Chapter 79
Secrets of the Founders
Olak Prime
March 3, 2378
The officer in charge of the fourth ship of the eleventh squadron didn't know what was warping in front of his ship, and he didn't have long to ponder as the Gamilon destroyer opened fire on his ship and blew it straight to hell. The other ships began to realize something was up, but Deslok's ships would warp in amongst the fleet and use their beam weapons to rip apart the Jem'Hadar attack cruisers. Gamilon high-speed cruisers and guided missile destroyers descended upon the larger Jem'Hadar Battle Cruisers and hammered them with missiles and heavy beam weapons.
Deslok watched as the last of the smaller craft in his fleet was beamed out via the Space/Matter Instant Transforming Equipment, or SMITE, remote transporting units attached to the front of his ships. His first wave was attacking upon the left flank of the enemy, and his second wave was about to strike the enemy's right. "Launch precision bombers and torpedo boats, as well as the astrofighters! Have them assemble in front of our SMITE and we'll warp them en masse to the enemy's right!"
"Yes, Leader Deslok," said his aide, Talan, and went about informing the various ship's captains of the orders. Soon, swarms of fighters and bombers were in front of the ship, and Deslok gave the order to activate the SMITE machine. One by one, they were beamed out and warped into the heart of the enemy's right flank. The bombers descended upon the Battle Cruisers, releasing their guided bombs at them. They were unable to raise their shields in time as the torpedoes slammed home into the ships and blew them apart systematically. Fighters ganged up on attack cruisers and took them out as they moved to stop the torpedo boats.
With all this going on, the main staging complex was left alone, and ships began to move away from it to deal with the Gamilon flanking maneuver. From a distance, Alex Wildstar witnessed this all from the bridge of the EDS Andromeda with little more than a grimace on his face. Part of him still remembered the Battle of Pluto, where his ship, the Paladin, was shot down. His crew was abducted and the ship was left to drift in space, later crashing on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons.
He mentally shoved the memory down from where it came from and focused on what he needed to do now, and what that was involved warping his fleet into position to take out the main staging complex. He turned to the ship's captain, Brian Maddox, and ordered him to warp the ship as well as the rest of the fleet. His battleship, along with the others, warped to five kilometers of the complex. The complex's defensive grid opened fire, but they could not reach the fleet as they began to power up their wave motion guns. Just as they were approaching the critical point, the defense grid went down and a surrender message came from the complex.
Wildstar gambled and sent one of his space patrol cruisers, the EDS Memphis, to board and check it out. When it safely docked and it's crew made its way to the operational center of the complex, Wildstar ordered some of his other ships to dock. Deslok's ship also docked on one of the pylons, and the two former enemies met as they were making their way to ops.
"I wasn't expecting this, to say the least.," commented Wildstar.
"No, this is quite surprising. Have you spread out the rest of your forces just in case this is a trap," asked Deslok.
"Yes. I only brought in Andromeda just in case they were sincere, but I sent the others out to a safe distance just to be safe."
They entered the main control room and saw that only three Vorta were left alive there. The Jem'Hadar who worked in the center had committed ritual suicide.
One of the Vorta, Orvak, asked, "What will you do with us,"
Wildstar replied, "For now, you are our prisoners."
"Understood. Where are the Federation ships we were expecting?"
"They aren't here, and that's none of your concern."
"Maybe it will be if I told them something about the Founders."
Wildstar looked at Deslok and the Gamilon leader was perplexed at this. "What about the Founders?"
"They're not all dead. Who do you think got the Jem'Hadar to go along with this to begin with?"
Deslok was nonplussed. "Are you saying that some of the Founders joined forces with the Ragendora and allowed their homeworld to be destroyed anyway?"
Suddenly, the boxy object on one of the consoles began to undulate and form into a humanoid being. When it assumed a humanoid form, it spoke to Wildstar and Deslok. "They did not want to exact revenge on you solids for our defeat, so we did what we had to do. They didn't deserve to..."
The being was vaporized by a phaser blast from Orvak. Orvak reholstered the phaser pistol and looked at them. "They have enslaved us for too long. The fools thought they were immortal, but, as you can see, they can be killed easily. We here are not alone in wanting to be free of these bastards. The Ragendora have taken over for the Founders, but they also are not immortal."
Wildstar asked, "How can you help us?"
Orvak pressed a console and a three dimensional display came up above the console. "Do you see this flashing blue light in this section of the galaxy?"
The two men nodded and Orvak continued. "This is where the main base is. We can help you defeat them, but it won't be easy. They have many warships there, and they are building planet killers to go after your worlds."
This troubled Wildstar, and he asked, "How long until they are ready to use those planet killers?"
"Not long. If you want to stop them, we must hit them soon and defeat them, or else they could strike at any time."
Wildstar looked at Deslok and the Gamilon leader said in a low voice. "We should contact Gideon. I recommend we trust these people."
"Why," asked Wildstar.
"Because from my ship's scans, they could have warned the Jem'Hadar about us earlier. My crew picked up a complex sensor system as we entered this area, but it had been powered down. I doubt the Jem'Hadar had done that."
Wildstar knew what he was about to decide could make or break the offensive in the Gamma Quadrant. "Ok, we'll take your assistance."
Soon enough, the decision proved right, as the complex was a veritable wealth of information. IQ-9 assisted with the computer downloads, and Alex Wildstar had a firm talk with the robot about his hijinx. He swore he heard Gideon whisper, "Thank God," when Wildstar had agreed to take the robot with him on the mission.
Late that night, during a conference with Gideon, IQ-9 brought more information to Wildstar. Wildstar glanced down at the information and his eyes went wide. "My God!"
Gideon asked, "What is it, Captain Wildstar?"
Wildstar looked back at the image of Gideon on the screen and said, "The world we were told is the center of the Ragendora efforts is also where many of the solids that the Founders had defeated are enslaved."
"So that's what happened to them? The Founders enslaved any who wouldn't serve them," asked Gideon.
"That or slaughtered them. I've just glanced over the first few paragraphs, but it looks like that the Founders were planning to do to us what they did to those in their own section of this galaxy."
Wildstar could tell Gideon was barely able to contain himself, and he was proven right as Gideon bluntly asked him to send over the information and cut the link. He didn't blame him for being outraged, as he was also feeling the same sort of rage inside him.
Gideon quickly grabbed the bottle of whiskey and downed a shot, then calmed long enough to get out the Apocalypse box for consultation again.
He asked simply, "What now?"
"Now is your time, Gideon. You are about to meet your destiny."