Chapter 7: Resurrected Hope

"Do your fighter craft have sophisticated scanners?" asked Trent, making his way to the cockpit as the battle between them and the Arizona continued to rage around them.

"The fighter craft have scanners yes, but they're only meant for targeting." answered Rex.

"Ok." replied Trent, putting his head in one hand as he re-thought his plan. "Can I have a close up visual of the Arizona?"

The pilot of the U-wing they were in nodded in silence as he brought up a close up image of the Arizona from an attacking X-wing. The Arizona now had mysteriously developed a mysterious copper ring along the rim of the saucer, with cables and wiring connecting it to the ship's phaser banks and impulse engines.

"Just as I suspected." commented Trent. "They're not using the ship's reactor to power her, but magnetic induction instead."

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow." stated a confused Rex.

"The Arizona's saucer section reactor was beyond saving; I made sure of that when I destroyed the targeting computer." Explained Trent. "So they can't be powering her using that. And the ship's now disconnected itself from the station as well, so they can't be using that either. They must be using a magnetic induction coil to power the ship's systems, using the magnetic field of the nearby gas giant as a power supply. The Arizona can draw all the power it needs from the gas giant's magnetic field, but only if it stays at the range which it is at now from the gas giant."

"So, what you're saying is, the Arizona has virtually unlimited power, but only if it stays close to the gas giant?" figured Rex.

"Exactly. If we can draw the Arizona away from the gas giant, the Arizona will lose power, and eventually it won't be receiving enough power to keep the shields running."

"So we'll be able to hit her hard then while she's powerless. Brilliant thinking Captain!"

Rex rushed up to the intercom, and began a fleet-wide transmission.

"All ships, this is Captain Rex. We need you to lure the Arizona away from the gas giant. Use all and any means necessary."

With a renewed sense of coordination and determination, the rebel fighters turned back to the enemy ship. All the fighters concentrated their fire on a single point on the shields which, while doing little damage to the ship, caused the Arizona to begin to fire back with sporadic beams from it's phasers. The smaller, more nimble fighters weaved their way through and around the Arizona, before blasting away at full sub-light away from the planet.

On the bridge of the Arizona, Captain Beratas was in the midst of commanding the Imperial contingent of the battle, at this point being only the Arizona. He had been pushing Admiral Kritus for months to let him use the Arizona in combat, to at least set up a defense against any rebel ships, but so far all his proposals had been met with refusal. Now though, with the entire station's TIE complement destroyed and no help bould to arrive for hours potentially, was he allowed to use the magnetic induction power system he had installed over the past few days for the purpose he intended it for.

"Sir, the rebel ships are moving away from the station, and the phaser operators are reporting that they can no longer accurately aim the phasers while they are moving at that speed." reported an Imperial Lieutenant at the helm console at the front. "Shall I move off and return back to the station?"

"No!" quickly replied Beratas. "Set a pursuit course now! Best possible impulse speed!"

"Sir, if we move out of range of the planet-"

"Are you deaf Lieutenant?! I will not have my moment of engineering triumph stolen by a retreat! Do as I say, or I will have you sent to the bottom of the promotion list!" The lieutenant, fearful of his position, obeyed, setting the ship's impulse engines to maximum.

The Arizona's engine's flared in space, thrusting it forwards as it began to close the gap between it and the rebel fighters. Onboard, lights began to flicker on and off as the ship began to shake under the immense stress the hull was under without either inertial dampeners or structural integrity fields.

"Captain Beratas, this is Admiral Kritus. Back off from the rebel attack group and return to base."

"I've almost got them Admiral! Just give me a few more minutes."

"You're moving too far away from the gas giant to receive the necessary power! Withdraw back to base bef-"

Her voice was cut off as the Arizona suddenly lost all power. Lights turned off everywhere as the impulse engines flickered and died. Without power, the Arizona was left adrift and helpless as the rebel fighters swung around and ravaged the powerless starship.

Laser hit after hit slammed into the unshielded hull which, already very badly damaged from the Battle of Tatooine, finally gave way, causing massive hull breaches as explosions rocked the wreck. The copper coils along the rim of the saucer were ripped off, the cables connecting them to the ship's vital systems coming off with them as the Arizona left a trail of debris in it's wake.

On the bridge, Beratas screamed in rage as the entire room was set alight. The consoles in front and behind him simultaneously exploded, sending their occupants and various chunks of shrapnel everywhere. A piece of shrapnel lodged itself in his hip, sending him stumbling back into the captain's chair. Gripping to the chair, he felt the blood dribbling out of the wound in his side, and knew that he would face his death there and then. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate as a proton torpedo hit slammed into the bridge, destroying the entire room and killing him in an instant.

At this point, the saucer of the Arizona was nothing but a smouldering wreck. Where hull livery and shield emitters had once glazed the framework, now lay nothing but burnt metal and torn hull plating. Where rooms and corridors once patterned the various decks of the ship, now were replaced with utter carnage and inextinguishable flames. Where crew members and civilians alike had once stood, now nothing remained.

As the rebel fighters began to pull away, the Arizona suddenly began to explode. One of their stray shots had finally managed to detonate one of the ship's self-destruct packs, and suddenly, explosions began to consume the ship from top to bottom. Within moments, the bare bones of the ship blasted themselves apart, leaving nothing behind of the once proud Galaxy Class Venture Refit.

As Trent watched this from the window of his U-wing, he couldn't help but think of all the memories he had made on that ship. The launch ceremony over 8 years ago. The 3 year patrol of the Ivor sector. First contact with the Galactic Empire. All these events under his command, and all of these events he would never forget, and none would have happened without the Arizona. And as the fighters began to jump to hyperspace, he softly whispered, "Goodbye."

Aboard the SSD Arbitrator, Commander Maxus had just finished talking to 'Fleet Admiral Motti'. He was surprised that Motti was even still alive; the last time he had spoken to Vader, he had confirmed it was his intention to kill him within the next couple of days. So why was Motti still alive? Whatever the answer was, he knew he probably wasn't looking forward to it.

"Sir, the ship's guidance thrusters have come on by themselves." Reported an officer. "They're not responding to commands, and they're taking the ship away from Midway base."

"Cut power to the system." ordered Maxus. The officer repeated the order to a man in the bridge trenches, before turning back to face Maxus.

"We can't cut power to the system. The hyperspace computer's also begun making calculations for a long distance course."

"Try killing the main reactor."

"The reactor won't shut down. And now it's cutting power to weapons and shields and redirecting it to the engines."

"Oh I'm afraid you had a right to be worrying about me, Commander." suddenly started Motti through the comms network, surprising everyone, including Maxus.

"How are you alive? Where's Vader?"

"Vader, my friend, is taking a nap back on Midway. Although I wouldn't try picking him up. He's in a very bad mood."

"But why have you taken over the ship? Surely if you wanted to punish us, you would only punish me?"

"Well, I can't have the Dominion needlessly fight an extra Super Star Destroyer, so I'm giving it to someone else. Don't worry, you'll all be alive once they're done with you, in a sense."

"Motti, we can talk this over. We can make a deal. The crew of the Arbitrator for me and the ship."

"Don't think you can escape your fate, Commander. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some more business to attend to. Goodbye Commander."

Aboard a Lambda Class shuttle, Motti watched as the Arbitrator entered hyperspace on it's plotted course. No-one would know that he had ever implanted the virus on it's computer; if anything, it's disappearance would be blamed on faulty hyperspace equations. Not that anyone would have the time to think about what had happened to the Arbitrator after what he knew was to come.

The massive fleet of Romulan warbirds de-cloaked around Midway station, and began mercilessly pounding the station with plasma torpedoes and disruptor cannons. It had been a trick to send the fleet in a direction away from the starbase in order to lure away the imperial ships defending the base; they had even retuned their singularity cores so that they did not affect hyperdrives in order to make it seem credible. In the meantime, while star destroyers and cruisers had gone off in pursuit of the would-be fleet, the Romulan ships had re-positioned themselves around key portions of the drum-shaped space station. And now, with no ships in the area to stop them, they began their final attack.

Within moments, explosions began erupting all across the surface of Midway, as the station's shield generators were blasted off the surface of the station and defense turrets were destroyed before they could even get off a shot at the attackers. As the Romulans continued to whittle away at the station bit by bit, insignificant TIE fighters were launched in a futile attempt to save the station. Before long, explosions boomed from deep within the station, as it's fusion reactor destabilized and went into meltdown. As the Romulan fleet ceased their attack, they turned away from the station and activated their cloaking devices, concealing their escape from the dying station. Finally, with a brilliant flash of light, the station exploded, sending massive shockwaves and chunks of debris throughout the region.

Content that no-one could have survived the station's destruction, Motti programmed his shuttle to take him to Empersia, the Dominion homeworld. He brought the shuttle around for the first jump and then, without hesitation, he engaged the hyperdrive. The shuttle briefly stood still, before seemingly hyper accelerating into the distance as it went to hyperspace.

However, after he left, another shuttle cleared the wreckage of the station. This shuttle, having barely escaped intact, was somewhat damaged, and visible scorch marks were visible across the hull. It turned towards the depths of space before awaiting it's hyperdrive to charge up.

Aboard the shuttle, Darth Vader sat in silence in the cockpit. Once again, the people of this universe had eluded his capture, and destroyed Imperial assets in the process. He knew the news would not go down well with his master; the amount of times he had failed was enough for anyone to make a mockery of him. One thing was sure in his mind though; he would hunt down this 'Motti' and destroy his people, even if it was the last thing he did.

"Status of enemy Star Destroyer?" requested Aldrin.

"Their port shield generator is completely destroyed, their sublight engines are damaged and I'm reading fluctuations in their power grid." answered Horan. "They're refocusing their shield coverage to cover their turbolasers and bridge module."

"Forward phaser array is back online sir, but the targeting computer's still on the fritz." reported Th'etonnor. "The most accurate range I can give you is about 100 klicks."

"Clean up the remaining TIEs above us and await further instructions." ordered Aldrin.

With a short buildup in it's dorsal phaser banks, the Sovereign fired several beams of phasers at several different TIE Defenders swarming above it. While the Defenders had shield generators, they were by no means a match for starship-based weaponry, and most were destroyed in one shot. The McCalls weaved through the explosions as they two destroyed several Defenders, putting their quad phaser cannons to good use as they cut through the Defenders.

Knowing that the situation above was now under control, Aldrin got up and walked over to Hawk's console at the front.

"Lieutenant, status of impulse engines?"

"She'll give you ¼ impulse for now, but I can't reliably push them harder than that."

"Take us as close and as fast as you can to the Star Destroyer. Be sure to evade their shots. Th'etonnor, standby to fire."

The Sovereign lurched forwards, and began accelerating towards the lone Star Destroyer ahead of it. The Star Destroyer responded with a full barrage of turbolasers, but the Sovereign easily evaded the majority of the shots.

"We're closing in on the Star Destroyer sir." reported Hawk. "1000 metres away."

"Th'etonnor, wait until we're 100 metres away. On my mark, fire all weapons at their reactor dome."

"But Commander, why wait when we're within range now?"

"We need to get rid of that thing as fast as we can, and destroying their reactor is the best way to do that. Hawk, as soon as I give the order, bring our ventral weapons to bare on the underside of the Star Destroyer."

"Aye sir."

The Sovereign continued hurtling itself at the Star Destroyer, picking up speed as the Star destroyer realised what was going on. In a futile attempt to escape, it pushed itself into full reverse, attempting to outrun the more agile Federation ship.

"100 metres!" announced Hawk.

"Now! Fire!"

With a mere push of a button, the Sovereign rolled onto it's dorsal side, letting it's ventral weapons face up as it ran underneath the Star Destroyer. In an instant, it fired a barrage of phasers and quantum torpedoes at the exposed reactor bulb on the Star Destroyer, cutting through the armour in that section and penetrating into the reactor area. The Star Destroyer, now crippled, was consumed by explosions as the Sovereign righted herself and accelerated away from the blast area, before finally exploding with tremendous force.

"All enemy ships destroyed!" triumphantly reported Th'etonnor, causing cheers to rise up across the bridge. Officers pat each other on the backs as some wept tears of joy that they had pulled themselves out of the desperate situation they had found themselves in. Aldrin, in her brief moment of victory, spread a big grin across her face, before hiding it as she realised the price of that victory. Everyone in the room soon realized this, and for a brief moment an undirected moment of silence quickly fell across the bridge.

"Can I have a casualty report?" asked Aldrin. In solemn silence, Th'etonnor nodded as he brought up the list of confirmed casualties.

"15 crewmembers are dead. 47 are injured. Both the USS Murray and the USS Yarra are badly damaged from enemy Kamikaze attacks, and the pilot of the Yarra is reporting moderate injuries."

"Bring back in all the fighters and run Hyperspace scans." ordered Aldrin. "I don't want us to be caught off guard right now."

"Aye sir." replied Th'etonnor as he began co-ordinating the retrieval of all the ship's fighters and runabouts. "Sir, the pilot of the rebel fighter wishes to confer with you."

"I'll meet him in the primary shuttlebay." Aldrin got out of the command chair as she walked over to the turbolift. "You have the con Th'etonnor."

Later on, Aldrin entered the primary shuttlebay at the back of the saucer just in time to see the ship's final McCall Class fighter dock to the roof of the shuttlebay. It was an interesting means of landing in the bay, but then that space was reserved for the ship's various worker bees and shuttlecraft, as well as extra space for any visiting shuttlecraft that the ship may encounter. As she strode through the bay, the rebel X-wing penetrated the exterior forcefield and came in for a landing at the centre of the bay.

The ship itself wasn't in all too bad shape. Aside from some minor scorch marks and dirty paint job, it appeared to be in a well-maintained state. The bold red stripes along the side of the hull stood in contrast to the white paneling that lined the rest of the craft, while the wings gave it a sense of aerodynamics and fighting prowess.

As it landed on the deck, steam hissed from the craft as it began to power down. The astromech atop the craft stated "It's showtime!", as the cockpit opened up to reveal the ship's pilot. Knowing what to expect from the design of the ship, several crew members brought up a ladder to help the pilot down.

"Welcome to the Sovereign, Mr…?" began Aldrin as she held out her hand to the pilot after he had clambered down the ladder.

"Antilles." answered the pilot as he shook her hand. "Lieutenant Wedge Antilles of the Alliance to restore the Republic."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance Lieutenant." replied Aldrin. "Commander Miral Aldrin of the United Federation of Planets."

"I hate to be hasty at this moment, but we really must get this ship to the Ivor system as soon as possible." stated Wedge.

"But that's deep in controlled Imperial territory." rebutted Aldrin. "Why do we need to be there in a hurry anyway?"

"Because the Rebellion is evacuating to your universe."

"Why the hell do you need to move to our universe?" asked Aldrin. It was later on now, and they were in the Sovereign's ready room. Aldrin stood behind Captain Leres' desk while Wedge stood in front of her with his flight helmet in his arms.

"Our situation in our current universe is getting desperate, Commander." answered Wedge. "The empire has all but crushed us, and if we stayed behind, we would surely face destruction. We need the protection of your Federation."

"And so I'm just supposed to risk the lives of nearly 1000 people against whatever the Empire has at Ivor? We've already busted our ass to get to this point Lieutenant. I'll have you know that 15 people on this ship died so that we could have this conversation."

"And if we don't act now, then countless millions more will die!" Argued Wedge. "Commander, I understand your concerns for your crew, but this is far bigger than you now. And besides, the rebellion has far more experience fighting the Empire than you do. We know their strengths, their weaknesses, and denying us safe haven in your space will end in a death sentence for both of us. I beg you, implore you Commander, make the right choice here."

Aldrin thought for a moment. She could turn the ship back to DS9 and let Wedge go back home, where he'd have to once again face off against immeasurable odds to even get past their end of the anomaly. Or, she could listen to him and take the ship to the Ivor system, knowing nothing of what the empire had there until they got close and without any large-scale support to back them up. Her fate was once again in her own hands.

"Alright then, we'll head to the Ivor system." Answered Aldrin, with a sigh of relief from Wedge. "But if at any point this ship comes under attack, I'm pulling the plug and we're heading back."

"Thank you Commander. You don't know how much this means to us."

Just as he turned to the door, he realised he had forgotten to tell her something.

"Oh, and there's one more thing I need to tell you. Captain Trent is alive."

Aldrin tensed up for a second, before relaxing. She had heard Trent was alive before, but it was relieving to hear it from an actual human being.

"Continue." She requested.

"He's being held at a secure facility deep in Imperial space. From our intelligence reports, he's been forced to work on some sort of project there."

"What sort of project?"

"This is going to take some explaining. Please do sit down."

Aldrin sat down as did Wedge, as both settled in for what looked to be a long conversation.

"They call it Project Chimaera…"