Drums of War (Part 6)

ORIGINAL WRITING This page was originally published elsewhere as part of a joint sim or fleet effort. It has been duplicated here for posterity.

Characters:	Commodore Scarlet Cameron, Commodore Zachary O’Connell, Captain Malia Corbin, Commander Gwendolyn Kane, Lieutenant Colonal Lenara Tigan
Location:	Starbase Unity
Date:	August 2388
Author:	Alexander, Greenfelt22
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“Are you certain about this?” Scarlet asked as she read the information on the padd, the Chief Intelligence Officer of the base and de facto Starfleet at large in the quadrant was quick to nod.

“Yes Commodore, base sensors leave no doubt. The Dominion force we have been tracking has most definitely begun moving in our direction. At their current heading we expect arrival within one to two hours.”

“Then I think it is time we extend the information to the others” Scarlet responded before pressing a button that opened a channel directly to her aide sitting outside. “Shaun, inform Commodore O’Connell, Captain Corbin and Commander Kane that I would like to see them in my office immediately”

Minutes later, the Task Force Executive Officer, along with the station’s Chief Strategic Operations Officer and Commanding Officer, had arrived in the TFCO’s office. “What’s going on, Commodore?” Zachary was the first to ask.

“Computer initiate theta protocol” Scarlet ordered upon which the entire room locked down and shifted to a highly secured mode with no communication in or out. “As you may know the Intelligence department as well as myself have recently been busy with a project we have had to keep secret. One for which the Akihito had to be retasked.” She said while placing the details of the Dominion movements on the screen behind her. “In the past years Starfleet Officers have maintained a dialogue with the Dominion, nothing official but enough to establish certain communication channels. When our odds became clear I ordered a mission under the helm of retired Admiral Saatyi Noru to use these channels and work out an agreement with the Dominion to aid us against the fight in the Dominion.” She concluded while nodding at Lenara to continue. “Remote sensors scans of Starfleet Intelligence beacons has detected a sudden movement of a Dominion vanguard force heading for Unity. We are expecting it to arrive within one to two hours and deem it likely they are operating in support of us.”

“Likely?” Commander Kane interjected, quite offended that she’d been left out of the process. In fact, she’d been working so closely with Commodore O’Connell that she assumed that association is what kept her detached from it all. “Is there a chance that they’re coming for us? I’m sure the War is still a sore spot for many Vorta and Jem’hadar.”

“Quite frankly Commander, under your own strategic analysis if they are coming for us it will only speed up our defeat. Considering this it makes most sense to assume they are here to support us.” Lenara responded.

“Then I’ll look forward to being vanquished by the Jem’hadar and not our brethren,” Gwendolyn retorted.

“Commodore,” Zachary said, looking at his superior. “I have to admit I’m shocked and encouraged about this new development. I’m concerned about the Consortium. We know that, at most, thirty to forty percent of the crew in the attacking force is actually loyal to them and the rest really have been blinded. Are the Dominion going to make any efforts to take this into consideration should they actually be coming to our aid?”

“I have informed Admiral Saatyi to make sure our rules of engagement are relayed but at the end of the day if it comes to the security of the Federation against the interests of the individuals lethal force must always be used, That however is not our only concern, we need to delay the Consortium ships as long as possible to give the Dominion the chance to arrive” Scarlet responded to her Executive Officer.

“The Consortium are due within the hour,” Captain Corbin stressed. “All of our simulations have this battle over within twenty minutes. And, you’re asking us to try and add up to forty minutes to this?”

“Our simulations were never based on survival,” Zachary countered. “Our simulations were based on a simple win/lose scenario. If we have to stall, where can we do it?”

“A long time ago I had a Captain who was faced with a similar scenario in the Dominion War, our predictions so far have been based on traditional engagements. Our full force against their full force, what we need to do is assert guerilla like tactics. Rapid hit and run attacks by individual ships against formations of the Consortium. A quick warp in and then warp out immediately, this will not stop the Consortium but it could buy us enough time. Furthermore we need to evacuate all non-essential personnel away from Unity so that if the base were to fall a group could still be moved out of harm’s way until the Dominion can retake it” Scarlet responded.

Gwendolyn nodded slowly. She knew engineers would protest due to the unnecessary stress this would place on their warp drives and hulls, but it really was the only way. “We could easily plot up to a dozen vectors for each ship to use. We’ll still need to keep the Akiras and maybe the Kumari close for local defense. Otherwise, there’s no way Unity will withstand a total assault.”

“And, we might be able to supercharge a deflector to create a tachyon pulse,” Zachary said, his engineering mind at work. “A well placed shot would disrupt power on a starship. Time that with one of these hit-and-runs, and we might be able to take out their heavy hitters, at least for a while.”

“Excellent, in that case it seems we have a plan. All but Commodore O’Connell are dismissed” Scarlet ordered.

Lenara nodded at her boss’ boss before walking out of the room and getting back to work.

As soon as the two were alone, Zachary looked at Scarlet. “Either you have a daring plan, or something is much worse than we thought,” he surmised.

“The former, with the possibility of it becoming the latter” She said with a sigh. “Even with this new plan there is a real chance we aren’t going to make it and for that scenario we need a contingency plan to protect the Federation back home. We need to retask a Defiant with functional cloaking device to push through the blockade at the wormhole and get word back to the Alpha Quadrant” She continued.

“A Defiant,” repeated Zachary. “With a cloaking device.” He sighed. “Defiants are in short supply, and cloaking devices… Hell, I don’t even know where we can get one of those. Are there any Romulans out here in the Gamma?”

“Intelligence still has a single device due to a past agreement with the Romulans, and yes getting a Defiant is a tough call but I’m not sure if the device will be compatible with any other classes though if you think a different class would work as well that would be ideal. The most important thing is that they remain undetected” Scarlet said in response.

“With a few minutes to spare, I doubt trying to find any other suitable candidates will be possible. And I don’t like losing the Kumari to this effort, but if it’s worth getting to the Alpha Quadrant to warn the Federation, then we have to. If we… if we lose today, then at least we know we fight to give the Kumari a chance.”

“And to give our civilians a chance, that does bring me to something else I wanted to discuss. Once we get these matters sorted there is no real reason for both of us to stay on the Unity. You have a family, as such I want to offer you the chance to take one of the last ships out so that if we fall you can live to fight another day” Scarlet said.

Zach opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He’d been so focused on preparations for this day that he was baffled, at best, to consider the opportunity to leave. He’d already arranged for transport for his son, and he and his wife had discussed this matter at length. “I… I don’t think I can do that, ma’am,” he replied to her.

Scarlet nodded, in a way she hadn’t really expected much different but she had to offer him an out if there was any desire for one. “Very well then, the frying pan it is for both of us”

“Indeed,” he replied in a solemn tone. Zachary rose from his chair and pulled down on his jacket. “Well, if… uh… Well. It’s been an honor, Scarlet. To the end.”

Scarlet likewise rose and extended a hand. “That it has been Zachary. A honor and a pleasure”

Zach accepted the hand and offered the strongest smile he could muster. “When this is over, I owe you a drink.”

“When this is over we owe the whole Quadrant drinks” She joked. “Dismissed Commodore.”

Nodding, Zachary turned and left. With the clock ticking down, there was little time to make all of the preparations.

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Accreditation

This post was originally written by Alexander and Greenfelt22 for Bravo Fleet and posted on the Bravo Fleet forums. Use of Bravo Fleet's Drums of War (Part 6) is permitted under the Creative Commons 4.0 License and has been modified to suit the story and purposes of the USS Black Hawk Star Trek Role-Playing Simulation.