Chapter 11 A Dagger at Zarush

Chancellor's Personal log Stardate: 54642.8: The Federation has sent its main fleet into the Delta Quadrant to attack the Borg. Our Klingon warriors have been left behind to babysit the Alpha Quadrant along with the Federation's remaining ships. HAH! The Federation wanted us to be peacekeepers. But I am no man of peace. Nor it turns out are the Cardassians. They secretly constructed a massive fleet. We don't know how they kept it secret, someone must have helped them hide it. Then, as the Federation reserve fleet lay docked in the Pearl Nebula, the rebuilt Cardassian forces launched a surprise attack. They laid waste to the unsuspecting Federation cruisers, battleships, destroyers and Starbases. Few ships survived, fewer still ready for combat…Why does the Federation expect everyone to be a peaceful as they? Are the completely without guile? Or is it just lack of common sense? Perhaps they died a warrior's death…but to be caught sleeping? Inexcusable! Now we Klingons must quash this Cardassian uprising and show the Federation that peace is maintained only with the sharp edge of a bat'leth…A peacekeeper…we have a saying…So 'fad eo' da qua!...to thine own self…be true.

Martok's Negh'Var-class battleship cruised into the system escorting a construction ship and a pair of Bird of Preys. Martok ordered the construction ship to head for a derelict Federation ship and tow it to the research facility. He instructed the facility to beam an away team aboard the Akira-class ship. A moment later fifteen Starfleet officers beamed aboard. He ordered the Akira-class ship to beam aboard the shipyard, Starbase and the few derelict ships in the area. While the Federation ship recovered what was left of its reserve fleet, Martok sent the construction ship around a large Cerulean nebula and ordered the colony at Zarush to build a planetary shield. The construction ship built a starbase in orbit of the planet facing an even larger Metreon nebula covering nearly half the sector. Martok's Negh'Var assisted in clearing the area around the planet of Cardassian ships and destroyed a pair of sensor stations as well.

The Akira-class ship recovered another Akira-class cruiser and an Aegean-class frigate along with a single mining freighter which began mining a nearby moon. It also recrewed the Starbase and shipyard. Martok received word that the shipyard's building capacity was limited to Venture-class scouts, Defiant and Saber-class destroyers and Akira-class cruisers. The Starbase was limited to building mining freighters as well.

Martok scowled. "Oh well, we'll build some real warships of our own Klingon design." He said

Martok ordered the construction ship to begin building up a shipyard and mining facility. There were two more dilithium moons near Zarush so the construction ship built a pair of stations. The Klingon Starbase built six more freighters and assigned three to each in addition to the one the station builds when it is complete. The construction ship built a shipyard, research station and orbital facility above Zarush. He ordered the Starbase to build to more construction ships and had it set a rally point for near the Federation base as an H-class planet was nearby along with a large latinum nebula.

There was a Federation trading station nearby and one of the construction ships built disruptor turrets around it to protect it from Cardassian raiders. There was another large latinum nebula near Zarush along with a wormhole. With a Klingon shipyard and research facility complete Martok had access to the colony ship and Vor'cha-class cruisers. He ordered a colony ship to be built and for it to colonize the H-class planet near the Federation Starbase. He also ordered a construction ship to build another starbase in the middle of both latinum nebulas. Then those Starbases built several freighters to mine the resource.

While all this was happening the Cardassians were sending ships through the Metreon nebulas. Most of which were destroyed before they saw the Starbase. Only the more powerful cruisers and battleships got through and those were quickly destroyed by the Klingon Starbase's disruptors. He ordered a fleet of Vor'cha-class cruisers to be built from the Klingon shipyard and ordered the Federation shipyard to build a fleet of Akira-class ships. He also sent a Bird of Prey through the wormhole. It emerged in the 'south-east' corner of the system on the edge of the Metreon nebula. It quickly exited before it was destroyed and engaged its cloak. There was an L-class planet nearby along with a moon. The Cardassians had already built an orbital facility over the planet and was mining its metal.

The Bird of Prey didn't have the firepower to destroy the facility so the ship proceeded along the edge of the system eventually scouting and mapping a small but powerful Cardassian base. The Cardassians held the planet Vanoshan with a garrison of 100 troops. Martok ordered the scout to return to friendly territory to be decommissioned for resources. Soon he received word that the dilithium moon near the Federation base had been emptied of the resource. He sent the freighters assigned to the moon to assist in the mining of the latinum nebula. After another six hours the latinum nebula had been completely drained and Martok had those ships along with the Starbase decommissioned. The other large latinum nebula followed suit another twelve hours later and those ships and stations were decommissioned as well.

Now with more resources and spare officers, Martok built a second fleet of Vor'chas and a mixed fleet of Defiants and Birds of Prey. He ordered those fleets into position 'south' of the main Cardassian base. While the fleet waited he took his ship and destroyed the Cardassian orbital facility at the lower 'south-east' edge of the system and captured the Cardassian colony. He ordered the fleet to attack.

Sixty-four ships, a mix of Federation and Klingon warships invaded the Cardassian base. Fifteen Akiras launched their chain reaction pulsars destroyed and damaging many of the smaller Cardassian destroyers. Then Martok issued specific orders

"Cruisers, form into groups and gang-up on the Cardassian battleships those are your primary targets. You may fire at stations when possible. Destroyers, strafe the stations and target equal Cardassian ships, but you may fire on other targets when possible." He said

The Fleet acknowledged his orders and split up. The destroyers hit a pair of trading stations and after beating down the shields destroyed them but at a loss of two Bird of Preys. The Cruisers outnumbered the Cardassian battleships greatly so there were more opportunities for the cruisers to fire at stations than at enemy ships. The advanced shipyards came next and were destroyed by pulse phasers, standard phasers along with dozens of torpedoes. The fleet now down to fifty-nine ships moved on to the two Cardassian Starbases. The Akiras had recharged their special weapon energy by now and fired again. The pulsars bounced between the Starbases and the few defense turrets, heavily damaging them. The Starbases opened fire as well concentrating on the harassing destroyers first.

Martok ordered the destroyers out of the Starbases weapons range and had the three cruiser fleets concentrate on one station at a time starting with the Starbases. The first was destroyed fairly quickly and the second followed soon after. Then the fleet broke again and destroyed more shipyards, ships, research station, mining facility and defense turrets. Soon the Cardassian space forces were completely destroyed and the fleet was down to twenty ships. Martok's Negh'Var approached Vanoshan and opened fire on the surface. The planet's shield held for a while but the Negh'var's sheer power wore the shield down until Martok could start beaming troops down. The hundred person garrison was quickly overwhelmed by Klingon troops and a few enraged Starfleet troops as well. After three hours of bloody ground fighting the Allies were in control of the system.

Chancellor's personal log supplemental: Zarush is ours. And Vanoshan will withstand any assault. I must thank the Cardassians. Now we have a war to be proud of…

A/N A little Christmas present for my readers a new chapter for each of the current stories i'm working on. stay tuned for the rest of the Klingon Campaign!