NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: I will continue FT and MT RPing. I will clearly mark FT threads. SHould a thread not have FT in the title, then it's MT

IC: Admiral William Ross was pleased when the orders came through to Primus Station. Starfleet had grown tired over recent months of the constant stream of Cardassian vessels entering the space that was considered by IDF to be their own. Cardassians were using IDF space to travel to the Bajoran Wormhole where they could reach their Dominion trading partners in the Gamma Quadrant.

As a result, Cardassian ships were now considered to be belligerants supporting the Dominion. They were officially enemies of IDF and could be targetted.

The order to begin unrestricted warfare against Cardassian shipping went out on coded subspace frequencies to all Starfleet vessels.

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ISS GALAXY, NCC-501

The Galaxy was the newest ship in the fleet. Commanded by Captain Jean Luc Picard, she was the first of the new Galaxy class vessels. While she was officially designated as an "explorer," she was more of a battleship. Sure she had state of the art science labs and sensors, but she also had a large array of weapons and defensive systems.

"Sir, I'm picking up something on long range scanners," reported Data. "It seems to be Cardassian in origin."

Picard had recieved his orders only 15 minutes before and had alread briefed his senior staffs. He was in his ready room at the current time.

"Very Well Mr. Data," responded Commander Riker. "Red alert! Shields up! Captain Picard to the bridge." ordered Riker.

The ship's alarm klaxon sounded and red lights illuminated the passageways and compartments of the ship. Picard entered the bridge and Riker got up from the Captain's chair to move to the chair on the right side of Picard.

"Sir, the ship is a Galor class destroyer," reported Data.

"Ensign Crusher, prepare maneuvers for Attack Pattern Beta," ordered Picard. "Lieutenant Yar, prepare to fire when we move to 250,000 km."

Picard's orders were acknowledged. The ship moved within firing range and Picard gave the order. For the first time since her recent shakedown cruise, the Galaxy opened fire with phasers from varous seperate phaser arrays.

"Her port shield is down," reported Data. "She's turning into us and applying more power to her forward shield."

A large yellow phaser array came out of the orange weapon on the Galor's bow. The Galaxy's shields absorbed the blast.

"Fire a full spread of torpedoes!" ordered Picard. With that order 4 torpedoes fired in rapid succession out of each torpedo tube. The first 4 torpedoes weakened the bow shields and the final group of 4 managed to collapse the shield and damage the beam weapon on the Galor vessel. The Galaxy had recharged her phasers and was now circling through various arrays causing heavy damage to the ship. A pair of photon torpedoes from her aft tube managed to finisher her off as her warp core exploded.

"I'm reading no other enemy vessels," reported Data.

"Very well, stand down from red alert." ordered Picard.

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

At the mouth of the Bajoran Wormhole, the ISS Defiant caught a ltrio of larger Keldon class vessels leaving the wormhole.

The Defiant decloked on orders from Captain Sisko. "Chief, put auxiliary power to our pulse phasers! I want to make these Cardassians pay for trading with the Dominion."

Aboard the station Deep Space Nine, Major Kira Nerys was getting the station to red alert in order to support the Defiant with the station's own armaments. She liked the idea of attacking Cardassians no matter what the reason was.

It looked like Sisko and the Defiant would get the first action of the day in the Bajoran System. The ship had decloked at a point where she was on the aft of the Cardassian formation. The tiny 160 meter long vessel could outmaneuver the Cardassian vessels easily. "Mr. Worf! Lock quantum torpedoes on the main ship and fire!"

Each of the 2 forward quantum tubes fired a blue-white quantum torpedo at the enemy ship. They struck the ship in it's after portion breaking off a 50 meter long section of the aft. The rest of the ship began to swing out of countrol.

Worf had already locked the pulse phasers on this section and fired at the unshielded but still dangerous Keldon class vessel causing it to explode in a fireball.

At the helm, Jadzia Dax expertly conned the ship through the debris without hitting any major chunks of the destroyed vessel.

The 2 remaining Keldon class vessels used the time to outflank the Defiant. one had gotten behind the Starfleet warship and fired on her. Sparks flew from the rear of the bridge, but the shields still held. Two torpedoes from the rear tube were fired.

The Keldon class vessel had applied more power to her forward shields and absorbed the hits before firing again on Defiant. The Starfleet vessel fired her beam phaser at the vessel, but little effect was done on the shields. Sisko didn't want to turn to use his forward weapons as he was moving closer to the station and they could deal with this vessel.

The Keldon kept firing and ODN circuits began to blow, but the shields still held.

The Defiant fired her forward weapons at the lead Keldon collapsing its aft shield. Aft compressors fired from the enemy vessel. No damage was done to Defiant which fired another pair of quad bursts from its pulse phasers. After a few seconds, this was repeated. The enemy vessel got hit by a total of 16 phasers in rapid succession. It was evident that her power systems were fluctuating. A pair of torpedoes targetting her amidships from the port tube finished her off.

The remaining Keldon would've been a problem as the shields on the Defiant were nearly depleted. But, DS9 was within weapons range. A large spread of torpedoes from the station's #2 launcher finished the remaining Keldon class vessel.

((OC- What galaxy is this all taking place, just to be sure again.. =oo= ))

((OC- What galaxy is this all taking place, just to be sure again.. =oo= ))

OOC: It's all in the Milky Way

Starfleet vessels had actively been tracking and firing on Cardassian vessels for 18 hours now. Starfleet was still small with only 498 vessels. Some of which were undergoing refits or away on scientific expeditions.

Still, Starfleet vessels had registered 27 destroyed Cardassian vessels with no losses. The Cardassians had been caught off guard in the initial strike by Starfleet vessels. Future attacks would be against ships that were more ready.

((OC- Not sure how much interaction you want with me, so I'll play this conservative with my own forces. ))

---

Another battle for the Orbs to pick up. The galaxy was thick with such incidents, the Motherworld home Galaxy was bristling with such events. The TFU actions against waterhelper, the Chronosian Cluster campaign, diplomacy galore. The Orbs were always busy.

This time however, a pair of patrolling Sphere Light Cruiser Warships, on alert ever since the battle at GT-772.33 at the border of Sphere governed Confederacy space against the now half strength Dark Eternal forces, Folded into the edge of the combat zone. As Sphere forces treated whole swaths of star systems as singular entities as battle is concerned, the battles in this area of space were noted at large scales.

About as soon as it was detected, the scooted out like scaredy animals, a prudent move for those not involved in other's matters. They kept at the edge of things on orders soon after, coordinating a new series of Comm-Orbs within hours, at extreme edges of the combat zone.

They took it slow, quiet and easy, they had no reason to interfere.

OOC: Tag for later.

The Oberth class scout ISS Cochrane NCC-14 was one of the oldest ships in Starfleet. At over 50 years old, she had seen better days. The Oberth class vessels were never combat vessels. They had been designed as scientific exploration vessels. Their only true combat usage was as a large science pod if their engineering hull were converted.

The Cochrane wasn't fitted for such a mission. She left the Vesuvi system at warp. Her scanners picked up a larger object coming out of the nearby Badlands. The contact was a Galor class cruiser.

"Red alert! Shields up!" ordered Commander Styles. "Conn, maximum warp to Primus station. Comms, put out a distress call."

The ship made the maneuvers, but communications were jammed. The larger and faster warship quickly caught up with the older vessel.

"Conn, evasive maneuvers!" The order came too late as the compressors fired at the vessel. The Cocherane dropped out of warp as a result of the hit. With only a single photon tube and a pair of phaser emitters, the ship was defenseless.

"Chief Engineer, auxiliary power to the shields!" ordered the Captain. A torpedo struck the ship and the rear flat panel controls on the recently refitted bridge exploded in a fireball that sent the now dead Chief Engineer halfway across the bridge.

The Science Officer looked at his own readouts and saw that the Cocherane's shields were down to 5%. Just then a compressor shot took them down.

The Galor continued to fire. A single Compressor strike to the port side of the engineering hull took down the warp containment field. Within 10 seconds, a catastrophic warp core breach caused by an out of control matter/anti-matter reaction destroyed the Cocherane with all hands. Eighty lives were lost in the Oberth class vessel.

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

Elsewhere near the Badlands, several squadrons of Miranda class destroyers were patrolling the area frequented by Cardassians. Each squadron consisted of 3 Miranda class vessels traveling together to make sure they could handle Keldons.

The ISS Essex was also an older ship. She was originally built as a Constitution class battle-cruiser. She had recieved a major refit 20 years into her life. She was still considred a Constution class vessel, but many now called it Enterprise class as the ISS Enterprise was the first to recieve refit. The Constitution class had been redesignated as simply cruisers following the development of the the Excelsior class.

The Essex NCC-28 was under the command of a Shakaar Edon. Shakaar was a Bajoran who had formed a powerful resistance cell against the Cardassian occupiers. Many credited his cell with breaking the back of Cardassia's Central Command. The opportunity now presented to him was one he had always wanted. He was now in command of a vessel powerful enough to fight on even terms with Cardassians.

"Sir, we have a Cardassian transport headed towards Cardassia Prime," reported a Bajoran Science Officer.

"Scan it," ordred Shakaar.

"I am scanning it as a civilian transport with 500 passengers," came the response.

"Battlestations!" ordered Shakaar. There were no objections to this order. Most of his crew was formed by Bajorans who had wanted this opportunity.

The Essex quickly gained on the Cardassian transport and opened fire without warning. A stream of phasers shot out from the saucer section of the 45 year old starship. They struck the transport. The first phaser was enough to take her shields out while the 2nd beam cut across her hull.

Gas vented into space from the breached hull. Inside the Cardassian vessel, the situation was grave. Many civilians were wounded since gravity had been lost on this hit. They went flying against the bulkheads as the ship heeled to starboard.

Phasers from the starboard bank fired and did further damage to the vessel. Many decks had hull breaches. Further damage took out the inertial dampeners. Most of the passengers were now dead or wounded from collisions with bulkheads or the fact that the air in their compartments had vented out to space.

The Essex turned to starboard so a single photon torpedo could finish the ship off. This hit broke the vessel into 2 parts.

With the job done, the Essex withdrew from the combat to leave the destroyed Cardassian vessel in the depths of space.

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

A galor class destroyer did hear a distress call that got off before the Essex opened fire. The vessel dropped out of warp on the Starfleet vessel's port bow.

Shakaar ordered the Essex to open fire. Minimal damage was done to the Destroyer's shields.

The Galor and Constitution class vessels exchanged fire for 20 minutes before the Galor class vessel withdrew with heavy damage.

The Essex wasn't much better off. There were severe hull breaches in her secondar hull. Shakaar got lucky in the sense that the Cardassians didn't use their opportunity to kill his vessel. Perhaps they didn't know where the Achiles Heel on Constitution class vessels was. That was a comforting thought for future engagements.

The Essex departed for Deep Space Nine for much needed repairs.

The Rapier-class recon ship Macchiavelli entered the system under cloak. Its pilot, Akidaso, watched the battle with interest. He decided to track the Essex back home to Deep Space 9.

However, he neglected to check his capacitor status. It ran out, and the Macchiavelli decloaked less than 15 kilometers from the station. Akidaso decided to send out a mayday call. The nearest Goonswarm ship was the Jerusalem IV, piloted by Nachshon. But Nachshon was over a day away.

The observing Gaian vessels reported back with the disturbing events taking place, apparently both sides breaking any honor code of standard warfare, targeting weaker ships before stronger ones.

Admiral Yurika ordered no intervention, but brought the matter to attention of Strategic and Diplomatic Advisories. The worry was it all would spread to outside realms.

When word of the Goonswarm vessel got through the Comm-Orb network, it seemed that may exactly happen.

The Rapier-class recon ship Macchiavelli entered the system under cloak. Its pilot, Akidaso, watched the battle with interest. He decided to track the Essex back home to Deep Space 9.

However, he neglected to check his capacitor status. It ran out, and the Macchiavelli decloaked less than 15 kilometers from the station. Akidaso decided to send out a mayday call. The nearest Goonswarm ship was the Jerusalem IV, piloted by Nachshon. But Nachshon was over a day away.

Unidentified ship, this is the Space Station DS9. We are dispatching the Runabout Rio Grande to your position to offer assistance.

ooc idf can i send a battle patroll

(OOC: Akidoso, that signal was sent on an internal channel, intended only for Goonswarm ships. Decrypting would not be difficult if you have a powerful enough computer [you do], but you would have to actually feed the data in. The mayday call was just in case you reacted negatively to a strange ship decloaking next to your station.)

ooc: oh, my, it's been a long time since I dusted off the link to these forums... Mind if I grind off the rust here?

My people are in an awkward position which even I don't fully understand, so if they seem to be acting strange...

Ic: The SGDK had second thoughts about its plans with the Republic, and sought to keep its options open. Rational and reasoning behind this and much of their current affairs were locked up in the massive bureaucracy. All that mattered, however, was that they were here. Ironically, the KishKar was also a ship built for war on an exploratory mission, one which would take them unknowingly deep into Federation territory.

A silent flash brings them into existance. The whole event was very insignificant, less than a kilometer of ship 'came to be' in that open place- hardly filling the empty and ever thirsty viod. It, however, was not alone.

For an instant, all was quiet.

Suddenly space became very loud. Not, of course, with sound as that did not travel through emptiness, but with radiation. Energy of many sorts screamed out of the cruiser as it scanned the area and announced its presence. Most of it returned, having bounced off of some object and now being swallowed and analyzed by sensors banks and computers.

Information poured across displays at high speed, was routed, routed, and routed again until finally the silence was broken. "Vessels detected! Lots of synthetic objects in the area! Definitely colonized by advanced life." Specifics began to op up every where. Representations of everything in the system sprang up as holograms above tacti-tables. The bridge was alive with activity.

Commander Stonebreaker stood from his chair. "Let them speak first..."

ooc: It's very open about the situation and location, so put them where ever you want them.

a 12 ship battle patrol exited slip stream coms to idf station we are here to assit

Yet another ship arrived, this one actually in need of help. The Jerusalem IV, commanded by Nachshon, had answered the Macchiavelli's distress call.

Realizing that no harm was intended to his ally, Nachshon decided to respond to the station.

"This is the Jerusalem IV. I am in need of assistance - my armor is shot to hell. You wouldn't happen to have public repair facilities?"

While waiting for the response, Nachshon and Akidaso scanned and analyzed all ships in the system.

OOC: For anyone who scans the Jerusalem IV or the Macchiavelli, here are their weapon loadouts:

Jerusalem IV (Caracal-class cruiser) (http://www.eve-online.com/itemdatabase/ships/cruisers/caldari/621.asp)
3 assault missile launchers, loaded with Bloodclaw gravitic missiles
2 heavy missile launchers, loaded with Scourge gravitic missiles

Macchiavelli (Rapier-class recon ship) (http://www.eve-online.com/itemdatabase/ships/reconships/minmatar/11963.asp)
1 heavy missile launcher, loaded with Havoc-class thermonuclear missiles.
2 medium-sized autocannons, loaded with proton shells

OOC: Able to continue this one now

IC:

The ISS Galaxy was really gunning it as she streaked across the stars at warp factor 9.6.

"How much longer Mr. Data?" asked Picard as he sipped a cup of Earl Grey tea.

"We should approach the Cardassian convoy in about 5 minutes," responded the Android.

Picard noted that the Android didn't even have to use the computer to make those calculations. "Lieutenant Yar! Red alert!" ordred Picard. The klaxon sounded as red lights came on to replace the white lights.

The Galaxy slowed to warp factor 5 as she opened fire and began the battle at warp. Her Type XII phasers targetted the warp engines of one of the 4 cargo ships in the convoy. She dropped out of warp along with the 2 galor class escorts.

The Galaxy then dropped out of warp herself and fired aft torpedoes at the cargo vessel. The spread of 4 torpedoes struck the ship and she exploded in a shower of sparks.

The 2 galors had taken positions off the Galaxy's beam. They were firing their own compressed phaser arrays. The Galaxy's shields were at 90% and holding.

"Wesley, hard to starboard!" ordered Picard. "Maneuver to bring charged weapon arrays on the target."

Orange phaser beams shot out of the saucer section of the vessel at one of the Galors. She then dove to allow the phaser arrays attached to her warp nacelles to fire on the vessel. Her aft torpedoes weren't loaded so the Galaxy continued to maneuver to allow other phaser arrays to pummel the destroyer. It was too easy. The Galor class destroyers were no match for the flagship of Starfleet.

The Galor shook violently as her shields were failing. The Galaxy was just firing phasers at them like a machine gun fires bullets. One concentrated beam from the Galaxy's ventral saucer array struck the torpedo room of the Galor causing a chain reaction explosion that destroyed the Cardassian vessels.

The Galaxy was now in a 1 on 1 engagement with the remaining destroyer. Eight photons were fired from the forward tubes. They made quick work of the enemy vessel.

The Galaxy went to warp to chase down the 3 other merchant vessels of the convoy. She destroyed 2 of them before having to turn back because the final one was leading the Galaxy towards 7 Galor and Keldon class vessels. One of the 3 destroyed merchant vessels was carrying 1,200 orphans from an outer colony of Cardassia.

Picard was unaware of that fact as emmissions from the vessel blocked his scanners. The Galaxy moved at warp factor 9.2 to head to DS9 where she would restock on photons.

ISS Columbia NCC-35

The ISS Columbia was one of the oldest vessels in the galaxy. She was worlds apart from a ship like the Galaxy or even Kirk's Enterprise. She was an NX-class vessel. She was the second of a class that had started with Captain Archer's Enterprise over a century ago.

When the IDF had split off from the United Federation of Planets decades ago, the century old Columbia had been thrown in as a gift from Starfleet for planetary defense.

Today, the vessel was manned by a primarily Andorian crew and was used for escorting convoys between Bajor and Primus through what was relatively secure space. The Columbia didn't have to escort anyone on her current voyage back to Primus Station. She was returning from DS9 and heading to the primary Starbase of IDF for a 2 week overhaul.

"Sir, we have an unknown contact coming out of the Badlands," reported the Science Officer.

"Any indications of who they are?" asked the CO.

"None, the plasma storms are interfering with our sensors," responded the LT.

"Tactical, go to yellow alert!" ordered the CO.

"Aye, going to yellow alert," responded the Tactical Officer. "Phase cannons are charged and the structural integrity field is at full strength."

The Columbia continued at warp factor 5.2, but the unknown vessel was closing on them.

"Sir! It's a Cardassian Galor!" yelled the Science Officer.

"Red alert!" ordered the CO. "Conn take evasive maneuvers."

The Columbia put out a distress call but it was too late. The first shot from the vessel struck the port warp nacelle. The old NX class vessel was unshielded. A blue plasma trail streaked out of the nacelle and the ship slowed to warp factor 2. A second shot pulverized the nacelle and it burst into a thousand pieces.

The Columbia spun to port as she dropped out of warp. The inertial dampeners were unable to compensate for the violent motions of the ship. The bridge crew and others aboard the ship were thrown from their feet or chairs and hurled against the bulkheads.

Further hits struck the dorsal saucer and punched holes into the hull. Structural integrity fields kept the ship from suffering a severe depressurization, but it did little good.

"Sir, weapons are offline!" reported the Tactical Officer. It appeared that the first few shots had blown out key ODNs for the weapon systems.

"Conn, ramming speed!" ordered the CO.

"Negative Sir, we have lost impulse power and our auxiliary generators are powering the structural integrity field."

The enemy continued to strike the Columbia. The old warhorse had finally had enough. One good ship to her port quarter caused the field to fail and the ship blew apart. All 85 crew members were lost.

OOC: Um, any response to my ships?

Yet another ship arrived, this one actually in need of help. The Jerusalem IV, commanded by Nachshon, had answered the Macchiavelli's distress call.

Realizing that no harm was intended to his ally, Nachshon decided to respond to the station.

"This is the Jerusalem IV. I am in need of assistance - my armor is shot to hell. You wouldn't happen to have public repair facilities?"

While waiting for the response, Nachshon and Akidaso scanned and analyzed all ships in the system.

OOC: For anyone who scans the Jerusalem IV or the Macchiavelli, here are their weapon loadouts:

Jerusalem IV (Caracal-class cruiser) (http://www.eve-online.com/itemdatabase/ships/cruisers/caldari/621.asp)
3 assault missile launchers, loaded with Bloodclaw gravitic missiles
2 heavy missile launchers, loaded with Scourge gravitic missiles

Macchiavelli (Rapier-class recon ship) (http://www.eve-online.com/itemdatabase/ships/reconships/minmatar/11963.asp)
1 heavy missile launcher, loaded with Havoc-class thermonuclear missiles.
2 medium-sized autocannons, loaded with proton shellsMajor Kira's day was just getting busier and busier. "Jerusalem IV, this is the space station Deep Space Nine. We will be able to offer you assistance. Stand by for our tractor beams to bring you to upper docking pylon 3."

The attacks against the Cardassian ships in the Alpha Quadrant had yet seen any response from the Dominion. For the 20,000 people aboard Deep Space Nine every day, the threat of the Dominion was very real. Every day as he made his security rounds, Constable Odo would look out the viewport towards the wormhole and home.

He had rejected life as a Founder when he had discovered his past the previous year. He was ashamed by the atrocities committed by his people and their genetically engineered soldiers, the Jem'Hadar. As others looked out at the wormhole daily out of fear, he looked at it with a certain longing for the day he could be proud to live as a changeling without having the crimes of his people tagged to him. He wanted to live with his people without having to feel the guilt for what they had done and planned to do with those whom they referred to as the "solids."

Today was no different. He looked out at the wormhole as he saw an Oberth class scout return back to the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. The gong aboard the station sounded and Odo's comm badge chirped. "Odo here," he said.

Sisko's voice came through the sound badge. "Meet me in the wardroom."

Odo took the turbolift. He went into the wardroom where the senior officers and staff were assembled.

"As you know, the Cardassians have obtained smuggled Dominion weapons over the past year," began Sisko. "This was one of the reasons for our blockade of Cardassia and the openning of hostilities with them. It appears that the Cardassians and Dominion are closer than we were led to believe. It appears they have been in talks for an alliance for the past couple of years.

"We have reason to believe that the Detapa Council has not been supportive of these talks and that the military and Obsidian Order have been doing this behind their backs. All indiciations are that Gul S.G. Dukat is behind the alliance talks. With Legate Damar and the rest of the Cardassian military behind him, it looks like the Detapa Council will yield should the talks be successful. If that happens, the Cardassians will have a dangerous enemy capable of conquering the entire Alpha Quadrant.

"While the alliance hasn't been finalized, the Dominion will reportedly be sending aid through the wormhole to Cardassian forces. One of our scouts, the ISS Vico reported squadrons of Jem'Hadar Attack Ships moving towards the wormhole earlier today. It looks like we might end up in a war with the Dominion gentlemen. Our orders are to put up resistance should any ships move through. It is likely we are going to be tested first before a large flotilla comes through. The Defiant will be ready to meet them along with the ships at this station. Dismissed."

With the meeting done, Sisko, Odo, Dax, Worf, O'Brien, Bashir, Kira, and 36 other personnel took the turbolifts to the Defiant.

The vessel came to life in a matter of minutes and departed under impulse to the wormhole. Nutrino emmissions from the wormhole had increased within the past minute indicating incoming ships.

Sisko was right, the Dominion would test him first. A squadron of 3 Attack ships came out of the wormhole.

The vessels came out firing with their phased polaron beams. The Defiant was skillfully piloted by Jadzia Dax and was able to avoid many of the ships. Her aft torpedoes were fired by Worf. Dax then had the ship make a quick half loop so her forward weapons could fire on the enemy vessels. As Dax made the maneuver, her husband fired two bursts from the quad phaser cannons. Those coupled with the launch of a pair of quantum torpedoes from each of the forward tubes caused one of the Jem'Hadar vessels to explode. The Defiant flew through the shower of sparks as small chunks of debris flickered across her shield bubble.

The 2 Jem'Hadar ships had taken positions to the aft of the Defiant and fired at her. During their first engagement with Jem'Hadar ships, Starfleet shields couldn't deal with the polaron weapons. Starfleet had improved their shield harmonics, but still wasn't able to stop 100% of the shots. One of the beams struck the port nacelle of the Defiant. Chief O'Brien flinched as sparks shot out from his control surface.

"That was too close for comfort," he remarked.

"Chief, how are the shields holding?"

"Aft shield is at 60%," responded the Chief. Just then a pair of torpedoes struck the Defiant. There was an explosion in the rear of the ship and a red shirted female ensign flew across the bridge.

"Dr. Bashir to the bridge!" yelled Sisko. The Doctor came up, but the Ensign was already clearly dead.

After a few skillful maneuvers, the Defiant was making an attack run on an enemy vessel. Worf fired with ease on the enemy vessel and destroyed her in 1 pass.

The Defiant was now 1 on 1 with Jem'Hadar Attack Ship commanded by a familiar Vorta, Keevan. Sisko had actually been familiar with Keevan's preceding clone, Keevan V. Keevan VI was a different being sharing Keevan's memories and nothing more.

Keevan had a good 1st aboard his vessel. The first was responsible for piloting his ship and had been able to get on the Defiant's port quarter. The vessel fired 2 phased polaron beams and a torpedo.

The Defiant's shields were down over the port and aft sections. The Defiant was still not too vulnerable as Sisko had plated her with ablative armor. She fired from her phaser emitter and aft photon tubes doing some damage to the enemy shields.

The Jem'Hadar fired a polaron beam at the Defiant's port nacelle causing some scarring along the hull and the Starfleet vessel vented some plasna into space. The ship then swung around and was able to fire it's pulse phasers taking down the Jem'Hadar's shields. With another shot from the phaser emitter, the ship's power supply had been cut.

"Sir, the ship's warp core is on a runaway reaction," reported Major Kira.

"Chief, set up a containment field around 2 one of the cabins and beam aboard the Vorta," ordered Sisko.

"What about the Jem'Hadar?" asked O'Brien.

"You heard the order Chief!" barked Sisko. "Besides, you know our containment fields don't work with them." The action was done and the Defiant returned back to DS9 where repair crews were standing by. In the end, 3 enemy ships had been destroyed and 1 Vorta was captured. One officer aboard the Defiant had been killed and four others were injured.

(OOC: Alright, to make things more interesting I'll move in on the Cardassians' side. It seems <undefined> sided at the moment.)

"Unrestrained assaults on civilian vessels, direct attacks on civilian transports - this is an outrage!" fumed Captain Hans Kasefaust. "Sweep the trade routes. The next time the IDA strikes at a civilian convoy we're going to be there."

"Sir, we don't have auth-"

"This is a blatant violation of accepted codes of war. We are authorised to act."

"But not a battleship, sir."

"You've got a point. We'll send in a couple of cruisers - a battleship would just be escalating."

---

They kept their word - the trade convoys were watched, and soon enough, there was another incident.

Two Ozymandias Cruisers, the Shelley and the Monarch materialised near the cargo hauler, weapons online.

"Cease all aggression towards civilian vessels at once or face the consequences. You are in direct contravention of acceptable codes of conduct in warfare."

OOC: Um, any response to my ships?

Same here. Surely a large, totally unknown vessel appearing through the use of a totally unknown technology would spark some interest with someone? I've seen plenty of ST, and even (especially, perhaps) at war we'd be noticed. I'm not particularly attached or tied down here, though, so if you'd prefer I could just drop out...

The two Gaian Avalon Class Light Crusiers were ordered to take a risk, and begin deeper powered scans of the entire IDF and effective combat areas, as the war apparently began to escalate even further. They got backup of a Derin`nir class Heavy Crusier Treeship, all three ordered to make detailed scans of the conflict zone.

Comm-Orbs were redeployed away from the old TFU-Waterhelper theater of the MWCG, and over to this sector of space, so scan resolution detail was enhanced. The Sphere decided to gain some of what they were after, in this passive manner, rather than approach like the Hakurabi were conducting.

Unless one of the parties approached them involved, the Sphere would get a great deal of data from all of this. The Sphere however was looking for a way to interceede for diplomatic avenues to resolve all this, but doing so just yet would do little else but get the Gaians involved in another war. The old United Mankind War taught the Sphere that lesson too well.

At least they would 'try' and not become involved.

Same here. Surely a large, totally unknown vessel appearing through the use of a totally unknown technology would spark some interest with someone? I've seen plenty of ST, and even (especially, perhaps) at war we'd be noticed. I'm not particularly attached or tied down here, though, so if you'd prefer I could just drop out...

OOC: Sorry about that

IC: The large unkown vessel was detected on DS9's long range sensors as she came out of the plasma storm interference provided by the Badlands.

"Major, I'm getting someting on long range scanners!" reported a Bajoran Science Officer.

"Chief, put more power on sensors," ordered Major Kira. "I want to know who they are and what they are doing so near to us. Ensign Nog, try to raise them on hailing frequencies. Tell the Oberth to prepare to depart if we don't ger a response."

(OOC: Alright, to make things more interesting I'll move in on the Cardassians' side. It seems <undefined> sided at the moment.)

"Unrestrained assaults on civilian vessels, direct attacks on civilian transports - this is an outrage!" fumed Captain Hans Kasefaust. "Sweep the trade routes. The next time the IDA strikes at a civilian convoy we're going to be there."

"Sir, we don't have auth-"

"This is a blatant violation of accepted codes of war. We are authorised to act."

"But not a battleship, sir."

"You've got a point. We'll send in a couple of cruisers - a battleship would just be escalating."

---

They kept their word - the trade convoys were watched, and soon enough, there was another incident.

Two Ozymandias Cruisers, the Shelley and the Monarch materialised near the cargo hauler, weapons online.

"Cease all aggression towards civilian vessels at once or face the consequences. You are in direct contravention of acceptable codes of conduct in warfare."

Captain Keogh didn't have the time to screw around with this distraction. "This is Captain Keogh of the Starfleet vessel ISS Odyssey. You are interfering in a Starfleet operation and we ask you to leave this area and not interfere with our mission."

With that done, the Galaxy class starship and the escorting ISS Albany, an Akira class vessel, went to red alert and engaged a Jem'Hadar Attack ship that was escorting a Cardassian transport.

The Akira class ship was smaller than the Galaxy class vessel, but she was armed with Quantum torpdoes. The ship used it's forward 2 tubes to fire a spread of 10 quantum torpdoes at the Jem'Hadar ship. Six of the 10 torpedoes struck the shielded enemy vessel. The torpedoes took down her shields allowing the Albany to use her phasers to cripple the vessel. A single photon torpedo from the aft tube finished her off.

The larger Odyssey went after the transport. A spread of 2 photon torpedoes was enough to take down the dorsal shield of the Cardassian transport. Ventral phasers from the saucer and engineering hull cut into thenemy ship's duranium hull. The Odyssey maneuvered to allow an aft torpedo to finish her off with a hit to the area surrounding her warp core.

All of this was done in plain site for the Hakurabi vessels to witness.

Onboard Deep Space Nine
Nachshon had watched the battle from the station. He might have even participated, except repairs to his ship were still underway. Akidaso was also in the system, but he wasn't going to put the Macchiavelli into combat alone. He had watched the battle while under cloak.

Nachshon heard a small beeping sound. It was the rental com badge.

"Aminadav here."
"Mr. Aminadav, your ship's repairs are complete."
"On my way."

No sooner had the Cardassian transport exploded that the Jerusalem IV was away.

Due to the escalation of the quasi war, a small number of the ships away on exploration missions were recalled in order to partake in combat operations. One of the ships was famous ISS Enterprise NCC-22 commanded by Captain James T. Kirk.

The Enterprise had been 10 months into a 5 year exploration mission when she was recalled back to IDF space. It was planned that she would make a few trips back to IDF space during the course of her mission, but this was 3 months ahead of schedule. Kirk realized it must've been urgent.

The 20 year old Constitution class vessel was fully operational at the current moment. If one looked at the vessel, they wouldn't have guessed so. The numerous duranium hull patches used to patch up breaches from her last battle with Klingon vessels were quite visible. Due to the fact that Kirk was on a tight schedule, he didn't have time for his ship to be painted before she departed for IDF Space.

The 305 meter long starship came out of warp near the Denorios Belt and continued under impulse for a few minutes before docking on Lower Pylon 1 at Deep Space Nine.

The crew of 350 people was glad to have a chance to enjoy the promenade while Starfleet engineers assigned to the station made some additional repairs and made some equipment upgrades. The ship's stores were also restocked with everything the ship would need for 24 months. Starfleet wanted her to carry an extra complement of photon torpedoes, but they decided there was no safe way to carry the extra armamanets.

After the crew had a few days of R&R, the the Enterprise departed and set a course for the Badlands where she would patrol the area of space for any Cardassian activity.

After only 72 hours of patrol, the ISS Enterprise had detected an oddity near the Badlands.

"Spock, any clue what it is?" asked Kirk.

"Scanners are unable to penetrate the plasma storms Captain," responded the Vulcan as he looked into the blue lit scope. "Whatever it is, it is going to emerge from the Badlands near our position."

"Come on Spock!" exclaimed McCoy. "It has to be a hostile ship. Why would he be taking such a dangerous route unless they wanted to hide from us."

"I was merely stating what I new Doctor," responded the Vulcan. "You know as well as I do that it is possible you are right, but it is pointless to speculate too much."

As Bones was about to start, Kirk cut him off, "Gentlemen, let's leave this discussion alone." He then turned to Checkov. "Checkov, go to yellow alert."

"Aye Sir! Energizing defense wields."

Sulu had brought the Enterprise to 1500 km from the point where the target would emerge.

"Jim, the emissions from the plasma storm are lessening," reported Spock. "The ship's signature seems consistant with a Cardassian destroyer."

"Red alert! Shields up!" ordered Kirk. Red lights lit the bridge of the ISS Enterprise as the klaxon wailed throughout the ship. "Lock phasers on target!"

The Galor emerged and the ventral phaser banks fired streaming orange beams of energy against the Galor's shields. Before the Galor could fire, the 2 torpedo tubes each fired a pair of photon torpedoes.

"Report Mr. Spock!" ordered Kirk.

"The Galor's foreward shields are at 70%," reported Spock. "No damage to the enemy and they are preparing to fire."

The enemy fired. The Enterprise shook. Her shields were upgraded to deal with Cardassian weaponry, but the old Constitution (refit) class vessel was vulnerable.

Kirk returned fire out of the starboard phaser banks. While the Galor's shields were still up, it was hoped some energy would overload circuits aboard the ship and cause damage.

The Galor didn't show any damage though and she fired on the starboard hull of the Enterprise. The shields were unable to deal with the immense power and an ODN router in the bridge overhead overloaded and exploded sending sparks and wires down over the bridge.

"Damage report!" yelled Kirk.

"Shields are at 50% and environmental controls are compromised," reported Spock.

The Enterprise fired another burst of phasers and torpedoes. They did some slight damage to the systems of the Galor, but her shields held steady.

The Galor returned fire and collapsed the port shield of the Enterprise.

"Scotty I need auxiliary power on the port shields!" yelled Kirk.

"It's no use Sir," responded Scotty. "The shield is down for a while. I can put it to phasers if you need."

"Get on it!" ordered Kirk. "Sulu, continue phaser fire!" The Enterprise fired her phasers and took down the forward shield of the Galor.

The Galor was still firing and her compressed phasers struck breached the port hull. A long black scorch mark was left on the exterior of the ship.

Inside the Enterprise, it was much worse. The ship heeled hard to starboard as a result of the hit and every man was thrown off his feet. There were fires aboard the ship from overloading ODNs.

As soon as Sulu stabalized the vessel, Checkov fired a spread of torpedoes. They struck the port pylon and ripped it off of the Galor. The hit took out 2 of the enemie's 4 weapon mounts.

The Galor quickly responded by firing at the port underside of the saucer. The resulting impact blew out some hull plates of the Enterprise and took out her port phaser ventral assembly. There were severe fires in the saucer section in the areas affected by the hit.

The Enterprise fired forward phasers at the ship and was ble to hit anti-matter containment pods in an area that was now unshielded. The resulting chain reaction ripped a massive hull breach along the dorsal portion of the Cardassian vessel.

The men aboard the Cardassian vessel now knew they would be dead soon, but they kept on fighting. THe ship put all of her power to her weapon systems. The Cardassian vessel fired short bursts from her compressor phasers striking the port nacelle and portions of the engineering hull.

The Enterprise was now severely damaged, but still able to fight. Her port torpedo tube had been destroyed by one of the hits and her warp drive had been compromised by the hits, but the ship wore on and was able to fire 2 torpedoes from the starboard tube. They struck the "head" of the vessel and the Cardassian vesel broke apart.

"Stand down from Red Alert," ordered Kirk as he wiped sweat from his face. "Scotty, damage report."

"She's bad Captain," responded the Scottsman. "The mains have to be taken off-line. We have radiation leaks down here. Fire suppression systems are having trouble coping with the saucer section fires. We have the fires in the engineering hull contianed, but they did a lot of damage. Impulse engines and auxiliary power generators are damaged, but will be able to function at about 50% efficiency still. Our port nacelle took a serious hit. It won't matter for now though. We aren't going to warp without the main enegerizer online. Our port phaser is completely destroyed beyond repair and the port torpedo tube is out of commission for a couple of days. She took a licking Sir."

"Acknowledge Scotty," responded Kirk. "Uhura, put a message out to Starfleet. Tell them of our situation and ask them for an escort until we can warp to a starbase for repairs."

Admiral Ross was looking over the reports while sipping a tea aboard Deep Space Nine. Starfleet was winning a great victory in the month long engagement with Cardassian forces. Over 200 enemy warships had been destroyed along with 400 non-combatants. Starfleet had only lost 40 ships in the war, but that was nearly 10% of of strength.

The worse news was the number of heavily damaged ships. While shipbuilding was on the rise, it would be hampered by the resources going to repair heavily damaged vessels. The news of the Enterprise being heavily damaged was just the latest blow.

Many of Starfleet's most experienced officers were killed or wounded and some of its top of the line ships were going to require months of repair work.

He was glad that the Akiras were rushed onto the front lines. The appearance of a new class of battlecruisers with the ability to fire a spread of 15 torpedoes greatly improved Starfleet's overall firepower. It still wasn't enough to overcome the likely increase of Dominion involvement.

Ross thought long and hard. IDF didn't have the resources to replaced the fleet on its own. It looked like he would have to begin purchsing ships abroad or even enlisting the help of the Orion Syndicate.

OOC: You might consider contacting me. While I won't be able to sell you ships, I have plenty of minerals.

Three brand new ships departed Utopia Planitia Shipyards in orbit of Primus IV. The three ships were the ISS Intrepid, ISS Bellerophon, and the ISS Voyager. All three were of the new Intrepid class. They were officially classified as explorers when ordered, but due to the current war they would be unofficially termed as cruisers.

Designed as scientific and deep space exploration vessels, they were also capable warships. They had 13 Type X phaser arrays and 4 torpedo tubes. The forward 2 were capable of firing tri-cobalt devices. The vessel also had a new type of shield dubbed "regenerative shielding."

The ship's impulse engines were capable of propeling the ship to .75c and her warp engines had variable geometry-pylons for the nacelles. The new system allowed the vessel to travel at warp 9.975. This made her by far the fastest vessel in Starfleet.

The trio of starships had an abbreviated shakedown cruise before each of them departed for Deep Space Nine. The three ships were immediately tasked with patrolling a region near the Badlands.

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

Two weeks later, the ISS Voyager became the first of her class to enter combat.

"Commander, we have company headed for the wormhole," reported Ensign Harry Kim. "It's a Keldon."

"Red alert! Shields up Mr. Tuvok!" ordered Chakotay. "Captain Janeway to the bridge."

Lieutenant Tom Paris took the Voyager to warp factor 7 to get in a good intercept position. The vessel came out of warp and began firing a spread of 6 torpedoes from the forward tubes at the dorsal shields. Janeway had Paris use the vessel's maneuverability to keep out of most of the Cardassian's weapon arcs.

The Voyager fired her phaser arrays to pummel the dorsal shields. The Voyager took some hits, but she her new shields were able to deal with most of the hits. The Keldon's shields were down soon. As soon as the shields fell, the Voyager fired a pair of tri-cobalt devices which destroyed the enemy vessel.

(OOC: New Oxford ships. Hakurabi does not exist as an RP entity.)

Hopefully it should be fine RPing that the lasers hit - after all, the cruisers are pretty close to the transport and )

As the Albany finished off the escorting vessel, the Cruisers made their move.

Captain Harvard Ferrola shook his head. "I was afraid it would come to this."

"Acquire lock on the Odyssey and fire Starboard Laser Array. Prime Plasma and Gauss weapon banks. All hands on deck!"

The Shelley fired a barrage of laser cannons into the saucer of the Odyssey, the invisible lances of light slicing through the void of empty space to reach their prey.

So too did the Monarch move against the Odyssey, firing its Port Laser Banks into the warship that was known as the Odyssey.

---

"The attacks have increased in frequency, Captain."

"Blast - have astrogation start plotting attack sites and post scouts to sweep the area for their base of operations."

"Yes, sir."

We don't have enough ships to beat them in a traditional war - their hit and run tactics mean that they can destroy the weaker ships with near impunity and all we are able to do is retaliate...

"We're getting a treasure trove of vessel information here. I feel bad doing it this way, but still. We're still looking for an excuse to send in a formal diplomatic team. We can't find a good one other than blundering in like fools looking to get shot at."

Lady Diana had taken personal direction of the operation after a Damin`car Dreadnaught Treeship and a Caprica Class BattleStar joined the three ship flotilla already present. The Confederacy fleet needs 'that' important after two weeks of scans, to attempt a diplomatic envoy, but also to increase intellegence resolution. While morbid all to be sure, the unique war here was also fascinating to the Sphere Alliance Fleet and Universe Commanders.

She was speaking of such with Lady Yurika over secure Hikari Net, getting in return.. ":: ~ Not a good plan. His Excellency still isn't pleased you took leave of duties to oversee this project. You better live through this, or I actually might 'not'. Having Gen-Refab tech can have disadvantages you know. ~ ::" ..this making Diana cringe at the thought.

"Don't worry, if any hostile fire comes, we have the drives on emergency jump to a three light-year radii.

But I'm seriously still looking for a good way to approach to achieve a diplomatic solution. Still, we've been able to get scans of entire starship classes from several apparent fleets, and even starbase types from long range. We're still keeping in mind the mandate for the acquisition of the datacores without salvaging hulls, to make official clam of the technology base.

At least his Fathersty is being flexible enough in other ways to acquire data. Approaching the IDF at present is risky. There's too much fighting. And the Hakurabi involved themselves, which means risking a widening conflict. We know others are watching this war, one way or the other."

Yurika leaned hard into the holscreen image on her end, and stressed. ":: ~ So I make it 'really' clear. At the first sign of trouble, get your ass out of there. You have no other orders to follow but that one in a worst case situation. We'll take the diplomatic heat for it later. Lives are more important here, not ego. Got me lady? ~ ::"

Lady Diana gulped a bit, knowing her elder was not joking around with this. She nodded. "Yes Milady."

Yurika pulled back and sighed. Diana did too. "Sorry, ever since Ruri and Hori died at GT-772.33, before Regen, I've been overly protective lately of my family." ..she said of the 'entire' Council Family, about as close as non-relative blood can be as family, it was a line that blurred two centuries ago, and grew into a diamond hard bond ever since then. Yurika about as considered Diana a daughter as Aleaic and Jennifer did by blood birth. Diana smiled and nodded. "I'll be very careful."

"Thank you."

--

It seemed like the Gaians went in direct convention against that very discussion, when the two new vessels in the theater Folded to a point intersecting the war boundries of the IDF and Cardassian realms, three light-years away from the border. Lady Diana was in the mood to agitate the waters a bit, to see what came through the ripples.

Still, they played it careful after they arrived via Fold jump. Any more than a ripple would make them blink. Blinking did many things. (removed dust from eyes, stuck a hair in an eyelense, made blindness for a moment..)

Careful as non-paranoids could be.....

The ISS Odyssey took evasive maneuvers as the weapons struck the shield bubble of the 5 million metric ton warship.

The bridge shook and sparks flew as the shields absorbed the blasts. "Dorsal shields at 70%," reported the XO.

"TAO, lock onto the the Shelley and fire!" ordered Captain Keogh. "Chief Engineer, engergize auxiliary generators and put auxiliary power to the shields. Conn, attack pattern Picard Delta. Comms, contact Starfleet. Get them to send us support." The ship heeled to the left as she took another hit. More sparks flew from some consoles in the aft of the bridge.

The large warship fired phaser arrays from her dorsal saucer strip and from the phaser array strips on her nacelles. Then the rear hull strips shot out their orange lights as every phaser within the dorsal firing arc lit up the sky. The Odyssey then made a diving motion to allow a spread of 4 torpedoes from her rear tubes to fire on the Shelley while 8 photon torpedoes from her forward tubes raced for the Monarch.

With her dorsal phasers recharging and her torpedo tubes in the process of reloading, the Galaxy class vessel fired her ventral saucer phaser and the ventral forward hull phaser array at the Monarch. The Odyssey didn't attempt evasive maneuvers as her dozen phaser arrays recharged and 3 torpedo launchers reloaded. The vessel was so large that it was pointless. She instead positioned herself for her next attack. She continued to take hits too. All emergency and auxiliary power had been routed to her shield generators.

The ISS Albany had now finished with the Jem'Hadar vessel. the Albany came in under full impulse and fired a spread of 10 quantum torpedoes from her forward 2 tubes at a distance of over 3 million km. The torpedoes traveled at warp speed towards their target, the Shelley..

The Albany then closed and fired her forward phaser banks from the array strips along her saucer. She had far less phaser arrrays than the larger Galaxy class, but her torpedo tubes could fire more torpedoes per spread and the torpedoes she carried were the far deadlier quantum torpedoes, which were developed to deal with the Borg threat.

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

In another portion of the sector, the Defiant class "escort" ISS Valiant picked up the distress call. Her commanding officer ordered blue alert and the vessel cloaked. She then went at maximum warp towards the battlezone. She was about 15-20 minutes away. The chances were that the battle would long be over before she would arrive, but she was still the closest vessel to offer assistance.

(OOC: The so-called 'plasma cannons' are actually a lot closer to 'ion cannons' as they hurl the ionised gas at relativistic velocities instead of the traditional Sci-Fi 'slow moving pulse of plasma' sort of thing.

Mind you, Laser cannons won't cause shock or anything - they're lasers, not artillery shells. They slice.)

"We're picking up communications traffic, sir." called the Comunications Officer onboard the Shelley.

"Send word to the fleet - I think they'll want to know about this. Fire all weapons, cycle starboard laser cooler loads!"

The sensor arrays lit up, notifying the crew of incoming projectiles.

"Sub-Relativistic Seeker-type projectiles incoming!"

"Hold port laser banks and shoot them down! What's the estimate?"

"As far as we can tell, sir, it's an atomic-type explosive. Non-Directed."

---
Evasive maneuvers were pointless at this range - none of the ships could move fast enough to avoid the fire being streamed out from all ships.

Chemical cocktails flushed through the hot laser banks, reacting and venting into the cold of space, taking the heat with them, even as the Cruisers engaged their thrusters.

Brilliant bluish streaks were lanced from both sides of the Shelley at the Odyssey, while slugs of solid tungsten were fired from the gauss cannons and the distinctive orange fusion trails of eight Contra-Terrene Missiles left from around the rear belt of the ship.

The seeking torpedoes chased after the Shelley, which was itself not politely giving the IDF ships the advantage of maneuverability, and were being cut down one by one by the laser banks, the quantums being knocked out primarily due to the large turning radius caused by such high speeds - it was fortunate that the cruisers were not as slow or walrus-like as the lumbering borg cubes. Impact occurred as two photon torpedoes and one quantum were detonated by the ionic shields, causing a localised burn through on the upper port side of the ship, a brief jet of cooler spurting out before it was sealed.

The phaser arrays primarily had the effect of ramping up the load on the shields, and while they certainly had an effect as the absorption of the energy filled the shield banks, anything more than token structural damage was yet to occur (ie. Not combat affecting. Yet.).

The Monarch was struck by all four photon torpedoes and experienced a momentary failure in port weapons systems and a seconds-long sensor out as a number of detectors were destroyed and new ones had to be extended. The ship moved to chase the larger Odyssey and fired its plasma cannons and gauss weaponry at the rear, forming up a vague pincer attack with the Shelley.

It was perhaps a good thing that the Ozymandias class lacked such creature comforts of Starfleet ships - such petty things as individual cabins and luxury facilities took up so much space. On the other hand, such superflous items did absorb damage which would otherwise have affected more essential systems.

The Odyssey's dorsal shield had taken a beating. Captain Keogh ordered his Conn Officer to constantly keep the ship turning. This wouldn't do anything to dodge incoming shots, but it served the double advantage of allowing the Galaxy class vessel to cycle through all 12 phaser arrays. At least one phaser array was firing on an enemy vessel at all times. The second advantage of the maneuvers was that it allowed the starship to divide the hits against seperate shield sections. Starfleet vessels had 6 seperate shield sections. Each one was independent of the others so the loss of one section would allow a smart captain to keep fire off of the vulnerable hull. With the dorsal shields down to only 40%, the ship was maneuvering to avoid shots against that section of her hull.

There was no significant hull damage to the Odyssey, but some ODNs had been overloaded. THe vessel had some back-up systems so she could continue to operate at full capacity. If she took more hits, she would start to have some problems. Four of the missiles fired at Odyssey struck her. The other 4 were destroyed by a pair of point defense phaser emmiters.

The four that did hit the Galaxy class starship struck the rear of the ship. One of them was able to get a large portion of its energy through the weakened shield. It damaged the port warp nacelle. The nacelle showed some black scorch marks and the blue lights flickered shwoing the nacelle was damaged.

The Akira class ISS Albany made a quick half loop so her aft tubes could fire 5 quick photon bursts at the Shelley.

"Sir, they are still concentrating fire on the Odyssey," reported a Klingon TAO aboard the battle-cruiser. "Sir, I want to request permission to try the Samson Maneuver."

"Are you sure about that?" asked the CO.

"Today is a good day to die," responded the TAO.

"Permission granted," responded the Captain.

With the permission given, the TAO was beamed via site-to-site transport to a Runabout aboard the Albany. The runabout departed the shuttlebay and shield buble through a gap opened in the aft shield of the battle-cruiser.

The Klingon Lieutenant punched in computer commands and the runabout lined up with the Shelley. With that done, the Lieutenant brought the vessel up to warp speed to ram the hostile cruiser. It was a suicide mission, but it would hopefully destroy the hostile vessel.

The Albany continued to fire phasers as her massive torpedo launchers reloaded. The Akira class cruiser kept closing the distance towards the hostile ships so her weapons fire would have more effect. Her Captain didn't like the idea of Operation Samson, but he hoped the sacrifice his TAO was about to make would save more lives aboard the ISS Odyssey.

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

The ISS Valiant was now 7 minutes away from the battle. "I need more engine power!" remarked the CO.

"The engines are powerful," remarked her Chief Engineer. "Anything more and they will rip the ship apart."

"Don't worry," remarked her Tactical Action Officer. "We'll get there and come out of our cloak firing."

OOC

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=513171

This whole thing will culminate into a situation like the Dominion War. Think of my quasi war with Cardassia as something like the Klingon-Cardassian War seen in Season 4 of DS9. THere will be a brief peace and then I want to get a huge Dominon War going on.

(OOC: While I'm not really familiar with Star Trek canon, I find it highly amusing that the Odyssey is taking damage identical to its canon counterpart.

Remember, as far as they know the klingon-in-a-runabout was just an extraordinarily large missile.)

"Our missiles appear to go right through their shields, sir!"

"Astounding! I don't doubt we could ram straight through them if we wanted."

A sudden shuddering of the bridge occurred as an expendable version of a canon character impacted the ship.

"What the hell was that?"

Sirens blared, as automated damage control measures were put in action.

Warning, breach in module 6D, all personnel are to vacate immediately. Breach in module 6D.

Thirty seconds later, airlocks shut to prevent depressurisation and vac-suit teams headed out to retrieve what they could and to erect a temporary wall to render the area usable again. Combat-wise, the result was that the effectiveness of the starboard laser banks was reduced by 25%.

"Damn, if they keep sending missiles that big we're not going to survive for long. At least they're still too far to target the hole we've got in our armour now."

At which point the radar tech noticed something about the IDF ships.

"Odd, their sensor signature is changing every so often." He tapped the screen a little.

"Sweep it with the scanners. It's probably a bug but we can't be too sure."

The Odyssey appeared on a sensor display.

"Why, it's a freq-shield! I haven't seen one of those for years! Well, we can't act on it yet, but get the frequency all the same. Don't sync until I give the order."

The sensor tech left to have one of the computer techs put it through.

"Line us up so we've got a clean shot at the joint. We're going to cut them in half."

---
The phasers were starting to give an effect, though the ablative armour was still taking most of the damage. The photon torpedoes had the effect of crippling two of the missile launchers.

More disturbing was the Shelley and Monarch lining up on either side of the Odyssey, and the fact that their plasma cannons and gauss guns were firing on the Albany.

As the Odyssey slowly turned, they began to pick up speed. As they passed by (it's still at hundreds of kilometres, no chance for a crash) they fired their laser cannons at maximum power at the joint connecting the saucer to its warp drives. What synchronisation they had calculated was incorporated into the laser fire rate and used in the hopes that they could bisect the entire ship in one go.

OOC: I might be wrong here, but from what I gathered based on the wording, you were firing at the "neck" of the ship between the saucer and engineering section

IC

The laser shots had found a way to match the frequency of the ISS Odyssey. It took a few devastating seconds before Captain Keogh realized what had happened. "Chief! Change shield frequencies at random every 10 seconds!" yelled the Captain. With the shields changing, it would be hard for them to get lucky again.

It wouldn't matter too much though, the hits against the Odyssey had lowered her port shields to 20% and much of the energy of of the cannons was getting through the shields.

The vessel's hull was covered in scorch marks. The cutters had don severe damage to the rear of the neck. The central impulse engine was destroyed as were half of the impulse generators. While force fields kept the ship from depressurizing, the hull breaches would still require repairs. The hits had sparked some fires which the fire suppression systems had trouble containing.

"Engineering, damage report," asked Keogh as his ship shook as it absorbed shots.

"We have hull breaches on decks 23-26. Fires are burning out of control. our forward torpedo room is on the verge of being engulfed by these fires. Our aft dorsal phaser arrays are out. So that means 10 of our phaser arrays are still optional, but we only have our rear torpedo tubes. Our impulse power has been cut by 50%. Damage to ODN relays has reduced Warp Core Power Efficiency to 66%. Auxiliary generators have all of their power diverted to the shields, and our batteries are providing power to the structural integrity field to control the hull breaches." The vessel shook again. "We now have a hull breach on the dorsal section of the dorsal saucer section at deck 4. Force fields are up and stable."

Aboard the bridge, it was a mess. Wires had fallen from the overhead as ODN cables in the ceiling exploded from the overloads they were suffering. The Odyssey was still firing at both vessels. Her shields were on the verge of collapse and failing to stop many of the shots that were incoming.

Another shot got through the dorsal shield and struck the main hangarbay. The resulting overload caused the Science station in the rear of the bridge to explode. A pair red-shirted Lieutenants who were near the console were sent flying forward. They were clearly dead.

The comm line with Engineering opened again as the Chief Engineer called up to the bridge. "Captain, the situation is now beyond critical. The Warp Core containment field is down." Another shot hit the bridge and gas began seeping from the core. "I've lost containment! We have 2 minutes to a warp core breach."

Initiate site-to-site transport of as much of the crew in the engineering section and perform saucer seperation!" ordered Captain Keogh.

"It's no good," responded the Conn. "The vessel has taken too much damage for saucer seperation."

"Very well," responded the Captain as he showed poise while receiving the death sentence. "Engineering, divert power to the engines. Put whatever you have from auxiliary generators and the warp core into the impulse engines. Conn, Get as close the Shelley as you can. Chief, when I give the signal detonate the warp core. We're dying on our own terms and taking them with us."

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

As all of this was happening, the ISS Albany made a move to get to a safe distance from the impending explosion. He knew what the Odyssey's explosion would destroy anything nearby.

While the Albany kept her distance, she continued firing. Now her fire was concentrated at the Monarch.

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

The ISS Valiant was now only 90 seconds from droppingher warp and cloak to enter the battle.

(OOC: Yes, you've got it right. It is after all possibly the most obvious point of attack if you've got a weapon that slices more than anything.

Postmortem, based on the damage you played out I'd say most of the lethal damage was electronic and not so much actual hull damage.)

"Mission kill confirmed, sir. The Odyssey is down and the Albany is running."

"Press the advantage and chase the escort. Hostile Reinforcements are probably going to arrive soon and we want to wrap this up before they get here. As we move past it again finish slicing through the neck."

Overall they were in reasonable shape, though an entire module of the Shelley was rendered unusable and both ships had lost a considerable amount of their port and starboard weaponry respectively thanks to their gambit to move close enough to aim for specific parts of the larger ship.

As they passed what was left of the weapons were fired into the ailing Odyssey's neck - a move which would prove nearly fatal in their ignorance of the Warp Drive's inner workings.

The battle between the IDF and Hakurabi vessels were picked up by now, by the Comm-Orbs nearest to the location. The informaton was relayed to the Lady Diana's Treeship with great concern.

"Damn those two idiots." ..she seethed at the in coming data. "If this gets further out of hand..."

She turned in a decent huff away from the datascreen near Sensors Sector and past a couple of crewmembers to head to Tactica. She needed to know if their ships would have to intervene in a war that was looking like the worst case scenario. Communications and realtime data was going to have to be watched very carefully. If further Hikarabi, or allied ships from nations friendly to either side got involved, the Gaians might be forced to step in finally.

She felt like she was about to lie to Lady Yurika. It was tightrope time.

(OOC: Again, it would be New Oxford. As I put in my sig, Hakurabi is nonexistant as a RP entity.)

The ISS Albany had used her impulse engines to move to a safe distance. Her Captain looked at the view screen as over 1,200 of his friends and colleauges were about to meet their end.

On the bridge of the Odyssey, Captain Keogh saw to it that the Albany was away before he gave the order. "Distance to the enemy ships," he asked to his Tactical Officer.

"We are fairly close," responded a LT CDR.

"Chief Engineer, now," came the order.

With the order, the already unstable core had what was left of its containment field dropped. The already accelerating matter-antimatter reaction further accelerated to the point where a catastrophic explosion occured from the dangerous reaction.

Within a second, the entire ISS Odyssey was vaporized by the explosion which engulfed a large area of space. The largest chunks of the vessel were reduced to the size of dust particles by the explosion.

The bridge crew aboard the Albany knew it was coming, but they couldn't prepare for the shock of seeing 1,200 fellow Starfleet personnel die in what was in the end a sacrifice to help the Albany.

Due to the size and magnitude of the explosion, it would take a few seconds for the scanners to pick up anything of the 2 New Oxford cruisers, if they survived that is. Should they've survived, they would likely be damaged and the Albany was ready to deal with them if needed.

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

The ISS Valiant was too far away to visually see the battle. The forward view screen did show the explosion though since it was large enough to be seen from a distance. The vessel was now under a minute away from entering the battle. She was still cranking it in excess of warp factor 9.

Captain Ramirez and his crew knew what the explosion was. They had heard the audio calls from Albany as she worked to keep Valiant informed of the tactical situation.

Should any vessels still be out there, they would get a painful dose from the Valiant.

At 120 meters, she was a small and fast ship. Unlike the now deceased Odyssey, she didn't use any of her space for science labs or comfort. She was built as a warship. Perhaps she would've been called a battleship had Stafleet had such a designation. Instead she was given the more politically pleasing designation of "escort." The vessel had powerful rapid fire pulse phasers. She also had quantum torpedoes from 3 forward and 2 rear launchers and she also had beam phasers.

Captain Ramirez's ship was still on blue alert as she was cloaked. Weapons and shields were on standbye. The crew was at battlestations. The wapons and shields would be activated and the vessel would be at red alert the instant she dropped her warp and cloak.

OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12180246&postcount=4

That thread shows the state of relations between me and the Cardassians.

(OOC: Also, if you'll take note of the psychology behind this skirmish - as far as the New Oxford fleet is concerned, your ships were engaging in no more than government-sanctioned piracy. That, and the N.O. leadership is not actually involved in this.)

The detonation of the Odyssey was one that both ships were woefully underprepared for. Their shields were discharged in an instant, both generators blowing out and dropping their measure of radiation protection. The ablative armour evaporated into the cold of space, and the corridors were purged of life.

As the wave of destruction from the unstable core passed, those still alive on both ships took roster of what was left. Between the ships there was perhaps enough for a single spaceworthy vessel. While both ships appeared to be mostly intact, given the lack of any localised detonations, and any fires that may have sprung up were instantly put out by the cold vacuum of space.

The two ships, irrepairably damaged, slowly moved together using a curious combination of crippled impulse drives and vented gases. As the skeletal-looking ships silently came together, crushing exposed supports and cooked sensors, little vac-suited crewmen welded the husks together.

Amazingly (or not, depending on your familiarity with the Ozymandias' design), the ship reactors were still contained, as were the all-important hyperdrives - a side effect of the extra armour shielding vital components and rooms.

The almost sensor dead ships began to whirr online as life support was reactivated and the gaps sealed.

The ISS Albany witnessed that the 2 vessels survived the detonation, but were at a state where they could be called "crippled."

"Comm, tell the Valiant to remain cloaked pending what happens next," began the CO of the Albany. "Open a hailing frequency to those cruisers. 'This is the Starfleet vessel Albany. We request that you vacate the area or else we will have to resume the confrontation'."

Many on the bridge were shocked by this message. They expected the vessel to engage the 2 cruisers immediately. 1,200 of their fellow Starfleet personnel had been killed and nothing was going to happen. Where was the logic in this?

The Albany's CO knew that the conflict had begun entirely by accident. The gesture of allowing the 2 cruisers to survive could go a long way in preventing a long term war with New Oxford. The prospect of a war with the Dominion made this a very precarious situation for Starfleet at the moment. The Cardassian War was nearing a close and Starfleet needed a period of peace to rebuild and prepare for the coming onslaught of Dominion vessels into the Alpha Quadrant.

It was hoped the New Oxford ships would see the gesture and leave the area. If not, then the Albany and Valiant were ready to strike.

(OOC: They're not just 'crippled'. They're crippled crippled. As in no longer recognisable as cruisers any more.)

The metallic block that once was two cruisers, having no surviving method of receiving the hailing frequency, merely drifted there in space.

(OOC: Sorry, just edited the post. I think it might be better to leave them stranded for a bit. It'd go a bit longer in allowing negotiations.)

(OOC: Sorry, just edited the post. I think it might be better to leave them stranded for a bit. It'd go a bit longer in allowing negotiations.)

OOC: I'll edit my above post sometime tomorrow

((OC- TG me both of ya if you want me to enter this fray or not. Seems as proper a time for a diplomatic solution, Gaian style. =^^= ))

OOC: Really busy ATM. I will have a post tomorrow

The 2 vessels were unresponsive to hails. The Albany still refrained from firing though. The lack of aggressive moves from the vessels combined with the lack of comms led to the reasonable conclusion that the vessels wer heavily damaged.

"Well, any ideas?" asked the CO of the Albany.

"I think we should have the Valiant decloak and try to get closer to communicate," responded the XO.

"That's a good idea," began the Science Officer. "Her ablative armor and shield modulations will allow her to survive shots if fired upon, but based on my sensor readings we shouldn't even have to worry about it."

"It is a good idea," began the CO. "But I don't want to risk it regardless. I want us to just sit tight here and observe. Comms, call in to Starfleet and ask them to send the Voyager here. I want to see if we could use her medical facilities to treat wounded aboard those vessels. She has an EMH system so they can treat wounded without the risk of transmitting diseases or risking a Doctor."

"I'm going to go out and try to signal those vessels. Hand me a spotlight."

Lieutenant Jael Kardon climbed out of a surviving airlock dragging what appeared to be a large spotlight. Soon followed by another space-suited figure, the large light flicked on and off periodically. While there was no direction in particular they could identify, they slowly pivoted and moved along the hull in an attempt to signal the far off ships.

"I'm going to go out and try to signal those vessels. Hand me a spotlight."

Lieutenant Jael Kardon climbed out of a surviving airlock dragging what appeared to be a large spotlight. Soon followed by another space-suited figure, the large light flicked on and off periodically. While there was no direction in particular they could identify, they slowly pivoted and moved along the hull in an attempt to signal the far off ships.

The Runabout Ganges was nearing the 2 crippled vessels when its co-pilot spotted the light. "They're trying to signal us," he reported.

"Inform the Albany and try to signal back to them," Ordered the Pilot. "Send the the signal, 'we are here to assist you. A medical ship is en-route to treat your wounded'"

There was no reply as the space suited figures continued moving around. Eventually, they climbed back into the wreck that-was-once-a-ship and waited. Their life support systems would not last long enough to squander more on attempts to signal their former adversaries.

"All we can do now is sit and wait."

There was no reply as the space suited figures continued moving around. Eventually, they climbed back into the wreck that-was-once-a-ship and waited. Their life support systems would not last long enough to squander more on attempts to signal their former adversaries.

"All we can do now is sit and wait."

"Sir, sensors show their life support is failing," reported the Science Officer aboard the Albany. "We have no time to wait for Voyager.

"Alright, transporter room, beam survivors to either sickbay or the cargo holds based on their condition," ordered the Captain. "Have the finternal orce fields on standbye and post security personnel near those areas."

The order was done and the transporters began beaming out survivors from the 2 wrecks. The Valiant stood by. She was much too small to think about taking on survivors from those vessels.

"Comms, call Starfleet and tell them we need a larger cruiser," ordered the CO.

"Starfleet has said that the Voyager is 30 minutes away and the Ambassador class Zhukov is an hour away," responded the Comms Officer.

"That should do," responded the CO. "Chief, how is the transport coming along?"

"We have half of them aboard," responded the Chief Engineer. "We are treating the wounded."

OOC: This thread has some of the info about the political situation:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=513171

IC: After engaging in talks for over a week, it was decided that Gul Dukat and his delegation representing the Cardassian Leadership would be meeting with Sisko and Federation officials on DS9. There were rumors floating around the station that Weyoun, the Vorta and true overseer of the Dominion in the Alpha Quadrant, would be attending with the Cardassians. It was only a rumor, but such news could mean the alliance was almost signed.

There was talk of the Tholians and Breen signing NAPs with the Dominion. There was even a rumor the Romulans were on the verge of signing one. It looked like Starfleet and a few other small groups might have to stand on their own in a couple of years when the war would break out.

Many of the beamed across crew were already in vacuum suits, in anticipation of the raising CO2 levels.

Lt. Kardon was one of the last to arrive on the vessel, and was still in his vac-suit. Removing the helmet and following the others who had been teleported across to the ship, he hailed down someone who appeared to be either command staff or security.

"I am Lieutenant Jael Kardon, of the Shelley, and the highest ranking surviving officer. I wish to speak with your captain."

Many of the beamed across crew were already in vacuum suits, in anticipation of the raising CO2 levels.

Lt. Kardon was one of the last to arrive on the vessel, and was still in his vac-suit. Removing the helmet and following the others who had been teleported across to the ship, he hailed down someone who appeared to be either command staff or security.

"I am Lieutenant Jael Kardon, of the Shelley, and the highest ranking surviving officer. I wish to speak with your captain."

The CMO took charge. "HOld on there Lieutenant," ordered the Doctor as he pulled out a medical tri-corder. "Let me just check you for injury. After that you will be free to use the Comm system. You don't have much to worry about. You are not going to be held as a POW and will be returned to your government in a prompt matter." The examination was complete and the patient was found to be healthy. He was then given a comm link to communicate to the Captain of the Albany.

Nodding, the Lieutanant took the communicator and, taking a moment to examine the controls, he contacted the bridge.

"This is Lieutenant Jael Kardon, formerly of the Shelley. I wish to speak with the Captain."

Nodding, the Lieutanant took the communicator and, taking a moment to examine the controls, he contacted the bridge.

"This is Lieutenant Jael Kardon, formerly of the Shelley. I wish to speak with the Captain."

"This is Captain Toras of the Albany. We are waiting in the area for 2 more vessels. Once they arrive inside the hour, we will depart for the spacestation Deep Space Nine. From there, we will organize transportation to your homeworld. If you have any requests, let me know."

The talks had lasted for over 3 days, but Captain Sisko and Gul Dukat had been able to reach a cease-fire. Dukat and Weyoun put on the usual show about how this would be a lasting period of peace. Sisko knew none of this was true and that the Dominion was just buying time and setting up a foothold to attack the Alpha Quadrant.

By this time the small fleet patrol observing the situation decided to end their involvement in the affair. Comm-Orbs were left in place at the fringes of the entire sector, but Lady Diana and her assets were finally ordered away from the area by Republic Fleet Command.

Meanwhile the Sphere did begin patrol maneuvers to locate the edge of the Dominion held areas of space for future reference. Two ship groups would hop around the MWCG to focus on communications for Dominion based warships, and relatively quickly located them about equadistant across the galaxy, from where the DCR territory was.

The Sphere just didn't have the justification to enter the situation, diplomatically or otherwise. Withdrawing seemed the appropriate measure for now.

(OOC: GAH! Lost my link for this thread. Sorry. Let's just skip a bit further on, shall we?)

--Deep Space Nine, 30 Light Minutes away--
"Well then, it appears we've got a major misunderstanding. Well, the piracy appears to have stopped, so we'd best sort this out before it gets any bigger, sir."

"Right. Command's given us orders to resolve this, anyway. Disable weapons and ionic shielding."

"Aye, sir."

The fleet proceeded towards the station, with their weapons disarmed and shielding, however meagre, offline.