Notes:

* To any AH'ers reading this and the next few chapters would have been the number of Chapter 3 updates on AH, so if I'm missing any updates in the next few chapters please PM me and let me know since the file got messed up when my PC died and I don't have access to the ASB part of the board anymore. I've rebuilt the files since my PC died and I think its all there but just might not be. Thanks!

* Hope ya'll enjoy, constructive feedback welcome

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

It's been a long night
Trying to find my way
Been through the darkness
Now I finally have my day

Kinjer System
Beta Quandrant
Combat Date 2154.0124

Kinjer Prime had once been a habitable M class planet in the distant past, till almost six millennia ago it was obliterated when the system's primary stellar body had collapsed in upon itself, creating what was a vast expanse of stellar debris and kinoplasmic radiation and was now the primary, though somewhat secret, headquarters and supply yard for Starfleet's new 6th Fleet courtesy of two Massada class fortified starbases, Alamo and Camarone, and the forty four year old mobile shipyard UES William Dargan.

Clearing out a large enough region in the debris field had been difficult and costly to allow those stations to transit via wormhole drive but overall system was invaluable as a forward deployed base of operations for Starfleet in the Orion spacial region, effectively invisible to subspace sensors due to chaotic background radiation and eddies and difficult to assault because of the significant debris field which had also served as an excellent, albeit dangerous, resource base for the fleets logistics arm which had begun actively mining the system to reduce the supply needs froms the home front, quantities of inert Elerium had even been found and a small processing capacity established by converting an old Magellan freighter, one of the handful now left to Starfleet, to a mobile processing rig for the fuel.

Grouped around the stations was a eclectic mixture of vessels from the members of the Pact and several allies and auxiliaries that had joined Starfleet's war effort for a wide range of emotions ranging from idealism to the lure of loot or later financial gain, indeed a few Kolari "independent traders" had joined the fleet as the increasing Vulcan-Coridan fleet deployments under the guise of anti-piracy and anti-slavery operations had started to put their "independent contracting" runs out of business.

Of course one of Rear Admiral Archer primary goals upon establishing his base of operations in the system had been to put both fortify the system with minefields and multiple drone defense blocs around the station, which had help with his second major objective in turning his somewhat hodge-podge command of multiple species into an effective fighting force from the core of his X-Com and Imperial Guard personnel under his aide-de-camp, the newly promoted Captain Shran. Who sat beside him now in his informal office aboard the Alamo, though he preferred the Enterprise as his mobile flag it was simply more convienent for space purposes for these command meetings for the dozen of so senior Captains for briefings and the soon to be set in motion Operation Buccaneer that now sat at the round desk in the secured room in the heart of the space station.

There was a time only two or three years ago when this would have seemed insane if someone had told me I'd be commanding a whole band of aliens under a united banner Archer thought observing all the Captains of differing species present within the meeting room "Captain Muk" he said to the Ferengi Captain, or Daimon in their ranks, who commanded the six Ferengi vessels, two of them brand new Ferengi modified NX-03 Liberty's, that arrived with the backing of the Lucky Ullis Corporation, indeed he was one of the primary Lieutenants of the rising star of the Ferengi political scene, and only a year ago the First Contact between Earth and Ferenginar Ullis. "as we discussed in our previous planning briefings your vessels will be formed into Taskforce Alpha along with forces supplied from our Kolari allies consisting of eighteen Interceptors and six converted combat freighters. Have you selected a target for your raiding force as yet?"

"Yes Admiral" the Ferengi replied with an almost smirk "the Davlos system. Davlos III is a significant trade stop on the route between Coridanite space and the Klingon Empire and we've been monitoring increased traffic towards Coridan from the local merchants during our trading with them. And for the right price and Ferengi know-how"

Archer wanted to groan, Ferengi were nothing if self aggrandising, treating everything like a business exchange "we've identified three convoys within the time period the plan lays out."

Muk gave a toothy smile "anyone of which will prove very profitable to capture for the fleet here" and myself the unspoken wording Archer observed but we can live with a little skimming at the moment on captures by the Kolari and Ferengi as long as the buk gets back to the Fleet here for division and re-usage as fuel of scrap. Starfleet's high wages, due to high risk, and harsh X-Com discipline tended to cut down on the chiselling as it was more profitable, at least for the non-stupid Ferengi and Kolari, to following orders and obey the rules.

Archer replied "Good, its a target a reasonable distance away from easy Coridan reinforcement and bound to draw off units from the primary objective. Your Taskforce will raid those convoys, as will a number of other smaller raids by Kolari auxiliary forces, as much as practical, though don't over commit if the Elves and Cordys react in greater force the estimated, I want this operation as cost effective as possible".

The Ferengi nodded still smiling that toothy smile then asked "And prisoners Sir?".

Archer sighed softly, a difficult question, Starfleet Command was somewhat bloodthirsty since the battles at Wolf and Earth and the fact neither the Vulcans or Xindi had taken prisoners on the advance, indeed levelling the military bases planet-side in the system, and several structures of the small Wolf colony from orbit. That and the refusal of the surviving Vulcan crews to surrender to X-Com, resulting in self-destructing upon boarding post battle on several starships or fanatical resistance if unable to do so; of the thousands of Vulcans left stranded post-battle in Sol only a few dozen had managed to be captured usually by incapacity or being stunned by the few boarding operations such as on the D'Vryr Heavy cruiser T'Plana Holtot.

As such the general order from headquarters was to only take prisoners if it was operationally feasible, or even necessary without incurring losses, and the unofficial line was somewhat worse "if its an Elf or Xindi kill it before it suicide bombs you", an attitude that translated badly out in this sector when several of his allies were former pirates or even slavers who Coalition crews, even the less combative such as the Coridanites and Mazarites were wary of surrendering too anyway.

"If they're willing to surrender offer terms, even parole as long as they surrender their vessels and their cargo, the Cordys and Mazys out here only fight because they've the Vulcan boot on their back so we don't want any reason for them to get their back up and get fanatical. If their Vulcan be cautious, we've haven't gotten many surrenders yet and standing orders are to preserve our forces if endangered" his gaze swept over Muk and the Kolari present

"And NO we don't enslave captured crews. That is not open for debate so I don't want to hear it, anyone caught doing it get spaced out an airlock without a suit. If word gets out we were doing that every goddamn Mazy or Cordy will fight to death rather than surrender to us and that'll cost us more in the long run than any short term gain"

Plus it was disgusting xeno practice that I'd prefer the Kolari would abandon Archer thought getting a nod from Muk and a series of unhappy nods from the Kolari Captains, but beggars can't be choosers and we've got a war to win and the only dependable allies we can find out here deem it "culturally necessary", Command could care less as long as they stay away from Humans.

"And Captain Carson what is the status on your battleship squadron?" he asked, the seven old Nova class battleships were all survivors of the battle of the Earth and were the heaviest, and most survivable, force available to 6th Fleet.

A nearly forty year old design the Nova's were ugly rectangular slabs of multiple armour belts, forcefields and deflectors with an internal layer of Meld to help with self repair functions in combat and combat triage and as proved at Earth the vessels could take a massive beating from the Vulcan designs and still function; even the older weapons platforms and power energy conversion on the systems were made up for the sheer number of weapons banks on the enormous starships, twice the size of an NX-01 like the Enterprise.

The only problem with them was the slow speed of them, with only the fusion sub-light engine drive and a wormhole generator and the fact repairs had still been required in the four months since their arrival in-system. Still if the 6th Fleet was to achieve its primary objectives then the seven Nova's would be key to doing that.

"Other than the Battleaxe were fully repaired and have installed the Andorian power converters which has relieved the fuel requirements for general operation in the past month by 52%. Battleaxe is still having trouble with her forward fusion lance banks but we've got her going through the Willian Dargan at the moment so she'll combat ready within a few days. Crew is eager to get back into the fight Sir and make the knife-ears pay for what they tried to do to us" the Captain replied her face showing a hungry look to it, whatever Archer had hoped the battle-lust hadn't yet faded from the Nova crews if their Senior Captain was anything to judge by.

"Good Captain, your force will by our vanguard in the ensuing operation along with Enterprise and two other NX-01's" he explained "as you've been aware Operation Buccaneer is about to begin in the next few weeks with Captain Muk's taskforce hopefully drawing some of the Coalition forces on our primary target." he moved his hand bringing up the holo-globe display of the Orion sector before indicating by neural link on the data feed the proposed advance line and its destination

"We've selected the Stameris system as our primary target. Its was an important trade hub and slave market before the war till shortly before out arrival a large force of the Coridan Navy backed by a Vulcan taskforce took up residence in the system. Since then as we've seen its proved a forward base for Coalition interdiction operations against our logistic and trade routes in the region. Headquarters has also signalled that our objective is to draw off as much of the Coalition forces from the Vulcan front as possible" and with a slight grin "and to make ourselves a general nuisance to our friends in Vulcan and Coridan"

A number of grins arose to match his. "As such we've decided on a strong offensive early on to put the Coalition off balance, they don't know our true strength here in Kinjer and we've done everything possible in our time here to reinforce that belief they're only facing off against the Syndicate and a handful of Starfleet reinforcements. I intend to show them the error in their thinking. Commander Lesha please present the details on the Stameris system" Archer indicated to the Kolari female dressed in what was the new Starfleet dark coloured dress uniform calmly sitting somewhat to his left

The holo-globe expanded on the Stameris system and the projected Coalition strength in the system as she spoke "Our intelligence"

Meaning Syndicate spies unhappy they'd lost a primary hub in the system

"puts the Vulcan strength in the system at two D'Vryr's and seven D'Kyr's in the cruiser range. The Cordinate starships are much more diverse in the number of models present" not an uncommon problem with Coridan which had a tendency to produce a large number of similar but varied models of vessels "but we've put the force at twenty two in the heavy cruiser range with another thirty nine in the light to standard cruiser range. Escort and support vessels are estimated in the sixty to eighty starship range. There is also a garrison in the primary city, all Vulcan"

A few smiles among the Kolari present, the Vulcans been one of the few species in the Coalition immune to the Kolari females pheromones "estimated strength two thousand with heavy weapons support. We've have located three of our primary targets planet side at the moment." the holo-globe brought up the image of two Vulcans and a Cordinate.

"Commanders T'Pol and T'Mern of the Intelligence Directorate have been observed on the planet attempting to eliminate the resistance organisation there and capture the last target. Both are high value targets if we can take them alive. The Cordinate is Traeg a senior figure from the Coridan Resistance who was in system attempting to acquire weaponry and was believed killed in the initial assault but has since resurfaced and needs extraction during our smash and grab operation"

Stameris System
Beta Quadrant
Combat Date 2154.0219

The battered old Orion freighter had been patiently waiting its turn for over forty standard minutes after arriving in system as the Vulcan system coordinators methodically guided them through the various approach procedures that would allow them to dock with the primary system space station to unload a portion of its cargo and collect some more before its planned flight plan brought it towards Coridan to supply its resources to the busy shipyards. The big bulky carrier was a modified Coridianite design with large engines and somewhat stealth outer hull to reduce its range profile the Vulcan co-ordinator noted reiewing the vessels approach plans and manifest as it followed his instructions.

"Copy Stameris Control. Approaching at .5 impulse factor." the old Orion Captain on the screen reported "all systems are nominal. We'll be glad to get some shore leave, its been a dangerous journey with the pirate attacks on the route lately"

"Shadow of Stars, continue approach vector to the second marker then hold and await further instructions" the co-ordinator instructed as he planned returning to the monitoring of the system traffic and outer sensor net. Attacks by Pact supported Orion pirates, and even some Human starships had been on the increase over the past few standard weeks and the possibility of interruption to logistics had increased.

"Copy Stameris Control. Will follow commands as instructed" the old Orion replied. Unusually polite for an Orion the Vulcan thought as the subspace connection cut between control and the Orion's vessel slowly proceeding towards the second directional marker.

"Think they bought it?" asked Alpha Squad leader Malcolm Reed as he deactivated the holographic interface representing him and the three other Humans on the bridge as Kolari traders. "Sensors indicate all clear so far. Once we hit the marker we'll be in range of target teleport's and I've got enough passive sensor data here to hyper to the fleet" his second in command Maria Smirnonas replied as she finished adjusting her combat armour for the assault like the others now that the holo-matrix had disengaged.

"Good lets proceed to Phase 2 as soon as we hit the marker." Malcolm replied before activating his neural link and speaking directly to the eighty two X-Com troopers on board the former Orion, now Starfleet, starship "all squads report ready for Phase 2 initiation?"

"Alpha squad ready to go Boss."

"Beta squad ready Sir"

"Delta squad ready and able Sir."

"Epilson squad ready. Sir. Lets kick some knife ears ass!"

Malcolm and the three others proceeded to the centre of the freighter as the primitive AI program followed the instructions of the Stameris control to the letter, he arrived in full combat armour and took up his GR-18 Multi-Purpose Assult Rifle (MPR) and joined the ranks standing on the recently installed, but heavily tested, transporter system where the ships cargo should be but now contained the strike force of troopers and fifty support SHIV's.

"Okay Boys and Girls. This is what we've been training for. We get in, smash their control net before the Fleet gets here and secure our targets, then get out. Lets give these alien bastards a reason to fear the fucking Human Race. X-COM. VIGILO CONFIDO. VICTORY!" he roared into the command net.

"X-COM AND VICTORY" the roar came back from the assembled ranks. He waited till it had quietened down as the ships computer reported their arrival at the marker.

"Time to go boys and girls. In. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Initiating Phase 2. See you on the ground" as he neurally activated the activation on the Phase 2 protocols in his suit then were then transmitted to ships Meld linked computer.

To anyone watching the actions of Phase 2 of the X-Com assault on Stameris appeared to happen all at once but in reality their was a timed delay of several fractions of seconds between the various components of the Phase. First the ships computer ordered the inactive Elerium generator on the vessel to full activation, thereby sending power to ships systems such as the transporter and the hyperwave beacon.

A fact noticed by the Vulcan sensor officer in the seconds prior to his vaporisation along with the rest of Stameris Control. With this power surge achieved the hyper beacon activated sending a detailed data-packet of all current system information to the Wraith class recon vessel at the outskirts of the Stameris system.

Secondly the transport system spun up. Initially transporting six high grade Elerium bombs to selected targets in the system such as two to the Stameris Control Starbase, another three nearby what was thought to be the locations of the Vulcan and Coridanite flagships and the final one planet-side to a location away from primary target which was thought to be the location of the Vulcan Heavy Weapons support according to spies.

After this the ship began seven phased transports of the squads to their target zones every 1.21 seconds as the eight-six Humans and fifty SHIVs arrived planet-side to begin their assault on the two thousand strong Vulcan garrison, and unknown number of supporting Coalition starship crews on shore leave on Stameris. When the last trooper transported the ships computer began a ten second confirmation that all 2nd Phase protocols had been achieved and all Humans transported from the vessel before initiating its self-destruct protocols detonating the former Shadow of Stars into a brief newborn star in the middle of the freighter route from the stockpile of military grade explosives and Elerium on board.

To the senior surviving starship Commander in system Commodore Draeg of the Coridan Space Navy, who had survived primarially due to the assault force misidentifying his flagship, the world quite simply appeared to go insane in the few seconds of his conversation with his family back on Coridan as the subspace communications line suddenly cut out and his starship suddenly shuddered, followed by the blaring of the battle-stations alarm. He barrelled out of his ready room unto the bridge as his frantic looking bridge crew attempted to make sense of what was happening, barking out as moved towards his command chair

"REPORT! WHAT IN THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!".

"Sir. We've just had multiple high yield detonations reported of Elerium based weaponry throughout in orbit and planet-side! Stameris Station is gone! And we've had multiple detonations in the middle of the fleet. The after effect is interfering with comms and sensors due to our proximity to the blast area, it looks like those ships at the centre of the blast radius are just gone!!" his sensor officer called out from the side of the bridge as the starship bucked again as the shock-wave from the Station detonation impacted the raised shields "damage to hull negligible but we have breaches on deck 15 and deflectors are down to 34%!"

"Comms. Get me the Vulcan Admiral on the line if he's still alive. Try and cut through the interference and signal all our forces if possible to assume defensive formation Theta-Nine rally point at location 04-56-78, and I need damage reports on all vessel. Helm pull us away from the blast zone towards the rally point." he got no further before his sensor officer called out.

"SPACIAL RIFTS FORMING IN SYSTEM!"

Humans. A Human attack. Damn. Damn. Damn.

"Locations?" he called out his grip tightening on his command chair as the starship began to accelerate towards the rally point.

"We can't pinpoint them at the moment Sir. The interference is too great, but were detecting at least three forming. The closest appears nearby the Vulcan forces bring it up on visuals now!" his Sensor Officer called out as the main-view screen focused on the location of the majority of the Vulcan startships in the Stameris system.

The rift was suddenly visible and he could see one of the quicker Vulcan vessels trying to fire on the rift with its particle beams to destabilise its formation but it was too late. Seven massive Human battleship class starships suddenly surged into existence through the rift accelerating at what seemed their full impulse power towards the fractured formation of the defenders as their primary weapons systems blazed to life.

Creator No.

He thought as he watched as the Human starships moved forward in formation weapons firing as one of the battleships literally rammed through a D'Kyr class starship smashing the smaller Vulcan cruiser into atoms as its shields flared that cursed emerald.

"COMMS CUT THROUGH THAT INFERENCE NOW. WE HAVE TO GET THE FLEET TOGETHER NOW OR WE'LL BE SLAUGHTERED".

"Sir the Vulcans? Do we move to help them" his Tactical Officer asked.

"No. Rally Reform on 04-56-78!. The Vulcans will have to look after themselves, we'll move to aid them when we have the fleet in formation otherwise those Heavies will cut us to pieces" he replied observing as the battleships continued to power through the two dozen starships in front of them.

Fuck the Vulcans my job is to protect Coridanite lives and prevent what looks like a disaster in the making not save those long eared fuckers who dragged us into their war the first place Commodore thought as another Vulcan starship was smashed to pieces under continuous fire.

Stameris System
Beta Quadrant
Combat Date 2154.0219

She was disturbed from her mediation by the sudden earth tremor that rolled through her quarters in the central administrative building of the Vulcan Consulate to the planet Stameris, the mediation lamp falling to the floor from its perch forcing her to extinguish the small flame save it damage the carpeted flooring. To indicate it was no mere earthquake her doorway pinged.

"Enter" she calmly called to the doorway as she collected her mediation aids and began to methodically place them in there designated place. One of the soldiers assigned to her protection from the garrison entered her quarters clearly agitated evidenced by the wooden movements he displayed, very obviously to any Vulcan the young soldier was struggling to maintain his emotions in check. The first words out of his mouth though were a disturbing surprise

"Commander, we have to get you to safety immediately. A situation is developing."

"I assume this situation has some connect to the ground tremors only a minute ago" she replied moving purposely to the storage cabinet beside her sleeping compartment and extracting a phase pistol and its holster and began to fasten it around her as the soldier answered her.

"Commander. We have lost contact with both Stameris Orbital Control and with the ground-side defence installation at Gensindis where an emerald coloured mushroom cloud has been reported. The garrison communications net is also badly disrupted. As per protocol we need to evacuate yourself and other senior staff off the planet immediately"

"Have there been any reports of enemy ground forces" she asked as she and her escorted moved through the sparsely decorated corridors of the Consulate towards the armoury and vehicle bay on the lower portion of the building.

The soldier placed his hand to his earpiece listening for almost a minute before replying "We are receiving garbled reports from some of our pickets throughout the city of armour clad infantry attacking them before contact has been lost with them".

The pistol is next to worthless then she thought as they met up with dozen other Vulcan soldiers who at least were equipped with the new heavy particle rifles.

If it was Human armoured troopers launching the assault then the rifles might not been even enough judging from all reports I've seen on their combat data.

"Those patrols are most likely dead if X-Com armoured troopers are present. If they have been ambitious enough to land forces then the orbitals are been contested or have already fallen, as my escort your duty is to ensure I do not fall into Human hands at all costs, myself and as such my knowledge of our operations in this sector would be a logical target for capture. We either evacuate successfully or if I appear on the verge of capture you will mercy kill me to prevent this if no other options are available" she commanded with authority assuming command of the group and continued at a purposeful pace towards their destination when suddenly the building shuddered again as detonation sounded from above their position near to where her quarters had been followed by by a loud craccck, cracccck noises.

Colonel Anna Fitzwilliam's Delta Squad had been ordered to secure the Vulcan Consulate and a such either disrupt or capture the Vulcan planetary control net, plus if possible secure the Vulcan Intelligence Commander believed to be on site named T'Pol.

The initial beam down of her twenty troopers and six SHIV strong force had been to a spot in the atmosphere almost eight hundred feet above the target location and immediately upon materialisation their combat armours anti-grav systems and jetpack engaged automatically limiting their descent to controllable vectors.

Indeed within seconds of the materialisation as members of the assault force were merged into the "squadsight" neural combat link, descendent of the original ability discovered in the first alien war the "squad-sight" system essentially turned the assault force into a unit of interconnected combat units as each member became aware of all others combat data and awareness – in multiple tests in the past century of the ability i was analysed as offer a combat mulpiler in a multitude of indirect factors.

On the roof of the Consulate were forty seven Vulcan guards with six defence turrets and the combat systems advantages became apparent in the seconds after each side became aware of the other; quite simply psionically linked the descending X-Com forces reacted at the speed of thought and were already identifying and beginning to target individual Vulcans as these same defenders were shouting startled orders to each other.

The GR-18 Multi-Purpose Assault Rifle (MPR) was the result of decades of development in integrating what had been the advanced Andorian disruptor weapoary and the rapidly evolving rail-gun style weaponry designed by the UEG in the wake of Caliphate War and then had seen another evolution in the wake of Second Contact with the Vulcans and the Kzinti War.

The original models in the GR series had utilised a mixture of plasma based weaponry and explosive rounds fired using chemical accelerators but with alliance with the Andorian Empire the two primary small arms manufactures of the species Gaz-Rheinmetall (GR) and the Andor Small Arms (ASA) had focused on combining the cheaper and less energy intensive disruptor technology with the multi-round shell system developed by GR.

The resulting GR-18 as such had entered mass production a decade earlier with a capacity for combat utilising disruptors for unshielded targets, high explosive rounds for armoured targets and shield breaking "enhanced rounds" which made Pact the most potent planet-side combat force in the quadrant, most devastatingly with Human X-Com forces whose psionic links allowed mode selection by mental orders rather than physical change, though this feature was retained along with usual human gene coded self-destruct mechanism.

Within thirty seconds of the initial awareness of each other over two thirds of the defenders on the rooftop, along with their heavy weapons, had been eliminated, within another twenty seconds all resistance had been eliminated as a mixture of disruptor fire and explosive rounds swept the defenders a second time followed by the assault forces landing in two separate locations; the rooftop itself for sixteen troopers while the other four in their Paladin Mech suits slammed into the courtyard with kinetic force followed by their Meld linked SHIVs.

Now the spider like SHIV's began to form out from their landing configurations to combat mode, their central disruptor sphere spinning and firing under the command of the Paladin suits to destroy the stunned garrison forces before them, their objective being to destroy the Consulates dampening field currently preventing direct transport and X-Com reinforcement or easy evacuation.

T'Pol moved forward hurriedly placing the communicator set to her ear listening in to the increasingly desperate attempts to hold off the Human assault – from all indications no success was been achieved and all defences brushed aside almost at ease.

What was worse was the confirmation of the existence of the suspected Human telepathic terror inducing weapon, though thankfully Vulcan mental discipline had rendered it ineffective against them it was unfortunately causing panic and disorientation among the Coridanite and Orion forces loyal to the Coalition in the combat zone and as she listened she could overhear chaotic clashes between friendly forces as these species panicked under the telepathic assault. Suddenly she felt a sudden spike in fear as the emotion attempted to disrupt her mental discipline but she quickly pushed it down.

"Human forces are within the building if you felt that attempt at telepathic assault. We must hurry." she said as they neared the armoured door to the internal hander bay. She quickly entered her pass-code and the door unlocked allowing them entry, though she quickly resealed it behind her and initiated the lock-down procedures to seal the rest of the building in the hopes that this would slow down the attacking forces.

"Take up defensive positions around the shuttle" she said motioning to most heavily armoured shuttle in the centre of the hanger, then motion at two soldiers to follow her "you too with me. I must authorise the hanger release before we can board the shuttle".

She hurriedly began entering the codes and received confirmation of the release system to her handheld data device as the shuttles systems activated and the armoured hanger door began to ascend, she then turned to move towards the shuttle when the section of the hanger room on the far site of the rom exploded downwards in a cloud of dust, through which an armoured humanoid shilloute could be see a few seconds later.

She vaulted over railings in front of her and moved to run towards the open shuttle door when suddenly a purple energy seemed to swirl around her body and she found herself frozen in place completely paralysed. The young soldier who had first come to her quarters lowered his particle and let loose a full powered stream at the armoured figure which flicked off the Humans personnel shield but was enough to disrupt what ever force was restraining her.

"Go Commander! We shall slow them as best we can" he called to he as he ducked behind cover.

She raced aboard up the shuttle's ramp-way as her escort poured fire towards the gap in the hanger as two more armoured figures appeared and began to return deadly effective fire on her unarmoured and unshielded escorts, two of which entered the shuttle with her and began closing the ramp-way doors as she took the pilots seat and began to initiate the anti-grav drives on the shuttle as weapons fire flared off its shields. She turned as she say them closing the ramp

"The rest of the escort need to evacuate. We can use the shuttle as support..." but got no further when one of the soldiers, an older female replied "Orders are to get you out alive Commander. The building has fallen and Human forces are converging on the hanger doors, we have no time to waste to get clear".

She froze for a second considering overriding the soldier but then went back to piloting the shuttle out of the hanger when seconds later a Human mechanical arachnid appear on near the exit-way firing a focused energy beam at the shuttles engines that was stopped by the shields, though these were beginning to weaken under the sustained weapons fire.

She accelerated forwards, firing the shuttles particle beam forward destroying the attacking machine as more came into view as they exited the building and began to get airborne. She jinked the shuttle hard to her left, sending her two unsecured escorts tumbling around in the back of the shuttle, as a powerful plasma beam targeted on the shuttle from the a ten foot Human armour suit in the courtyard, barely missing them as they ascended towards the orbit and out of range of ground fire.

Anna Fitzwilliam disintegrated the last surviving Vulcan defender along with his cover with an explosive rail-gun round as she glared in anger at the open hanger door where her perfect mission success had just vanished through towards orbit. Other than failing to capture the Vulcan officer all other objectives had been secured, the dampening field was down, the enemy command network captured and the Vulcan Consul was captured albeit in critical condition in the courtyard where his escort had been overrun and eliminated.

Hopefully the Starfleet pukes will catch the Vulcan bitch she thought across the net before getting a chorus of ayes from her troopers.