Within the Gates of Hell

Within the Gates of Hell - Ryan Simpson

This story takes place at the start of the First General War.

Commodore Arven Terra resisted the urge to stand and pace, and kept to his seat in the briefing room. The USS PEACEKEEPER was his own ship, but for Starfleet's purposes now, his own Ready Room had been turned into Admiral Medinean's own briefing room. Opposite him at the table was General St'lok, glaring vehemently at his Mirak counterpart, who had left himself nameless and titleless. They had been told that it sufficed that he spoke for the Mirak. He was tactfully seated across the table from General St'lok. The distance between the two filled the Commodore with relief, but inside he doubted if even the meter of shatter-proof Starfleet alloy table would stop the two if it came to blows. For that matter he had his doubts over whether a Starship's shields could, but he found whatever relief he could at times like these. Which, was what the Admiral was about to discuss...

"I thank you all for coming. I will not presume to condescend towards your intelligence networks, we all know what is going on with the Romulan-Cardassian-Dominion alliance..."

They all did. It had only been a year since hostilities between the Klingons and Mirak ceased, it was a show of the real threat posed by the RDC that the Klingon and Mirak did not take this time to blow their counterpart's vessels apart. That, and the power of the PEACEKEEPER living up to it's name. General St'lok rose quickly and pounded his gloved fists down on the table, leaving tiny cracks across the area he had hit, like a web beneath his hands...

"Your Klingon allies TOLD you the Federation was too lenient with the Cardassians after the war... NOW, when it is too late you come crawling back!"

Commodore Terra thought, this is going to be a LONG day...

"That may be GENERAL..."

The Mirak representative spat the title with such disdain that Commodore Terra and Admiral Median took an involuntary step back from the two, fortunately it seemed that the two knew enough of the dangers posed by the RDC to co-operate...for now. This show of mutual hatred was a necessary show for now.

"...But the RDC are here now and are dangerously close to Mirak Space!"

"We KLINGONS need no help to defend our own space. If the Mirak cannot protect themselves they deserve death, if not at our hands then by the hands of the RDC!"

Commodore Arven Terra saw his opportunity and interposed himself between the two, turning to the Klingon General first-

"The Empire's ability to defend itself against the RDC may not be as assured as you believe General... Admiral?"

Admiral Medinean nodded and activated the briefing screen; countless RDC symbols appeared on the screen, a course was projected on the screen.

"Intelligence reports a combined Romulan, Cardassian and Dominion fleet heading towards Qo'nos, we estimate several thousand warships, supply ships and troop transports."

"Blood of Kahless...It's an invasion force..."

The Mirak representative watched with slitted, calculated eyes as General St'lok sat, sobered by this news.

"It shall be a glorious battle."

General St'lok added, but the fire in his eyes was gone. Like any true

Klingon he was eager to die in battle, but the Klingon Empire could not stand up to a force like that...at least not alone. The Mirak spoke quietly and ominously-

"Mirak forces would do better to defend Mirak itself. We care not for the death of the KLINGON empire!"

The Commodore once again interposed himself between the two as they locked eyes,

"If the fleet is not stopped now, it will take Qo'nos. This is not is dispute. It will then take after Mirak or Sol with only scattered resistance from the Klingons, Starfleet and the Mirak will oppose them alone. That is one fight we cannot win. The RDC must be dealt a blow HERE, if this fleet continues they will fortify themselves, and it will be a long bloody struggle to defeat them, IF it could be done."

The Mirak stroked his chin thoughtfully, Admiral Medinean and Commodore Terra stood side by side, presenting a united front. General St'lok, motivated by the news of the impending fleet and his lust for battle was the first to speak up.

"Then we shall fight, and die fighting together to kill the RDC pah-tach!"

Eyes turned expectantly towards the Mirak representative.

"Let's hear your plan for engaging the fleet, STARFLEET. We are with you."

Smiling inwardly, Admiral Medinean continued-

"We cannot, at this time, muster a force sufficient to defeat the RDC fleet. Intelligence, however, has another plan."

The briefing screen changed to a view of a planet which by the look of the surrounding stars was near the Cardassian border.

"To counter the great distances involved in their alliance, the RDC has a relay point on this world, Dorvan. It is hoped that a combined force of Klingon, Mirak and Starfleet ships and operatives can infiltrate this world, and download their classified battle data from the relay satellite. Our operatives on-world tell us this should be simple enough since the security here is lax, they do not expect an information raid and so are unprepared. Getting out will be more difficult. Cloaked ships would serve us to infiltrate the world, by the time the team leave the element of surprise will be gone so we will engage their defenders while a Starship evacuates the infiltrators and their valuable data..."

The representatives of their respective powers discussed strategy, and while there was no love-lost between the Klingons or Mirak, they were now focused on their goal...

...as was the Obsidian Order operative in the quarters a few decks down. Covertly, he recorded every detail of their vital plan...

Meanwhile, Dorvan command center...

The planetary military council consisted of Gul Rettik, Centurion Gefta and the Vorta, Kelar. Centurion Gefta was the most uncharacteristically vocal against Rettik's information, while Kelar sat back and observed...

"IF our Cardassian allies are right and the Federation and their lackeys are going to bring cloaked ships here we must order more ships to protect us!"

"IF our Romulan allies bring more ships in the Federation, Klingon and Mirak task force will just withdraw immediately... It is best to wait and destroy them as they try and leave, we will deal them a reminding blow and they will not escape with the data!"

"Do not discredit the ideas of Gul Rettik, Gefta. It could be useful to let them think they have been successful in their mission, and then, when their ships come to pick them up they will be destroyed by Jem'Hadar warships..."

"The Romulan Star Empire finds this unacceptable!"

"Who are you to decide what your people want, Gefta? The Dominion appointed you, and that appointment can just as easily be removed..."

The pair of Jam'Hadar at the door illustrated this point.

"Wait... I merely meant that we don't know what data the cloaked Klingon ships might obtain from just an orbital scan..."

"Your point is well taken,"

The Jem'Hadar visibly went down from standby at the approval in the Vorta's voice,

"The Starship with the representatives must not be allowed to relay this plan to their governments... What does the Obsidian Order report on its Commander?"

The question seemed aimed to make the Cardassian leader feel prominent in this discussion while in fact he took a back seat to the conflicting egos of Gefta and the Vorta.

Commodore Arven Terra. A by-the-book officer, he will not have relayed the plan to Starfleet by remote signal, the Klingon and Mirak ships that transferred their representatives have left the area, so the knowledge of that plan remains on that ship..."

"Send an adequate number of Jem'Hadar fighters, this Commodore Terra will die, as well as the representatives and all knowledge of their plan..."

Later...

General St'lok and the Mirak representative turned up on the bridge during the Red Alert, with diplomatic immunity they were staying there unless they got in the way of things. Naturally, Commodore Terra had the Command seat. Admiral Medinean took a place off to the side.

"Identify incoming ships!"

"Jem'Hadar fighters sir...Wave upon wave of them!"

The Klingon General shouted from behind them-

"What GROSS incompetence led to them not being detected until now!?! If this were a Klingon vessel..."

He looked fiercely and suggestively at the science officer, a Vulcan, who to his credit kept the General's stare.

"They have employed Romulan cloaking technology. While not as effective as the cloaking devices on Romulan ships, they have managed to evade our sensors."

"Point taken Seron. Tactical- raise shields and ready weapon systems, we'll not go down without a fight- can we get a message of our plan out?"

"All frequencies jammed sir..."

The Mirak now spoke-

"It is now irrelevant. We have been infiltrated, the plan has been compromised. Even now the RDC will be sending ship to fortify that world..."

Admiral Medinean looked itching to take command, to take an active role but he accepted Terra had command here and stayed put.

"Then we'll go... This ship...Admiral, do I have your permission?"

"Commodore, if we survive this, IF we do, I leave the mission to your discretion. I doubt we can get the data ourselves but to not try when this is our only chance..."

Terra nodded, the fighters were now incoming. In an instant they were within the PEACEKEEPER's weapon range, and the order was given to fire at will.

Phaser fire arched out from the Starships and destroyed every fighter it touched, but for each that fell it seemed another ten vectored to take it's place. Soon the PEACEKEEPER rocked with pulse phaser hits and torpedo impacts...

"We cannot keep this up- there are too many of them! We have to get to

Dorvan, we must complete the mission even if they are in pursuit!"

"If we could escape, yes... but look."

On the screen the vast numbers of Jem'Hadar fighters closed in from all sides...

"Wait a minute, Lieutenant- I'll take it from here..."

Commodore Arven Terra said as he assumed the helm position, he dove the ship through the formation of Jem'Hadar, dodging fire from all direction...well most of it. Proximity alarms blazing he pointed the USS PEACEKEEPER right for the middle of their formation... and out the other side, with meters to spare on either side for the fighters he had flown between.

"Navigation- course to Dorvan, best speed now!"

A second or two later, the PEACEKEEPER was heading through warp towards Dorvan. The Lieutenant Commander at tactical broke the bad news...

"All fighters still light speed capable have turned to pursuit... They'll reach us again just as we enter Dorvan orbit at this rate. It seems like we've just delayed the inevitable, and what's worse sir- all comm frequencies still jammed."

"We'll cross those bridges when we come to them, right now we have an infiltration to plan...Have damage control teams working on the ship ASAP, weapon systems and shields a priority. See if Engineering can force anything else out of the warp engines- Admiral, ambassadors- my ready room?"

Meanwhile, on Dorvan

"FOOLS! The Starfleet vessel has escaped your fighters, as the Romulan Star Empire predicted!"

Gefta rounded the table to stand, enraged, next to his allies, any further comment was cut off by the sound of the door opening to admit a humanoid figure. The Jem'Hadar stood at extremely rigid attention, the Vorta dropped to one knee,

"The Solid's vessel is of no concern. You will have this area secured by the time they arrive, the ship and the infiltrating team will be destroyed."

"As you wish it, master!"

Gefta rolled his eyes at the Vorta's bootlicking of the changeling.

"If you listened to me, the ship would be destroyed already! How can we be sure their team will be stopped here without damage to the facility?"

Silently Gul Rettik moved to stand by the side of the Vorta and the founder, he knew when to be on the winning side... Kelar got to his feet and stared at the Romulan, who only now realized the gravity of his situation...

"YOU would question a GOD?"

The Romulan's passion ebbed; reality came back with a vengeance...

"I...I..."

The changeling's arm knifed out into the Romulan, then retracted within a second, as if nothing had happened the founder turned to the Vorta and Cardassian standing beside him.

"I trust you will make certain Starfleet beam down, but do not return. The relay station data is too valuable to fall into enemy hands..."

"As you wish it, shall be done..."

"And take care of that..."

The changeling pointed to the lifeless corpse on the floor, framed by a pool of green blood and departed taking the Jem'Hadar with him.

Aboard the USS PEACEKEEPER

"Coming out of warp in 10 minutes sir. Jem'Hadar fighters, about a half hour later. Might not be enough time sir..."

"Understood..."

Arven Terra leaned forward in the Command seat. He was flanked by General St'lok and the as-yet anonymous Mirak.

"What do you read in terms of opposition?"

"Space bound- nothing. Although there could be forces behind that moon ready to pounce."

"I'd count on it. What else?"

"Several ground-based batteries, and in the complex at least a garrison of soldiers."

Arven's First Officer stood and got ready to speak. The man, Commander Laren was a quiet and thoughtful man, but always ready for action. His silence and unassumingness often led people to underestimate him, which was something he turned to his advantage.

"You want to be leading the team that beams down, don't you sir?"

"I WAS planning on it. This is no normal away team and I trust you to look after the ship."

"The ship needs her Captain."

Both the Klingon and Mirak to either side of Arven seemed perplexed at this show of over-protection, bordering on insubordination. It was General St'lok who stepped over to the First Officer, using his 7 feet height to tower over the Commander.

"I will personally guarantee your Captain's safety. Do you wish to challenge my ability to do so?"

There was a glance shared between Terra and Laren, the Commander backed down.

"Good luck..."

"The Federation is counting on you all."

Noted the Admiral, who seemed pretty relieved to not be going himself.

Arven Terra stood and nodded to his Operations officer.

"Have the infiltration team meet me in the transporter room. We'll have to have our shields down to beam down, but I want them back up before the Jem'Hadar fighters are in weapon's range. How many did we cut the team down to?"

"10 sir, including yourself."

The Mirak imposed himself, as did General St'lok. If Admiral Medinean was disillusioned that two burly aliens could force this much influence on a Starfleet crew, he didn't show it. Desperate times, desperate measures...

"12."

"There was no argument. Thankfully for the Ops officer.

"It will be a good day to die..."

The three headed out of the turbo lift, and to the transporter room.

Meanwhile, Jem'Hadar Fighter

First Nur'ekka'lan checked the eyepiece of his fighter, ahead the Starfleet ship would be reverting to sub-warp speeds within the hour. He activated the squadron wide comm.

"I, first Nur'ekka'lan, as of this point am dead. We go into battle to live, VICTORY IS LIFE!"

The chant was echoed throughout the commlink, every fighter in turn preparing themselves for a confrontation with the PEACEKEEPER, as long as their counterparts on the ground could keep the ship busy for that long...

"FOR THE FOUNDERS!"

Arven Terra and the infiltration team beamed down in the center of the complex. One of the marines nodded left and they all headed that way. General St'lok remained behind with some of the marines,

"The computer system is not far. We will watch your back... ANYONE could be changeling infiltrator unless blood tests are mandatory..."

He illustrated the point with a flourish of his Bat'leth and a pointed glare towards the Mirak. The Mirak stopped and walked over.

"We do not have time. If you trust a Klingon to watch your back, you will find a blade in it. I remain also."

Arven nodded knowing there was nothing he could do to stop them, but he had enough problems without those two adding to them.

"According to our readings, we can download the data we need from this room."

"Aye sir!"

Two marines took a position on either side of the door, while the lead marine phasered the door off. As the smoke cleared the two on the side of the door pounced in on....nobody.

"Ok, room secured... The download point is there,"

The marine leader nodded to one of the team who interfaced his tricorder to the download point.

"Data coming through think and fast now sir... Fleet deployments, target priorities... sir this data is more valuable than we imagined! If we can get this out to Starfleet we can do some real damage to the RDC!"

It was about time, Terra thought. Between the Romulans, Cardassians and Dominion Starfleet had suffered heavy losses. The extent of the damage was withheld from all but the highest ranks, it was fair to guess that should the actual implications of the RDC alliance be known, it would cause mass panic among the population of the same Federation. The same Federation that had held off countless invaders including the Borg would be in mass panic.

"Let's just focus on getting this information out and to Starfleet. Stay sharp people."

The download continued, Arven and the marine contingent studied the room with their eyes, holding firmly onto their phaser rifles. All of a sudden out of the silence, there came a comm badge call-

"...JEM'HADAR! COMPROMISED!"

It was the voice of General St'lok and the scrambled message that was getting through was punctuated with Klingon cursing.

"We've got to go assist them! You three, I want you to-"

"No Major- they're doing their job and buying us time. Remain here."

Arven Terra had ordered people to their deaths before, but now it was lack of action that would lead to the death of others. In many ways that was worse for him. His thoughtful mood was rudely interrupted by a distortion in the air near the walls- distortions that formed into Jem'Hadar... Wordlessly, many of the infiltration team were cut down by Jem'Hadar ruthlessly efficient shots. There was no real cover in the room, and although return fire shot down many Jem'Hadar they simply kept firing until they themselves were killed- the problem was they had a numerical advantage here and Starfleet was running out of infiltration team quickly... Within seconds few were left, the air was rife with the screams of the unfortunate; the marine downloading the data crouched but kept on his objective. He was given a wide berth by the Jem'Hadar and considered a non-combatant. The marines worked into close combat, rendering their own rifles and those of the Jem'Hadar shock troops near useless. This was combat at it's most personal, and most ruthless. Here veterans were made, and veterans were killed. Arven made a good accounting for himself as did his marines but the Jem'Hadar were better suited and it was obvious victory would be theirs.

"IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!"

Came the bellowing voice from the doorway, covered in wounds and dragging an appropriated Jem'Hadar rifle came the victorious St'lok. Soldier after older was mown down by the Klingon, but they had him flanked now. What remained of Arven's team were stuck in a corner- looking behind and around St'lok showed he was alone and his rifle had run out of charge. He took out his Bat'leth and gave it a confidant flourish, but against a dozen Jem'Hadar he would not live. Slowly and covertly Terra tapped his comm badge...he COULD call for an emergency beam-out from the PEACEKEEPER, but the download was still not complete and they would not get another chance at this...

"Standby..."

Was the message he whispered. Two of the Jem'Hadar advanced, and from above came a Mirak shaped blur, and the two Jem'Hadar lay prone on the floor a second later. Now down from god-knows-where he had managed to conceal himself acrobatically hanging from the ceiling above St'lok was the Mirak, striking out with deceptive grace once, twice...quick enough to make it difficult to see where his attacks came from. For an instant during the ensuing melee, Mirak eyes met Klingon and instinct drilled into them from many a battlefield encounter with the other instructed them to kill this enemy...they restrained it just in time. Now uncovered the Starfleet marines likewise attacked the Jem'Hadar. They all fought bravely and had the element of surprise once again, and the Jem'Hadar were dwindling. Only a few remained, the Mirak spun around to finish off one of the soldiers, but he left his back to a Jem'Hadar sprawled on the floor, who rose towards him with a blade in his hand...and dropped with a Bat'leth in his back. Within a minute, the dust had settled and the Jem'Hadar were no more. There was a silence to honor their fallen comrades, and enemies alike. It was broken by one of the younger marines.

"Download complete sir."

"Thank the maker!"

Arven tapped his comm badge,

"Peacekeeper, beam-up the remainder of the team before any more trouble comes our way!"

"Trouble sir?"

"You could say that."

As he watched the team dematerialize along with himself and the data, Arven spared a glance for St'lok and the Mirak. They too looked upon themselves, not with kindness, hardly even tolerance, but with respect- one warrior to another. Arven took this as just a good a sign for the Klingon-Mirak-Federation alliance as the stolen data.

Dorvan command center...

"THEY HAVE ESCAPED THE JEM'HADAR! THEY HAVE THE DATA!"

"Patience Gul Rettik, or share the demise of your counterpart..."

The memory of Gefta's death silenced the proud Cardassian's outburst, though he still stood in insolent outrage and disbelief. The Vorta spoke from his console-

"They are attempting to beam out- shall I engage the transport inhibitors?"

"No. Arven Terra and his team will die with their ship...Launch the attack"

The disbelief in the Vorta was silenced by his oft-repeated mantra... 'God don't make mistakes...'

Aboard the Peacekeeper...

Arven Terra ran onto the bridge just in time to see the Jem'Hadar fighters emerge from light speed.

"RED ALERT! Shields up, power weapons, all hands to battle stations!

The pulsing red light filled the bridge as well as the accompanying klaxons. It had provided the backdrop for many a battle for Arven Terra, he fervently hoped for the sake of the Federation that this would not be his last.

"Sir- you were kept busy on the surface long enough for them to catch up...All comm frequencies still jammed."

"Then the data?"

"Oh it's genuine-AND useful. IF we can get it to Starfleet."

"Maximum warp- to Federation Space!"

"No can do sir, our vector is clogged..."

"Then we'll do it the hard way. Threat analysis and ETA on Jem'Hadar fighters?"

"We cannot prevail against that many ships sir... We'll be in their weapons range in a minute, no sooner."

A second later the ship rocked with phaser fire, Arven shot an accusing glance at the tactical officer who had delivered the report just before it.

"Not the fighters sir...the ground based batteries opened up on us. Shields down to 80%."

"Take us out of their range, direct intercept course with fighters- eye of the storm. If we go down, we go down fighting and take a few of them out with us..."

"Aye sir..."

They all knew their jobs. They all knew the risks. Knowing this made it no easier.

The ship rocked under weapons fire, the return phaser fire glancing against the enemy and vaporizing the opposing fighters, but there were too many of them.

"Shields failing!"

The bridge filled with smoke, panels sparked. The ship was not going to hold together much longer...

"Sir, I'm reading an incoming ship coming out of warp..."

"Starfleet?"

"No sir."

Arven glanced at the Mirak and St'lok who both shook their heads ominously, so the ship couldn't be Klingon or Mirak either...

The ship rocked again, this time the deck lurched with it. Most of the bridge crew lost their footing, somehow the tactical officer held on to his console long enough to receive the message from the new ship...

"A message sir, for you..."

It wasn't Starfleet, Klingon or Mirak. They were with RDC space about to explode. The incoming message didn't sound like it would be a hello.

Arven stood, he pulled down on his uniform tunic and strode up to the view screen to face it full on.

"They wanna gloat- they do it to my face."

"Aye sir.."

As the tactical officer flipped the switch Arven started his barrage-

"You dishonorable coward! Betraying us, forming your corrupt little alliance if you think it ends here you son-of-a-tribble you've got another thing coming, you may have won the battle but... YOU'RE UGLY!"

Arven seemed pretty pleased with himself, he'd managed to get all of that out before he'd focused his eyes on the visual. In hindsight, not a good idea. From his vantage point a few foot away from the screen he was confronted by a larger than life green reptile creature, dominating his vision... It let out a hiss,

"Sir, the Captain of the Gorn ship 'Gerrix' offers their assistance against the RDC..."

"Gorn ship Gerrix- we had communications problems there sorry... any help would be most appreciated! Terra out."

Happy with his understatement of the century, Arven Terra backed away from the screen and signaled for it to be put back on a view of the battle. The Gerrix shot straight through the Jem'Hadar formation, forcing the fighters to withdraw. The vicious green beams of energy striking blow after blow on the Jem'Hadar fighters.

"The fighters have backed off completely. Captain of the Gerrix on subspace again for you Captain..."

Admiral Median, who had only just managed to stand after the battle whispered something to Terra about diplomacy, the smile on both of their faces was evident after their near escape...

"Captain, Gorn vessel Gerrix- you have our greatest appreciation! We all owe you a great deal. Your joining the alliance will help us to expel the-"

"Starfleet Captain, we are not joining the alliance. The RDC is a threat to us all, we see this but will not commit our forces. Throughout your fight you have friends with the Gorn, but we will not join the alliance. Your appreciation is noted, and be warned Captain.. The Gorn collect upon their debts. Gerrix, out."

In space the USS PEACEKEEPER and the GERRIX symbolically warped their separate ways. Aboard the ship, the Mirak and General St'lok shared a symbolic nod.

Terra took the center seat, his First Officer by his side, the Admiral, General St'lok and the Mirak representative off to the side. Already technicians and medics swarmed around the bridge, getting the PEACEKEEPER and her crew back at full efficiency. Arven Terra, soon to be a father to a future Starfleet tactical officer- though of course he didn't know it, broke the symbolic silence and spoke more to himself than anyone else-

"Time to get this information to those who can use it best...and take the fight back to the RDC. I have a feeling we haven't seen anything yet..."