The Battle Plan

Captain Devore walked the promenade solemnly remembering his previous tour of duty on the now busy station. Four, even five years ago the then Lieutenant Commander Devore had made his name on the station. Fortunately for him most if not all of the those that remembered the young 'player' have been transferred, killed or otherwise not there. However unfortunate for him, Quark had a big mouth and on a few occasions had took it upon himself to tell Commander Sierra Devore of some of his escapades upon the station. So now the Captain submersed himself in work, keeping himself away from his wife to forego the emanate confrontation.

Devore walked into Quark's as the numerous Dabo tables sung their entrancing song. If it had been anytime sooner Devore would have dropped all responsibility and spent numerous bars of latinum, but the presence of a wife, a new family, and a command has now pressed upon him a sense of morality- of even duty. He just looked at the elegant dabo girls and the joyful sounds of players yelling 'Dabo', a sound that made Quark cringe.

"So Commander...." Began a familiar voice from behind. "....what will it be ?"

Devore turned around and faced an unwelcome, but familiar site. "Captain !" Devore corrected.

"I am sorry Captain Devore. You know that you still owe me quite a bit of money."

"Oh really ? Well listen here little Ferengi, I have taken care of all my debts with you before I left. As far as anything else, well you are just going to have to absorb the loss."

"I don't think so Captain." Quark retorted sarcastically iterating 'Captain'. "Rule of Acquisition num......"

Devore grabbed Quark by his flashy lapels and pulled him near causing the entire bar to stop what they were doing to see what was the ruckus. "Listen to me because I will say this only once you little troll! I don't care what your rules of acquisition, your bar and especially you. I owe you nothing and I will pay nothing. So you can take those bars of latinum and stick it where the sun don't shine. Do I make myself clear ?"

The once smug bar-owner now had a look of fear in his eyes. Quark looked directly at him and nodded his head profusely.

"Captain ?" A voice interrupted from behind. "Is there a problem here ?"

Devore turned his head and saw Commodore Sisko. Just behind him was Admiral's Ross, Riker, and McCaffee. Devore let Quark down and pulled down his tunic. "Yes sir's. All is good."

"Fine. Then carry on."

"Aye sir."

Devore stormed away out of the bar.

"Thank you Commodore. I am eternally grateful," Quark said straightening his clothes.

"Quark. You know something ? I don't like you. I don't care if you are a member of the station's business guild, but if you don't learn a little more tact I will let everyone who has a grudge with you take it out." Sisko paused. "Now if your 'disagreement' was about his debt from years ago, understand this... It has been taken care of yes."

"But Commodore....."

"All debts are taken care of Mr. Quark." Admiral Ross said interrupting.

"Understood Admiral."

Captain Devore hurriedly ran passed all the crews of the various ships. He was so angry that if someone said anything to him he would probably kill them. Quark had a habit of pushing the wrong button from time to time and Devore's button was fully depressed. A rocket, armed and ready, was ready for take off. As he turned a corner he noticed stairs going up, probably to the second level, so he took it. He wanted to get far away from every one physically possible. Devore finally found somewhere to be by himself, a large porthole to the aft of the Promenade. He looked out the window and stared at the wormhole. He felt the pressures begin to ease away then suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. Devore turned around shaking off the fact he was startled. It was Morn, the quiet resident of Quark's. Even though they hadn't really been friends, Morn was always a good listener.

With a gentle shrug and a softness in his eyes, Morn's head tilted a little as if he was trying to speak.

"Morn. I am sorry. I am not in the mood for company right now." Captain Devore said politely.

Morn said nothing but held up a bottle of blue liquid and smiled.

"You sly dog you. You know that Romulan Ale is illegal."

Morn smiled and shook his head. There was a moment of silence then Morn held up two glasses.

"Oh what the hell. Sure." Devore said putting out his hand.

Morn discreetly poured a glass of ale and handed it to Devore.

"Cheers." Devore said as he took the glass as emptied it in one swallow. "Agh. That is good."

Morn nodded his head as he refilled the Captain glass.

The next morning, Captain Devore awoke in the replimat- the ever present hangover caused by the romulan ale now did a number on his head. The signs of life that entered his body shook him violently as the repercussion of last nights drunken stupor finally came to memory. Devore looked around and noticed that a young ensign had come in to order her breakfast just before her shift. Taking her food to a table just across from him, she smiled as she sat down. Devore returned the smile and raised his head slowly wiping the drool from his face with the back of his hand.

"Rough night, Captain ?" She said after she sipped her drink.

"Yes Ensign really rough." Devore said with his fingers on the bridge of his nose. "Night ?" It hit him.

"Yes Captain. It is 06:00."

"What !" Devore said darting up. His quick action startled the young ensign causing her to jump back as well. "You mean in the morning ?"

"Yes sir."

"Oh boy ! My wife is going to kill me." The Ensign's smile dropped. With that, Devore ran out of the replimat. However as he left, he remembered the battle briefing at 07:00 and realised that it wouldn't be in his best interest to go back to the ship. So he went over to briefing room. The darkness was soothing to his hungover eyes, so he smiled. There was no one in the room so he took the head seat. After he quickly scanned the room ensuring that there was no one else in the room, he slammed his head on the desk and passed out.

The darkness of the room was broken with a sole light emanating from the charts, and Captain Devore heard a gentle cough coming from a far off point, as he stood up and straightened his tunic. It was time ! Days of staging and planning was now beginning to boil the heated circumstance. The Bariens with the help of Beard have taken upon themselves to march upon the Alpha Quadrant. The Nuans who occupied the nearest extremities had put up a fight, but their small fleet was no match for the massive Barien threat. Now it seemed that it was up to the forces of the Alpha Quadrant to battle and thwart off the imminent war. Unlike the Borg whose battle tactics were brute force, the Bariens used deception and their infernal Decrum torpedoes. However Devore had spent hours, even days, researching a defence against them. In addition the work that Captain Roberts and Admiral Pike already had would play a major part in his findings and his solution.

In the room, Devore took note of a number of Captains, Guls, and even a few sub-commanders from the Romulan contingent. However there were two races of people he wasn't familiar and he surmised that they must be the Kirusans and Jeorri. They were similar to the Jem'Hadar and Bajorans with interesting similarities that would have allowed them to pass simply as the said races if it hadn't been for Admiral Riker's escort with the USS Enterprise-F. This drew attention to the new configuration of ships. Once they arrived, Riker introduced Admiral's Ross and McCaffee to the new delegation. It was determined that their contribution to the war effort would provide and even easier acceptance into the Federation.

Immediately before the meeting, Captain Devore had the opportunity to meet them and was quickly given a short briefing on Kirusans and Jeorri capabilities. Devore realised the tactical advantage and incorporated them into the battle plan. Now the briefing was to begin and all eyes were now upon the Captain. As he began, he wondered why it was he who had to plan this massive attack. It was a massive undertaking for a regular Captain, even if it was he who was a tactical genius, a cunning and resourceful officer and now commands one of the most advanced starship in the fleet.

But Devore really wanted to get his crew back. All he wanted was to rescue his stranded from Limerus IX and make that his mission, but Admiral Ross had considered the entire operation one of a personal nature for both him and Devore. Beard had "pushed" a button from within even him. Traitors ! It was something that Ross hated even more then failure, so he condoned the operation and commitment of hundreds of ship all under one command, the command of the USS Leviathan-A particularly Captain Devore.

"Ladies. Gentlemen..." Devore finally began putting down his PADD. ".....we are getting ready to engage in a massive pre-emptive strike against Barien threat. We must contain their advancement through the Beta Quadrant. I believe that they have mistaken our inactiveness as an opportunity to advance into the Alpha Quadrant. That will be their mistake considering we have staged our current forces here at the Bajoran Sector." A map of the entire quadrant came up. "Computer enlarge and enhance Zebra sector." The far side of the quadrant filled the lower section displaying a battle fleet of approximately two hundred ships and five battle cruisers, all on a course towards sector 001. Just south of the sector a small contingent of about ten Cardassian and Klingon ships were also displayed on an intercept course.

"Okay we are now watching in real time the first prong of our defence. I have already authorised an expeditionary force to engage the first wave. They are to hold off the attack. The main bulk of the forces will leave tomorrow morning at 05:30 and engage them, pushing them back into the Beta Quadrant. Fortunately Qo'nos is just outside the Beta Quadrant as is Romulus. However, the Cardassians were insistent and wanted to be included in this war."

"Here is the plan. The combined forces were to stop the Bariens here at Zebra 112. The remainder of the fleet will then take advantage of the weakened force and attack. Hopefully the ships will not expect an attack so soon. Beard knows all of Starfleet's tactics so you as, Starfleet officers, must reinvent new tactics. This is something that I have done here. Beard will be assumed that we will want hold them off there, but as the ships of the first prong engage the threat, The USS Leviathan-A, Hawthorne and the combine Jeorri/Kirusan fleets will slip behind the engaged front from sector 399.

"The Knight, Enterprise-F and Cardassian sixth order will maneuver to Zebra sector 003 and engage them on the retreat. By engaging them in such a way, they will be constantly under attack. They will not have a chance to realise what has happened until they have been totally wiped out."

There was murmuring.

"Captain...." Admiral Riker said. ".....this plan is awfully ambitious. We have know guarantee that combined forces of the Klingons and the Cardassians will make that much of an impact !"

"Yes sir. I understand your concern. Remember I mentioned the Romulans. They will stand ground in cloaked warbirds just to the far side of the engagement area. Any ships that break through will do so suffering heavily. The Warbirds will simply pick them off. Fortunately, their disruptors can cause enough damage that one warbird will be enough to destroy a heavily crippled warship."

"Captain...." A Romulan stood up. "What about these Decrum torpedoes ? Even if we were able to 'pick-off' those ships, their torpedoes will still be able to cause substantial damage."

"I am sorry Commander." Devore said gently slapping his forehead generating a gentle laughter from the humans. The non-humans didn't understand what had happened and sat there looking around. "I almost forgot. All of us will have to commit two warp capable shuttlecraft to engage the torpedoes."

The room fell silent again as did Captain Roberts who was intrigued to here the solution to the problem. Pike and himself hadn't been able to come up with a viable solution.

"The USS Hellcat and USS Nile will be acting as a defensive shield for the USS Leviathan-A. These ships are small enough to evade the torpedoes and engage them at safe distances. You need to assign two shuttles to each vessel, most will be your own, but we'll be providing additional shuttles where necessary. However even when the torpedoes actually 'leach-on' you have approximately twenty three seconds to destroy them before they cause the shields to fail and detonate directly on the hull. The integral net formed by these smaller ships will fend off these torpedoes. The smaller capital vessels, such as the USS Ronin will act as a point defence, these ships are more manoeuvrable and fast enough to pick-off the torpedoes in flight. The USS Ronin's shield's are also different and I hope they will be able to prevent massive damage. They're weapon systems are also the most accurate and should the need arise, they can engage an torpedo that has latched onto another ships' shields. There might be some damage suffered to the vessel, but the faster a torpedo can be destroyed, the less time it has to build up a charge."

"Interesting plan." Began Captain Roberts. "However who is going to co-ordinate the attack."

"I will be in overall command Captain Roberts." Admiral Ross said. "I will be on board the USS Enterprise-F With Admiral Riker. However, Captain Devore will command his prong."

"The battle plan sounds pretty ambitious like I said earlier." Began Admiral Riker. "Do you feel that this is the best plan ?"

"I do sir." Devore said nodding.

"Very well." Riker said with a smile. "Make it so." The entire room looked at Riker through the darkness. They knew the three famous words once said by his former Captain, Jean-Luc Picard. Somehow those words added a sense of strength that even Devore felt. Devore just smiled.

"Okay. Individual plans will be disseminated at 12:30. I will need to see Captain Ryan, Captain Osagawa, and Admiral Ross to finale the attack. The rest of you will need to have your ships battle ready and prepared to disembark, by 05:30 tomorrow morning," Devore said. "Dismissed."

The room emptied out quickly as Ross, McCaffee, Roberts and Devore remained. Devore turned and looked at the battle plan and the moving forces towards imminent danger.

"Captain. That is a sound plan. Just execute it they way you have planned." Ross said as he put his hand on Devore's shoulder.

"I know sir. It is just I feel like I am sending thousands of men and women to their death."

"Well Marc. Not all of them are coming home. That comes with the territory."

"Aye Sir."