Watching

The Hellcat headed into the asteroid field of the Regial seven system, still under cloak. They had been searching for almost half an hour finding nothing.

"I've got a signal, bearing 120, mark 10." Ensign Vasquez announced. "It could be one of the weapons array."

"Helm, alter course to intercept." Lieutenant Commander Barker ordered.

The Hellcat turned and moved deeper into the field.

"Dead ahead, two thousand metres." Vasquez reported. "It's something large, but it's moving."

"Bring the weapons online and prepare to attack." Chu ordered. Although they could not fire the weapons or raise the shields whilst cloaked, he wanted them to be prepared. At best they'd get one surprise shot. "Helm full stop."

"It's heading straight for us." Vasquez stated. "Fifteen hundred metres and closing."

"Mister Shale, evasive manoeuvres." Chu ordered.

The Hellcat moved away from the oncoming object. As they continued to move away, the shape of a large vessel appeared ahead of them.

"That's a Dominion battle cruiser." Shale announced.

"But where did is come from ?" Chu asked. "And where is it going ?"

"It appears to be heading out of the asteroid field." Vasquez reported. "And from its trajectory, I'd say that it came from the rogue Jem'Hadar base. Wait I'm picking up a second vessel, its another cruiser and a group of battle-bugs."

"Mister Shale, take us away from here." Chu ordered. "We don't stand a chance against that sort of force. Let's find those weapons arrays and make sure they can't be used."

Shale turned the Hellcat away from the other vessels and headed ever deeper into the asteroid field. Within minutes, they had found the first weapons array.

"It looks like it's out of commission." Vasquez remarked. "I'm reading no power sources at all."

"Mister Shale, manoeuvre us as close to the array as you can." Chu ordered. "We'll release a tri-cobalt mine and detonate it when we're ready."

"Yes Commander." Shale replied. He was one of the best pilots Chu had ever seen and it was a petty that he had been re-assigned away from the Leviathan. He brought the small vessel as close as he dared and then released the small mine, which attached itself to the hull of the weapons array.

"Let's find the second array." Chu suggested.

It took them over half an hour to find the second array and when they did, they got a surprise. The array was very close to the rogue Jem'Hadar base, standing guard. As well as the array and the base, another Dominion battle cruiser was stationed nearby and there were dozens of small vessel moving back and forth between the base and the cruiser.

"Looks like they're packing their bags and running." Shale remarked.

"We may have underestimated the amount of influence this rogue group has." Chu remarked. "That's the third Dominion cruiser we've seen in the past hour. We thought we we're dealing with a single ship, but now we've got to add three cruisers to the list."

"Commander, the cruiser is beginning to move away." Vasquez announced. "It's taking the same course as the other two vessels."

"What's the status of the weapons array ?" Chu enquired.

"It's full powered and ready to fire." Vasquez announced. "Their shields are weak though."

"Detonate the mine on the other array, let's see what happens." Chu ordered.

"Done." Vasquez replied.

Almost immediately, the weapons array came to life, its powerful impulse engines starting to move it towards the explosion.

"Are those arrays manned at all ?" Chu asked.

"Negative." Vasquez replied. "I'm reading no life-signs onboard."

Mister, shale, take us towards the destroyed array." Chu ordered. "Get us in front of other array, I have an idea."

The Hellcat sped past the slow moving weapons array and arrived back at the site of the now destroyed array.

"Mister Shale, can you put us behind the small asteroid at bearing 16 mark 10." Chu requested.

Without answering, Shale manoeuvred the Hellcat behind the asteroid.

"Vasquez, reverse the polarity of the tractor beam and prepare to activate it on my signal." Chu ordered.

"Commander ?" Vasquez replied, puzzled.

"We're going to do a little bowling." Chu explained. "We'll use the tractor beam to push the asteroid at the weapons array."

"But won't the array react to the threat and destroy it." Vasquez asked. "Plus we'd have to de-cloak before activating the tractor beam."

"The asteroid is almost solid to the core." Chu explained. "Even with the array firing at the asteroid, it's not going to destroy it before we hit. And it will also hide us from their sensors. They'll never know what hit them."

"What about the Jem'Hadar ?" Shale remarked. "Won't they come looking to see what happened to the arrays ?"

"They'll think that the array was destroyed by an asteroid." Chu suggested. "And they seem to be preparing to abandon the base."

"The array is three thousand kilometres and closing." Vasquez announced.

The array grew closer and closer to them, but they stayed hidden. As the array passed by the asteroid, Chu gave the order to decloak and start the impulse engines. Slowly they started to push the asteroid towards the array, gathering more and more momentum as they progressed. The array didn't react until the asteroid was five hundred metres from it. The surface of the asteroid started to heat up as the array brought the full brunt of it's weapons onto it, but it was too late. The Hellcat suddenly pushed their engines into full reverse and away from the impending explosion. The asteroid smashed straight through the array, tuning it into a pile of salvage and scrap.

"Commander, the Taurus is approaching the asteroid belt." Vasquez announced. "They're hailing us."

"On screen." Chu ordered.

[Taurus to Hellcat.] The image of Captain Taybar said as she appeared on the viewscreen. [We just detected an explosion, what was that ?]

"Just some cleaning up we had to do." Chu replied. "We've found the rogue Jem'Hadar base, but it looks like they're preparing to leave. We also detected a fleet of vessels heading our way."

[We've picked up the same vessels.] Captain Taybar confirmed. [We estimate another three hours before they reach here.]

"We may also have another problem." Chu announced. "We've already encountered three Jem'Hadar cruisers in the asteroid belt and they all seem to be co-operating in the evacuation of the rogue base. Support for these rogue's maybe more than we've been told."

[Give us the co ordinates of the base and we'll start out attack.] Aki requested.

Chu nodded towards Vasquez and then announced. "We'll see you at the base, Hellcat out. Helm set a course back to the base."