Disclaimer: Star Wars and Star Trek does not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners, namely Disney and Paramount.

TZ911951, Lombard System, near the Federation-Klingon border, Alpha Quadrant, Milky Way.
2364.

Some distance away from the settlement, and from the debris of crashed ships, seven figures materialised.

Once the materialisation was done, everyone got their phasers out and aimed them around at the immediate area, before Tileu then said, "Alright, let's head out to the settlement. In the meantime, keep an eye out and be on your guard".

Kumus nodded and had Brodd, Oppert, Stefansson and Hyun-tae take defensive formations around Tileu, and Vy'cheq, who was scanning the immediate area, and the environment, with a tricorder.

As they moved slowly towards the settlement, the First Officer asked the Second Officer/Science Officer, "Vy'cheq, what do you have?"

The Andorian held up a hand for silence as he continued scanning the ground, the sky and the rest of the area with the tricorder.
He continued on with this for a good long while, before he indicated that they could continue.

As they headed onwards, Vy'cheq soon gave his analysis.

"My scans, indicate that the atmosphere of this planet is suitable for humanoid life-forms, if it weren't for the microbes. These microbes, I've analysed, if inhaled, can cause symptoms of muscle atrophy, then paralysis and internal organ failure".
"So we must make sure we do not get a tear in our environmental suits".
"Exactly".
Oppert asked, "If anyone wanted to make this planet habitable, couldn't they just remove the microbes?"
Vy'cheq shook his head, "Impossible. If anyone removes those microbes, it could cause ecological damage".

Then, Stefansson offered his two cents, saying "Besides, anyone could always put domed cities here, if anyone wanted to settle down here".

The conversation would have continued, until they reached the settlement.

Tileu looked it over, a rectangular structure that was around 18 feet high, 27 feet wide and 39 feet long, as Lieutenant Brodd immediately had the security officers take a defensive formation, outside a single metal door that looked heavy.

Then, Tileu and Vy'cheq scanned the exterior of the settlement.
The Andorian hummed to himself as he held his tricorder to the settlement, "Hmmmm...", before saying something that Tileu picked up, "Most curious".

The First Officer asked the Science Officer, "Something of interest?"

A pause, and then, "I believe so. Come and take a closer look at what I found".
Handing over his tricorder, Tileu analysed the readings, and saw that the settlement was made of quite varying materials, but they all had something in common.
"Duranium, Magnesite, Polyduranide and Tritanium? You are certain?"
"Absolutely certain. And I am certain that they come from the crashed ships".
"Whoever constructed this settlement, must have access to some incredibly powerful cutting technology".

But as Tileu took a moment to contemplate this information, Hyun-tae caught her attention, "Commander, I've found the power generators, and the source of the distress signal".
At this, Tileu went over to have a look and saw very large power cables connected to the settlement, leading to a rectangular container, which was evidently giving off a lot of power.

Taking readings, they saw that it was comprised of components from a Federation starship engineering room, with the main power source originating from two warp cores, one from a Klingon ship, and another from a Romulan ship.

Then they saw a hastily rigged communications rig, near the container, which was the source of the distress signal.

Vy'cheq, asked Tileu if they should take it apart to have a closer look at how it worked, but the First Officer shook her head, as she went over to the settlement and prepared to go inside.
"No, we'll do that later. Let's get inside the settlement, see what we can uncover".

But before they could get the doors open and get inside, Stefansson, who was standing guard, seemed to be very focused on the forests, eyes darting around, looking for something.
"What's the matter, Ensign? You seem very interested in those woods".

Glancing at the first Officer, Stefansson then continued to look out towards the woods for a few minutes, before sighing and saying, "I don't know. It's just, that, I get the feeling something's watching us. Or..."
"Someone?"
"Yeah..."

After getting the door open (which took some time to do considering that it had an improvised lock and handle that secured it), Tileu, Vy'cheq and Brodd entered the settlement, and saw for themselves the inside.

It was comprised of one singular room, with one bed, and around four cupboards, with the only source of light within the settlement being from a set of four lights.

Taking a reading with the tricorder, they found that the inside of the settlement was not safe for them to breath, as it was still populated with the microbes of TZ911951.

Immediately, Tileu and Vy'cheq set to work, whilst Brodd had Oppert, Stefansson and Hyun-tae all standing guard outside the settlement, looking out for any sign of the settlement's inhabitants returning to the settlement.
Brodd meanwhile, had been asked by Tileu to help her and Vy'cheq in finding anything interesting to analyse.

Brodd had been checking out the cupboards, when he found a rather large weapon-like object that took up the entire bottom drawer of the one cupboard furthest from the bed.
Puzzled, the Bolian raised an eyebrow as he looked upon it, "What sort of device is this?"
Vy'cheq, who had been checking the cupboard closest to the bed, came over to take a look for himself, as Brodd took it out for them all to look at, "Well, it's clearly made from Federation, Klingon and Romulan ship components. The majority of it seems to be made from components from Federation phaser emitters, with power coils from Klingon disruptor cannons, modulators from Federation phase cannons and the power source from Romulan disruptor banks, it also has components from Federation Type-2 phasers and Type-3 phasers from the 2280s".
Brodd, who was in disbelief at what he was hearing, then took a closer look at the object.

After a few moments, he saw the proof before him, and was quite complexed at the implications that this brought, "All these parts shouldn't even be compatible! Are you certain that this actually works?"
Vy'cheq did some scans with his tricorder and saw the readings, "Yes, there's evidence of recent use of this device. So whoever's built it, made it to use it. I'm of the belief that this is what our mysterious occupant uses to cut through the crashed starships".
Tileu said in response, "Well, whoever built this, clearly has an aptitude for adaptation to new technology".
Brodd asked the obvious question, "Our mysterious occupant of this settlement, you mean?"

But before they could go on further, Tileu received a call,
"Commander, this is Lieutenant Oppert. Do you read me, over?!"
Tapping her badge, she responded, "Lieutenant, this is Commander Tileu. What is the matter?"
"Stefansson's gone!".

Brodd immediately took over, "What do you mean Ensign Stefansson's gone?"
"Sir, he thought he could see movement in the nearby woods, and went out to investigate. I tried to stop him, but he rushed out ahead of me, into the woods, and hasn't come back since!"
"Have you tried calling him on the communicator?"
"Tried, there's no response, sir! Sir, we need to find him!"
"Alright, calm down, Lieutenant. Where are you now?"
"With Hyun-tae. Keeping watch on the forest".
"Alright, stick close with him. Do not go off on your own. Wait until we're finished here, and then we'll go and look for Stefansson. Understood?".

After ending the call, Tileu called the next plan of action.
"Right, let's put everything back and then we'll head out to Oppert and Hyun-tae".

After finishing up in the settlement, they then met with Oppert and Hyun-tae, who were 10 meters outside of the edge of the forest, holding their phasers at the ready, and nervously looking over their shoulders from time to time.

Brodd asked Oppert, "Any sign of Stefansson?"
A rapid shake of the head and, "No sir".

Then, everyone gathered around, and awaited a plan of action.

Tileu then decided to contact the Strikefast, but when she pressed her badge to contact Captain Kovalena, she found no answer on the other side.
Repeated attempts wielded no results, and Tileu came to the conclusion that something on this planet was jamming their comms, or that they were being jammed.
The Deltan decided to test her theory, when she arranged for Vy'cheq to see if he could use his combadge to contact her.

Even though the Andorian Science Officer was skeptical, Tileu persuaded him to try out her theory, and had Brodd do the same.

When they tapped their combadges, Vy'cheq trying his out first, then Brodd following suite, Tileu then came to the conclusion that this communications failure was not due to the planet, but presumably due to being jammed by the mysterious inhabitants of the settlement.

"Right, just as I thought. We're being jammed".

But before anyone could speak in response to that, all a sudden, came an energy bolt that flew out of the forest straight towards them.

They all dived down to the ground, as the energy bolt hit the ground and exploded.

Getting up, the Away Team readied their phasers towards the forest.

Then immediately, more energy bolts started firing out of the forest, a lot more, from different positions, and thus everyone now had to fall back and take cover behind the settlement.

However, as they all ran for dear life, Hyun-tae was struck by one of the energy bolts and he fell face first into the ground.
"Man down! Man down!"

Brodd and Oppert looked at Tileu, who nodded at them, saying "Go. Me and Vy'cheq will cover you".
And they did, firing their phasers towards the forest.
Brodd and Oppert reached Hyun-tae and carried him out of sight, into cover behind the settlement.

Then, when they got behind cover, Vy'cheq ran a tricorder over the Ensign.
Tileu asked for his status expecting him to be dead, "What is Ensign Hyun-tae's status, Vy'cheq?"
The Andorian rose an eyebrow at the readings that was being given off by the tricorder, and the pause was so long that Tileu had to forcefully ask again for the Science Officer's answer.
Vy'cheq exchanged a glance at the First Officer before saying, "He's stunned actually, but he'll be alright".

Puzzled looks were exchanged throughout the entire group at this announcement, and Brodd asked in disbelief, "Stunned?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. Apparently that bolt was a stun bolt. About the equivalent of a Level One stun setting. He should wake in around 5 minutes, give or take".

Then suddenly, the energy bolt fire seized.

Everyone looked at each other at this, and Oppert was the first to speak, "The energy bolts, they've stopped...", before deciding to take a peak out towards the forest.

A few tense moments, as Oppert continued to peak out, despite Brodd warning him to get back into cover.

Then, an energy bolt fired out and struck Oppert.

Dragging the fallen Ensign, Vy'cheq checked his status and found that he was stunned as well.

At this, Tileu elected to go out and confront their attackers before they decided to actually start using kill shots.
So, she ordered that the Away Team stay out of sight of the forest, all while waiting for Hyun-tae and Oppert to awaken from their stunned condition.

Then, when Hyun-tae and Oppert awakened into a disorientated state, they were checked over by Vy'cheq, who concluded that their disorientation should pass momentarily.

Once Hyun-tae and Oppert were fit for duty, she formulated a plan for the Away Team to head out and confront their attackers.

Whilst half of the Away Team would suppress the supposed location of the attacker, the other half would rush towards the forest and confront the attackers.

However, it was not so simple, as when one energy bolt was fired from the forest, Brodd opened fire with his phaser at the supposed location at where it came from, only for Tileu to notice that the next energy bolt was coming from a different location entirely.
Suspicions started to grow in her head, as to the true number of the attackers, and as Vy'cheq and herself tried the same as Brodd, she found her suspicions confirmed.

They were facing one single attacker.

Her colleagues were a bit skeptical at this, believing that the amount of blaster bolt fire that they came under, cannot have come from one single individual.

But as they rushed through the forest, and eventually got to what seemed to be a set of dugouts, deep within the forest, Tileu's suspicions were further confirmed when they saw that the dugouts were all occupied by a rigged up energy weapon (that seemed to work via remote control, Tileu observed).

"So it was true then. We've been under attack from a single attacker all this time".

Tileu nodded her head at Vy'cheq's statement, "Yes. Whoever the attacker is, he or she or it, has salvaged Federation phasers, Klingon, Romulan and Ferengi energy weapons into a set of remote controlled emplaced energy weapons. They were used initially to get us into cover, and the attacker's been slipping in between the emplacements, taking a few shots at us".

But before anyone else could speak after Tileu's analysis, Oppert announced, "We have contact! I repeat, we have contact!"

Exchanging glances, Tileu, Vy'cheq and Brodd then headed out, with Oppert and Hyun-tae readying their phasers.

Taking cover by nearby trees, they then saw, coming towards them, their lone attacker, carrying the unconscious body of Ensign Stefansson along his shoulder.

And thus, next chapter, we get Thrawn revealed!

Apologies for the long delay, everyone. But it was very tricky to figure out this chapter.
Hopefully, the next chapter will be released much sooner, but I make no promises. I do want to get the whole thing right, after all.

Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!