Well..the little 'quickie' story I wrote has swelled in size
to about 100kb. Ah well, such are the vagaries of fanfic
writing. :)

I apologize for sitting on my ass for the last 2 months. :(

Now, I'll start writing IP 4. It's gonna be a doozy! 

<BEGIN>

	Gul Elim leaned back into his chair, studying the latest
orders from Cardassia. Central Command had recently discovered
a strange space-time distortion in his battlegroup's patrol
sector.

	His orders were to investigate the anomaly, and take
whatever actions he deemed necessary to ensure the safety of
the Cardassian Empire, if it came down to that.

	"Helmsman, lay in a course for the Loonis system,
Warp seven. Signal the rest of the battlegroup to do so
as well."

	The battlegroup, which consisted of three Galor-class
warships and five smaller frigates, vanished into warp. It would
take the battlegroup nearly five days of travelling at warp to
reach the anomaly. The faster Federation starships could've done
the trip in three days, but Gul Elim was willing to take the speed hit
for the ruggedness and dependability of a Cardassian
warship.

[Five days later - The Loonis System]

	The fleet was arrayed around the anomaly. On the
bridge of the _Oppressor_, Gul Elim calmly awaited his
sensor officer's report.

	The sensor officer got up from his station
and walked to the Gul. "Gul, initial readings indicate
that it's a wormhole, and that it's a stable one as
well."

"Stable you say?" 

	With that, Elim began to contemplate the options
open to him. He could report this to Central Command, and
gain some accolade for being the discoverer of the wormhole, 
which could give Cardassia it's own trade route, to counter 
the one the accursed Bajorans had taken from them. 

	Or, he could take the initative and explore the
area on the other side of the wormhole; if he bought back
some spoils from the other side, his status would increase
more than if he'd just simply reported his findings.

"Helm, take us into the wormhole. Signal the rest of the
fleet to follow."

"Sir, why aren't we contacting Cardassia about this
discovery," questioned his first officer. "Surely they
can send better equipped ships than ours."

	Elim sighed. This first officer was only a slight
improvement. The previous one had been plotting to overthrow
him, and he had him executed. However, the replacement he'd
recieved was little improvement. At least the last one
had been able to think for himself, in terms of gaining
personal glory. This one thought only about following orders.

	Well, you couldn't win them all. He turned to face
the man.

	"Let me explain something to you. _I_ am a Gul. 
_You_ are a mere Commander. _I_ question your orders, not
the other way around. Now do as I say, before I have you 
demoted!"

	The officer looked like he was ready to burst any
moment, but he then turned and stormed off the bridge.

_Well, there's one pest gone_, thought Elim. He then signalled
for the helmsman to carry out his orders. The fleet surged forward
and disappeared into the wormhole's mouth.

[Imperial Outpost SXD-12345 - H'pang System - The Outer Rim]

	Commander Kynes Highwind sat at his desk, filing 
the latest paperwork Imperial High Command had sent him.
As others had remarked before, the Imperial Navy seemed
to have a foolproof system to keep from having to pay
pensions - They gave officers so much paperwork that 
they'd go insane from trying to make head or tails of
it.

	He finished shoving the last of the paperwork
into it's assigned cubbyhole, and turned around to
look out his office's transparisteel window onto
his command.

	Platforms were the dull reality of the Imperial
Navy. Most of the officers who graduated from the Academy
weren't assigned to the glamourous Star Destroyers, or even
to the older ships of the fleet. 

	Instead, they were assigned to one of the innumerable
planetary outposts or platforms scattered all over Imperial-held
space. However, Highwind didn't regret being assigned to Outpost
SXD-12345 that much. For an officer who'd served for only ten years,
he held almost unimaginable power in the form of the Platform's three
starfighter squadrons and the two System Patrol Craft assigned to
the platform.

	If he'd been assigned to a Star Destroyer, the most he'd 
command by now would've been a turbolaser battery. Instead, he
commanded the equivalent of a Nebulon-B frigate.

	But there were drawbacks. For the last year he'd served as
platform commander, there'd been only one major enagement, and that
had been with pirates, whose R-41 Starchasers had fallen easily to
his platform's TIE Fighter squadron and TIE Interceptor squadron.

	The Corvette from which the pirates had been operating
from had been taken out easily by his TIE Bomber squadron. Since
then, the area had been quiet. 

	God, what he'd give for some action!

[60 lightyears away]

	The wormhole's mouth opened, and disgorged the Cardassian
battlegroup. Immediately, the battlegroup's sensors began blasting 
out waves of subspace emissions, scanning the local area for 
signs of ships or planets. 

	"Sir, the computer has calculated our position. We've
appeared roughly a million lightyears from our last position. 
Even at maximum warp, it would take us seven thousand years
to travel back home."

	At that news, Gul Elim leaned back in his command chair,
astounded at the revelation. "Seven thousand years..." His voice
trailed off into nothing. 

	Suddenly, he snapped out, "Is the wormhole stable? I don't
want to get stuck here."

	"Gul, do not worry. The wormhole is stable for the present 
being. However, my readings indicate that it is slowly becoming 
unstable and will eventually collapse in one year, no more, no less."

	This caused Elim to relax considerably. "Good. Have you
detected anything of interest nearby?"

	"Not yet, Gul. Our sensor pulses are nearing maximum range. 
We should be able to tell with certanity in a few seconds. Ah, there
we are. We've detected a star system with a large amount of
subspace emissions radiating from it sixty light years away."

"Good. Lay in a couse for it and enage." ordered Elim.

	The battlegroup elongated, and in a flash of light, entered
warp. 

[Three days later]

	On board the Imperial _Lambda_-class shuttle _Juno_, 
Lieutenant Krej tried to fight off boredom. It was bad enough
that he'd been assigned to the Outer Rim, but he'd been assigned
to the regular weekly cargo shuttle run from Vikol to resupply
Outpost SXD-12345.

	The damned run took up nearly two days each week. Time
he could've spent ogling the girls in the town near the main 
Imperial garrison on Vikol was instead spent staring into
the endless blue monotony of hyperspace.

	Little did Krej know that his routine was about
to be rudely interupted. At that moment, the _Juno_'s course
intersected with the Cardassian Battlegroup in warp.

	The resulting effect from the two different drive
systems intersecting in the same spot in hyperspace and it's
counterpart, realspace, was to act as if an interdictor had
been placed in their paths. Both the battlegroup and the shuttle
dropped to sublight.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

	Chaos reigned across the bridge. For some strange 
reason, they'd been slammed out of warp, and an alien craft
was directly in front of them.

	Elim wasted no time in making his decision. "Open
a channel to that craft. Tell them to heave to and be boarded."

	Already, he was trying to count the boost to his career he'd
recieve when he delivered all this new technology to Cardassia that
he'd plundered from this galaxy.

[Shuttle _Juno_]

	_Damn, Damn!_ thought Krej. This had always been a milk
run. Why did this have to happen now, to *him*?!? Suddenly, the
comm panel began to blink. He glanced at it. Apparently the aliens
were sending him some sort of transmission on...wait. That couldn't
be true. Nobody used it nowadays. Nobody important. Only Pirates
used subspace transmissions because they couldn't afford the
more common Holo-Net systems.

	Switching on the speakers, he listened to what the aliens
were saying. Pure gibberish. However, there was an unmistakable...
tone about the transmission. If it wasn't speaking gibberish, he'd
swear it was a fellow Imperial. The arrogant, contemptous tone fit
the Imperial mold to a T.

	Also, along with the tone, there was a...feeling about the 
transmission. No matter what language beings spoke, the words
"Don't move, prepare to be boarded!" were universal.

	He rammed the throttles to maximum thrust. Several meters 
aft of him, the shuttle's twin Cygnus Spaceworks Ion Engines roared 
to life, spitting blue flame from their nozzles, fed by the nigh 
inexhaustible output of the shuttle's Solar Ionization Reactor.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

	Gul Elim and the rest of his crew watched the viewscreen,
mouths agape at the incredible display of acceleration the
shuttle had displayed. 

	Finally, Elim recovered enough from his shock to shout,
"Tractor that bastard! I *want* that shuttle!"
	
	The crewmembers of the fleet began to comply. On each
ship, the main tractor beam emitters came to life. 

"Sir, we can't tractor him! He's out of range!" shouted the
weapons officer.

"Already? Well, lay in a course to intercept him. Warp two."

"Course laid in, Gul." came the reply.

"Excellent. Enage."

[Shuttle _Juno_]

	For the first time since this little encounter had begun,
Krej smiled. He'd easily outrun those alien ships. Even Bulk
Freighters were faster then them. Suddenly, the alien ships 
appeared to elongate and race towards him at an incredible 
speed.

	In seconds, they were in front of him. That was impossible!
You couldn't break the FTL barrier in this universe! Suddenly,
the _Juno_ quivered with the unmistakable feeling of a tractor
lock. Seconds later, the shuttle quivered again. It seemed
that they were using multiple tractor beams on him. 

	Why? This wasn't a cap ship. It was just a small, tiny
shuttle. Either their tractor technology was deficient, or they
didn't generate enough power to stop him with one of their ships
alone.

	Even though he was trapped, he still had one last duty:
to warn Outpost SXD-12345. He activicated the Holo-Net panel,
set it to the outpost's location and began transmitting.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

"Gul, we've detected a power surge in what appears to be 
their communications system!" shouted the Weapons officer.

	Inwardly, Elim swore. They'd lost the advantage of
surprise. However, it'd probably be offset by the information
they'd squeeze out of the prisoner. 

	Minutes later, the alien shuttle had been hauled into
the shuttlebay of the _Oppressor_ and surrounded by armed 
combat troops. 

[Interior of the _Juno_]

	Krej gripped the Blas-Tech DL-44 blaster pistol tightly
in his hand. This specific model had an incredible recoil for
it's size, since it fired high powered rifle bolts of the kind
used by the E-11. The power of the weapon was enough to burn 
through even Stormtrooper armor in one shot, but the power supply
was tiny for it's size and the barrel had to be replaced
regularly, but kilogram for kilogram, you couldn't get a more
powerful weapon.

	The shuttle's forward hatch blew inwards in a shower
of sparks. Through the smoke, he could see several shapes
moving towards him. He lined-up the barrel with one of
the shapes' center and pulled the trigger.

	The shape went down, a smoking hole in it's chest. 
He resighted the weapon, and managed to squeeze off two 
more rounds before his world suddenly went dark. 

[Interrogation Chamber of the _Oppressor_]

	Elim watched the human (that had been quite a surprise)
be interrogated by his best interrogator. The man had managed to
resist much longer than any previous human had ever done, but 
Cardassian 'interrogation' methods were particularly brutal. 
Eventually, even the hardest person cracked.

	The human's breaking point had been an hour ago. Since
then, he'd been quite informative. Already the information
gained from him was worth the lives of his three best
troopers, who had died when the human's strange weapon
blasted through their armor like it hadn't been there.

	He'd been finally bought down by a stunner set to 
wide beam. (Unlike the Federation, the Cardassian Empire
specialized it's weapons. There were the normal Phasers,
with only one setting, Kill; and there were the specialized
weapons designed to capture prisoners for interrogation.)

	Apparently, humans were the major race in this
'Galactic Empire' which dominated this galaxy. It had
been a shock to him when the human revealed the meaning
of the term 'Base Delta Zero'. Such an operation - the 
slagging of a world to render it uninhabitable seemed 
far beyond human morality. Apparently these humans 
gave it no more thought than a Cardassian would.

	Elim had been brought up, along with every  
Cardassian, to believe that humans were the inferior
species, and would never amount to nothing because
of their pacifism. 

	The existence of a group of humans who thought
like Cardassians and dressed like them, therefore made
his head spin. Only moments ago, the prisoner had mentioned
something about an 'Imperial Interrogation droid'.

	These humans had taken quite a liking to the fine and 
delicate art of interrogation, even going as far to create
an android designed just for interrogations. They would
be formidable opponents, but would fall, as others had, 
before the Cardassian Empire.

	Several hours later, Elim stepped onto the bridge,
with a PADD in his hand detailing the interrogation of the
prisoner. He now knew what was 30 lightyears away - a lone 
Imperial outpost, ripe for the plucking. 

	With a sigh, he sat down in his throne. From
his seat, he watched his crew scurry to carry out *his*
bidding. The feeling of power was intoxicating; no wonder
so many captains after a tour, transferred into positions
that gave them even _more_ power. Power, and the machinery
of fear necessary to maintain that power, was what ran
the Cardassian Empire. 

	"Lay in a course for the..." Elim paused, trying
to pronounce the unfamilar word. "H'pang system. Maximum
warp; Enage."

	The stars in the viewscreen elongated to streaks
as the battlegroup accellerated to warp. 

"Gul, what do we do with the human?" asked his first officer.

"He's served our purposes. We no longer need him.
You may...dispose of him in a manner you see fit."
 
	The first officer nodded, and left to complete his
grisly task.

_Soon, Commander Highwind, you and your precious little Outpost
will be in *my* hands, and you will beg for your life, like the
dog you are._ thought Elim.

[Imperial Outpost SXD-12345 - A few hours later]

"I am quite sorry Commander, but the only ship we can spare is the 
ISD _Fury_, and that is when she's finished with her patrol."

	Highwind sat fuming in his office. He couldn't believe the
gall of this Admiral! He was to be attacked in less than twelve days,
and this pompous asshole who was sitting in the Admiral's quarters of
a Star Destroyer was telling him not to worry.

"The _Fury_ should finish her patrol in eleven days. She can then come
to your aid."

Highwind couldn't take it any longer. He exploded.

"You fool! You're not the one sitting in a poorly-defended outpost
that's about to come under attack! Reassign the _Fury_ immediately and
intercept those aliens!"

	Admiral Timothy Jones' face flashed with anger. "Now you
listen up, you little pissant Commander! Do you know who you're
talking to? One more outburst from you, and I'll have your ass on a
solar satellite orbiting Coruscant faster than you can blink!"

Jones paused to catch his breath, then continued his blistering
assault.

"You said it yourself, Highwind! Those aliens won't arrive for another
12 days! We have plenty of time! However, you refuse to see those
facts. Why should I interrupt the schedule of a _Star Destroyer_,
which would cost countless millions of credits just because you feel
that you're being threatened by some aliens whose FTL drive is limited
to only 2.5 lightyears a _day_?"

By now, Jones' voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"If the all-mighty Commander Highwind cannot hold off such a
*primitive* race for a few hours, then why should he be in command of
a deep-space outpost, when a Solar Satellite would be more suited
to your obviously...limited skills?"

"This conversation is over!"

With that, Admiral Jones' face disappeared from the Holo-Net projector
in the Captain's office on Outpost SXD-12345, to be replaced by a
floating Imperal emblem.

	Kynes jumped out of his plush chair and began to stalk his
office, spouting off a near-continous string of expletives, some
questioning the Admiral's parentage. 

	Finally, when he was calmed down sufficiently, he sat down in
his chair. Pushing the commlink button, he began to give orders for
what would come to be known as 'Highwind's Stand'.

"Robert, get me Lt. Commander Sheppard, on the double."

"Yessir."

[The Galor-class vessel _Oppressor_]

	Gul Elim walked across the hangar bay towards the team of
officers who were studying the captured alien craft.

	As he came within earshot of the craft, the officers and
technicians who were studying it stopped what they were doing and came
to attention, their boots clanging on the deck.

"Report."

	A young officer in a Lieutenant's uniform stepped forward.
"Gul Elim, we've only begun to examine the alien craft, but what we've
found so far is quite disturbing."

"Explain."

"Sir, even with our disruptor torches set to maximum, we can barely
cut the craft's hull. From our preliminary scans, it appears to be
made out of Neutronium, Duranium, and several other unidentified
materials. "

Confusion spread over Elim's face.

"Neutronium? How can that be? If it were made out of neutronium, then
it would mass more than our combined fleet put together. Indeed, it
would give a small planetoid a run for it's money on the mass scale."

Lieutenant Edam nodded, then replied. 

"We believe we have an explanation for this seeming discrepancy. It's
very hard to tell, what with the sensor gear we carry aboard, but the
only possible way this craft can be composed of neutronium and 
not mass as much as a small planetoid, is if the neutronium is merely
part of an alloy."

"In fact, the alloy used to make this craft probably has a strength
equal to or greater than pure neutronium, without the weight penalty.
However, the alloy used is much more susceptible to the NDF effect our
disruptors use than pure neutronium."

	Elim's brows furrowed in concentration as he considered the
effect this would have on his battle plans. 

	Finally, he spoke. "Issue new orders to the fleet. Whenever
possible, they are _not_ to use their disruptors. Instead, use
proximity fuzed photon torpedoes with full M/AM loads."

"But, Gul! That will severely deplete our antimatter supplies!"
protested Edam.

"All the antimatter in the world won't do us good if we're dead,
Lieutenant Edam. Do it."

[Imperial Outpost SXD-12345 - At the same time]

"Sir, Lt. Commander Sheppard reporting as ordered, sir."

	Kynes looked up from his desk to see the young starfighter
pilot who was Outpost SXD-12345's CAG (Commander Air Group) standing
in the doorway. 

"Oh. Come on in, Mark." 

	The two officers had hit it off from the moment they'd first
met each other, and they now were on a first name basis.

"Well, Kynes, did we get any help?"

"Yes, and no."

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" remarked Sheppard, a tone of
unease slipping into his voice.

"Admiral Jones has, in his infinite wisdom, decided to *not* divert
the _Fury_ from her regular patrol route. Instead, she'll finish her
patrol in eleven days, and *then*, she'll come to our aid."

	Sheppard's jaw dropped in shock. "What?!? Is he fucking
insane?!? Doesn't he realize how weak and undermanned we are?!"

"Half of our TIE Interceptors are down due to parts shortages!
Apparently, we're not important enough in the chain of command
to even rate the honor of *regular* resupplies for our most
advanced starfighters! All we ever get are TIE Fighter parts!"

"And now...", he paused for dramatic effect. "The first resupply
shuttle carrying the specialized TIE Interceptor parts we need
has been hijacked, and possibly destroyed by these aliens!

"Via!" exclaimed Sheppard, betraying his Friesian roots.
"I coulda gone with Alois, but no, I had to join the Imperial Navy!"

"Calm down, Mark. It's not as bad as it might be. We have eleven days
to plan our defense."

Sheppard's mouth dropped even further than it had done before.
"Eleven days? How the hell's that possible?!"

For the first time in the meeting, Kynes smiled. "Apparently, the
drive the aliens use for FTL travel is incredibly slow, amounting to
only 2.5 lightyears a *day*."

"And get this...they completely submerge most of their ships into
subspace, in order to get around the FTL barrier."

Slowly, a smile spread across Sheppard's face. They said it both at
the same time. "Subspace Jamming!"

They both moved to the holoprojector, and activicated it, calling
up a map of the nearby systems.

Kynes began to explain the situation in more detail to Sheppard.

	"So far, due to their heavy reliance on subspace immersion, 
we've been able to get an exact bead on their position and composition
with our passive sensors. They're currently 28 lightyears away from
us, and at their present rate of speed, they'll arrive in 11 days, 14
hours, and 24 minutes."

	On the glowing holographic starmap, a red dot appeared, with
a omnious red line extending towards the H'pang System. In glowing
red letters, 'ETA: 11d 14h 24m' appeared under the red line.

	"The Imperial Star Destroyer _Fury_ has been directed to,
once she's finished her patrol, to move to this system." On the
map, a blue dot appeared. The blue line wiggled all over the map 
before coming to H'Pang. The letters 'ETA: 12d 00h 12m' appeared.

	Sheppard's stomach felt uneasy. "Via, even if we *can* hold
out, which is a big *if*, a lot of us ain't gonna make it."

	Kynes grimly nodded in agreement. "However, there is *some*
hope. We've been able to work out a sketchy order of battle for
'em by counting the number of subspace distortions we've detected
and their magnitude. So far, we've been able to identify seven
distinct distortions. We've determined their size by looking at the
magnitude of the distortion they create. We're up against at least
three large cap ships and five small ones."

	For the next few minutes, the room was silent as both men
weighed the variables and thought out plans. Finally, Kynes spoke.

	"We'll send half of our starfighter complement and one of 
our SPCs to intercept them at the outer edge of the system." 

	Sheppard grimaced. "Kynes, this is gonna be real hard on
our TIE crews. A TIE really isn't built for long-term use. At the
best, it'll take them the better part of a day to arrive there, and
then they'll have to wait for the aliens."
 
	"*If* they survive, they'll have to return home the
same way they did. We're looking at a possible 24 hour-plus
mission. That's a entire day spent crammed into a tiny
cockpit wearing a suit that just barely manages to keep
you from freezing to death."

	"I know you and your boys'll hate it. But the farther
away we enage those aliens, the more damage we can inflict
on them before they get here." replied Kynes.

	Sheppard nodded. "Well, Kynes, I better get going,
so I can start cutting the mission orders and loadouts."

	"Very well. Dismissed."

	Sheppard saluted, then turned about and left. 
As the doors hissed closed behind Sheppard, Kynes turned
to the comm-unit built into his desk. 

	The unit beeped, and the Imperial logo popped up
onto the screen for a few seconds, before it disappeared,
to be replaced by the blackened face of Lieutenant Commander
Charles Glasgow, Outpost SXD-12345's Chief Engineer.

	"Sir, what is it? I've really got to get back to
work. That damn garbage compactor is acting up on us again."	

"Chuck, in the next week or so, we're gonna be straining
this station's offensive and defensive systems. We're probably
gonna take some bad hits. Is the reactor gonna be OK through
all this? We've been having some problems with it recently, as
you may remember."

At that, Charles grinned, "Don't worry. Mr. S5W won't let you 
down. Neither will I, for that matter."

	At that, Kynes smiled. Chuck always had a knack for
snappy phrases. 

"Good. Now, I want you to begin training your damage control
crews intensively in d/c prodecures. I'll order the other department
heads to do so as well."

"We've got eleven days to prepare for this fight. Let's use every
last second we have to our advantage."

[Bridge of the _Opressor_; Five Days Later]

"Roll hard to port!" shouted Gul Elim.

Slowly, the massive Galor-class veseel rolled. On the bridge, several
crew members, including Elim, were nearly thrown out of their seats as
the inertial dampeners tried, and failed to compensate for the sudden
manuvers.

Elim felt the sharp pain of the seatbelt cutting into his waist. The
other Guls had laughed at him, calling him 'Federation-lover' when
he'd installed these seatbelts all over the ship.

Stupid fools, the lot of them, thought Elim. Having the best
battleship in the Alpha-Quadrant doesn't do you one damn thing if
you're thrown out of your seat immediately following a nasty hit or
evasive manuvers.

If you can't reach your panel, you can't shoot back, or do any of the
other things that tend to increase your survival rate in a battle.

The viewscreen stopped it's sickening rotation, and the dampeners
finally caught up. 

The phaser blasts from the Peregrines had missed the _Opressor_ by
roughly a ship's length, due to their sudden manuvering.

It was time to return the favor. 

"Fire a full spread of torpedoes, NOW!" bellowed Elim.

From the _Opressor's_ launchers, a salvo of Photon torpedoes
burst out, and headed towards the Peregrines.

The Peregrines immediately began extreme evasive manuvers,
pulling off turns that they never should have been able to do.

However, it didn't help them much, since the proximity-fuzed 
photon torpedoes detonated at that moment.

The first 64 megaton detonation occured in the middle of
the wing of Peregrines. It didn't destroy any of the fighters, but
knocked several of them around enough to cause minor damage.

Another torpedo managed to find it's target, a damaged Peregrine.
The tiny ship flared into a mini-sun, then disappeared.

The second Peregrine managed to pull off a seemingly-impossible feat
of manuvering and evaded most of the torpedoes. However, a torpedo
managed to get close enough for it's proximity-sensor to detonate it.

The resultant explosion sent the Peregrine spinning through space. 

"Target that craft with our disruptors, and fire!" snapped Elim.

From the _Opressor's_ main disruptor array, leapt a thin lance of
energy. It impacted the unshielded Peregrine, causing it's hull to 
glow. For a second, the tiny craft managed to resist the 
fury of a Galor-Class vessel's main disruptor array. 

Finally, it's hull gave up, and the ship exploded in a ball of
superheated gasses.

The third, and last Peregrine, seeing it's wing-mates destroyed,
suddenly made a suicide run towards the _Opressor_.

"Sir! He's going to ram us!" shouted the helmsman.

"Disable the safeties on the torpedoes, and FIRE!" yelled Elim.

A lone torpedo burst out of it's launcher and headed towards
the incoming Peregrine. It hit the Peregrine nose-on, and
the tiny fighter was destroyed in the explosion. 

However, the Peregrine had gotten within 200m of the 
_Opressor's_ shields when it was destroyed. The force 
of the explosion of both the torpedo and the fighter 
slammed into the _Opressor's_ shields. 

On the bridge, control panels exploded, and the lights 
started to flicker. 

Over the din of a roaring fire on the bridge, a female voice
was heard.

"This simulation is terminated. Final Victor: Cardassian Union."

The battered and broken bridge of the _Opressor_ faded from
sight, to be replaced with the black walls of a holodeck.

"That was much better than last time. We managed to destroy
the Imperials without losing as many ships as last time." said
Elim.

The rest of his bridge crew nodded, glad to have this 
latest simulation over with. Now they could go and get
drunk.

The door to the holodeck hissed open, revealing the
drab interior of Cargo Bay One on the _Opressor_. 

As the rest of his command crew fanned out of the holodeck,
towards sources of intoxication, Elim stood there, admiring
the boxy cube-shape of a Federation holodeck.

Several thick cables ran from the holodeck to a receptacle
in the cargo bay's far wall. They provided power to the
holodeck.

The first time he'd fired it up, he'd been astonished at
it's power curve. By Cardassia, the thing ate energy like
a thirsty wompat!  

The crew had nearly mutinied when he'd set the thing off-limits to
'recreational' uses. Dammit, this was a Cardassian warship, not some
holo-budoir!

It had been a shame to have to kill some of the more
particularly troublesome crewmembers, but well, they had
to be reminded that this wasn't some Federation ship where
discipline (if any) was lax. After the first few executions,
things had settled back down again.

That holodeck had seemed at first, to be more trouble than
it was worth, but it had rapidly paid off in training his crew. They
were now the best in the fleet, and had aced the annual fleet
excercises for the last few years.

After a moment of admiring the holodeck, Elim walked out of
the cargo bay.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

"Gul on the Bridge!" cried a young crewer as Elim stepped out
of the turbolift and onto the bridge.

Elim merely nodded. "What is our position currently?"

The young first officer stepped out of the Gul's chair. 

"Sir, we're presently on course to the H'Pang system,
and we'll arrive in six days."

"Excellent," said Elim as he sat down into his command chair.

[Inside TIE Interceptor Charlie 1 at that moment]

"Break left, dammit!" shouted Sheppard. As he was saying it, he
pulled his control yoke hard to the left, causing his TIE Interceptor
to strain in protest. 

He narrowly missed the bridge of a Dreadnaught, and streaked past the
hull, the Dreadnaught's guns firing in a vain attempt to hit the
fast-moving T/I.

However, not all of his wingmates were as good, or
as lucky (take your pick), and through his right viewscreen,
he saw a T/I crash into the Dreadnaught.

"Reform! Reform!" he shouted into the radio.

With practiced military precision, the remaining 
pilots of Charlie group re-formed, closing up the
gap left in their formation by the destroyed T/I.

Pulling back on his yoke, Sheppard sent his craft
soaring above the battle. His wingmates likewise did
the same. 

Below them was arrayed a perilous sight: a pair of
Dreadnaughts and two Corelllian Corvettes were attacking 
Outpost SXD-12345. The Outpost's shields were holding, 
but not for long. 

The Outpost was pouring shot after shot into the enemy
ships from it's defenses, but they were the lower-powered
laser cannons, not the capital-ship turbolasers necessary
to penetrate cap-ship shields.

In the far distance several slowly spreading clouds could
be seen. Those clouds used to be a a Dreadnaught and three 
Corvettes. TIE Bomber Group Echo had managed to take
those ships out before they were destroyed.

So far, mixing it up in the melee below was T/F Alpha, 
T/I Delta, and T/B Foxtrot. So far, T/F Beta had been
completely destroyed, along with T/B Echo. Out of 36
starfighters, they were down to just 14.

Looking over his tactical map, Sheppard quickly located
a suitable target. Keying his mike, he growled "Charlie Wing,
form up and attack target Green 5. We'll launch our Concussions
at maximum range, and then perform a high-speed strafing attack."

The rest of the pilots *tsked* in response. Good. Sheppard sighted
in their target, a lone Corellian Corvette, which was spitting laser
fire from it's six laser turrets. When he was above it, he pushed
forward on the yoke, and dove down towards his target, followed by the
other four surviving T/Is of Charlie Wing.

In typical Imperial precision, all five of the T/Is were
flying practically solar panel to solar panel when they
launched a volley of Concussion missiles. 

Every TIE Interceptor in Interceptor Squadron A123-KL4
had been modified by Glasgow's people to carry jerry-rigged
concussion missile launchers, for a total of four missiles
carried per T/I.

The ten missiles streaked out away from the T/Is and slammed
into the Corvette's shields. For a brief moment, the Corvette
was wreathed in the fiery light of the missiles' directed-fusion
warheads, and then her shields collapsed under the stress.

"Her shields are down; let's go for the kill," ordered Sheppard
as he switched to quad-linked lasers.

The five T/Is screamed down towards the now-shieldless Corvette,
looking like birds of prey with their dagger-shaped wings. 

The second the targeting cursor glowed bright greeen, Sheppard
mashed the fire buttons. From the wingtips of his craft
leapt green lances of death. 

The space surrounding the Corvette lit up with green and red beams
as the Corvette's gunners exchanged fire with Charlie Wing. However,
their gesture of defiance was useless, as Green-5 had taken too much
damage from the earlier Concussion missile attack. Charlie Wing's
trained pilots had attacked the one weak-spot on a Corvette, the main
fin, which turned into vapor under the hammerblows of multiple laser
bolts. 

A small series of secondary explosions began to rock Green-5s engines,
and quickly led to a massive reactor failure. The Corvette disappeared 
in a flash of light.

[NOTE: This is realistic. The Corellian Corvette has one flaw in an
otherwise excellent design. If you hit it in the right place, it
causes vibrations that damage the engines and force them to either 
a) shut the reactor down, or b) suffer a catastrophic reactor failure.
It was through this, that Lord Vader's ISD managed to capture the
_Tantive IV_ in ANH.]

The T/Is of Charlie wing screamed away from the exploding Corvette at 
nearly 110 Megalights, easily outrunning the explosion. 

"Good work boys, another one down!" exclaimed Sheppard, before
settling down to business. "All Wings, form up on Charlie Wing. Our
target: Red One."

Soon, the surviving 14 starfighters were arrayed in a loose formation,
with the T/Is leading, and the T/Fs escorting the T/Bs. 

"This is Charlie leader. I want Foxtrot to go for Red One's shield
generators, while Charlie, Delta, and Alpha keep that Dreadnaught's
gunners busy."

"I want you to attack from different vectors, in order to split
his fire." ordered Sheppard.

"This is Alpha leader. Am complying."

"This is Delta leader. Roger Wilco."

"This is Foxtrot leader. We're going in now."

"Charlie wing, switch to your Concussion missiles and target his gun
turrets." said Sheppard, selecting his last pair of missiles. "But
wait until Foxtrot has knocked down his shields before you fire."

A laser bolt narrowly missed Sheppard's command ball,
lighting up the entire cockpit with red light. In response,
Sheppard began to jink, throwing off the enemy gunners' aim;
but also reducing his chances for a missile lock to zero.

Through his left viewport, Sheppard saw the TIE Bombers loose
their deadly loads of Proton Torpedoes in two salvoes.

The torpedoes slammed into the Dreadnaught's shield generators, 
temporarily weakening the shield bubble around them. "Quick! 
Before he can reinforce them, attack!" shouted Sheppard, as
he put the T/I into a screaming dive towards the shield generator
that was shielding the Dreadnaught's port side. 

In his HUD, the Dreadnaught was varying shades of red. A deep red
showed that the shields were full strength. A pale red color, or no
color at all, showed that the shields were close to collapse or non-
existent. The area around the port shield generator was just the 
faintest shade of red, and darkening rapidly. There wasn't enough
time for a proper lock, so Sheppard let the missiles fly, trusting
his shooting skills to do the job. 

The missiles flew right into the weakly-shielded generator, causing
it to explode in a massive burst of released energy. The dreadnaught's
entire port shield array collapsed totally, with no chances of it 
being restored, short of a lengthy yard refit.

"All wings! His port shields are down! Concentrate 
your attack there!" shouted Sheppard.

The Dreadnaught was a stout ship, and absorbed the 
hundreds of laser blasts now pounding it's unshielded 
port hull. Finally, after withstanding the onslaught
for nearly twenty seconds, the first major hull breaches
occured. 

As atmosphere began to leak out through it's shattered
hull, the Dreadnaught known as Red One began to slowly
spin out of control. 

"Leave him, he's no longer a threat to the Outpost! 
Concentrate on Red Three!" ordered Sheppard. 

The last undamaged Dreadnaught was exchanging fire with
the Outpost, and the strain of the battle was beginning
to tell on SXD-12345's shields. 

Through his forward transparisteel viewport, Sheppard
could see Red Three awash in explosions as Proton
Torpedoes and Concussion Missiles impacted on her
shields. 

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, Sheppard saw his
wingman, Charlie Three, get clipped by a laser bolt. 
The doomed pilot and his ship spiralled towards
the Dreadnaught, finally impacting on the forward
screens.

His HUD beeped. SXD-12345's shield status was now critical,
and a few shots were now impacting on it's hull. They had
to end this battle *now*, before they had no home base
to return to. 

Suddenly, Sheppard saw an opening. The latest volley of
Torpedoes from T/B Foxtrot had weakened the Dreadnaught's
bridge shielding. 

Sheppard considered his options. He was out of concussion
missiles, and his laser cannons wouldn't do much damage against
the heavy armor of the bridge.

In a split-second, he made his decision. He routed all power
to the engines, boosting his top speed to nearly 135 Megalights.

The massive Dreadnaught filled his viewport. Pulling his stick
to the left and down ever so slightly, he put his craft into
a tight, sharp 'Wotan Weave'. 

Sheppard gritted his teeth seconds before he slammed into
the Dreadnaught's bridge. 

A bright white light filled his vision, and slowly faded, leaving
him staring at the walls of a Imperial Starfighter simulator. On
the main screen, the words 'PILOT KIA' were flashing red. 

For another ten minutes, the battle raged on without him.
When it was over, they'd managed to defeat the enemy, but
with severe losses. The Outpost had suffered severe damage,
and all but 4 starfighters had been destroyed. 

Still, it was much better than their first time flying the simulated
mission, when the Outpost had been destroyed, with the enemy suffering
the loss of only one Dreadnaught and two Corvettes.

Minutes later, all of the pilots were in the briefing room for the
post-mission analysis.

For thirty minutes, Sheppard critiqued their performance
in the mission just recently concluded.

"Performance was much improved over the last few times, but
there were still too many instances of pilots going on their own."

Sheppard's face took on an impassioned look as he repeated the
mantra that was drummed into every Imperial Navy Starfighter
pilot from Day One of their training.

"*Always* stay in formation, unless directed otherwise by 
your wingleader! A single TIE cannot take on a X-Wing and
survive, but an entire wing of them will devastate that
X-Wing in short order!"

"Some of you jerk-offs are forgetting that you're in a lone unshielded
TIE! Leave the solo fights to the Rebel *scum* in their shielded
fighters! Attack in groups, taking advantage of your superior speed
and manuverability to get in, attack the enemy, and be gone before he
realizes what the hell just happened!"

"Do you understand me?" ordered Sheppard.

A thunderous "Sir, yes, Sir!" came from the assembled pilots. 

"Good. This meeting is dismissed."

The room quickly emptied of pilots as they left to find other more
appealing pursuits, such as reading (ok; more like staring) at
cheap porno-vids.

[Main Hangar Bay - Ten minutes later]

The bay was like a scene straight out of Dante's Inferno, with sparks
flying from everywhere as techs field-modified the outpost's
complement of starfighters. The overworked lifesupport
system couldn't keep up with all the waste heat being generated by the
welders, and as a result, the bay was hellishly hot. 

Standing in the middle of this spectacle, suffering in his thick
Imperial uniform, was Chief Engineer Charles Glasgow. 

"No, no! You weld them *there*, not there!" shouted Glasgow as he
showed a tech the proper way to weld the bracing for the concussion
missile launchers onto a TIE Interceptor's solar pylons.

Sheppard walked next to Glasgow, and waited for him to finish showing
the tech the proper way to weld the support pylons before announcing
his presence. 

"How are the modifications going on our craft?"

Glasgow turned to face the CAG, his face blackened with soot, and his
once-crisp uniform now stained with lubricating fluid and sweat. 

"We're ahead of schedule, despite some...slowdowns in modifying the
Interceptors. We finished updating the flight control programs on the
TIE Fighters to Interceptor level first. We're now working
on the Interceptors."

Sheppard nodded, beginning to feel the heat. However, he kept the
stoic facade any proper Imperial officer was expected to keep. "Did
you have any problems with that program update? It's not supported or
recommended by Sienar."

Glasgow chuckled. "Of course not. The boys at Sienar didn't want to
jepardize the TIE Interceptor program, which was worth trillions of
credits, so they said that TIEs couldn't be upgraded to
Interceptor-level performance, even though the basic spaceframe
was more than capable of taking the additional stress of tighter turns
and more powerful engines."

"Hell, all they did was slap a new set of wings onto the TIE
spaceframe and call it a totally new craft."

Glasgow then lowered his voice to a whisper.

"With of course, the 'necessary' increases in cost."

Sheppard nodded. Everyone in the fleet knew of Sienar's talent for
gouging the Imperial Navy for as many credits as they could.

However, they had a remarkable talent for producing revolutionary
craft if asked to do so, as witnessed by the incredible TIE Avenger,
which was what the pilots were calling the production version
of Lord Vader's TIE Advanced x1 prototype.

Also, there were totally unsubstantated rumors of a new, super-secret
starfighter being developed at Sienars' research faculities. Nobody
in the Navy knew much about it, but the scuttlebutt was that it
was even more deadly than the Avenger, as if that was possible.

Sheppard's train of thought was suddenly interrupted. 

"So yeah, the TIEs will be capable of putting up with the additional
strain the manuverability patch'll put them up to."

"And the Interceptors?"

"Ah, the Interceptors. We're retrofitting them with a few concussion
missile launchers we found lying around. Each craft will carry two
launchers with two rounds loaded in each. We weren't able to 
fit any more in due to the additional size they would take up, and the
additional strain that they'd place on the wings."

Sheppard nodded. "Good work, Chuck. Maybe we'll be able to survive
this after all."

At that, Glasgow smiled sardonically. 

"I'll never understand you TIE pilots. Why do you fly those
deathtraps?"

"And why do you work next to a reactor that could vaporize you if it
went up?" replied Sheppard.

Chuck grinned. "Got me there."

Sheppard left the hangar bay, and headed for his quarters. His shift
was ending now, and he needed to have a shower to wash off the sweat
he'd accumulated standing in the hellishly-hot hangar bay, and to
replace his badly-stained uniform with a fresh one. 

As he came out of the shower, dripping water, he dialed up the laundry
computer and instructed it to have a fresh uniform ready for him
tomorrow morning.

With that done, Sheppard settled into his bunk, and was asleep within
minutes.

[ISD _Fury_ - four days later]

"Captain Boyd?"

"Yes?" 

The young lieutenant handed Boyd a datapad containing the results of
the sensor sweep of the Dilov system. It was exactly what he was
expecting: nothing.

"Good work Lieutenant Celes. Carry on."

Celes quickly snapped off a salute before returning to his comm-scan
station in the CIC of the _Fury_. 

Boyd allowed himself a few more moments of staring out the bridge
viewports at the beautiful dagger-shaped hull below.

_Sooner or later, you'll be mine,_ thought Boyd. 

_No more damn admirals to get in my way, telling me what to do. *I'll*
be the admiral instead._

Boyd smiled faintly at that thought.

After a moment of indulging himself in that particular fantasy, he
sighed and held up the datapad.

It was time to deliver this to the Admiral.

Minutes later, he was standing outside the entrance to the Admiral's
quarters, and he walked close enough to the door for his rank cylinder 
to register on the door's scanners. 

Admiral Jones looked at the display screen in his desk. So...Captain
Boyd was here, undoubtly to deliver the latest results of the scan 
of the Dilov system.
 
Punching the 'accept' button on his security panel, Jones let Boyd
into his office.

No matter how many times Boyd had been here, the sheer extravagance of
it always amazed him. The walls were literally covered with valuables
that Jones had 'liberated' during his career with the Imperial Navy. 

Jones' hard edged voice jerked him back into reality. "Report,
Captain; or did you come here to admire my collection?"

"Sir, here are the latest com-scan results for the Dilov system." With
that, Boyd handed the datapad over. 

Jones skimmed the report, and then threw it into a drawer in his desk.
Boyd had a...unpleasant look on his face.

"What's bothering you, Captain?"

Boyd collected himself, then replied. "Sir, I really do wish you'd
reconsider our current plan to relieve Outpost SXD-12345 in the H'Pang
system."

All of the false piety and sincerity in Jones' face disappeared, to be
replaced with intense hatred. "If that *scum* Highwind cannot
hold off against such an inferior enemy, then his death will do the
Imperial Navy a favor!"

"You are dismissed! Get out of my office!" yelled Jones.

Following proper Imperial discipline, Boyd saluted the admiral, did a
smart about-face, and marched out of the office. 

However, the moment the blast doors to Jones' office had hissed shut,
Boyd muttered under his breath words that would get him placed
before a firing squad if the Admiral ever found out:

"Incompetent asshole."

[One day later - Outpost SXD-12345's bridge]

"Mark, we've changed the plan slightly. We aren't sending a SPC to
help the TIEs at the intercept point. From the sims you've run over
the last two weeks, we've been able to determine the best position for
the SPCs."

Kynes pointed the holographic image of the outpost. 

"Here, directly under the outpost's main launch wings. Our mass will
hide the SPCs from enemy gravimetric sensors, while our jamming
equipment will degrade his ability to detect the SPCs."

On the holo, the SPCs appeared under the main 'wings' of the station.

"We're going to hold them in reserve, and spring them when the enemy
least expects it."

Sheppard nodded, then spoke. "Kynes, Chuck has managed, through a
small miracle, to jerry-rig our six inoperative Interceptors enough to
allow them limited flight. They haven't been rigged with concussion
launchers, since we ran out of parts for those. One last thing; when I
say 'limited', I mean it. We probably'll get only a few hours at the
most out of those Interceptors, and that's if we're lucky."

Kynes nodded. "It's time to see our people off, Mark."

[Hangar 1 - Five minutes later]

The thunderous roar of ion engines going full thrust filled the
hangar. It was said that the noise alone was enough to kill a human
without ear protection. 

In the middle of this, flight deck crew were conducting a remarkable
ballet, skillfully avoiding the starfighters as they dropped from
their gantries and headed out into space.

Through a transparisteel window in the hangar control room, Sheppard
and Highwind watched TIE after TIE scream out of the bay, each one
loaded for bear.

"Now comes the hardest part. The waiting."  said Sheppard.

[22 hours later - The Cockpit of T/F Alpha 1]

Lieutenant Robert Williams suppresed a yawn. He'd been fighting
boredom in the cramped command ball of his TIE for the last 11 hours.
For the last five hours, it had been deathly cold, with the only
warmth brought on by pissing in his flight suit. Piloting TIEs for
extended periods was uncomfortable enough. It became positively
unbearable when the pilot's flight suit's heaters were shut down
to avoid detection.

The six TIE Fighters of Alpha wing and the six TIE Bombers of
Echo wing sat in formation in the outer edge of the system, 
with all active systems shut down to avoid detection. 

Suddenly, his com-panel beeped. It was the Outpost, signalling that
the alien ships were about to enter their sector. 

Williams began to push buttons and flick switches all over the
interior of his cockpit, iniating the start-up sequence. 

Slowly, his flight suit began to warm up for the first time in
nearly five hours, warming his now throughly-chilled bones.

Next to come on-line was the tiny SIR that provided primary power for
the flight and weapons systems. The huge panels on TIEs were in
actuality combination radiators/solar panels, that got rid of waste
heat, and provided emergency power for life-support in the unlikely
event that the SIR failed. 

Within minutes, the starfighters were all at normal power levels.
In accordance with their mission orders, all twelve pilots activicated
their jamming units.

Each starfighter's jamming suite didn't put out enough power to
degrade the warp fields of the battlegroup, but their combined power
was enough to do the job.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

The entire ship shuddered violently, throwing personnel who weren't
secured at their posts to the deck. Righting himself in his chair,
Elim looked at the viewscreen. Arrayed in front of them were
twelve tiny craft. Six of them were smaller than a shuttle, while
the other six were the same size as an average-sized warp-capable
shuttle. 

[Outpost SXD-12345's Bridge]

Kynes glanced at the tactical holoprojector in the middle of the 
bridge. It currently showed the alien fleet facing off against 
six TIE Fighters, and six TIE Bombers.

"Communications, open a channel to the alien vessels."

"Channel open, sir."  replied the comm officer.

Kynes took a deep breath, then spoke.

"Alien vessels, this is Commander Kynes Highwind, of Imperial Navy
Outpost SXD-12345. You are ordered to come to a full stop, and await
further instructions."

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

A heavy silence filled the bridge. How *dare* this *human* order
Cardassian warships around! 

Over the bridge speakers came the final insult of all:

"And if you do not follow our orders, you will be promptly destroyed.
Once again, you shall shut down your engines and await further
instructions. Our TIEs will see to it that you comply."

Through clenched teeth, Elim spoke. "Fire a full spread of photon
torpedoes at the larger alien craft."

From the forward launcher of the _Opressor_ came a salvo
of four photon torpedoes; each loaded with a full M/AM
load. 

However, the TIEs had been briefed to expect this kind of response,
and they had been continually manuvering to avoid becoming a sitting
duck. As the torpedoes headed towards Echo group, a remarkable display
happened.

The heavy, sluggish TIE Bombers immediately executed a near-perfect
starburst manuver. The torpedoes' manuvering systems couldn't keep up
with the TIEs, and after coasting through space for several thousand
kilometers, their fail-safes activicated, destroying them.

All except one. A single TIE Bomber had been slow to execute the
starburst. Whether it was due to equipment failure because of lack of
spare parts, or simple pilot error, nobody would know, for at that
moment, the photon torpedo passed close enough to the T/B
for it's proximity sensor to trip.

The resultant 64 megaton detonation blew the port solar panel off the
hapless craft, and sent it spiralling off into deep space, the pilot
dead from concussion.  

Now minus one craft, TIE Bomber group Echo reformed, with TIE Fighter
group Alpha flying point.

Looking out his transparisteel viewport, Lt. Williams considered his
options. CAG Sheppard had placed him in command of this detachment; he
wouldn't let Sheppard down. 

Making his decision, he activicated the intra-ship comm system. "Echo
wing, focus your fire onto the lead alien destroyer. Alpha wing, cover
Echo. If Echo manages to collapse their target's shields, I want you
to take advantage of that to strafe their hull."

He paused. "Let's do it."

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

"Gul, the alien craft are attacking the _Dominator_!"

"Lay down a barriage of photon torpedoes in their path. Set the fuzes
to activicate when they've reached where the alien craft will be."
ordered Elim, rubbing his chin.

As the heavy Galor-class battleships began to fire salvoes of photon
torpedoes at the TIEs, the smaller frigates began to move into
position to make strafing attacks with their disruptor arrays.

In seconds, the entire area for hundreds of kilometers was lit up by
disruptors and photon torpedo explosions.

[T/F Alpha 1]

Williams was now beginning to really sweat in his air conditioned
flight suit. The flak that those destroyers were putting into his path
was intense. 

His TIE suddenly jerked to the side as a nearby flak burst from a
detonating photon torpedo nailed a T/F, it's SIR and Tibanna gas
adding to the force of the explosion.  

The aliens' primary energy weapons didn't seem to be capable of flak
bursts the way turbolasers were capable of, but they were making up
for that by fuzing their torpedoes to detonate after travelling a
pre-determined distance. 

After several agonizing seconds that seemed to last forever, the T/Bs
of Echo wing reached effective weapons range. Due to the intense flak
barriages the alien ships were laying down, they couldn't fly straight
and level long enough for the targeting computers to get a lock, so
they had to get close enough to use the torps as unguided weapons.

From his command chair, Elim watched as the five large surviving alien
craft suddenly launched blue bolts of light that moved at sublight.
Moving in a straight line, they impacted with the _Dominator's_
shields a second later. 

The mighty Galor-class battleship rocked as her forward screens
struggled to keep out the multiple thermonuclear detonations. The
screens might have held, albeit in a weakened state, if it were not
for the fighters of Alpha wing swooping in like vultures. 

Williams centered his targeting cursor over the area on the alien ship
from which weapons fire had come from. 

Squeezing the triggers, his TIE bucked as the chin-mounted cannons
spat their green bolts of destruction. Out of the corner of his eye,
he could see the fire from his wingmates impacting the forward screens
of the target.

The bow of the _Dominator_ was wreathed in explosions as the particle
bolts slammed into her shields. Suddenly, her forward shields failed,
and the deadly bolts began striking unprotected hull plating, turning
them into vapor. 
 
On the _Dominator's_ bridge, various EPS lines powering bridge systems
were stressed beyond their design tolerances by the harsh mistress
that was combat. 

Predictably, they exploded, sending deadly shrapnel flying across the
bridge. One particularly large piece completely decapicated the
Captain. 

On a Imperial Navy warship, that wouldn't have been much of a problem,
because the XO would've taken over instantly. Most command functions 
e.g. weapon control) were decentralized anyway, making them
particularly resistant to decapication strikes on the
chain-of-command.

However, the preferred system for most of the Milky Way's spacefaring
races was to place absolute total power in the Captain. It worked
well in keeping the power of a starship in the trusted hands of
reliable officers. 

Unfortunately, it was terrible in combat. 

With no Captain to give them orders in the heat of combat, the
surviving members of the _Dominator's_ bridge crew froze. 

It cost them their lives, for at that moment, Willams unleashed a
salvo of bolts directly into the main torpedo launcher. The bolts
ripped through the outer door of the launcher, and into the launcher.  

The torpedo that was currently in the launcher exploded. The explosion
touched off secondary detonations in the magazine. The entire
bow of the _Dominator_ suddenly exploded in a brilliant flash of white
light. 

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

Elim and his bridge crew watched in shock as they saw the _Dominator_
destroyed. First, a blinding white flash appeared in the bow
of the ship. When the initial flash had died down, they could see the
_Dominator_ beginning to tumble through space, her entire bow
completely *gone*. 

Scant seconds later, a much smaller explosion occured in the aft
section, annihilating it completely.

"Gul! This is a result of your order to load our torpedoes with full
loads!" shouted Lt. Edam from his station across the bridge.

Elim snarled. He wouldn't have his authority challenged on his bridge,
and certainly during combat. Rage burning brightly, he pulled out his
disruptor and shot Edam in the chest. 

Edam screamed as he felt his body shorn apart by the disruptor's
NDF effect. All in all, it was a very painful way to die. Elim
relished the look on Edam's face before it too vanished into subspace.

"No one, EVER challenges me on my bridge." 

The horrified looks of fear on his bridge crew's faces told him the
demonstration had been quite effective.

"Order the _Overlord_ to move in next to us. We'll cover each other
with our torpedoes. I want the fighters to concentrate on the larger
alien craft; they're the biggest threat."

As an afterthought, he added "And use our secondary disruptor arrays
to attack the alien craft as they're making attack runs."

[TIE Fighter Alpha 1]

Williams saw the attack coming as a raised section of the alien
battleship's hull began to glow, betraying the energies building
within.
 
He jerked his control yoke hard to port. The TIE snap-rolled to port,
narrowly avoiding the disruptor beam, but his wingman flew into it. 

For a few seconds, the TIE managed to resist the disruptor, but then a
vital coolant line vaporized into subspace. Without coolant, the
intense heat generated by the Twin Ion Engines melted through the
protective capsule surrounding the tibanna gas reservoir for the twin
laser cannons. 

The TIE exploded in a brilliant fireball.

"Reform, and protect the Bombers as they attack the second alien
battleship!"

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

"Sir, they're lining up for another attack!"

Elim lay back in his chair. "Lay down a barriage of photon torpedoes
in their path. Have the fighters move in and attack, with the larger
craft being the primary targets."

[TIE Fighter Alpha 4]

"I'm hit!" shouted Flight Officer Poe as his TIE was clipped by a
photon torpedo detonation.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he could see a TIE Bomber
looming closer. He was rolling towards it!

Frantically jerking on his yoke, he tried to correct his deadly roll.
Nothing. The flight control systems must be fried.

The split second before his TIE collided with the Bomber, Poe yanked
his eject levers. 

With a 'whump' that vibrated through the hull of the craft, the hatch
blew off, and his seat's rocket motor ignited, propelling him free of
the doomed TIE. 

Alas, he would not make it.

At that moment, the now-pilotless TIE collided with the TIE Bomber,
destroying both craft, and detonating the TIE Bomber's remaining load
of proton torpedoes. The resultant explosion quickly reduced both
craft and the body of Flight Officer Poe into their component atoms.

[TIE Fighter Alpha 1]

Williams cursed silently. Poe had been his friend, and now he was
dead. The aliens, whoever they were, would pay for that. 

To port, a TIE Bomber took a photon torpedo head-on, and disappeared
in a massive explosion.

"Sir, we're getting slaughtered out here!" screamed a pilot Williams
didn't know. The kid was a recent transfer from the Imperial Academy. 

"Stay on target, dammit!"

The green light in his gunsight display went on, which meant that a
cap-ship had locked onto him. Williams frantically jerked his head
around, until he found the culprit. 

Those frigates were moving into attack positions on the remaining
TIEs! 

"Williams to Alpha wing, looks like we've got company. Break off your
escort and concentrate on frigate group Green!"

[TIE Bomber Echo 3]

"Williams, you BASTARD!" shouted Flight Officer Wong. 

Williams was breaking off their escort, leaving them to DIE!

There was only one thing left to do--destroy the alien ships...or die
trying to.

As soon as the alien battleship was in range, the three surviving T/Bs
of Echo wing launched their proton torpedoes. 

The torpedoes all impacted on the forward screens of the _Overlord_,
straining them immensely, but they held.

[Redor Fighter Group]

The five Redor fighters, the Cardassian Union's answer to the
Federation's Peregrine fighters, moved in formation towards their 
targets. 

In the lead fighter, Lt. Shoeless looked at his sensor readouts
nervously. Those cursed starfighters the enemy used had broken off 
from escorting the attack craft to attack them.

His readout confirmed what he already knew from gut instinct -- they
wouldn't reach them in time to save those missile-launching craft.

Within seconds, those odd double-podded craft the Imperials used for
attack were in range. 

Shoeless centered his targeting reticle onto the lead craft in
formation. Once the target was locked in, he slammed his pinkie down
onto the 'fire' touchpad.

The disruptor beam leapt out, missing the TIE Bomber at first, but
after a few seconds, it lined up onto the Bomber, and began to slowly
eat away at the thick hull of the craft.

[TIE Bomber Echo 3]

Electrical feedback coursed across Wong's panels as the disruptor beam
finally began taking it's toll on even the heavily armored TIE Bomber. 

"Goddammit! I'm under attack! Someone HELP me!" shouted Wong over the
wide-band comm frequency.

[Rendor Leader] 

Shoeless smirked as he heard the pitiful screams for help of his prey
over the Rendor's internal comm speakers.

"Now you die...AARGH!"

The entire viewport was suddenly filled by a TIE Fighter heading
straight for him, spitting fire. 

The first laser bolts smashed down the Rendor's front shields to 50%.
The second pair of laser bolts from William's cannons slapped down the
shields and impacted on the cockpit of the Rendar fighter. Lieutenant
Shoeless was reduced to steaming plasma well before his fighter's
M/AM reactor failed under the intense fire from T/F Alpha 1.

[TIE Bomber Echo 3]

"Thanks Willams. Now, let's kill the rest of these bastards!"

With that, Wong lined up his reticle with one of the alien
frigates...well, they were fighters actually, from the way they acted,
but they were too big, at 40m to be fighters.

After holding the enemy fighter/frigate in his reticle for the time
needed to gain lock, which was absurdly easy to do, even in something
as unmanuverable as a TIE Bomber, Wong pulled the fire triggers, and
loosed his last pair of proton torpedoes. 

Seconds later, the alien fighter exploded with the harsh white light
characteristic to their ships.

Unfortunately, as Wong was enjoying his victory, a photon torpedo
impacted his Bomber from the rear, totally destroying it.

[TIE Fighter Alpha 1]

Another friend gone. Those cursed aliens seemed intent on taking away
every friend he had. 

Whipping his TIE into a tight turn, Williams lined up with another
alien fighter. Holding down his fire buttons, he watched it explode
in a burst of white light.

"All wings, attack the weakened destroyer!" 

With that, the two surviving TIE Bombers and three surviving TIE
Fighters streaked towards the _Overlord_, whose shields were down to
50%.  

Unbeknownst to Williams, the _Opressor_ had moved to a position behind
them, setting up a crossfire between the two Galors, with the three
surviving Rendor fighters closing the top and bottom.

[_Opressor's_ bridge]

Elim watched as his forces arrayed themselves to catch the surviving
alien craft in a deadly crossfire. Soon, it would all be over, and
Kynes would be in his clutches.

Suddenly, he saw the two surviving attack craft launch their deadly
cargoes. They couldn't waste anymore time setting up the crossfire.

"All ships, open fire!" 

[TIE Fighter Alpha 1]

Williams watched the proton torpedoes streak away from the TIE Bombers
towards the alien destroyer. Suddenly, all hell broke loose. 

In scant seconds, all the TIEs except for Williams were destroyed in
the intense crossfire. However, Williams wasn't long in this world,
for a photon torpedo burst suddenly clipped his port solar panel,
sending him into a uncontrolled roll. 

[_Opressor's_ bridge]

Elim watched the alien craft die in the intense crossfire the
surviving elements of his fleet had laid down. All except one. He
watched in growing horror as it spun out of control, heading towards
the _Overlord_.

[TIE Fighter Alpha 1]

Williams watched in horror as the alien destroyer filled his viewport
completely. He began to scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The crippled fighter smashed into the _Overlord's_ weakened front
shields, knocking them down.

[Bridge of the _Overlord_]

Control panels exploded all over the bridge, killing the crewmen 
manning them, and wounding others.

"Damage report!" shouted the captain of the _Overlord_.

The tactical officer looked at his board, studying the damage reports
from the rest of the ship. "Gul, our forward shields are nonexistent.
We've suffered minor damage to the bow sections, and have minor hull
breaches on decks 3, 4, and 5. They should be sealed within minutes." 

The captain merely grunted, thankful that the alien craft had been one
of the smaller craft. There was no doubt in his mind, that if it had
been one of the attack craft, the damage would have been much more
significant. 

[_Opressor's_ bridge]

"Open a channel to the Imperial outpost." ordered Elim.

"But, Gul!" 

"No questions. Just *do* it!" snapped Elim.

The communications officer nodded grimly, and set about carrying out
his Gul's orders.

[Outpost SXD-12345's bridge - A few minutes later]

"Commander! We're recieving a subspace transmission!"

"From who?"

"Sir, the aliens!"

"Very well, put it on. Begin locating the source of the transmission."

With that, Kynes walked to the holo display in the center of the
bridge, and toggled it from a system-wide display to communications
mode.  

Static filled the bridge, and a image flickered into view.

"Sparky, what the hell's wrong with the com unit?"

"Sir, nothing's wrong with it. It's the aliens. They're using a
primitive 2-D video format. I'm compensating now."

Seconds later, the blurry image refocused into a primitive
two-dimensional hologram that hung in midair like
a painting. 

Kynes choked back his revulsion at the sight of the aliens. They
looked human, but they had those odd ridges all over their faces. 

Suddenly, the alien began to speak Basic.

"Hello my dear, dear Commander Highwind. As you are no doubt aware of,
we have destroyed your 'escort' that you so kindly sent us. You are
defenseless now, Commander. It would be in your best interests to
surrender your outpost to the forces of the Cardassian Union. We treat
our prisoners according to accepted standards."

With that, Elim's lips curled up into a sneer.

Kynes didn't waste a moment in replying.

"Officers of the Imperial Navy *never* surrender. That's the official
line."

Kynes paused a moment for dramatic effect, then continued.

"Unofficially, you can go fuck yourself with a barbed-wire dildo."

Kynes then smiled a big shit-eating-grin.

"Electricified, of course."

The sneer on Gul Elim's face quickly disappeared, to be replaced
with cold contempt. "Very well, Commander. I shall try to make your
death as painful as possible."

With that, the vidimage flickered into nothingness. As soon as Kynes
was sure the channel was closed, he whirled towards Sparky.

"Sparky, did you get a fix on them?"

"Yessir, I was able to identify the ship that the transmission was
originating from. I've already entered a tag into the sensor system
designating it as the command ship."

Kynes smiled. He couldn't believe the stupidity of the aliens. Calling
your enemy in the middle of a battle, and talking long enough for them
to ID your command ship! Sith, the only thing even stupider than that
was doing it to just trade barbs with the enemy commander!

"How much time do we have?"

"Sir, due to our subspace jamming, they've had to reduce their speed
significantly. We have about four hours before they reach us."

"Good. Get the flight crews, and begin preflighting the fighters.
We're gonna need all the time we can get."

[ISD _Fury_]

Boyd looked at the datapad. Once again, they'd found nothing but lots
of rocks in space. Just a few minutes ago, they'd received a frantic
call for help from Outpost SXD-12345, saying that they'd enaged the
enemy.

Boyd sighed, astonished by Jones' stupidity. At least they'd finished
their patrol, and could come to Outpost SXD-12345's aid at last.

"Navigation, calculate for a hyperjump to the H'Pang system. As soon
as the calculations are complete, execute the jump."

Boyd waited for the Star Destroyer's powerful computers to finish
calculating the millions upon millions of variables required for a
hyperspace jump. Ships with a decent Navcomp could calculate their own
hyperjumps from any point in the galaxy.

Small snubfighters, of the kind the rebels used, and cheap navicomps
had to use pre-set coordinates. You had to fly to the pre-calculated
jump coordinates before you could jump. While giving small fighters
strategic legs, and allowing cheaper transport of goods, it was
horribly inadequate for tactical micro-jumps of the sort that were
frequently used in combat by capital ships.

A few seconds later, the stars in the bridge viewport elongated into
lines, and with a burst of radiation, the _Fury_ jumped.

[T/I Charlie 1]

"Form up everybody!" ordered Sheppard.

Slowly, the various groups that made up the outpost's surviving
starfighter complement formed up.

Leading the way was T/I Charlie, which Sheppard was personally
leading. To the rear, T/B Foxtrot was slogging along, with T/F Beta
guarding it.

"Chuck, how's Delta group coming along?" queried Sheppard over the
comm.

[Outpost SXD-1234 - Hangar 1]

Glasgow stopped welding a replacement part onto a TIE Interceptor's
solar panel and grabbed his commlink. 

"Mark, we're still working on them! I can get at most 3 working in the
next few minutes! This would be a lot easier if those alien bastards
hadn't wasted our supply shuttle!"

"Understood. Sheppard out."

With that, the commlink went dead. Glasgow turned to look over the
rows of TIE Interceptors hanging from their racks lifelessly, instead
of swooping through space.

Nobody had ever tried using TIE Fighter parts to repair an
Interceptor. At least, not until now. Well, there was always a first
time for everything.

With that thought, Glasgow busied himself in repairing the Interceptor
he was standing next to.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

The _Opressor_ and the rest of Elim's battlegroup dropped from warp
only a few hundred thousand kilometers from the outpost.

As the view screen adjusted to show the Imperial forces, Elim scowled
a bit. He'd thought he'd destroyed all of that outpost's craft in the
last battle. Now, it seemed that he'd only destroyed some; for the
same number of craft were there, including six of a new type he hadn't
seen before.

"All ships, this is Gul Elim. Execute attack plan Elim-One."

"But Gul! That manuver would be extremely dangerous due to all the
subspace jamming enamanating from that outpost!" protested the
helmsman.

Gritting his teeth, Elim snarled. "Do it."

The helmsman nodded, not willing to antagonize the Gul any further.
He'd been on the bridge when Lieutenant Edam had met his untimely end,
and he didn't want to end up that way.

[TIE Interceptor Charlie 1]

Sheppard stared openmouthed as the alien ships suddenly elongated, and
seemed to move at faster than lightspeed.

_So this must be the subspace distortion drive that we've been hearing
so much about!_ he thought.

Suddenly, he noticed with dread where the alien ships were heading. 

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

For a few tense moments, the bridge was cut off from all outside
sensors, due to the fact that they were at warp. Finally, they dropped
back into realspace, and sensor data started flooding back in.

It took Elim only a split-second to realize where they were, and
he stabbed down on the command override found in his chair. On the
screen, a salvo of photon torpedoes spat out towards the yawning 
hangar bay of the outpost.

[Outpost SXD-12345 - Hangar Bay One]

Glasgow looked out the hangar bay in horror. A alien ship had suddenly
appeared outside the open hangar bay, and had launched a salvo of
torpedoes.

It was at that moment, one of the freak occurences that inevitably
followed war around occured. As a repaired Interceptor was leaving the
hangar, a photon torpedo zipped past it, slipping into the hangar
during the split-second that the particle shielding covering
the hangar's mouth was lowered to allow the Interceptor to leave. 

Glasgow watched in horror as the photon torpedo impacted into a row of
unrepaired Interceptors that had been fully loaded and fueled in
anticipation of final repairs; the idea being, the second after the
last part had been welded/wired in, they'd be ready to go.

Glasgow's world went white as the 64 megaton explosion ripped through
the hangar bay, reducing the bodies of Glasgow and the other
technicians to their component atoms. The (relatively) thick durasteel
hulls of the Interceptors retained their basic shape, but were nothing
more than scrap metal now. 

[The Bridge of Outpost SXD-12345]

The bridge shook as internal detonations ripped through the now-ruined
Hangar Bay One. 

Quickly glancing at the damage report screen, Kynes silently wrote off
any chances that Glasgow and the others in the bay had of surviving. 

"Fuck it! We're taking too much damage! Spring the SPCs NOW!" 

The comm officer nodded, and transmitted the 'go' code to the two SPCs
that were lying in sensor-stealthed mode under the station's 'wings'.

As the Galor-class ships were moving away from the station, the two
SPCs burst out from under the 'wings', firing all of their weapons.

In return, the Cardassians opened up with everything they had. At
about the same time, the TIEs which had been left behind by the sudden
combat use of warp drive, arrived and launched their missiles. Space
for hundreds of kilometers around the Outpost was filled with
multi-megaton explosions which consumed the craft of both sides.

Several TIE pilots barely had time to scream before their unshielded
craft were destroyed by the immense conflagration. But that wasn't
to say that the Cardassians weren't taking losses. All over the
_Opressor_ and _Overlord_, control panels exploded, killing hapless
crewmembers, and plasma lines at multiple locations on the two
Galor-class ships ruptured from the immense stress they were suddenly 
placed under. 

Gunners on all sides were firing as soon as they had a lock; so
intense was the firepower being exchanged that they couldn't
distinguish who was who. A TIE tried to make a strafing run on the
_Opressor_, but was blown out of space by the battleship's forward
disruptor array.

In the middle of this intense battle zipped the fighters of both
sides, attacking whatever targets of oppoturnity presented themselves.

[TIE Interceptor Charlie 1]

Sheppard was no longer concerned about the big picture, and tactical
manuvers. He was simply concerned about surviving. A enemy fighter
suddenly appeared in front of him, pursuing a TIE Bomber. Sheppard
quickly snap-fired a pair of concussion missiles, not bothering with
a lock. One of the missiles missed, and streaked off into deep space.
The other impacted on the enemy fighter's port warp nacelle, throwing
it into a spin. 

Switching to guns, Sheppard let loose with a volley of quad-linked
lasers, destroying the crippled enemy fighter.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw a SPC explode in a brilliant
fireball under the combined firepower of the alien destroyers.

_Damn, this is getting worse and worse by the second_ he thought.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

"Gul, all of our Rendor fighters have been destroyed. However, we've
inflicted 60% losses on their small craft and have destroyed one of
those frigates that was hiding in the sensor shadow of the outpost."

Elim quickly ran this new information through his head, and made 
a decision, all in a split-second.

"Excellent. Concentrate your fire on the remaining frigate. If any
enemy craft blunder into our line of fire, take them out."

"It will be done, Gul."

[TIE Fighter Charlie 1]

The aliens were now concentrating on pounding SPC Valkryie to dust.

_Stupid, Stupid!_ thought Sheppard.

The aliens were suffering from what was known in the military
community of a thousand thousand worlds as 'target fixtation', the
concentration on a single target, to the exclusion of all others. 

Calling up his friendlies list on his cockpit display, Sheppard was
dismayed at the number of TIEs still operable. All of the TIE Bombers
had been quickly destroyed in the initial conflagration, due to their
slow speed and lack of manuverability. TIE Fighter group Beta
hadsuffered severe losses as well, with only 3 operable.

His own group, T/I Charlie, had suffered the least losses, with only
one destroyed out of six.

Calling up the enemies list, he noticed that the enemy forces had been
reduced to just two destroyers. The aliens' command ship had suffered
the least damage to it's shields, while the other one's shield status
was critical.

"All groups, attack the weakened destroyer!"

[Bridge of the _Overlord_] 

The bridge was in chaos, with dead crew scattered all over the place,
and the ship shuddered as it exchanged torpedo, and disruptor fire
with the single surviving Imperial frigate.

On the viewscreen, the frigate took a direct hit to it's now
unshielded hull with a proton torpedo and began a slow end-over-end
tumble, leaking atmosphere and drive plasma  (or whatever it was that
the Imperials used)

With the frigate no longer a credible threat, the _Overlord_ and
_Opressor_ slowly turned to face the oncoming enemy craft.

Photon torpedo after photon torpedo burst out towards the oncoming
TIEs, exploding in their midst.

[TIE Interceptor Charlie 1] 

Sheppard heard Baron Kenneth's screams as his TIE Interceptor spun out
of control after being hit by a disruptor beam. The man's screams were
cut off abruptly after his crippled craft collided with Flight Officer
Sutton's TIE Fighter.

_Damn. More good people gone, thanks to those infernal aliens_ thought
Sheppard.

Sheppard then brought his craft into a strafing run on the weakened 
alien destroyer, his quad-laser cannons barking green death.

Behind him, thanks to his helmet's aural simulators, he could
'hear' the other TIEs attacking the destroyer with their weapons.

[Bridge of the _Overlord_]

"Gul, we're losing the core! Core breach is imminient!" shouted the
engineering officer.

Gul Paul Jaques (acting commander of the _Overlord_) could only utter
a ancient Cardassian curse towards his enemies before the core
breached ,and the bridge dissolved into white light.

[TIE Interceptor Charlie 1]

Sheppard tore away from the exploding Galor-Class ship at
barely sublight, easily outrunning the matter/antimatter explosion now
consuming the warship. However, some of the other pilots weren't so
lucky, and their craft were consumed in the _Overlord's_ final death
throes.

Sheppard cursed when he saw the list of friendlies. It was now just
him and one other TIE Interceptor standing between the sole surviving
alien destroyer and Outpost SXD-12345.

"Charlie 6, form up! Looks like we're the last ones left!"

"Sir, what are we gonna do?" asked Flight Officer Aron Kerkhof, a
recent transfer to Outpost SXD-12345.

"We're gonna stop those alien bastards...or die trying." replied 
Sheppard.

Kerkhof's reply wasn't in the form of words, but in music. 

The Imperial March burst out from the speakers in Sheppard's helmet.
Apparently, Kerkhof had hotwired a chip-player into the comm system of
his Interceptor.

Both Sheppard and Kerkhof began to hum along with the music, as they
sped towards the _Opressor_.

Suddenly, the March was swallowed up by static as Kerkhof's TIE
Interceptor ran into a photon torpedo. Still, Sheppard continued to
hum the March from memory.

There was only one way to actually hurt those alien bastards now that
he was the last one left. Redirecting all power to the engines,
Sheppard juked hard to port and starboard, evading disruptor beams and
torpedo bursts. 

As he got within a few hundred klicks of the destroyer, he pulled back
on the yoke, sending his craft into a steep climb.

Once Sheppard had sighted in his target, he rammed the yoke all the
way forward.

Sheppard gritted his teeth as the raised bump on the destroyer's
dorsal hull that obviously was the bridge grew larger in his viewport. 

Sheppard's TIE Interceptor was trucking along at nearly sublight 
when it slammed into the dorsal shields of the _Opressor_,
slappingthem down *hard*.

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

The entire bridge exploded in a shower of sparks and molten metal,
cutting down crewmembers where they stood.

Over the din of internal explosions, Gul Elim could be heard shouting 
orders.

"DAMAGE REPORT!"

"Gul, Our dorsal shields are -dead-! We've also suffered severe damage
from that suicide run!" shouted one of the few survivors on the
bridge.

"I don't care! Rotate our hull so that our ventral shields are bearing
onto the outpost!" 

Reluctantly, the crew complied. 

[Bridge of Outpost SXD-12345]

"Sir, Our shields are critical! We don't have anymore craft left!"
shouted acting chief engineer Curtis Saxton, who had been promoted
following Chuck's death in the inferno of Hangar Bay One.

"Activicate the self-destruct sequence! I have no intention of letting
those aliens get their hands on Imperial technology!"

"Yessir!"

[Bridge of the _Opressor_]

_Soon, You will be mine, Highwind. I promised you that your death
would be painful. I have every intention of keeping my promise._
thought Elim.

"Gul, the Outpost's shields are nearing collapse!"

"Excellent. Have the boarding parties readied in the transporter
rooms."

Suddenly, the science officer whirled around. 

"Gul, radiation readings are going off the scale!"

At that moment, with a mighty burst of radiation, the Imperial Star
Destroyer _Fury_ reentered realspace several hundred thousand
kilometers away from Outpost SXD-12345.

[Bridge of the ISD _Fury_]

Boyd stared out the forward viewports with a sinking feeling.

Jones had said that they had all the time in the world. Apparently,
he was wrong, for Boyd could see the glowing dust clouds which
used to be ships and small craft. 

Due to the viewscreen's embedded vid-matrix, he could see events
happening several light-seconds away in realtime. What he saw was
disturbing. Outpost SXD-12345 was heavily damaged, and the alien
ship was pounding heavily onto it.

"Communications, open a channel to all craft in the area. Audio only."

"Channel open, sir."

Boyd took a deep breath, then spoke. 

"This is Captain Jonathan Boyd of the Imperial Star Destroyer _Fury_.
You are ordered by the Imperial Navy to cease your attack on 
an Imperial outpost and shut down your engines and await boarding.
Failure to comply will be met with force."

Boyd then slashed his finger across his throat, signaling his comm
officer to cut the transmission.

"Launch all TIE squadrons at once. The aliens may be...uncooperative."
ordered Boyd.

"Yessir!"

[The Bridge of the _Opressor_]

Elim and his crew stared at shock at the massive Imperial warship
(of course it was a warship, no doubt about it) that had unexpectedly
appeared several hundred thousand kilometers away.

"Gul! I am reading multiple small craft heading from the warship for
us! Numbers of the small craft are at 12 and rising steadily!"

At that moment, Elim realized that he was now seriously outnumbered
and outgunned. 

"Lay in a course towards the wormhole, maximum warp!"

The crew complied instantly, glad to be gone of this horrible,
horrible place.

[Bridge of the ISD _Fury_]

Boyd watched in shock as the alien ship suddenly elongated and moved
away at FTL...all within realspace.

_Oh well_ thought Boyd. At least they'd scared them off. 

[Several hours later]

The _Fury_ lay above Outpost SXD-12345 as utility vehicles sped to and
from her, with materials to repair the heavily damaged outpost.

All over the hull of the Outpost, blue lights could be seen. Those
were technicians in non-combat versions of Zero-Gee Spacetrooper armor
equipped with sub-atomic welders attaching durasteel plating over hull
breaches.

Boyd was watching the operation from the forward bridge viewports when
suddenly, Admiral Jones strode up next to him. 

Jones sniffed, then spoke in a condenscing tone of voice.

"It figures that such a _primitive_ race managed to do such damage
to the Outpost, since Highwind was there." 

Boyd shifted on his feet uneasily. It was obvious by now that the
Admiral had it in for Highwind.

Suddenly, at that moment, a young crewer walked up to them and
saluted.

"Yes?" asked Jones, visibly irritated that his contemplation had been
interrupted by such a junior member of the crew.

"Sir, a Lambda-class shuttle has just dropped out of hyperspace.
They're requesting permission to dock...they're also requesting that
you meet them in the main hangar."

Jones simply grunted. "Grant them permission to dock. Boyd, meet
whoever it is in the hangar bay."

At this, Boyd raised an eyebrow. "Sir, they specifically requested
that you meet them in the hangar bay."

"I know, and I have no time for petty bureaucrats on a sightseeing
tour of the fleet. Go meet them, Boyd."

Boyd nodded, and walked into the turbolift.

Arriving in the hangar bay as the shuttle was coming in on it's final
approach, Boyd immediately stood ramrod straight directly in front of
the outlined red square on the deck that delinated the landing area
for a shuttle.

The shuttle settled down precisely in the center of the landing
sqaure. The pilot was apparently of a very high standard. Most Navy
pilots usually had a error of one or two centimeters. Not this
one.

With a hiss, the shuttle's main ramp dropped down onto the deck. Boyd
shifted nervously as a figure walked down the ramp, obscured by the
steam wisping across the ramp.

Finally, the figure stepped out of the mist, and Boyd could get a
clear view at it. It was a Stormtrooper. But...there was something odd
about him...Boyd then noticed the reddish glow in the trooper's left
eye, and the lightsaber that was dangling from the trooper's utility
belt.

Immediately, a cold wave of fear washed over Boyd.

This could only be the dreaded Stormtrooper HIT-MAN, and wherever
HIT-MAN went...

At that moment, another figure began to stride down the ramp.

With every eerie breath the figure took, Boyd's fear deepened.
 
Out of the mist strode the worst nightmare any Imperial Officer could
have: Lord Darth Vader, the Emperor's right-hand man.

Suddenly, Vader pointed a gloved finger at Boyd.

"You are not Admiral Jones. Where is the Admiral!"

Boyd began to feel an invisible hand grip his neck, ever so softly at
first, but it slowly tightened. Fighting the urge to clutch at his
throat, Boyd forced out his words.

"...The...Admiral...is on...the...bridge...he said...he...didn't
...want...to be...interrupted...by...petty...bureaucrats."

As suddenly as it had appeared, the hand was gone, and Boyd could
breathe normally again.

"Why did you not arrive in time to defend Outpost SXD-12345 from the
aliens?" questioned Vader.

"Lord Vader, Admiral Jones didn't want to divert the _Fury_ from
her normal patrol route; he said it would be a waste of credits."

Vader then spoke in a voice that chilled Boyd to the bones.

"He's as clumsy as he is stupid."

Vader then began to stride towards the turbolift, with HIT-MAN
following and Boyd, who kept a respectful distance from the
Dark Lord.

[Bridge of the ISD _Fury_]

Jones turned around the moment the turbolift opened on the bridge.
Finally, Boyd was back. Suddenly, his heart froze the moment he saw
Vader. Fighting the urge to puke, he put on a false display of
bravado.

"Lord Vader! What an unexpec..." Jones never had a chance to finish,
because at that moment, Vader reached out with the Force.

"You have failed me for the last time." rasped Vader, slowly drawing
his fingers together into a fist.

Admiral Timothy Jones, for the first and last time in his life, felt
fear. As the invisible hand slowly tightened around his neck, cutting
off his air supply, he began to gasp and claw at his neck.

Boyd looked at the Admiral, who was now fighting for life, nervously.
Vader suddenly spoke. Boyd looked away from the sight of the
doomed man to his Lord.

"Captain, take the _Fury_, and capture the lone surviving alien 
ship." intoned Vader in his eerie mechanical voice.

At that moment, Vader finished drawing his fingers into a fist. From
Jones, a faint gurgle was heard, followed by bones crunching. Vader
released the now-dead Admiral, and the body hit the deck with a
sickening thud.

"You are in command now...Admiral Boyd. Do not fail me."

Boyd bowed his head slightly towards the Dark Lord.

"Yes, my lord."

"Good. Now dispose of this garbage." With a wave of his hand, Vader
motioned for the Stormtroopers on the bridge to dispose of Jones'
body.

As Jones' body was being dragged to the garbage compactor, 
Vader turned around and headed towards the turbolift.

An uneasy silence pervaded the bridge even after Vader had left. It
was the newly-promoted Admiral Boyd who broke the stillness.

"You heard what Lord Vader said. Locate that alien ship, and lay in a
hyperjump course into it's path."

Slowly, the bridge started to regain it's former bustle, which had
come abruptly to a stop the moment the Dark Lord had stepped onto it.

Two minutes later, the _Fury_ jumped. 

[Bridge of the _Opressor_ - 10 minutes later]

"Damage report!" shouted Elim. 

The young officer who'd been promoted to replace the late, lamented
Lt. Edam choked for a moment, due to the thick black smoke filling the
shattered  bridge; then he spoke.

"Gul, half our crew is dead, we have multiple hull breaches spread all
over the ship, and our antimatter supplies were severely depleted in
our previous enagement, due to your order to equip our torpedoes with
full warhead loads. We may not have enough to make it to the nearest
outpost in Cardassian space. "

The bridge was deathly silent as the terrible news sank in. Finally,
Elim spoke. "Don't worry. We'll make it back to Cardassia. Our sensors
have detected no signs of enemy pursuit."

At that moment, the intense sub-space jamming being generated by the
_Fury_ slammed the _Opressor_ back into realspace only a few hundred
thousand kilometers from the Star Destroyer's bow. 

[ISD _Fury's_ bridge]

A young gunnery lieutenant suddenly looked up from his station in the
CIC to Boyd. "Sir, the alien ship has reentered realspace. Shall we
open fire with the turbolasers?" 

Boyd shook his head. "No. Lord Vader's orders are to capture 
that ship. Use ions only."

The lieutenant nodded, and seconds later, through the forward
bridge viewports, Boyd saw the ion cannons fire, sending out their
characteristic blue-white bolts.

Seconds later, moving at near light-speed, the ion bolts slammed into
the crippled Galor-class ship, knocking it into a slow end-over
tumble, as blue-white sparks leapt all over the hull. 
	
Elim was thrown to the floor. His last memory before he blacked out
was of the deck rushing up to meet him.

[Space]

The _Fury_ slowly slid into position above the _Opressor_, her primary
tractor beam projectors locked onto the crippled alien ship. Even
though the aliens had been knocked into submission by the ion cannons,
Boyd knew that Vader wouldn't tolerate any further failures. Hence the
tractor beams.

Within moments, the docking clamps had been attached to the ship,
and Stormtroopers were moving into position to breach the hull. They'd
been ordered to capture as many prisoners as possible, for
interrogation, to find out where they were from.

[Cell FF-12-AA - ISD _Fury_ - One hour later]

Slowly, Elim regained consciousness. Where was he? Certainly not on
the _Opressor_. The sounds around him were all alien. 

Eyes snapping open, he found himself lying on a hard metal slab. A
quick look at his surroundings confimed his gut instinct. He was in a
cell. 

Suddenly, the door to the cell slid up, revealing a menacing figure.
Clad in black, and breathing menacingly, it stepped into the cell,
escorted by a pair of white-armored humanoids.

"Now, my dear Gul, we will discuss the matter of your homeworld."
rasped the black-armored alien, his breathing seemingly independent of
his voice. 

Suddenly, a odd whining noise could be heard. Elim saw a black
spherical object slowly float into the cell. On it's gleaming body,
several panels opened, and mechanical arms slowly extended, each
containing wicked-looking implements, including one with a ancient
hypodermic syringe with a accordingly ancient needle. 

Fear slowly seeped into Elim's being. With an omnious swish, the door
closed behind the Imperial Interrogation Droid.

[Outside Cell FF-12-AA - A few minutes later]

Lt. Hit-Man had been assigned the task of guarding the cell while Lord
Vader personally supervised the interrogation of the alien ship
captain. 

From the (supposedly) soundproofed door, screams, and pitiful pleas
for help could be heard. They all fell on deaf ears. Hit-Man smiled.
It was all music to his ears. The only bad thing was, it wasn't him
doing the interrogation. Oh well. You couldn't win them all.

[Bridge of the _Fury_ - Several Hours later]

Every crewer on the bridge, including Boyd, involuntarily sucked
in their breaths the moment the Dark Lord strode onto the bridge.

Vader came to a stop in front of Boyd and handed him a datapad.

"The prisoner was most...informative. This contains the information
I have extracted from him. Study it well, for I am assigning you the
mission of pacifying these aliens. "

"But, Lord Vader..."

Vader cut him off with a pointed finger.

"No arguing. I have decided to undertake this mission without the
Emperor's permission. Frankly, I find his insights to be...more and
more inaccurate."

Vader began to pace next to the bridge viewports. Boyd followed
suit, not willing to anger the Dark Lord.

"As a result, I am assigning you a sector fleet and the necessary
supplies for what you will need to do. I expect you to be underway
within five days."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Good. It would be...unpleasant if I had to pay a visit
to...motivitate you."

With that, Vader strode off the bridge. The moment the Dark Lord of
the Sith disappeared into the turbolift, every man on the bridge let
out the breaths they had been involuntarily holding.

[Five days later - outside the wormhole]

The _Fury_ held station outside the mouth of the inter-galactic
wormhole that had been discovered by the late Gul Elim and his
battlegroup.

Boyd looked out the forward viewports onto his fleet. Vader had
assigned him 23 additional Imperator-IIs to pacify the alien system
with. 

More than enough to conquer the aliens, from what the report Vader had
given him said.

"Very well. Order the fleet through." 
...
...
...
"And that was how the Empire discovered the chaotic rule of the
Federation and the other powers of the Milky Way Galaxy." intoned the
voice of the holo-documentary's narrator.

Suddenly, the image of Boyd standing on the bridge of the _Fury_
dissolved into nothingness.

"That's it for today, class." said Mrs. Barnes, one of the many first
grade teachers at Tarkin Elementary School.

The holo-projector that was an integral part of every classroom at
Tarkin Elementary shut off, causing the children to all moan. No more
exciting holo-movies for the day!

Suddenly a girl at the back of the room raised her hand.

"Mrs. Barnes? Is it really true that the Federation was so mean to
it's citizens?" asked Nori Henderson, one of the brightest students at
Tarkin Elementary.

"Yes, Nori. They were really that bad. If you spoke out in favor of
defending yourself, you'd be branded a 'barbarian' and sent to 
're-education' colonies."

Mrs. Barnes pushed a button on her desk, and the classroom's
holoprojector activicated, showing Earth. Several yellow dots glowed
on the globe.

"The largest Federation 'Rehabilitation' colony was in the area of
Earth known as 'New Zealand'. There, hundreds of political prisoners
would be brainwashed into believing the insipid lies the Federation
spouted."

"But enough of this. You'll get a chance to see all this up close and
personal on tomorrow's field trip to the Imperial Navy's headquarters,
right here in San Francisco."

At this, all of the children clapped their hands. Field Trips! They
always loved field trips!

[The Next Day - Imperial Navy HQ - San Franciso]

The class stood inside the majestic lobby of the building standing
directly atop a gigantic replica of the Imperial logo. 

The young ensign giving the lecture on the history of the building
spoke enthuastically. It was always like that whenever he gave tours
to children. They always loved it, unlike the older tourists, who were
generally assholes.

"This building has a long and interesting history. It was originally
built as Starfleet Headquarters, and the floor beneath our feet used
to contain the Starfleet logo. However, after an extensive
modernization, we converted it to our current headquarters."

The ensign paused, to let his young charges soak it all up. Once he
was sure they'd all gotten what he'd said, he spoke again.

"Now, if you'll follow me, I'll take you to the museum, where you can
find out about the horrible atrocities the Federation committed in the
name of the 'Prime Directive'," 

At that, the ensign snorted. "and view their primitive technology."

All the children followed him. All except one. Nori had found the tour
to be quite boring, and decided to conduct her own personal tour.

Walking among the sea of Navy officers, Nori managed to get a few
dozen feet down an interesting-looking corridor before she bumped 
into a leg. 

Not just any leg.

A white pants leg.

Slowly, Nori looked up. The officer she'd bumped into was clothed in
regal white, with old-fashioned shoulder eaupalletes. Nori's heart
skipped a beat.

"Why hello, my young friend." said the officer.

"...h...hello, sir." stammered Nori.

"It's the uniform, isn't it?"

Nori shook her head affirmatively.

The officer chuckled. "It always does. Now, aren't you a bit young to
be wandering around by yourself?"

Nori nodded. "I'm here with my class on a field trip. The lecture
they're giving us is *boring*."

The officer grinned.

"Well, maybe I can spice it up a bit. Where's your class?"

"...well, the last I heard, they were going to the museum."

"Ah, then we'll go there, as well."

With that, the officer began to stride down the corridors, with Nori
holding the officer's hand.

[The Museum]

"But, Ensign, I don't know where she is." pleaded Mrs. Barnes.

"Ma'am, we'll find her. Don't worry." replied the Ensign.

"Miss, is this your student?" said a voice.

Both Mrs. Barnes and the ensign turned to see who it was.

The ensign immediately stood ramrod straight and saluted.

"Sir, Grand Admiral Boyd, Sir!"

"At ease, ensign."

The ensign immediately stood at ease, still a bit uncomfortable in the
presence of the famed Grand Admiral Boyd, hero of the Milky Way-Empire
Wars.

The entire class turned around and stood staring in awe at Boyd. It
wasn't everyday that they got to see a real live hero they'd studied
on their holo-vids.

"Now, I hear that you've been studying my exploits." said Boyd.

"Yessir, we have." said a young boy.

With that, Boyd sat down on a bench, and motioned for the class
to sit down around him.

"This museum to you...is hard to grasp, yes?" queried Boyd.

"Yessir. We just don't understand why the Federation did the things
they did to their people."

Boyd chuckled. "Maybe *I* can explain to you, me being the one who had
to clean all this up."

"Now...when we first arrived..."

The class sat on the floor, paying rapt attention to the Grand Admiral 
recounting his famed exploits. It wasn't everyday that you got to see
and hear of history personally and up-close.

[FINIS]

RULE #1 OF STORIES:
Evil *always* wins in the end. :)
--Michael January explaining "Expansion" :)