Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, or anything that is in this story.
Vulcan's Might
Chapter III
Green, the color of envy. Green, the color made by the amalgamation of passionate red and loyal yellow. Green, the color of the Star Empire, and most importantly, the color of blood. Green, the color embraced by the Romulan people, the color symbolizing the sovereignty of the Romulan people. Green was, in all rights, the one thing that could rally the populace, thus it was only natural to adopt the color for the military.
Sub Commander Am'dala, captain of an Imperial Warbird, watched as bursts of green energy, disruptors, tore through space. Energy, Romulan energy, impacted into the dull yellow shields of a Cardassian warship. A smile slipped onto the Sub Commander's face, glee lighting her eyes.
There were five hostiles, five ships in Imperial Space that didn't belong. The Cardassians had managed to take the Romulans by surprise, having come through the Breen side border. Not that surprise mattered. Even with only two Warbirds engaging five Cardassian ships, thing were still even. So the Sub Commander kept her ship cloaked.
The Victory Flight fired, again and again and again, and Sub Commander Am'dala watched from her bridge. Disrupter blast after disrupter blast struck out, being absorbed by Cardassian shields. The return fire from the Cardassians, some unnatural hybrid of Klingon disrupters and out dated Federation phasers, had minimal effect against the superior Romulan defense technology.
The Cardassian torpedoes, however, were effective against the Romulan shield. Sub Commander Am'dala was surprised to see the Cardassian ship resorting to their secondary weapons; it was well known throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants that the Cardassians were perpetually suffering a resource shortage. As such, the Cardassian were naturally conservative.
Six torpedoes, each a compact blob of antimatter, exploded against the Victory Flight's shields. The explosions were absorbed, as they should be, but the Sub Commander noticed a small breach that was formed. The Cardassians also noticed this, and two more torpedoes were launched; one of the torpedoes passed through the breach, and impacted the bare metal of the Warbird's secondary hull.
The tension dissipated at the moment Sub Commander Am'dala let out a sigh of relief. Despite the direct hit, the Victory Flight had a dense enough hull to survive without so much as a minor hull breach. In response to the attack, both the Victory Flight and her sister ship, the Triumphant Strike, increased their weapons output.
It was a well-known fact, among the Romulan people, that no outside power truly knew how many disrupter cannons were installed on a D'deridex-class Warbird. Some, like the egocentric Federation, placed the number at a mere sixteen. Others, like the arrogant, barbaric Klingons, place the number at twelve. But they were both wrong.
In truth, there were just over thirty disrupter cannons in the forward section of a Warbird. And all of then, on both ships, were being used. Sub Commander Am'dala allowed a grin to cover her face. She turned to Lhiau, the resident agent of the Tal Shiar, and saw that he too was pleased, though it only showed in his eyes.
The two Warbirds worked in tandem, focusing their firepower on a single Cardassian ship. Within moments, the already waning shields of the Cardassian ship gave way. Seconds later, the Galor-class warship exploded, sending a shockwave through space. The two closest ships, both Cardassian, took the full force of the shockwave, and were crippled within seconds. Seconds later, after their warpcores overloaded, the Cardassians lost two more ships.
The remaining two Cardassian ships were damaged, severely so, and lost their shielding. The Victory Flight also sustained damage, its shields completely depleted, and both Victory Flight and the Triumphant Strike lost their weapons. Sub Commander Am'dala turned to the young centurion at the operations counsel, and gave him a simple command "Disengage the cloak."
"Yes, sir!" the centurion responded.
"Lock weapons on the remaining Cardassian scum. Prepare to transport boarding parties aboard, with orders to capture the command crew."
"Sub Commander, sensors are detecting twenty-three ships decloaking!" The centurion called out.
"What!" The Sub Commander new that was impossible. For one thing, she hadn't called for reinforcements. For another, all Romulan ships employed a specific sensor modulation that enabled Imperial ships to discern the position of cloaked Romulan ships. So, the decloaking ships couldn't be Romulan, and there was no way for a Klingon ship to make it this far into Romulan space.
"Sub Commander, they're Cardassian sh-" Before the centurion could complete his sentence, the ship under the command of Sub Commander Am'dala was destroyed.
"We're just waiting for Captain Acumen." Said Vice-Admiral Radance, with a sigh. They had been waiting for over ten minutes. The captains of all eleven starships that were apart of Vice-Admiral Radance's convoy were present in Enterprise's ready room, except for captain Sebastian Acumen.
The doors to the ready room slid open, and twelve pairs of eyes turned to look at the newcomer. It wasn't captain Acumen, and only her professionalism and years of experience kept the Vice-Admiral from swearing. The man who did enter walked up to captain Picard, and whispered something into his ear.
"Captain Acumen won't be joining us. He was found unconscious in a turbolift, and is currently in his ship's sickbay."
"Is he alright!" Captain Aaron Keller, of the Starship Dancer, asked.
"He's fine. He has health problems, and is prone to being sickly." Vice-Admiral Radance said. "Let's commence with the meeting."
With the push of a button, the image of Captain Serenity Worship appeared. Serenity was lying in a hospital bed, having suffered severe burns. Despite this, she tried to give her fellow captains a smile.
"Captain Worship, please explain to everyone what happened." And with the Vice-Admiral's order, Captain Serenity began to tell her tale of what happened. All of the captains maintained a respective silence as Serenity struggled to speak. When she was finished, the contemplative stillness had asserted itself over the captains.
"Vice-Admiral, how could the ship Captain Worship described reach this far into Federation space without being noticed?" Captain Keller asked.
"Is it possible the ship had cloaking technology?" This was form Kevin Red, captain of the New York.
"No. The closest neighbor to us are the Sheliak. They wouldn't bother using stealth, even if they had cloaking capabilities." Jean-Luc Picard said.
"Asking questions is pointless," the Vice-Admiral sighed. "Starfleet Command has been apprised of the situation. All available ships are being routed to this sector. While we wait for their arrival, I want all of you to break into groups of four, and search for both the Ment'ality and the unidentified enemy ship. The Enterprise, the Advent, the Queen Elisabeth, and the Blue River will form my group, and will remain in the Celadon System, to try and locate the memory core of Starbase Seventy-three-beta. You're dismissed."
A/n: Sorry for how short this chapter is. Also, I don't know if the Breen share a common border with the Romulan Empire, or the Cardassian Union. However, I know the Romulans are nowhere near the Cardassians, so for the sake of this story, the Union and the Star Empire share a border if the Breen Confederacy.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or complaints, please let me know in either a review, or a privet message. Also, as always, constructive criticism is welcome. And feel free to point out any continuity errors you notice, as that will be very helpful.
Have a Good Day, and have a Good Night,
~Tyler Willis