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Chapter 2 – Paradise Revisited

Baku System Briar Patch

Above the beautiful green and blue world of Baku, a small Federation base sat vigil. A standard Starbase with a shipyard and mining colony nearby, but around those space stations to bolster its defences were pulse phaser turrets and a small fleet of four ships; 2 Akira class vessels, 2 Venture class scout ships and one larger than normal Defiant class starship.

The leading ship of the small task force was the USS Avenger, the Defiant class ship. The acting captain of this small but mighty ship was Ambassador Worf. Temporarily recalled from his duties on the Klingon Homeworld, he had been as of yet left in the dark as to why this was but a communication from Admiral Hartford was about to impart to him the details.

Sitting in the Captain's ready room, Worf activated his screen to reveal the Admiral's face stern and unmoved by emotion

"Ambassador Worf, the Son'a who have refused to return to Baku and reintegrated into the Baku population are rallying a force to take the planet by force. You have been ordered to try and reach a negotiated peace if possible, but if not possible then defend the Baku by any means necessary. Until the situation is resolved, Avenger is under your command, understood Worf"

Worf nodded "Understood Admiral. Worf out" and the big Klingon pressed the shut down key to deactivate the screen, making it go blank.

Then the communications system sounded and the helmsman Lieutenant Patterson's voice said

"Ambassador to the Bridge, three Son'a ships approaching on an intercept course, their weapons are charged"

Worf got out of his chair and proceeded to the Bridge, a wave of nostalgia hit him as he stepped onto the bridge of a Defiant class, reminding him of those times when he was serving on Deep Space Nine, but he shook himself now was not the time to be distracted.

On the view screen the image of the approaching Son'a vessels came closer and Worf sat in the Captain's name and ordered

"Hail them" and the helmsman sent a standard hail

"Their responding" the Lieutenant reported and the sound of a gruff Son'a was heard

"Federation scum, leave this system it is our sovereign territory"

Worf responded as if he hadn't heard what the Son'a had said "This is Ambassador Worf of the United Federation of Planets. Your presence here is a violation of Baku space. We request that your ships vacate the area immediately" Wolf held his breathe waiting for a response, but he knew from his experience with the Son'a that they would not back down; this was heading for a rumble

He was not proven wrong as the Son'a responded "This area belonged to years before the Federation came. Leave or we will destroy you" and Worf bristled from their threats and his subconscious excitement at battle peaked but was not shown by his Starfleet resolve

"Any attempt to infringe the sovereignty of the Baku and any hostile action against a Federation vessel will be regarded as an act of war" Worf warned

"So be it Ambassador" the smug sounding Son'a said as he cut the communication

"Ambassador, the Son'a ships are forming into attack formation and increasing speed" Lieutenant Patterson reported

"All ships and stations, Battlestations" Worf ordered

The Starbase deployed its Pulse Phaser Cannons, the Pulse turrets did the same thing and the starships powered up their phasers, shields and photon torpedoes.

As the three Son'a ships screamed down towards the Federation outpost the long range pulse phaser cannons of the station opened first, hammering the shields of the leading cruiser while the Starships moved to intercept the two smaller ships.

The Avenger blasted past the small destroyer, its pulse phasers firing strafing the weaker ship which under the brutal fire suffered a warp core breach.

Avenger swung around and flew at the larger cruiser which was on fire by continual barrage of pulse phaser fire from the station. Carrying out a strafing run on the flaming ship, pounding it with quantum torpedoes and dropping anti-matter mines as it past which ripped into the hull and caused the ship to fracture into thousands of pieces.

The Akira's meanwhile had let rip with their own phasers and torpedoes, reducing the destroyer, to a pile of molten slag. With the first wave now dealt with Worf order the ships back to the Starbase to resume defence position over the planet.

Worf on the Avenger ordered "Science Station, do a long range sensor scan of the area. How many Son'a ships are left in the area?"

A young Bolian woman went to work at her station and reported "At least twenty ships sir, but the radiation clouds make a positive identification difficult"

Worf nodded and said "Lieutenant Patterson, hail the shipyard and order them to begin assembling as many Defiant class starships as possible", Worf knew that larger starships at this limited facility would take to long to build so they would have to do

The shipyard acknowledged the message and their advanced building machines and worker bee shuttles went to work putting the space frames of the small ships together. Till they were ready they would have to make do with what they had.

Worf ordered that the Venture class scouts which due their weak shields, weapons and hulls were little use against the Son'a warships go to hide in the blue cerulean nebulas near the base, so they would be safe and use their powerful sensors to act as an early warning system.

Soon three Son'a destroyers descended upon the station and the combined fire of the Federation units mowed them down. Then the shipyard launched its Defiant class starships and began constructing more. Soon they had a full squadron of Defiants led by Avenger.

"All Defiant class ships, when dealing with larger cruisers split up and complete strafing runs from the sides of the vessel rather than face them head on" Worf commanded to the ships captains with a fleet wide communication. That way they could avoid the forward facing weapons of the Son'a ships and make best use of the Defiant's manoeuvrability

That tactic proved useful as the Son'a ships descended in waves of three, but were unable to score effective strikes against the Federation defenders.

After the fifth wave there were only six ships left in the Son'a taskforce and they decided on an all out attack, hoping to overwhelm the Starfleet vessels. But it was a disaster for the Son'a.

As the ships screamed in the long range pulse phaser cannons of the Starbase opened up and destroyed one of the destroyers in the first move, and after the other Starfleet units opened fire and destroyed the ones left.

After the last cruiser erupted into flames Worf said to Lieutentant Patterson

"Open a channel to Admiral Hartford"

The Lieutenant responded "On screen sir"

The main viewing screen came to life, filled with the Admiral's face

"Worf we need you to return to the Klingon Homeworld and rally the support of the empire against a possible Borg Invasion immediately" the Admiral said quickly as time was of the essence

"Understood Sir, I will ensure that the empire is ready to support the Federation against the Borg" Worf and the communication was promptly cut by the Admiral

"Helm, contact the Starbase and inform them of our new orders. Then set a course for Kronos"

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