Artoo's Encounter, Chapter Six (standard:Fan Fiction, 3981 words) [7/7] show all parts
Author: Tanada	Added: Dec 22 2002	Views/Reads: 2712/2053	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The Great Link Destroyed, Luke and Leia have a visitor.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


The standard attack technique developed in the Alpha quadrant proved to
be just as effective in the Gamma quadrant, after all the Federation 
knew that it worked and they taught the Jem Hadar and Vorta at full 
admission as each of there small task forces got the lesson themselves. 
A typical Dominion task force consisted of 5 Battleships, 15 
Battlecruisers and between 125 and 150 Attack ships. 

The 353 Miranda class Federation ships with 1 Peregrine II fighter each
were assigned the task of killing them, Hyperdrive being judged to give 
a sufficient edge that losses would be acceptable. The fleet had been 
battle hardened by the war and diligently planned and practiced its 
attacks. The Dominion task forces which were at rest were easy pickings 
and hit first, each system being surrounded with subspace jamming pods 
to cut off all outside communications for 1 hour in a sphere with a 
radius of 1/2 LY. The Peregrine's dropped the jamming pods, and 5 
seconds later the Miranda's popped out of hyperdrive at point blank 
range. Twin forward torpedo tubes on each Miranda targeted the first 
torpedo from each ship on the 5 Battleships and 15 Battlecruisers, an 
average of 17 torpedoes targeted on each. The second torpedo fired by 
the second forward tube was fired at a Jem Hadar attack ship, giving a 
ratio of more that 2 torpedoes at each. 

The Jem Hadar perspective was quite tragic actually. "Commander we are
detecting subspace jamming. TORPEDOES INCOMING!" 

"Return fire!" 

"FI......" multiple explosions, 3 Battleships, 15 Battlecruisers, and 65
Attack Ships destroyed. 15 seconds later as the explosions dissipate 
through space. 

"All ships return Fire!" 

"Firing..Torpedoes incoming!" Multiple explosions 2 Battleships, 85
Attack ships destroyed. 

The Federation perspective was almost boring by comparison. 

"Admiral the fleet is ready to jump." 

"Proceed." 

"Jamming network activated, jumping now. Target, fire one, target, fire
two." 

10 seconds later "Sensors indicate 2 Battleships and 85 attack ships
remain, targeting, fire one." tactical reported. 

10 seconds later "Sensors indicate all Dominion vessels destroyed, we
lost 5 ships Admiral." 

"Proceed to the next target, replace the expended jamming buoys on the
fighters." 

"Aye sir." 

After a week of constantly moving striking and moving again the Miranda
fleet had engaged the enemy 28 times and lost 140 Miranda class ships, 
almost half its strength. The Dominion on the other hand had lost 140 
Battleships, 420 Battlecruisers and almost 4200 Attack Ships. However 
125 Dominion task force groups remained. 

In answer to the Admirals plea's for reinforcements Starfleet sent 6
very old Constellation class ships, 14 Polaris class and the last 10 
surviving Griffin class ships. The Griffin's are particularly notable 
because to be effective in the tactic used by the Miranda fleet they 
have to come out of Hyperdrive facing away from their targets because 
all three of the torpedo tubes face aft. On the other hand with their 
twin rapid fire tubes and one single fire tube they were perfect for 
taking on unsuspecting Dominion task force Battleships, one Griffin 
volley was 21 torpedoes, making up for the loss of 10 Miranda's each in 
the first volley. Old Polaris and Constellation class ships were 
designated Attack ship killers, concentrating all their fire on the 
Attack ships while the 213 remaining Miranda's hit the Battlecruisers 
and remaining Attack ships. The replacement ships also brought a fresh 
stock of Quantum torpedo and Photon torpedo casing's to replace the 
hundreds used to date in the Gamma quadrant phase of the war. The 
simple fact was that with Hyperdrive the Miranda fleet was outrunning 
the subspace communications speed of the Dominion fleet, allowing them 
to learn and adapt to Dominion abilities and perfecting the details of 
their attacks. 

There was no way for the Dominion to accumulate knowledge of the
Federation tactics and develop counter tactics. Speed was a war winning 
factor and there was not a thing the Dominion could do about it until 
they learned of it, and the speed of advance was such that the Miranda 
fleet was preventing that learning.  So long as they kept their losses 
within acceptable margins and stayed ahead of the subspace radio 
transmission speed they would cut like a scythe through the Dominion. 

Unfortunately the Dominion was roughly spherical as are nearly all
interstellar governments and starting from the wormhole and spiraling 
outward in a cone it was only a matter of time until the shear volume 
of the Dominion space became more than the Miranda fleet would be able 
to handle alone while staying ahead of the subspace relays rate of 
communication. The Federation was well aware of this simple fact of 
physics and geometry and by the time the crucial point was reached two 
more fleets had been organized using the Miranda tactics, an Excelsior 
fleet with the 240 Surviving Excelsior class and 60 Surviving 
Enterprise-B class ships. Due to a temporary shortage of Peregrine II 
fighters this fleet used Shuttles to place the jamming buoy's but other 
than that their approach to the battle was the same, jam communication, 
hyper in to point blank and saturate the Dominion fleet with torpedoes 
fired en mass from all directions. 

The other fleet organized for the operation was primarily Centaur class
ships, all 312 remaining ships of that class, plus the first 40 of the 
new Corellian class ships, the modified design supplied by R2D2 and 
fitted with a Prometheus class torpedo tube. Unlike the Centaurs which 
had been supplied with Quantum torpedoes the Corellian's were fitted 
with a new weapon, a Class 3 probe with a Proton torpedo directed 
nuclear warhead. The Class 3 torpedo quickly became known as the 
Seethreepedo and with its 475 KT warhead focused 99% in one direction 
it was as deadly as a Quantum at point blank range. The burst tube on 
each Corellian ship could fire a spread of 10 every 5 seconds until all 
250 carried had been launched.   Because of there Class 3 origins they 
could be launched and would accelerate up to warp 2 if fired at long 
range, or high impulse if fired at close range. The Centaur's targeted 
the heavy ships with massive barrages and spread the remaining shots to 
the Attack Ships, the Corellian's went strictly after the Attack Ships 
and the Class Three Torpedo's were everything they had been advertised 
to be. 

A Quantum torpedo detonating next to an Attack Ship shield would
transmit about 48 MT of energy into the shield bubble, normally this 
would drop the shields to between 10% and 25% of their normal power. A 
second torpedo was almost always needed to drop the shields and 
vaporize the ship. A Seethreepedo on the other hand focused all of its 
475 KT on a spot only a meter wide on the shield bubble, allowing it to 
burn right through and send a lance of energy into the target without 
dropping the whole shield. The Seethreepedo burst would spear through 
the shield and hull of the Attack ship hit, and being aimed for the 
Engine room would cause the ship to detonate and vaporize 85% of the 
time with 1 shot. 

Meanwhile back at Utopia Planitia in Mars orbit. "Well Captain Solo your
modifications are complete. Your 'freighter' now has a magazine of 30 
Class Three Torpedo's and a burst launch capacity of 10 every 5 
seconds." 

"Thank you Admiral Gingerbeard,  this Galaxy is a dangerous place, now I
feel able to defend myself." 

"Considering the designs for the YT-1300 Freighter and the YT-1300
attack ship you call the Millennium Falcon we consider it a fair 
exchange. Take a look." Gingerbeard said waving to a viewport. 

Han turned and looked only to see the miraculous, a large piece of
scrapped ship was tractored into the Modular component replicate and 
dissolved in sparkles, only to be replaced moments later with 1 brand 
new YT-1300 Freighter that appeared to be factory fresh in every 
detail. 

Han's mouth dropped open and he stared aghast. "What the...." he
muttered as the ship was tractored back out of the modular replicator. 

"You see Captain Solo, we consider the torpedo launcher and Class Three
Torpedo's to be a small price to pay for such an efficient hyperdrive 
freighter design. We plan on having a few thousand of these replicated 
to serve as scouts, freighters and passenger ships. Designed as they 
are for a crew of 4 they are perfect for our manpower shortage and with 
the cargo transporter's we have integrated into the basic design even 
the Antimatter freighter version will be a massive asset to our fleet. 
In fact all of our current Deuterium and Anti-Matter freighters have 
been ordered to report here where they will be broken up and replicated 
into new freighters." 

"Admiral I've never seen anything like this before! You mean that any
ship you can fit into this Modular Replicator can be produced as fast 
as you can feed the thing raw material?" 

"That is exactly what I am telling you Captain Solo. We can turn out
X-Wings or Peregrine II fighters, light freighters,  or a 1/3rd modular 
Corvette section. With the speed advantage of Hyperdrive we can haul 
the raw materials we need from anywhere in Federation space as fast as 
we can replicate it and these new ships will be part of that. Every 
derelict in Federation space is being chopped up and replicated into 
cargo container size blocks, which will be picked up by these new 
freighters and ferried here to be replicated into new ships. It is 
power intensive to build ships this way, but as you can see for 
yourself it is also quite fast." 

By this time the freighter had been boarded by its new crew who were
powering up for their maiden voyages, destined to pick up replicated 
blocks from Federation shipyards scattered through the Federation and 
ferry them back. The first ship had been quietly replicated 5 days ago 
after the design deal was made with Captain Solo and exhaustively 
tested for bugs. No bugs having been found in the design it was now in 
the production phase and the Millennium Falcon was now released by the 
Federation. 

"Luke told me not to underestimate you Admiral. In fact he told me that
if I played my cards right you would give me a Corellian Corvette. I 
should have listened to him." 

"A little late now Captain Solo, though we do have a medium freighter
version of the Corvette planned for the near future our main problem at 
this time is Crewmen. We have activated all our reserves and there has 
even been talk of reinstating the old Boot Camp method of training to 
turn raw recruits into spacers in 12 weeks and let them learn the rest 
on the job as it were." 

"A sound idea Admiral, I attended the imperial academy on Carrida
myself. I served as a Z-95 pilot before I was forced out." 

"Luke told me you were one of the best pilots the Alliance had flying
for it." 

"I wouldn't say that Admiral, there is a bounty on my head and if the
Falcon had been fully functional before the Battle of Hoth I wouldn't 
still be in Alliance service." 

And in their private quarters Leia and Luke were talking. "You felt it
as did I, Luke. Someone destroyed an inhabited planet, just like the 
Empire did to Alderaan. If those kind of people operate in the 
Federation we can not ally ourselves with them no matter what material 
advantages they can bring us." 

"Are you sure Leia? You might be just feeling the effects of the fleet
actions, each of these actions leads to tens of thousands of deaths." 

"I'm certain Luke, I felt it when Alderaan was destroyed, though at the
time I thought it was just my own despair. It was as if one great voice 
screamed out its agony and loss." 

"One great voice, that's not how Ben described it to me, he said 'As if
a billion voices had screamed in fear and stopped'. I wonder, Artoo 
what was that description of the Founder's Homeworld we came across?" 

"Beep boop " 

"The Great Link yes, Leia could it have been this Great Link that was
what you heard cry out?" 

"Yes...yes that answer feels right somehow." 

"If the Great Link was destroyed then it had to be the Federation or the
Klingon's." 

### the door chimed. 

"Enter." Luke ordered it being his quarters. The door opened and a
Klingon of regal bearing appeared, stepping quickly inside with his two 
attendants. 

"I am Kahless, Emperor of Klingon. I would speak with Luke Skywalker." 

"I am he, Kahless, I bid you welcome." 

"Thank you Jedi Skywalker. And who is your companion?" 

"Direct and too the point, I like that. I am Jedi Organa, Luke is my
twin brother." Leia answered. 

"Another Jedi? Welcome to our Galaxy Jedi Organa. Jedi Skywalker I bring
troubling news. 

“What news is that?” Luke asked. 

“Since my return I have been struggling to restore Honor to the Klingon
Empire, once Honor and Glory were the twin foundation of our culture. 
Sadly during my absence honor has been forgotten by many and replaced 
with political ambition and greed." 

"I take it you have been less than successful in your attempts to
restore your Empire?" Luke asked. 

"Much progress has been made, the clerics have been completely cleansed
and much of the military has been restored to Honor, however the ruling 
council has fallen into dishonorable habits." 

"Can you not dissolve the council and replace these leaders with
Honorable Klingon's?" 

"I have ecclesiastical power but no temporal authority. However I came
here because of what I have learned from those who value honor over all 
else. A Klingon scoutship tracked down the star system of the new 
changling world and discovered that the world has been thoroughly 
wrecked. It is nothing now but a molten mass with meteoroids crashing 
into its surface continuously, lifeless." 

"Then Luke and I were correct, the Great Link died a week ago." Leia
said aghast. 

"Yes, a dishonorable act to destroy your enemies homeworld and attempt
to exterminate his race." Kahless said. 

"Kahless what have you heard of the Force?" 

"Rumors only, whisperings that seem to flow wherever Jedi Skywalker has
passed." 

"Ah yes, I demonstrated my meager abilities for the crew of the Galaxy,
Commander Data was quite impressed and recorded the proceedings in 
detail with tricorders and probably other devices. My sister here has 
completed her training and would not have been so rash as to show off, 
or so she tells me." 

"Jedi Organa? Your abilities are even more impressive than Jedi
Skywalk's?" 

"My training is more complete, that is all. Once Luke's training is
complete he should be my equal or better." 

"I understand that Jedi Skywalker can telepathically communicate, a
talent rare in humans, and that his piloting reflexes and self defense 
are astounding." 

"These are all Force enhancements Kahless, and it is possible that you
too could have this ability. There is a simple test I was taught by 
Master Yoda to see, if you are willing." 

"Ah this should be interesting, perform your test." Leia reached in her
pocket and removed a small testing unit similar in size to a Tricorder. 
A small blood sample was taken and the results came back quite quickly. 


"Kahless, you score in the 90th percentile of midichlorian count, you
have a great innate Force ability and would be a powerful Jedi if you 
went through the proper training." 

"What would it mean to be trained as a Jedi?" 

"Basic training in all the Jedi techniques takes 8 to 12 weeks, after
that it is a study of a lifetime. The Jedi are strong when they are 
calm and at peace, the struggle to not use the Force too much is what 
makes a Jedi respected." 

"That sounds like a challenge of Honor." 

"I had never thought of it that way before but you are correct Kahless,
a Jedi's personal honor must be more important too him than the power 
the Force brings to him. The war between the Alliance and the Empire in 
our home Galaxy was brought about when one man, the Emperor, craved the 
power of the Force too much. He has hunted down and exterminated nearly 
all of the Jedi Knights. The fight between the Alliance and the Empire 
does not go well, we have suffered a series of defeats in the last 
three years, the latest at Hoth three months ago." 

"Well if the Dominion is defeated with the Great Link destroyed and the
Dominion fleet being steadily eradicated by the Federation your allies 
will be sending you the promised help soon." 

"Did the Klingon Empire destroy the Great Link?" 

"NO! Even the lowest of the low could not have done this without word
getting back to me. It is a dishonorable, hateful act." 

"Agreed. That leaves just the Federation with the ability to evade the
Dominion defenses and the motivation to commit genocide." 

"Huh" Kahless grunted, "sounds like the work of Section 31." 

"Section 31?" Luke asked. 

"Section 31, a group that officially does not exist yet gets credit
behind the scenes for a great many illegal actions that benefit the 
Federation and Earth in particular." 

"A secret intelligence organization? I thought you said the Federation
was an 'enlightened' place Luke?" 

"Well that is certainly their reputation from everyone I have talked
too." 

"Really?" Kahless guffawed, "Then why did they provoke this war with the
Dominion? The Klingon Empire got involved for our own protection, once 
the Federation had provoked the Dominion into declaring war it was 
clear we had to choose one or the other as our ally if we were to 
survive as a people. The Klingon Empire owes a great deal to the 
Federation and despite our short conflict we remember our debts." 

"What do you mean 'provoked'?" Leia asked 

"A little over two years ago the Dominion ordered the Federation to
withdraw from the Gamma Quadrant, they claim all the territory around 
the wormhole as their own. The Federation had planted several colonies 
in the Gamma quadrant as had the Bajorans so they chose to ignore the 
Dominion requirement that they withdraw. Even worse they had allowed a 
large number of Dominion ships to travel through the wormhole to the 
Alpha quadrant and the changelings replaced several key people in the 
Alpha and Beta quadrant command and control structures. In fact until 
recently our own General Martok was a changeling imposter, fortunately 
we discovered him before the Federation gave us Hyperdrive. If he had 
gotten the Hyperdrive ship we were given he would have taken it back to 
their base at Cardassia and all the Dominion would have it by now." 

"Things would then have been back in balance if that happened." Leia
observed. 

"Yes, and the Dominion would have won, their clone soldiers would have
over run our defenses if they had Hyperdrive, exactly as the Federation 
is now devastating their fleet and has destroyed their homeworld." 
Kahless observed. 

"We do not know that the Federation destroyed the Great Link, we just
have the suspicion." Luke pointed out. 

"Yes," Leia said, "and we have to know before long just what the truth
is. A group like this Section 31 would be just as likely to ally 
themselves with the Empire as they would be with the Alliance. If that 
were to happen the Alliance would be finished, you can imagine what 
this Replicator technology would do for Imperial production, they 
already overmatch us. If they could do away with the manufacturing 
process entirely and replicate fighters we would never be able to match 
them." 

"Conversely if the Federation remains allied with us we will be able to
get all the fighters we need, plus Corvettes and likely even other 
larger ships." 

At the same time in near Solar space. "Reversion to normal space in 3,
2, 1, breakout." Paris reported. 

"There she is, Sol, 1 light-year dead ahead." Chakotay said. 

"Attention all hands, this is Captain Janeway. Earth is dead ahead!" 


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