A\N: I'm a big fan of AlbertG's Ruinations War series, and this is my humble attempt at the same sort of sprawling space opera war. It's also a sequel of sorts to my on-going story 'A Halloween Universe'. The Buffy xover begins in chapter 2.
A\N 2: Thanks to Allen Pitt for all his input. No Mr. Pitt, I won't be using Moya in this story!
A\N 3: Disclaimer: None of the verses used in this story belong to me. Nor do I seek to make any profit from this story.
FIC: The Reality War (1/?)
Imperial City, Imperial Center
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Thrawn stared around the briefing room. The majority of the senior officers seated within it were his choices for this armada. Some were women, a rarity in the male-dominated empire, but the vast majority were men. Five years ago the rebel alliance had been utterly routed, their base destroyed by the prototype Death Star, and ever since, the Empire had searched ceaselessly for further territories and further races to conqueror and add to its vast holdings. Deep range scout ships had been sent into The Unknown Regions, Wild Space, The Expansion Region, and The Outer Rim to find civilisations to conquer and various powers had fallen to them, but two years the deep space scouts had made the big find, the one that had made the Imperial upper echelons salivate.
Everybody stiffened as the door slid soundlessly open and Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier of the Empire, dressed in his customary purple robes, strode in, followed by Ysanne Isard, the notorious and much-whispered about Director of Imperial Intelligence, arguably the most powerful woman in the entire empire. It was a measure of the importance of the briefing that it would be given by State Pestage, the third most powerful being in the Empire, answerable only to Lord Vader and the Emperor himself.
The Grand Vizier strode onto the stage at the front of the room and stepped onto the podium, his wizened features intense. "Thank you all for coming here," he rasped. "As you're all aware, the Empire has been involved in a grand expansion of its holdings, sending scout ships far into unexplored space. And while we've discovered the occasional civilisation, it isn't until fairly recently we've discovered a whole new region of space rich with civilisations to conqueror."
"How far away is this area of space?" queried a voice from within the crowd of watching officers.
"It's been estimated that these systems would take five to six decades to normally travel there even at maximum speed," the Director continued, her mismatched eyes only adding to the intensity of her glare. "However our scout ship also stumbled onto a thousand kilometre wide expanse we've named the Quantum-Acceleration Corridor that allows us to travel there through a method we're not entirely sure of but is safe, in five to six days. As a result we've had spies in the area for over a year, mapping systems, collating information, readying sabotage for when we attack, and building subspace communication systems for us to use."
"And what are the results of this information gathering?" queried Ledre Okins, the Admiral with a well-deserved reputation as Palpatine's snitch in the Imperial upper ranks.
A map of dozens of star systems and hundreds of planets illuminated the wall behind Isard, part of the map glowing. "The system's greatest power is the United Federation of Planets, but while vast and technologically advanced it rules via consensus and democracy rather than military expansion. The main powers are its funding members – Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar Prime, but it encompasses at least a thousand worlds." Isard paused before continuing. "There's more information on these planets and other major players in your encrypted datapads to be read after this briefing has finished." The illumination dimmed to be replaced two other glowing sections. "Secondary powers include the Klingon Empire, who in recent decades underwent a disaster that weakened them considerably, however they're far more aggressive and warrior-orientated than the Federation, and the Romulan Star Empire, a genetic off-shoot from the Vulcans but a far more militant and emotional people." The two illuminated areas dimmed and were replaced by a quartet of lit-up sections. "There are other, tertiary powers including the Ferengi Alliance, the Cardassian Union, Breen Confederacy, and the Gorn Hegemony. Then there are the other still smaller powers, Sheliak Corporate, Tzenkethi Coalition, Holy Order of the Kinshaya, the Talarian Republic, and Tholian Assembly. All the details of these races, their physiologies, cultures, governments, militaries, and technologies are uploaded onto your datapads, but suffice to say it is a fragmented area of space that requires the Imperial Empire to bring order to it."
Thrawn rose at his cue and strode to the podium. He'd been given advance warning of his briefing, a month's advance warning during which time he'd worked feverishly to first digest the information relating to the target sectors and turning that data into a strategy to conqueror the area. "The Emperor has in his infinite wisdom and generosity gifted me an armada of 25,000 ships with which to conqueror these two quadrants of space. I will lead a six thousand strong fleet against the strongest power, the Federation, Admiral Pellaeon," Thrawn looked towards his protégé, "will act as my second. Admiral Daala, you will lead 4,500 ships against the Klingon Empire." The Imperial Navy's only female Admiral grinned in delight. Admiral Parck," he looked towards his expressionless mentor, "will lead the 4,500 strong fleet against the Romulan Star Empire. Admiral Oxtroe will lead a four thousand strong fleet to contain the minor powers and ensure they don't reinforce the major powers. Admiral Okins," Thrawn directed his gaze towards the only Admiral not hand-picked by himself, "will hold the remaining four thousand ships in a staging area at the near end of the Quantum-Acceleration Corridor, ready to send them to reinforce the other fleets when and if they're required." Thrawn paused momentarily before continuing. "Our Armada leaves in three days and I would advise you all to spend that time and the journey time familiarising yourselves with the intelligence that has been collated on the targets, the officers and ships under your commands, and your objectives and targets."
Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco
"I trust you've heard the most recent news?" Jellico shook his head at the other Admirals rising at his entry. "Let's not stand on ceremony, this is hardly the time."
Jas Abrik, the Trill who served as Federation Security Advisor sighed. "I've just being going over the reports from the fronts. It's not just us, everybody's being pushed back. The Ferengi, the Klingons, the Romulans, the Cardassians, even the Gorn."
"And everybody knows what they're like," commented Admiral Owen Paris then shook his head. "Does anybody have any idea where these people have come from?"
"All we know is that they belong to an entity calling itself 'The Galactic Empire," Admiral Alynna Nechayev replied. "An imposing name for an imposing enemy."
"What about our attempts to form an alliance with other powers in the sectors?" Admiral Paris queried.
"Any ships we send we are sending into contested space," Admiral Akaar replied. "And even if they're successful, they'll take weeks to get back."
"So," Jellico sighed, "we're on our own."
"Perhaps not," Akaar looked towards Admiral Elizabeth Shelby, the head of Starfleet Research & Development. "Liz?"
Shelby nodded. "Since before the formation of Starfleet, we've taken samples, DNA samples
during medicals, and now we have a library of several thousand samples. In tandem, Starfleet Intelligence & Starfleet Research & Development have been working on a top-secret project, Project: Resurrection to create simultaneous clones from these solutions and grow at an accelerated rate experienced officers to crew our ships. Bear in mind our shipyards are turning out ships faster than we can crew them." Shelby paused. "This could be a solution."
"What are the limitations on this?" Paris queried.
"We can't seriously be considering this!" Nechayev demanded, her eyes alight with outrage. "Illicitly taken DNA samples and unsanctioned clones! Why the ethical and legal considerations alone-."
"I know all the arguments Alyana, I've gone over them myself but desperate times call for desperate measures," Shelby replied, her voice heavy. "The limitations are this as I understand that 1) none of the subjects can still be alive, according to the scientists that would endanger temporal integrity, 2) they'll mature to the exact age and with the memories of the sample taken, so if your only sample is that of Archer pre all his expeditions then that's what you'll get, just potential, if on the other hand your only sample is of a hundred and fifty year old man, then you'll get somebody at the end of their life 3) no trills or people who have been joined with trills, their physiology is for obvious reasons impossible to clone."
"And what does the President think of this?" Nechayev continued her objections.
"It's been decided," Akaar exchanged looks with Shelby, "not to inform the President of this, to give her plausible deniability."
"How very convenient!" Alyana sneered. "And what of our allies? I don't suppose they'll be happy when we start resurrecting dead Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites!"
Akaar grimaced. "That is a worry," he admitted. "But we're going to try and sell it to them as the return of their heroes, as a positive thing."
"We don't have the luxury of worrying about niceties," Jellico declared, his steely tone denoting that as far as he was concerned the matter was closed. "I can't imagine the morale boost of having the likes of Archer, Pike, Murat, Decker, and Garrett return from the dead would have for callow cadets and ensigns." Jellico paused. "Just how many viable samples are there?"
Shelby looked towards her datapad. "Allowing for those restrictions I mentioned earlier, somewhere in the region of two and a half to three thousand viable samples."
Jellico nodded. "Something in the region of a hundred to hundred and twenty-five command crews. We could staff their ship's more junior positions with newly-qualified ensigns from the Academy. It's not perfect-." He glared at Nechayev's derisive snort. "But it's a start."
"Quite apart from Alyana's moral objections," Paris commented. "This Empire we're facing has a lot more than just a hundred ships."
"It'll provide a breather, perhaps make the enemy consider where we suddenly got a hundred more ships from," Abrik commented. "And worry perhaps if we have still more."
Jellico leaned forward in his chair, eyes intent. "Okay everybody. As Owen and Jas just said this is a huge gamble, but a Hail Mary play is all we have left at this stage."
An Undisclosed Location
Donzar Rellick worked quietly at his station, his tranquil expression belying the thundering of his heart. He'd been in this universe for just over a year, one of the very first imperials to be posted undercover here. As an xenobiologist he'd been tasked with finding out everything he could about the cultures and physiologies of the races making up the Federation but had ironically discovered that the very skills that had made such a valuable spy had also ended up side-lining him in a project where he could not help the Empire, a project called Project: Resurrection.
Until now.
His fellow scientists, mostly human, but some Vulcans and the occasional Trill & Tellerite, worked obliviously alongside him, unaware that the generator they believed would power their experiment had in fact been sabotaged so that when the experiment entered its most critical stage it would overload with enough power to wipe this entire outpost from the face of the planet, leaving nothing for the Federation to rebuild.
They in fact had only minutes to live. Of course he would die alongside them.
But his life was a worthy sacrifice for the Empire.
