Marine Manoeuvres

Lieutenant Colonel Phanan and Corporal Ira Hendricks both stepped into Marine Command on Mars, still unsure as to why they had been ‘summoned' to the heart of the Federation Marines.

They had arrived on Mars along with 2nd Lieutenant Mike Gibs and the rest of Beta platoon from the Leviathan-B . Gibs and the rest of the Marines had been ‘herded' off almost as soon as they had arrived, leaving Phanan and Hendricks to find out about the mission. As they stepped inside the domed building, they were soon greeted by a young female Private.

“Colonel Phanan, Corporal Hendricks. I am Private Louise Taylor.” The young Private introduced herself. “The Major General is awaiting you in briefing room six, please follow me.”

They followed the young Private down the corridor and finally all three stepped inside the briefing room. As the doors closed behind them, they saw that so far they were alone. Surveying the room, there was a long rectangular table in the centre of the room, with chairs on each of the long sides. The majority of the long wall opposite where Jon and Ira had entered the room was dominated by a huge viewscreen, which was currently showing an image of Federation space.

A door to the side of the room opened and three Marines, in green dress uniform came into the room and sat down at the table. Private Taylor ushered the two Marines towards the table and after they had all sat down, the Major General introduced himself.

“Lieutenant Colonel Phanan, Corporal Hendricks, I am Major General Steer, head of Marine Special Operations.” The Major General stated. “These are Colonel Jackson, who will be running the operation for which you have been selected and Colonel Dreke, who will be monitoring the mission from Marine Command.”

Jackson was a tall human, standing at just over six feet Phanan estimated; Dreke on the other hand was rather different. Standing at about the same height as Jackson, Dreke appeared to be half-Klingon, half-Vulcan, possibly Romulan.

“Sir, you say mission.” Phanan stated. “Could we know more about the mission ?”

Rising from his seat, Dreke walked over to a console just below the centre of the viewscreen.

“This as you all know is the Alpha quadrant.” He started, pointing to the view above him. “And this is Sector Seven-Nine Zeta on the Federation border with what until recently we believed was unclaimed space.”

The image zoomed into a small area of the map, an area of space with few white dots.

“I'm aware of that area of space.” Phanan announced. “It's mostly gas nebulas and empty space, there's a lot of spatial activity and many scientists believe it is filled with micro-wormholes and sub-space sink-holes. My parents were Federation scientists and during their exploration of the border between the Alpha and Gamma quadrants, they scanned that area. As far as I can remember from the salvaged records of their vessel, there weren't many class-M planets.”

“That is true.” Dreke stated. “There have been several missions to this area of space, both manned and unmanned probes and so far only three class-M planets out of a total of six thousand have been recorded. That area is very sparsely populated with planetary systems and until the last survey mission six months ago, we thought no-one was there.”

“But this last survey mission was different.” Ira enquired.

“For sometime now the sensor grid that monitors all the activity in this area of space has been recording strange emissions.” Dreke said. “So Starfleet sent a survey vessel to investigate the source of these emissions. This is what was sent back.”

The image on the viewscreen changed. The image was very poor, as if it had been heavily damaged or the signal had degraded. The image showed what must have appeared on the viewscreen of the survey vessel. At first it looked like nothing out of the ordinary, they appeared to be heading at high impulse into a small star system. But as the image grew later, one detail stood out, something was being constructed in the system, something big. Looking like a large ring in space, something in the back of Phanan's mind told him he recognised the construction. The images froze as Dreke paused the playback.

“These are the last images the survey ship transmitted before it was attacked.” He announced. “What you are about to see is the total destruction of the survey ship by a hostile vessel.”

“These images were taken less than a month ago and by our estimates, construction of the ring will be complete in about six to eight weeks.” Dreke announced. “We've searched the Starfleet archives, but we never expected to come up with a suitable match for the construction.”

“Proletarians.” Phanan suddenly exclaimed. “That ship was similar to one we saw in the Andromeda Cirrus galaxy, a Proletarian Battle Cruiser.”

“You are correct Colonel.” Major General Steer answered. “The ring structure matches the description of a similar ring that was encounter by the crew of the USS Ronin during their time in the Andromeda galaxy. We have contacted all those who witnessed the ring and they have confirmed it.”

“If what was encountered in the Andromeda galaxy was what we are seeing here, then we are most likely looking at a gateway between our two galaxies, one which in a couple of months will be open.” Dreke stated.

“But how did they get to our galaxy so fast ?” Phanan enquired.

“We believe that they used an advanced form of trans-warp technology to send a construction team to our galaxy, possibility using a micro-wormhole as a conduit. As you said earlier this area of space is high in concentration of such worm-holes, not large enough to allow any vessel through, but certainly a probe. We believe that they may have been able to stretch open such a wormhole, which allowed one vessel through. Once here, they started construction of the ring from the materials around them.”

“We have to stop them before that ring in finished.” Phanan announced.

“This is exactly what your mission will be. You and your team are to destroy the ring and any Proletarian forces you may find there.” Dreke continued. “We believe that they are situated on the third planet of the system, it's the only planet in the system anywhere near habitable.”

“What about time ?” Phanan asked. “It will take us months to reach them.”

“There is a vessel enroute to Utopia Planitia which is capable of taking you and your team to the area in just over a week.” Colonel Jackson announced. “We will leave in six hours.”

Everyone but Phanan stood up to leave.

“Major General, could I have a word with you in private for a moment.” Jon requested.

“Of course.” The Major General stated.

The rest of the room was cleared, leaving just the two Marines alone.

“What is it Colonel ?” The Major General enquired.

“I am not entirely happy with taking my Marines into this situation, We need more time to prepare for the mission and we need more men.” Phanan stated. “These Proletarians wiped out half of the Marines onboard the Leviathan-A .”

“There is no more time.” The Major General replied. “We need to strike now, this mission has been in the planning ever since the images were picked up and decoded. It's taken us all this time to form a strategy and the weapons to achieve this goal. You were selected because you've encountered these aliens before, had you not returned to the Alpha quadrant, we would have been another month training a platoon of Marines for the mission. The Leviathan-B is going on a diplomatic mission, so the need to have a full compliment of Marines onboard is pointless.”

“I understand General.” Phanan stated. “Could you do me one favour, please make sure that Captain Taybar is made aware of my absence and those of my men.”

“That will be done.” The Major General said. “Although I am puzzled as to why you would want a ‘Fleeter' to be notified of your absence.”

“Over the years onboard the three Leviathan's I've come to respect several members of the crew, including both Captains. They maybe ‘Fleeters' Major, but they are the best.”