Shadows - Avon

© 2001 by Federation Space and the author Avon

A small outpost near the Romulan Neutral Zone.

"Captain Martin Sir"
"Yes Second Lieutenant MacArthur, how can I help you."
"Sir were picking up ship approaching us across the Romulan Neutral Zone."
"Whose ships are they, Second Lieutenant."
"Well sir I can not be completely, but they seam to be Romulan, however since I have never seen a Romulan ship I’m not sure."

Clark turned to one of the young Privates standing behind him.
"Private pass the work for First Sargent Hunter."
Clark had never seen a Romulan ship in his life either, but he knew that his Company Sargent had.
First Sargent Hunter walked through the door into the small operations room.

"Sir you sent for me."

"Yes First Sargent, We have picked up some ships crossing the Neutral Zone, however we are not sure if they are Romulan or not."

"Well then you had best let me take a look." First Sargent Hunter walked over the sensor screen, the Second Lieutenant stepped out of his way. "Hmmm" Hunter looked over the sensor date.

"I would say that they are defiantly Romulan."

"First Sargent can I see you in my officer."

The first CO the Clark had had, told him one thing that had stuck with him, ‘Always trust you NCO’s Clark’ he had told him ‘They have been at this game longer that you, and they know what there doing’

==Inside Captain Martin’s office.==

"Michael, you have fought with the Romulans before."

"Yes sir."

"Tell me what are those ships doing."

"Well sir I would say that they are getting ready for an attack, they seemed to be flying in formation, and if they had been on a diplomatic mission I’m sure that Starfleet would have informed us about."

"Well then First Sargent you had better call the men."

"Yes Sir" Hunter snapped to attention and headed out the door.

When Clark followed him out a minuet or two later the men were all assembled in there ranks.

"Well me as some of you may already know we have picked up five Romulan ships crossing the neutral zone…"

before he could finish what he was saying Second Lieutenant MacArthur jumped up.

"Sir, 2 Romulan bird-of-prays have just declocked above the planet sir."

"Ok let’s go, Platoon 1 man the Photon launchers, Platoons 2 and 3 prepare for a ground assault."

The men scrabbled to their positions.

The Outposts 3 Photon launches where armed and brought to bare on one of the ships, the were fired and reloaded with precision that was only seen in the Marines. They were fired over and over, but as soon as the had managed to destroy one of the ships 2 more declocked.

At the same time Captain Martin was get ready to hold the outpost against a ground assault. He had positioned snipers on the roof, and had got his heavy-weapon people into a position also on the roof, where they could fire on any large targets. The rest of the marines had take up positions just out side the outpost where there was cover behind some large boulders, but not so far that they could not pull back to the building.

He then went to his office, where he tried to send a message to Starfleet command, however all communications had been blocked.

Just then one of his men call out that the Romulans had started landing. Clark grabbed his rifle and went up to the roof to join the snipers.

Initially the Heavy-weapons were rather effective as the could be used to take groups of Romulans, however the Romulans soon picked up on this and started to spread there selves out. This is where Clark and the other snipers did their best work. However there were soon too many Romulans for the snipers to have any effect. Soon the Romulans released where the snipers where and started to shot at them, out of the 6 of them on the roof, 4 were hit, Clark and the other pulled back to join the other men down stairs.

Clark headed back to look into the launcher room, where they had just scored their first hit.

"How’s things going Gentleman?"

"We have just scored a hit, however as soon as we did two more ships declocked sir. The good news though is the our shields are still holding."

"Keep up the good work."

As he turned and left the Room a Plasma Torpedo broke through the shields and hit one of the launchers, the explosion blew Clark down to the floor, he looked back the see the explosion engulf the other two launchers, starting a chair reaction destroying the both. He staggered to his feet and ran towards the front of the building where they were under attack now from the Romulan ground forces. He took up a position and started firing at the on coming troops. They were under heavy fire and many of his men had been killed already. He called for them to pull back to the building to regroup.

Once inside Clark looked over the men that where left of his Company. What had once been 90 proud marines was now no more than rag tag band of 23 shabby looking tired and dirty marines.

"Sargent, go and rig up all the terminals and the computer core up to explosives on a remote detonator."

"Yes Sir."

"Computer Wipe all confidential data form the core. Authorisation Martin Alpha-Tango Five."

[Complying.]

The Sargent soon returned with the remote.

"Marines take up position along this hall, we will hold them as long as we can."

The marines took up their positions along the hall and waited for the inevitable. It was not long before the door was blown off and the Romulans started to pour in through the smoke, the marines fired and hit many Romulans, but they to were hit and killed.

It was not long before they were completely overwhelmed, only Clark and a Private in the doorway across the hall were left firing. As Clark looked across the hall to ask the Man his name, he was hit by Romulan disrupter fire and fell back against the wall. This was it was just him now.

"Computer activate self destruction sequence, Authorisation Martin Alpha-Tango Five, and lock to my remote detonator."

[Self destruction sequence Active]

Clark then stood up.

"DAM YOU ALL TO HELL, YOU ROMULAN SONS OF BITCHES." He screamed at the top of his voice as he ran down the corridor. He was hoping to lure more Romulans into the building before blowing it up. As he ran a disrupter blast flew over his left shoulder, then one over his right. He then felt a shot hit his back, it must have hit at a bad angle because it did not kill him.

He tried to get up but he could not move his legs, all he could do was role onto his back, he reached down into a pocket on his vest and pulled out the remote.

A Romulan Major then stood over him,

"Well captain you have held you position bravely, but u did not win, and know I must end you pitiful Human Life."

"Oh on the contrary Major, it is I that will end your life." He said pulling the last ounce of his strength together to hold the remote in the Air and press the button.

The last this that Captain Clark Martin SFMC ever saw, was the laugher on the Romulans Major turn to horror as the building around him blew up.

Captain Martin and his men had fort gallantly, and although they ha taken over 150 Romulan lives, it was but a drop in the ocean of the force that had been sent to capture the outpost.

Wueste - Commander Tal: The Imperial Romulan Warbird Koval maintained position on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone. The Warbird was Cloaked, undetectable to all but high intensity tachyon scans, despite this her Commander was noticeably agitated.

Tal was from a long military family, his great grandfather, for whom he was named, had battled James T. Kirk during a failed attempt to capture the starship Enterprise, his grandfather had served as head of the Romulan Tactical Espionage Academy for 45 years, and his father had been a decorated Admiral during the Dominion War.

His devotion to the Empire was absolute, but he couldn’t help but be troubled by events of the last few months.

Reports from Command were ever changing, orders lacking consistency; this newest mission into Federation Space was just one of the seemingly ridiculous orders the Koval had received within the last few days.

None of it made any sense, his orders were not to attack anything, just to sit and wait, but for what? He didn’t know, and that made Tal uncomfortable.

“What are your views on this mission, Sub-Commander?” Tal asked his First Officer.

“I see no mission here, Commander... just another waste of resources by the Senate, they wish to prove the Federation incompetent by sending Ships into the Zone undetected.”

Tal sighed, the views of his Sub-Commander bordered on treasonous... but he couldn’t help but find himself in agreement with far too much of it...

“But, Sub-Commander, how do we show the Federation incompetent if they never know we are here, and we never exploit the opportunity given to us by entering the Zone undetected?”

“With all due respect, Commander, That is my point, this is a waste of time, and we are here only because we cannot disregard orders, as we are all loyal here.”

“Sir! The Tactical Officer suddenly shouted, Federation Light Cruiser Dropping out of Warp, Zeus Class.”

“On Screen, Lieutenant.” Tal instructed.

“Can you identify her?” Sub-Commander En’tik asked.

“It is difficult without running a high power scan, Sir, but that might reveal our position.”

“Do it anyway, lets find out who we’re dealing with.” Tal said.

“Commander! We cannot reveal our position, if they locate us, while we’re still cloaked, with our Shields Down!”

“Your objection is noted Sub-Commander, but I for one, am tired of waiting, let them come, and we shall destroy them.”

“Running scans now Commander... it’s the U.S.S. Raiden, CL-2600, Captain Walter Anderson Commanding.”

“Can that be confirmed?”

“That Information is Accurate as of our Last Intelligence Update...”

“So there’s no way to be sure, that information could be years old for all we know.”

“Yes, Commander.”

ôWhat are your orders?ö

“Let us...”

Without notice a young Lieutenant suddenly spoke, interrupting Tal, “Excuse the Interruption, Commander, but I believe we may have been detected.”

“Why’s That?”

The answer came quickly as the bridge shuddered with the impact of a photon torpedo, the bridge sensor console exploding as the ship shook around them.

“Decloak! Shields Up! Bring Weapons to bear on the Raiden, and someone get a new Science Officer up here!” Tal shouted over the noise.

“The port nacelle is off line!”

The sounds of the ship changed as the cloak deactivated and the shields were raised.

“Disrupters locked on target, plasma torpedoes coming online now, sir.”

“Fire!”

The image of the Raiden was suddenly bathed with the green blasts that came from the Koval’s disrupter banks.

“Direct hit, damage to their forward sensor array.”

No sooner had the green of Romulan disrupters faded from the screen than it was replaced by the bright blue of Federation quantum torpedoes and the red of phaser blasts.

The battle grew in its intensity, the vessels continued to exchange fire, for every quantum torpedo the Raiden fired, the Koval answered with a plasma torpedo...

It was as if the battle could continue forever... sooner or later though, one of the ships would break, its crew succumb to panic, order would fall apart... the Raiden was outclassed, but its initial attack on the Koval, when it had been cloaked with her shields down, had been enough to even the playing field.

“Damage control teams to the bridge!”

The ship shook again, and a console on the Captain’s chair exploded.

Sub-Commander En’tik rushed to his Commander’s Side, but it was to late, Tal was dead.

“Continue firing, all weapons!”

“Bridge this is engineering, We’re loosing containment on the warp core... if the singularity goes...”

“I am aware of what that would entail, do what you can Engineer, Bridge Out.”

En’tik was a seasoned, by the books officer, but he lacked the creativity of Tal...

“Sir, We must withdraw!” A voice, most likely the Commander’s Centurion, yelled through the smoke now filling the bridge.

“Continue firing!”

“We’re loosing containment!”

“The Raiden is making a Full Impulse Turn, they may be attempting to Flee.”

“We have them on the Run.” En’tik said with a hint of pleasure, “Target their bridge, full disrupters, full spread of plasma torpedoes in reserve”

The Bridge erupted in flames as engineering signaled again, “...We’ve lost containment...”

En’tik knew what that meant, they all did, the Raiden fired a final volley into the Koval as she began her destruction.

Dragging himself to his feet, grimacing at the pain which ran through the left side of his body, now mutilated and useless, En’tik watched the Raiden retreat on the View screen as Tal’s ship... his ship... began to spin out of control.

Only brute strength and a stern resolve that the ship, dying around him, imparted to him, allowed En’tik to reach the tactical station.

He pushed the dead officer there from his post, allowing access to the controls... with his last ounce of strength he fired every last weapon the Koval had directly into the Raiden’s stern, he allowed himself a small final smile as he watched the weapons streak across the screen.

The silence of space was interrupted by the explosion of the Koval, the artificial quantum singularity which had once powered her, now aiding in her own destruction... not all was lost to the brave crew of the Koval though, even as she broke into millions of tiny pieces, the last of her plasma torpedoes struck the Raiden... Warp engines exploding, the Raiden spun once, seemed to regain control, and then went dark, internal power going off line.

Only the light of internal explosions illuminated the Raiden’s burning and lifeless hulk now. Silence resumed as the fragments of the Koval slowly dispersed through the infinite expanse of space, and as the Raiden broke apart under her own weight as the Internal dampeners went off line, support struts snapping, she added to the debris field, a lasting testament to a war only beginning...