Apologies for the delay, some serious health issues has kept my writings delayed, so without further ado, let us begin.
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The shadows had come, the most terrifyingly, twisted and evil enemy earthforce and the other races of that dimension had ever faced.
This time however, they were met already with a nasty surprise in the form of the Titan class dreadnaughts and the Sinclair class fighters.
The romulan star empire (not the republic) had tried to take advantage of the situation and take Babylon 5, but the appearance of two Titans ended that in short order.
Sinclair and Pritchard daily briefed new staff and officers coming to the stations and ships on what they faced and what to be aware of, with Vulcans on the station virtually on every level, even in ops, the shadows could not effectively place a shadow agent on board, all communications were monitored, even encrypted to off set the possibility of non shadow agents working to feed them information, fighters patrolled in groups of three to prevent a single fighter from being overwhelmed and captured.
Trade blossomed and flourished aboard the station with all kinds of species coming and going despite the constant worry of attack, however, unknown to them, in Orion space, the shadows had established a world as their own and were busy building and growing attack ships and cruisers with the intent of taking Babylon 5.
Those taken in their raids were used as nothing more than slave labor and integrated into the ships as living computers after their minds were altered, those however, eventually went mad.
They had intelligence on the allied races, not as much as they would have liked because of the presence of the Vulcans, as such, they themselves were unaware just how far along the allied races preparations were in anticipation of their attacks.
The new ships, that fighter and the new dreadnaught were vexing, they seemed near invulnerable when they attacked, The attempt they had made to take Babylon 5 had sent them running to lick their wounds and cost them several ships they could not afford to lose.
They had approached the romulan star empire and made overtures of an alliance, but the star empire just tried to capture the ship, so they stood alone for now.
A slow, bubbling anger seeped it's way through the shadow collective, they had been beaten back like angry children and sent running, humiliated.
That was unforgivable, they would move slow from now on, take their time.
Concentrate on building up several colony worlds, then when the time is right and they have the ships, strike and eliminate those that humiliated them.
In the mean time they would concentrate on small raids and captures on targets they could easily overwhelm.
A few days later shocking news came to the shadows command, the Vulcans had captured one of them alive.
Word was also sent to Sinclair and federation command of the capture, when they arrived on Vulcan they witnessed the Vulcans busy breaking down the shadows psychic defenses, not a pretty sight.
It tried everything, screamed, yelled and howled, attacked the Vulcans psychically, the Vulcans were unfazed and continued their work.
In the end it was left no more than a drooling imbecil but, it did and provided the answers and intelligence they needed.
The Vulcans would do what they could once the war was over to repair it's mind.
They now had the locations of shipyards, colony worlds, attack plans, and ship locations where they were hidden in preparations of a massive attack and began plans of their own.
The Klingons and romulan republic would feature first and foremost in the plans, they would preform hit and run attacks on the shipyards and colony worlds, doing as much damage as they could, something both the Klingons and romulans excel at, followed by hard hitting fleet attacks by the federation featuring the new ships and fighters.
There would be no mercy this time, no forgiveness, the shadows are merciless and plan to wipe all life but themselves out not kept as slaves, so they would receive no mercy.
One month later the shadows suffered their first major loss, a colony world in Orion space stopped transmitting, when shadow vessels arrived they found nothing left but burning, bubbling terrain and melted rock, the ground the colony sat on had been turned into nothing but bubbling, boiling rock, the colony itself, wiped from existence.
Soon after within hours a shipyard had suffered nearly the same fate, reports of light, fast vessels suddenly appearing and firing on the facilities doing a lot of damage before vanishing just as suddenly, then a fleet of much larger, heavier vessels warping in and reducing everything else to nothing more than floating burned out scrap.
They later received a general transmission from federation space, Surrender, scuttle your vessels and surrender yourselves if you wish to survive, you will receive no mercy if you do not, then the transmission cut off.
Shadow command was outraged, how "DARE" these lesser beings make demands of them! They immediately began making new plans.
Since direct assaults no longer work, they would begin focusing on smaller, less powerful vessels and patrols to gain the data they need, they already had scouts moving among the planetary systems scouting worlds and settlements, they would also focus there with agents trained to subvert the weak minded and bring them into the shadows control.
Little did they know that Starfleet, along with Klingon command and the romulan republic had made their own plans and were about to put them into action.
The shadows had already undoubtedly infiltrated the romulan star empire so they would be watched closely as well.
By this time both the romulan republic and the Klingon empire had built their own versions of the Titan class, the Kur'Char class was the Klingons latest and most up to date dreadnaught warship based on the Titan class and every bit a match for a Titan, the romulan republic now had the Rihan class (republic class). The Klingons also had the Chak class fighter as well which is the equivalent of the Sinclair class, and the republic had the Norska class which also was the equivalent of the Sinclair class although a little smaller in over all size.
They were ready, and it was time to take the fight to the shadows themselves.