Disclaimer: DIE, ENSIEGNS, DIE! Oh, and we don't own Star Trek, but Nemesis owns the individual characters.

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|  Budoka no Jinsei:
|    SIDE STORY 11:
|                        Paradox
|
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|       Epilogue of Death by:
|                     Nemesis
|       Guy who finally got around to posting this:
|                     opaj
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Sparks flew like mad.

As equipment exploded, the figures beaming in began to take substance. A Jem'Hadar made a break for an overhanging of rock, only to be caught by a bolt of energy. Another made a break for the enemy, an action which brought about a phaser blast to the face.

At last the figures became solid. The new enterers numbered forty, all armed with Type-3 Phaser Rifles and bearing Starfleet uniforms and insignias.

"Thank God..." muttered Morph, and then collapsed from exhaustion.

Ian bounded for the figure that had four rank pips, Captain Phillip Moore of the U.S.S. Marx. Reaching out his cybernetic hand, Ian allowed a smile to escape his robotic lips. "Excellent timing, Captain Moore," Ian said, "We couldn't have held out much longer."

Moore nodded, raising an eyebrow at his relative shortness to Ian. "Well, according to all the energy dissipations, something weird was going down here... in fact," Moore looked up in thought, "the readings barely showed up on our monitors. We had to do a deep dimensional scan to..."

An energy orb exploded between Moore and Ian, and both reared back and shot their faces at the source.

The Drone was finally fighting back.

Ian became slightly confused at the Drone's actions. Why, he thought, does it attack now, when the odds are against it? The answer came in a few Ensigns firing high-powered blasts at it.

"Stop! Don't shoot the Captain!"

Ian turned his head again at the new voice. It was Gunner.

An Ensign also turned his head at the new voice, only to be caught in the chest by an energy orb. The other scattered to a distance while the impacted officer spiraled to the ground with a smoking crater in his chest.

Gunner fired off a few blasts at the Drone, causing the Borg being to flutter away a bit. As Weapons Officer ran for cover, the Drone let loose a barrage of orbs, annihilating the area where he had just stood.

Ian, Moore and Gunner took cover behind an inner cave, the other taking any sort of cover possible.

As energy orbs rocked the cavern, Ian yelled above the noise. "We have to hit the Clone Maker!" he barked, "If we cause enough instability, time will turn back, but we will retain our memories, able to stop this fiasco!"

Moore turned pale. "But... but the Temporal Prime Directive! If Section 31 finds out we do this... I... I don't even want to think about the consequences!"

Gunner stared at Moore. "Even if they do punish us somehow, since obviously they too will loose their memory, we need to do this! The safety of the Alpha Quadrant demands it!"

All three nodded in agreement, then tore for the Clone Maker.

The others saw the three running, and began to take off after them.

Blast after blast ripped up the rocky ground and officer after officer perished in the unrelenting firefight.

An orb caught Moore in the head, killing him instantly.

As the group finally made their final approach on the Maker, a tide of Jem'Hadar swarmed. Phasers and disruptors mixed in the air as body after body fell in a bloody pulp. Ian was caught in the leg by a disruptor blast. Gunner stopped, only to be hit himself in the back.

Dying, Gunner gazed at Ian. "Looks... like we lose..."

"NOT YET!" bellowed a mystery voice.

And one more time, an oozy form bounced around the arena, finally slapping itself into the Power Regulators of the Clone Maker.

As Gunner breathed his final breath, the entire room phased out of existence, and time wound itself back... and back... and back...





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