Chapter Two: The Battle of Orias III

After the devastation of Starbase 375, Starfleet Command decided to deploy long range probes to monitor the Dominion force, instead of relying on starships. They couldn't afford to lose any more ships, and probes are easier to manufacture than a full cruiser. It was one of these long range probes, designated 'Strawberry Five' picked up a moderately sized force heading to the Orias System. It was decided at the Admiral level to deploy a counter force. I was given orders to take my wing and punch a hole through whatever defenses exist to allow the Challenger to bring the cruiser wing through and push the Dominion from the system.

Boy, did that go FUBAR.

Apparently, moderately sized force means 25 attack ships, 5 heavy escorts and a battlecruiser. 31 ships in total. I was supposed to make a hole in this line with four Akira Class cruisers. I knew this wasn't going to end well, but well, Starfleet needed a victory. So at 04:00, Ajax, leading Thunderchild, Spector and Rabin departed Starbase 117 and proceeded to Orias III at maximum warp. It took us 8 days to reach Orias III, and by that time, they knew we were coming. We dropped out of warp, and came immediately under fire. Thunderchild went up in a matter of minutes, barely enough time for half the crew to make it to escape pods. We couldn't drop the shields to recover them, and the Dominion just … fired on them. No survivors. We tried. God knows we tried. But we couldn't punch through that line. We told Admiral La Forge to abandon the attack, and we tried to retreat. The burning hulk of the Thunderchild slowly drifting towards the surface of the planet. I don't know if it impacted or not. Even now, no Starfleet ship is allowed to travel to Orias III.

Before we could make it to the edge of the system, we were intercepted. A Jem'Hadar Heavy Escort, flanked by four attack ships cut off our retreat. We had to go through them if we wanted to escape. Rabin and Spector were ordered to engage the two pair of attack ships, while Ajax would engage the Heavy Escort. We opened the engagement by splitting the formation; Rabin ascended, relative to Ajax and Spector descended, trying to pull the two pair of Attack Ships in different directions. Ajax? We just went for it. The two pair of Attack ships broke off and gave us an opening. A full salvo of photon torpedoes on proximity detonation rocked the escort, while Ajax banked hard and soared across their dorsal, phasers cutting into and through their shields. When their shields flickered… I cheated. I ordered an armed photon torpedo beamed to their engine room and we rolled away. We moved off to help Rabin with their group while the pieces of the heavy escort joined Thunderchild. Between Ajax and Rabin, we destroyed the first two pair of attack ships, with the other pair returning to the fleet. With a clear line of sight to the edge of the system, we did the only thing we could do.

We ran. We turned tail and we ran. We dumped our entire complement of photon torpedoes as we accelerated out of the system and we went to maximum warp. In my entire career, I have run from a mission three times. That was the first. My first time commanding a squadron, and we lost a starship and the 250 people aboard her. It doesn't sound much I know, but to me? I felt the weight of each of those people land upon my shoulders. I failed them. It was my fault.

Of course, Command didn't see it that way. I was praised for my 'bravery in the face of adversity' and given a commendation. It was all bull. Starfleet needed a win, and I'd lost another ship, but we'd taken two attack ships and a heavy cruiser with us. It was deemed 'acceptable' by Command. I'm sure Commander Francesca Lyons felt that when she had her ship blown out from under her, that it was 'acceptable.' It's never acceptable.

Of course, we didn't come out that fight unscathed. Ajax had a polaron scar down her port saucer section, Rabin took a torpedo to her hangar deck, fortunately she had no fighters aboard, so no secondary explosions. Spector came through relatively unscathed.

So now, not only did the Dominion control Deep Space Nine, but they'd cut off the southern trade routes. God knows how many civilian freighters captured or destroyed by the Dominion. We'd pick up the distress calls, but we couldn't get to them in time. After a couple of months, they stopped transmitting them. M'Rella took that pretty hard. She knew a couple of the civilian Captains. She and Tavistock used to run convoy protection during the Klingon Conflict. She mobilized once. Took Tavistock and a couple of other Defiants out, under cloak, to try and save a freighter. Only Tavistock came back. I never asked, she never said.

September, 2412. The Dominion had held Deep Space Nine for 7 months, and Orias III for around 5 months. And we'd done nothing, except prevent them from moving into the rest of the Galaxy. Loriss was smart, for a Vorta. She contacted the True Way, and manipulated what remained of the Cardassian Navy to join with the Dominion again. She blamed the destruction of Cardassia Prime on Starfleet. After all, 'If Starfleet had surrendered, would the Dominion have needed to attack Cardassia?' Cardassians, so fickle in their allegiance. The Dominion began to worship Loriss. She was … particularly vicious. When the Breen wouldn't join the Dominion, she had her battlecruiser destroy the northern ice cap of the Breen homeworld. Then, the Breen joined her. Suddenly, instead of fighting against a 600 ship force, we were facing something close to 1,500 ships. We were outnumbered 300 to 1. Our only saving grace was that it would take weeks for all the Dominion's forces to rally together. Time we could use hitting their supply lines. We repeatedly severed the ketracel white line between Orias and Deep Space Nine. The Son'a kept supplying them with it, but we were able to stop most of it reaching them. It wasn't pretty, but it was guerilla warfare.

Starfleet told us to 'hold the line' because there was a ship being constructed that would be the answer to the Jem'Hadar battlecruiser, and then we'd have our own dreadnought. Challenger was recalled to Earth, and replaced with the Venture, fresh from her own refit. Admiral La Forge transferred his flag to the San Francisco. I met the man once, grey before his time. He remembered Captain Picard arguing for the Enterprise-E to be sent to the Dominion Front, to fight on the front lines. Reading up on Picard and the Enterprise-E, I can't help but wish that Picard had been the Emissary, instead of Sisko. We wouldn't have been in this situation, if he had. It was a severe blow to the fleet when Admiral La Forge was killed. It hurt M'Rella more than me. Have you ever seen a Caitian and a human, covered in oil and grease, arguing about the molybdenum ratio used to make the impulse plasma vents smoother? It was … a rather humorous sight, to be honest. I always wondered if M'Rella held a little crush on La Forge. I know I did.

San Francisco, along with Yamaguchi, Ajax and Spector were on a supply mission when Starbase 621 came under attack. 621 was a small science outpost, minimal defensive weapons. They managed to get out a single line of a distress call, and then communications and sensors were being jammed. La Forge ordered us to change course and assist the science post. They hadn't attacked Starbase 621 in the nearly 8 months they'd held Deep Space Nine. We thought it was because it wasn't a threat. We were wrong. They'd taken the science station. Did you know that the Houdini mine can remain cloaked for weeks at a time? By the time we arrived, 621 was completely under the control of the Dominion, and they'd deployed one of their Battleships, along with a battlecruiser squadron, to await our arrival. Oh, it wasn't a trap specifically for us, but it was a trap for Starfleet. As soon as we dropped out of warp, we knew. We had been duped. The Admiral ordered us to turn about and retreat, but the enemy Battleship wouldn't let us escape unscathed. San Francisco took the full brunt of the Dominion attack. The first barrage went straight through her shields, destroyed the navigational deflector and wrecked one of her warp nacelles. San Francisco couldn't warp out. Admiral La Forge placed me in command of the remaining ships and ordered me to 'get his people home safe.' And then, with me ordering Yamaguchi and Spector out of the sector, San Francisco charged the enemy battleship, phasers and torpedoes firing. I tried desperately to get Admiral La Forge to abandon ship, but he was out of range for laser communications, and we were being jammed. I kept Ajax in system, and I saw the Dominion destroy San Francisco's bridge. I saw the hulk of the San Francisco impact the battleship, and I saw them both go up in San Francisco's core breach. Only then, did we retreat. I had to tell the fleet that the Admiral was dead.

Captain Harry Jameson of the Yamaguchi was given a promotion to Admiral. 6 weeks later, Challenger returned, and Admiral Jameson transferred his flag to the Challenger. Yamaguchi was given to his first officer. We'd been at war less than a year, and the first Admiral was already killed. It wouldn't be the last though. Admiral Jameson was a lot more cautious than La Forge. A lot more reserved. I also don't think he was right for the job, but I don't like talking ill of the dead. However, with the destruction of the San Francisco, we were down a heavy cruiser. Starfleet diverted another Sovereign Class, the U.S.S. Ramilies, under the command of Captain Amalei Neraea. It was decided that she would answer to Admiral Jameson as his First Officer. And annoyingly, I was made Second Officer, because of my position as the Commanding Officer of the Fast Attack Wing. With the addition of a Sovereign Class, Admiral Jameson decided to launch a small raid to test the Dominion's response: The attack was to take place on the Vlugta Asteroid Field and the Dilithium fields there. If we could take the mining fields, it would allow Starfleet the opportunity to refuel and replenish the ships with a local source, instead of having to wait for the supply freighters.