STOP FIRING ALREADY AGGH!!!" Yah... that'll work.

(I guess this is the part the Defiant saves the day? :P)

The Sunflower Samurai (http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/SeaQuest_Sim/Schematics/SeaQuestian%20Commonwealth/Ships/excaliburglory.jpg), an old, and currently heavily modified and customized, Victory class heavy destroyer that had long since 'retired', in a sense, from active military duty and was now one of the ships operated by a group known only as the Ronin. This elite group of warriors were currently assigned to escort a massive Indepence class vessel (OOC: 8 klicks long by 5 klicks wide (currently classed as a mega-freighter)) that also was no longer serving military duty and had long since been converted into a frieghter alongside a wing of High Guard Whitestars.

The five ships were heading for the IDF station with the uncreative moniker of Deep Space Nine for some trading. The SeaQuestian government wanted to gain a new trading partner so they could aquire some new items and get rid of some surplus materials. The Ronin had been given the task of sending their Sunflower Samurai as an escort due to the fact the High Guard leaders knew their passion for adventure and had thus given them a free pass to seek it out on both sides of the Bajoran Wormhole in exchange for escorting the Independence with the military's trio of Whitestars both ways.

Fluid Time Later...

The SeaQuestian ships dropped out of Slipstream five light minutes from the IDF station. As the Independence dwarfed the ring shaped station, she launched a smaller vessel carrying representives that would dock with the station so trade negotiations could start (OOC: IDF, if you want to RP that, fine. I'm more interested in getting the Ronin's Victory out 'pirate hunting' at the moment). The trio of Whitestars took up unthreatening positions around the Independence and the Sunflower Samurai transited to Slipstream heading towards the Badlands to investigate some interesting energy readings. Ironically, they left just at around the same time as the IDF's Defiant.

OOC: Lol, the wonders of Fluid Time. I'll have the ship arrive in my next post.

"Wow, that's some battle boss!" exclaimed a young sailor. The lad was only 17 years old when he joined the crew at Totuga.
"That's why we're staying here," replied John Bradley. "I want to wait until the shooting stops before we pick through the wreckage."
"Cap'in! More ships are arriving!" cried the 1st Mate.
"Blast!" shouted Bradley. "We need a place to hide until this blows over." After checking his starmap, "I'm taking us into the Badlands. Hold on!"

The Fighting Falcon (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Piratecruiser.jpg) moved at full sublight around the battle and headed into the Badlands...

"We are clearing the atmosphere now ma'am."

"Good, this has all been too easy. It's not right."

"We should be upon the crashed Angel anymoment now."

"Right here."

Ayame was relived when her fellow Angel Comrads arrived. She waved. The ships came to a stop and several Med Angels as they are called ran to her.

"Are you all right?" They asked

"I'm fine. I'm all right. I was shot down, but I don't know by who"

They beackond her abord the ship.

"Is she aboard?"

Yes ma'am

"Let's take off then."

The ship took off.

"Preparing to leave alien planet."

Captain Tanaka after talking to her XO finished her synth-ale and asked a starfleet security officer if she could talk to the stations commander about these pirates.

Where are we?

The massive Union class battleship Bloodlust suddenly decelerated, her nearly mile long length glistening against the pale light of the sun. The crew of almost two thousand meatbags startled by the sudden drop out of faster-than-light travel. In this region the natives called the Badlands, the Empiricalites were almost forty nine thousand light-years from home, and the Bloodlust dropped right into the middle of a battle. Explosions swept through the void, beings and machines dying and being destroyed, their death-screams going unheard as the oxygen (or their preferred atmosphere) was ripped away from them.

Bridge
"Captain, we've dropped into the middle of a firefight. Sensors are coming back online now, and I'm detecting dozens of ships, currently shooting at each other in no apparent 'sides'. One group of vessels is broadcasting a signal identifying themselves to be of the Cassiopeian Commonwealth, and there are numerous other ships in system we have been unable to identify. Orders?"

"Engage the Alcubierre drive, get us underway again." the Captain said.

"Sir, the drives are not responding. Engineering is attempting to determine the problem."

Captain Stephen Heatlie paused briefly. Captains in the Empiricalite Grand Navy were given very broad autonomy, seeing as their missions routinely took them thousands of light years from their home systems, but he didn't want to spark an unprovoked war.

"Arm all PD systems, shoot down anything coming in our way. Hail the ones that're broadcasting, try to figure out what's happening here. Do not open fire on anyone unless they shoot at us. Are we clear?"

"Aye, sir. Hailing the Cassiopeians."

This is the Empiricalite Ship EGNS Bloodlust. What is your situation?

The Bloodlust transmitted that brief message to the Cassiopeian ships multiple times to allow any translator systems to adjust, and then shut off all transmissions, to help with the whole stealthy bit. It would be awfully hard to miss a 1,540 metre ship appearing out of nowhere, though, that was shooting at the random missiles and various and sundry other things flying in her direction. Nobody appeared to be shooting at the Bloodlust on purpose - yet - although stray shots from the Cassiopeian-pirate battle flew awfully close, making the gunners have itchy fingers at times. It appeared that the majority of the ships engaging had active shields, a technology which eluded the Empiricalites because of numerous technical concerns that made active shields appear impossible. Of course, the other ships likely were using handwavium or something similar to generate the active defense fields.

Fighter pilots ran to their posts with the understanding that they wouldn't actually be launching for some time, because the Bloodlust, and well, all Union battleships were rather inefficient as carriers, and an order to launch routinely took 15 minutes or more to actually launch anything. Avenger space dominance fighters were being brought from the hangar storage bays to the launch bay, where the pilots sat (floated, rather) around, drinking coffee out of specialised glasses adapted to the no-gravity environment. Another technology that eluded the Empiricalite Grand Navy. Anyway, the Empiricalite battleship sat waiting for any unlucky person to intentionally shoot at her..

OOC: In response to Mini Miehm

IC:

Deep Space Nine

"Major, we got a heavily armed freighter that appears to be inbound from the badlands," reported Odo. The changeling was manning the sensor station since most of the regular crew of Ops was aboard the Defiant.

"Get them on hailing frequencies," ordered Major Kira Nerys. "Inbound freighter, this is the space station Deep Space Nine. We read you as coming in from the badlands. Have you seen any pirate activity in the area?"

OOC: I'd like Sollock to survive. I don't care as much about Pike.

IC:
Sollock's ship shook as it took repeacted hits. Luckily, he had just entered the battle so his shields would hold out a bit longer. Sollock continued at full impulse (about warp .5 in a Miranda).

"Tactical, have our #2 cover our 6 and get those fighters," ordered

He had one of the other Mirandas come behind his ship and fire disruptors at the trio of ships.

---------------------

Pike's squadron was not fairing well. They were still mainly intact still. "It's time to change maneuvers here," he remarked to his XO.

"Execute attack plan Kirk Beta," ordered the XO. This attack pattern would allow him to expose less vulnerable shield areas. Before the plan could be executed. Many shots were made on his starboard nacelle causing the sides of it to explode.

"Engineering, damage report!" yelled Pike.

"We've lost our starboard nacelle!" responded the Chief Engineer. "Warp drive is inoperative. The warp core containment field is still stable, but I don't think it can take another hit. One more good hit and we lose containment and breach."

"Let's not give them that chance then Chief!" yelled Pike. "Chief, eject the warp core and set it to detonate in our wake." The order was given, but the warp core was still 20 seconds away from ejection.

Another wave of lasers was launched at the wounded ship. The Chief Engineer's ODN panel at the bridge exploded. Shrapnel flew and hit him the head killing him. Even worse, the panel that was needed to eject the core was permanently destroyed. The core would stil explode in 30 seconds.

"Conn, take us in as close as you can to those fighters!" ordered Pike. "Ahead full impulse! Tell our other ships to get away from us!"

Pike's ship blew up with a tremendous force. (TIOR, you can say whether or not any fighters got it.) All 220 crewmen were killed in the explosion.

It looked like the convoy's escorts would fail the mission, but just as Sollock and the pirates appeared to be able to finally start defeating the pirates, a new ship appeared.

"Sir! we have a ship decloaking off of our starboard bow," reported Sollock's science officer. "It's the Defiant!"

"Oh shit!" reponded Sollock. "I thought the Admiral was supposed to keep them at DS9."

"Sir, they're haling us," reported the Comms officer. The voice of Sisko was now heard over the ship's intercom. "This is Captain Benjamin Sisko. You are to cease firing or we will open fire!"

"Lock torpedoes on the Defiant!" ordered Sollock.

"But Sir! They have better shields, ablative armor, and better weapons!" protested the Tactical officer.

"You heard the order Lieutenant!" With that, the ship fired 2 photon torpedoes at the ISS Defaiant. The Defiant was a VERY fast and maneuverable ship. With the help of Dax's expert piloting, the ship avoided 1 of the photon torpedoes while taking 1 hit against her regenerative shields.

--------------------------------

Aboard the ISS Defiant NX-121

"Good piloting Old Man!" exlaimed Sisko. He shouldn't have been too shocked. Over the years of knowing Dax (both Curzon and Jadzia) he'd come to expect to see whoever carried the Dax symbiont to suceed.

"Mr. Worf! lock phasers on that ship's torpedo bays and fire!" ordered Sisko. With that order, the Defiant fired her distinctive pulse phaser cannons at the ship. The first blast of 4 hit the shields while the 2nd broke through and caused the torpedo bays atop the roll bar structure to explode on Sollock's ship. As Defiant flew on, she fired a crippling quantum torpedo from her aft tubes that caused massive internal explosions turning the once proud ship into a burning hulk. There were survivors though aboard the ship. Sisko turned his attention elsewhere though since there were more dangerous ships out there.

The #2 ship of squadron 3 fired disruptors at Defiant. They broke through the shields as they weren't set for disruptors. Luckily, ablative armor kept them from causing any damage beyond a few sparks from overloaded ODN cables. "Worf, remodulate shields for klingon disruptors!" ordered Sisko. "Then target that ship. I want you to fire at her main hull." The shields were remoduladed and the Defiant began firing her phasers in rapid succession. There was no way that the 100 year old design of the Mirandas could deal with what was without a doubt Starfleet's most advanced warship. After only 4 blasts, the dorsal shield had collapsed and a quantum torpedo struck the bridge of this 2nd Miranda class vessel killing her entire command crew and crippling the ship. The ship could still be run from main engineering so a 2nd torpedo was fired to destroy main engineering. This 2nd ship was now a flaming hulk.

"Ensign, can you get me those convoy fighters on the Comm system?" asked Sisko.

"Yes sir!" responded Ensign Nog.

"Fighters, this is Captain Benjamin Sisko. Can you join me in finishing off these 5 ships?"

"Damn, that is one nice warship," comented the young sailor as he watched the Defiant take out the Miranda's.
"Yes, I want to steer clear of that sucker," replied Bradley. "Any possible wrecks we can salvage?"
"I've got one dead hulk near our position," reported the 1st Mate. "It's the Miranda that just got its ass handed to it!"
After sharing a laugh with his crew, Bradley said, "Alright, lets try to sneek in and pick it over. Charge the shilds and deploy weapons. Remember, only fire at ships who attack us."
On each side of the Fighting Falcon (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/Piratecruiser.jpg), three cargo doors opened and hidden Pulse Phaser cannons extended into position. Plus, the two fuel hatches on each side opened to let a pair of Phase cannons extend outward. The Falcon had reveiled her hidden weapons, and began to move toward the #2 ship of squadron 3, while a boarding party gathered in the dorsal launch bay...

OOC: @IDF: Any objection to having Sollock temporarily captured? An IC RPed escape should be fun. Or you could have him escape being captured. Let me know either way and I'll post accordingly.
@Terren Planets: Does the Fighting Falcon have the Jolly Rodger painted on the hull like in the pic? I have two different paths I can work my story line for this RP down, but it depends on if it is or isn't.

IC: It was at that particular moment that the Sunflower Samurai transited out of Slipstream practically right on top of the Fighting Falcon. At 2,990.31 meters long, the Victory was essentially one of the largest, if not the largest, ships in the arena.
Quick on his digital feet, the ship's A.I. noted right off the bat the smaller Fighting Falcon was going for the wounded Miranda. He also noted Sollock's vessel. The metaphorical 'new kid on the block', the Samurai Sunflower purposefully settled to a halt relative to the other ships.
The A.I. had purposefully stopped between the Fighting Falcon and the wounded Miranda which was her prey. As an A.I. of a warship in a battle situation like this, he tended to get a little antsy. Thus, he wanted to see what the crew of the Fighting Falcon would do as a result of his arrival and maneuver(sp?).

Bridge

"'Sam', you really need to learn to hold back in situations like this."

"I know," replied 'Sam', the ships Android avatar, "but I'm a warship, what more do you expect?"

"Bah! Don't give me that 'I'm a warship' line again. There have been plenty of warship's with A.I.s that aren't as eager as you are to add to their kill record."

"Meh. I'm going to see what the situation is around here."

"For once, an actual good idea."

"Your only lucky I need you to pilot through Slipstream. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise what, 'Sam'?"

The Ronin continued to banter with the ship's avatar. In the meantime, the ship's A.I. multitasked and drafted multiple messages.

Messages

Broadcast in the Universal Standard Language (OOC: Ie, English):

What do you want? Why are you here?

Transmitted to the TCG ships in the USL:

Cassiopian vessels, a long way from home aren't you? I can't think of our two nations encountering each other before, but I may be wrong. I would suggest you get your surviving freighters over on the other side of this ship relative to the fighting where our bulk can afford you a safe zone to conduct repairs and get yourselves situated.

Transmitted to the Defiant in the USL:

Our scans indicate you are the vessel that left the station at the same time we did. Identify your reason for being in this location. Identify the cause for your agression.

Transmitted to the Fighting Falcon in the USL:

I would recommend holding off on any attempts at salvage operations until the fighting is over. Stay in our shadow until then and you will significantly decrease the chances of your receiving damage.

ooc: yes the jolly roger is painted on the hull like in the pic. and the ship is kind of small, only has 8 decks

IC:

"Boss! Check out that biggin!"
"It popped up roght on top of us!"
"Getting a message," reported the first mate. "They want us to wait behind them until the battle is over."
"Thank them for their advice," ordered Bradley. "Then get on the tractor beam. We're going to tow that hulk into the Badlands. Then we can strip it clean."

The Falcon moved around the Sunflower Samurai and locked a tractor beam onto the hulk of #2 ship of squadron 3...

ooc: yes the jolly roger is painted on the hull like in the pic. and the ship is kind of small, only has 8 decks

IC:

"Boss! Check out that biggin!"
"It popped up roght on top of us!"
"Getting a message," reported the first mate. "They want us to wait behind them until the battle is over."
"Thank them for their advice," ordered Bradley. "Then get on the tractor beam. We're going to tow that hulk into the Badlands. Then we can strip it clean."

The Falcon moved around the Sunflower Samurai and locked a tractor beam onto the hulk of #2 ship of squadron 3...

As the Jolly Rodger on the Fighting Falcon came into view to the Ronin ship's visual sensors, the A.I. sounded the alarm and automatically launched bucky cable towing harpoon missiles at the Miranda the Falcon was targeting. Once they latched onto the wounded ship's hull, they would begin to retract, drawing her into the ship's cavernous hanger while her massive gravimetric engines went into station keeping to try to counter any pull foward caused by the tug-of-war with the pirate ship.

Bridge

"Alright, 'Sam'. Why the alarm?"

"Pirates."

"You sure?"

"They've got the Jolly Rodger on their hulls. Who else but pirates would put that on their ship."

"Good point. Have they opened fire on us?"

"Not yet. Currently, they are going after one of the damaged ships out there. They have latched on with a tractor beam and I've deployed bucky cables."

"Try to let them have a little chance first."

"Meh, slowly drawing that tiny gnat of a ship in along with the damaged ship won't be to hard. Shall I engage tractor beams as well?"

"Nah, pay out a little slack for now and let them think they've won. Then, when they let their guard down, drag them in!"

"NOW that's a plan I like."

"Thought you would, you crazy nutbag."

"They've got the hulk with tow cables!" shouted the 1st mate.
"Damn! I was hoping that this would be easy," replied Bradley. He then activated the ship's comm. "Hey Rachet! Can we get more power on the tractor beam?"
"Not if you want the weapons to stay hot!" came the reply from the engineer. "Our core can't keep the tractor and those bulky cannons of yours running at once!"
"Never mind," said Bradley. "Mike, drop the tractor. Back to plan A."
"Right," replied Mike, the 1st Mate. "The boarding party is still waiting in the transporter."
"We drop the shilds and beam them over in 60," ordered Bradley. "Get ready!"

The Falcon released her tractor beam and dropped her shilds for a moment. Just long enough to beam 5 pirates onto the Miranda's hulk. They wore EVA suits and were armed with phaser rifles stolen from Terren Command. The group then split up and started placing small locator becons on random parts of equipment.

Riker huffed. "Hmph. They took no damage, wait they're firing! Get out of the way!"

The trio veered to the right left and center, rolling to avoid the disrupters. After a few seconds they reformed but were lost on what to do. Riker was obviously confused. "No no no!" He shouted over the intercom. "It looks like we need to go for another- what the hell?!"

As Riker turned for another run he saw the Defiant decloak. He wasn't even aware that such technology existed. "F-4, what the hell is that ship?"

F-4 responded. "Well, it appears to use the same tech base but... it's more powerful, and it seems to be firing on those ships!"

Cheers went throughout the squadren, help! At last! Riker chuckled.

Though the battle with Pike was going a bit worst. The fighters continued on their attack but, tragedy struck. F-2 saw that it was about to explode, and that it would be bad. "All fighters, get the hell out of the area!" The fighters, scattered and disorganized, tryed getting out of the area as fast possible but it was too late. F-9 and F-7 was consumed by the explosion and by now the squadren was by now six fighters, six small measely fighters.

Riker still had hope though. Then he heard the message, Sisko was here to help. "Hello there!" He said reliefed. "Thank you for the help, I'm Commander William Riker of this squadren. As you can see we've put up one hell of a fight but we thank you for your support. We are lost and if possible we'd like to know the coordinates to the nearest place where we can get supplies, we lost our supply ship as soon as these ships struck... we've lost a lot of good men."

He paused. "We'll help you out. Squadren, let's team up and destroy those remaining ships. Hit those blue things that are sticking out but make sure you're not caught in the explosion! Like those two..."

The six remain fighters got into a sort of triangle formation and headed for the remaining ships. By now they weren't even focusing on a single group anymore, they would come in towards a ship, fire at the nacelles, and then pull back and go to another ship. But for how long this would continue would be dependent on how long the enemy ships would last, and well, with the Defiant here it seems they won't hold up for more then a minute.

Meanwhile the Director was starting to get all these incoming messages from all these ships. He was nervous and happy at the same time, happy since now he had all these different nations to trade and make cash off. Nervous because almost everytime the Cassiopeians went into contact with somebody, they'd have to go to war. Nevertheless he responded on all channels with a simple message.

"This is the Director of Convoy 42 of the Royal Mining Corporation." It started. "Our situation is simple, we got lost and now we are under attack. We have so far lost a corvette and four fighters in the mess. We have no idea what is going on, our engines are disabled but should be fixed soon. Anybody that fires on this convoy shall be declared an enemy of the Cassiopeian Commonwealth. It is that simple, good day."

He then sent a secret message to the SeaQuestrian ship.

To: Sunflower Samurai
From: RMF Archer

We are quite fine where we are, our engines are being repaired currently.
If you attempt to fire on us, we will not take this lightly. Because almost
every meeting we have had with other interstellar forces has resulted in war
because they seem to think that we are pushovers. Well, the Cassiopeian
Commonwealth is not a pushover. And neither is the Royal Mining Corporation.

If your intentions are peaceful, then I apologize. But we are fine where we
are. Yes we are a long way from home, the Captain took us for a ride in two
wormholes and we ended up here. Not in Minbar but in this... place. I hope
we meet in less... stressful settings.

Yours,

The Director
RMF Archer
Convoy 42
Royal Mining Corporation

(Yay! Now take me to DS9 >.>)

OOC: TCG, its SeaQuestian/SeaQuestians, no 'r' after the 't'.

IC: Messages

Response to the Cassiopians:

Acknowledged and understood. Frankly, we've been having similar problems in being considered a push-over nation ourselves.

Now, if you would be willing to identify the party that attacked you, we can launch fighters and engage them.

Transmitted to the Fighting Falcon:

Come on now. You're not being any fun.

Meanwhile - Exterior

'Sam' frowned and sighed. He had been hoping the pirate ship would have taken the bait and he could have tested their engines against his retracting the bucky cables.
"Oh well," he thought, "Guess I'll have to find another way to have fun with them."
With that, he accelerated the retraction of the bucky cables attached to the wounded Miranda to full speed. He also accelerated foward to a meager 30 PSL. If they weren't going to play along according to the original game plan, then he would have to make a new one.

OOC: I don't want Sollock captured for the sole purpose that I will want Sisko to beam him aboard. If you watched DS9, you would know that Sisko and Sollock were rivals at Starfleet Academy. It would make things interesting and will be crucial for how Sisko discovers who was really behind the attack.

IC:

Message to Sunflower Samurai
This is the ISS Defiant. I am the Commanding Officer of that station you just departed. We are here on a rescue mission. I advise that you either leave or get out of the way.

"Commander Riker, I advise that you direct your ships to not aim for those enginer nacelles." advised Sisko. "Striking those just removes their ability to achieve warp speed. Hit them on the aft part of their hull. That would give the possibility of causing a warp core breach. Believe me, I used to be the XO of one of those ships before Wolf 359."

Meanwhile, the Defiant was moving at full impulse making tight turns under the careful control of Jadzia Dax at the helm. Worf was still manning tactical and firing at the 100 year old designs that were no match for this mighty ship.

The numbers were now 5 Miranda class vessels vs the Defiant and 6 fighters. The Defiant alone could take them. She had taken on 6 Jem Hadar attack ship on at once during the Dominion War and came out victorious. A squadron of these miranda class vessels proved in the Dominion War that they couldn't stand up to 1 Jem Hadar attack ship.

The 5 remaining Miranda class vessels were now coordinating their fire in the Defiant. "Forward shield down to 60%!" reported Worf.

"Dax, ahead full impulse, maneuver to their ventral sides!" ordered Sisko. "Worf, hold fire for 10 seconds so we can concentrate some phaser bursts."

The sleek Defiant was skillfully piloted by Dax as she wove between 2 ships while her husband prepared to fire. "NOW MR WORF!" yelled Sisko. With that order, the Defiant fired 8 quick bursts out of each of the 4 pulse phaser cannons. This attack completely destroyed 1 of the destroyers.

The Defiant now flew above the 4 remaining ships as she fired 2 aft quantum torpedoes. The first one struck the shields while the 2nd broke through and hit the port quarter of the hull causing a massive fireball and hull breach. The ship was still intact though and joined the other 3 in firing disruptors and torpedoes at the Defiant. Many of them struck her shields.

"Aft shields down to 20%!" yelled Worf as sparks from his console flew across the bridge.

"Chief! I need auxiliary power to the shields NOW!" yelled Sisko. "Turn us around for another pass Old Man!"

The Defiant made a quick turn. The only thing that kept the crew from being splattered against the bulkheads was the intertial dampening system. Worf locked a quantum torpedo on the damaged ship and fired it at where the ship's warp core would be. He then selected a 2nd target and fired multiple phaser blasts at it which rippled across the dorsal saucer section of the ship as gas was vented from upper decks into space. A single quantum torpedo finished her off.

OOC: I'm letting you get the last 2 Mirandas. You can RP it

Riker mumbled as he continued to make passes for the nacelles with his mates. "All right then, Captain. And is that what they're called? Nacelles? Strange name for those things, but all right. You heard that? Aim for the aft!"

The Commander saw the majesty of the Defiant flying around. He was impressed. A ship of that size was maneuvering like a fighter, granted the frigates from the Commonwealth could probably do that too, but... it was too graceful. He had to talk to Sisko after this he thought. But enough of that, he got on the intercom. He saw that there were two left and he was gonna finish this. "F-4. 5. Stick with me. We're gonna deal with one of the ships. F-2, lead the other half and kill the last one."

The six CF-7s split in two. Riker's group was the first to strike. They did a barrel roll right under one of the Mirandas, then coming up dramatically and all soap opera like from right under them. They then did a hard right, firing from on top of the Miranda on the aft port and other various places. F-4 smirked. "Sir, the shields are going down one more shot and it'll go down!"

F-5 then seperated from the group, Riker was confused. "Get back into position!" He shouted.

F-5 ignored him. He veered right behind the Miranda. Firing on one of those bars holding the starboard nacelle. It wouldn't survive. F-5 and flew the hell away from there while Riker chased him down, leaving the exploding hulk to... explode.

Riker chuckled, though he was raging mad. "I assume you want a promotion there?"

F-5 smirked. "Let's just see how the Leftenant Commander is doing."

F-2 was, of course, was the Lt. Commander. He led his squad against the last Miranda, but it wouldn't be as successful. The three fighters successfully destroyed the last ship but errm, trouble.

Before it exploded the Miranda let out a disrupter beam that just happened to strike F-2's ship. It wasn't fatal but it left him... stranded. The beam struck his engine. He was lucky to survive but now his ship was nothing but a floating coffin, he was stuck... in space. Alone. Riker flew past him and saw on the scanners what was wrong. "F-2!" He shouted. "Are you okay?"

He sighed. "I'm fine... except for the fact that I can't move!!!" He punched his control console, which didn't break but made for hilarious comic effect.

Riker sighed and opened a channel to the Defiant. "Thanks for your help. But I seem to have a problem. My Lt. Commander's ship is... stuck. His engines don't seem to work. Do you think you can pick him up and put him inside your ship? I'd appreciate it greatly. Also, an escort for me and the freighter's the closest friendly base and or planet would be nice."

He paused. "In fact, could we stay there awhile? We need to contact the Commonwealth and things of that nature. Also, mind if I buy you a drink?"

(Now I get to have a person inside your ship! >.> <.<)

OOC: I don't want Sollock captured for the sole purpose that I will want Sisko to beam him aboard. If you watched DS9, you would know that Sisko and Sollock were rivals at Starfleet Academy. It would make things interesting and will be crucial for how Sisko discovers who was really behind the attack.

IC:

OOC: @IDF: A'right, I'll stick with the Miranda I got then. Mind if I get Section 31survivors and/or tech?
Oh, and I'll await the next battle opportunity(sp?) to show what the Sunflower Samurai has up her sleeves in terms of offensive and defensive technologies and capabilities. Of course, I'm assuming there are going to be more, so correct me if I'm wrong in expecting that.

IC: Messages

Response to the Defiant:

Rather ineffecient method of going about it. I've not yet completed scans of the class of ships you are combating, but their are several glaring weakpoints that a pin-point precision strike would allow total disabling of the craft without destroying it and removing any ability for the surviving crew to destroy it themselves.

We'll see you back at the station once everything here is wrapped up.

Transmitted to the Cassiopian fighters:

We've noted that your fighters, one in particular note, have sustained damage. Feel free to use our hangers for repairs during the transit to a near-by station we know of. We have more than enough room to accomidate all of you.

Transmitted to the Cassiopian freighters:

As it appears the bulk of the fighting has died down, would you mind if we replaced your lost escort while en route to the local IDF station? We can discuss contract terms later, if you wish.

Transmitted to the Fighting Falcon:

Pirate vessel, if this is settled ship-to-ship, you will most assuredly loose. You can either surrender know or agree to trial by champion.

Meanwhile - Exterior

The bucky cables attached to the wounded Miranda rapidly drew her into the cavernous hanger of the Sunflower Samurai while the A.I., in the meantime, patiently awaited the response from the Fighting Falcon. Once the Section 31 ship was locked into place, an array of inhibitor fields went up. The ship's offenses, defenses, computers, transporters, and sensors, amoung a number of other things, would be jammed. Once the fields were up, Ronin in their modified Mark I power armor (http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/SeaQuest_Sim/Weapons/IROM002_COV.jpg) swarmed over the hull finding ways in through hull breaches.

OOC: The power armor is the same design as in the picture, but's its pitch black in color.

EGNS Bloodlust
Captain Stephen Heatlie was becoming increasingly nervous. The Alcubierre drives were not yet enabled, and more and more ships poured into the system. The fighting was dying down, and the largest ship in the system, the Sunflower Samurai, appeared to Heatlie as if it was preying on the remains and frankly they weren't to be trusted. Nobody was really to be trusted here, and Stephen had somewhat of an itchy trigger finger for a Captain in the Empiricalite Grand Navy.

"Target that large ship, the neck looks vulnerable. Fire the main particle cannons at the neck, unload a salvo of bomb-pumped grasers against the wing-y looking things. Launch all fighters, attack their power armour. Lock onto the armour with our anti-fighter guns and destroy it, secondaries are to focus on the big ship, pinpoint on it's weapons mounts. Do it!"

"Are you sure, Captain? This could spark a war..." his executive officer said, sighing slightly. Heatlie was almost a legend in the EGN for his trigger finger.

"Don't worry, if things get hot, we can get the hell out of here. I just recieved word from engineering that the emergency drives are up. Fire, damnit."

"Aye, sir. Orders have been transmitted to the gunnery division and the flight division."

Fighter pilots, now actually having something to do, boarded their fighters and formed a defensive ring around the Bloodlust, with Avengers ahead, Wasps behind, and the bombers bringing up the rear with heavy fusion bombs. Active defenses quickly became hot again, sweeping the area for any SeaQuestian powered armour and the like. Gunners woke up from their brief naps, powering up the six massive neutral particle beam turrets that formed the main armaments of the ship, bringing them to a devastating broadside formation and awaiting the final order to open fire. Torpedo tubes were loaded by autoloaders with the X9 type bomb-pumped graser torpedo, one of the most devastating torpedoes in the Empiricalite arsenal. The ship itself moved off at a decent clip of acceleration, so as to not present a static target for the SeaQuestian ship or, for that matter, any other ship.

The final order was given, and the attack begun. A broadside of twelve heavy neutral particle beams lanced off of the Bloodlust, aimed at the seemingly vulnerable neck of the SeaQuestian ship. This was followed by another broadside, and another broadside. Avenger fighters, loaded with minor anti-ship missiles, fired their payloads at the engines of the Victory, and moved to lay down cover fire for their cousins, the B25 bomber. Wasp point defense fighters moved along the length of the Bloodlust, preparing for the eventual return fire. Their point-defense guns could handle essentially all non-c weapons, from plasma bolts to big freaking rocks, given enough PD fighters. B25 bombers moved out from the main group, being escorted by the Avenger space dominance fighters, closing into range to fire off their rather lethal torpedoes. Secondary neutral particle beams lanced out from the eight mounts on the Bloodlust, targetting visible weapon mounts like point-defense mounts.

Captain Heatlie was rather confident that he'd win, and if it started to turn against him, he'd leave. Pretty simple.

OOC: In response to Mini Miehm

IC:

Deep Space Nine

"Major, we got a heavily armed freighter that appears to be inbound from the badlands," reported Odo. The changeling was manning the sensor station since most of the regular crew of Ops was aboard the Defiant.

"Get them on hailing frequencies," ordered Major Kira Nerys. "Inbound freighter, this is the space station Deep Space Nine. We read you as coming in from the badlands. Have you seen any pirate activity in the area?"

"DS9, we are en route from a rather large dogfight in the badlands. We would have intervened, had we not lost our sensors. There are at least three destroyer squadrons involved on the attacking side, all Mirandas. My engineerirng crew should have our sensors back up in a few minutes, as soon as he does, we're jumping back to provide assistance."

"They've got the hulk inside!" shouted Mike.
"Get our boys back!" ordered Bradley.
"I can't! something is blocking the transporter!" replied a sailor.
"Damn!" exclaimed Bradley. "This is too intense. We can't fight that ship."
"We should get out of here," said Mike. "No one would think you a coward for leaving."
"I know," replied Bradley. "All right. I'm taking us into the Badlands. We'll come back after everyone leaves." He sighed as he brought the ship around.
"You followed the code," remarked Mike. "They fell behind. That's it."
"I know," said Bradley. "I just hate to loose good men."
The Falcon turned and headed into the Badlands, hopin gto use the plasma storms to evade detection. After the battle, they would return to plunder any wreckage left behind...

OOC: This is SeaQuest posting using one of my surviving accounts. Yes, the moderators did give clearance for me to begin posting again.

EGNS Bloodlust
Captain Stephen Heatlie was becoming increasingly nervous. The Alcubierre drives were not yet enabled, and more and more ships poured into the system. The fighting was dying down, and the largest ship in the system, the Sunflower Samurai, appeared to Heatlie as if it was preying on the remains and frankly they weren't to be trusted. Nobody was really to be trusted here, and Stephen had somewhat of an itchy trigger finger for a Captain in the Empiricalite Grand Navy.

"Target that large ship, the neck looks vulnerable. Fire the main particle cannons at the neck, unload a salvo of bomb-pumped grasers against the wing-y looking things. Launch all fighters, attack their power armour. Lock onto the armour with our anti-fighter guns and destroy it, secondaries are to focus on the big ship, pinpoint on it's weapons mounts. Do it!"

"Are you sure, Captain? This could spark a war..." his executive officer said, sighing slightly. Heatlie was almost a legend in the EGN for his trigger finger.

"Don't worry, if things get hot, we can get the hell out of here. I just recieved word from engineering that the emergency drives are up. Fire, damnit."

"Aye, sir. Orders have been transmitted to the gunnery division and the flight division."

Fighter pilots, now actually having something to do, boarded their fighters and formed a defensive ring around the Bloodlust, with Avengers ahead, Wasps behind, and the bombers bringing up the rear with heavy fusion bombs. Active defenses quickly became hot again, sweeping the area for any SeaQuestian powered armour and the like. Gunners woke up from their brief naps, powering up the six massive neutral particle beam turrets that formed the main armaments of the ship, bringing them to a devastating broadside formation and awaiting the final order to open fire. Torpedo tubes were loaded by autoloaders with the X9 type bomb-pumped graser torpedo, one of the most devastating torpedoes in the Empiricalite arsenal. The ship itself moved off at a decent clip of acceleration, so as to not present a static target for the SeaQuestian ship or, for that matter, any other ship.

The final order was given, and the attack begun. A broadside of twelve heavy neutral particle beams lanced off of the Bloodlust, aimed at the seemingly vulnerable neck of the SeaQuestian ship. This was followed by another broadside, and another broadside. Avenger fighters, loaded with minor anti-ship missiles, fired their payloads at the engines of the Victory, and moved to lay down cover fire for their cousins, the B25 bomber. Wasp point defense fighters moved along the length of the Bloodlust, preparing for the eventual return fire. Their point-defense guns could handle essentially all non-c weapons, from plasma bolts to big freaking rocks, given enough PD fighters. B25 bombers moved out from the main group, being escorted by the Avenger space dominance fighters, closing into range to fire off their rather lethal torpedoes. Secondary neutral particle beams lanced out from the eight mounts on the Bloodlust, targetting visible weapon mounts like point-defense mounts.

Captain Heatlie was rather confident that he'd win, and if it started to turn against him, he'd leave. Pretty simple.

IC: The Bloodlust would be in for one hell of a wake up call. The Samurai Sunflower allowed a few futile volleys, the majority of which were refracted by the intense gravitic fields surrounding the ship. The few bolts that did manage to strike the armor, mainly due to the angle of refraction not causing them to by-pass the hull, were mainly dealt with by the Plasteel/Poly-Crystalline armor mesh layer, capable of deflecting/refracting over 80% of all energy directed at the ship's hull. As for the incoming projectiles, some were crushed by the intense g-forces in the gravitic barrier surrounding the SeaQuestian vessel, others were flung in various random directions, and a few were flung into the hull like the few refracted beam weapon strikes that did as well. As the Ronin ship had neither launched sub-craft nor deployed any turrets from their recesed mounts, not much damage was dealt. Still, the A.I. accelerated the ship backwards to 40 PSL at 3,000,000 meters per second while activating repair nanites that would replace damaged sections using stored base material.

The A.I. transmitted a message in the USL to the Bloodlust:

Continue your current course of action and we will have no choice but to return fire and destroy you. We have no beef with you and are currently engaged in anti-pirate activities. This is your first and only warning. Cease fire or be destroyed.

To ram the point home, the Sunflower Samurai rotated, while still going backwards, so that her foward weapons were aimed straight for the Bloodshed, as a precautionary measure. At the same time, the Fighting Falcon was being tracked for as long as possible. Once she got out of range, or interferance from the Badlands blocked tracking, the A.I. would use other methods to trail the pirate ship.

Sunflower Samurai - Hanger - Damaged Section 31 Miranda - Interior

The armored Ronin had set their weapons to stun. Bearing no identifiable markings on their pitch black armor, they continued sweeping the ship for survivors and any pirate boarders.

The five pirates gathered at their beam-in point, in the remains of Cargo Bay 3. The lights on their EVA suits gave the only light in the ravaged bay.
"Something's wrong," said one sailor. "We should have beamed back by now!"
"Maybe the Cap'in's been blow up!" shouted another.
"Hold on now," replied the leader, a man named Kidd. "Bradley's just been outsmarted by the 'Questers. He's halfway to the Badlands by now, I'll bet."
"Yah, that coward!"
"Why'ed he leave us?"
"Remember the code!" barked Kidd. "Now, lets find a way off of this heap."

(ooc: SeaQuest, feel free to capture them and do whatever you want. They're not important to my storyline. It's easy to get more crew, lol)

The five pirates gathered at their beam-in point, in the remains of Cargo Bay 3. The lights on their EVA suits gave the only light in the ravaged bay.
"Something's wrong," said one sailor. "We should have beamed back by now!"
"Maybe the Cap'in's been blow up!" shouted another.
"Hold on now," replied the leader, a man named Kidd. "Bradley's just been outsmarted by the 'Questers. He's halfway to the Badlands by now, I'll bet."
"Yah, that coward!"
"Why'ed he leave us?"
"Remember the code!" barked Kidd. "Now, lets find a way off of this heap."

(ooc: SeaQuest, feel free to capture them and do whatever you want. They're not important to my storyline. It's easy to get more crew, lol)
OOC: @TP: A'right. Going to try to make it interesting though. One question though, I don't recall the Sunflower Samurai ever ID'ing her nation of origin and the Victory class is used by at least one other, if not more, nations, so how did they know to use the term "'Questers"?
@IDF: I don't recall, but did this particular Miranda have Section 31 survivors? If yes, then how many.

IC: With all the interferance that had been put up preventing the any unathorized scans and beam-outs from the wounded Miranda in her hanger, it also, ironically, prevented the ship's A.I. from clearly seeing what was going on. Thus, he couldn't tell which of the life-signs were Ronin, which were part of the ship's original crew, and which were pirate boarders from the Fighting Falcon.
"Bugger," he groaned to himself, "This isn't going to be easy. Though, with around two-thousand Ronin troops in addition to the Ronin 'sailors', way more than a ship that small could carry, I doubt there's going to be much, if anything, in the way of resistance."

Meanwhile...

Inside the wounded Miranda, the armored forms of the Ronin troops that had gotten inside were moving back towards the ship's aft sections from the saucer's bow edge. It was only a matter of time before they found the pirates in their hiding place in Cargo Bay 3. When they did, they would be stunned and taken to holding cells while it was decided what to do with them. More than likely, they would be interrogated and then the Ronin would check with their nation's home government about the possibility of a reward for each of them.

(ooc: back when my nation first encountered you's in my other thread, "To Boldly Go...", we had a meeting about establishing relations. I don't remember the details, but assumed that there has been some trade relations over the 'years'. My pirates simply reconized (sp?) your ship from seeing similar ones or from tales they'd heard. sorry)

IC:
They wandered around the ba, looking for anything that might let them escape.
"Maybe we could just blow the door and float out?" suggested one sailor.
"To where?" asked another. I saw through a hole in the hull earlier that we're inside a hanger bay."
"So what do we do?"
"To bad this isn't the shuttle bay," said Kidd. "I could fly us out of..." He stopped in mid word as all five pirates looked up at each other.
"The Shuttle Bay!" they shouted at once. Then they left the cargo bay and headed toward the ship's portside shuttle bay in the stern. The trip was hazzardous, filled with busted conduits and wreckage, and other unknown dangers...

(ooc: back when my nation first encountered you's in my other thread, "To Boldly Go...", we had a meeting about establishing relations. I don't remember the details, but assumed that there has been some trade relations over the 'years'. My pirates simply reconized (sp?) your ship from seeing similar ones or from tales they'd heard. sorry)

IC:
They wandered around the ba, looking for anything that might let them escape.
"Maybe we could just blow the door and float out?" suggested one sailor.
"To where?" asked another. I saw through a hole in the hull earlier that we're inside a hanger bay."
"So what do we do?"
"To bad this isn't the shuttle bay," said Kidd. "I could fly us out of..." He stopped in mid word as all five pirates looked up at each other.
"The Shuttle Bay!" they shouted at once. Then they left the cargo bay and headed toward the ship's portside shuttle bay in the stern. The trip was hazzardous, filled with busted conduits and wreckage, and other unknown dangers...
OOC: A'right, that I can live with. Though, just so you know, currently SQ is set hundreds of IC years into the future from the time period I was RPing it in as I was back then. Alot's changed since then (for instance, a lot less isolationist as a nation).

IC: The shuttle bay, along with the bridge, engineering, and other ship important areas had been the first to be secured. The Sunflower Samurai carried far more crew than could fit aboard the wounded Miranda, so coverage wouldn't be a problem. The guards on the inside were using a variation of personal cloaking device while others on the outside were strolling around using the gravimetric technology in their grav-boots to cling to what was left of the hull at every angle possible.
While cloaked and uncloaked guards stood watch in the shuttlebay, other armored figures were working at manually opening the bay door so the shuttles could be moved to the Victory's own hanger bay. One never knew when they might come in handy, after some upgrades of course.
So, when the pirate boarders showed up, they would have to be rather sneaky to try to get past the conviently distracted visible guards in the bay, they would also have to wait for the doors to be opened, and then they would have to get past the ever present eye of the Ronin craft's A.I. command and control entity.

Captain Tanaka not getting any joy from the security officer returned to her ship and went to the bridge.

"hail the station" she ordered and said "i am Captain Tanaka from the Kirisuban exploration ship 'Shen Lung'.

I've heard rumours thats theres pirates nearby. if its true i'd like to help out in dealing with them"

OOC: I'll respond to everything on Thrusday or Friday. I apologize, but it's only the first week and I'm swamped.

Riker mumbled as he continued to make passes for the nacelles with his mates. "All right then, Captain. And is that what they're called? Nacelles? Strange name for those things, but all right. You heard that? Aim for the aft!"

The Commander saw the majesty of the Defiant flying around. He was impressed. A ship of that size was maneuvering like a fighter, granted the frigates from the Commonwealth could probably do that too, but... it was too graceful. He had to talk to Sisko after this he thought. But enough of that, he got on the intercom. He saw that there were two left and he was gonna finish this. "F-4. 5. Stick with me. We're gonna deal with one of the ships. F-2, lead the other half and kill the last one."

The six CF-7s split in two. Riker's group was the first to strike. They did a barrel roll right under one of the Mirandas, then coming up dramatically and all soap opera like from right under them. They then did a hard right, firing from on top of the Miranda on the aft port and other various places. F-4 smirked. "Sir, the shields are going down one more shot and it'll go down!"

F-5 then seperated from the group, Riker was confused. "Get back into position!" He shouted.

F-5 ignored him. He veered right behind the Miranda. Firing on one of those bars holding the starboard nacelle. It wouldn't survive. F-5 and flew the hell away from there while Riker chased him down, leaving the exploding hulk to... explode.

Riker chuckled, though he was raging mad. "I assume you want a promotion there?"

F-5 smirked. "Let's just see how the Leftenant Commander is doing."

F-2 was, of course, was the Lt. Commander. He led his squad against the last Miranda, but it wouldn't be as successful. The three fighters successfully destroyed the last ship but errm, trouble.

Before it exploded the Miranda let out a disrupter beam that just happened to strike F-2's ship. It wasn't fatal but it left him... stranded. The beam struck his engine. He was lucky to survive but now his ship was nothing but a floating coffin, he was stuck... in space. Alone. Riker flew past him and saw on the scanners what was wrong. "F-2!" He shouted. "Are you okay?"

He sighed. "I'm fine... except for the fact that I can't move!!!" He punched his control console, which didn't break but made for hilarious comic effect.

Riker sighed and opened a channel to the Defiant. "Thanks for your help. But I seem to have a problem. My Lt. Commander's ship is... stuck. His engines don't seem to work. Do you think you can pick him up and put him inside your ship? I'd appreciate it greatly. Also, an escort for me and the freighter's the closest friendly base and or planet would be nice."

He paused. "In fact, could we stay there awhile? We need to contact the Commonwealth and things of that nature. Also, mind if I buy you a drink?"

(Now I get to have a person inside your ship! >.> <.<)

OOC: I apologize for the long delay, but I lead a very busy life.

IC: Sisko sat on the bridge of the Defiant as he came around to destroy the final 2 Mirandas. He wouldn't even get a shot. He witnessed the fighters destroy the 2 remaining destroyers before the Defiant entered Weapons range.

"Sir, Mr. Riker is requesting we pick up one of their men and ships." ordered Ensign Nog.

"Chief, I need you to beam the man on that 2nd fighter to sickbay," ordered Sicko. "Mr. Worf, get a tractor on that fighter. Doctor, get down to sickbay." Sisko then got on the comms with Riker. "If you don't mind waiting 15 minutes, we will be able to escort you to our base at Deep Space Nine. We have proper repair facilities along with recreational facilities for your men."

"Sir, we got the man aboard." reported Chief O'Brien.

"Thank you chief," responded Sisko. Sisko thought for a minute before giving his next order. "Dax, are there any survivors aboard those ships?"

"Let me see Sir," responded Dax. "I count 10 survivors on one of the Mirandas."

"Alright Old Man, maneuver in towards that ship," ordered Sisko. "Beam them to the brig chief." Once all were aboard, Sisko told Riker's formation to form up on the Defiant. He then ordered in a course for DS9 and had the formation warp out.

Captain Tanaka not getting any joy from the security officer returned to her ship and went to the bridge.

"hail the station" she ordered and said "i am Captain Tanaka from the Kirisuban exploration ship 'Shen Lung'.

I've heard rumours thats theres pirates nearby. if its true i'd like to help out in dealing with them"
"Major, we are getting a hail from a Kirisuban ship," reported Odo.

"On screen," ordered Kira. "We do have pirates in the area. We have dispatched a ship which has recently taken most of them out."

"it looks like we've missed the fun but we will be here for another day at least while our systems get overhauled" Captain Tanaka replied back with a slight smile on her face.

"we will be available if you need our help in any way"

Riker chuckled. "Yah, don't worry I can wait. Treat him good, he's the best I have."

Meanwhile Leftenant Command Roberto Villa (F-2) was beamed aboard the Sick Bay. As that happened, he was well, confused. Oh and his fighter blew up for some strange reason. He was in a fighter suit, like those of 21st Century Fighter pilots. Mask and all. To his side was a blaster pistol. He was confused, he never knew teleportation existed. He looked to his left, then his right.

"Aaah!!!" He screamed.

He ran out of the room, getting into one of the Defiant's many halls. He saw a random yellowshirt (redshirt in Kirk's case but this is DS9 so meh) and grabbed him by the coller.

"Where am I!??!" He shouted. "Tell me where I am!!!"

Meanwhile, Riker oblivious to what was going on, sent a message to the convoy. "All right guys, your engines ready?"

The Director sighed. "We only have enough energy for one warp. Just give us the coordinates and we'll meet you there." Riker did so. "Right, you guys ready?"

Riker and the squadren got into formation. "Yep, see ya there." And as such the convoy, squadran, and the Defiant went bye bye... and when they reached Deep Space Nine, Riker had one thing to say. "Wow... that's big."

(Don't worry about it. Sorry for the post =/)

Dr. Julian Bashir tried to calm down the pilot of F2 and explained to him that he was safely aboard the ISS Defiant and had nothing to fear right now. In order to assuage his fears, he was given a comm badge so he could talk to Riker.

The Defiant was now cruising at warp 5 towards DS9.

With Mr. Villa now sitting in the crew's mess, Bashir began examining the few survivors of the Miranda class vessel. He saw that one of them was a Vulcan. That was odd, he noted. The prisoners were all knocked out by a gas which kept them sedated. Bashir summoned Chief O'Brien to help him carry the Vulcan into the infirmary where he was strapped down. "Doesn't he look familiar?" asked Bashir.

"He sure does," responded O'Brien. "I just can't remember where exactly I saw him before."

"We better go summon the Captain," said Bashir. Bashir then remembered something, he tapped his comm badge. "Sir, this is Dr. Bashir. I think you might want to come down here and check out one of our prisoners."

Sisko knew that he wouldn't be summoned unless it was something important. He saw from a distance that the prisoner was wearing civilian clothes. As he neared, he saw it was a Vulcan. As he closed to a few feet, his mouth opened in shock. "Sollock!" he gasped as he saw that this Vulcan was a classmate and rival of his while at the Academy. Sollock had once defeated Sisko in a wrestling match and wrote a thesis based on that match about how Vulcans were superior to Humans. Sollock further proved that theory during a holosuite baseball game between Sollock's all Vulcan crew and the crew of DS9. The fact that Sollock was the man in the infirmary didn't matter much to Sisko. What did matter was that this pirate was a Starfleet officer. The reprecusions of this would be widespread through the Federation.

Sisko went into his cabin aboard the Defiant. He then summoned Dax with is comm badge. "Take a seat Old Man," he said as Dax entered the room. He explained to Dax that the person in the infirmary was Sollock. Dax had known of Sisko's dislike of this Vulcan ever since he had told Curzon about some of the events at the Academy. "So what do I do?" he asked his former mentor.

"I don't know Benjamin," she responded. "In normal circumstances, I contact Admiral Ross, but that doesn't seem to be a good idea right now?"

"Why not?" asked Sisko. He already knew the answer, but just wanted confirmation of his gut feeling.

"Because I think he might be involved," responded Dax. "Whenever we've had Orion Pirates or Maquis in the Badlands we have been sent out there to protect the merchant ships. This time we were explicitely ordered to not act. Now why do you think that's the case?"

"I'm afraid you are right Dax," responded Sisko. "I think in the meantime we shouldn't broadcast anything about having prisoners. We'll put them in a holding cell when we get to the station and interrogate them." Sisko then tapped his comm badge to contact Dr. Julian Bashir. "Doctor, please keep the prisoners sedated until I sayotherwise."

As the Sunflower Samurai gathered up the debris of the remaining wrecked Miranda's into her hold for transfer to SeaQuestian R&D facilities, one of the White Stars closed to a few light seconds from the IDF station known as DS9 and transmitted a docking request.

Sunflower Samurai - Bridge

"How are things coming?"

"Quite well, actually. Now that the pirate cowards have fled, we can salvage the wrecks as we want."

"Very good. I doubt they contain tech that could equal our own, but it would be interesting to see their original pirate owners' faces when they wind up fighting them after our guys have finished with them."

"You got that right," replied 'Sam' with a laugh.

OOC: Sorry for the short post, but there's not much else to say that isn't mentioned here.

(ooc: this is the nation I intended to RP as. It's a group of former colonys of Terren Planets that was abandoned. and better pic coming soon)

IC:
Just then another ship entered the system. It was similar to the Fighting Falcon, but much larger, at least 720 meters long. Five large double turrets lined the ship on the top and bottom. Two rows of smaller single turrets lined each side of the top hull. It made no attempt to hide its weapons, and was clearly a warship (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/lastscan.jpg).

On the bridge of this battleship, sailors sat restlessly at their stations, eager for battle. A large, muscular man walked up to the chair at the back of the bridge.
"Captain," he said, "We've picked up the Falcon's warp trail."
The man in the chair slowly stood. He was of average build for human and wore a heavy, black coat that stretched to his feet. On his head was a large black hat. (ooc: picture Barbosa from 'Pirates', but about 45 years old and black hair)
"How long ago?" he asked.
"Not very long," replied the 1st mate. "They should still be here. It also looks like a battle just finished. Many ships are drifting powerless as others salvage them."
"Good," said the captain. "Arm all weapons, raise shilds, and get the fighters ready. We're going in."

The ship began to move into the system on a course toward DS9...

OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11641202&postcount=29

Defiant got pulled off on anothe r mission, but she is done alrady with that one.

---------------------------------

IC: It had been a long day for Captain Sisko. He and his crew were exhausted. He was glad when he saw the large spacestation through the viewer. The Defiant slowed and docked at dockingbay 3. She had amazingly made it through the day with no damage. Her shields and ablative armor had worked as they were designed.

Sisko and his crew decided to head to Quark'ss first. They were just to pumped up to go to their quarters. This tradition of heading to Quark's to drink after battle had begun during the long days of the Dominion War. Why not do it once more?

Sisko and his crew also hoped to meet the crew of the Cassiopeian convoy they had helped earlier. He saw that the freighters were docked at the docking rings. The fighters would be impossible to see as they would be docked in an internal docking bay. Sisko figured that their crews would probably want a drink so he figured that they would also be at Quark's.

IDF had never before met the Cassiopeians. The IDF Empire was always eager to seek out ties with new civilizations. Sisko had performed First Contact with numerous species. They ranged from peaceful groups to the Jem Hadar, genetically engineered soldiers of the always warring Dominion.

Sisko had already realized that the Cassiopeian would likely be a group that IDF could be friendly with. Now it was his job to make it happen as he walked into the bar. He didn't know what Riker or his men looked like in person, but he was sure they would spot him in his uniform.

While the two remaining White Stars puttered about the star system gathering detailed data for the star charts, the third one of the trio could be seen docked to one of DS9's upper pylons. While most of the crew stayed aboard, the Captain and his first officer granted permission for a few groups to explore the station. In the meantime, the two also departed the ship to get in touch with the station's command staff.

The Captain, a member of a sub-species that had been developed through transgenics(sp?), had Nietzschean bone blades on his forearms and Mulian wings sprouting from his back which were snow white with silver tints.

The Commander, his first officer, was a pure-blooded female Mulian. Her wings were dirty white with black tints.

After consulting a map provided by the computer, they took a turbolift to as close to Ops as the computer indicated visitors to the station could get without authorization.

The Caribbean System;11643284'](ooc: this is the nation I intended to RP as. It's a group of former colonys of Terren Planets that was abandoned. and better pic coming soon)

IC:
Just then another ship entered the system. It was similar to the Fighting Falcon, but much larger, at least 720 meters long. Five large double turrets lined the ship on the top and bottom. Two rows of smaller single turrets lined each side of the top hull. It made no attempt to hide its weapons, and was clearly a warship (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/nx9100/lastscan.jpg).

On the bridge of this battleship, sailors sat restlessly at their stations, eager for battle. A large, muscular man walked up to the chair at the back of the bridge.
"Captain," he said, "We've picked up the Falcon's warp trail."
The man in the chair slowly stood. He was of average build for human and wore a heavy, black coat that stretched to his feet. On his head was a large black hat. (ooc: picture Barbosa from 'Pirates', but about 45 years old and black hair)
"How long ago?" he asked.
"Not very long," replied the 1st mate. "They should still be here. It also looks like a battle just finished. Many ships are drifting powerless as others salvage them."
"Good," said the captain. "Arm all weapons, raise shilds, and get the fighters ready. We're going in."

The ship began to move into the system on a course toward DS9...

OOC: Before I make an IC response, I have one question. Is this taking place near the Badlands where the battle took place or the Bajoran star system light-years distant where DS9 is?

Captain Tanaka's people had resumed their shore leave bar the skeleton bridge crew and the busy kirisuban engineers which would get their turn later on.

30 Kirisuban women were in Quarks doing the things people do there. playing Dabo, drinking, talking and fending of Quarks attentions.

Samurai-Commander Yukiko Mishima was in the group playing Dabo feeling some pity for the slightly underdressed Dabo girl who was spinning the wheel.

Quark had a lot to answer for as a kirisuban ensign poured her synthale over his head and strode back to her cluster of friends, her tall boots clicking on the metal floor.

Roberto sat at the bar, he sighed. He was... confused. The replicators to him seemed like magic, the uniforms seemed like something out of a TV show (wink wink nudge nudge) the fact that people weren't trying to kill themselves also impressed him. A peaceful civilization he thought, and they didn't use those blasted large dagger things. But, he felt like he needed to go on a rant.

"You know..." He stated to Riker. "I've seen alot of crap man. I was in one of the major battles, well, only battles the Commonwealth has been part of Aios, you were my leader back then too. We had to fight these large triangle shaped ships, Star Destroyers I think... and you know... they're everywhere the Navy has been exploring. I mean everytime we find a new lifeform, there's a bloody same ship. A dagger, with two globes on top, with the bridge right on target for any decent Admiral. But no, that doesn't even exist. In all my times flying I've yet to see anybody... smart. Now look I'm no military expert."

He paused. "Hell, I just shoot things, just like you, but. The ships just stand there while we fire on them from a far away distance. And then... there would be fighters. Thousands man, it's it's it's... no. Thousands of them! And you know what'd we do to them? We'd kill them, kill them all. Not us, but the bigger ships. Their ships can't handle fighters."

He continued. "I lost alot of friends today man. I lost more at Aios... and I would've probably lost more in another far flung battle if the Government were less peaceful."

He stood up. "All I want is that everytime we find a new civilization a new war doesn't start. Everytime we get shot, and every time we have to send thousands of nuclear weapons towards their ships. We'd glass the planets too, but that would be going to their level."

He took a deep breath. "I just want to live in peace!!"

He stopped. The room quieted, he was embarrassed. A small blush in his face. He sat. He turned to Riker who was still next to him. "Errrm... sorry Riker."

Roberto was always a curious sort. That's the reason he joined the Naval Fighter Corps, how easy is it to die in this great organization? Very, but not as bad as the sort he's faught. TIE Fighters mostly, but they were strange to him and he didn't call them by the formal name since the Cassiopeian Navy has never seen them before. In fact, they've never seen all of the ships they've seen. They never encountered tactics like that but they quickly adapted, though. But this was new to him, small ships with all this firepower. Technology lightyears ahead of what the Cassiopeians had... by that I mean replicators.

He was wearing a jumpsuit too, like that of a 21st Century Pilot. Just minus helmet now. He had a tan like most of them, and he had a face. With eyes. Some hair. Maybe a beard, no beard, it's up to you! All you!

Riker sighed. He was tanned as well, but he had a buzzcut. He also had a small scar on his right cheek, something he got at Aios when a fighter made his console explode. And of course, he was wearing a jumpsuit. Though it was his friend, John Doe (aka F-3) that saved him from dying. He was sad as well. Four of his friends died today. Of course what the squadren was feeling was just a minority in the activity of the bar. The RMC folk (you know, the guys in the freighter) were singing songs and talking about God knows what, they were happy that they were alive. Of course, they weren't friends with the people who died. The Director though was nowhere to be seen, he was inspecting the cargo.

Yes reason has given way, the adrenaline of the battle suppressed his feelings. Now he was feeling the impact, his childhood friend dead, and other close friends dead. To pirates... with Destroyers. Ah, it just dawned on him. How did pirates get such powerful ships? He would ask of course.

He stood up, putting up a half hearted smile and shook Sisko's hand. "I have a feeling you're the Captain, well... so am I." He said this in a weak manner, he was tired.

He continued. "I am Commander Riker of those five men." He pointed at the pilots drinking in the bar. "And those-" He pointed at the various persons in silver jumpsuits, they also had a purple line going to the right of them. "-are the folk you saved. They're part of the freighter carrying all that uranium. Anyway I wanna thank you for your help."

He paused. "I need to ask you two things, actually, various. Where exactly am I? How the Hell did pirates get ships that powerful? How much does all the alcolhol and other various drinks we're drinking costs? Oh and... how the Hell are they coming out of thin air."

He scratched the back of his head. "It's quite confusing."

(There we go IDF. Now we can talk about each other's cultures and become allies and pwn people >_>)

ooc: sorry, it's in the Bajoran star system. I'm having this ship hunting for the Falcon. Oh, it should be noted that unless I post otherwise, assume that all of my ships are individual pirates, not a unified fleet.

Sisko saw the Cassiopeian pilots. He saw that they were in a deep conversation about the battle and past ones they had had. He waited before Riker approached him and greetings were exchanged between the 2 COs.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," began Sisko. "Let me introduce you to my senior staff. "That woman over there is LT CDR Jadzia Dax, my Scient Officer. Our Doctor over here is LT Julian Bashir. The tall Klingon is my Tactical Operations Officer, LT CDR Worf. This man his my Engineer, Chief Miles O'Brien. His team is reparing your ships as we speak. My Executive Officer is unable to be here right now. She is up in Ops." Handshakes were exchanged among the pilots and Sisko's crew.

"As a representative of IDF, I welcome you to Deep Space Nine. This station is in the Bajor system at the mouth of the Bajoran Wormhole that connects the Alpha and Gamma Quadratns. I have been given the authority by my government to open up a permanent diplomatic dialogue between our people. My government believes in peaceful exploration and trade between galactic empires. We abide by our mission to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no one has gone before."

The question about the pirates came up. Sisko wanted to tell Riker what he knew, but disclosing any information about the pirates would jeapordize Sisko's own private investigation. He wanted to make sure no one other than his command crew knew that the Defiant had taken live prisoners. If Admiral Ross found out, then Sisko would be blocked at every turn. Sisko had to hide the truth when answering the question. "I have no clue about where those destroyers came from. Most groups in this area operate some type of variant of Miranda class destroyers. I even was the XO of one a decade ago. I am investigating this thoroughly. I will get you answers." Sisko was not lying in that last part. He would get answers. He didn't care about how far he had to go to do so.

"I will let you know that all of your drinks are on us," said a gleeful Sisko. "You are free to try the holosuites too." He then heard the remark about the replicators. "I'm not 100% positive on how they work, but I believe they use transporter technology to reassemble matter in the form of whatever food or beverage you request. If there is anything else you need, please feel free to ask."

"Dabo" was the womans cry as another Kirisuban won and Quark had even more reason to be depressed as the Kirisubans were on a lucky streak.

"those women will put me out of business" he tells Rom mournfully as a Kirisuban Lt orders a green tea from him.

She was like her other friends; short, dark haired haired, petit, young and good looking and had absolutely no interest in him.

she left with her tea and he adds "at least i might make the loss back on the food and drink"

Deep Space Nine

Sisko couldn't delay any longer. He had to deal with Sollock. He just needed to talk to Bashir first. "Doctor, do you have moment?" he asked as he entered the infirmary from the promenade entrace.

"Yes Sir, what do you need?" asked the young genetically engineered Doctor.

"How much will Sollock remember from right before we beamed him aboard the Defiant?" asked Sisko.

"Actually Sir, he probably won't know where he is when he awakes," began the Doctor. "He was unconcious before we beamed him over and we have kept him in a drug induced coma since that point."

"You're sure about this?" said Sisko.

"Absolutely Sir," responded the Doctor. "Why do you want to know?"

"I intend to have him interrogated," responded the Captain. "I don't want him to know where he is. Hopefully we can make him believe he is at his base. We need to find out who he is working for."

"I don't think we can make this infirmary look like any sort of asteroid base," responded the Doctor.

"What makes you say that he was on an asteroid base?" asked Sisko, who had just forgotten that the Doctor's enhanced brain gave him better reasoning power.

"Sir, it appears they were in bases in the Badlands," began Bashir. "I bet they are using some of the old Maquis bases that were abandoned after the Dominion came to wipe the Maquis out."

"Good thinking Doctor," responded Sisko. 'Damn, I should've thought of that' he thought to himself. "We will use the holosuite then Doctor."

"Alright Sir," responded Bashir, who was very experienced in holosuite programming. "I will use data from our previous trips to such bases."

----------------------------------------------------------

Bashir was as good as his word and hat the holosuite up in Quark's operating. Bashir adjusted the drug flow into Sollock to begin to bring him out of his coma. Sisko was standing by in the shadows. Odo, O'Brien and Dax stood by. They were all out of uniform and wearing clothing similar to the ones worn by the prisoners. It wasn't hard to replicate those simple designs.

"He should begin speaking any minute," stated Bashir. "He will be in a hazy sort of state for about a half hour. I don't think he will be able to recognize us at that point. I've also adjusted drug levels to make him more likely to give up important information."

It took 4 minutes, but the Vulcan prisoner had begun to come out of his coma. Odo decided to begin. "We thought we lost you Captain," he began.

"What? Where am I?" asked the Vulcan Captain.

"You are back at the main base," responded the Changeling.

"Did Captain Pike make it?" asked Odo.

SIsko heard the name Pike and flinched. Captain Pike had been a friend of his and the CO of the ISS Lantree. That ship had been attacked about a year before and Pike was supposed to have been killed. Something wasn't right here. He made a few notes about Pike on his PADD.

"I'm sorry Captain, he didn't make it," responded Odo. It was actually true. Pike had been killed earlier in the engagement. Odo was actually surprised that Sollock didn't recall that.

"Who rescued me then?"

"I think you know the answer to that one," responded Odo.

Sisko was worried that Odo's question wouldn't work and would effectively end the interrogation, but Odo was a pro at this. As Chief of Security, he knew how to get suspects to talk.

"I'd expect my old pal Luther to come through," responded the Vulcan. "Old Sloan is always reliable."

Now it was Bashir's turn to be shocked. By answering this question, the question on who was behind this was also answered. During the war, Luther Sloan had tested Dr. Julian Bashir to become an agent of a secret organization named Section 31. Bashir had refused the request yet still found himself on a mission for the group 1 year later. Sloan's involvement confirmed his worst fears. Starfleet was 100% responsible for the pirate attacks.

Odo continued interrogating Sollock for 20 more minutes before taking him to a holding cell and exposing the truth about Sollock's current situtation.

Once Odo and the prisoner left, Sisko decided to speak O'Brien, Dax, and Bashir.

"What are your thoughts?" he asked.

Bashir went first. "It's bad Sir. Luther Sloan is the same man who tried to recruit me for Section 31. I think we can safely say that they are responsible for this operation. I just don't know why Starfleet would ever consider any acts of piracy under any circumstace. Aren't we supposed to be fighting pirates?" Bashir was visibly angry and his vocal tones had confirmed it.

"I agree with you Doctor," responded the Captain. "It looks like Starfleet was involved. Now what do we do about it?"

"We can't do anything Sir!" responded Bashir. "Section 31 is too powerful. We tried unraveling them last year and Starfleet and the council refuse every inquiry we send. They are too well protected."

"Well Captain, we can't go to Admiral Ross," responded Dax. "We have reason to believe he is involved. After all, he was involved in the Operation that Julian was a part of."

"Well since we can't go to Starfleet, then why can't we do it ourselves?" asked O'Brien.

"I agree with the Chief," responded Sisko. "We need to take the Defiant out tomorrow into the Badlands. We need to explore some of those old Maquis bases. Get good sleep people. We'll need it. I also don't want word of this to spread to anyone else outside of Worf and Kira."

Riker snorted. "You know Rob..." He said. "... I have a feeling that this Sisko will want to keep us in the dark. I don't know, but. Those ships were too powerful to be for pirates, hell if I didn't know any better I might say those weapons were military grade. Because I sure as hell can't think that any decent peaceloving civlization sells those kind of ships."

Roberto looked at Riker. "True. But there's the fact that these are the same folk that helped us. Why would they attack us and then save us?"

Riker shrugged as he took another drink of his synthehol. "Hell I know, maybe it's some test of strength?" He paused. "Rob do you know where the Director is?'

Roberto paused. "...nope."

"Should we look for him?" Riker queried.

Roberto shook his head. "Nope." He said. "If anything he's probably in one of the freighters counting the uranium."

Riker nodded. "Yah you're probably right. It'd be funny as hell if he was trying to secure some sort of trade agreement. Not that that's legal..."

Roberto let out a small guffaw. "Since when was the Royal Mining Corporation known for being legal?"

Riker raised his right eyebrow. "... crap."

(Just some filler really. I'll do the next post later. IDF feel free to tell the Commander what happened.)

the overhaul of the 'Shen Lung' was continuing and as Captain Tanaka toured the ship to keep tabs on the repairs she mulled the pirates over.

she did know that the badlands had been a haven for the Maquis before and that they were a haven for space pirates now and even the mighty IDF fleet couldn't wipe them all out.

she also knew that she had to set off for Unity soon as well. Vice Admiral Fujimoto would not be pleased if she didn't join the Kagemon and the Tenchi on time.

Still she could have time for a look if she was quick and the cloaking device would keep them out of trouble...

(ooc: just to get this thread moving)

IC:

The unknown warship continued to move toward DS9 at 1/4 impulse with all weapons and shields armed...

OOC: I apologize for the long pause in posting, but I lead a VERY busy life that has 18 credit hours of college courses, ROTC, and pledgeship taking huge chunks of my time.

IC: The ISS DEFIANT departed DS9 the next day and began heading towards the badlands. "Any suggestions on finding the base?" he asked Jadzia.

"We have learned they have a system of sensor arrays," she responded. "We will have to travel cloaked in the badlands to make sure they don't find us."

"Won't that leave us vulnerable to the plasma storms?" asked Kira.

"Not really," responded O'Brien. "The ablative armor should protect the hull from most hits. We'll just have to be careful, but if any ship can survive the plasma storms without shields, it is this one."

"Very well then, Mr. O'Brien, engage cloaking device," ordered Sisko. The DEFIANT now moving at warp and under cloak. Only her navigational deflector protected the hull at this speed.

The small ship reached the edge of the badlands the next day. Sisko had the ship move at impulse speeds into the volatile region of space which once gave shelter to the Maquis and now did the same for these renegade pirates. Sisko would make sure that rogue groups learned the Badlands was not a safe place so long as his crew was after them.

"Captain! It's Drakor!" shouted the 1st mate.
"WHAT! We're getting out of here now!" Bradley responded.
The Falcon turned and jump to max warp out of the system...

================

On the bridge of this battleship, a sailor turned to the Captain. "Bradley just went to warp."
"Heading?" Drakor asked.
"Can't tell. They were far away. But I did detect his power signature for a moment."
"Very well," the Captain replied. "Mem, stand down for now. Bradley's heading to that station we heard about. Set course, warp six."

The ship turned away from DS9 and left the system...