by David Sheerin
Captains Log: Stardate 52012.3.
The Toronto has docked at Starbase 133 and my crew has begun
preparations for Operation Roundhammer. The Toronto was the last ship
to arrive, and the fleet will be leaving in 12 hours. This will give
us, just enough time to get the extra Marines onboard. It is going to
tight for next few days, since we are going over full capacity for troop
carrying. But this will soon be over.
End Log.
Harkness hit the button on the LCARS display on his desk. He stood and
walked over to the Window. As he looked out, he wondered how many
people would die in the next week. Several ships flew past his window.
An Akira class, USS Conquest, flew past the window. The ship was big,
but compared to the Toronto it was like looking at a Runabout against a
Galaxy class ship. The Alabama had several scorch marks on her hull. A
reminder to Charles about how bloody this conflict had been. Charles
look looked across from the Toronto, a Galaxy class vessel, USS Galaxy,
the first Galaxy class ship built. She too had several scorch marks on
her hull. Her Port Nacelle was ripped off in her last engagement; just
over 300 people were killed that day. Her new nacelle was just attached
this morning. She was ready just in time for more killing. Charles
snorted and walked to the Replicator, "One Coffee, double/double." The
computer hummed, as the drink appeared.
He walked over to the couch, and sat down with a sigh.
"Computer: Play file, Roundhammer One,"
"You need Level 8 Clearance for that file." The computer replied in its
cold female voice.
"Computer: Recognize voice."
"Captain Charles Harkness, please state password."
"Harkness-333-pi-domi."
"Playing File."
The Monitor changed from the Starfleet symbol to a diagram of the
Dominion facilities on the Planet.
Act One
In side one of the many hangers on the Toronto, Major Hummel was
inspecting one the Marine Fighters. He wore the Marine Uniform with a
lot of pride. He was CO of the 101st armored Calvary, also known as the
"Death Cards." Hummel was about 2 meters tall, and had a tough build.
There were several scars along his right cheek. He got it from a fight
with 2 Kiligons. He was the best CO in the Marine Corps. Many regarded
him with Respect and lots of Fear. He was a man who could scare dogs
away, just by looking into their eyes.
"Sergeant!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, even though the man-boy;
he couldn't be more than 20 years of age-was right in front of him.
"Yes sir." He said with fear, as he stood up.
"What are you doing to this Fighter?" Hummel demanded.
"Sir, I am adding external pylons for the new weapons."
"Very well, CARRY ON!" He turned and walked out of the bay.
Colonel Dubins was sitting at his post, going over the simulations for
the upcoming attack. Matt was nervous, but since he was an officer in
the Marine Corp, he had to put his nerves a side. He checked the clock
on his panel. 14:14, it read. Dubins was not surprised that at exactly
14:15 Major Hummel emerged from the Turbolift. He crossed the bridge
and stopped directly in front of his Superior Officer.
"Major Frank Hummel, reporting as ordered sir." He said saluting.
"At east Major. Now if you follow me, Captain Harkness, Admiral Smith
and General McQueen are waiting for us in the Captains Ready Room."
Dubins stood and walked down the hall to his Captains Office, he hit the
button and waited for the door to open.
Hummel and Dubins walked in. The Captain, Admiral, and General were all
seated around Harkness's desk.
"Colonel Dubins, Major. Please Come in." Harkness said looking up.
"Thank you sirs, it is an honor to be here today." Hummel said with
Pride.
All 3 of them nodded. "Take a seat."
Dubins and Hummel sat beside General McQueen.
"So where were we?" Asked Harkness. "Oh, that's it. The first wave.
What are the projected casualties?"
McQueen looked up. "Around 67%. Each Wave shall drop about 15-25% in
allied casualties." The Admiral said looking up.
"Major. Are your men, and equipment ready?" The Admiral asked.
"Yes Ma'am. We are ready to go down as soon as you allow us, we really
want to kick some Carddie ass!" He said with a lot of Pride.
"Major, I came around the Hanger today, and I saw some of your men added
external pylons to the Fighters, may I ask what they are?" McQueen said
in a deep voice.
"Yes sir. If you allow me Captain?" He asked pointing to the monitor.
Charles nodded.
"Computer: Bring up display: Hummel one."
The screen turned on to a diagram of the Halifax class fighter.
"Sirs, as you can see, this is the Halifax class fighter. The best
light attack ship ever built. But in my last attack, I tried a new
weapon on the Carddies. I was searching through the Historical Database
on Weapons, and found a compound used during the 'Vietnam War'. It was
called Napalm. It's a substance that uses several flammable materials
and plastic. The bomb, once dropped is ignited from the inside and a
small charge destroys the outer casing, which allows the melted plastic
to drop on its victims. Once on the skin, it burns till it is put out,
and there are only a few substances around that can put it out. The
stuff is great. The both the Carddies and Jem'Hadar hate it." He
concluded his sick speech.
Harkness did not know this marine officer. He only transferred to the
Toronto a few days ago, for this mission, and felt that both the Admiral
and the General would shoot down his idea since it was barbaric.
"Very well, major."
The Admiral looked up. "Computer: Time."
"The time is 01:22."
"Well Captain, the hour is upon us." She said in a surprisingly warm
voice, considering that in a few hours, a few thousand Cardassians,
Jem'Hadar, and Allies would be dead.
"Very well, shall we go to the bridge." McQueen said.
They all stood, and walked out the door.
"Commander Larson," Admiral Smith said. "Open a channel to the fleet."
Harkness came from behind her, took his seat, and nodded at Larson.
"Yes Sir. Channel open."
The Admiral looked at McQueen. "Two Line Pass." She said. Two-line
pass was the code word for getting under way.
Captains Log: Supplemental.
The fleet is holding position just out side the Prometheus System. We
lie here in-wait of the single from the Special Operations teams.
Whoever said that the worse part of war was right.
End Log.
Captain Harkness sat in his command chair looking at the view screen.
The whole command staff was on the bridge. March at Ops. Jenkins was
at the helm. Larson was at her post. Lefler working at the Engineering
console. Harkness's Bride to be at the Secondary Weapons control.
Dubins was at the back of the bridge looking over some battle plans for
the upcoming attack. He loved every minute of it, Harkness observed.
Just then March's console started beeping.
"Captain we are receiving a single." He said looking up.
"What is it?" Charles asked as he stood up. At the back of the Bridge
Dubins, Admiral Smith, and General McQueen stepped forward.
"It's only a phrase. Repeated several times. 'Steak Sandwich.'"
Charles looked back. He knew what the single meant.
"Time to kick some Carddie Ass." McQueen shouted.
"Commander March, relay the message to every ship." He ordered.
The Admiral nodded to Harkness, an unspoken order.
"RED ALERT. ALL HANDS, BATTLE STATIONS. ALL MARINES TO THEIR SHIPS.
Were going in." Charles shouted.
The bridge went quiet. They knew that in less than 10 minutes they
would enter the system and attack the planet.
Act 2
The Toronto led the fleet into the planetary system. As they came into
Weapons range of the Planet, they opened fire. The first few volleys
took out the planetary defense systems. The rest was up to the Marines.
"Report," Harkness yelled.
March looked over at him. "Sir, the first volley weapons, destroyed the
weapons on the planet."
The Admiral and General were pleased. They got their chance, and they
were going to take it.
"Colonel Dubins, give the green light to the Marines!" Ordered the
General
Aye, SIR!" Dubins yelled back. "Uh Rah!" He grunted.
From all the Shuttle Bays, Marine Hangers, and every orifice on the
massive ship, came small craft. APC's, Halifax Class gun ships. The
all flew down towards the planet. The same scene was on most of the
ships in the fleet.
At the lead of the assault was a Marine Fighter from the Toronto. On
the side of it was painted a picture of two playing cards with the Skull
and Cross Bones. The eyes were red; a piercing red that would stick
with whom ever was to gaze upon it. This was the lead craft, and
Command and Control post for Major Hummel. If it were not for the war,
he would have been arrested and placed in a mental institution because
of his sadistic behavior. Unlike many men in the service of Starfleet,
Hummel got a nice high from the slaughter of his enemies. Some even
thought that he had some Kiligion blood in him. Captain Harkness did
not like his style, and Hummel was able to deduce that from the meeting
he had with him Admiral Smith, General McQueen, and Colonel Dubins.
When he suggested the use of Napalm, only Harkness shuddered at the
thought of burning the Carddies to death. Hummel did not hold it
against the man that he was a normal person, but he thought that he
would have to drop his "Love all Life" policy. Men and Women were dying
out here, and if it depended on Harkness to make a call about killing a
few thousand Carddies but something very unethical as Napalm, he would
freeze just long enough for them to get away.
His Fighter entered the lower Atmosphere. He flew it with grace. The
external pylons that held the Napalm were protected from the heat of the
entry into the planet's Atmosphere. In the back of the ship, Hummel sat
on a chair looking a read out. To his side was a Captain, he looked
nervous, probably because this was his first time going into combat on
the lead ship.
"Sir," he called in a shaky voice. Hummel turned his attention towards
him. "We are now 20000 meters from the shore line. The sun is just
about to come up." Hummel nodded to the young man, and give him an evil
grin.
"Computer." Hummel called to the air. "Begin Program: Hummel 1."
"Acknowledged". The computer replied.
The captain just looked at his superior officer.
On the exterior of the ship, the sides opened to reveal several loud
speakers. Beside the speakers were several marines that held Phaser
rifles. They looked out the side at the water beneath. As it rushed
by, at 200 Kilometer's per hour.
Hummel flashed another smile at the captain. "Now comes the fun,
Captain."
The Captain just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Computer: execute Hummel one."
"What is Hummel one, sir?" Asked the young officer.
"Captain, in my last few battles with the Carddies, I decided to use
something I saw in a movie from the 20th century. The movie was
Apocalypse Now. We use a piece of Earth music to scare the shit out of
them. It's starting now. It's Wagner."
The Halifax class ship that Hummel was in command of led several dozen
similar gun ships over the Waters of this ocean. As they came close to
shore the music started blaring, loud base. The Sun came up behind
them. As the ships crossed over the shoreline, they opened fire. The
Marines on the side of Hummel's ship opened fire on Carddies on the
ground. Others came in behind and attacked the posts that were on the
ground, explosions threw the Cardassians and Jem'Hadar soldiers all over
the place. The Command ship flew down towards the deck and fire it's
phasers at a Cardassian Weapons tower. Destroying it. Several
secondary explosions from the weapons threw even more debris and bodies
into the air.
Back in the center of the gun ship, Hummel was barking orders to the
other ships in his unit. The Captain to his left seemed to be enjoying
this, but he would not tell anyone that.
"Death Card 24: Come in to position 324 Mark 132 Mark 215. Take out the
bastards." Hummel ordered with a smile.
"Sir, outward re-con reports that we have destroyed all the big guns."
The Captain said with a big smile.
"Very well, Death Cards. Bring her down. We're going in." He barked
to the air.
The Gun ships all flew towards to a beach where they touched down
without any difficulties. The soldiers came pouring out of the doors in
the sides of the Gun ships. Guns ablaze. The beach around them started
exploding as shells from Cardassian's exploded. The explosions threw
some of the men around, but none were killed. Hummel jumped out of the
side and took a deep breath. Major Hummel was wearing a green pair of
pants; on the belt was an old gun, from the late 20th century; also on
the belt he had several clips of bullets for the firearm. He picked up
a phaser rifle and started firing at the Cardassian facility. He began
to walk up to towards it.
"HIT THE DECK!" A young en-listed man yelled as a shell exploded 5
meters away from Hummel. The Sand was thrown every where; Hummel was
having the time of his life. Hummel was the only one who didn't take
cover; he looked around at all the men who were on the ground. "Get off
your lazy asses. You're not fucking the ground on my WATCH!" He ordered
to them.
"Private, come over here" He barked to a young man who had a
Communications System on his back. "Hand me the phone."
"Yes sir," he said in a scared tone.
Hummel held the phone in his hand.
"Captain," he called back to his Second in Command. "Are all our men
away from the facility?"
"Yes Sir!"
The Major smiled to himself.
"Echo-bravo-Echo-three-two. This is beachhead Alpha-four-gamma-six-pi.
Requesting a little fire show for the Caddies."
"Aye, Beach-Head Alpha-four-gamma-six-pi. Fighters are inbound." A
female voice replied on the headset.
Hummel looked around at his troops. There were still some explosions
from Shells but his teams neutralized most of them. With a smile he
turned his attention towards the ground where a Cardassian was laid. He
had several burn marks from phaser blasts.
"He-l-p me." He managed to get out, as he grabbed Hummel's boot.
"FUCK YOU!" Hummel looked down to him and yelled. He unclipped his gun
from the belt the cocked it. The terror in the eyes of young Cardassian
would sick in the mind of anyone, except Hummel.
He lined the gun up with the Cardassians head.
"See you in hell, mother fucker."
The Cardassian only had enough time to open his mouth for the last
time. Major Hummel pulled the trigger on his antique 4 times and fired
4 bullets into the brain of his enemy. The blood and brain matter from
the young man was thrown around from the entry of the bullets.
Major Hummel turned away and looked at his gun. "The mother fucker got
Carddie blood on my fucking gun. Christ I hate these son's of
bitches." He wiped the gun off and placed it back in its holster. He
then heard the silent rumble of the Engines on the Gun Ships. He looked
out to see 5 Halifax class attack ships flying over the ocean. About 15
clicks from the base their time to attack was less than a minute. They
closed in on the target and dropped to less than a hundred meters off
the deck. On external pylons was over 80,000 tonnes of Napalm. They
flew over the marines and dropped their payload on the Cardassian
Facility. The resulting explosion threw Napalm over every thing close
to the facility. The heat from the explosion was so high that the
Marines felt it from 5000 meters out. Hummel turned his back to the
explosions as a reporter from the Federation News Service walked up to
him.
"Major Hummel." He called.
Frank Hummel lifted his hand and took a deep breath.
"Do you smell that?" He asked
"Smell what?"
Hummel placed his hands on his hips. "That smell." He took another deep
breath. "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!"
End Act 2
Act 3
End Act 2
Act 3
Captain Harkness sat in his chair listening to the reports from every
Marine unit. He held his head in his Hand, sickened by the loss
of life that was happening on the planet below. He looked to the view
screen as many explosions on the planet became visible. He felt
nauseous. He wanted to go to his ready room and have a drink, but he
couldn't. They were still in a combat situation and he had to be on the
bridge to command his crew.
"Captain Harkness," General McQueen called from the back of the bridge.
Charles turned in his chair to see.
"We have just received word. All but five of the beachheads were secured.
We are sending down re-enforcement's now to five." McQueen had a giant
smile on his face. This was the first time Charles saw the massive man
happy, and that thought sickened Charles even more, since the man was only
happy when millions of people were dying! That wasn't right, was it?
"What's our causalities like?" Charles asked cause he had to; he didn't
want to know.
"Our projections were overly generous for the enemy. We only lost
approximately 35% of our invasion force; there were not many ground
troops on the planet when we attacked.
"What?" Charles interest was heightened.
"There were not many Carddies on the planet." The general repeated
himself.
Harkness jumped out of his seat, and walked over to March.
"Zavi, do a scan." Command March nodded.
"Holy? Sir, there are eighty-five Jem'Hadar starships on an intercept course
heading two-three-two Mark one-eight-seven. I am also detecting another
wave of Cardassian Galore Class Destroyers coming from the opposite."
Harkness eyes went wide. "Toronto to all ships. We have incoming!"
He ran back to his seat. Dubins took his seat. The General and Admiral
stayed at the back of the bridge.
"Dubins, what's the status of fighters?"
Dubins ran his fingers over the LCARS display.
"We have only two squadrons on standby. And that's for the whole fleet."
Harkness sat in his seat for a moment of thinking.
"Okay People, this is what were doing. Patch me into the fleet,
Commander Larson." She nodded. "This is Captain Charles Harkness, we
have detected many incoming. Dominion ships inbound. They want us to
spilt so they can get to the planet. But were going to stand our
ground. I want all ships to take position around the planet. No more
than twenty- thousand KM apart. Do anything to destroy your enemy.
We have a lot of people on the planet that are depending on us.
You got your orders. Now do it! Captain Charles Harkness out."
Charles looked over to his bridge crew.
"Lieutenant Jenkins, bring us about to two-three-three Mark one-two-one."
Jenkins turned back to her console. "Aye sir."
The Toronto turned around and came to a stop. Many other ships did the
same and developed the first and last line of defense. All the Captains
knew if they failed the people on the planet would be a toy for the
Dominion.
The first wave of Jem'Hadar ships came in close to the Toronto. Her new
weapons systems made short work of them. An Akira class ship was caught
in a battle with three Jem'Hadar ships. She fired her phasers at the lead
ship; their shields dropped as the USS Conquest fired a volley of quantum
torpedoes, which imploded on the hull of the small craft. The remaining
two ships broke off their attack and tried to get her to follow them,
but Captain Mancuso held his ground.
Two defiant class ships were in a firefight with five Cardassian ships. The
smaller ships were doing loops around the bigger ships as they dropped
quantum after quantum on the shields of the massive ships. Finally the
lead defiant class ship, USS Ville de Quebec, fired a last volley of
torpedoes. If the Cardassian ship were alive it would have screamed a
deafening scream as the torpedoes torn through the hull. However the
Ville de Quebec's victory was short lived. A second ship fired a
volley of torpedoes, which pierced her hull and the small ship exploded
in a bright fireball. The destruction of the small ship seemed to make
her companion even fiercer. The USS Dublin flew around the bigger ships
and fired at will. The Torpedoes finally pierced the hulls of the
massive ships. The remaining four ships were all destroyed, in the
resulting explosion from the warp core.
Back on the bridge of the Toronto, there were several small explosions
as EPS conduits over heated. Harkness was barking orders left, right,
and center. Everyone was sticking to their training and was able to
cope with the bridge exploding around them.
"God Damn it!" March yelled from his post. "Captain, they Enemy has
gotten a dozen attack ships through, they're on their way to the planet
now."
* * *
Back on beachhead Alpha-four-gamma-six-pi, Major Hummel was inspecting
the dead. As he walked by the Cardassian and Jem'Hadar bodies, he
pulled out a deck of cards. They had the symbol of the "Death Cards"
squadron. He took them out of the package and looked at the first one.
"Let's see. For you we have a six of hearts," he threw it on the body.
"You get, nine of spades. You got the ace of diamonds." He continued
the death path, throwing cards on the dead men.
"MAJOR!" Yelled his Second in Command.
"What, Captain?"
"We have incoming!"
For the first time in his life, Major Francis X. Hummel was scared. His
eyes grew wide, as he looked around. A couple of seconds later, his
training kicked in and he started barking orders. The men and women
started running to their ships. Hummel was one of the last to reach
them. Once inside, he took a seat in the cockpit.
"We're powering up! All ships, you are weapons free!" He ordered.
The gun ship took off the ground and took position several Kilometers
off the shore, hovering at four hundred meters off the deck. There were only
twelve ships in-bound, and Hummel was sure he could take them on.
He had twenty-five ships. Twelve against twenty-five; not a great chance for
the enemy. The first ship came across the horizon. Hummel attacked this
one by himself. He fired phasers at the ship. After a few shots to their
shields, they dropped. Hummel fired two torpedoes which shore through
the hull and came to rest in the middle of the ship. A nanosecond later,
they exploded, sending the occupants on a fiery trip to hell. The rest
of his squadron made short work of the Carddies and Jemmies.
"Okay people, good work," Hummel congratulated his troops. "All pilots,
set a course back to the Toronto,"
He turned in his seat. "Captain, you're in charge of the troops down here.
Keep this position secure."
End Act 3.
Act 4
"WE'RE GETTING MORE WOUNDED," a Marine Medic yelled as he came in the
door to sick bay. The Area was dark, a little too dark for medical
purposes, but Dr. Michelle England-Soon to be Dr. Michelle Harkness-was
able to cope with it.
"Place them over there," she yelled as she came in from her office.
This was the busiest her sick bay had ever been. Men and women were on
both the deck and bio-beds. Their uniforms torn and scorched from phaser
fire. The more seriously wounded were put on the operating beds, where
they would get the best medical help in Starfleet. The rest
would just have to wait till there was an opening.
Doctor England made her way through the sea of bodies to a bio bed
where a young marine was lying. He had several burn marks on his green
uniform and blood was gushing from his head.
"God, Doc, it hurts bad." He managed to say.
Michelle looked into his eyes and only saw fear. This man was only twenty-one.
He should be studying at a university to become a doctor or
something. She ran the Tri-corder over his body, which confirmed her fears. He had massive internal bleeding and his right kidney would have to be removed. He
also had a punctured lung and many broken bones. This poor kid was
in bad shape.
"Nurse, forty Cc's of Hydozeine. STAT!" The nurse handed over the
hypospray.
"This will take away the pain and put you to sleep, Private. When you
wake up, you'll be all new." Michelle said with a smile, she knew it
was an empty smile. Chances are the boy would not survive the
surgery. She hated the fact that her job was to bandage the troops so
they will be able to fight soon. She hated the Dominion, but she also
hated seeing people die. Dr. England injected medicine into his neck
and watched as he drifted in to a deep sleep. "Sweet dreams," she said
to him as he drifted off.
Michelle walked back from the Bio-bed.
"Call Dr. Ryan and have the this boy prepped ASAP." She said in a tired
voice.
"Yes Doctor." As the nurse quickly walked off to prep the OR, Michelle
looked around. So many people were injured and that was not right, was
it? No, it couldn't be. Star Fleet was not a Military Organization, was
it? Michelle knew she needed a break, but she couldn't leave.
"Doctor England!" A nurse called to her from a bio-bed on the other side
of sick bay. She made her way back over the sea of people. As she
reached the bed, she felt the deck shudder. While she was taking care of
the young Private, she forgot that the ship was under attack. Just
then, an EPS conduit behind the bed where the young PFC. was sleeping,
exploded. The remains of the young man were spread throughout SickBay.
Soon after, panic ensued from the fire.
"BLOODY FUCK!" Michelle yelled.
She looked around and saw that many of the wounded were scared and
needed some comfort.
"It's okay people, no one was hurt. We're going to be fine." A lie, but
she wished it were true.
On the bridge, sparks were flying out of many of the control surfaces.
Several crew members were on the ground, most dead, but some held on to
what little life they had left.
Admiral Smith looked like someone walked across her grave. McQueen, on
the other hand, had a little simile on his face, which quickly
disappeared whenever someone looked in his direction; Harkness didn't
pay attention to them.
"Commander, lock Quantum torpedoes." He ordered looking straight into
the screen. A single Jem'Hadar ship was drifting in front of the
massive ship. Its port nacelle was leaking plasma.
"Ready, sir."
"FIRE!"
On the screen two blue torpedoes flew towards the crippled enemy vessel.
The crew on that ship had less than two seconds before they died. In
a massive explosion, the ship was gone.
"Good work, sir. All Dominion ships have either been destroyed or
crippled," March said from his console.
Admiral Smith walked forward, and came beside Captain Harkness.
Charles stood and looked at her.
"Look's like we were ambushed, Admiral. Would you happen to know why?"
Harkness asked in a patronizing tone.
"What? Captain, are you accusing me of treason?"
Charles was about to open his mouth and make a big mistake when General
McQueen swore in the open. The Admiral and Captain both noticed that he
was hitting his arm. Ted McQueen did not notice that he was being
watched and continued to hit his arm. Charles picked up a Tri-corder
and scanned his direction. He showed the readings to the Admiral. He
then picked up his phaser, then looked over at March who had done the
same.
Admiral Smith walked over to the marine on the bridge and took his
phaser rifle, then carefully walked behind McQueen.
"Just where the fuck do you think your going?" Harkness asked him.
McQueen shot his head up. He knew he was caught. He reached down to
his phaser. Smith in behind him had a different idea. She shot at
his kneecap. In an instant, his right leg ended at the knee joint. The General fell to the ground screaming. Smith came up to him and kicked his side so he would roll onto his back.
"You fucking traitor," she said, kicking the phaser away from him.
Charles walked over to him and looked into his eyes.
"Medic, take him to the brig and have Doctor England take a look at him," he said to the Marine Medic.
Harkness walked over to his seat and snorted as he sat down in the comfortable chair.
"Commander March: Have all the reaming captains report to the Conference
Room, in fifteen minutes," he ordered the tall German.
Charles sat there for a minute thinking, then stood and walked to the
Turbolift.
"Mister March, you have the bridge. Commander Larson, you're with me."
Melissa stood and walked over beside her captain, and watched as Zavi
took his seat. Once the doors shut, she looked up at her friend, the captain.
"Where are we going?"
"We are going to avenge the deaths of our men and women. Computer: Brig
1."
Act 5.
"I can't believe that Bastard!" Shouted Lieutenant Commander Foster of
the USS Alabama. The young man was not more than thirty and was just given
the position of Commanding Officer of the Akira Class Warship when Captain Bart Mancuso and Lieutenant Commander Hunter were killed in the battle.
"Settle down, Alex," said Captain Johnson of the Galaxy. He was ten
years older than Harkness, and was in a good position to get a
flag-become an Admiral-in the near future. "What are we going to do,
Captain?"
Charles stood at the head of the table, and looked at the faces. All of
the officers looked tired, scared, -except for the Vulcans. The men
and women Charles met at the SIT room a few weeks age were either
dead or in their respective sick bays receiving help.
"Well, we have endured the worst of what the Dominion can throw at us.
We did lose a lot of good men and women, but we were able to hold the
planet. This planet will remain in the hands of the United Federation
of Planets.
"As you may know, the reason we were ambushed was because of former
general McQue-"
"Let me get to the bastard, I want to rip his fucking balls off and feed
them to a Kiligion!"
"Commander, sit down." Admiral Smith ordered. "The general well get
what is coming to him. But he has also told us where we the Dominion
staging point is. And we're going to strike them HARD!" She slammed
her fist on the table as she said this.
Charles walked over to the Monitor that looked over the Table and
punched a few buttons. "This is?"
With a bright flash of light, the USS Toronto, with all her support
craft dropped out of warp. Behind her, the rest of the attack fleet came to
sub-light speeds. All of the ships had new battle damage. Several of
the ships were close to the Toronto. Inside, all of her bays were filled
with ships in need of repair.
On the bridge of the Toronto, Captain Harkness looked proud, but only
Michelle knew, on the inside, he was hurting. Charles looked around at
his bridge. Several of the Panels had been blown out. The walls were
blackened from the smoke. He stood up and looked down at his First
Officer.
"Commander Larson, you have the bridge, I'll be in my Ready Room."
"Aye, aye sir."
Charles walked down the hall to his office, entered the room.
Back on the bridge, Doctor England walked across to the hall. She tried
to remain inconspicuous, but, as she walked behind Melissa, she looked
back. Only a few members of the crew knew about Michelle and Charles's
engagement, and Larson was one of them. She only nodded to the CMO before
turning her attention to the panel on her right hand side. Michelle
walked to the door and hit the call button. She stood there for a
couple of seconds, and nothing. Again, she hit it.
Finally, the doors slid open and she walked in. Charles was sitting
behind his desk, with a bottle of Whiskey and a shot glass. He was
staring at a PADD.
"Captain? Charles," she said to him.
He only grunted. Michelle walked around the desk and came beside him,
she noticed that his eyes were puffed up and there were tear marks on
his face.
"Charles," she said to him.
"Yes," he sniffled, "what can I do you for, Commander?"
"Charles, it's me. I'm not here cause I have to submit a request for
more medicine. I'm here 'cause I love you."
He looked up at her and tried to smile, but something was holding him
back.
He got up and walked over to the couch. Michelle followed him and sat
beside him.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I dunno. I just feel so terrible for the loss of life. I'm a Military
leader, and I've been in combat a lot of times, but I've never lost so
many people before. And to make it worse, I have to submit a report to
Starfleet, but all I can do is stare at this death list." He hit a
button and held the PADD in his hand.
"Lieutenant Fillipone, Marine. Age 29; Sergeant Stidham, Marine, age 35;
Captain Louise Van Damn, Starfleet, Age 38; Michael Sheerin, Reporter,
age 26. Captain Michael Sweeney, Marine, age 30; Admiral Smith, age
57." He started to sob again, and put the list down. "The list is
endless. All these people died, all because of one man. We can say
they died for a good cause, but at the end of it, they're still DEAD.
DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, they'll never see their wives, husbands, and family
members again. For what? A planet. That's all. They died for a
bloody planet, which will be the beginning point of many people's
deaths."
He looked over at Michelle, she too, had tears running down her face.
"Who said war was right?" she asked rhetorically.
Charles didn't listen. He just stared out the window. looking at the
planet where so many people died.
End.