Admiral's log, stardate 58220.69. After visiting the planet Karemma and querying the locals about recent Dominion activity, I've called a meeting with my senior staff to discuss the current situation.
Inside the USS Enterprise's observation lounge, Admiral Picard was just beginning to have a meeting with his senior officers about their current situation. Present at the meeting was Commander Worf, First officer, Commander Grant Mcarthy, the Federation's leading expert on the Dominion, Lieutenant Commander Miranda Kadohata, Second officer and operations officer, Commander Geordi La Forge, Chief Engineer, Commander Beverly Crusher, Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Jasminder Choudhury, Security Chief and Lieutenant Dina Flfiki, Science officer.
"So, as you are all aware, I recently lead an away team down to the planet Karemma, in order to gather intelligence about recent Dominion activity." Began Picard. "They stated that while some Dominion ships were still visiting the planet, they were now going there more frequently, and faster than they could anticipate as well."
"Well, the Dominion is known to have a huge array of resources and technology." commented Choudhury. "It would be possible for them to have built more ships in the time since we were last here."
"While that may be the case under normal circumstances, that is not the case here." rebutted Mcarthy. "As per Admiral Picard's recent encounter with Q, he stated that the Dominion have now gotten their hands on Imperial tech, so it's more likely to assume that they've installed Hyperdrives on their ships."
"It would make sense for them to go with that immediately." Remarked La Forge. "Dominion ships can only achieve warp 6, so it would be in their best interests to nullify that weakness before they strike."
"But if they have Hyperdrives, there's a chance they could also have the schematics for a Death Star Battlestation, wouldn't there be?" Proposed Crusher.
"There is the chance for anything and everything to happen at this point in time Commander." settled Picard. "What does matter now, is what we do once we reach their homeworld. So, does anyone have suggestions?"
"While we don't have a cloaking device like the Defiant, I suggest we do everything we do to minimise our detectability." Suggested Choudhury. "This would mean travelling at low warp, decreasing general power usage and minimising our sensor range."
"With all due respect though, wouldn't that make us seem like the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order in their attempted attack on the founders?" Argued Crusher.
"It's the best option for the safety of the Enterprise Ma'am. This way we won't be attacked en route to their homeworld and will be able to carry out our mission."
"I don't think a Sovereign Class starship screams diplomatic in a war now don't you?"
"Is there anything we could do to make us not seem like the enemy?" asked Picard
"We could send them a message stating our need to discuss matters." answered Worf. "let them know we're not hostile and we just want to talk."
"And reveal our presence to their fleet?" rebutted Choudhury. "If they know where we are, they'll just send a strike force to eliminate us immediately."
"I see where Commander Worf is going with this." remarked Mcarthy. "Giving our location away to them will seem like a trusting maneuver, leading to them respecting us more than before for having the nuts to do something like this."
"Excellent." exclaimed Picard. "Start preparations for such a transmission immediat-"
"Sir, hyperspace sensors just picked up several starships on course to intercept us." came through the intercom.
"Can you identify them?" asked Picard.
"Sir, they appear to be a Jem'hadar dreadnought and 2 squadrons of fighters."
"Understood. Time to intercept?"
"At their current speed, they'll be at our location in 3 minutes."
"Put the ship on Yellow Alert and standby." Ordered Picard as he and everyone else in the room rushed to the door. "To your posts officers!"
"Report!" demanded Picard as he and his bridge crew walked onto the bridge.
"Dominion ships are now more than a minute and a half away." reported the officer on duty at the time. "All stations now confirm Yellow Alert status, and all defensive systems are on hot standby."
"Hail the Jem'hadar." Ordered Picard as the rest of the crew took their seats as he stood in front of the Captain's chair. The comm officer nodded as he established a channel from the Enterprise to the Dominion fleet. Giving him a thumbs up, Picard began his hail.
"Dominion vessels, this is Admiral Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We are on a peaceful diplomatic mission, and only wish to talk. As a gesture of goodwill, we have not raised our shields. Please respond."
Several moments of silence passed after his message.
"No response sir." stated the Comm officer.
"Admiral, the ships-" Worf was cut off mid sentence as the Dominion ships suddenly dropped out of hyperspace.
A truly awe-striking sight now beheld the crew, as a massive Jem'hadar dreadnought dropped out of hyperspace right on top of the Enterprise. Flanking it were two squadrons of Jem'hadar fighters, all in precise formation around the massive dreadnought. The form of the Enterprise was slowly consumed by the shadow of the supermassive ship.
"...sir, the Jem'hadar ship is now hailing us." announced the comm officer.
"Onscreen." Picard was not prepared for who was to greet him.
"Admiral Picard, this is Odo. We need to talk."
Aboard the USS Arizona, Captain Trent woke up by himself in the middle of the night. Instead of the dark, sullen brig they used to throw him in, he now slept in a random crewman's quarters aboard the Arizona. It felt odd being back aboard the Arizona; for the past 6 months he had seen nothing but matte grey hallways and utilitarian hardware. Now, he was surrounded by the familiar looks of the home-like beige and touch screen displays.
The doors hissed open to reveal his two stormtrooper guards, both with their blasters drawn in their standard positions. Trent got out of the bed, ready for what was probably about to happen.
"Get out. Captain wants to see you in the ready room." Demanded one of them as he gestured with his blaster to the handcuffs on the table top. Almost willingly, Trent held his hands out for the troopers, as they slipped the cuffs on and activated them. With a small nudge, they forced him in front of them and made him walk at a moderate pace.
As they walked through the darkened corridors, Trent looked around him. Most of the corridors were still marked with blackened battle damaged walls, exploded consoles and random debris lying on the floor. Some of the ship's lights weren't even working, most of them flickering between on and off states. The solemn state the saucer was left in left Trent with a small distaste in his mouth; the fact that his home for the past 8 years had been reduced to such a weakened state only reminded him of the horrors of war. He had known many of the crewmembers who had once walked these corridors, and the ones who had been killed in the various battles the ship had partook in, and to see their shared home reduced to a fraction of it's former state felt like an insult to their memory.
As they rounded another corner, he suddenly noticed that they were suddenly on deck 4. As they turned into a corridor labeled 'section 17' he turned to his captors.
"This isn't the way to the ready room." he defiantly stated, causing the two troopers to look at each other in confusion.
Before either of them could reply, the ship suddenly went to red alert, as a voice blared "Attention all units. Rebel fighters have been spotted approximately 12 Kilometres from base. All fighters launch."
"I thought they said this would be a quiet extraction!" yelled one of the stormtroopers.
"Well, you can't be exactly quiet when you have one of the most advanced scanning systems docked to your base now can you?" argued the other as they released Trent from his cuffs.
"I think now would be a good time to tell me what the hell's going on!" Demanded Trent.
"No time, just get to the shuttlebay!" replied one of the Stormtroopers. Without hesitation, the three of them began running down the corridor.
As they reached the shuttlebay, they ran into a stormtrooper patrol, marching around guarding entrance. Without hesitation, Trent's escorts fired on the guards, who were momentarily caught off guard by their presence. 4 of them fell before the rest of them took cover behind various structural arches in the corridor. It then turned into a shootoff between the two sides as both sides exchanged laser fire.
"We're outnumbered." declared one of Trent's escorts.
"Not if I can do something about it." Trent quickly reached into the wall to reveal an emergency stowed phaser within. In moments, he had not only activated it, but set it to overload itself. He threw it beyond their cover, landing it square between the guards. Before they could react, the phaser exploded, sending body parts and blood splattering across the corridor.
The trio then proceeded to resume running into the shuttle bay. As they ran through the door, several craft appeared to be fighting outside the forcefield, some being imperial TIE fighters, others being craft unknown to Trent, but evidently Rebel craft. A blue striped craft entered the landing bay, it's side mounted wings folding forwards as the doors to the inside opened up.
"Get in the U-wing!" screamed one of the troops as Trent climbed into the ship. The two stormtroopers made it in as Imperial reinforcements charged into the shuttlebay. Laser hits pinged off the hull of the U-wing as it's landing doors closed. The U-wing re-extended it's wings, lumberingly turned to face the forcefield, before rocketing out of the shuttlebay into the fury of the outside.
As Trent made himself comfortable within the transport bay of the U-wing, the two stormtroopers removed their helmets. They both looked very similar to each other, both with similar facial structures, builds and whitening hair, although one had a massive scar along the right side of his face, interrupted by a cybernetic eye.
"Well, that's the last time I impersonate a stormtrooper." declared the one without a scar. "I'm getting too old for this." Noticing Trent with a confused look on his face, he stated, "Sorry about the sudden extraction, but we couldn't inform you in person without getting caught."
"Don't worry," replied Trent, "a...friend of mine informed me of your arrival."
"I don't think we've been formally introduced." declared the man. "I'm Captain Rex of the Rebel alliance. This is Commander Wolffe with the robotic eye over there." Rex extended his hand out in friendship, with Trent staring at it for a moment, unsure of whether to trust him or not.
"Captain Darius Trent, United Federation of Planets." he replied as he shook Rex's hand. "Are you aware of how the war's going?"
"We're not exactly sure what's going on right now, but the Empire's dedicating significant resources to the war effort." answered Rex.
"Over 5,000 Star Destroyers have now gone through that thing over Tatooine now." added Wolffe. "You can bet something very special's going on over there. Sectors are so rarely patrolled by Star Destroyers now that it was easy for us to slip through and get here."
"I see." commented Trent.
"Prepare for the jump to hyperspace." called out the pilot from the cockpit. Trent looked outside and noticed the remaining fighters beginning to form up on their transport ship. They appeared to have a red paint job on them, with wings which folded up into an X shape when they were not being used. These fighters folded their wings back down, and fell back to the sides of their transport.
However, before they could get away, an orange beam hit one of their escorts, destroying it instantly as it burst into flames. Their ship shuddered with the shockwave produced, as well as the impact of micro debris on the hull as the remaining ships swerved to avoid the debris
"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Rex. "We're well out of range of the station's defense grid."
"That's because we're not under attack from the station." responded Trent. "Bring us around. I need to be sure."
The pilot cooperated without responding, and the ship banked hard to port to view who the new aggressor was. Trent let out a sigh as he confirmed what was happening.
"Just as I feared. They've managed to repair the Arizona's weapons."
"Can we get out of their range?" asked Rex.
"You can't." answered Trent. "The phaser arrays on the Arizona have a range upwards of 300,000 kms."
"Well, what do we do then?"
"Try and fly an evasive pattern. I destroyed the targeting computer before they could capture her, so they'll have to rely on manual targeting."
As another fighter beside them was hit by a stray phaser shot, their ship began a series of evasive maneuvers, dodging phaser hits as fighters began to form up on their flanks.
"Have Gold and Blue squadrons attack the Arizona!" ordered Rex. Several fighters of various classes moved away from their group to hit the Arizona. Multiple fighters with yellow hull panels and exposed machinery began to drop proton and ion bombs on the saucer shaped vessel, but to no avail, as the ship's shields had also been raised. The Arizona detached itself from the station as it began to pursue the fighters, eliminating two with it's phasers as it sporadically fired in all directions.
"What do you suggest Darius?" asked Rex as Trent stared out into space at the battle bafore him.