Title: "Destruction"
Author: Lieutenant JG Jenara Shylo Tomme
Stardate: 2460260
Earthdate: April 5, 2383
Location: Xenon III: Noran

Jenara had been resting in a room she had been escorted to. Now that she was pregnant, she found that she tired easily. Plus, her senses were beginning to heighten while her ability to shape shift had vanished. It was the one thing about Tanzaran females. Once they were pregnant, they were stuck in humanoid form until after the baby was born. Pregnancy locked them into their natural state. *It's a good thing they assigned me to medical duty,* she thought. *I don't want to risk the baby, and I'm really not as effective in a fight this way!*

As she allowed her mind to wander, her hand flitted down to her abdomen. She saw the colors of the loose shirt she was given to wear along with matching pants in a soft shade of pink and touched where her child was growing. *So, little one. What will I do with you when you finally arrive?*

What *was* she going to do? She didn't even remember conceiving this baby growing within her. Who was the father? Though somehow she knew it was either Commander Lataro or Lt. Benton, her mind told her that was the case. But no memories surfaced. The only picture coming to her mind was the face of Johnny Chee, the young Marine lieutenant whom she had been assigned to monitor as he recovered from an apparent concussion. She had been with him all night and most of the preceding day. Her heightened senses had helped to monitor his condition: at first, he was lapsing in and out of consciousness; now he was deeply involved in dream-cycle sleep. Because Johnny had joined the *Virgo's* senior staff only a few weeks earlier, she only really knew what his personnel file said about him: brash, impulsive, often a discipline case until his internment in a Cardassian POW camp. That experience appeared to have added both maturity and resolve to his makeup. *Sounds like someone else I know,* she smiled inwardly. *But still,* she wondered, *why does this nearly complete stranger stay in my mind so readily?*

A sigh escaped her, when suddenly, her attention was drawn away from her current train of thoughts and to the sound of shouts. Immediately, she could sense the air fill with fear and hate. They were under attack! *Oh, no!* she thought as she got up and (over the now-conscious Johnny's protests) reached for her two short swords and accompanied Johnny, swiftly running from the room, out of the villa and into the encroaching battle.

The peace of the town was shattered as the Horde advanced into the city. Their attempt to link up with Lieutenant Wallace and his men was thwarted by a party of Horde skirmishers. Panic was in the air. Jenara
tried to focus her mind as she headed straight for the thick of the battle, wielding her swords with precision. Those holodeck programs had really done wonders for her sword fighting abilities, though she was used to handling a rapier and not these short swords. But her movements were still deft and graceful. Each move she made contact, yet her heart was racing out of control. She could couldn't see beyond the blur of the Horde around her and she couldn't do anything to gain the upper hand. She was trapped in human form. She could not do anything to help these people gain an upper hand in this battle with the Horde, she couldn't save any of her fellow officers from the *Virgo* and she couldn't save herself or her child. She was vulnerable. Each blow might strike her. She could not change into a bird and fly to a safer vantage point and then change into a Tygalien Bear and rip the enemy to shreds. She was only a humanoid. Limited. Scared. Vulnerable.

Suddenly, in a moment of distraction, one of the Horde raised a sword behind her, ready to bring it down into her, as if to cut her in half. She turned, barely in time, seeing the movement out of the corner of her eyes. As she turned to deal with this threat she saw another Horde come after her. First, she used all the force she could muster and thrust one of her short swords into her first adversary's gut. Shocked surprise filled his strange, almost reptilian eyes as he toppled over to the ground. Then she turned to face her newest threat. Gaining
enough time by dodging his first attempt, she managed to get both of her swords to the Horde's neck like scissors and then used them as such. Blood began pouring forth as the creature fell to the ground.

And still there were more threats! As she faced three more opponents charging her, she did not see the threat from behind. Taking down the last of the three swiftly, she suddenly felt a sharp, searing pain, course through her back and into her body. She screamed out and fell to her knees.

The Horde warrior uttered something unintelligible. It might have been "Die, Virgo bitch!" but Jenara really didn't know and couldn't know.

*This is it: the end!* Jenara thought. *I'm going to die on this strange world, in a war we had no business fighting. My baby will never have a chance at life. And I was supposed to be the lucky one.*

She had survived destruction like this once before. As time almost seemed to stand still, she looked at the wave of destruction. So many dead. Homes were being burned... And the children... Children were dying or being left without parents. Suddenly, she wasn't there in Noran anymore. She was back on Tanzaria. The night the raiders came! The sounds of the energy blasts surrounded her! She was huddled with her parents and brother and sister. Screams began filtering from the streets. Then suddenly, the door was forced open. Her father reached
for an energy weapon, but was immediately struck down. A scream issued from her as the attacker came closer! Her mother changed form into a large, tentacled beast, reaching for the intruder, but as she knocked the weapon away from him, three more intruders arrived and shot her dead. Full of fear, her brother and sister grabbed her and they ran from the house, out the back door. But then, the sound of a laser discharge and the smell of burnt flesh, along with her brother toppling to the ground was enough for her to know he was dead. His consciousness had left his mind. It was just her and her sister now, but the intruders continued to discharge their weapons. Her sister swiftly changed into a gazelle as Jenara changed into a black cat. Jenara melted into the darkness and climbed a tree as she saw the attackers run after her sister. Within minutes, she could see from the tree branch she was on, her sister, lying dead on the ground. They had gotten her too. Anguish poured from her heart at the loss of her family.

"NO!" she screamed!

Everything turned black. There was nothing. No Noran, no Tanzaria, no enemies to fight; there was only blissful darkness. Emptiness of thought.

Johnny had seen the Horde strike Jenara, and the woman fall to her knees on the ground. Somehow he could feel her fear, her anguish, her pain. As he saw an opening, he took it. Before the Horde could strike the flaming-haired officer down, Johnny bashed him across the head with his bat'leth, then slashed the alien warrior's throat. The Horde enemy fell over dead. Jenara now seemed lost in darkness as he saw her still form on the ground, lying lifeless, blood oozing from the wound in her back. He knelt down by her and checked her pulse. She was still alive, but would she make it until he could get her to safety where she could be treated? Using a length of cloth torn from his tunic, he bandaged the wound crudely, threw her over his shoulder, and continued the mad dash through the streets.
 

Title: "Comrades in Arms"
Author: First Lieutenant Johnny Chee
Stardate: 2460260
Earthdate: April 5, 2383
Location: Xenon III: Noran

Johnny dodged through alleys and winding back streets, avoiding the Horde infiltrators as much as possible. Burdened with carrying his wounded comrade/caretaker, he was unable to fight. *Now I understand why Farouk never carried a weapon: he had too much else to worry about!*

Eventually he happened across a young Borial wearing the blue and gold tunic of a herald. "Take me to where the other Virgos are headquartered!" he ordered. The Borial messenger led him there, impressively slaying three Horde warriors along the way.

The headquarters was little more than a converted market square, where Starfleet personnel were being dispatched to the most troubled sections of the city. A storefront had been converted to a makeshift hospital where the wounded were treated and the dying comforted. Hoping against hope that Jenara would be in the former category (*I don't need yet another ghost to poison me!* Johnny thought), Johnny left her in the hands of the overworked and under-equipped Starfleet medical personnel, who were making do with such herbs and potions and improvisations as presented themselves.

Lieutenant Richard Wallace and a Borial officer were contemplating a map of the city of Noran, marked by Wallace with red and white pins to indicate the positions of Horde and Virgo/Borial personnel.

"Johnny! Good to see you back among the living!" Richard responded. Of the officers Johnny had associated with, he found he could relate to Richard Wallace the best. Perhaps it was because they had both started as enlisted men; perhaps it was because of Richard's baptism by fire against the Borg at Wolf 359, when Johnny was still just barely a teenager in Tuba City with the stars in his eyes. Compared to that, what Johnny went through with the Cardassians was on a level with shore leave on Risa.

"You can say that again!!! How are we holding up?" Johnny asked his old comrade from the *Ilion*.

"It's pretty much a holding action at this point. The Horde had a few initial successes but we're driving them back. We're trying to keep this from becoming a siege; the city just isn't prepared, the extra hunting and preserving we did notwithstanding; by assembling our forces as much as we can outside the city. The Horde have already erected siege engines. Your Sergeant Barek is coordinating the defense of the city parapets. That's where most of your men are right now."

"What sort of intelligence do we have on the Horde?"

"Lieutenant Benton led a team behind their lines, but we haven't heard from them since early this morning. If I could spare a man I'd send a runner. Crazy way to run a war! And to think this is the way Humans ran wars hundreds of years ago." *Not that we have any business running this war,* Wallace thought.

"Do we have anyone who can coordinate things here?" Johnny asked.

"Certainly! The Captain's still around, as well as most of the senior staff. And Kylar here's pretty sharp," Wallace said, indicating the Borial officer.

"Great! Get someone in charge, and grab your gear. Let's go meet Benton and see what we can do to the Horde!" Johnny exclaimed. "Herald! Go find Corporal Salonnen: the big Virgo with blonde hair. He'll be with Barek, the bumpy-nosed Virgo wearing the earring, up on the wall. Tell him to come to me here!"

"What's the urgency? I want to take these bastards down as much as anyone else, but..."

"Let's just say I have a few debts to settle," Johnny said, looking over at the medics attending to Jenara.
 

Title: "Battle Of Noran"
Author: Lieutenant JG Richard Wallace
Stardate: 2460260
Earthdate: April 5, 2383
Location: Xenon III

Richard was at a table peering over a map of the city and outlying area and was placing the troops on the map on certain spots where they where to defend. Richard saw a weskness on the northeast side of the city where the wall was only 10 feet high and was only defended only by 13 Borails. That didn't sit well with Richard. He knew if the Horde saw that, and they would, they'd exploit the weakness.

Jonathan came up to Richard and said, "The alarm has been sounded. The Horde are coming some mile or less on the outskirts of town. Take some men and Johnny's Marine detachment and see if you can see the numbers we are up against. Try to delay their attack here on the city."

Richard smiled and loved the idea of being the first one to help draw the major blood of the battle. "Sounds like a lot fun, sir. Could I use Benton also?"

"No, he has not been seen for a while. I have sent for Johnny pick your plan now while at the map."

Richard looked at the map and then came up with a perfect plan. "Listen, I'll draw the enemy to this weaker wall by making it look like it's unprotected. Keep 100 or more reserve troops here in the stables whatever you can spare. When they attack they won't know hit them until it's too late."

Jonathan and a Borial leader nodded his head in agreement.

Suddenly, Johnny burst into the room. "It's good to see your joining the living Johnny. I want you to scout on ahead over here at this clearing. We will meet here at this bluff over looking the woods." Johnny agreed and took off.

Wallace grabbed his sword and dagger and some throwing knives he had the towns smith make. He looked at his nine men and said, "Saddle up and move out. Kill anything that looks like a Horde. My orders are to kill as many as we can to delay their attack."

Then a young female Ensign spoke up and said, "Sir, that is just murder plain and simple."

Wallace drew his sword and knew that time was of the essence. He gave a stern look to the whole bunch. "All right, listen up. I am only going to say this once. It's kill or be killed in this damn life we live. The only way to win a war is to kill every last son of a bitch any way possible. You screw up: you're dead. That's the end of this
discussion."

The group ran at quick step out of the city and 12 minutes later met 12 Horde.

Richard went crazy and killed seven by himself, and the other members of his team killed the other Horde.

Richard pulled his sword out of a Horde's head and sheathed it. He picked up a four-foot battle axe and turned to his unit. "Come on! Do you want to live for ever?!"

They then ran to link up with the Marine detachment.
 

Title: "The Light Within"
Author: Lieutenant JG Jenara Shylo Tomme
Stardate: 2460260
Earthdate: April 5, 2383
Location: Xenon III

Jenara was running down a dark corridor. The walls were a black marble along with the floors and ceiling. The only lighting were flickering oil lamps hung on the walls. Fear was in Jenara's heart as she was being chased by frightening dark figures. They were the RAIDERS who destroyed her world! Now they were after her, and there was no where to run to escape! She couldn't change form though she tried! The white, flowing gown she wore fluttered around her as she tried running faster, hoping there would be a door, or another hallway to turn into, but suddenly, she came to the end. There was no escape! She could not see the Raiders' faces, like that night they had killed her entire family. But she could see their dark forms approaching her like black wraiths of death. Trembling out of control, she slid to the floor and curled up like an infant and cried. She was dead. She was truly dead.

Then suddenly, she heard the strong, commanding voice of a woman boom through the corridor. "BE GONE!"

In that instant, the sounds of her pursuers vanished. Still fearful, but curious now, she tentatively lifted her head, trying to steady her trembling. Her green eyes fell on the form of a beautiful woman, who was easily six feet tall. She had long, blond hair that fell to her waist and light green eyes. She wore a white, tunic-type dress with a
gold chain belt around her waist. She gazed at Jenara with a gentle smile.

"You are safe, Jenara Tomme. The Raiders have gone from your mind. They will not bother you again. Until the time comes that you must face them..."

"Who... Who are you?" Jenara asked, suddenly realizing that this aspect of her dream felt far too real to be dismissed.

"You would know me as Tiadara. On your world, in ancient times, I was known as the protector goddess. However, as you have probably realized, I am not a goddess. But I am a spirit. I came to you the night of the attack on Tanzaria. I peered through your fear and into your future. Though I could not save your family, I saved you and have resided within you since that night."

Suddenly, everything made sense. The times when she felt she wasn't alone, why even though she had telepathic and empathic abilities that she could sometimes see into the future. Why her instincts were so strong. She had a protector dwelling within her.

"Tiadara, what made me so special?" she asked, getting to her feet, continuing to look deeply into the woman's eyes.

"You will be the one to solve the mystery of who the Raiders are and to stop them from doing these horrendous things again." Gently, she reached out and touched Jenara's shoulder, "But first, there is much
that has to be done on this world."

Suddenly, the corridor melted away into the battle-torn Noran. Dead lying around. In the distance, she could see more battle, more death. Then she saw Johnny Chee. Something was going to happen to him! Then, visions of the battle she had been in before played through her mind. She saw beyond the time of her wounding. Tiadara helped her see Johnny grab her. If it hadn't been for him, she surely would have died on the battlefield. She didn't understand this link with him, but it was strong.

"You do not realize this, but your paths are intertwined," Tiadara explained. "Together, there is nothing that can stop you. Apart you both will fall."

"I have to get to him!" Jenara replied quickly.

"And you will..."
_______________________________________

Instantly, Jenara's eyes were opened. She was with the Medics. Though the wound in her back hurt badly, she forced the pain away and sat up. The Medics being so busy with other wounded, they did not see as she stood.

~You are not alone, Jenara. I will guide you to him~ she heard Tiadara say.

An intense brightness entered her green eyes, as if some inner light was coming from her soul. With one last look around, she slipped out of the building to join the battle and to find Johnny Chee.
 

Title: "Stampede"
Author: First Lieutenant Johnny Chee
Stardate: 2460260
Earthdate: April 5, 2383
Location: Xenon III

Johnny and Richard had decided to split their teams to cover the siege towers. There were six siege towers. Johnny and his team took the three to the west while Richard and his team took the three to the east.

Johnny advanced to within 25 meters of the tower, using low-lying brush for cover. A close look at the towers revealed them to be gigantic structures, far more advanced than Johnny would have given the Horde credit for. Well over a hundred feet high, built of massive wood timbers reinforced with steel, the towers would be next to
impossible to chop down or burn in any reasonable amount of time. *We're going to have to fight for them,* Johnny thought. *Just what I didn't want to do!*

Just then an object was flung out with great force from the top of a tower farther down the line. Johnny watched as it sailed through the air some 250 meters before dropping behind the city wall of Noran. Suddenly a huge orange and black fireball blossomed up from behind the wall!!! Less than a second later a low, rumbling *barrrooom* sounded.

*Holy shit!!! They've got gunpowder now!!!* Johnny thought as he fell back to where the other people in his team were hiding.

Corporal Salonnen a Horde herald, and two Marine privates were waiting for him about 50 meters back. "*Please* tell me that wasn't what I think it was," Salonnen told Johnny.

"It was. They've got black powder! And given the way they can turn out high-quality steel they'll probably have muskets once they figure out how to roll out or extrude a barrel. Their forge is next on our target priority list after these towers!!!" Johnny reported. *Something's definitely wrong here,* he thought to himself.

Just then the same siege tower which had fired upon Noran suddenly went up in a huge ball of fire! Johnny and Salonnen both hit the ground reflexively, dragging down the Borial herald Johnny had more or less pressed into service and brought with them. *That's something else: the Borials are entirely unprepared for gunpowder. They just don't know how to react to it!!!*

"Looks like they haven't learned how to store the stuff, at any rate. Okay, men, we're going to do to this tower what happened to the other one!!!"

The three arose and began a running charge at the siege tower. A Horde watchman on another siege tower began blowing a horn: they were on to the infiltration!!! Suddenly Johnny, Salonnen, and the Borial herald
were surrounded by Horde warriors! An arrow shrieked down from the tower and caught Salonnen in the neck. *Yet another ghost,* Johnny thought to himself as he dropped and rolled out of the archer's line of fire. He came back up on his feet, nailing a Horde warrior in the crotch with his bat'leth, then spinning around to catch another in the gut. While Privates Nkrumah and Olivares butchered still more Horde warriors with their idej, the herald was running from the tower to some undetermined location. *Well, he's a herald: he's supposed to deliver messages. Maybe Richard or Benton can lend some reinforcements!* Johnny thought charitably as he swung to decapitate yet another Horde warrior.

Two more down, and Johnny was to the magazine on the siege tower. Johnny formed his cloak into a sack and gathered up five of the bombs, then made a run for it. Arrows struck the ground to the left and right of him, but Johnny managed to dodge them and get to his hiding place.

The fuse on the bomb was, from what Johnny could tell, about 30 seconds. Starting the bomb with just the flint and steel in his kit would be tricky but doable. Johnny struck the steel against the flint about three times, until a scintilla impressive enough to light the fuse was generated. A wisp of sulfurous gray-black smoke issued forth
from the fuse. Johnny picked up the bomb and started running like hell!!!

Twenty meters...fifteen meters...ten meters...Johnny stopped and threw the bomb toward the siege tower as if it were a hand grenade. Johnny then made a mad dash for his hiding place!

He just managed to get down as the charge went off. The earth shook as the tower blew to splinters under the combined force of nearly a hundred of the gunpowder charges!!! Johnny thought he could hear the screams of at least half a dozen Horde. In its collapse, however, the tower had cut Johnny off from the two remaining members of his team.

Two more towers fired upon the city. More Horde warriors were surrounding the remaining towers. *Well, it was good while it lasted,* Johnny thought ruefully.

He still had four bombs left, and damned if he was going to keep them around for the rest of the battle! But alone he could do little, even with the bombs. Or could he?

Johnny moved to the corral where the Horde's glap'ta were kept. *If these beasts are anything like horses or cattle, this should go over *real* well!* he thought.

The corral was in the rear area of the Horde formation and had been stripped of guards in order to protect the siege towers. *Bad move,* Johnny thought as he set the four remaining charges near the herd. With another spark, Johnny lit a fuse and ran for it!

The four charges went off at once, but Johnny didn't stop to look: he just kept running! Which was what the glap'ta were doing. They were stampeding straight into the Horde encampment!!! Fortunately, Nkrumah and Olivares had caught on to what Johnny was doing and joined him, cutting a path through panicked Horde as they ran ahead of him.

Reasoning that the nearest friendlies were in close proximity to the first destroyed tower, Johnny continued running in that direction, slashing at Horde as he went. The assumption proved correct.

Sitto and Francesca were carrying Benton between them. He looked as though he'd just walked straight out of Dante's Inferno, his armor and face blackened by soot. Thudd moved ahead of them, providing a guard as they fled the scene of chaos.

"So good to see friendly faces!" Francesca exclaimed upon seeing the trio.

"How's Benton?" Johnny asked.

"He's got a pretty good knock to the head, and his eardrums may have been blown out, but he's going to live. Kelvans aren't exactly easy to kill, you know!"

*Tell me about it!* Johnny thought, remembering the *Ilion* as he exchanged knowing looks with Nkrumah and Olivares. But that was unfair; like Dweezle, Benton was steadfastly loyal to Starfleet and his fellow crewmembers. "Lieutenant Wallace's team is around here somewhere. If we can hook up with  him, we just might make it out of
here!!!"

For the moment, however, those concerns were laid aside as a dozen Horde footmen surrounded the combined party...