SW vs. ST fic "Thirty Years Warning" Earth, 30 years after ST Nemesis Within the labyrinthine depths of the command center, the enormous red timer clicked down to zero. Instantly, a blood red beacon lit up in the starfield display. "Well, that's it, we're fucked" one elderly Starfleet Admiral observed. "Jellico, we have the entire assembled might of Starfleet, 30 years worth of building and training, and courtesy of Q, the Galactic Empire's assembled technical and strategic manuals. I can't believe you are being this defeatist so soon." another aged Admiral remarked indignantly. "You really have no idea," Jellico chuckled, "In any case, Janeway, if you had gotten your head out of your ass and read the reports we've been putting out, instead of browsing the summaries your toadies have been producing, you'd realise how truly hopeless our position is going to end up being. Not to mention the fact that half of the rest of the galaxy hates us, so the Galactic Empire will be making propaganda points with its new subjects just by shooting all of us. In fact, if it weren't for the morale boost that your return provided, not to mention the new technologies, I would have had you assassinated decades ago. Do me a favor, and get the hell out of my building, so I can run this war without having to look at your face." "You'll see, you pessimistic old fart, we are throwing everything we have at these invaders, and they'll learn what it means to cross Starfleet" "Yes, I'm rather afraid they will." Jellico replied, continuing to himself as she stormed out, "stupid bitch couldn't even let Q knock her up in return for a tech upgrade, she's probably even going to be surprised when the death-squad comes through her bedroom window." *************************************** In the depths of the Alpha Quadrant, a coruscating blue vortex erupted into being. With complete disregard for the profound beauty of the event surrounding them, a series of automated probes emerged, scanned the surroundings, and re-entered. Shortly therafter, a series of ships, enormous by the standards of this galaxy, came forth and took station on the phenomena. Ships continued to pour through, as those already present began to intensely scan their surroundings, and launch hordes of unmanned scouts to vanish in every direction. Within a day the fleet considered itself ready to begin large-scale manned expeditions, and started launching flotillas to every inhabited world their drones had reported. The fleets arrived at their destinations within hours, and nearly everywhere found themselves greeted as liberators and saviors by the populations. It was soon discovered that the previous overlords had abandoned them upon the opening of the wormhole, and withdrawn nearly all of their equipment to their main stronghold. Messages were sent back to the wormhole, and through it to Imperial Center. The decision was soon reached that the inhabitants gratitude would be useful, as would the object lesson of their crushed former rulers, and the command was given for the Imperial Navy to concentrate its forces in preparation to eradicating the stronghold Earth, and its tyrannical masters, Starfleet. tbc... Chapter 1: Attack! *boooom* RETREAT! 1 Week later, Deep Space near Sector 001 "Very well captain, you have your orders, proceed" Admiral Tamad Netos commanded, after a brief pause adding softly, "Be careful Sune, this whole thing doesn't feel right". "Understood sir, we aren' taking any chances with these primitives" Captain Sunedadgu Nabitit, replied, then turned to the Helmsman, saying "Proceed". The three Imperators leapt to hyperspace, proceeding sedately for several minutes before reverting to realspace at the Terran system's Oort Cloud, and proceeding in-system on Ion Engines. On Earth, in the command center, three red triangles appeared on screen as alarms began to wail. "Sir, we have hostile emergence by three ISDs on the outskirts of the system, they are vectoring towards Earth" a lieutenant announced from the Plotting section. "Very, well, have Admiral Maxwell lead the First, Second, and Third Shuriken Swarms against them. Engage only with Type Six-Alpha photons, Special Weapons Release is not, I repeat, not authorised." Admiral Jellico dictated from his command chair, eyes intent upon the hostile symbols. **************************** On board the three Star Destroyers, the crews were tense, but confident, as early assessments of this galaxy's technology had established that a minimum of hundreds of attackers would be required to even approach parity with their mighty vessels. On board the ISD Unrepentant , a sensor monitor rapidly worked at refining his data, even as he calmly announced "Subspace disturbances, consistent with large numbers of Enemy vessels, approaching at approximately 1500c, vectoring towards us from all directions" Even as the last words left his mouth, three thousand small spacecraft, barely measuring 250 meters emerged from warp at a distance of more than a million kilometers. Immediately upon emerging, the ships each launched a continuous swarm of photon torpedos, which barely cleared their tubes before plunging into warp, only to emerge almost on top of the lead Destroyers shields, covering the upper surface of the ship in a sheet of flame. The next second, as the enormous firestorm began to dissipate, an equally preposterous salvo of warheads impacted the second ship. Exactly one second later, as the first ship began to be visible again, the third ship was struck by the same force. Barely a second later, another tidal wave of missiles plunged through the cloud still expanding from the Arse-Kicker to create a new conflagration against its shields. Individually, the missiles were no threat, even an entire 100 strong individual volley would barely get a Destroyer's attention, but the simultaneous impact of Three Hundred Thousand of them upon their targets, even with three seconds between waves, was more than enough to start wearing away at the Imperator's defenses, especially as their seemed to be no letup in the constant punishment. The Star Destroyers immediately returned fire, of course, but the range was long, especially for light-speed weapons, and the attacking ships were moving in an intricate dance of evasive manuevers. The continuous sheets of flame obscuring their vision certainly didn't help matters, either. This was fortunate for the Starfleet vessels, as the few hits that were scored proved to be instantly fatal. A seeming eternity later, but only 25 seconds by ships' chronometers, the Imperials top shields began to fail. The crews reacted instantly, transferring energy from other shield facings, especially from the underside, which was virtually unaffected by the incoming torrent of energy. The immense flotilla of Shurikens surrounding the destroyers continued their unrelenting barrage, not reacting at all to Imperial fire, even as another 6 ships blossomed into fire and wreckage. Observing their sensors, a EW officer aboard a heavily stealthed vessel away from the field of battle engaged his transmitter, to say only; "Now". This transmission went unnoticed by all the engaged parties, but not by the three Constitution class vessels lurking nearly a billion klicks away, 'underneath' the embattled juggernauts. No living being was on those ships to receive the transmission, but the computers calmly processed the order that this message, transmitted on this specific frequency, conveyed. The ships immediately plunged into warp, straight towards the beseiged leviathans, emerging from Ftl even as the sensor officers turned to report to their commanders, a mere few thousand miles from their victims, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. Astoundingly, the crew of the Unrepentant , living up to their incredible reputation in the Galactic Empire's fleet was able to put a turbolaser bolt through the length of the Lexington , in the bare half a second they had, converting it from an onrushing obsolescent warship to an expanding ball of flame and wreckage. Unfortunately for them, the difference between being hit by a kamikaze rigged Constitution at near-light velocities, and being hit by the explosion of one almost on top of you, was mostly academic. It did save them from the fate of the other two ships, which were hit by the Enterprise-A and Saratoga directly on the Main Reactor, and tore apart within moments. The Unrepentant 'merely' lost two-thirds of its available power, while suffering the continuous concentrated attacks of all of the surviving swarm. The ship was battered for ten more seconds, chewing away slowly at its adamantine armor, as it continued to fire with all available weapons, claiming still more of the insects chewing away at it. Finally, an order was given, as the last few torpedos in the magazines were fired, and half a dozen ships lunged forward, crashing against the Unrepentant's hull. For another instant the ship still belched defiance, before chains of explosions tore down its hull, finally blasting the ship completely apart. Another second passed, before the surviving probes that had been accompanying the Reconnaissance force vanished into hyperspace. ******************************** "YES!" a lieutenant exclaimed in the command center. "What the hell are you celebrating, son?" Jellico demanded, intensely annoyed. "But sir, we beat them, the tonnage ratio alone was vastly in our favor, leaving aside the tech disadvantage we were operating under." The lieutenant replied, incredibly befuddled. "Let's take a look at the facts. One, we lost Eighty-three Shurikens, even before resorting to throwing them like out-sized torpedos at the targets, our total losses were ninety-two ships. Two, we couldn't efficiently kill one of their smaller front-line units without resorting to suicide tactics. Three, they actually have more of those ships that were so hard to kill out there than we have Shurikens ." Jellico explained. "Then why are we even fighting sir? From what you are saying, this whole war is a lost cause." "That's exactly why we are fighting it, we aren't letting these bastards take over without a fight. At least this way, we won't have to live to see what they do to our galaxy.", Jellico sadly proclaimed, before adding "Enough of this crap, get salvage teams out there now, and re-equip all of our forces with Type Six-Beta Quantums, we might as well get what little use out of the surprise we can. Chapter 2: "How primitive are these people anyway?" "Launch the second wave," Admiral Netos ordered "But sir, shouldn't we-" his operations officer asked. "Your absolutely correct, we shouldn't, but we have our orders. Have the task force make two changes before departure though. One, reprogram the shield allocation computers on the assumption that the intensity of fire will be at least twice as heavy per enemy vessel. Two, disembark all ground combat and fighter elements before departure." "Sir?" "There is no reason for these people to be using omnidirectional explosives at their technological level, with all of the fancy targeting we saw in the first skirmish. It's a trap, the only question is how many layers there are to it. And there is even less reason for the ground forces and equipment to be on ship, when we know ffrom our long range scans that they have the numbers in-system to easily repulse the ships we are sending. This is a probe commander, nothing more. "But the fighters sir?" Netos rolled his eyes as he replied "They throw ftl missiles around in the millions commander, and in case you haven't noticed, due to the decisions of Buships, our fighters don't have shields, or hyperdrives. That means they'll have to spend at least a minute closing, where a single explosion within 50 meters will at the least cripple them. Do you really think they would do more than absorb rather less than a single volley before our entire starfighter force was obliterated? Get to it commander " ********************************* Forty-eight Imperators, with two hundred and forty escorting Carrack and Strike Cruisers made transition from hyperspace on the outskirts of the Terran system. Immediately making the minor course corrections needed to reestablish their formation, the ships began manuevering on an oblique approach toward the fourth planet of the system. Admiral Jellico was dozing in his chair as the alarms sounded, being unwilling to leave the command center during the ongoing crisis. Even as his eyes shot open, the medical technician standing by injected him with a stimulant hypospray. He carefully observed the main tactical display for several minutes, and consulted his padd, before announcing "Order Admirals Calhoun, Shelby, and Maxwell to take the First, Second, and Third Shuriken Storms to meet them". He paused in thought for a second, before adding, "Full warp release is granted, do not detach external weapons pods before engagement". Tensions were very high aboard the Imperial vessels. The tactical crews had received briefings about the first engagement, and how it had barely lasted a minute. The fleet was arrayed in a tight globe, with all of the Imperators top surfaces facing outwards to present maximum firepower against any attacker. As they detected an inbound armada, at least five times the size of the force last seen, they began a continuous bombardment along the projected incoming paths. The incoming swarm of Starfleet ships dropped out of warp over 8 million kilometers away this time, and a set of half globes of metal detached from each ship, only to be snared by tractor beams on the flat sides. This procedure took only two seconds, and the ships and their parasites vomited a continuous innumerable swarm of missiles toward the Star Destroyers facing them. Ten Destroyers were targeted in the initial salvo, with at least three hundred thousand torpedos leaping into warp each second at each of them. Upon the first impact upon their shields, imperial engineers were dismayed to find that the individual detonations were four times as intense as previously experienced. Tragically, they had little time to register this fact, as the third salvo was accompanied by two Daedalus class relics, dropping out of warp directly towards the battered Imperator's main bridges. The resulting detonations temporarilly removed control from those ships, as the Shurikens went to warp again, blazing past the formation as their last two volleys wreaked havoc on the lighter ships around their first victims. The Shurikens resumed fire the instant they left warp, attempting to duplicate their previous success as they came about 6 million kilometers from the bewildered Imperial formation. Maelstroms of energy erupted around another ten Imperators, lasting for only three seconds before being punctuated by the arrival of more obsolete suicidal assassins. The attacking swarm plunged into warp once more, only to assail the invaders from a new direction. The pattern repeated itself twice more before the first turbolaser bolts even arrived at the initial firing points of the Shurikens . By now, control was barely being established on the first Imperators, and the Imperial fleet was frantically trying to disengage. The force had barely pulled itself into a semblance of order when an entire fleet of outdated warships plunged into its formation, its approach in warp being obscured by the still continuing bombardment. Over a hundred Daeduluses , a score of Constitution s, and sixty Mirandas , all packed near to bursting with antimatter, annihilated themselves against the Imperial force, just as a fresh force of three thousand more Shurikens arrived and opened fire. Desperately, the remaining Imperial ships tried to claw their way out of the deathtrap they had found themselves in. Three ISDs even tractored themselves together, with their undersides facing inwards, while using their remaining tractors to grab the wreckage of their former comrades to shield themselves from the relentless onslaught. These ships were mostly passed over as too resilient a target. The remaining ships were mercilessly lashed with damage, but to their credit did not break until another dozen Mirandas mutually killed themselves along with the still effectively fighting ISDs. As their unity died, so did they, as by themselves they were easy prey for concentrated fire, thickened by a suicide craft every time their defenses faltered. The three mutually supporting ships, finding themselves alone, gave a collective "Bugger that!" and blind jumped away rather than delay any longer for their nav computers. ************************ "Three Imperators? Our only survivors were three Imperators? and that because of the usurping of command by a lieutenant?" Admiral Netos asked incredulously, "At least tell me our probes got through successfully". "Yes sir, as soon as they jump out, we'll have a detailed map of the interior of the system." his operations officer reported, thanking the force-erk he means the Emperor, that the Admiral wasn't inclined to shoot the birthgiver of bad news, much less the bearer. "Sir, communication from Imperial Center, Darth Wylde is going to be joining us to check on our progress!" his chief of staff announced, entering the office. "Great, just frigging great" Netos muttered "I could have joined the Seperatists and died honorably, but no, I had to be true to the Republic, like that mattered in the end". TBC Chapter 3: "Can't think of a title" On board the Vengeance class battlecruiser Bloodfeud , flagship of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, the assembled troops snapped to attention in the cavernous depths of the vast hangar bay. The Lambda shuttle rose into view, and settled into a landing with immaculate precision. As the landing ramp descended, the assembled honor guard saluted in perfect unison. Two crimson clad royal guardsmen descended and took position at either side, just as a black-clad man started walking down the ramp. Admiral Netos, standing five feet from the ramp's edge, brought his arm down simultaneously with the assembled troops, and turned to walk alongside Darth Wylde as he continued forward without pausing. "Milord Wylde, resistance has been severe, and our probing efforts have sustained near total casualties. The enemy is technologically inferior, but innovative, and utterly ruthless. We are prepared to commence unrestrained offensive operations however, and I am confident we can crush all resistance if given a free hand" Netos reported, in a perfect British accent. "The Emperor's decision has not changed admiral, he wants these people conquered, not obliterated." "Then I cannot prevent our suffering additional losses milord, and they will only get worse as we allow this conflict to be drawn out." Netos said as they entered the lift. "As it may be admiral, it is the Emperor's will. And what have I told you about using that ludicrous accent?" Wylde demanded with a broad grin as soon as the lift doors closed "To use it as often as possible, attempt to convince the officer corps it is a path to curry favor, so as to screw with them my lord" Netos replied, now speaking normally, with an answering grin. "Good, now give me the pertinent facts, before the staff meetings distort them out of recognition." "The enemy fleet engaged so far has consisted of 19,000 vessels of corvette size, of which they have lost a thousand. There power generation abilities are orders of magnitude less capable than our own, and their offensive capabilities thus far are limited to primitive matter-antimatter detonations. However, in the quantity they are deploying, they are more than making up for their individual weakness. in addition, they have been willing, even eager, to resort to suicide tactics in an effort to level the playing field. From our probes and scans of the system, we heve learned that they have at least 45,000 more mobile platforms active in system, but a third of those are only detectable by gravity analysis, indicating some form of cloaking technology. Their ftl systems are vastly inferior in speed to our own, but they are using this to their advantage in the relatively close fighting environment. They have signifigant fixed space presence in the inner system, even by our standards, with their outermost major concentration being based on the largest body in their asteroid belt. An additional hundred thousand ships are currently headed towards the system, presumably allied with them. And to top it all off, their fourth planet seems to be producing as much energy as a Class 1 Hypermatter Reactor, with no readily apparent facilities to account for that much power. Oh, and I have to decide what to do to a lieutenant who usurped the chain of command to save his own ass, and incidentally three Imperators as well." "Very well. Your decision to remove unecessary elements from your ships was a good move, and you should continue to do so, but keep the fighters on board, I feel you are going to need them" Darth Wylde said, removing all expression from his face an instant before the door opened. *********************** Admiral Netos sat in his office chair, as the door opened, and the accused was led in. Deepening his frown, he harshly read: "Lieutenant Iruled, you are accused of usurping the chain of command from Commander Damat to take command of the Destroyer Defiant , assaulting the commander so as to render him unconscious, communicating in his name to seize control of the Destroyers Brigand and Bloodbath , departing the field of battle without orders, willful disregard of Imperial property and lives in the interest of self-preservation, and a moving violation. How do you plead?" "Guilty, sir" "Are you willing to submit to administrative punishment?" Lieutenant Iruled was shocked for a second, before replying shakily, "Yes sir". "Good, you are hereby given 45 days of extra duty, to be spent in the tactical warfare department, and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Dismissed!" On autopilot, Iruled saluted and about-faced before marching out of the room, his mind a complete blank, unable to wrap his thought around the concept of being promoted as an administrative punishment. And that couldn't be laughter he was hearing from the Admiral's office as he walked away could it? tbc. Chapter 4: Divine Wind An armada of Imperial warships emerged from hyperspace with no warning, rapidly forming into a defensive globe as they proceeded insystem. Twenty-five hundred Imperators, close to fifteen thousand smaller ships, and a solid core of heavier warships started on their path to Ceres, in the Terran asteroid belt. A dozen Scramblers took up position 1 light-year out from the system,surrounded by their escorting fleet. Netos looked up from the latest analysis, sighed, and said, "All right people time to earn our pay, jack in and hit the pills". Throughout his temporary flagship, crewmen donned headsets and swallowed little blue pills. Within moments, their reaction times through their computer uplinks became vastly accelerated. Darth Wylde just smirked slightly and put on his own headset. They observed in slow motion as the hundred thousand strong Jemhaddar fleet emerged from warp, and a full forty-eight thousand Shurikens warped in several million klicks behind them. Initial reports rapidly came through the net as the Dominion swarm launched their full complement of shuttles: *Completely different construction sir, and all of the new types seem to be rigged as suicide bombers* *Do not break formation to engage, and have the reserves ready to fill in our casualties* Netos sent as the first waves lunged forward. Eighteen thousand cockroach fighters, and as many shuttles, lunged at the screening ships of one quadrant, as the first torpedo salvos began to land. Coordinated defensive fire tore them apart, only to have the entire remaining fleet pour through the firestorm. The lighter screen was the first to suffer, as several hundred Shurikens would concentrate fire to briefly overload their shields, allowing three or more 'bugs' to crash through into the ship. Within seconds, the screen was either knocked aside or destroyed. Additional ships began to hyper into the maelstrom, on more than one occasion crashing directly into a Jemhaddar ship, as the reserve forces attempted to fill in the hole. The Dominion fleet swarmed past them, accepting the casualties they caused to throw themselves upon the heavier vessels they attempted in vain to protect. A dozen or more fighters would fling themselves at an Imperator, merely to clear a path for a battlecruiser to slam into it. The onslaught was relentless, despite the best efforts of the fighter and frigate screens, the heavy warships began to suffer repeated ramming attacks. finally, in desperation, 80 Strike cruisers were thrown directly into the teeth of the storm, and self destructed in their midst. This opened massive holes in the attack, and threw off the coordination of the remainder of the fleet, no more than a tenth of their starting numbers. This momentary hesitation proved fatal, as additional reserve forces flanked the Dominion remnant, and ruthlessly poured fire into them. The jemhaddar ships now immolated themselves on any available target, desperate to have some effect before their inevitable destruction. Within another twenty seconds, the last ship had expended itself, and the Shurikens warped away as the Imperial fleet turned its attention towards them. *Losses?* Netos demanded. *2800 frigates destroyed sir, with another thousand having suffered severe damage. 380 Imperators lost, another 140 have suffered signifigant damage. 9 Allegiances gone sir, and-*, the report paused as a heavy warship began frantically launching escape pods, moments before explosions rippled down its torn hull, *One Shockwave class Heavy Cruiser sir.* the report concluded in an awestruck tone. *Recover the cripples to the interior of the globe, and replace our losses with 4 times their number. In addition, bring up the entirety of the heavy reserve. Then continue the advance.* A minute passed as the Imperial fleet reordered itself, at which point a force larger than the original fleet, including over a thousand ships cruiser size or better, hypered in and was integrated into the globe. That accomplished, the fleet began its drive insystem once more. , Darth Wylde's voice sounded in Netos's head, Admiral Netos calmly replied subvocally. . tbc.... Chapter 5: "Resistance is futile, we will be annihilated" *Sir receiving bizarre subspace sensor readings from the upper ends of the Subspace spectrum, if I didn't know better, I'd swear some kind of ships are using it to approach us. Speeds far in excess of this 'warp drive' we've seen, but still an order of magnitude less than 1x Hyperdrive. And Admiral, numbers appear to be in excess of the last fleet we engaged.* *Prepare Jury Rig for deployment, this is going to suck people* Around the Imperial fleet, an incredible swarm of near-featureless sphere's and cubes flashed into existence, opening fire with an extraordinary array of glowing green projectiles which were absorbed by the Imperial shields. The Imperial fleet let lose with their own torrents of turbolaser fire, only to watch as it tore through the targets with no resistance, and almost no effect. *Sir, turbolaser fire inef-* Admiral Netos smoothly interrupted, ordering *Proximity fused concussion missiles, now* The Imperial ships launched their own swarms of projectiles, which rapidly closed with the oncoming ships, and detonated at the preprogrammed distance. However, as the missiles exploded, grids of energy flashed into existence across the hulls of the ships. The shockwaves washed over them, and while they were not unscathed, neither were they torn into confetti as expected. *Sir, they've-* *Coordinate missile detonation with turbolaser bolt arrival, and prepare to launch Poetic Justice on my mark* Netos overrode the report, clearly exasperated *Do I have to do all the thinking around here?* The coordinated assault soon took its toll upon the attacking Borg, who carried on with a complete disregard for casualties. Wave after wave crashed upon the Imperial lines, repeating the suicidal antics previously witnessed. Soon however, it became apparent that a new twist had been added to the enemies usual thirst for self-immolation. *Admiral, the ships suffering shield failure are reporting that they are being boarded by some sort of cyborgs, which are trying to corrupt their computers in a takeover attempt.* *Order the operators of the screen to self-destruct any vessel in danger of succumbing, and authorise the immediate destruction of any ship which ignores the self-destruct command. Order the fleet to its positions for Poetic Justice, as soon as they have done so, proceed with the operation.* The Imperial fleet, assaulted from all sides, reoriented itself to open numerous channels to its core, while launching all embarked auxiliary craft. The Borg pressed on regardless, methodically overwhelming each ship in their path with their bodies. The shuttles, transports, and probe carriers all plunged into hyperspace through the channels, accompanied by the thousand crippled frigates from the last engagement. This unmanned swarm crashed into the oncoming Borg, as the outer portion of the screen destroyed itself to cripple the Borg still streaming past them. Another Imperial fleet, ten thousand frigates strong, then dropped out of hyperspace, englobing the Borg beseiging the main fleet. The Borg continued their relentless efforts, but caught between two fires, could at best take some of their enemies with them. Soon they were ground to nothing, the only remnant of their passing the occasional explosion of an Imperial ship that their last boarders did too well upon. *Sir, 18000 frigates destroyed, in addition to all of the previously crippled. Fighter casualties were in excess of 90% as a result of the two engagements, but we would have been a lot worse off without them. We have a preliminary analysis of the beam weapons used against us, apparently they operate by some sort of chain reaction, to make up for their pitiful power levels. This is more effective than a simple directed enrgy beam would have been against us, provided that it doesn't hit a shield, but not by enough to matter in the numbers thrown against us. Technical Services is postulating that the chain reaction would be much more pronounced against materials less dense than Durasteel, and think this effect could be profitably used as a mining technique. Their matter transportation method seems to rely on disintegrating the subject, and somehow reintegrating it on arrival, and our ISB advisor was physically ill when he realised this. Potential use for cargo transfer only sir, or possibly as an extreme interrogation method. The few Star Destroyers which came under attack were able to repel the boarders easily, the only item of interest is the offensive nano-tech used by the attackers to incapacitate, and we hypothesize eventually convert the target. Fortunately, one of our troopers had the presence of mind to turn the anti droid gun he was using on the enemy on his afflicted comrades, and all cases are currently recovering in the bacta wards.* *Right, call on fleet reseves for , good lord, 72000 replacement frigates, and whatever hyper capable auxiliary craft they have on hand. And Get the Bloody Ubiqtorate to work on where all of these party-crashers are coming from, and why they're helping these smegheads out. Also have them get cracking on determining how they know so much about our capabilities and doctrine.* ********************* Starfleet HQ, somewhere on the ocean floor: Admiral Jellico looked up with mild interest as Janeway and her entourage stormed past the guards of the command center. "Its over Jellico, you've cost us enough with your incompetence, I'm taking over before you lose this war" Janeway sneered, as her guards drew beads on everyone in the command center. "Really?" Jellico inquired, bemused, turning his attention back to the tactical display. "Alright then, you arrogant bastard, Seven, finish this" She ordered without taking her eyes off of Jellico. "As ordered 'Ma'am'" Seven replied, as she casually snapped Janeway's neck from behind. The guards started to turn towards her, only to stop in mid-pivot, and collapse to the floor as now-bloody spikes retracted from the new cavities that extended from crotch to skull and back into the floor. "My name is Annika, bitch" she said to Janeway's lifeless eyes as she wiped her hands, attempting to remove the unclean feeling. The not-so innocent floor turned to liquid gold, and formed itself into a humanoid shape. "Thank you, Annika, Odo, consider yourselves on leave until they come blasting through your door" Jellico cheerily said, as without looking, he typed the well-used sequence that let the disposal system vaporise the bodies. Chapter 6: "That's no moon" The Imperial Fleet rapidly approached Ceres base, completely unopposed. Tensions were still running high, who could guess what sort of bizzarre opponent would next appear to casually expend themselves against the Imperial battleline. Ceres Base, one of Starfleet's main installations, was originally just a source of raw materials. Years later, it was used as a storage point, and for testing that needed to be isolated. Eventually, it sheltered the vast majority of the mothball fleet, long since withdrawn and thrown against the Galactic Empire. As soon as Starfleet Command became aware of the imminent invasion, it was converted to a primary industrial point. Partially this was because of the vast resources still within the rock, and its proximity to the remainder of the asteroid belt's raw materials. The location was also chosen because it wasn't nearly as deep within the Sun's gravity well as other potential sites. But mainly, it was because no one wanted the primary torpedo production facility of Starfleet to be anywhere near their homes. As the Imperial fleet reached the magic distance of 200 million klicks, computers aboard the deserted monolith took note, and executed their preset programs. On board the Scrambler class communications cruiser Jam Session, the real time tactical display began to distort as Ceres literally ruptured at the seams. The outer covering of rock disintegrated, revealing a mostly hollow interior. Hollow, except for the innumerable torpedos that oriented instantly upon the Imperial fleet. *Omega One, now, and all ships brace for impact.* Admiral Netos ordered. Imperial ships have highly capable, mission adaptable shields. One of the most neglected features is the potential for their field of coverage to be expanded, as this normally serves no useful purpose in a combat situation. The computers on board ship however, forgot nothing, and upon receiving the coded signal, the Imperial screening force immediately adjusted their shields, so as to create a series of gigantic hemispheres in front of the main fleet. The first torrents of warheads crashed upon their shields, and while the shields were nowhere near as resilient as normal, the perfect synchronization of attack meant that far more missiles were intercepted than normally could have been achieved. The outer shell of picket ships died in moments, as following tidal waves of torpedos smashed into the lines behind them. The screen behind them fared just as poorly, as did the formation beyond that. The destruction then slowed, as the heavier screening ships lasted slightly longer before succumbing. Still, following salvos washed over the picket ships, finally stopping a bare two lines before the first Imperator formation. *Sir, scanners report upwards of- sixty billion individual torpedos fired* a rating reported in an awestruck voice, swallowing nervously before continuing: *losses of over fifty thousand frigates sir*. Admiral Netos sat perfectly still for several endless seconds, before stating into the network in a far-away voice *Bring up reserve forces to compensate, and prepare for immediate usage of 'Shock and Awe' tactics* *Sir, our reserves don't have enough ships to provide the psychological warfare effect you have been employing, not without delaying operations for at least several days, the best we can manage is a hundred thousand without stripping other areas* *Bring up everthing immediately available then, and have our 'Shock' units prepared for immediate deployment on every space platform, Mars, and Earth' moons, and set course for Earth* Darth Wylde quietly noted in the back of Netos's mind. Netos replied stonily. . . *Sir, shock units are ready for deployment on your command* the rating reported, oblivious to the argument going on within Netos's head *Execute* ********************* In Starfleet Command, the atmosphere was almost jubilant. Incredible damage has been dealt to the invaders, and human casualties were almost nonexistent. Suddenly, several hundred Imperial ships vanished into hyperspace. Almost simultaneously, proximity alarms went off, and all of the status codes for fixed Starfleet presence off of Earth itself flashed red. "Endgame gentlemen" Jellico said as the reports of destroyed installations began to pour in. ********************* *Complete success sir! Every orbital platform they have is just gone. Their fourth planet is covered by an enormous firstorm, and eveything on the surface seems to be flattened. Both of Earth's moons have been hit hard, in fact, the second one seems to have shattered. No trace of their mobile forces, but-* *Hold Report. Focus all sensors on the remains of the second moon, and call up the archives of this system we retrieved from those Vulcans. The display went out of focus for a second, before showing a highly magnified display of the cloud of rubble, where a vast object could be seen moving quite clearly. Beams lashed out from the vast monstrosity, dragging the debris around it into an opening on one end. Within seconds, its former shell was gone, and it turned its attention upon Earth's original moon, swiftly devouring it as well. *Sir, whatever that thing is, its over two hundred and fifty kilometers long. Even so, it shouldn't be to great of a threat given this galaxies retarded technological state.* Another rating reported, *Sir, according to the recent Vulcan records, everything checks out, but as soon as they dig back more than twenty years... Sir, according to this the Earth only has one moon* The first to report stood shocked for an instant, before saying:*sir, according to readings, the vessel's hull is completely composed of degenerate matter, their best guess is solid neutronium* Admiral Netos watched the screen for a second, as the leviathan warped to Mars far faster than any of Starfleet's vessels could manage, and began carving up the planet. He then transmitted resignedly *All ships alter course for that thing, and-* he paused for a second, visibly startled, as a giant flaming bird, with a wingspan nearly as wide as the planet it had been coccooned in, broke free of Mars's remnants, and warped out of the system. he continued *and get me some kriffing painkillers*. Chapter 7: "If you can't beat 'em-" While a medical droid administered high level pain-killers, Admiral Netos considered the situation. After nearly ten subjective minutes of thought, during which the last of Mars was devoured, he broke his silence, ordering *Evacuate all crew off of the two hundred Imperators with the worst efficiency ratings, as well as the Earthquake, Avalanche, Arrogant, Disdain, and Reciprocity. Slave those ships to my command immediately. Deploy the fleet to engage that thing with maximum firepower, spare nothing.* The Imperial fleet spread itself over a wider area, which grew even more as another hundred thousand frigates caused their ranks to swell once more. The fleet soon reached its range of the leviathan, and immediately began to pour all of its insane destructive force into it. Under this titanic hammer, a planet would begin to lose cohesion in minutes as the energy forced into it overwhelmed its gravitational attraction, the current target didn't even begin to warm detectably for several seconds. Nor was the monstrosity quiet under this incessant barrage, as it lashed out with its own beams at five hundred targets simultaneously. *Report* Admiral Netos demanded. *Sir, its some sort of concentrated beam of pure anti-protons, projected with tremendous force, but insufficient to penetrate our shielding, so- Holy Rancor buggered Mynock!* the officer exclaimed as explosions of various transports erupted against the targeted ships' shields, causing them to momentarily flicker. This was immediately followed by the evisceration of the stricken warships, the anti-proton beam might have no effect upon the neutronium latticework impregnating Imperial hulls, but the rest of the frigates tore themselves apart in short order. The gigantic ship immediately targeted the same number of ships again, all of which died a few seconds later. The process fell into this pattern, while Imperial sensor officers watched the ambient temperature of the beast rise by at most a degree for every Sector Groups ship count lost. *Resonance pattern one, execute* Netos snarled as he glared hatefully at the mocking display of the target, still not noticeably affected by the truly ludicrous energy pumped into it. The vast majority of the fleet continued its barrage unabated, as three thousand frigates crashed against a score of broad areas of armor. These were followed precisely a second later, by two hundred Imperators impacting in a smaller circle within that described by the initial impacts. Two seconds later, the Shockwave heavy cruisers Earthquake and Avalanche, as well as the Superior heavy cruisers Arrogant and Disdain expended themselves in a diamond pattern near the center of the expanding debris fields. Exactly one second after that, the Vengeance Battlecruiser Reciprocity cored into the center of the pattern. Neutronium, while immensely tough, still transmits shock waves through its surface, although it takes an unimaginable force to have a substantial effect on a solid neutronium structure. Still, precisely timed and coordinated impacts would have an exponential effect, a principle clearly demonstrated if you have ever seen a group of idiots who won't break step while marching across a bridge. So it was that the impact of the Reciprocity caused an immense section of hull to flex inwards, breaking free of its larger whole, and tearing into the interior of the Juggernaut. The Imperial Fleet was quick to capitalise on this advantage, firing all available batteries into the gap, and gleefully launching more unmanned frigates to their doom. The crippled giant bore this punishment for only a few moments, before vanishing in a titanic explosion. *Bullshit* Netos observed *Where the hell is it people, and how badly were we hit. And while we're at it, how in the name of Klono's titanium testicles was that thing able to sit in orbit of a planet it outmassed like that, and why couldn't we detect the trick* *Sir, we are reading large fragments that match the composition of that thing, but not nearly enough to account for the mass that would remain, even after that detonation. No trace of it on any sensors, No gravity shadow present, and no distortions consistent with its known ftl drives. There was an immense energy surge just before it went, that we have zero frame of refernce on sir, whatever they did, its beyond our ability to analyse here. Relatively light casualties this time, it took out eight thousand frigates on its own, and we ended up throwing four thousand more at it. Those, the two hundred Imperators, and the five cruisers are our total losses for this engagement. As far as we can tell sir, they used some variant of the 'Mass-lightening' trick they use for their normal ships to both conceal its nature, and avoid overly disrupting their planet.* *Right. Set course for Terra, its time to end this.* Chapter 7b: "-Cheat" The Imperial fleet rapidly approached Terra, hoping that once the planet was under their guns, the insanity might end. The entire Shuriken force, nearly fifty thousand strong was waiting for them, constantly in motion to avoid the destruction that had swept away Starfleet's fixed defenses. As they waited, they launched continuous streams of torpedos to wait quietly in orbit of Earth. Also visible in orbit were twenty thousand remaining civilian craft of assorted types, waiting to be expended. From bases on Earth, swarms of fighters rose, more to give the Imperials more targets than in any expectation of inflicting appreciable damage. The torpedos and suicide craft moved to engage their oncoming doom, leaping into warp as one gestalt being. As they arrived, swarms of thousands of pathetically small organic looking craft appeared around the Imperial formation. To the fleet's dismay, the torpedos went straight through their reinforced particle shielding with no resistance, smashing into the unprotected hulls. At the same time, more ships were being subjected to massed death dives, battering at their shields, and all to often at the hulls beneath. Meanwhile, the bioships unleashed beams at still more ships that had solely decided to defend against the oncoming horde. Incredibly, where the beams hit hull they caused the ships to rip apart easily, all out of proportion to the power that could be detected in the beams. Tens of thousands of Imperial ships died, again confounded by inexplicable assaults, and overwhelmed by the sheer number of targets. Still, for every ship that died, there was at least one more to take its place. The bioships were casually wiped away by the fleets point defense batteries, and the Shurikens had had to empty their magazines to maximise surprise. The Shurikens then threw themselves forwards, maneuvering to evade fire with almost supernatural ability. Even so, they were small, and most of their volume was dedicated to torpedo storage, now empty. Ten or more would kill themselves to remove the shields on a frigate, allowing still more ships to capitalise on the momentary weakness, to crash through into their targets. At last, the space around Earth was clear of targets. *Well, that's that. Prepare the first invasion waves* Netos sighed with relief. Darth Wylde practically shouted into his skull. *All ships, maximise sensor sweeps, report anything anomalous, no matter how minor or vague.* Reports began to flood in: *Sir, there are numerous gravity signatures approaching our fleet, but we can't see anything* *Begin continuous area bombardment, and make sure the frigates are screening our battle line.* The fleet began to fill the area with fire, but nothing was hit, all of the vast firepower simply faded into the distance. *Sir, the computers on the frigates are reporting that the mass readings are traveling right through them with no effect, they've been manuevering to intercept, even collide, but to no effect.* The sight was almost comical, as the massed Imperial armada huddled together, frantically firing in all directions. {Damnit} Netos thought {there has to be something, they still have mass, and have gravity, so} *Order all frigates to merge with one of the readings, increase its grav fields to max, and dump the safeties on the hypermatter and neutronium* he ordered. Eighteen thousand frigates dashed inwards, then tore apart as they obeyed the commands they were sent. However, they didn't die in vain, as thousands of Starfleet vessels appeared briefly near, or occasionally within them before exploding themselves. Nemesis chuckled in the back of Netos's head. Admiral Netos, having no desire to die pointlessly, a victim of one of Starfleet's obnoxious tricks, had set up a double relay system to maintain contact with the main body of the fleet. The main force communicated by subspace transmitters with the force of Scramblers holding position a light year away from the warzone. One of those ships continually maintained its shields down, acting as a Holocomm relay between the Admiral's ship, a dozen light years away, and the forces he was directing. Still, Starfleet had one more surprise to play, having traced the communications to the relay force, and detected the signals they were receiving from still farther out. It had taken time to trace them, and more time to manuever a force into position, but the trap was finally ready to be sprung, one last piece of revenge for the destruction of Starfleet. The force was small, a dozen phase cloaked vessels, but deemed more than sufficient. Darth Wylde extended his senses out towards the oncoming ships. Options briefly flitted through his mind as he considered how to most efficiently eliminate the threat. Most Sith Lords, lacking subtlety or finesse, would simply attempt to tear apart their targets with a storm built of their rage, but Wylde considered such displays wasteful. Besides, such tricks could easily be effected against a single target, but a dozen in rapid succession would have far too great a chance of failure. Also, these ships were crewed, making it impossible to simply nudge the controls, forcing them into collisions with each other. Finally realising there was only one effecive way to get all of the attackers, Darth Wylde extended his will into the ships, altering the energy flow to diagnostics to make it appear that the inertial compensators would be engaged no matter what. Then he simply turned those compensators off. The crews of the ships had no time to react, before they found themselves grease stains on the bulkheads. *All batteries hold fire* Darth Wylde sent through his headset, as he began the more delicate task of coaxing each ship out of phase-cloak without destroying it, while first fusing their communications systems, and deactivating their computers. One by one, a dozen ships appeared headed away from the Jam Session on outbound courses that had clearly gone straight through the ship. Epilogue 1: "Death before Dishonor" Imperial forces rapidly made landings, sending in expendable waves of wardroids to clear out resistance. Any enemy concentration away from civilian targets were ruthlessly destroyed. any concentration intermixed with civilian targets was hit with precision support fire before the droids rolled over defenses. Briefly, the defenders made some inroads by unleashing Nanites in record quantities, but as soon as the threat was recocgnised, the Empire began conducting repeated EMP bombardments of the planets surface, effectively neutralising the danger. More than once, defenders expended themselves with a nuclear or antimatter bomb to destroy the forces assaulting them, the follow- up waves simply adjusted their target lists accordingly and proceeded to their next objectives. Within Starfleet HQ, hidden at the bottom of the Marianas trench, Admiral Jellico watched as his defenders positions vanished from the board with depressing speed, as the area controlled by the Galactic Empire expanded across the planet. He let out a breath, and said:"Computer, code Omega 1 Sigma Epsilon. The Preparation code is Armageddon. The Activation code is Apocalypse. The Go code is Ragnarok". "Confirmed. Initiation parameters?" The computer replied. "Immediate execution upon recognising the final trigger" "Confirmed". "Now open a channel to the Imperial forces" Soon, the signal was bumped up to Admiral Netos, who received the transmission with a solemn expression, "I presume you are at last willing to end this?" Admiral Jellico smiled slightly before replying, "Yes, I have our official response to your unending surrender demands. 'Screw Your Canoe'" The transmission cut off instantly as an energy wave swept across the planet. Simultaneously, a chain reaction began in Earth's sun, while similar waves to the one that tore across the Earth formed on the other celestial bodies of the system. The Earth seemed to contract in on itself briefly, before ripping apart in an immense explosion, tearing apart the transports that had been holding position nearby. A moment later, the other planets and moons still present detonated as well, at the same time the Sun began to contract in on itself. *All ships get out of there now.* Netos ordered, quite needlessly, as the Imperial fleet was already turning to flee. Fortunately for them, the eight minute lead time they had was sufficient to reach positions they could jump to hyperspace from, even with the newly formed debris clouds complicating navigations. A few hours later, no trace at all remained of the Earth, or the battles that had been fought near it so recently. *********************** Epilogue 2 "Final Report" Admiral Netos strode into the Emperor's Audience Chamber on Coruscant, placing the datapad in the hands of a courtier before stopping at the position of attention directly in front of the Emperor's withered body. "My final report on the Expedition Milord Emperor." "And?" "I am convinced that the resistance to your rule there is not done with. 'The Beast' for one is certain to be at large somehow. I've included an analysis of everything we've learned from the campaign. I've forwarded suggestions for utilising the 'phase domain' as a means of projecting energy to prevent local hyperspace travel, and a modified Imperator design, which will prove more useful against lesser opponents, and more survivable in general. Also, I have submitted a basic analysis of the force needed to guarantee 'The Beast's' destruction. More importantly however, I have identified trendswithin the structure of your military apparatus, that leave you intensely vulnerable to a properly waged rebellion. With your permission, I would like to turn my efforts to securing our new holdings, guarding the other wormholes, and working to correct the deficiencies currently present in your power structure." "Very well, we will discuss this more later Admiral, dismissed" ************************* Epilogue three: "In it for the long haul" "Right, you all know the plan. There is to be no active or passive resistance to the Galactic Empire, we have to learn from them before we can fight them. With the detonation of Omega molecules throughout the galaxy, warp travel is impossible, so they will have to bring in their own transports, and eventually give us their propulsion technology if they want to maintain their pretense of benevolent rule. Simply pass the information you gain through the proper channels, and we'll be sure to win in the end." ************************* Epilogue four: "The Last Redoubt" The interior of the Dyson sphere swarmed with activity. Borg factory modules, Jemhaddar cloning facilities, and the transplanted industrial might of Earth and the Dominion's once-mighty domains sprawled through out the space, along with the assembled fleets of vessels that could be conveniently lost to find their way inside before the end. Dwarfing everything but the exterior shell itself, the Planetkiller mk. 2, dubbed 'The Beast' by the Galactic Empire, slowly worked at rebuilding its ravaged hull. "It's very simple," A young, fit Admiral Jellico addressed the assembled Admiralty, "We need to be able to reproduce their technology before we can take the fight to them. We have deliberately held back a number of our technologies, to prevent them from having counters prepared when we are ready to take the fight to them. We must be patient, If we lead them here, our cause is lost" {well, not quite he thought to himself}. *************** Epilogue five: "Through the Looking Glass" "That's correct, they were completely unprepared. We have already replaced the majority of the important figures here, and our operations to duplicate the control we achieved over the Dominion and the Borg in our own universe are underway. When the time is right we will be ready to strike, whether those we left behind are still alive to join us or not. Hail the Empire!" Finis.