War Unending

The year is 2411, and the Iconian War has begun. the Alpha Quadrant is burning, and only the brave efforts of a few brave men and women are preventing the tide from turning to the Iconian Heralds.

This is a tale of two crews: one that ends up in a war that Starfleet had no intention of getting involved in...and one that is trying its' hardest to get them back home.

Andromeda Sphere, Iconia system, Stardate 88139.1 (February 8th, 2411)

The USS Firestorm was pounding the hell out of a Herald dreadnought, making sure it couldn't lay fire into her sister ship. Well, not really 'sister': it wasn't the same class, but the two captains were old friends from the Academy. Covering one another's backs was what they did.

"Nice shot, Take! Remind me to send you a gift card for that."

"Sure thing, Ron!" the Firestorm's Captain, Takeshi Yamato, replied. "We'll keep drawing their attention so you can keep doing what you do best!"

The massive Odyssey-Class ship moved towards one of the gateways, preparing to let loose all kinds of hell. Their objective was to try and disable the network, preventing the Heralds from making any major strikes without risking a large number of their ships. They were powerful, yes, but that came at the expense of their shield strength. Without the gateways, survival for a Herald ship was… doubtful.

The smaller Mercury-Class ship, however, would not be joining them in the Sphere — only a small group was going in, and it had been decided that the larger ships would fare better surrounded by so many enemy ships. Takeshi's objective was to get the task force through the gate, then hold the exit against anyone who wanted to close it.

Murphy had other plans, as the Haa'pax-Class RRW Deihu suddenly stalled. "This is Subcommander Nidel: we've been boarded by Herald boarding parties! Engines and shields are offline, and weapons are down!"

"Deihu, this is the Ra-Cailum," Ron replied. "We'll have to do this without you. Get them off your ship. Take, hate to do this, but you'll have to take the Deihu's place."

"Understood, Ron," Takeshi replied, his ship forming up alongside the Ra-Cailum as they headed into the gate.

"This wasn't the plan," Takeshi's Operations Officer said worriedly.

"Calm down, Rina," Takeshi replied.

"Calm down?!" Rina yelled. "We're going into an Iconian stronghold! I thought the plan was WE stay here, not follow them into the jaws of death!"

The Xindi-Reptilian XO turned his gaze to the Bajoran officer. "Captain Pinkerton's record has shown that he can adapt better than most to the unexpected. If the Captain has faith, so will I."

"Yeah, Rina, don't worry," Takeshi replied, adjusting his ship's heading from his preferred place to command: the Helm Console. "We may have had to change the plan a bit, but we'll still take care of things."

"GREAT, faith in the drone. Just what we need!" Takeshi would have glared at her, but they had a job to do. As the ship entered the gateway, they were treated to the sight of the sphere. Like the Jenolan and Solanae spheres, it was beautiful, in it's own way, but it was the lair of the enemy. And it was their job to take them out. "Ra-Cailum to all ships: you know your jobs. Cover the Silverman while she knocks out the main gateway systems. Once that's done, we haul ass."

"Enemy contacts on sensors!" Ron's Science Officer reported.

"Here they come!" Ron replied. "Lock and load!"

Takeshi opened up first, a cone of Phaser Cannon fire and a spread of 35 Max Yield Quantum Torpedoes shot out from his ship, hitting a wide array of Herald ships, destroying the smaller raiders outright and dealing heavy damage to the Cruisers.

"The Heralds are going to get their asses kicked today!" One of the portals opened close to the Ra-Cailum's port side, and the ship unleashed a volley of phaser fire into it, tearing into an Iaidon dreadnought, ripping through the (compared to the more modern ships) weakened shields and hacking parts of it off. "Come on, you Iconian assholes! BRING IT!"

As the battle continued, Takeshi's Science Officer announced, "Captain, I'm picking up some strange readings here…"

"Strange how, Kim?" Takeshi asked her.

"The energy signatures are massive, and continuing to… oh shit! We need to get the hell out of here! They're going to use gateways to reduce the mass of multiple stars; they'll induce supernovae throughout the quadrant!" and the most likely targets were also the capital worlds: Qo'nos, New Romulus and Earth.

"Oh, bloody frakking hell!" Takeshi groaned out. "Could our day get any worse? Ron, did you get that?"

"We got it, and we're going to make sure the Silverman can stop it! All ships, head to one of the gateways!"

The Firestorm rocked, and Takeshi looked at the LCARS display. The ship's speed was dropping.

Kim was the one to report it. "One of the raiders just rammed us!" she informed.

The Chief Engineer spoke up next. "Boss, the Impulse Engines are damaged! I've got teams working to fix them, but we'll have reduced power for a few minutes!"

"Get us back to full power as soon as you can, Matt!" Takeshi replied, before getting back on the Comms. "Ron, we have a problem here."

"We noticed. We have a solution. One you're going to hate, but I can take a stab from your sword later."

"What the hell is he—" Matt asked before the ship was shoved forward roughly, hit by a forced graviton beam. They were PUSHING the Escort out. "Is he insane?! He's draining his own engine power to do that!"

"Get clear, damn it! The mission is all that matters!"

"We're on it, but we'll speak about this later, Ron!" Takeshi replied, before the Firestorm made it out of the Sphere.

On the other side, the Firestorm came out, her rear end in flames, followed shortly by the Silverman. "The Ra-Cailum stayed behind, sir," The Silverman's Captain informed. "They told us to get out while they finished the job. He said they'd be out soon."

Takeshi swore. "That idiotic, headstrong, stubborn…!" he growled. "Ron, you'd better make it out of there in one piece. If you die, then so help me I'll find a way to bring you back, just so I can kill you again!"

The gateway portal rippled, and they saw the Ra-Cailum coming towards the portal. "Come on, damn it!" Takeshi yelled. "MOVE!" But the portal faded… with no Ra-Cailum coming out. She was gone. "RON!" Takeshi turned to Kim. "Kim, I want a full analysis of all the data our sensors might have had on that gateway — I want to know what went wrong, and why!"

"S-Sir, I can't just tell you—"

"NOW!" Takeshi yelled again. "I don't care how long it takes, or where we have to go, we are NOT leaving that ship behind! Not when they just bailed our asses out of the fire!" Kim nodded, dumbly, getting to work as Takeshi stood. "Tholra, the Bridge is yours. I'll be in my quarters."

"Yes, Captain," the Xindi-Reptilian replied, taking the Helm as Takeshi left the Bridge, reaching his quarters soon afterward.

Soon after the amethyst-eyed brunet entered his quarters, he was joined by a red-headed woman with blue eyes. "Takeshi… are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah… I'm alright, Linda," he replied. "Just worried and annoyed. Ron's been one of my best friends since my Academy days, Brok'Tan being the only other guy to have been friends with me for that long… and now Ron helped us out, but went missing as a result… we need to get him back."

Linda nodded. "I understand, Takeshi," she said. "Still, it'll take time for Kim to get the information she needs, you know that."

Takeshi sighed. "I know… I know…" he said. "I just…"

Linda silenced him by claiming his lips with her own. "Hush…" she said once they parted from the kiss. "Don't worry about what can't be changed. We'll figure out what to do once the data's been analyzed… but for now… let me take your worries away for a while…"

Takeshi nodded, kissing his wife again as she began helping him out of his uniform…

Unknown Location, Unknown Date

A portal appeared out of nowhere, spitting out a massive ship. With a oval-shaped saucer section, a 'split-neck', a massive engineering section and two long nacelles attached to swept back pylons, the ship could only be an Odyssey-Class superdreadnought. "THAT was fun!"

"FUN?! You call that fun?!"

The man in the center chair spun around to look at an angry Hispanic woman in a 2285 engineer's vest. "Come on, Soni! We just kicked ass and took no names! The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the stabbing Take's going to give me. Speaking of which…" He pressed a button to open a channel. "Take, you there?"

Silence answered him.

"Uh… Corpie?"

"For the love of all that's holy, STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"Sensor scan. Now."

The Andorian shook her head as she scanned the area. "Well, we're at Earth… What the hell?"

Ron looked at his tactical officer. "What is it?"

"I'm reading several orbital habitats around Earth in locations there weren't before… and no sign of ESD," she reported. "The habitats seem to be centered around the Earth-Moon Lagrange System… and the ones at L4 seem to be uninhabited from what I can tell, while those at L5 look like nothing I've ever seen before." An image appeared on the screen, then magnified, to show a bunch of… what looked for all intents and purposes to be hourglasses. "Furthermore, I'm picking up a ring of debris around Earth… but not from any one source. If I had to compare it to anything… it'd be a cosmic junkyard."

Ronald Pinkerton sighed as he looked to his science officer. Stereotypically, it was a Vulcan. A Vulcan woman, but a Vulcan. "T'pel, can you get a scan of anything to get a reading on our location?" The dark haired woman rose an eyebrow, as though channeling one of the greatest beings the universe had ever known. "Captain, our location is known."

"No, it ain't. This isn't our Sol system. Scan something, ANYTHING, for our quantum RNA signature."

She did that, before her eyebrow rose again. "The quantum RNA signature is different than that of our ship. We seem to have traveled into another universe."

Ron's eye twitched. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go break the laws of physics by screaming in a vacuum." Ron left the bridge, heading for his ready room. Which, like most of the ship, had a large number of holes in it.

"Wonder how loud he'll scream this time."

T'pel looked at Sonja Henderson, the ship's Chief Engineer, critically. "The captain's scream will not go any louder then 87.9 decibels. It never does."

Sonja counted down from three, dropping one finger after another before…

"GOD! FUCKING! DAMNED! COCKSUCKING! SON! OF! A! WHORE!"

"I was incorrect. That was 95.7 decibels." Sonja smiled, as she had a long standing bet with T'pel over the screams. She won.

The captain exited his ready room, looking slightly more than livid, heaving a long, angry sigh. "Damage report."

Sonja put her hands behind her head, looking at the ceiling. "We took a beating: weapons and shields are slightly screwed, gravity plating on Deck 47 is offline and the only thing that isn't badly damaged is the life support system."

"Take better be having a better time than me right now. Because I'm NOT happy."

USS Firestorm

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, 'WE'RE NOT GOING TO LOOK FOR THEM'?!" Takeshi roared out over the comm lines.

Admiral Quinn was unfazed. "The Ra-Cailum is just one ship, and they aren't exactly important in the grand scheme of things, Captain. Besides, would he want us wasting our time on a nigh-fruitless search?"

"He was one of my best friends, Admiral," Takeshi growled. "On top of that, he practically saved my life. I owe it to him to return the favor, and the data Kim obtained has confirmed he's still out there somewhere."

"Captain, I asked you a question. I want an answer. You knew him best."

"…No, he wouldn't." Takeshi knew Ron's logic: the needs of the many outweighed all, and the mission was more important then anything. But he wouldn't stop until he brought all his people home. The Admiral, unfortunately, had given his orders: there would be no Voyager-style search. "I'm reassigning you to the Qo'nos attack force, Captain. The Iconians are hitting hard, and while we're gaining ground, they're making it hard for us to gain ANY ground without paying the price in blood. Make the Iconians bleed. Quinn out."

The image disappeared from the screen, and Takeshi sighed. "Ron… I don't care what Admiral Quinn says," he said. "I WILL find you, and I'll bring you back home." He then activated the terminal again, this time opening a secret comm channel that, to his knowledge, was only known to a few.

It was the comm channel of one Tieria Erde, an information broker who dealt with whomever was willing to pay him. He'd had to first contact Erde to get information on the Deferi/Breen conflict, and while he still didn't know much about the mysterious broker, he did know that Erde was well-connected — it was rumored Erde even had ears in the Starfleet Technical Intelligence Group.

That level of connection was what Takeshi needed.

To hell with orders. He had a duty to his friend, and he was going to fulfill it, no matter what it took.

Alt-Sol System, Unknown Date

"Impulse engines, 23% capability, torpedo launchers offline, shield emitters are under repair, warp drive is operational, but can just barely give us Warp 2.4, all but two phaser banks are offline, and all of 'luxuries', like holodecks and replicators, are down to give more power to the defense systems and propulsion."

Ron hummed as his crew groaned at the idea of lack of sonic showers. "So, what's the plan, boss?"

He pointed at one of the colonies at L4. "We'll use one of the cylinders to cover us as we affect repairs. As soon as we're operational, we make contact with whoever is the local government."

"You seem sure that this Earth is united."

The smile on Ron's face was almost enough to convince them that he was an easygoing man. That expression hid a ruthless commander and someone who would do anything to accomplish his mission while bringing everyone home. "Come on, space colonies are the ultimate sign of planetary unity. Without arguing over who builds what colony, you can get hundreds up in a couple of decades."

Arctic Circle, OMNI Intelligence Task Group Four, Underground Headquarters Base

A single soldier, wearing a black OMNI officer's uniform with the rank of Colonel emblazoned on it, his dark brown hair was closely cropped to his head and a small amount of stubble running along his chin, his dark green eyes taking in everything as he walked, his impressive 6'7" height towering over most of the occupants of the base as they stepped to the side with a respectful salute that he returned, strode through steel grey hallways, his combat boots clicking against the concrete floor, with a purposeful stride. "Colonel Hisanaga," one of the soldier greeted the man, who turned to look at him, "The commander is waiting for you in MTAC 3."

"Thank you Private," the Colonel returned as he turned down a hallway to the indicated room, he quickly scanned his keycard and had his iris scanned before the door unlocked and allowed him entry, currently there were only three people in the room. "Commander."

An older man with greying black hair and significant asian features on his scarred face, his light brown eyes glinting with steely resolve. "Colonel," he returned, gesturing for the younger officer to join him in standing before the large screen on the wall before him. "There's some big news from our agents in space," he nodded over to the technical officer who quickly brought an image up on the main screen.

The Colonel gasped as his eyes widened at the sight on the screen, it was an overtop shot a ship that was clearly of extraterrestrial origins, it was sleek looking ship, even with the obscene amounts of damage to its frame, the front of the ship — and what seemed to be the main section of the ship — was ovaloid in shape that then descended and split off into what looked to be two thrusters, another image to the front of the ship showed a depression into the ship that glowed weakly with a blue light, some sparks emitting from it.

"My god…" the Colonel breathed.

"Agreed, Colonel," a feminine voice spoke up, as a short woman, only coming up to the Colonel's chest, with short, tomboyish blond hair, wearing a pair of rather dirty glasses and wearing a lab coat overtop a pair of comfortable jeans and a button up white blouse stepped forward, her sneakers squeaking slightly off the floor as she moved, a smirk gracing her cutely chubby features. "Proof of living extraterrestrial life, and pretty advanced, I'd say, too."

"Dr. Grey," the commander nodded in greeting. "Thank you for joining us, anything you can tell about the ship from initial scans?"

"Not as much as you'd like for me to be able to, Commander," the female doctor said with a depressed sigh. "But… something did catch my interest, it's power levels are off the charts, and fluctuating," she held up a tablet that she quickly tapped on, bringing up a graph that showed an obvious ascent and descent at regular intervals. "It seems to be mostly stable at the moment, however, its lowest point is still higher than even our highest grade of nuclear reactors before the N-Jammers went into effect."

"That's… both impressive and troubling," the Colonel murmured as he studied the ship.

"Fortunately it doesn't seem like it plans on going boom anytime soon," the doctor pointed out with a wry grin. "Oh this is exciting," she literally squealed, making both men look at her with slightly fearful looks.

After all, you'd be nervous around someone who only squealed when they were about to begin a live dissection.

"Anyways," the Commander announced loudly, drawing attention to him. "Colonel…" he let out a small sigh. "Ryu, I want you to lead a team and see if you can find out more, take Vanessa here with you."

"Sir?" Colonel Ryu Hisanaga asked with a blink. "This… isn't normally our responsibility to manage First Contact."

"Who said anything about First Contact?" the Commander said gruffly, looking over to the young man. "This is our opportunity to get out from Blue Cosmos thumb, if we can get our hands on some of their tech."

Ryu blinked before settling into a professional stance. "Operational Parameters, sir?" he asked.

"No killing if it can be avoided," the officer replied. "However, if you can bring back some corpses for study…"

"Understood, I'll have my team picked and leaving within the hour," the Colonel saluted before looking over to the doctor who nodded.

"I'll be ready and waiting with bells on Colonel," Vanessa joked as she made some notes on her tablet. "See you in the Hanger."

Ryu nodded before leaving MTAC 3 and moving off towards the barracks, mentally running through a list of on duty operatives that would be suited for the mission and the gear to be used.

Entering to the barracks he took a quick look around. "Brick, Warlock, Prophet, Dice, front and center," he shouted out into the din of the barracks, causing the said soldiers to leap up before him, standing at attention. "Grab you gear and assemble in the Hanger, we got a mission."

"Sir!" the quartet called out with a salute before moving off to grab their standard weapons and gear.

Ryu moved on himself, picking up his duffel bag as he moved along with a standard assault rifle and pistol and headed for the armory,

"Ryu, been told you got a big one up in space," a cocky female voice called out as a green eyed woman who red hair was in a long ponytail and was wearing a pair of oil stained coveralls with a black undershirt. "What can I get for you?"

"Well, I was hoping to test out those new suits of Exo-Infiltration armor you were bragging about," Ryu informed, a small smirk building on his face. "How about it, Lisa?"

Lisa Turner, the chief engineer and head of the R&D of the base chuckled in response. "Ah, the Blitz Suits," she commented with a chuckle. "You're in luck Colonel, a batch of ten just came off the assembly line," she announced as she led him into the Factory of the base where a group of techs were swarming around a group of sleek black armor. "Vacuum sealed, self powered and carrying Personal Mirage Colloid Dispersal Units, coated in RADAR absorbing materials and all the tricks."

"Works of art, Ratchet," Ryu complimented as he looked them over. "I need six."

"They're yours," the mechanic assured. "Also sending you a briefing on their capabilities and functions."

"Thanks, I'll send a performance report after the mission," Ryu returned as the group of mechanic began to pack up the armor. "See ya."

"Stay alive asshole!" Lisa shouted good naturedly.

USS Ra-Cailum

"Good news is, most of our shuttlecraft are intact."

Ron gave Sonja a glare as they walked through the hulls of their ruined ship. "You are NOT suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

Sonja chuckled sheepishly. "Strip them for parts to fix the ship? More or less, sir."

Ron groaned. "Argh. At least if we fix the ship, we can make the spare parts we need to get the shuttles back up to spec. Just… make it painless."

Sonja smiled in victory. Ron didn't want to touch the shuttlecraft: they were one of the last lines of defense the ship now had, sans the Arquebus. But with 60 shuttles and 80 Peregrine-Class fighters, they had spare parts aplenty just waiting to be used. "How long until we reach that abandoned colony?"

"At one-eighth impulse, 3 hours. Maybe we'll get a few answers along the way."

"Yeah, doubting that."

Mendel Colony

Kira Yamato sighed as he looked over the program update he was doing for the Archangel's computer systems — although this was mostly an excuse for some privacy to sort out some rather disturbing facts he just learned about himself.

First, Yamato is not his last name, his parents? Adopted him. While not exactly sore about it, he was miffed that they never actually trusted him enough to tell him that fact, although, granted he did refuse to see them the last time he was in ORB because he didn't want them to see their son as a soldier.

Second, the Princess of ORB, Cagalli Yula Attha was his sister. Yup, she was adopted too, and apparently also never told. While it wasn't exactly a new revelation to him, it was still a rather… startling one, especially since they had a few… close encounters that were, thankfully, interrupted by his girlfriend Flay.

Oh, and finally, he was apparently some kind of Super Coordinator.

Yeah.

Go figure.

That was the one that really threw him for a loop, but… also explained a few things, like his ridiculous learning curve, he was fighting off four ace pilots in mobile suits that equalled his own in days without a even a lick of experience piloting and the only thing he had on his side was the fact that he had pretty much built the OS system his unit used.

Yeah, something told him Athrun was kinda sore about that fact, would explain how that rotten banana peel got between his bedsheets.

Oh, there was also the fact that his… wingmate? Mentor? Older Brother Figure?

How did Mu La Flaga fit into his life?

Well, anyways, it turned out that Mu's long time arch-nemesis — this kid inside of him found the fact that his fellow pilot actually had one and that they called each other that cool — was actually a clone of his father.

Yup, turns out the Archangel is a magnet for weird fucked up shit.

And it was only going to get worse. "All hands, stand to level two combat alert! All pilots, please report to the launch deck!"

Murrue Ramius was having a VERY bad day. First, the Archangel's all-black younger sister, the LCAM-X02A Dominion, had beaten the holy hell out of her ship, and was likely still out there, and now something else was approaching. And if the thermal signatures were anything to go by, the damn thing was MASSIVE. "We are in no shape to take anything like that thing on."

Miriallia Haw tried not to hear her captain's comment, focusing on trying to get a visual of the unknown ship. Which she did.

The ship that was approaching them was just over a Kilometer in length, with a vague ovaloid shape to what looked to be the main section of the ship with a pair of what had to be the ship's thrusters trailing behind it, oh, and it was also even more beaten up than the Archangel with whole sections of its hull missing. "Oh my word," Miriallia breathed as she took in the ship, placing it on the main screen of the Bridge.

Even with the amount of damage, the ship looked inspiring. And when the ship began to turn, as if to try and dock with the Colony, they caught a sight that was more than a little shocking.

On the port nacelle were characters. A name and registry. A name and registry that they could read. U.S.S. RA-CAILUM NCC-94157-A.

"Kira here, what's going on, Miss Murrue?" Kira's voice shook them out of the shock as his face appeared on one of the secondary screens, clad in his pilot suit and in the cockpit of the ZGMF-X10A Freedom.

"Kira… there is a VERY big ship out there. It's not Earth Alliance. It's not ZAFT. But it's human."

Mir's console began beeping. "They're hailing us. How the hell did they know we were here?" They were using what was left of the colony's external cameras to look at this whale of a ship while the Archangel, Kusanagi and Eternal were safely nested in the colony itself.

"Put them through."

The Orb-born teen did as she was told, and a voice piped in over the comm. "This is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the United Federation of Planets Starship Ra-Cailum to the unknown vessels currently inside the colony. Please respond."

The crew of the Archangel looked over to Murrue who swallowed slightly before responding. "This is Captain Murrue Ramius of the Archangel," she called out after gathering herself. "What are your intentions here?"

"Safe harbor, Captain Ramius: my ship is damaged, and I would like to put in for repairs. This colony's docking bay should be large enough for us to enter and set up a berth. I apologize if my ship scared you; we're non-hostile, unless provoked."

Ramius swallowed as she considered what was happening. "Please wait one moment, Captain Pinkerton, I must discuss this with my colleagues," she informed as the link was put on hold. "Get the Eternal and the Kusanagi on the line, I need them ASAP."

USS Ra-Cailum

"Sir, the colony doesn't have any shipyard facilities, let alone anything we need to fix — "

"It has a docking bay. All we need to do is get inside, and our engineering crews can do their work without fear of getting blown off the ship if we needed to engage the engines."

Sonja had to admit, her CO had a point. Repairs in space were a risky affair, which was why it was usually not recommended on a massive scale.

"Corpsa, try to tap into their communications. And be discreet about it."

The Andorian tactical officer got to work. "Remodulating comm frequencies, tapping into theirs and making it seem like background radiation. Sure. Simple."

A few seconds later, they got what they wanted: an ear in the conversation.

"-is is unprecedented," a soft feminine voice said, cutting in apparently in mid sentence. "First contact with an unknown race, but… they speak the same language as us, is that even possible?"

"Improbable, but not exactly impossible," a calmer, older, male voice countered. "Some words could hold different meanings, but for the time being we should count our blessings, Haumea knows we need them."

"The question is what action we take?" another male voice cut in, harsher than the other with a good bit of cockiness mixed in. "They don't exactly look to be in the best of shape, and we don't exactly have supplies to spare… not to mention when the Alliance might decide to show up again, we can't really afford to be defending another ship that can't fight back."

"That's just it though, they need our help!" A brash female voice stated passionately. "And can you imagine what the Alliance, no, what Blue Cosmos would do to them? Actual Aliens?"

"Cagalli is right," the calmer female stated. "And not just for their safety, what were to happen should the Alliance get their hands on advanced technology? Let alone what would happen should Patrick Zala get ahold of them."

"My father would definately try to use it against the Alliance," a young male voice stated with a regretful sigh.

"Alright, so, we allow them access?" Murrue asked for confirmation, followed by a few moments of silence. "Right, I'll be contacting them again, make sure they have some room in the Docks."

"Soni, did you strip all of the shuttles down?" "Most of them are in pieces, but one or two are still intact. The Tolkin, for one." Ron smirked. "Corpsa, get them back on the horn. Prep the shuttle." A beep signaled that they were back in contact. "Captain, I think it would be premature for my ship to dock without proving that we're not a threat. In about five minutes, I'm going to be coming over in a shuttlecraft with members of my senior staff. I hope that I get a warm welcome from a friendly group of people."

"Understood, Captain, I will be sending a Mobile Suit to guide you in," the other captain responded. "Please understand that we are only taking precautions for our own safety."

"I do. Ra-Cailum Actual out." The link was cut just before Ron froze and asked the question. "what the hell is a Mobile Suit?"

almost 280 seconds later, the shuttle Tolkin was departing the clamshell doors of shuttlebay 2, passing over the docked (and undamaged) Aquarius-class escort Arquebus. The Tolkin was an old shuttle, but she did have deflector shields and four Type-4 phaser arrays. Enough teeth to defend itself. "Shuttlecraft Tolkin to escort. We're departing Ra-Cailum and en route. Where are you?"

"Shuttlecraft Tolkin, this is Lieutenant Yamato in the Freedom, I am en approach at your starboard," responded their escort, bringing up the camera feed their jaws dropped at the sighed of a humanoid looking mech, easily a dozen and a half meters tall, the unit was mostly a white color with a black and blue chest and… well… what could only be described as wings, it had was seemed to be a rifle of some kind on its back and was carrying a physical shield of all things.

"What the fuck is THAT thing?" While his chief engineer was figuring that out, Ron was running the tactical numbers. If things came to blows, the Tolkin could engage this… Freedom, but the machine's thrusters gave it the edge in maneuverability. Defensive systems and weapons were in their favor, as well as the material of the hull (duranium was a bitch to burn through) but Ron wasn't interested in a fight. 'Peace without conflict.' "Understood, Lieutenant. Guide us in."

The Freedom took up a lead position to the shuttle as it lead the way towards the Colony that had the ship Archangel guarding the entrance to, surprisingly, however, they weren't guided to the white ship, they were instead guided into the colony where another pair of ships were docked.

One was a blue/white ship that seemed to be almost… segmented with a pair of large protrusions coming out from what looked to be the entrance to a hanger, shuttles and other large machines, these ones being white and red — with a few other differently colored machines thrown in, coming and going from the ship, passing between it and the other ship.

Speaking of the other ship, it was sleeker ship with a light red paintjob and some kind of wing like protrusions coming out from the side of the thruster housings, and what seemed to be a runway strip leading to a hanger that the Freedom was guiding them towards.

"Eternal, this is Kira Yamato on approach with the Shuttlecraft Tolkin," their escort radioed.

"We see you kid," a male voice responded. "You have clearance to land, Lacus is waiting for you."

"This should be interesting."

"It's first contact: it's ALWAYS interesting."

FFMH-Y101 Eternal

The songstress of peace, as many nicknamed her, smiled as the Freedom entered the Eternal's hangar bay, followed by an… odd looking shuttle. Looking much like a long box with a curved and pointed forward section and a pair of nacelles hanging off to the side and under the craft, it didn't look very normal compared to most shuttles she knew of. But when it stopped in midair and spun around before landing, she knew there was more than meets the eye. "Hmmf. Showoff." Lacus would have giggled at Waltfeld's reaction to the shuttle pilot's actions, but there was something serious going on.

Kira was the first to exit, floating out of the cockpit of his mobile suit, heading down to join the pair as he pulled off his helmet, smiling at Lacus. "Hey, Lacus," he greeted as he eased himself to a stop in the low gravity.

"Hello, Kira." She gently smiled at Kira before the Tolkin's rear hatch opened, setting down on the deck. The first two people two exit seemed to be human, wearing a form of combat uniform and carrying rifles of some sort. They were checking to see if anyone was going to try and attack them. The next person to leave wore an ochre turtleneck under a black vest, with a form of badge over her left breast. The last group to leave were a man in a predominately red uniform, and...a woman. But she couldn't be human. Not with blue skin and antennae sticking out from her white hair. The man in red smiled as he walked across the deck, his feet making thuds as he did. "Which one of you is in command here?"

Lacus stepped forward to greet them. "My name is Lacus Clyne," she said in greeting with a polite bow. "And while I am not the one in charge, I was chosen to represent the three factions we are comprised while meeting with you."

"Very well. I'm Captain Pinkerton, commanding officer of the Ra-Cailum." He gestured to the woman in the vest. "My Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Sonja Henderson." She 'hmmed', basically ignoring them in favor of looking over the Freedom. "And this is Lieutenant Corpsa T'rae, my tactical officer and chief of security. Yes, she's an alien: an Andorian, to be exact."

Lacus gave them a soft smile as she bowed her head in greeting. "I wish you all welcome, and I wish that I could give you all a proper welcoming committee, however…" she bit the inside of her cheek slightly. her politically cultivated mind running through her chances of what she was about to attempt. "However, we are currently in the midst of a war."

The captain let out an annoyed sigh. "Alright, Sonja, you won the bet."

"YES!"

As everyone wondered what the hell was going on, Ron took in a breath before explaining. "She and I made a bet on the way over here. If this earth was united and at peace, we would focus on repairing our warp drive and impulse engines. Since it's not, Sonja and my crew get to have their sonic showers back."

Lacus struggled for a moment not to let the glare she was feeling building up out. "I see," she commented, unable to keep her irritation at their attitude towards the fact that people were dying by the thousands. "Good for them."

Ron, however, seemed to be very receptive. "Look, I get that people are dying. People are dying where I'M from, too. Problem is, I can't do anything about it. If I COULD, then that would be a VERY different story."

Lacus took a moment to gather herself and to reign in her emotions before responding. "I understand," she informed him, "Our problems are not your problems, unfortunately the help we can provide is extremely limited as our own supplies are limited at this time, we are awaiting a resupply, that, unfortunately, may not come."

"Good thing my crews are good at what they do. Sonja, get your head out of the clouds." The Hispanic woman lazily looked at her CO. "Get whatever shuttles you HAVEN'T stripped for parts over here. I want you to find anything we can adapt to fix the Ra-Cailum's EPS network and rip it out of this place. I want our shields at least a passable condition." The woman mock saluted as she marched back to the shuttle and pressed a button inside the craft before freaking DISAPPEARING in a shower of light.

"Teleportation?" Kira muttered in shock, his eyes wide.

"Transporters. All of our shuttlecraft are equipped with short range ones. The ones on the Ra-Cailum have a range of 90000 kilometers." Lacus might not have been a mathematician, but that was more or less as far from Earth as the PLANTs. "currently, they aren't working thanks to the assholes that sent us here."

"Are we going to worry about Hostiles following after you?" Waltfeld questioned quickly.

"Unless the Iconians can survive going back in time as well as an alternate universe, I'd say no."

"Well, that's — wait, WHAT?!"

The look on Ron's face was flatter than sheet metal. "Trust me, we deal with this shit ALL THE TIME. It's less wondrous and more annoying than anything else."

Lacus swallowed tightly as she focused herself from going off track from the matters at hand. "Very well, I should warn you, however, our enemies do know where we are located, and may once again try to attack us," she warned. "I cannot guarantee your safety in that situation."

"Miss Clyne, my ship might have a few holes in the hull, and might be barely operational, but Starfleet engineers are VERY good at their jobs. Once they have a place to put their ship in, they'll be able to get this ship in better shape very fast." And he said that with absolute certainty. Clearly, those engineers were skilled.

"Very well. I will speak with the rest of the leaders of our group."

"Perhaps I can meet with them at the same time. Once the Ra-Cailum is operational, we have a lot of things to offer."

Lacus thought about it for a moment before nodding her head in allowance and gestured for the captain to follow her, kicking off from the ground to float across the hanger to the exit/entrance, closely followed by Kira and Waltfeld.

"I hate zero-g." The captain pressed a button on his belt before kicking off, followed by his security officers.

Near Mendel Colony

OMNI Enforcer Intelligence Task Force 4 had a mission: discover what intent the alien ship had in the earth Sphere. Was it hostile? Was it intending to intervene in the Valentine Conflict? Who were they? Those were questions Ryu Hisanaga and his team were going to find out. "Target is currently parked outside of Mendel Colony. She isn't taking any actions besides launching a shuttle a few minutes ago."

"Thanks Warlock," Ryu said to the whip thin man who stood at 5'5" with dyed dark green hair and blue eyes, who was at the helm of the Alliance Stealth Insertion Shuttle that they were using. "Armor check people, how's the Blitz Suits fitting?"

"Like a glove Major," Brick called out, a dark skinned woman with black hair and brown eyes, standing at a rather large 6'2" with nothing but muscle on her frame. "Mirage Colloid Dispersal Units are primed and ready to go."

"All oxygen tanks are full, sir," Prophet informed in his usual quiet voice, not really one to stand out from the crowd with dirty blond hair, dark blue eyes and a slight frame.

"We going or what?" a rather… curvy woman asked impatiently as she tapped her foot, tossing her sun bleached hair over her shoulder as her viridian colored eyes narrowed in irritation.

"In a minute, Dice," Ryu assured her. "Doctor?"

"Oh, this is going to be so exciting," the 35 year old woman squealed happily. "Who cares if we're not the First Contact, but I will be the first to study their technology!"

The others in the shuttle sighed at the woman… energetic disposition. "Right, helmets on people, we go in five," the Major announced as he turned back to the cockpit. "Nice and easy Warlock, keep heat emissions low and just drift."

"Roger that sir, Mirage Colloid Emitters online, we are now cloaked," Warlock announced as they drifted towards the Unknown Vessel. "We will be in range to infiltrate in six minutes sir."

"Be ready to move in five people," Ryu called back. "Quick and clean, we were never here."

USS Ra-Cailum

Mako Mankanshoku was a scatterbrained moron 90% of the time, but she was a VERY good engineer. As such, when she was asked to deal with the external sensors, she did her job almost as well as the God of Engineering, Motgemary Scott. "Hmm… this is strange!" She tapped her commbadge. "Bridge, this is lieutenant Mankanshoku."

"This is Lt. Commander Pinkerton. Report."

"There's a magnetic field anomaly outside the ship. Almost like a cloaked ship or something like that. Maybe it's the Romulans!"

"I doubt it. Their cloaking devices are more effective than that: they don't leave a magnetic trace. Get to engineering and run a diagnostic on the external sensors."

"Righty oh, ma'am!"

"Well, we can't call it 'the alien ship' anymore." Ryu was forced to agree as they passed VERY close to one of the outboard nacelles. Written in black and plain English was U.S.S. RA-CAILUM NCC-94157-A. "Get into position people, nearing the breach we want."

"Sir," the squad responded as they neared a rather large hole in the ship.

As the ship was brought to a halt — using pressurized gasses to halt their momentum — the squad opened the hatch of the Shuttle and drifted out into the void of space, floating into the ship itself through one of the breaches.

Ryu held up his hand and signaled the team to scavenge for any equipment they could find and if they find an alien corpse to collect it for dissection.

Getting affirmative signals in return from his team they all activated the Mirage Colloid units and moved in, Ryu searching for a data port of some kind he could make use of.

"This ship is nothing like what we've got," the doctor commented, making sure to stay near the Major, using her HUD's Minimap to pinpoint his location

"Yeah. We could use this thing, even in the piss-poo—" Ryu hit a seemingly invisible wall, then punched it, causing a brief flicker.

"WOW! A directed energy field that prevents physical access! Maybe there's air on the other side!" Vanessa speculated excitedly. "Too bad we can't get through though…"

Ryu hummed as he ran a hand over the field before looking around. "Containment," he pointed out. "This would be helpful on our own ships in case of a breach, Hisanaga to squad, you find anything?"

"We found a body. From the look of things, it's human. Looks like she's carrying some sort of scanning device and… a tool? We're investigating."

"This is Warlock. We seem to have found an armory, but the door is sealed by some sort of energy field. We can't breach it without explosives."

Ryu hummed in thought for a moment. "Are there no data access ports nearby?" he asked quickly as he and the doctor moved to join the rest of the squad.

"There seems to be a panel, and we have found a few dataports, but none of them are comparable with our equipment. Permission to use that scanning device team two found: their technology might be able to get through."

"Do it," Ryu confirmed. "If that doesn't work, we'll smash and grab and burn rubber."

Ryuko Matoi and her half-sister Satsuki Kiryuin were some of the few security personnel still active on board (the rest called for basic repairs) and they had noticed something odd with the internal sensors. Sure, they were screwy, but they were picking up magnetic fields that could not be explained. "Well, fuck. Either the sensor nets are more screwed up than the engineers think—"

"Or someone is on board my ship."

Ryuko smirked. "You know that the boss is going to have your head if you keep calling the Ra-Cailum your ship. He's in command."

The black haired woman regarded her sister for a moment. "For now. Get an EVC suit. We may have intruders on board."

Mendel Colony

"My ship has a large amount of medical supplies and medical personnel. I'm more then willing to donate them to you for the time being."

"Your ship is in bad shape, captain. You sure you've got the people to spare?"

Ron chuckled for a second as he regarded Mu La Flaga. "do you know what my ship's role is, Commander?"

Mu shrugged in response from his position standing beside Murrue. "Not a clue, for all I know you're a travelling circus act," he commented.

"My ship is an Odyssey-Class star cruiser. The largest and most powerful ship in Starfleet's force. The Ra-Cailum's usual duties include transporting supplies, construction of starbases, disaster relief and, if necessary, combat. My ship is equipped for everything. We were rushed into a war so fast most of our starbase construction supplies are still on board. We can spare the medical personnel."

"The last battle did leave some of our crews and pilots in rough shape," Ledonir Kisaka pointed out to the others. "So we could use the help with it."

"Good. My people can begin sending over—"

Before he could continue, a woman's voice interrupted. "Ra-Cailum to captain."

He sighed. "Go ahead, Kiryuin." He glared at Corpsa, who shrugged.

"We may have intruders on board using crude cloaking technology. I want to mobilize the security teams to intercept and destroy."

Ron groaned in annoyance. "Set phasers to stun. I want them alive. Pinkerton out."

"Do you need assistance?" Cagalli asked curiously. "Because we know that our enemies have stealth technology to render them invisible to the eye and videos."

"We've dealt with people using cloaking technology. But if you want to send a few people over to help, I'll need to give them our weapons. I want them alive and intact. Kiryuin, on the other hand, might just use that sword of hers to kill them."

"Mu, Kira, can you please?" Murrue spoke up, looking to the two pilots, who nodded.

"We're on it, Captain," Mu assured with a half-assed salute before the pair left to get into their machines.

"Corpsa, get back to the shuttle. Deal with this situation." The Andorian nodded before leaving the room. "Now, where were we?"

USS Ra-Cailum — Deck 9, section 12A, secondary armory

Warlock tapped the keys on the panel and the 'Mk XXIV tricorder' a number of times before FINALLY bypassing the lock and opening the door, which parted and allowed them entry. Inside were a large number of odd rifles and more copies of the 'tool' they found earlier.

"Grab as much as you can carry," Ryu ordered as he started grabbing the rifles. "We're heading out now."

"Yessir," the team chorused as they grabbed up the equipment in the armory, rifles, some pistol looking items and more of the scanning devices and quickly transferred them to their shuttle, including the body which they quickly placed into a sealed unit.

"Get us out of here, Warlock," Ryu ordered the pilot. "We were never here."

An orange bolt shot past the door, fired by a woman in an EV suit of some kind holding another one of the rifles. "You fools will surrender NOW! There is no escape from this ship. Surrender, and my captain will spare your lives."

"I'd listen to her, people! My sister's not in a good mood right now!"

Ryu looked at them with a raised eyebrow before he hit a button on his wrist, being mimicked by the rest of the team, activating their Mirage Colloid units and disappearing from view.

While they felt secure under cloak, the laugh the first woman let out made them feel uneasy. "You think you are the only people we've faced with cloaking technology?! Idiots! The Jem'Hadar make you look like amateurs!" She pressed a button on her wrist, revealing the magnetic anomalies using an eyepiece with ease.

Ryu narrowed his eyes at them as he and his team prepared for a fight. 'Arrogant, I can work with that,' he thought to himself as he gripped his assault rifle — modified for use in vacuum, much like the GiNN's assault rifle. "Amateurs? You mean like bragging instead of attacking?" He suddenly swung his weapon up and pulled the trigger on full-auto, pepping the pair with his assault rifle.

Satsuki snarled as the personal shield struggled to keep her unharmed. She also cursed her arrogance in the face of the enemy. As a fully trained MACO, she could take on Klingons bare handed and win, but that made her prideful and stupid. Her sister, on the other hand, didn't have that problem, as Ryu learned when Ryuko set her phaser rifle to a full auto wide cone, hitting most of the team with orange stun bolts.

The armor kept them from getting knocked on their asses, but they were beginning to feel numbed, even as they made their way out of the armory. They DID lose most of the equipment they nabbed, though: they only had a few rifles, type-2s and a pair of tricorders, as well as the body.

"Into the shuttle," Ryu ordered his team in his ever-present calm voice, sounding as if he wasn't even in a gunfight. "We're getting out of here," he grabbed an object off of his waist and threw it to the pursuers before pulling a piece of wreckage before him.

Satsuki drew her sword and hacked the object in half as she chased after him. "You won't escape me, intruder!" Ryu attempted to block the weapon using his armored arm, thinking that it was just a sharpened titanium katana. Imagine his surprise when it nearly cut through the armor as easily as he would through a body with a combat knife.

Wrenching his arm to the side as it was cutting, causing the sword to be pulled to the side he showed off a grin as he placed something on her suit. "Tell me, can you survive five pounds of explosive exploding this close to you?" he asked conversationally.

"My suit can survive a nuclear explosion going off with it at the epicenter!" She gave him a left hook as the explosive device went off. While she wasn't exaggerating (the suit could survive WORSE than 10 kilos of explosives going off) she was by no means able to continue the chase. The shield deflected most of the force, but she was rendered unconscious by getting slammed against the closest bulkhead.

Ryu grunted as the explosion flung him away from the ship, reaching out he grasped the hand of Brick who was leaning out of the shuttle as they passed by, hauling him in before the hatched closed and the ship accelerated away, cloaking at it did so. "Ratchet is going to kill me," Ryu muttered as he saw the cut that was made from the sword, along with the dings and dents from the explosion.

Orange bolts from the other girl's rifle impacted the hull as they sped away at maximum velocity, fired by MORE security personnel. "Mission accomplished, right?" The scientist of the group was busy geeking the hell out over all of the new toys, mostly the belt that was (judging from the bitch that nearly killed Ryu, who was making no illusions on THAT) a personal shield generator.

"Exit could use some work, but I'd say so," Ryu commented. "They know we were there, but not who for, anything you can tell us, Doc?"

"Oh, I made a few discoveries from this." She held up a tablet that seemed ridiculously thin, clearly taken from the ship. "They're members of a force named Starfleet, which answers to a government called the United Federation of Planets! And they seem to be… well, mostly harmless."

"Mostly?" Ryu asked with narrowed eyes. "Going to have to explain that one."

She held up one of the weapons. "This is a phaser. It's set to a setting called 'stun'. They weren't trying to kill us: they were trying to stun us! They probably would've taken all the stuff we took, given us a stern talking to and just sent us on our merry way. It's all in here."

"Stunning weapons?" Brick asked as she picked up one of the rifles they had recovered. "Wait, you said setting right, does that mean they have a lethal one?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! There's…" She checked the PADD. "Stun, heavy stun, heating, disruption, kill… VAPORIZATION?! Holy shit! There's so many settings, I can't list them all!"

"How is it powered?" Dice asked as she looked over one of the pistol variants. "Must not be a very big energy source, these are ridiculously light."

"Uh… Self-regenerating power cells?" Ryu and the rest of the team thought about that for a minute. Batteries that recharged THEMSELVES. Mobile suits wouldn't need nuclear reactors to operate: just time out of action!

"Oh…" Prophet spoke up. "How powerful are they?"

"Can one of you take off your armor?" She picked up one of the rifles, fiddling with the settings. "Because if I'm reading this right, it can burn through just about anything."

Ryu quickly stripped off his damaged gauntlet and held it up. "Just don't cause a hull breach." he told her.

She took aim before firing, punching through the gauntlet in less than 5 seconds. "…That was two and a half inch titanium plate!" Brick cursed in shock

"Yeah. This thing packs a punch." Vanessa agreed.

"How difficult would it be to recreate?" Ryu asked.

"A while. I mean a REALLY long while! I have to crack how the power cell works, how the weapon operates, EVERYTHING! And it wouldn't be as powerful."

Ryu hummed. "Would one of these powercell be able to power a mobile suit?" he asked. "Or one of the suits that Ratchet has been working on?"

"Maybe. One of the pistols can work something called a 'transporter', which is a power-sucker. Wonder why they call it that." It didn't matter. That ship just gave them one of the edges they needed to rise up against Blue Cosmos and set things right in the universe for once.

"Good, Warlock, get us home, the Commander's going to love the souvenirs we brought him."

"You got it major!"

USS Ra-Cailum

"Lieutenant, the only REASON you are not in the brig for your stupidity is because I need all hands on deck! Fuck up again, and I'll have your ass! Am I clear?!" Satsuki Kiryuin was not in the mood to be insulted like this by her commanding officer, who, for lack of a better term, should be under HER command. "I asked you a question, MACO. AM. I. CLEAR?"

"Sir!" Satsuki confirmed, snapping into a salute on reflex.

"Thank you. Sonja!" His chief engineer mockingly saluted Satsuki as she walked over. "All bets are off. I want this ship ready for combat in 72 hours. That means I want torpedo launchers and aft phasers online, as well as shields at at LEAST 50%. And when you have the time… look into these 'Mobile Suits'."

"Will do sir, although, without a unit to take apart, not much I can tell you," she pointed out.

"I know, plus with the more detailed sensors offline, we can't scan any of the machines on those ships. Accelerate repair efforts. Cannibalize EVERYTHING."

"Aye, sir. Mind if I ask for a few hands from the Archangel and the other ships for heavy lifting?"

Ron smirked. "I'll ask."

USS Firestorm

While Ron was making new friends, Takeshi was on a rampage. And not a normal rampage. A ROARING rampage. The Heralds were beginning to regret invading the Milky Way in the name of their masters, because if this was the result, they should've stayed at Andromeda!

Takeshi opened up with the Pulse Cannons and Quantum Torpedoes again, spamming them like it was going out of style as his ship blitzed through the Herald lines, tearing Herald ship after Herald ship apart.

They had NOTHING for their efforts. In the past four days, they had gotten NOTHING from the guts of the Iconian ships that they had destroyed and it was REALLY beginning to piss Takeshi off.

It showed. About the only time he was really able to relax was spending private time with his wife.

Takeshi blasted apart one last Herald ship, before opening a comm line with Klingon Captain Kagran. "The Shipyard and Starbase are clear," he said. "Send in your ground troops."

"It is done, Captain," Kagran replied. "You seem much more… angry then usual. Did the Iconians kill your mate before this battle?"

"My friend is missing," Takeshi growled. "He vanished during the assault on the Herald Sphere — Captain Pinkerton and the Ra-Cailum. It's been four days, and we haven't. Heard. ANYTHING!"

Even Tieria Erde hadn't been able to find anything, which was saying something. Takeshi sighed. "He saved us from going through whatever he did, and I promised myself I'd find him and bring him back."

Kagran nodded. "I knew of him: an honorable man who would sacrifice all the enemies he faced to make sure his crew and allies were brought back alive. And often did. I may have the information you seek. If you are willing to dare!"

Takeshi's eyes narrowed. "Whatever it takes, Captain," Takeshi said. "If it means bringing Ron home, returning the favor after all the times he did the same for me… I'm willing to dare."

Kagran smiled. "We have information on an Iconian facility. And we need a crew willing to face oblivion to complete the mission! Are you that crew?"

"I'll do it," Takeshi replied. "If it means finding Ron, I'd even beat Q into submission if I had to!"

A laugh escaped Kagran's throat. "GOOD! There is hope for you yet! Head to these coordinates! And you will have your chance." The transmission ended as the counterinvasion continued.

After checking with Rina, and having the coordinates fed to him at the Helm, the Firestorm banked and shot off into Warp.

'Hang on, Ron…' Takeshi thought. 'Wherever you are… we WILL find you!'

"Sir, we need to resupply," Tholra reported. "Your spamming of torpedoes has almost depleted our stores. And… I think we need to get you help. This obsession—"

"Stop right there, Tholra," Takeshi replied. "I've lost count of the number of times Ron managed to get us out of the fire — get EVERYONE out of the fire. He always made sure no one got left behind. And now, with our roles reversed, I am NOT leaving HIM behind!"

"Sir, this is going to end in our deaths if you keep doing this! Captain Kirk nearly got himself and his ship destroyed during the dikironium cloud creature! If it weren't for Captain Spock—"

"Tholra, have you ever had a friend who you owe so many favors it isn't even funny?" Takeshi asked. "Who's been through the flames to pull your ass out of hell more times than you can count? That's Ron for me — I have a chance to start paying those debts back, and I'm not going to let him down!"

Before the argument could continue, Rina's prayers were answered when someone hailed them. "Sir? we're being hailed." 'PLEASE end this argument.'

Takeshi turned back to the screen, wondering just what was going on even as Tholra seemed to acquiesce for now. "Put it through, Rina," he said.

The face of a man they all knew and hated appeared on the monitor: Franklin Drake of the Starfleet Technical Intelligence Group. Or, as Takeshi and Ron knew them, the public face of the rogue agency Section 31. "Captain Yamato. I've been trying to get a link to you for a long time now, but you've been on a rampage for the past week."

"Drake," Takeshi growled. "What is it you want?"

"Is that any way to treat a friend?"

"You are NOT my friend."

"Ok, so I've done a few things to trouble you and your friend, the good captain Pinkerton. I wonder how your sister will feel knowing your step-brother is just gone? They were close from what I've heard."

Takeshi's eyes narrowed. Drake was treading on seriously thin ice here… "Unless you know something, Drake, I'd suggest stopping right there."

"Oh, I've got information for you. LOTS of it. And something you might want."

Takeshi frowned. "Things like that are never free with you, Drake," he said. "What's the catch?

"You're going to be getting your hands on a stabilized… Omega molecule for us. Get your hands on it, make sure it's stable, and you'll get what you want."

Takeshi snarled. "Fine."

"Oh, and Captain? Make sure you bring it back. If you don't, you might never see him again. Toodles!" The call ended and left Takeshi in one state.

Enraged.

He adjusted the ship's course toward the resupply point, given Tholra had a point with that issue, but he made a mental note to himself to kill Drake once Ron was back. Blackmail like this would not go unpunished.

(Starts playing Star Trek Online Menu theme)

Ron the True Fan: After MONTHS of planning and quite a bit of research, (more so than Stars Asunder) this is ready for posting!

DKR: How many drafts did you go through again?

Ron the True Fan: THAT is a question you don't want the answer to.

Takeshi Yamato: This is definitely going to be interesting, though — especially with what happens with my character. Please note: This is the ONLY story where Takeshi Yamato will get this obsessed with something.

Ron the True Fan: I think the best word to describe that is this.

William Shatner: KHAN! (Echoes) KHAN!

DKR: Yeah… because Take never get's obsessed with something. *Whistles off to the side as footage of Take with a sword is shown.*

Ron the True Fan: On with the show!

Ja Ne!