Broken Mirror 2.5: The Decline of an Era

"Tactical! What's your weapons status?" Captain Justman yelled out over the noise.
"Torpedo payload almost depleted sir! Phaser power is down to fifty percent!"
Justman ducked as something exploded overhead, sending a shower of sparks down on the bridge. Justman looked at the partially damaged viewscreen. The Empire fleet was taking a heavy beating.

Another Dominion warship slid out of warp and opened fire on the ISS Valkyrie. The whole ship shuddered as it was pounded with disruptor fire. Justman grabbed his chair for leaverage.

"Helm, down at a forty five degree angle, full impulse!"

"Aye Captain!" The helmsman slid his fingers over the touch panel console, and Justman felt the ship lurch as it made the sudden swerve downward. A torpedo nearly missed the impulse drive, causing the ship to shudder.

"That was a close one!" Tactical officer McKenzie said frantically. "If we get hit by one of those, we're dead meat!"

Justman looked over to the comm station. "Alex, patch me into Empire command!"

"All long range communications are being jammed by the dominion sir!"

That was just great Justman thought. They know we're suffering out here! Justman watched one more Empire ship erupt in a brilliant display of orange and red.

"What's the fleet count?" Justman yelled out. A voice from the bridge replied "we're down to ten ships sir, each heavily damaged!"

"Shields offline Captain!" McKenzie yelled out as a conduit erupted. A klaxon sounded as the fire control initiated.

Justman pounded the comm unit on his chair. "Empire fleet, disengage, repeat, all ships disengage, rendezvous at the Denmark system!" Justman looked over to the helm. "Helm, get us out of here, warp eight!"

"Sir, the Empire would rather us die than retreat..." the helmsman began before Justman cut him off

"I don't give a damn about the Empire! We've been getting our asses kicked ever since the Dominion arrived. If nobody retreats, then there won't be an empire to defend!" Justman grabbed a piece of debris from the chair and flung it towards the wall. Justman sat down fuming over the incompetency of the Empire.

"Warp eight aye sir" the helmsman said reluctantly.

The Valkyrie's warp engines lit up as she shot into warp speed, leaving the miserable failure behind.

The Governor of North Province made his way down the long hall, fixing his suit as he went. This was not the types of circumstances that anybody wanted to be meeting with the Emperor. Naturally, the blame was going to be on the Governor. He had to be the one to deliver the bad news. Somehow, he always managed to draw the shortest straw.

The Governor took in a deep breath as he approached the guards. He pulled out his identification and flashed it to the guards. They promptly stepped aside, as the door to the council slid open.
The room was spherical in shape, and not very well lit. The council reminded the Governor more of a Klingon death camp then a political office. The Governor silently took his seat, and shuffled his papers a little. The lights dimmed and a holographic projection appeared.

The Governor cleared his throat. "At 0800 this morning, a fleet of our vessels under the command of Captain Justman, intercepted a Dominion transport." The Governor's eye's were darting around the room, nervously jumping from face to face. "Ahem, at approximately 0810, the fleet reported the capture of the Dominion transit cruiser. It was however a trap. A fleet of Dominion warships intercepted our fleet, heavily disabling it. There are roughly eight ships left, each in an almost crippled state. Justman, ordered the retreat...of...." The Governor could see the council was getting restless and agitated.

"Let's get to the point Governor" The President of the High Council spoke out, "What is to be done about it?"

"Excuse me?" the Governor stuttered.

"Justman violated the code of conduct for the Empire. Under no circumstances is a fleet Captain to retreat from battle."

The Governor looked around, a little bit annoyed. The Governor knew the code, but he also knew the code was wrong.

"With all due respect council. The code is...flawed." AT this, the council burst into an uproar, until the President yelled out for silence. "You may continue Governor."

"With the recent war, the code has seen much of our fleet destroyed. If our Captains and begging your pardon, the Council would see to some logic, it would make sense to preserve as much of our fleet as possible. Without it, the Empire will truly be crippled. Are you ready to sacrifice the Empire to the Dominion, or suffer minor defeats on these skirmish battles?"

The Governor left the meeting feeling rather shaky. He had a lot of nerve speaking to the high council that way, telling them that they were wrong. There was a good chance that he was going to pay for what he had said. But maybe not. The Governor lowered his head in thought, as he slowly walked along the open corridor. The war had used up the better part of the Empire's resources and it was public knowledge that the Empire was losing. Maybe what he said would make sense to the council, maybe they would come to see that they have no allies. The Klingons were against the Empire, the Romulans were nearly wiped out. The Empire was in this alone, and at the rate that captains didn't retreat, the Empire was doomed to a quick fate.

"Status report?" Captain Justman belted out. The bridge was a mess, crew were scrambling everywhere tying to pick up the larger pieces of debris.

"Shields are disabled, weapons nearly depleted, hull integrity down to forty-five percent," McKenzie replied, "there is an indefinite casualty list, it will take some time to get the numbers straight sir."

"Any contact from the Empire?" Justman asked. The comm officer shook his head slowly. Justman pulled himself together, weary from the battle that had taken place. "What's the status of the rest of the fleet?"

"Only three other ships have exited warp sir," McKenzie said. McKenzie looked up from his console in horror. "Sir, I have multiple sensor targets...all registering Dominion. They followed us sir."

Justman cursed to himself before punching the comm, "All hands, Red Alert!"

Five Dominion warships flashed out of warpspeed, immediately opening fire on the nearest ship, blasting it into a million tiny shards of debris. Klaxons were blaring aboard the Valkyrie as the crew readied themselves for another onslaught.

"Bring us about! Photons open fire!" Justman yelled out over the noise of console exploding. The Valkyrie maneuvered around the debris of the destroyed Empire ship and opened fire on the Dominion cruiser. The torpedoes impacted on the ship's shields, causing a slightly purple hue to phase over the Dominion ship.

"Torpedoes ineffective! Their shields are still at one hundred percent!" McKenzie yelled to Justman. Justman grabbed his chair for support, as the Valkyrie was hit by a salvo of disruptor fire. "Sir! There's a magnetic discharge building up on the Dominion ship...they're firing a gravitron torpedo!" Justman looked up at the damaged viewscreen in anger.

"All systems power down immediately! Deactivate structural integrity field!" Justman ordered.

"Sir, if we do that, we'll rip apart...."

"I said do it, now do it!" Justman yelled out, spit flying from his mouth.

The Dominion ship fired the torpedo. It slowly arced through space, seeking the Valkyrie with the intent to destroy it. The crew held their breath, as they watch the torpedo come slowly towards the Valkyrie.

"Sir," whispered McKenzie, "it has a lock on us!"

"Stand by," Justman muttered, waiting.

"On my mark, punch it to warp one," Justman commanded. McKenzie looked up from his console with a concerned look on his face.

"Sir, we're bound to rip apart if we go to warp speed!" McKenzie said timidly. Justman looked from the viewscreen with a look of disgust upon his face. He looked back to the viewscreen as he watched the torpedo get nearer and nearer. "Sir, two hundred meters and closing," McKenzie muttered, " one hundred and closing....fifty and closing, twenty five and closing..." Justman suddenly interupted McKenzie.

"Now helm!" Justman yelled out. The Valkyrie's warp engines flickered, lit up and then flickered again. The ship made a sudden lurch forward as a semi-stable warp field was created. The torpedo detonated as it entered the unstable warp field. The crew were thrown from their posts as the shockwave rippled through the hull of the Vlakyrie. Pieces of hull plating broke loose from the ship as the hull groaned and muttered, trying to stay together.

Justman shook his head, trying to regain consciousness. He looked around, but everything was a haze. Finally things began to clear. He was in a well lit room, that appeared to have no combat markings anywhere. He struggled to get up, but his whole body was very limp. Justman took the blanket and threw it to the ground. He tried to swing his legs over the bed, but his body wouldn't budge. He then looked down to his legs and his mouth almost fell open.

One leg was gashed open in a million places, and was connected to machines that appeared to be circulating blood and doing some ort of mechanical repairs to the leg. The other leg Justman couldn't tell if it was better or worse than the first one, as he didn't seem to have a second leg.

Justman collapsed back onto the pillow as the doors slid open with a soft whoosh. A nurse entered and took his arm and felt his pulse. Justman just remained silent. The nurse was human, but that didn't mean anything, she could be a rebel or an alien disguised as a human. If there was one thing Empire training had taught Justman, it was to trust no one.