A/N: A short chapter compared to the last one but I wanted to establish my comparison of Federation ships versus CIS ships. If you read this and put up a review that says 'a turbo laser posses blah blah blah' in terms of kilotons, gigatons whatever tons, don't even bother. This is MY opinion deal with it.

Chapter 5

Skirmish

A day after Obi-wan Kenobi arrived at Starbase 82, the CIS discovered the rift and sent and small fleet through. Picard stood on the bridge with his ship and the fleet at yellow alert. Shields were up but weapons were down, although still able to activate at a moment's notice. "Hail them Mr. Worf."

"No response."

"Continue to hail them on standard frequencies of the Republic galaxy."

"Aye sir."

Picard studied his display. It showed the CIS fleet, consisting of what the Republic database identified as five Munificent-class frigates, four Recusant-class light destroyers, six smaller corvettes along with one Providence-class cruiser. Quite a force to be reckoned with by their standards. His own fleet consisted of twelve Miranda-class starships, six Excelsior-class, four Cheyenne-class, (a four-nacelled version of the Galaxy-class) three New Orleans-class, two Springfields and two additional Galaxy-class ships besides his Enterprise. So we outnumber them almost two to one, but do they outgun us?

"Sir, I'm detecting activity on the CIS ships...they appear to be launching several small fighters and a number of smaller craft...sir, the other craft are identified as Droch-class boarding craft." said Worf

"Red Alert, all hands to battle stations. Load two tricobalt torpedoes, set them to detonate in the center of their fighter formation. Miranda-class ships are to target the boarding craft with torpedoes."

"Weapons loaded, the Mirandas have acknowledged your orders. Sir, the fighters are firing missiles of some kind."

"Fire torpedoes."

Two tricobalt torpedoes launched at nearly warp-speed toward the center of the fighter formation. They detonated and destroyed most of the fighters and all of the Buzz-droid-loaded missiles. Then the Mirandas swept in, using their phasers to mop up and single torpedoes to destroy the boarding craft. In minutes it was over.

"All ships standby to engage. Mirandas are to concentrate on the corvettes at first then are free to fire on any target. Excelsiors, concentrate fire on the Recusants, All other ships, target the Providence-class ship." said Picard

"Sir, the enemy fleet is moving forward and launching additional fighters."

"Understood, task three Mirandas for anti-fighter duty and have all ships launch all combat capable shuttlecraft."

"Aye sir."

"All ships, attack pattern Delta on your respective targets. Maintain full impulse. Fire at will."

At Picard's last order his fleet of 30 starships and several dozen shuttles surged forward and swarmed the capital ships. The fleet fired a crushing volley of photon torpedoes. Two Munificent frigates disappeared in flame. A Recusant lost shields and three of the six corvettes were destroyed along with hundreds of fighters in the antimatter explosions. Concentrated phasers soon followed as the Mirandas ganged up on the remaining three corvettes and destroyed them quickly. The Excelsiors strafed the Recusants and the other ships including his Enterprise fired on the Providence cruiser. The CIS fleet was hit hard. But returned fire swiftly, destroying two Mirandas and a New-Orleans-class. Several other ships took heavy damage as well. The Excelsiors continued their attack swinging back around to hit the three remaining Recusants with torpedoes and phasers. The torpedoes drained the shields and phasers drilled into the hull producing deep gouges in the armor. One of the Recusants exploded when a torpedo hit its reactor. The explosion shook the two Excelsiors attacking it but they quickly recovered and moved on to active targets.

Meanwhile the shuttles were giving a good accounting of themselves. The Vulture droids were hard pressed to match the shielded and well armed type 5 and 6 shuttles. The newer class 9 shuttles swooped about, a much more maneuverable shuttle, that with its twin phasers could serve as a fighter in a pinch. Phasers and torpedoes mixed with turbolaser fire, another Miranda was destroyed and a Cheyenne-class was disabled by having two of its nacelles shot off. In response the CIS quickly launched another boarding craft which locked onto the saucer section of the Cheyenne. Security quickly responded and their phaser rifles proved effective however the droids had such numbers that they captured most of the ship before a Galaxy-class towed the ship out of the battle area and beamed troops aboard. With reinforcements now available the crew was able to retake the ship.

With fleet numbers depleting, more and more fire was directed at the Providence cruiser. Two more Munificets exploded and then the remaining CIS ships turned to flee. The fleets took parting shots, the CIS lost its last Munificent and two Excelsiors had a nacelle shot off.

Picard stood on the bridge as he watched the remaining CIS ships dive into the rift. "Number one, extend my compliments to the fleet. Inform Starfleet Command of the battle and our losses. Request reinforcements and repair ships. Order three Mirandas to take our disabled ships in tow to Starbase 82. Then open an Alpha priority channel to Admiral Paris and route it to my ready room."

"Aye sir."

Picard sat in the chair behind his desk and turned his small laptop around. The casualty reports were still coming in. Then Admiral Paris responded to his priority call. "Captain, I heard there was a skirmish between us and the CIS. Your preliminary report?"

"Sir, we engaged a fleet of sixteen CIS ships. We destroyed nine of them and lost four of ours all Miranda class. Other ships are reporting moderate to heavy damage. The CIS did manage to board a disabled Cheyenne-class and I'm pleased to report our weapons were effective. However, the droids deployed in high numbers nearly overwhelming the crew. I ordered the Victory to tow the ship out of the battle area and help retake the ship which they did. We also destroyed a high number of fighters. Our armed shuttles proved to be adequate competition for them. The idea of using tricobalt weapons was also useful."

"The Jedi here are impressed by our performance."

"I'm glad to hear it."

"I'm going to order you and a small fleet of ships to escort Generals Kenobi and Skywalker along with their ships back to the Republic capital of Coruscant. Captain Keller will conduct a classified briefing for the Jedi council alone. You will met with the Chancellor and the Republic Senate and state our intentions."

"And what are our intentions sir?"

"Tell about the Prime Directive. That we can't interfere unless we're threatened. Present our offer of third-party negotiations with them first. If they accept, perhaps they can help us contact the CIS. In the meantime I'm ordering additional ships to your area. I'll be riding on the Resolute to the rift. Once we arrive I will beam over to my flagship, the Victory and take over the fleet here. Then you will take your ships through the rift and on to Coruscant. In order to get there however I'm ordering you and any ships that accompany you to install a hyperdrive unit."

"I've heard of them. They're supposed to be somewhat faster than transwarp drive. Commander Laforge is positively drooling over the chance to get a look at one."

They both smiled. "Typical engineers...Anyway I'll see you in a few days Captain. Paris out."

As the channel closed he saw a file linked with a text message.

Hope this satisfies Laforge.

He tapped the file...it was the schematics for a hyperdrive.

Picard tapped his combadge. "Picard to Engineering."

"Laforge here."

"Looks like you're getting your wish Geordi..."