Talking instead of Thoughts Part 3 of 3

Posted on 24 Jan 2017 @ 4:37pm by Major S'arila Donovan
Edited on on 06 Aug 2017 @ 7:34pm

2,765 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Personal Quarters/Counsellors Office
Timeline: Mission Day 13

[A JP between Major Donovan PNPC and Lt. Jg Iria Walon Counsellor]

[ON]

- Counsellors Office -

Smiling gratefully "Where was I ah yes! After they finished studying me I was two-year-old in human terms and I found out that Samuel Donovan had got permission to raise me as his own, so I grew up with some adopted brothers and Sisters and for the time being all was well, I was still in High School when the Dominion War happened in my reality. Where I come from they were a few months ahead of this one and I checked historical records, the Breen joined the Dominion in this reality, in mine, the Dominion wiped them out."

"My reality the hobus star went boom also, so my reality was not that dissimilar from this one, I digress, anyway I entered Starfleet a couple of years before the end of the war, after my entrance exam I decided to join the marines, eventually after a hard basic training I was posted to the 5th SFMC MACO unit and my section commander was then Marine Captain Alexandria Somers, by this time she was already a combat vet and for one so young too, she had the look of someone who saw and had part in something horrible and had to grow up fast and there was an element of loss. I was surprised most senior officers were uppity, Alex was not, I was a Second Lieutenant who became fast friends with a Marine Captain, it was like Alex was looking for a new friend, I found out eventually she had lost a close friend some year back as a Marine Corporal. It was then I realised why she was different from other officers, she came up through the ranks, I had no idea at the time she was the daughter of a Federation Ambassador."

*Pause*

Iria nodded her head, keeping her questions silent for the moment, not wanting to spoil Donovan's train of thought or anything, it was very interesting hearing, though.

"Anyway as time went one we both ended up being transferred to the 1st MACO Spec Ops regiment, she had just made Major and me First Lieutenant, neither of us knew there was a Second Dominion War on the horizon, the second Dominion War began late 2387 and the hobus explosion had not long begun its millennia cool down after it exploded. Also, Ambassador Spock vanished along with a Romulan mining ship, anyway from that moment on Starfleet and the Klingon Empire were in a fight for our lives. The second conflict with the Dominion was much worse than the first one, but no one on either side knew how or why or even who started it, but the tinderbox was dry and a match was lit, you can guess the result!"

"A lot of casualties, and sleepless nights I would imagine." iria said very softly not quite a whisper but not far from it either. "Or am I wrong?" she added after a moment's pause.

Smiling "Well our initial successes began to give way to major losses, the Romulan Empire was still in shambles, the Cardassian Union still rebuilding from the first Dominion War. Then in 2390 a new species made it's presence felt and initial attacks were concentrated on the Dominion, but they obviously came to some agreement and both attacked the Federation Alliance. The federation lost world after human world and some of those human colonies were eradicated by biogenic weapons that killed all life or simply rendered out regenerative Phasers inert. So someone looked into earth's history and used weapons from the planets violent past."

*Pause*

So all personnel both Starfleet and Klingon's were equipped with these chemical combustion weapons, by this time both Empires had become one unit under one banner. My unit was sent in mainly to do SAR missions and assaults and what have you, but we were pushed back so far, Bajor was conquered Deep Space nine was destroyed, Betazed and Bolia fell, the enemy halted at Axanar, we wondered why they did this, Tellar Prime, Andoria, Vulcan and earth were open to them, what combat forces we had remaining were fighting a rear guard action. The alliance did not sit idly by both Starfleet and Klingon engineers refurbished old ships to defend our homeworlds. It was quite a sight to see refitted NX classes sporting better firepower ande defences, I do believe the Enterprise NX01 took part in the defence of earth in the final days, we found out why they had paused at Axanar after conquering it."

*pause*

"They attacked Kronos and its inner colonies with devastating weapons that not even the Tal Shiar would have used, those Klingon ships and assisting Starfleet ships defended in turn Tellar Prime, Andoria and finally Vulcan, each time they retreated with that species defence ships and all ended up at Sol. So for once there was a multi-species fleet of ships gathered above the earth. The seat of the Federation had become a shining beacon in the dark, the Terrans had held out against sneak ground assaults for years before the final days of democracy, we had all been through hell and had seen horrors no one had seen since the Third World War, except this alien species that sided with the Dominion made earth's last terrestrial conflict seem like a childish spat, the three founding member worlds were bombed into submission with Antimatter nuclear warheads. Think of a human-made atomic bomb with a more efficient power and explosive force and add antimatter to that radiation and you have the anti-life bomb, well that's what we called it, my unit saw Vulcan from orbit surrounded by blue mushroom clouds" she paused here, if only for a breather and to let what she said to sink in.

Iria nodded, she remembered her history lessons there were very dark days in Earth's past and from what Donovan was saying, it would not have been pretty to see let alone watch happening to others or having heard the thoughts of others during such times. She sat back and waited for Donovan to continue.

"Up until then we thought we had seen the harshest brutality, but we had one more horror to face and it would be the one event that would scar me for life. It feels good to talk about this, but I do apologise in advance if any nightmares you may suffer, what I have said so far pales in comparison to the final days. I will let what I said sink in while I get a drink, then I will tell you the final part of my never ending nightmare" Donovan said and walked over to the replicator allowing Walon to digest and speak should she wish.

Iria sipped her well-cooled tea and took a moment if what Donovan said thus far was pale, what was she about to hear? Still, she had her own nightmares of the freighter her home with her family on it, in flames and breaking up around her. She nodded her head and looked at Donovan, "I am ready when you are," she meant it. She was ready to know and help S'arila through what sounded like what would have driven lesser folks completely insane.

Looking at nothing Donovan rubbed her eyes and put her glasses back on, then looked at the Counsellor as she gathered her thoughts "Where was I, ah yes! It was the tail end of 2391 and the federation as you know it no longer existed, there were pockets still loyal to the ideals of the Federation, the Xindi were one such species. But as for the rest of the galaxy, those that had not sued for peace like the Ferengi and Romulan's and Cardassian's had been subjugated. It was at the final battle of Sector 001 which will live in infamy, The USS Tomcat, yes we had an Akira class ship of that name in my reality, with the same crew and Commander. The only difference here is you, there was not another you in my reality, one of those slight differences I suppose anyway the Tomcat and what ships it could muster received a distress call from the fleet guarding earth."

*Pause*

"We had just finished scavenging ships that could not be saved and transferring those crews to the remaining ships, then the fleet formed up around the tattered remnants of what was once Pegasus Fleet and a bunch of other Fleets that got destroyed in the battle and headed straight to earth. Now I have to say we got there in record time and as we were all going to red alert, we saw some NX class ships in the thick of battle, they did not survive long as even with upgrades the ships hulls had a limit on what could be done. I was happy to see they went out in a blaze of glory, the last NX class the Enterprise NX01 was the last to go, followed by the current Enterprise-E the flagship. We initially had surprise on our side as the enemy were focused on the defending ships, but the surprise was short lived, we had four Akira's all with reassembled tattered regiments moulded into new ones, they numbered 300 per ship, made a sardine can look roomy" Donovan paused with a smile.

After another sip of water, she continued "Anyway we fought our way into earth orbit and each ship had a sector to land troops, sadly only the Tomcat survived to unload our cargo. From orbit, we saw blue mushroom clouds dotted around the planet and by now we knew that all energy weapons would be useless so we used chemically fired projectile ones, not many were TR-116s, most had been replicated to the individual specifications. When we were ready we three hundred beamed down to Starfleet Academy, we must have been a sight troops in matte black battle armour which came out of the smoke and ash firing, our arrival pushed the enemy back for a short time, enough to allow us to shore up the defences. I looked around and saw those mushroom clouds tinted blue, there were corpses littered around the Academy both burned and scorched featureless, the landscape was already looking worse than the images I had seen of the Third World War in holos, it was such a sight that I still have nightmares, the radiation levels were at fatal levels, even with our suits on we only had 48 hours before they would be useless."

*pause*

"In a repeated enemy attacks we lost some troops and even more when the enemy used Photon artillery projectiles, this was only stopped by the greatest sacrifice in my eyes, "Colonel Jasmine Somers, this is what she was in my reality had suffered major damage to the Tomcat, and in a final act of defiance, quoting some poem on an open channel she put all power into shields, SIF and engines and fired the last torpedoes in the launch tubes at the enemy artillery positions that her ship would not hit. Then like a flaming meteor, we saw what was left of the Tomcat in a death dive and on target for the command section and the enemy force was decimated by the warp core going critical and forming it's own mini mushroom cloud, the shockwave and subsequent explosion hurt the enemy and by this time I was sent to take out an enemy command post, I had five marines with me and we completed our mission and returned to the defensive line. Then just like Thermopylae the surviving defenders ironically numbered 300 exactly including myself."

*She paused for another drink as she shook her head at the irony of it all*

"Anyway we placed our battle standard of the 2nd MACOs if you have seen the standards used during the Napoleonic wars then you have some idea, it is also similar to what is above the Captain's desk in her ready room. My team returned in time for the next attack, the rest of the troops had discarded their combat suits, as our ride no longer existed and none of us wanted to be captured, we all had at that moment the Spartan mentality of win or return on our shields or die in glorious battle the Klingon's in our group loved this idea *shrugs*. I do not know why but I kept my suit on and to this day I do not truly know why. I have almost finished my story, after more repeated attacks we run out of ammunition, and we all turned to bladed weapons, I pulled out my twin Spatha blades and the other troops pulled out various long blades and such and a melee battle broke out, I had cleared those hostiles around me and I looked up to see Major Alex Somers in the thick of it, her replica Desert Eagle pistols firing their last shots, then in one smooth motion as she kicked an enemy away she pulled out her twin wakizashi swords and waded in, she like the others had discarded her suit and she was walking on corpses of the dead from both sides. She finally came face to face with the largest damned Jem Hadar I had ever seen, by this time she was tiring, even with her training and stamina she was only human."

*Pause as she finished her drink*

"I do not know if it was fate but I was, for the most part, left alone, but in the end there were three of us left on the battlefield, more enemy troops were close, but eventually the enemy got the upper hand and I saw my friend Alex cry out in pain and look down at the Jem Hadar blade sticking out of her chest. I do not know where she found the strength from but she plunged her swords into the necks of her opponent which killed him instantly and my suits mike pick up her final words, she said 'Today was a good day to die' and he head fell back and her lifeless eyes took in a similar sight to what I saw. Picture this Iria amid a pile of corpses stood the tattered battle flag of the 2nd MACO Regiment, all torn and tattered flapping in the morning breeze among the radioactive dust particles and the lightening of the sky."

"I realised that it was dawn and there beneath the regimental flag of a Spec Ops marine regiment Democracy died in blood and death, wanting to go out the same way I charged the approaching enemy and was blown back. I do not know how but I looked up and saw intact buildings and a bright sunny blue sky and the main building of Starfleet Academy still intact, I looked at my feet and in front of them I saw a closing spatial anomaly then looked around and saw over a dozen Starfleet Security officers pointing Phasers at me. I was in no fit state to argue, I just stood there looking at a nice blue sky, I did not know it at the time but the battle I was in and the explosion locked open the two-way communications open and all they heard I was told after was laughter and joyful shouts. You see Iria the fates had a plan for me, but I swore that I would repay the new life I had been given in your reality, this one."

She finished her story indicating her surroundings, then she let the Counsellor absorb what she had said, most of it was a shortened version as the actual version would take more than a day to relate, but now she was expecting questions.

Iria nodded it seemed the story while softened was still a bit more than what she had expected, it would seem, still, S'arila felt good to tell a sanitised version of her reality. Then she realised she had come here to talk about her loss of her telepathic ability and she went on about where she had come from, seeing that she had overstayed her welcome.

"I will see you around Iria, thanks for listening and sorry I blabbered about my past, I know that is not what you thought would happen, I shall leave you in peace" S'arila said and nodded once to Iria and had to duck a little as she exited the Counsellors office.

[OFF]

Major S'arila Donovan [PNPC: Somers]
Bravo Unit commander
USS Tomcat

Lieutenant Jg Iria Walon
Counsellor
USS Tomcat

 

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