Chapter One – A New Enemy

The Federation was at a time of peace, there had been no major wars for the last 5 years. It had been over a year since the incident with the Remans and Shinzon. Though because of the assistance of the Enterprise in the destruction of the Scimitar, the Romulan Star Empire now has a peaceful relationship with the United Federation of Planets.

Ever Since the Dominion War almost 5 years previous, the Federation has begun rebuilding its fleet, including several new designs of Starship, these ships include the more advanced Sovereign and Prometheus Class Starships that are now more present. At the present time most of the Sovereigns and the one Prometheus class starships that are in active service are mainly on missions inside Federation Space, as part of defence of the Sol system. There are 6 Sovereigns at the present time, while 4 of these are within the Sol system, the other 2 are on long range exploration missions, and these are the Enterprise and the Sovereign.

In an unexplored sector of the alpha quadrant, at the edge of Federation Space near the Typhon Expanse, the USS Sovereign is nearing the end of its 2 year exploration mission of the Typhon Expanse. Under the command of Rebecca Montgomery, the Sovereign Class Starship has discovered 30 new star systems as well as several nebulas and stellar phenomena, unfortunately none of which contained any advanced civilisations, though some had primitive life as well as many unusual resources that the Federation has not seen before.

In her ready room of the Sovereign Captain Rebecca Montgomery had just begun her log entry for the day after seeing the reports of the last system they had visited containing no M – Class planets, only gas giants.

Captains Log, Stardate 57617.5.

"For the last two years we have been exploring around the Typhon Expanse,yet we have found nothing of any importance. I am really disappointed that we have not found any space faring species, however I am hopeful that this last star system that we have found may hold life. I am still uncertain why they would send one of the most advanced starships on an exploration of the alpha quadrant. However the data recovered from this mission may prove useful if the Federation Council decide to use this area of space for colonies as several M – Class worlds were also discovered in most of these systems."

After she had finished, she walked on to the bridge thinking about what she had put in her log, hoping that there was anything when all of a sudden there was a bleep from the Tactical Console…

"Captain we are receiving a distress call from another Federation Starship, the Columbus. It's an Intrepid Class Light Cruiser, lightly armed; it appears to be under attack by a dozen unknown contacts. The attacking vessels appear to be either pirates or that of a race not met before, though their markings are very similar to a race that another Intrepid Class Starship has met in the delta quadrant… the Krenim." The young Lieutenant behind the tactical announced, moments later he pressed a couple of buttons as the sensor readings of the battle displayed on the main viewscreen. "Even If these ships belong to the Krenim, their homeworld is over 55,000 light years away in the Delta Quadrant which is a long way unless they have some new form of faster than light travel. The Columbus won't last long against the 12 of these ships."

The viewscreen displayed a map of the nearby area, it zoomed in to show the Columbus which was an Intrepid Class Light Cruiser, as well as 12 Krenim ships surrounding it, clearly showing that the lone Intrepid Class Cruiser was outmatched and outgunned.

"The Krenim, but why would they attack a ship so far away from their homeworld, unless this was a scout mission of some kind or an … Oh My God, Red Alert, All hands to Battlestations, helm set a course for the Columbus, Maximum Warp. Engage." The Captain Shouted to the Crew as she sat in the Captains Chair, then looked towards the helm, and asked "Ensign Biggs how long until we reach the co-ordinates of the Columbus?"

After a couple of seconds, the Federation Starship starship began to move in the opposite direction, moments later the warp engines glowed as the ship disappeared in to warp, leaving a flash of light in the far distance showing that the Sovereign had broken the speed of light.

"At Warp 9.9 we will arrive, in approximately 5 minutes" Ensign Biggs responded.

The Captain at the time began to walk around the bridge, "Lieutenant Wright, can you get any readings on the ships that are attacking the Columbus" The Captain asked as she walked past the Science station, concerned that most of the crew had not been involved in a major conflict for several years.

"These ships appear very similar to the Krenim vessels that were encountered by the USS Voyager, although these vessels are smaller as they are only 250 metres in length. These ships don't look that well armed however they have two torpedo bays and 4 disruptors of some sorts. However the at this range it is difficult to tell what the torpedoes these Krenim vessels are carrying…" Just before Lieutenant Wright could finish his sentence, the young Ensign Kelly Biggs announced.

"Captain we have arrived at the co-ordinates of the Columbus distress call, it looks like they won't last long against this attack"

The Captain Walked towards her seat, and then gave the orders to her crew. "Ensign Biggs, drop the ship out of warp and move into attack range, evasive pattern Theta Nine. Lt. Hales target the lead Krenim ship, and fire at will"

Both of the officers replied, "Aye Sir".

The Battle – So it Begins…

Within a couple of seconds the Sovereign dropped out of warp, and immediately moved towards the Krenim Vessels. The Krenim vessels were completely caught off guard as several quantum torpedoes and photon torpedoes directly hit several of the vessels. The torpedoes directly hit four of the vessels causing heavy damage on two of them and completely destroying the other two. The Sovereign using this surprise to their advantage fired several more photon torpedoes directly towards the Krenim vessels; again these caused severe damage to several ships.

The Sovereign managed to avoid several of the Krenim's torpedoes as they missed the ship by barely 20 metres, during this time the Sovereign had enough time to fire several of its Type XII phasers towards a few of the crippled Krenim ships, after almost a couple of seconds the phaser beams ripped into three of the Krenim ships hulls causing all three of them to start to explode. Moments later these three vessels were no more than particles of space dust and debris.

The Sovereign moved towards the other targets now knowing that the surprise upon the Krenim was over. The 7 remaining Krenim Warships moved from attacking the badly damaged Columbus and began their assault on the more advanced Sovereign Class Starship; all of the ships only used their torpedo weapons against the Sovereign. As the Krenim Fired their Chroniton Torpedoes, while some of these missed, several hit the saucer section of the Sovereign. The torpedoes passed through the shielding and directly hit the hull causing burn marks to the Heavy Tritanium hull. Several more torpedoes directly hit the hull causing minor hull breaches around the saucer section.

On the Main Bridge…

There were several crewmen on duty, more so than normal. These extra crewmen (and women) were working at the back stations of the bridge monitoring different aspects of the battle, when suddenly several of the Chroniton torpedoes directly hit an area on the saucer section close to the bridge. Moments later several consoles exploded throwing several crewmembers to the floor, however a couple of them managed to stay standing.

Several Consoles exploded around the bridge area, others only releasing sparks. During this time 3 Crewmen were thrown off their feet and thrown to the floor.

"Captain, those weapons are Chroniton based, they are passing through our shields as if they weren't even there, even though one of the torpedoes won't do much damage against the hull, most likely because most of the torpedo is designed to pass through shields. Though in numbers this will cause heavy damage to us, the only way that we can defend ourselves is if we know the temporal frequency of these weapons", Shouted a shocked Lt. Christopher Hales towards the bridge crew.

"Lt. Hales, target the closest warship, target weapons and engines. Ensign Biggs Evasive Pattern Delta 19, try to keep us out of their weapons range. Lt. Hales, fire at will" Shouted Captain Montgomery as another torpedo hit the ventral side of the saucer section, causing parts of the hull to crumble around that area. This caused several more of the consoles to explode or at least cause sparks to fly around the bridge.

The battle Continues…

The Sovereign class starship, was attempting to use evasive action to evade as many torpedoes as possible, however because of its size this was more difficult that it first seamed. The Sovereign was being fired at by Krenim vessels in 3 different directions, the Sovereign had succeeded in drawing all of the fire away from the Columbus. The Sovereign had been using its phasers in attempt to make sure that the Krenim were more interested in them than the Columbus. The Columbus despite being heavily damaged was now beginning to fight back.

The Columbus was now moving towards the Krenim vessels that were attacking the Sovereign's starboard bow; using this advantage the Columbus fired four photon torpedoes directly towards one of the Krenim Vessels. After a couple of seconds the photon torpedoes directly hit the Krenim ship. As each torpedo ripped into the hull, the Krenim vessel began to explode showing more of its insides until the final torpedo directly hit its underside, explosions covered all sides of the Krenim Vessel until one larger explosion consumed the vessel scattering debris in all directions.

The Sovereign moments later fired several quantum torpedoes into two of the ships in front, both of these vessels were ripped apart after the second quantum torpedo had impacted on their hull, both ships were destroyed leaving several large chunks of debris where they once were.

The Krenim vessels had been cut from twelve to just four within the space of 10 minutes. The four Krenim warships were regrouping and attacking only the Sovereign, completely ignoring the Columbus. This was a fatal mistake as the Columbus managed to fire another volley of four photon torpedoes towards one of the warships, after a couple of seconds the Krenim Warship was nothing more than a cloud of vapour.

There were only three more Krenim Vessels attacking, each one was still firing at the more powerful vessel, the Sovereign. During the time taken for the Krenim to regroup the Sovereign had moved into a better position to fire its main weapons, as the hunters now became the hunted. Several quantum and photon torpedoes were fired towards all three vessels; almost all of the weapons directly hit all three of the Krenim vessels. Within a couple of seconds two of these Krenim vessels were destroyed.

There was one more Krenim Vessel present it was heavily damaged this ship was very slowly moving away. The Captain of the Krenim vessel had only one thought on his mind, that was retreat and to inform his commanders of this Federation battle cruiser that had decimated most of the attack force. The Krenim Captain had ignored all hails to surrender, and was about to escape using the warp engines. However before the warp drive engaged, the Sovereign fired one of its Type XII Phasers directly towards the engines of the vessel in an attempt to disable them, instead this overloaded the engines causing them to explode taking out the rest of the ship with it.

Main Bridge of the Sovereign

Several Crewmen are on the floor near the consoles that exploded near them, most of these are suffering from 3rd degree burns from the consoles that exploded in their face. The Bridge is a mess after taking a lot of damage to the saucer section of the bridge. Some of the consoles were on fire; others were black and burnt out. Overall the ships hull did not suffer much damage other than minor hull breaches and a lot of exploded consoles.

After several minutes several crewmen rush on to the bridge with fire suppression equipment, slowly putting out the fires, while the medics take all of the injured to sick bay. There were at least 4 critically injured crewmen; one of them was an ensign. The bridge itself was covered in damaged bulkheads as well as smoke coming from the damaged areas of the bridge.

"Damage Report" Commander Ronson shouted around the bridge.

"There are several minor hull breaches all around the ship, parts of deck 17 have decompressed though emergency force fields are in place. There is no damage to the engines or weapon systems. The shields have been disabled completely and won't be available for at least several hours" Lt Hales managing to shout out from behind his slightly damaged console. While he said this he saw the wounded people, and then looked at the reports in front of him and said "There are also reports of 17 Injured, 7 of these critical and 4 people are missing."

"And the Columbus?" asked the Captain

"The Columbus is in a far worse state, there are several large hull breaches on the starboard side, force fields are holding. It looks like they have lost phasers, shields as well as most of deck 12. There have been major decompressions within the Cargo Bays, Shuttle Bays and most of decks twelve to fifteen. The Shuttle craft have been sucked out into space along with any crew that were working in these areas at the time. The ship is effectively crippled, they were lucky that we came when we did, otherwise there would have been nothing left other than a cloud of debris."

"Captain, the Columbus is hailing us" Reported Lt. Hales.

"On Screen"

Moments later the viewscreen that originally was showing the battle damage that the Columbus had suffered, changed to the view of the bridge and captain of the same vessel. The damage of the ship itself is show within the bridge as there are bulkheads that have fallen, consoles that have exploded as well as the signs of heavy casualties. The Captain of the Vessel, a human male of his late 30's, before he starts to talk.

"I am Captain Charles Williams of the Columbus, on behalf of myself and crew, I thank you for coming to our rescue, if it wasn't for you these Krenim would have destroyed us. It's these temporal weapons that were doing the damage, they hit the worst possible places, and we lost a lot of good people in this attack. These Krenim just come out of no-where, they attacked with out warning. We did not do anything to deserve this attack."

"Captain Williams you have my condolences on your loss of your crew, did you find anything out about these Krenim Vessels, since the only thing that we can tell was they must be after either technology or expanding their territory. Though I'm not sure why they would go after the federation being that far from their space. Unless they managed to capture or find the debris of a shuttlecraft, since we do know that Voyager lost several of them during their way home" Captain Montgomery noticed as she looked towards her science officer. Lt. Wright was too busy helping the nearby crewmen repairing her console to notice that the Captain was looking for some assistance.

"Captain Montgomery the only data that we do have is that these torpedoes are chroniton torpedoes, they pass through our shields as if they weren't even there, though I'm sure that you already know this. The Krenim have disruptors but did not use them, this may be an advantage, maybe their weapons are a lot weaker than those of the federation, but only use their temporal weapons as an advantage against those who have temporal shields to defend themselves." On Screen the Captain looks towards a Lt. Cmdr who has just passed him a pad. Captain Williams then reads the pad. "Captain it appears that these temporal weapons are the Krenim's only advantage against us, if we can defend against them the Krenim won't be a problem to the federation any more, unless of course they have larger ships, Williams Out.

All of a sudden on board the Sovereign, Red Alert sounded throughout the ship, as well as a tactical alert at the tactical station. The Captain Immediately shouted "Report"

"There is a massive Subspace distortion field forming 3 Million Kilometres away, there appear to be ships coming out. They are Krenim; there are 5, no wait 10, correction 25 Krenim Ships at the present time, with more pouring out they are of varying sizes, and they are on an intercept course.

TO BE CONTINUED