[RES Ju`lang]
Tyrone tr`Kirk sat in his command chair aboard the RES Ju`lang, the
D`Deridex-class Warbird which Kirk had declared flagship of the Romulan
Rebel Fleet (RRF, as he was now calling it). It had been 3 weeks since
his forces' initial attack of RSE bases and planets, and he had
continued to go on the offensive. The RSE still had no clue as to where
his true base of operations was, and their forces had been growing. As
Boheeka saw that things were going well, he sent another 500 Cardassian
vessels (350 warships, 150 transports full of the DNA Soldiers) to put
under Kirk's control, although he said he would not send anymore for
some time as he feared Rihannsu counter-attacks on Cardassian territory,
even though Cardassian and Rihannsu territories are nearly completely
opposite of eachother (when compared to Starfleet). 60 Rihannsu vessels
also joined in the fighting on Kirk's side, although 30 had already been
lost. Kirk also ordered the Orions to begin quickening their rate of the
production of the new Orion Warbird.
All in all, Kirk's forces now consisted of 1352 Cardassian
vessels, 184
Rihannsu Warbirds, and 28 Orion vessels. Despite slowly growing, they
were nowhere near the point where Kirk could begin openly fighting the
Romulans ship for ship.
The doors to the bridge swooshed open, as a familiar face to
Kirk walked onto the bridge: tr`Ghire. Ghire had been his XO back on SB Hama
(formerly 220), and before that, had been Kirk's second in command of
his top secret spy group, the Titans. Ghire had been undergoing surgery
for the past week to return him to his former self (having been altered
by NRR members when he was in command of SB Hama).
Kirk smiled, going to his feet, "It's good to see you again,
Haedn. I
am pleased that all went well"
Ghire nodded, "Ie", and went over to the Tactical console,
relieving
the officer there.
Kirk watched Ghire for a moment, then turned and sat back down
in his
chair, when Ghire spoke.
"Rekkhai, a Cardassian Hedeki-class vessel has picked up a
decloaking
ship"
Kirk nodded, "The Ta`leer. Ask them if they found the Romulan
base o-"
"Na, rekkhai" Ghire said, interrupting him, "It is a lloan'na
vessel, a
fighter"
Kirk stood up, turning to Ghire, "*Starfleet*?"
Ghire nodded, "Ie, it is approaching the base"
"How did Starfleet find our base? Inform the Cardassian vessel
to
destroy the fighter"
"Ie, rekkhai. It is moving to intercept"
t`Kleir's frown deepened as she detected the Cardassian vessel
moving
to intercept her. She repeated her message to the Ju`lang, stating who
she was, but again, it was jammed by the Cardassian vessel. Obviously it
was thinking she would be trying to reach Starfleet, the thing furthest
from her mind.
She raised shields and armed weapons. The fighter wasn't much of
a
match, one on one, with a Cardassian Hedeki-class ship. She targeted the
ship's jamming systems and went to intercept the vessel, meanwhile
putting her greeting to the Ju`lang on auto-transmit, for when/if she
disabled her target.
The fighter jolted slightly as a spread of torpedos barely
missed her.
She began zig-zagging like movement, waiting until she was in range to
fire.
Once there, she locked her own limited supply of torpedos and
fired.
She dropped the Cardassian vessel's port shields to 72%, but her target
remained active, and the message to the Ju`lang still went
untransmitted.
Suddenly, the fighter began rolling. Two torpedos hit her
starboard
engines, and they had been disabled. Thankful she wasn't easily quesy,
she slowly turned the rolling craft around until the Hedeki was in
sight, and released a spread of quantum torpedos (her only spread of
quantums) at the Hedeki-class vessel. 3 of the 5 torpedos struck the aft
of the ship, and it spun around. The entire aft part of the ship had
been disabled, including the communications array.
Ghire pressed a blinking button, "Rekkhai, message coming
in...from the
lloan'na fighter. It says that your...daughter..is aboard. She is
requesting permission to dock with the base"
Kirk leaped to his feet, "Inform the Cardassian vessel to halt
their
attack!"
"....no response, rekkhai"
"Helm, take us to the battle. Ghire, are there any other vessels
in the
area?"
"We are the only one with weapons, rekkhai. Most of our fleet is
rendezvousing with the Cardassian reinforcements and launching an
assault on Outpost Re`hal along the Klingon border" Ghire replied.
"ETA?"
"3 minutes, rekkhai" replied the Helm officer.
t`Kleir fired phasers. No damage.
The Hedeki ship was keeping her aft away from the Confederation
fighter, and doing some serious damage in the process.
The fighter's shields were down to 17%, torpedos offline, warp
engines
offline, and phasers and impulse engines down to 29% efficiency.
Another spread of torpedos hit the fighter. Shields were gone,
main
systems offline. She was adrift.
She watched as her masterplan was about to be lost, along with
her
life.
"Torpedos"
"Ready"
"Fire!"
The Ju`lang launched full spreads of torpedos from three
different
torpedo bays, a majority of them hitting the Hedeki-class vessel. A few
seconds later, Cardassian hull fragments flew past t`Kleir's fighter.
Kirk smiled, satisfied, and began walking off the bridge, "Have
my
daughter's fighter brought aboard, then have her escorted to my
quarters"
"Ie, rekkhai"
"Come in"
t`Kleir walked in to her father's quarters, looking around.
"Ah, t`Kleir", Kirk smiled, "Welcome"
t`Kleir bowed slightly, "Hann'yyu, father. I am relieved to see
you are
unharmed"
"I am perfectly fine. In fact, things have been going even
*better*
than planned....so, how did you find our base?"
t`Kleir allowed herself to smirk, "A random guess. I heard of
your
fight, and have come to offer you my services"
Kirk smiled, "Ah! So you are not here on behalf of Starfleet?"
"Na, father"
Kirk nodded, "Excellent! Well, come then, let us get you settled
in"
tr`Dhi hung onto his chair as the RES T`Less jolted hard to the
right.
"Rekkhai! The Re`hal Outpost has destroyed 3 more Cardassian
cruisers!
Enemy Warbirds are closing!"
"All power to aft shields! Have the Orion vessel J-Lure help us
out!"
replied Dhi.
"The J-Lure was destroyed long ago with the rest of the Orion
squadron,
rekkhai! Incoming!"
Kirk sat on the bridge of the Ju`lang, orbiting their main base,
as he
watched t`Kleir at Helm.
"Rekkhai, reports coming in from our assault fleet. The Rihannsu
Outpost Re`hal has been destroyed" Ghire said.
Kirk smiled, "Ah, excellent"
"...but they have taken heavy losses"
Kirk's smile quickly turned into a frown as he stood, turning,
"How
heavy?"
"242 Cardassian warships lost, 13 Rihannsu, and 8 Orion. 103
more ships
critically damaged"
"What happened?"
"It would appear that 300 Warbirds decloaked nearby the base's
position
just prior to our attack"
"They knew we were coming..."
"Or perhaps not" piped in t`Kleir, turning in her seat, "I
intercepted
many Rihannsu transmissions while looking for you, and they were
assigning large numbers of Warbirds, cloaked, to bases, in the case of
your attacking it"
Kirk nodded, frowning.
"We destroyed the base, and 287 Warbirds before the others
disengaged,
rekkhai"
"That isn't good enough! We cannot match them ship for ship yet"
exclaimed Kirk.
"Ie, rekkhai, but keep in mind that a majority of the Cardassian
cruisers sent to us are Galor types 3 and 4, not the upgraded type 5. No
one vessel can take on a Warbird one-on-one, we had the advantage in
numbers, otherwise our losses would have been much greater" said Ghire,
calmly.
Kirk sighed. "Did they at least give off the impression they
were going
in the opposite direction of us?"
"Ie, rekkhai"
"Very well, plot a course to rendezvous with the Warbirds Grisak
and
Ursa, and then take us to the Romulan convoy heading for Gorwah"
"Ie" said t`Kleir, tapping at her console.
"I will be in my office, Boheeka will want to know of the recent
attack. You have control, Ghire"
"Ie, rekkhai" replied Ghire, as he stared at t`Kleir from the
Tactical
console, thinking to himself...
"Are au certain you wish to recruit these people, rekkhai?" asked
Ghire, looking at an ISD of names.
Kirk nodded. "Yes, we need to begin stage two of our war:
intelligence
operations. We need to show Kazan that we can do things beside hit and
run"
Ghire nodded, "Ie, rekkhai. But are au certain we can trust
these
people?". He looked down the list, and began reading off names, sounding
optimistic. "Nokall, a bartender? Veela, a Bajoran teenage female? Judge
Payne, a petty bounty hunter for nothing more than personal gain?"
Kirk smiled. "I know you have your concerns, Ghire, but trust
me. I
have had former dealings with these people, two of them in very
unpleasant circumstances which we got through"
"Ie. Your affair on the Jem`Hadar base"
Kirk shot a look at Ghire, "How did you know?"
"..au told me, rekkhai"
Kirk's face was blank for a few moments, before he smiled. "Of
course,
I remember now. But yes, all three have their own qualities. And you
have recalled the members of the Titans to the base?"
Ghire nodded. "Ie, rekkhai, they will be arriving in three days.
I have
also almost completed my training of the officers under us for various
other assignments"
"Excellent" Kirk said. "Good, then I will go and recruit these
men
myself. Where is it that they are, again?"
Ghire looked back at the ISD. "Nokall is currently at a hotel on
Nimbus
III. Veela is on Bajor, and Payne is on the UCIP SuperStation"
Kirk nodded. "Very well, I will return in two weeks. Continue
carrying
out the plans I have left for you. You are in charge, Ghire", and he
smiled, "Take care of my daughter"
Ghire nodded, "Ie...rekkahi"
Smelling the air at the bar 'Easy Way' on Nimbus III made Kirk
remember
why he didn't visit the place often. The RES Ju`lang was in orbit,
cloaked, since other Romulan vessels were in the area.
Kirk's robe hid everything but his eyes, which he used to look
around
the bar. He spotted Nokall behind the bar, smiling and talking to a
customer. He walked over.
"... so then I was forced to *open up* the Talarians eyeball,
a-",
Nokall stopped mid-sentence, seeing a fully robed man in front of him.
The two men exchanged stares for several moments. The Tamarian Nokall
was talking to sat up and left the area, expecting trouble.
"Is there something I can do for you?" asked Nokall, curiously.
"A
drink, perhaps"
Kirk shook his head, "No thank you"
Nokall blinked, as he recognized the voice, and his own become a
whisper, leaning forward. "Kirk?"
Kirk nodded, "Yes, Nokall"
"What in *blazes* are you doing *here*? Aren't you suppose to be
off,
*saving* Romulus or something?" asked Nokall, a smirk on his face.
"I don't have time for games, I need you to join me"
"....why?"
"I need someone I can trust. You were a main reason why I lived
back at
that prison camp. I'll owe you a favor"
Nokall smiled, "I thought you already did?"
"I'll owe you two, then"
"Far be it for *me* to turn down the opportunity to hold now
one, but
*two* favors on people" Nokall said, smiling, and then gestured his hand
to the door, "Lead on!"
Bajor was beautiful as always. Kirk had always admired the
different
colors around the planet. He had been to Deep Space 9 a number of times,
sometimes for drinks, sometimes for fighting. Kirk found himself
thinking about Garak, and then about Gul Dukat, when Nokall nudged him
into the temple.
"Kirk. Why have you come?" asked a young woman's voice.
The teenage Bajoran was kneeling, her eyes shut, looking at an
Orb. It
was obvious her powers had not diminished since he last saw her.
Nokall sat to the side as Kirk walked towards Veela.
"Greetings, Veela" Kirk said, smiling, "It has been a long time"
"Not long enough, Kirk"
Kirk frowned, "Have I done something to offend you?"
Veela sat up, and turned to face him. "You have turned into a
monster,
Ty. I saved your life, I healed you, and then you went off and killed
thousands and thousands of people, even millions and millions. Their
blood is on *my* hands now. If I hadn't healed you, you would still be
dead on that Jem`Hadar prison camp in the Gamma Quadrent, your flesh
rotten"
Kirk blinked, and suddenly immense sadness took over him. "I
know,
Veela...I've done some horrible things, but...I don't know how,
but..I've changed, for the better", and he smiled, "I'm leading a
rebellion in the Empire right now, actually. I want to restore some
sense of democracy to the Empire, let the people have a say"
"None of this concerns me, Kirk. All I know is that I have been
begging
forgiveness from the Prophets ever since I got word of your attack of
StarBase 220, and the hundreds of innocent lives you took that day, and
the bloody war that followed because of your actions"
"I...was hoping you'd join me, Veela. Someone with your powers
would be
gre-"
"No. Leave"
"Bu-"
"*Leave*, Kirk"
Kirk frowned, hurt. But he nodded, giving a slight bow, and
turning
around, walking out with Veela, as she returned to her praying.
Kirk made sure not to think about what she had said. Any
thoughts about
the things he had done would drive him mad, he had to keep a disciplined
mind, on strictly business.
And that business hadn't been entirely successful yet. He had
gotten
Nokall, but not Veela. Now he had to travel to the UCIP SuperStation,
which luckily wasn't far away, and see what the Judge had to say...
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