AN: Star Trek is the trademarked property of CBS/Viacom. This work is not intended for profit or infringement.
The Kinshya Illuminated Faithful are based upon the Holy Order of the Kinshaya, originally apearing in the PocketBooks novel Star Trek: A Singular Destiny by Keith R.A. DeCandido. I have made certain changes to their character to better fit the tone of my work.
This novel is set one year after the events of Book 1, approximately ten years after the end of the Dominion War in the year 2403, and references elements of Star Trek Online by Cryptic Studios.
Federation Marines: Book 2
Bella Dura Despicio - I Despise the Hard Knocks of War
"It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it"
General Robert E. Lee, Battle of Fredericksburg, 1862
Home of Governor Vrax
Bath'lor
Klingon Colony near Former Romulan Border
Bath'lor may not have been Ty'GoKor, Kronos or Mempa but it did have one unique treasure in the Klingon Empire.
It was where Vrax, son of Batred, made his home.
He came to this world fifty years ago when he was a young man. Then known as Captain Vrax, he had commanded an old D7 class battle cruiser, the Kohlost.
It was an underpowered, overworked pile of rust, barely able to hold itself together on low-warp journeys, much less earn honour and fame by killing the enemies of the Empire.
But for a boy from Kethel that had to earn his way into the Officer's Academy on the blood of Romulans he killed as part of the Tenth Targs under Brigadier Mor, Kohlost was his ship, and Vrax made a habit – and a career – from taking worthless things and making them great.
On only his first mission as the Captain, Vrax took the under-powered, over-worked pile of rust to the skies of Mempa and defeated the dreaded Romulan Admiral Bragg, threatening to rain death upon the Tenth Targs from Orbit.
Kohlost should have been no match for Faelh Rrhiol, a brand new D'Deridex war bird, but Vrax fought with courage and honour and drove the Romulans from the skies through the sheer audacity of such a reckless attack.
It was enough to earn Vrax a place in the Order of the BetleH and an invitation to appear before the High Council.
But when Vrax – who shaved his head for comfort and cared little for the fashion or politics of the capital – witnessed the fat and old men who called themselves the leaders of the Klingon Empire, he was instantly disgusted and challenged Kempec to a duel to the death.
Vrax was spared execution – it was an honourable challenge he had made– but was exiled to Bath'lor at the edge of the Empire and given the punishment of Governing what was then a barren colony in the middle of two borders between the Romulans and the Kinshya Illuminated Faithful.
Vrax didn't care. When arrived in the world, his first act was to wed the daughter of the previous governor, the fierce and beautiful Lady Killirya and turn Bath'lor into a world that would rival Kronos in its glory.
And forty years later, Vrax was proven right.
The bald Governor stepped out on the terrace of his home and looked up at the red rising sun of a new morning shining down on the capital city. The glimmering rays bounced off the massive glass skyscrapers and lit up the valley around the city like a roaring fire.
Vrax didn't care about how unfashionable it may have been among the fat, old men of the home world to hire Human Architects to build his capital city.
The plain facts were that they had built a beautiful city for little cost, and with even more help from the Federation, Bath'lor had turned from a backwater hole into the largest agricultural centre on that side of the Klingon Empire.
Vrax's world fed a third of the Empire's hungry mouths. The vast fields past his city stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction. Bath'lor's other unique treasure was a strange strain of common bacteria in the soil.
Klingon scientists – such as they were – still didn't fully understand how, but the bacteria had the unique ability to bind to the genetic code of any seed planted in the soil and cause hyper-growth on a scale that could only be matched by technology.
A new harvest season would be ending shortly. As was his custom, Vrax would be holding a grand feast in the dining hall of his home to celebrate the planet's bounty. Men and Women of every walk of life would be welcomed to the Governor's house and feast on only the finest food grown and made on the planet.
He watched with satisfaction as his servants rolled hand-crafted tables through the massive double doors of the dining hall.
Past the fields were vast stretches of mountainous forests, with trees that grew tall and thick thanks to the strange bacteria.
Homes could be built with modern replication technology, but a true Klingon always favoured the things made by hand, and Bath'lor's craftsmen were regarded as the finest in their art across the Empire.
As the Governor admired the work of his people, a strange noise drew his gaze up to the sky.
And his admiring heart turned to a Warrior's anger when his eyes watched a blue-white torpedo drop from the sky and slam into a building in his city.
Feeling the blast wave before he heard the thunderous roar of shattering glass and bending steel, Vrax was flung off his feet and thrown back almost inside of his home.
He quickly picked himself back up and ran to the edge of the terrace, only to witness a dozen more torpedoes slam into his city and replace the beautiful buildings with rubble and debris.
Vrax quickly opened his comm device and tried to contact the small orbital traffic station above his world, but the connection was lost seconds after it was made. The station had fallen victim to the same torpedoes slamming into his city at the exact moment.
Brigadier Dorek, son of K'Deng and commander of Bath'lor's small militia quickly joined his Governor on the terrace and looked up to the sky, as if his eyes would be able to see just who it was that dared to attack his governor's planet.
Vrax spoke confidently, the decades of experience in the KDF flowing through his words, "Report Brigadier! Who dares to attack my home?!"
"The Kinshya, Governor. The Orbital Traffic station was able to broadcast a brief distress call, with a visual recording of our attackers. There can be no mistake about it. The Beasts have come," replied Dorek, handing a PADD to Vrax.
Vrax looked down on the PADD and watched the indicated recording. The strange, white trapezoid-shaped battlecruisers of the Kinshya were unmistakable. The vermin often harassed lone cruisers or lightly defended convoys, but to Vrax's knowledge, this was the first time they had attacked a Klingon world.
And unlike the lone vessels the Empire had contained for decades, there were hundreds of Kinshya Battlecruisers above Vrax's world.
Given the fact that it was an agricultural colony with a population under a million at the very edge of Klingon space, Vrax's world had only modest defences. A single B'rel class Bird-of-Prey – so old and so small that she didn't even have a formal name, merely a designator of A726 – patrolled the local space.
And though he was a Brigadier, Dorek commanded just seven hundred warriors for the planet's militia forces, lightly equipped with small arms and transport shuttles, and no vehicles or ground-based artillery to call upon for aid. Vrax continued watching the recording on the PADD.
His wife, Lady Killirya, had planned to take A726 to the home-world that morning with some of her ladies in waiting, to buy jewels and other womanly things for the coming feast. She would have taken command as soon as an enemy appeared before her eyes and fought as a true warrior. The old and small A726 flew forward and poured what limited amounts of fire it could into the vermin's fleet, but only succeeded in slightly damaging a single target before being blown apart by hundreds more.
Vrax closed his eyes and threw the PADD away, silently praying to Khaless to guide his wife's soul to the halls of Sto'VoKor.
When Vrax opened his eyes again, he looked at Dorek and spoke as confidently as he could, "We were able to get a message to Kronos?"
"Yes Governor", Dorek replied, keeping his own eyes to the sky, "I spoke to the Chancellor personally. He has promised the Fourth Kronos Assault Fleet, but it will be several days before they arrive. We will be on our own until then-"
Both men were interrupted by a massive explosion.
A Kinshya torpedo slammed into the colony's main warp generator. The glass spires of the capital city lost power seconds later, and the blood-red sun became the only source of light to be seen.
Closer to Governor's Home, a mass of yellow transporter beams filled the streets, and Kinshya emerged from those beams and began shooting their long plasma rifles at anything they could see.
By what little the Empire understood of their language, Vrax knew that the beasts he could see in the streets were known as Sword Abbotts, their corrupted version of a warrior.
At least for now, the battle will be pure, Vrax thought to himself.
Dorek held a hand to his earpiece.
Another gift from the Federation had been Quantum Communications technology, and Vrax had been the first colonial governor in the Empire to install QC planet-wide.
"Reports from the other cities, Kinshya Infantry are landing across the planet", said Dorek, his eyes still to the sky, "They far outnumber us, Governor. Open combat would not be wise".
Dorek was no coward. Nor was Vrax.
Although idiots like Kempec or Gowron would have suggested that the Governor should take up arms and die gloriously in a hopeless battle, Vrax had learned the arts of war from Brigadier Mor.
Were he there, Mor would have told Vrax to be patient and wait for a more favourable opportunity to die gloriously.
Besides, Khaless would be more impressed to welcome a Warrior to his golden halls that had left fifty dead enemies at his feet and infuriated by the idiot who died in glorious battle with a clean blade and un-fired disruptor.
Besides that, if Brigadier Mor had witnessed such a thing, he would rape that idiot's corpse in front of his father.
"Prioritize evacuating the women and children to the mountains. Have our militia break out the reserve stocks. Anyone who wishes a weapon is to be given one without question and assigned to a fighting unit."
"Once we have scattered ourselves in the wilderness, we can begin to harass the garrisons if and when the opportunity presents itself. Our priority is survival, Brigadier. Make sure the men understand that," ordered Vrax, looking down once again at the streets in front of his home.
A squad of Kinshya Sword Abbotts were advancing upon the main gate. The legends were true. The beasts walked on four legs slowly, with no more speed than a sabre bear awoken from hibernation.
But they were large, with scaly black wings on the back of their fur-covered bodies and long plasma rifles grasped in their equally long arms.
A few of Vrax's servants took up positions in the garden and fired scattered shots at the advancing enemies. Several of the beasts were hit and collapsed in pools of blackened blood, but the survivors aimed their rifles and returned fire.
Their aim was true, and Vrax's brave servants were violently cut down from a group of five to just a single man, his gardener.
Raron tossed aside his disruptor and unhooked the BetleH from his back.
He raised the weapon high and cried out, "Is there not even one of you wretched beasts with the courage to face a true Klingon Warrior?! Step forward and prepare to meet Lady Death!"
The Kinshya language could not be heard by Klingon ears, nor did the Klingons assume could their language be heard by the Kinshya, but they clearly understood what Raron was trying to accomplish.
A single Sword Abbott stepped forward from the squad and handed its rifle to another on his left. And his right hand went to his belt, drawing a sword half again as long as his beast-like arm.
If nothing else, the blade was exquisitely crafted, with ornate gold striping running down both sides of the blade to a hilt covered in black leather.
At least Raron will have the blessing to die at the end of a finely made weapon
The Beast stepped forward and spread his black wings out to either side of his fur-covered body.
Raron took the opportunity to charge forward and cried out like the Warriors of old, "FOR DEATH AND GLORY! QAPLA!"
Raron swung overhead with a vicious blow, but the Beast blocked his blade with a parry. Locked in a grapple, Raron tried to leverage his way closer to the target for a counter-swing.
But the Kinshya were one of the few races who outmatched a Klingon in raw strength, and the beast remained as still as the blood red sun above Vrax's home.
The Kinshya leaned back on his rear legs, and shoved forward with tremendous strength, knocking the Gardner off his feet.
Taking a single step forward, The Beast flipped his long sword in the air and caught it by the hilt on the downfall, with the blade facing down.
Once firmly in grip, the Beast plunged the blade downwards, and Raron was cut in half for his trouble.
Dorek seized an opportunity. The Brigadier drew his disruptor and fired three quick bursts towards the squad, standing about one hundred feet from the terrace. The Kinshya however were faster, and more accurate.
Seven yellow plasma beams were sent in return, and one found its mark on Dorek's shoulder, blowing his left arm clean from his body and knocking him down to the ground.
The wounded Brigadier sat up with his one good arm and braced himself against the trellis.
After spitting a wad of blood from his mouth, he took one last look at his Governor, "Go now! I will hold them here for as long as I can. And I will meet your wife in Sto'VoKor and inform her that Vrax, Son of Batred, awaits the day when he can join her in the golden halls".
Vrax turned from the door and shouted back, "Die well, old friend".
He ran quickly through his home and into the basement where his transporter system waited for his arrival. Vrax kicked the door open and hit a single switch on the wall, which would activate the system and beam him to a hidden supply cache in the forest miles from his home.
With fortune and timing, the militia would be there to greet him, and he could set about the task of avenging the loss of his planet to these beasts.
And if fortune and timing were against Vrax, then his heart would still be at peace. Killirya wouldn't have to wait that long for her husband in the golden halls of Sto'VoKor.