The indigo glow of the dying sun bathed the surface of Gorranic II as the reluctant dawn broke across its bone dry surface. Steadily from the gloom it revealed the range known by the locals as the 'Spine of the world' and, nestled against it, the Dominion command facility that was the world's sole habitation.
Gorranic base was ugly and squat, practical without so much as a gesture in the direction of ornamentation. The Jem'Hadar that lived there under the watchful eye of their cloned master were hardly inclined to change that, far more likely to be found playing war games among the craggy slopes than painting things.
But today the base was as clean as it would ever be; every last touch that could be made towards presentability had been made. Because even now a very special ship was landing on the pad. A very special ship containing their living god, one of the founders themselves.
The visit was no accident, it had been long planned and awaited, a new regional commander to take responsibility for this busy juncture in the logistical effort that the invasion of the Alpha quadrant required. Indeed were it not for an urgent event nearby then the Founder would have been here a week ago.
Hookum the Vorta and his First were standing slightly in advance of the rest of the small garrison detachment, their anxiety as well masked at their faces could manage. As the ramp lowered it seemed the world itself held its breath, even the constant southerly winds ceasing for the arrival of the world's most important visitor.
This particular founder was hardly run of the mill either. They were one of the Dominion's very best, a virtuoso of planning, routing and scheduling. Single-handedly this one had built the structures that allowed the dissemination of the cloned troops to all the corners of the expanding tyranny. And now he was here to take over, to set up a base to coordinate the logistical path to the end of the federation.
Suddenly there he was his feet on the smooth surface of the landing pad, his expressionless face neither approving nor rebuking. It was a great moment for Hookum. His last great moment.
From the mountainside overlooking the base a single pulse of coherent energy came down. Even as the garrison watched it sped unerringly to their god and in a conflagration of flame. A thunderclap echoed, a shattering noise that ended a dream and suddenly before their eyes their god died, his fluidic form superheated and separated even from its own molecules. It was a day that would live in infamy.
On the hillside Chris Moondark let his parched and blistered lips break into a self-congratulatory smile. Even as he did he was setting the rifle to destruct and gathering the last of his escape gear for the flight that was already heartbeats late. The Jem'Hadar would chase him now, working them to death to try and avenge the slight that his shot had stained their honour with. It would take all he had to force his undernourished, sun beaten body into a fast enough motion to give him the head start he needed to escape the hounds.
But a matter of a few days run away his way off world was carefully hidden and if he made it then he could finally put this purgatory behind him.
OOOOO
Lieutenant Ki'Rah Macpherson was a half-Klingon half Human with the mixed blood she tend to lean towards the Klingon physiology, she had the extra organs and ribs that a full blood had but her blood was red if a little darker than full human. Her mother was Klingon and her father was a Scottish human. This meant that in her DNA was someone with a natural ability at head butting people mixed with her forehead ridges meant she hit really hard.
Ki'Rah had just began her new posting on the Claymore, as the marine detachment XO, to find out her new CO was on a mission with absolutely no back up. He had even left orders for her predecessor not to follow and help if he got into trouble. She thought that was a load of bull, there was no way he'd make it back from deep behind enemy lines without some form of back up.
As the orders were in the name of the previous MXO she decided to plead ignorant and ignore them. So she began rapidly setting up a rescue/grab party to go and get him back. He had left several days ago so time was precious; she got a team together from her new men and a crazy but kick ass pilot willing to go behind enemy lines.
As they flew to the planet that her CO was on Ki'Rah read through all the scant information she had on the planet and his mission, she also read through his very impressive personal file. A lot of the information was classified beyond her clearance but what she could read impressed her very much.
He was from the Gael Cluster which had recently been added to the United Federation of Planets. There wasn't much information from that time other than he had been an excellent warrior and leader gaining many medals for his work. He brought those skills with him to the marines and from what she could tell he was sailing through the ranks.
The shuttle cloaked as they got closer to the planet, they didn't want to be detected by the enemy. As they passed through the atmosphere Ki and her men checked their weapons. The other five men and one woman grinned back at her when she asked if they were ready, they were all born marines and always ready for a fight especially with the Jem'Hadar that had been plaguing this quadrant. The war was at its height and every victory was hard fought for.
They knew where he was going to land so they made sure they landed nearby his location. The ship stayed cloaked with its two pilots inside while Ki'Rah and her people jogged lightly towards the location of Moondark's ship. The planet really was a dry, dusty hellhole with nothing in its favour. It was the sort of place you never visited unless to destroy a bad guy hold.
They carefully crawled up the slope behind which Moondark's ship was sitting. Careful not to skyline themselves they looked down into the shallow valley to see if there was any sign of their missing CO.
They arrived just in time to see his ship was destroyed and he was turning bringing his gun to bear on the Jem'Hadar following up rapidly behind him. Ki'Rah had seen the determined but hopeless look on his face. She knew he planned to take as many down as he could before they took him down. This wasn't a man to surrender or give up easily, she smiled thinking she would like working with him.
She signalled the order to fire once the Jem'Hadar was in range. Lying just off the crest of the hill Ki'Rah carefully sighted along her gun biding her time until they entered her weapons range. Once in range she began firing on the enemy each shot measured to kill with one hit.
She saw Moondark turn to look at the hill briefly before he turned back to the enemy coming towards him.
From the moment Chris had seen the ruin that had been his cloaked escape ship he knew he was stuffed. Some form of tectonic activity had closed the defile it had been hidden in and that had been that. From then on it was merely a question of making sure that there wasn't enough left of him to identify. Well that and killing a few more of the vat bred fools that followed him.
So he had set the charges on his webbing and found some cover. These guys were hardly the best that the Dominion had to offer so he figured he could probably take down at least the first wave. Especially since the peculiar light here made their cloaking stuff ripple.
He had just perfected his bead on the lead one, unmistakably the First, when the man was snatched form his feet and thrown down by what could only be a federation pulse weapon.
Unwilling to count his chickens Chris turned to check and sure enough the camouflaged force that was coming in like so many cavalrymen of the American western were wearing what he knew to be federation gear and using the tac calls of his own unit. His own unit that was operating under strict instructions not to interfere.
But this was not the time to argue. Instead Chris drew another bead on the shocked Jem'Hadar and set to whittling away the chase party as efficiently as he could. Hard words could wait.
Ki watched as the Jem'Hadar took cover after they had recovered from their initial shock. They hadn't expected any others to be fighting them and more importantly they hadn't expected their cloaks to be seen.
Ki's team effectively took down most of the enemy force with help from their CO before they made cover. She bided her time watching and waiting for one of the enemy to pop his head out of cover long enough for her to kill him.
"Chunk send them a grenade" she ordered knowing they would be there all day if they didn't get them out for their cover. She shot another Jem'Hadar but she thought she had just clipped him rather than killed him.
PFC 'Chunk' Edwards loaded his grenade launcher and swiftly sent a barrage of grenades into where the Jem'Hadar had taken cover. The ones that survived found themselves with no cover as the explosions from the grenades demolished the piles of rocks they had been hiding behind disappeared.
As they scrambled from the weapons fire and for other cover one by one they were picked off until they were all dead. As her team swept the area from signs of others Ki'Rah stood, her painted face looking for her new CO.
She found him, sunscorched, malnourished, blistered and furious, his weapon still hazing form the heavy use. "Who Are You?" he rasped through a throat that obviously had seen better days.
"I'm Lieutenant Ki'Rah Macpherson" she introduced herself handing him her waterbottle "I'm your new XO" she explained.
She heard a rock scrape behind her; she knew none of her men were there. She pushed Moondark out the way as she turned barely avoiding the flash of the knife. She grabbed the all but invisible arm in her left hand as her right wrapped around when she rightly guessed the head was. With a sharp yank she broke the Jem'Hadar's neck and let his limp body fall to the floor.
Chris could have kicked himself, letting his anger ride over his professionalism like that. Sure he had been awake for more hours than he could remember, dehydrated for most of them and his last meal was hardly going to provide any of the energy he had just used running. But still, it wasn't the sort of mistake he made.
But all of that became more than a little irrelevant as he hit the floor, his weakened body finally cashing in its chips and calling its markers. Darkness swept in.
"Kick your ass" he muttered as he slumped down
Ki'Rah chuckled "sure you will Sir". With the help of Chunk she got him up and onto her shoulders. She might have been short but she was a lot stronger than she looked. They all bugged back to their cloaked ship watching in case there were any other Je'Hadar but it appeared they had killed all the chase party.
She left Moondark to the team medic and went to talk to the pilots. "Right gentlemen we have the package let's get the hell out of here" she ordered them.
She went back through to were their medic was checking their fallen CO. "He's in need of some water, food and rest but other than that he's fine" he told her as he held a wet cloth to his sunscorched face.
It was only two hours until they would reach their ship at the speed the pilots were doing. Ki'Rah sat down and watched as the medic tended Moondark injuries. She wondered what he was going to do when he came around. She had a nasty feeling that a bollocking would be the least of her worries.