I've cleaned up part two so I'm going to post it now.

Two

Currently deep within Dominion territory, the Jem'Hadar had little to worry about; their Vorta supervisor, Natalya, was the only real source of trouble. The Vorta and the Jem'Hadar were the two primary races of the Dominion, outside of their leaders, the Founders. Both the Vorta and Jem'Hadar had been the results of extensive genetic manipulation: lines of clone advisors and supervisors, in the case of the Vorta, and entirely original creations bred specifically for combat-related duties, in the Jem'Hadar's case. Both species believed that the Founders were Gods; and both agreed that the Dominion had the right, and the obligation, to rule the entire galaxy everyone in the Gamma Quadrent feared them, everyone in the galaxy should feel the same way.

However, that fear they brought out in others was the end of any additional similarities between the two races; each considered the other as their greatest rivals, rather than their peers. The Vorta were the favoured of the Founders; but the Jem'Hadar were undeniably the fist of the Dominion, a crucial role to maintaining order.

Sitting in her quarters aboard the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship that she had chosen as her command vessel, Natalya relaxed, eating some of the fruit the Jem'Hadar had appropriated from a convoy travelling near Dominion space. It was a relatively heavily-armed convoy, travelling along the outer edge of Dominion territory; Natalya's orders had been to give them a message of warning, and she had completed her mission, not quite so diplomatically as others would have been, but the message was sent loud and clear. At the moment, she was enjoying the fruits of her labour, or rather, the fruits of the Jem'Hadar's labour. She laughed at that thought; the Jem'Hadar would always be the labourers of the Dominion; the trouble sorters, the expendable subordinates, the closed fist, while the Vorta was the keen minds that implemented the Founders' directives as necessary.

Then, without warning the ship shifted slightly as it executed a sudden course change, briefly overwhelming the ship's inertial dampening field. Something was wrong, she thought. Rising from her position, she headed for the command room, her two-tone dark and light purple dress flowing loosely behind her as she moved.

Entering the command centre, Natalya looked at her First, perhaps the largest and strongest, but certainly not the most intelligent Jem'Hadar she had yet to meet. He was currently standing at attention, looking through one of the eye-piece tactical displays the Dominion favoured rather than the wide, wall-mounted viewscreens favoured by most other races. Not even bothering to speak to the First, she picked up the second available eye-piece, and placed it over her head activating the screen.

"What exactly is this craft that I'm seeing?" she inquired, observing the long and wide, yet flat profile of the vessel on her display. It was a design she had never seen before, and it was located deep within Dominion territory... something was very wrong, indeed.

"Unknown, Vorta; it would appear to be from some unknown area of space, as it bears no discernible markings that we recognize."

"Intriguing, but a matter for another time; What are your orders concerning vessels encountered, not of Dominion origin?" Natalya asked, officially ensuring the First would carry out the Founders standing orders in clear view of his subordinates.

"Destruction," the First said, nodding to the other Jem'Hadar. "Obedience brings victory... and victory is life," they all intoned.

With that said, the crew proceeded to inform the other ships of their change in orders, and prepare their vessels for battle. Within seconds the attack group had dropped to sub-light speeds in clear view of the unknown target. Standard combat doctrine had the command vessel slightly behind the other two ships in formation, as all three opened fire with their forward phased polaron beams into the unknown craft. The ship's shields flickered by the hits but surprisingly, annoyingly, they held up under the assault.

"Continue the attack," the First ordered, ever-so-slightly impressed at the unknown vessel's shield strength, however, still determined to ensure their destruction.

"First, they are attempting to contact us," the Second reported, from an auxiliary monitor located behind the First and Natalya.

"I do not need to hear them, continue the attack," First replied dismissively, observing as the second barrage of polaron beams struck the target, yet still the unknown's shields held. The unidentified sip returned fire with what appeared to be archaic, low-velocity railguns and nuclear fission-armed missiles, neither weapon a credible threat to the Dominion vessels.

"On the contrary, First. Personally, I wouldn't mind hearing them out," Natalya overruled again showing the First who was in charge here. "Put their transmission up on the speakers, Second." The First looked somewhat angry as the speakers came to life.

"This is Colonel Tanya Ward, commanding officer of the United States Air Force vessel Phoenix from the planet Earth, to the attacking craft, cease fire." She commanded "we bear you no hostilities, and are on a re-supply mission only. Should you continue your attack you will face the full force of our weapons," a female voice replied.

"An Earth ship... a Federation vessel?" Natalya muttered quietly, thinking over the rather bold, if foolish reply. She thought she'd known about all current Earth ship designs; she was almost certain none of them carried such outdated weaponry, yet were also equipped such powerful shielding. There was something very wrong with this entire situation, not just the supposed Earth vessel, she supposed.

Following her moment of introspection, eight small shuttle-type craft launched from the starboard side of the Earth ship, all heading for Natalya's vessel. Fighter craft? What was the point, she wondered.

"There is something very wrong with this vessel, First..." Natalya whispered. However the First did not even bother to answer, though she was certain that he had heard her words. Jem'Hadar warriors were noted for their near perfect hearing, Natalya knew this was his way of resisting her trying to maintain his command.

"Continue the attack, ignore them," First ordered, the Jem'Hadar ships fired again striking the ships shields again as the small craft engaged, their current weaponry was inconsequential against the attack ships' shielding, only down some 5 percent at the very most. Then without warning, a new vessel entered the area, behind the attack group.

"First, the Defiant has entered the system," Second reported, with was an edge to his voice. All Jem'Hadar knew of the USS Defiant, with many of their number secretly desiring to cross the gateway and annihilate the vessel responsible for many ships destroyed, avenging those Jem'Hadar its crew had killed in battle. "They are hailing us," the Second continued, not waiting to be ordered to display the transmission.

"Dominion vessels, this is Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of the USS Defiant. Cease your attacks or be fired upon." Not only was the Defiant present, but also Captain Benjamin Sisko as well, Quite an impressive commanding officer, for a mere human, was the shared thought among the senior personnel.

"Divert AV-437 to intercept the Defiant," the First ordered, just as the unidentified ship engaged them some kind of powerful beam weapon, the Vorta - Natalya - nearly fell over as the ship shook violently. It would appear that this vessel might actually have some fangs to bear, the First thought, suppressing the rather odd urge to smile. "Continue the bombardment of the unknown target. Order AV-536 to ram that ship if necessary," he ordered, intending to destroy this new ship if it was the last action the First undertook.

"We have not brought down their shields as of yet, there is no reason to believe that plan will guarantee success," Natalya warned the First; she did not want his single-mindedness to duty destroying their entire attack group... including her.

"The directives of the Founders are paramount, we must destroy them," he said dismissively. Several additional seconds passed with two Jem'Hadar attack ships circling and continuing to fire at the unidentified craft, while the third Jem'Hadar ship moved to intercept the Defiant. The Defiant's relatively impressive shielding and quantum torpedoes quickly dealt with AV-437.

"Quite true, First, but not at the loss of potentially vital information. We must survive this battle to inform the Dominion of this new vessel, this possible new threat," Natalya urged, making it clear that she did not want the First to sacrifice their remaining Jem'Hadar in this single fight. The Jem'Hadar Attack Ship shook violently once more as the unidentified craft again opened fire with its beam weaponry, apparently plasma of all things-based overwhelming the inertial dampening field yet again.

"Have AV-536 intercept the Defiant as well - ram them, should they have the opportunity," The First ordered. "Transfer all available power to weapons and prepare to board the unidentified craft, rotate transporters as needed."

AV-536 and the Defiant began to manoeuvre against the other, each moving away from their current positions, leaving the command vessel to engage the unidentified craft alone. The weapons fired again striking the unidentified craft and the craft returned fire with its primary beam weapons, railguns and nuclear missiles; the shields of the Jem'Hadar Attack Craft were beginning to show some strain under the strikes, although this vessel's auxiliary weaponry were less than effective against their shields, against the ship's hull they could cause the Jem'Hadar vessel heavy damage, possibly crippling.

Several things interested Natalya about this unknown ship, the Phoenix.

First, it appeared to be an entirely human-crewed vessel, according to the life signs registered on their scanners, and also from Earth, but seemingly not part of the Federation, which was both unusual and unlikely, at the very least.

Second, its method of faster-than-light travel was like nothing she had ever witnessed; appearing seemingly out of nowhere, remaining undetected until it emerged from whatever from of FTL propulsion they employed, according to the sensor records, which she had reviewed over the course of the battle.

Thirdly, it was equipped with very impressive shielding, compared with nearly any other race they had yet encountered, save perhaps their own. Something the Dominion could benefit from obtaining, or at the very least learn how to defeat.

Lastly, their beam weaponry; which appeared to be plasma-based, considered an obsolete weapons technology in the current age, these were perhaps the strongest type of plasma-based weaponry the Dominion had yet encountered... and she couldn't discount the slight, if not quite non-existent possibility that those weapons hadn't been fired at their full strength?

Unfortunately, the Second chose this moment to intervene, "First, AV-538 has been destroyed by the Defiant," he spoke angrily. The Jem'Hadar rarely lost their temper in combat; although anger was useful as a motivation to defeat an enemy, it came at a loss of sound judgement. Natalya had only witnessed such an occurrence once or twice before; this did not bode well, at all. For any of them.

"We shall be next then," First acknowledged, ready to embrace his death in duty to the Founders; as their Attack Ship was struck again with the heavy plasma beams, a console at the back of the of the bridge overloaded, throwing an injured, if not dead Jem'Hadar to the deck. "Prepare to engage the Defiant," he ordered.

"I think not, belay that order," Natalya said flatly. "First, order a withdrawal; keep us within sensor range of the Earth vessel, but far enough that we can easily rendezvous with additional ships without the Defiant interfering."

"A retreat? Vorta, this is my ship; I command this crew's destiny, not you!" First exclaimed, outraged that his authority had been questioned in such a manner.

"To regroup First, not to run away. Set the course immediately... and remember I hold final authority in such matters, not you," Natalya ordered, also irritated that this soldier couldn't see the possible long-term consequences of his attitude. She might have to do something about that, later on. Possibly a permanent solution.

Seconds later, the remaining attack ship jumped to warp, leaving the Defiant and the Phoenix at a standstill, with tensions still quite thick.