Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole
During the Dominion war, the Federation and its allies were engaged in a vicious struggle against the Dominion and its horde. Despite of some successes, it was clear to Starfleet Command that they were fighting a loosing battle. For every ship they destroyed, for every Jem'Hedar they killed, the Dominion was creating two. Something had to be done because the outcome looked bleak. To this end, the war-planners at Starfleet gathered an elite group of officers and created the Strike Force. Their mission, attack and destroy shipyards, supply bases, training centers, cloning facilities and any targets of opportunity behind enemy lines, deep in the heart of the Dominion territory.
Captain Thomas Payne from the Galaxy Class USS Baikonur commanded SF Bravo, one of the four strike forces recently created. 4 Akira Class Starships, the Repulse, the Gneisenau, the Dhahq and the Kidd supported it. In addition to the 4 Akiras, SF Bravo also had 5 Defiant-class starships providing escort/picket duties. These were the Harbin, the Mindanao, the Udaloy, the Tarantul and the Hanoi. A pair of Vor'chas flying the flag for the Klingon Empire would also accompany them. Captain Payne wasn't too keen on having a bunch of short tempered Klingons attached to his fleet but had been overruled. Starfleet felt that the unity of the Allies was more important than the feelings of a lowly Captain. Besides, it added considerable firepower to the already strong strike force.
Outside of DS9, the fleet was busy going over last minute procedures before departing for the Gamma Quadrant. Their mission was simple in theory; destroy any strategic targets and all targets of opportunity. In practice, Payne knew it would be different. Nothing was ever so simple.
"Captain, all ships have reported in and we are ready for departure." He acknowledged Commander Josephine Yara his First Officer and turned to Ensign Jacobs at the communication station, "Jacobs, open a channel to DS9."
"Aye sir."
"Captain Sisko, Strike Force Bravo is ready and would like permission to depart."
"You are cleared for departure, Captain Payne. Good luck and good hunting."
"Thank you." Turning back to the Ensign Jacobs, he ordered, "Signal the fleet to follow us. Commander Sato, take us out, quarter impulse."
As Strike-Force Bravo formed up and dove for the wormhole, it was greeted by the spectacular display as the wormhole opened up to accept them. The display was so mesmerizing that even people who had practically spent all their adult lives among the stars couldn't help but be awestruck. As soon as they entered, the wormhole closed behind them as it whisked them thousand of light years in just a fraction of the time ordinarily needed to traverse the distance. Before long, it spit them out in the heart of the Gamma Quadrant, deep inside the Dominion territory.
No sooner had they entered the Gamma Quadrant, they were pounced on by a Dominion force of over a 100 ships. Quickly, the group broke rank as they performed evasive maneuvers. They fought back valiantly but the odds were stacked against them. They were being whittled down methodically.
First to come under fire was the Hanoi; it was caught in crossfire from no less than three different attack ships simultaneously. They rained the ship with a hail of phased polaron beams and torpedoes. While the shields withstood the assault momentarily, it wasn't enough and it collapsed leaving the ship vulnerable to further attacks. Lt. Steve Moore, who was manning the auxiliary weapons console, was struck in the left arm by a piece of shrapnel from an exploding console on his left, but he felt no pain. However, as soon as he tried to use his injured hand, he was gripped by intense pain that shot through his injured arm. There was another explosion behind him and he instinctively looked back. Captain Deloose was in the process of issuing new orders when a heavy piece of bulkhead crashed down on him, killing him instantly. Commander Kelan, the First Officer who had been knocked to the floor by a glancing blow from the same bulkhead made a desperate attempt to get back to his feet but crumpled back to the floor after having just managed to get halfway up. As the remaining crew in the acrid smoke filled bridge frantically tried to fight back, it was devastated by another phased polaron beam that struck dead on target. Having lost the bridge, the ship spun out of control and cart wheeled end over end till a torpedo found its mark rupturing the anti matter storage containers. USS Hanoi ended it short service to the Federation in a spectacular explosion that would have rivaled many stars for the briefest moment.
The USS Repulse wasn't faring any better. Numerous attack ships too pummeled her simultaneously. As portions of her shields failed briefly, some of the strikes hit home ripping off large sections of her armored hull. As the breach occurred, some of the unfortunate crew was sucked out of the tear before emergency force fields could seal it off. Ensign Lloyd McLean was a little luckier than most and was only tossed around like a piece of wet cloth in a dryer instead of being spaced and then slammed into the now reformed shields. Bruised and battered, he struggled to his feet to inspect the damage. There were signs of horrible carnage everywhere. Others not lucky enough still lay crumpled on the floor like so many rag dolls. Lt. Farley the officer in charge, just couldn't stomach the scene. He broke down and started yelling, "Abandon ship!" McLean although shaken still had his wits about him and stumbled over to the lieutenant and slapped him across the face several times.
Edna Thomas was an engineer assigned to monitoring the secondary fusion reactors on board the Repulse and she wasn't too happy at the moment. Two of them were already offline and a third was going critical. If she didn't shut it down immediately, it would go critical taking out a substantial portion of the already wounded ship. She yelled to the Bollian Chief Engineer Tonal, "Reactor number 2 is going critical. I'm going to have to shut it down." "We need all the power we can get Thomas," he yelled back. "Try to hold it together for a little while longer." "I can't sir, if I don't shut it down now it's going to blow apart." "Damn! Do what you have to." If this wasn't enough, the engineer monitoring the warp core brought further bad news. "Commander, the warp core is past the thermal limits. It cannot sustain this power output for much longer." "Tell me something I don't already know," he muttered under his breath. The ship rocked violently yet again as another beam found its mark. Ensign Minos who was monitoring the shield emitters on the port side did not like that one bit. Already 20 percent of the emitters on that side had burnt out and the rest were straining to make up the difference. This latest hit took out another good number. "Commander, we're down 34 percent portside shield emitters." Tonal was not very happy with the string of updates. "Captain, we can't take this much longer." The ship jolted again as another polaron beam found its mark. The lights flickered momentarily but came back up. "Another hit like that and the cores going to..." before he could even finish his sentence they were hit yet again. The warp core experienced a huge surge and was going critical when Tonal slammed his hand down on the emergency shutdown switch that barely managed to engage the dead-man's switch. It was the only thing that prevented a catastrophic runaway reaction that would have consumed the whole ship. Unfortunately, his action left the ship powerless and without an active shield. The next stream of beams had a much easier task and they tore up the USS Repulse, her defiant armor unable to protect them from the onslaught. Captain Okawa had no choice but to order everyone to abandon ship. It started a subdued pandemonium as everyone ran to the closest escape pods. Many made it but there were hundreds that didn't before another volley completely eviscerated the once mighty ship. Even then, some that did make it were unfortunate enough to be within blast range as the ship finally blew apart.
Meanwhile, Captain Payne was concentrating hard trying to coordinate the battle as best as he could under the circumstances. Somehow, the Dominion had intercepted them before the mission even got underway. He wasn't sure whether it was pure luck on their part or they had some inside help. Over the cacophony, he heard Jacobs yell out that they had just lost the Repulse. This wasn't good. That was the second ship he had just lost. He could sit here and duke it out with the Dominion but that was only going to lead to the loss of all his ships. There were just too many enemy ships for his small force to deal with. "Signal all ships to form up and retreat. Ketai, beam the survivors of the Repulse onboard."
"That would mean dropping our shield, Sir."
"Damn it! I know that. I am not going leave anyone under my command to the Dominion's mercy. Signal the rest of the fleet to cover us as we rescue them"
The Baikonur swooped down over the escape pods and beamed as many onboard as they could without sustaining too much damage herself. It was a tricky maneuver but they pulled it off. As soon as this was done the fleet turned direction and high-tailed it towards the wormhole.
The Dominion had other ideas though. They weren't going to let these ships go if they had anything to say about it. They pursued the fleet all the way to the edge of the wormhole without letting up at all. As their quarry was just about to escape, they fired off a last volley of torpedoes hoping to catch them before they entered the wormhole. They miscalculated. Instead of hitting the ships before they entered the wormhole, it chased the ships into the wormhole proper. The Vorta in charge was horrified as the explosion caused the wormhole to flare up to a degree never seen before. Then in a flash, it was gone. Dear god, what was he going to tell the founders? They needed the wormhole just as much as the Federation did.
It was worse for the people caught in the blast. The usually serene passage turned turbulent tossing the ships like pieces of debris caught in a whirlpool. Already battered by the Dominion, the ships were given such a thrashing that it threatened to rip them apart. Commander Yara was worried, if this kept up for much longer, the ships would be torn apart. Already the structural integrity field was straining to keep everything intact. "Sir, the Harbin is loosing her structural integrity field. Captain DeSai says she can't hold on much longer." To everyone's relief the pounding stopped suddenly as the wormhole spit them out into the calm of space. Relief at last!