What reality we are in? Part 2

Posted on 01 Mar 2018 @ 7:36pm by Major S'arila Donovan & Lieutenant Paul Winchester
Edited on on 01 Mar 2018 @ 7:37pm

2,413 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: S02 Episode 3: When Realities Collide (Incidentals)
Location: Winchesters Quarters/Various
Timeline: Mission 4 Day 59 to 65-7.1

[ON]

She then continued "As time went on attrition wore us down, Cardassia was next to be devastated, but not to the level Breen had been, the survivors on Cardassia Prime were beaten and without leadership and the planet was left to its own devices, the Cardassian ships that were still fighting continued to do so, prode and all that, but in reality they wanted revenge, who can blame them, for the second time in recent history of this reality the Dominion attacked and ruined Cardassia" she paused for a lengthy moment taking another sip of her coffee.

"During these events my Regiment the 2nd SAS MACOs were defending populations while the Fleet evacuated as many as they could, this went on for years, fight, hold then retreat, each time the regiments gave better than they got, but we all knew the end was near. Then a full general has placed in charge of all marine forces and a Fleet Admiral in charge of space forces, both came up with a plan that seemed to work well on paper, but in actual fact it failed miserably, tell me El-tee have you ever heard the term Pyrrhic Victory?" Donovan asked.

"No I haven't major," replied Paul looking back at her as he took another sip of his drink, He continued," Please enlighten me ?" as he asked the question giving her a smile whilst trying to make her relax. He understood this must be distressing for her and the Captain had warned him about this, But he did not want her to get upset at all.

"A Pyrrhic Victory is basically a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has been victorious in some way, though the heavy toll negates a true sense of achievement or profit." Donovan paused as she finished reciting a dictionary meaning to it.

"Anyway in your reality the Battle of Wolf 359 was against the Borg, in this reality the Borg were never a threat, we knew they existed but thanks to Section 31 we managed to implant a corrosive pathogen and computer virus that rent the entire Collective ineffective, is basically killed the Queen and all the drones. The method used by 31 put the pathogen the Voyager used to shame, so at the Wolf 359 in this reality, there was effectively the last pitched space battle the Alliance put together. We had ten-thousand active ships of varying classes at the start of the war, by the Time Wolf 359 came around we had around six thousand ships" she paused again to finish her coffee.

"Half of those were assembled at Wolf 359 along with the same number of Klingon ships, there were few remaining Cardassian ships still fighting, but this time Bajor and all the planets north of 359 were devastated by war, their peoples beaten and subjugated, the Bajoran's in their typical zeal formed resistance groups, but the Dominion was not the Cardassian Union, Bajor is now a devastated wasteland devoid of any natural life, those Bajorans that was lucky to survive are now slaves, Bajor, Tellar Prime and Bolius are not much different, unlike past conflicts this was total war. As for the Ferengi, the Tzenkethi, the Ferengi were so scared they paid for neutrality at the high price the Founders required as did the Tzenkethi but they did it on Pragmatic grounds. The Gorn sided with us, the Tholian's remain in their own space but destroyed any Dominion ships that tried to enter their space, we did nothing to discourage the Tholians from doing this" Donovan stopped to let what she said to sink in.

"I see," replied Paul looking back at Donovan, He continued," do you think that anything we can try and learn from could prevent it happening in our reality when we get home?" as he asked the question.

Thinking for a moment "This reality, my reality had different factors setting the final outcome, while it could happen in your reality, I do not think it will, your reality is too stable and attitudes are different, in this reality" Donovan said indicating the area they were in with her hand "the Federation Alliance Council did not have so much power or influence, the individual senators did, but we found out too late that the Founders had placed some spies into the Council, these were not shape-shifters, they were solids like you and me, their bonestructure resembled most Alpha and Beta Quadrant species, but they were from the Gamma Quadrant, they were surgically adjusted and trained to blend in, they slowly infected the fleet and especially Section 31 with paranoia. We found out that the Dominion wanted another war after the blame had already been placed on rogue members of the intelligence community, but the evidence pointed to the Intelligence community, we were blind in our assumptions" Donovan said with some bitterness.

"I see," replied Paul, He continued," And I'm sorry for bringing this all up and I just needed some background on where we are," as he looked back at the Marine, He finished," I hope that you will forgive me for doing this,"

Donovan simply nodded "not a problem El-tee, anyway getting back to it, I will summerize the rest as the years rolled on the Alliance lost more ground and territory to the Dominion, the only sectors that were uneffected was the Xindi and Mira Sector, by the time the USS Tomcat of this altyernate reality got word the Dominion had won the battle of Wolf 359 and were building up forces around the Sol system, by this time all other Founding member worlds had fallen, their core personality weaknesses preyed upon, the Dominion allowed all remaining alliance ships to gather in the Sol system. As arriving ships were restocked and given battlefield repairs all the old ships that had been decommissioned were renovated and upgraded to the level their hulls could accommodate" Donovan paused,

"I saw early visuals that made it past the Dominion blockade, I think they let the images out, just to show those last holdouts how desperate the Alliance was, but seeing the remaining NX class ships and Daedalus classes taking flight again was nice, even the Constitution class Enterprise-A was made active again, basically everything Starfleet had left was mobilized, it was a Hail Mary, one which ultimately failed. The USS Tomcat some years before the war had acquired four Achilles class ships and another two Akira classes and an Uprated Galaxy class and Nebula class to assist it in patrolling the wilds of Federation space. I was one of the marines stationed aboard the Tomcat and by the time earth was under threat the ships operating from our Starbase 51 had struck the rear lines of the Dominion, any troops and personnel and supplies we rescued were given to Starbase 51 to increase the stations manpower, When Colonel Jasmine Somers of this reality decided to aid her home planet we left an Akira, the Galaxy and Nebula Classes and two Achilles class ships to defend this sector, two Akira's and two Achilles would attempt to help, at the time we were so sure of our victory as we had purpose, fire and revenge in our hearts, this blinded us to actual facts" Donovan paused to let what she further said sink in.

"So technically we would be seen as a Beacon of hope?" replied Paul as he wondered if word ever got back to those out there that the Tomcat was here. he looked back at the Major as he knew that he didn't want the bad guys to know that there was a gateway to another reality.

Donovan looked at Winchester "In a manner of speaking, but also, there is the fact that if word got out that a fully loaded Heavy Cruiser was in the area, the enemy would attack. There is also the fact that in this reality the Tomcat was sacrificed at the battle of Earth shortly before I was pulled through the spatial anomaly to your reality, the Commander of that ship a Colonel Jasmine Somers gave her life to destroy an enemy artillery unit that was pounding our position, it succeeded but at the cost of a valiant officer. So if the enemy or Remnant knew that another Tomcat was out here, then they would know that we came from another reality and the cause and effect axiom would come into play, but we are coming to the end of the information I can supply, as after I vanished I can only speculate on what happened" Donovan paused.

"Thank you, Major, for your help and again sorry for bringing this up again," replied Paul looking back at the Marine and offered his left hand to the officer. as he hoped that this information might help in some way.

Looking a little surprised, do you not want to know how depraved the Dominion of this reality is? I have not yet said what they did to earth, after that, we will be done" Donovan responded.

Paul looked back at the Major and replied, " Please do tell me what they did to Earth ?" as he leaned back in his chair and listened to the information that was about to be given to him, He thought oO Am I dead here in this reality? Oo as he thought about asking that very question.

She nodded, "well to truly know what the Dominion of this reality is like you have to see it as well as hear it, I will spare you the drama and torment of yours truly and just stick to the facts" Donovan said as she pulled out a small portable holo-emitter, most it could do was show stills, she increased the size of the image, the power would not last long , but it should last long enough.

"What you see in the hologram El-tee is Starfleet Academy pre-bomb, yes it looks bad, that is because the Dominion after defeating the defending forces in orbit bombarded all Starfleet facilities and our power stations. It was around this time that a small task group under the Colonel Somers from this reality broke through with as many reserves as she could muster without leaving Starbase 51 undefended, the surprise was so sudden the Dominion lost more ships within that one-hour window than they ever did throughout the entire war, but as you know the element of surprises rarely lasts more than an hour. We managed to break through yes, but two hours after the Dominion had launched first an Isotope bomb that rendered energy weapons useless so we had to replicate weapons on a similar principle as that of a TR-116 rifle, but a lot more deadly."

She paused...

"Then shortly after that they dropped at all the Starfleet locations a matter/antimatter radioactive bomb, it was blue-tinted and rose around 90 foot in the air. That was just the mushroom clouds, by the time we landed via drop pods the planet was already a wasteland, the mushroom cloud is probably still there even after all these years, or it might have since dissipated. Whereas before I said about the radioactive bombs dropping on Starfleet facilities, the one that destroyed the Academy in San Fransisco was dropped in the middle of the damned city and was somewhat more powerful as for five miles outside of the Academy the land was scorched" Donovan paused as she brought up another image.

"What you see here is the view from my combat armours recorders half hour after we landed, the visuals do not do the size of the cloud justice, but hopefully it is giving you an idea of what this reality is like, there is little or no hope left here" Donovan said as the images moved forward showing the devastation around the camera. "Finally, the only ship that rode in to still be in one piece was the mortally damaged Akira Class Tomcat, her Captain Colonel Somers having expended all Photon torpedoes and quantums rammed a Jem'Hadar Plasma artillery position that was pinning my unit down, her sacrifice was supposed to help, but it was all for naught, this is why the Captain is remaining on the ship and why she has gone to great lengths to hide the ship, imagine the reactions if the Remenant thought that this Tomcat was their Tomcat, miraculously surviving the battle of Earth, that is all I know, any further data might be in the archives" Donovan finished.

"Dear god," replied Paul as he watched the images as he knew those kids that had dreams of exploration shattered and ripped from them by the Dominion, he looked back at Donovan, he continued," So they would think that it was another Akira class ship with the name on it to make it look like the Tomcat had perished?"

*Nodding* "That would be my guess, Paul, the Captain is well aware of what effect another Tomcat showing up would do, it would give them hope, but then there will be suspicion, this Tomcat is in perfect working order, even if the other Tomcat had survived and made it out of earth space the damage would be extensive. This would likely cause the Remnant to see a fully serviceable Heavy Cruiser as a bonus for them and try to take it for themselves, or deny any help to allow us to go home. So this is why the Captain is doing what she is doing, we saw a lot of death and destruction on the first mission to the Hydarans System, we lost a lot of crew, she does not want the same to happen here, have you any other queries or concerns?" Donovan responded.

"None that I can see at the moment major," replied Paul looking back at Donovan, he continued," but if you think of anything else that I need to know, please don't hesitate to call me," as he held his hand out again to the Major.

She took the offered hand and gave it a firm shake "I will Lieutenant, but whatever else I could tell you, it would be on the ship's databanks" Donovan added as she stood up in one smooth motion, nodded once and left Winchesters quarters, thus allowing the Intel agent in training to get to work.

[OFF]

Major S'arila D'Tana Donovan[PNPC: Somers]
Bravo Unit Commander/Acting MCO
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant JG Paul Winchester
CAG/HCO
USS Tomcat

 

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