“Sir, we’re coming up on the system” Desiree announced.

“Ok. Fenris, are those Cardassians close?” Swiveling, Sky looked at the engineer.

“Yes sir, all three ships are following us, but keeping a distance so as not to alert the enemy.”

It was a good thing too, the Lost Fleet’s scouts had a knack for showing up midway through rescue missions.  In fact, this go around was to rescue the escape pods of a rescue vessel, the USS Ressha.  Soon after the Carlsbad had rescued the stranded crewmen, she had been set upon by a trio of Dominion Fighters and was quickly overwhelmed.  Long range scans had indicated that that particular patrol had moved on, so now it was our turn.

Desiree started the countdown “Dropping from warp in 3… 2… 1…”

Suddenly, a loud clanging could be heard all across the ship.

“Damage Report!”

It was Fenris who answered from the engineering station. “Sir, we’ve entered the debris field.  It appears the Carlsbad may not be as salvageable as originally reported.”

No duh, Sky thought to himself, “Start scanning for the escape pods.  A California class should have about 20 pods for us to look out for.  Hopefully there’s some survivors out here.”

3 hours later

It had been a long, disappointing 3 hours.  Of the 10 pods found, only one had anyone in it and they were currently in the converted sickbay.  10 people out of the 300 that were supposed to be here was a depressing number.  Luckily, the Keldon Class and Galor class ships hadn’t had to respond so far, as the Marduk appeared to be beneath Dominion notice.

As if called by his thoughts, a single Jem’Hadar Fighter dropped from warp at the edge of the debris field.  Sky rushed to the console in front of him. “Guys get ready they’ve just arrived, red alert”

Red Alert, Red Alert

He swore he could hear the entire crew all at once say “crap”.   They still had the latest escape pod docked at the hatch, so he pressed a button to secure it there, then sent the prescribed signal.  Almost immediately, a Cardassian Galor class entered the system, drawing the attention of the Jem Hadar Fighter.

“Now we need to rush this last bit.  Desiree, run one final scan of the system.  Any other pods out there?”

“sir, wouldn’t that reveal us to the Jem Hadar?”

“We’ll have to take that risk.”

“I scanned sir, and there’s one active lifepod remaining”

“I’m not giving up on them. Full speed to their location, and tell sickbay that I don’t care about the doctor’s preferences against transporters. We’re beaming them up on the fly.”

Racing across the debris field at top speeds, the Marduk does attract the attention of the Jem Hadar Fighter, however the Galor class ship was holding it’s own against the fighter giving it no chance to chase after the Marduk. 

Slowing just enough to let the transporter bring over the three officers in the pod, Sky brought the ship to warp as soon as they were aboard.  Soon after, the Galor class escaped as well, heavily damaged.

Sick Bay – 1st pod’s arrival

“Fenris, tell the Captain that we’re going to need to dock with each pod, I’m not sending these guys through the transporters if I can help it.” Doctor Phyllis Harper triple checked each of the treatment options for all the possible injuries she’d have to deal with.  Exploding starships tended to have hurt crews after all.

Not too long after, she felt the thud as the ship docked with the pod.  As soon as the doors opened, she rushed in alongside Fenris and Cruger.  Inside, she saw 2 men and a woman.  They seemed to relax when they saw a Starfleet uniform entering to assist them.

“Why Hello, long day?” She always did find humor as a good way to break the tension in her patients.

Sick Bay – 10th pod’s arrival

Treatment continued on the remaining rescued officers that needed it, and Doctor Harper was called away to meet with the XO.  “What is it? Don’t you know I’ve got a Caitian with a ruptured spleen? I’ve got to get back to work!”

Desiree kept her cool though, Doctor Harper, for all her faults, was passionate about her patients.  “Doctor, we could be discovered at any moment. The Captain says he’s found another pod, but we’ve been seeing more and more empty ones, or dead ones.  What is the point where we turn tail and head back?”

“when we reach 24 hours from lifepod launch, that’s when we’ll stop seeing survivors altogether, barring some miracle”  Dr. Harper didn’t like when her job had her making these kid of decisions, but it is important that they get the wounded to more advanced medical facilities than her triage bay.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Caitian spleen to get back to.”

As they parted ways, they could hear the thud of another pod docking with the ship resounded through the halls.

Sick Bay – Jem Hadar escape

The Intercom rang out again. “What?” Dr. Harper shouted over to the wall’s receiver.

“Doctor, this is Desiree,  Captain says to hold on, we’ve got one last one coming in, but this will be a running grab via transporters.”  

“I told him no transporters!  You never know if they have the type of radiation that gets aggravated by beaming!”  While this was true, there were other reasons she distrusted transporters. As a previous Doctor had once said ‘you never know how they’re going to put you back together.’

“Sorry, doctor, but our choices are beam them up or leave them there.”

Guess that meant she had to prep some beds then.  Just then the ship lurched forwards, throwing all three crew members off their feet. Luckily, the expanded sickbay had bio beds that secured their patients so nobody else had to deal with the sudden acceleration.  Fighting the momentum changes as the Captain flew like an ace pilot, she readied a couple more bio-beds. Just in time too, as the transporter deposited the three officers right in the beds just in time to get them secured before the familiar feeling of the warp drive engaging thrummed through the ship.

Farpoint Station

“So tell me Ensign.  Just how did we get back to Farpoint before we realized this?”  Sky was baffled, he’d been given his first command less than a month ago.  Their first mission had even been coopted for this initiative.  So just how-

“Sir, I’m not sure.  Somehow we take a hit as big as that and still don’t lose anybody.”  Desiree Rios looked on with concern.  “The Marduk is a trooper though.  The shipyard says they’ll have it buffed out by the end of the week.  The worker bee that caused it, however, is already back in action, being assigned to the station itself with a new name, the denter.”

The Marduk, a small Phoenix craft, was brand new two months ago.  Now she sported a dent the size of a worker bee on her front saucer where said worker bee had impacted upon the Marduk’s reversion from warp in the debris fields of a battle.  Apparently the bee was assigned to the USS Ressha before.

Thinking quickly, Sky turned to the engineer assigned to the repairs of the Marduk. “Would you be willing to take suggestions?”

A Week Later

“Farpoint Station, this is the USS Marduk, requesting permission to depart.”  It had been a long week of construction, but finally the Marduk was ready for action again.  Sky’s orders were to take the Marduk, now loaded with supplies, to meet up with the USS Photon for delivery.  They’d then receive new orders from there.

“USS Marduk, this is Farpoint Station, you are cleared for departure”

“Rios, take us out”

“Yes Sir.”

Desiree Rios Perspective

Desiree was glad to be done with the construction.  The room being worked on was directly above her own, meaning she was up at all hours of the night hearing the engineers and their tools as they reworked the former cargo bay into a docking bay for a worker bee.  She had made her irritation known to the captain, as it was his idea that lead to this, and he had apologized.

Checking the sensors, Desiree was glad to see that there were no Jem’Hadar vessels nearby. At least, none that she could find.  Now that was a dark thought.  Hopefully they don’t run into any more dominion vessels, the last one nearly got them.

The console beeped for her attention, after checking it, she turned to the captain, seated across from her.  “Captain, we’re about to reach the rendezvous point with the USS Photon.”

“Good” came the reply.  Desiree had noticed that Captain Athenos had the tendency to take the hands-on approach, though this sometimes meant that she was left behind in his thoughts.

The lightshow in the front viewscreen subsided as the Marduk dropped from warp.  Checking the sensors again, Desiree frowned. “Sir…”

Captain Athenos Perspective

“Sir…”

“I See it.” or rather, he didn’t.  The USS Photon was nowhere to be seen, just some light debris. “That doesn’t look like enough metal to be a Sabre class, so scan for where they went.”

“Yes sir!”

For a first officer that was maybe a month out of the academy, Desiree Rios was doing an excellent job.  Sky was proud to have her as his XO, even if it’s only been a few weeks since they met.  The mad scramble to turn the ship around only thirty minutes out of Earth Spacedock was a good test for how well he could coordinate with her in a command function.  He mostly treated her the same he would have a copilot on a longer flight.

“Sir! I found a plasma trail matching a Federation vessel.” She startled him out of his reverie and back to the present.

“Good.  I’ll set course to follow the trail, you see how old it is.  Then I’m going to swap out for Ensign Cruger.”

Unnamed Gaseous Planet

Sliding seemingly effortlessly through the gentle clouds of the unnamed planet, the Marduk traced the final bits of plasma to the damaged Photon.  The Photon was drifting deeper and deeper into the atmosphere of the planet, obvious damage to the craft’s nacelles trailing plasma even now.

“All hands, ready stations.  Yellow Alert.”  This had officially turned into a rescue operation, and rescue operations were this crew’s bread-and-butter.  “I’m going to want everyone’s ideas, starting with science.  Go.”

 Desiree stood up. “Sir, we can fly in the atmosphere of this planet for now, but if we’re in here for too long, the impulse engines will burn out.  That’s probably what happened to the Photon.”

“Ok, good to know.  How long do we have?”

“At this pace, three hours. However, if we push the engines more than we already are, that time will shorten quickly.”  She seemed confident in her answer, so Sky took that at face value.

“We’ll keep the time limit in mind.  Engineering, you’re up.”

Ensign Cruger stood up as Desiree sat back down.  “Sir, from preliminary scans of the Photon, we won’t be able to undo the damage to the impulse engines, but we can get the nacelle fixed with the gear currently on board.  It’ll be tricky, but our new addition should be of great assistance here.”

“Ok, if and when we get communications with the Photon I’ll bring that up with her captain.  Medical?”

“Not much for me to do on this rescue, but if I can I’ll assist the medical officers on the Photon, as that level of damage never comes without injuries.”

“Understood Doc, Security?”

“I’m in the same boat as the Doc here, Captain, I’m not much use outside giving Engineering a couple extra hands.”

“Ok.  Here’s the current plan.  We’ll continue at this pace down to the Photon.  Once we’re within comms range, I’ll speak with the Photon‘s captain.  In the meantime, Engineering, plan on getting that nacelle back into action, Science monitor the impulse engines, Doc get ready for injuries, and Fenris you’re in the bee.  Ready?”

“””Ready… GO!””” they chorused

MEANWHILE – USS Photon

Captain Shera Athenos had had a bad day.  The Photon had run into a Jem Hadar patrol on their way to the Rendezvous with their supply ship and taken heavy damage.  They managed to escape the three fighter patrol by hiding in the gasses of this planet, but the Jem Hadar were relentless, sticking around long enough for the Impulse Engines to give out and only the RCS thrusters were slowing the ship from freefall.  She turned to the engineer on duty, “How much longer can we last?”

“Sorry sir, but I’m not so sure it’s a matter of lasting.  Our sensors are detecting that our SOS didn’t make it out of the atmosphere.  There’s nothing to be waiting for.”

“How. Much. Longer.”

“2 hours 30 minutes sir.”

“If the SOS didn’t make it out, then the only people looking for us is the supply ship.” She mused.  Hopefully it’s a competent crew that can get us out of this. “Have all nonessential personnel prepare to evacuate the ship.  I won’t have this crew go down with the ship.”

10 Minutes Later – USS Marduk

“I see them sir.” Desiree was the first to spot them. “They’re still leaking plasma, but we should be able to get them out of here.”

“Ok.  Fenris, Cruger, you two are up.  Get that leaky nacelle fixed asap. Desiree, get me a line to that ship.” And with that they sprang into action.  There was a dull thud as the workerbee launched out of its pod.  Meanwhile, the Marduk swung around to get its sole tractor beam in position.  Fenris brought the worker bee up to the Photon’s starboard nacelle and locked on with the primary arms.  Activating the Worker Bee’s toolkit attachment, he started with slicing away the damaged plating.  Just as the first plating was pulled away, the component he needed to replace floated down in a ribbon of blue light to be right in front of him.

Meanwhile – USS Photon

Preparations for evacuation were complete, but Captain Shera was hesitating, if she gave the order to abandon ship, and the Jem Hadar were still there, they were  as good as dead.  Some of the older Crew members might even prefer death to being captured by the Jem Hadar again.

Returning to the Bridge, she prepared herself for the hardest order any captain can give, when she got flagged down by the conn officer.  “Sir! another ship has arrived!”

The Jem Hadar had found them already?!  No, hang on, this Lieutenant isn’t scared, he looks happy.  “Is it a rescue party?”  One had to hope.

“It’s one of ours, captain, NCC 76202, the USS Marduk.”

Captain Shera all but collapsed into her chair.  ‘Get me a line with the Marduk, and let’s put this day behind us.”

USS Marduk

“Captain, the USS Photon is hailing us.”

“Onscreen.”

The screen flickers to life, showing a familiar face through the distortions.  Captain Shera looked quite surprised to see him coming to her rescue.

“you know, when they said I was in for a surprise from the supply ship, this is not what I had in mind.  I thought maybe Enterprise was coming or something, but instead its my cousin.”

“Can you blame them for keeping a secret? Me getting a command so soon?” Sky was amused, it wasn’t all too often he got to-one up his older cousin.  Getting to do so twice in one instance was even rarer.

“Are you going to continue grandstanding, or are you going to get your third brag of the day in by saving my ship?” Shera seemed to be grinning even through the interference. 

Sky shrugged, its not like their little rivalry was actually all that malicious that he’d leave her to sink into a planet. “I already have one of my guys out on your nacelle, and my Doc’s ready for any extra casualties you have.  We don’t exactly have a tractor beam capable of pulling your ship as ours is for small materiel transport only, but I figure yours should still be working, right?”

Shera had to admit, Sky had either gotten a very experienced crew, or a very clever crew to already be solving all her problems. “I think we can work something out.  We lost our smallcraft when the shuttlebay took a hit, so we’re glad for all the help we can get.”

Upper Atmosphere

The USS Marduk struggled out of the atmosphere of the planet, which had already gotten itself a nickname of ‘Sandpit’.  Behind it, in a combination tractor beam, was the USS Photon, nacelles all patched up.

“There you go” Sky was talking with Shera again, “You won’t be capable of high warp, but it’ll get you home.”

“Thanks Cousin, I know it’s risky for your ship to be out here, but you came looking anyways.”

“You know as well as I do you would have done the same.  We’ll do our best to keep an eye on you all the way back to Farpoint.”

Just as they broke the atmosphere and the Photon’s beleaguered engines could take over again, the Jem Hadar patrol emerged from their hiding spot near an asteroid.

Sky felt a headache coming on.  He wasn’t sure his unarmed Marduk could handle even one of those, slightly damaged as they were from the previous scuffle with the Photon.

“Well, Bue’Quet.”

“Language Shera!”

A Short While Later

It didn’t take long for the Marduk to be out of the fight.  One of the Jem Hadar Fighters had flown right over to them and placed them in a tractor beam. The other two went and harassed the Photon, who made sure to keep well clear of the planet this time around.

Meanwhile, on board the Marduk, Sky was having a brainstorming session with his crew.  “Step one is to arm ourselves, the Jem Hadar are ignoring us right now, but they’ll be after us as soon as they’re done with the Photon.” His officers grimaced, but nodded.  Once they were all armed, Sky asked for ideas.

Surprisingly, it was Fenris who stood up with an idea first.  “Sir, I remember reading something about the Enterprise D’s encounter with the Borg that might assist us here.”

“Go Ahead Fenris.”

“Well, according to the records, didn’t they modify their deflector dish into emitting a beam that they used against the Borg? I was thinking, we have a deflector, and a nearby Starfleet ship if this all goes upside-down.”

Desiree stepped up next. “If we do this, we’re upside-down anyways. The Enterprise D, despite being 30 years old now, had a deflector larger than this whole ship and they were out of commission for hours.  Our poor deflector would be burnt out in one shot.”

“Then that means we can’t miss.” Nobody was surprised at this point that Sky was willing to try the quite dangerous plan.  “Everyone get the modifications ready, and start picking our target.”

USS Photon

It’s just my luck thought Captain Shera.  I get rescued from certain doom, only to be in the sights of some Jem Hadar before even getting home.

Not that she had anything really to complain about from her ship and her crew.  In general, a Saber class was supposed to be a part of a larger group, but the Photon was holding her own in conditions she was never meant to survive. 

If the third Jem Hadar Fighter was in the battle, it would have ended already.  However, a flash of light from the corner of the viewscreen brought them all hope.  The First Jem Hadar Fighter, the most damaged one, had taken a hit in the magazine and exploded to pieces.

USS Marduk – seconds before

“All preparations are done captain.”

“Thanks Cruger.  Everyone, we’ve designated our target as JF-1, the other one harassing the Photon as JF-2, and the one holding us as JF-3.  JF-1 has a weakness in their shield resonance that is off from the other two.  If I had to guess, this is the ship that bore the brunt of Photon’s fury.  As a side effect of our shot, a subspace pulse will go off, hopefully acting as a distress call to Starfleet.  Desiree, you may fire when ready.”

Farpoint Station – 12 hours later

Sky was sure that the engineer hated him.  Less than a day after the Marduk finished repairs and returned to duty, they were back with major damages to a primary system.  And the worst part is it was self-inflicted.

After the explosion of JF-1, the aftereffects of the Subspace pulse disrupted the tractor beam of JF-3 enough for the Marduk to escape at impulse speeds.  However, that same aftereffect ran along the Marduk’s EPS conduit, taking out both the deflector and the shields.  When the USS Helicoprion, a Steamrunner class starship, arrived as backup, the remaining Jem Hadar ran.  Between the Helicoprion and the Photon, they got the severely damaged Marduk back to Farpoint, where she was now being refitted with another deflector.

Upon arrival at the engineering facility, Sky was given a cold greeting from the engineer.  It was going to be a long day.

USS Marduk

Staring blankly at the viewscreen, Sky sat mindlessly waiting for the next shift to start. “I just had to pull the single shift this time around.  At least on the double shift you have someone to talk to.”

4 days prior:

“USS Marduk, your mission is to head to the Black Cluster.  We’ve lost one of our Communication arrays out there, and you’re to fill in until we can get a new one out there.”

“Yes sir, but how long should that take?”  Sky was sure they were being practically exiled from the front lines.  “We’re a rescue vessel, we shouldn’t be away from the action for too long.”

“Due to your most recent missions, it has been decided that you’ll be placed away from danger to let your crew recover.  They did nearly die on a simple supply mission.”

Sky couldn’t disagree, they were all to close to being destroyed by those Jem Hadar fighters.  “But comms duty sir? There has to be a more proper ship for that mission.”

“Let’s face it Sky, you’re the only unarmed ship still in this area.  Any vessel that is, as you say, more suited to this mission is required elsewhere.”

And that’s how they came to be here, deep within the Black Cluster, completely stationary, just waiting for messages to come in so they can be rebroadcast back out.  Since the bridge had to be manned at all times, the Crew had taken to having a rotating 3 shifts, with two people on first shift, two on second, and one on third.

However, after days of this, Sky was remembering why he never wanted a position as a listening post operative.  If he had to sit here and do nothing for his whole career, he’d go insane.  The crew had come up with a number of ideas to stave off the boredom, everything from chess to bad jokes.  The results were middling, Sky was dead last in the chess tournament, with Ensign Rios currently the champion.

Recently, he’d begun watching old movies on one of the viewscreens.  Halfway through Singing In the Rain, Desiree entered the bridge, her shift beginning.

It was Desiree's turn on the bridge.  Nothing much had happened over the last few days as they waited in the cluster for the replacement communications array to arrive.  Meanwhile, Desiree got to read the communiques and status updates from around the front lines.

Just then, one came in actually meant for the Marduk.  Looking over the summary, she noticed it was marked for the Captain.  She reached over to the bosun's whistle, a button she found she liked pushing, and keyed it for the Captain's cabin.  “Captain, a priority message for you just came in.”

Sky was three hours into what should have been a six hour sleep when the call came in.  Startled awake, he fumbled for a light switch for a moment, before realizing he was on the Marduk, and therefore could just use the computer.  “Computer, lights.”

As the room brightened, he crawled out of bed in a daze, reaching the replicator.  “Computer, one Sioc, Mango flavor.” bzzzzsshhht.  He sure was glad he'd discovered this drink during his time in Starfleet Academy.  It wasn't regulation per se, but every cadet he'd studied with swore by it.  They'd even taken to keeping the formula on personal isolinear chips so they could bypass the regulations restricting it on starships. With a bit more energy in his system, he quickly got into his uniform before heading to the bridge.

“Here you go, sir.” Desiree handed Sky the PADD with the message on it.  “Were you expecting any messages?”

“Not really EX, but they could be new orders, we've been here a while.”  Sky took the PADD with him as he started departing the bridge.  “Good work EX, I'll see you in the mess after your shift.”  Heading to his makeshift office in the spare room, he entered the passcode to unlock the message.

Later that day

The USS Orange NCC 87099 (California Class) dropped from warp fairly close to the USS Marduk.  Towed behind it was the new comms beacon.  As the crew of the Orange began the fairly lengthy process of setting up the comms beacon, a single shuttle departed from the main hangar on the Orange, making its way to the docking port on the Marduk. Waiting in the entryway, Sky and Desiree were discussing the benefits of Sioc versus Raktajino.

Their conversation was interrupted by the ding from the airlock computer's cycle.  The Door slid open to reveal two starfleet officers, one in red and one in blue.

“Welcome aboard the USS Marduk Captain Shaw and Ensign Olivet, we're glad to have you."  Sky was glad.  Glad he'd somehow managed to keep this section of the ship factory-new.  It was a matter of pride, being able to show up another captain with subtle ways like how ‘fresh’ his ship was.

“Well Captain,” came the gruff voice of the other captain, “I've got your new crewmate here for you.”

“I heard, it's not everyday that the Marduk gets a new face.  Welcome Ensign, what's your specialty?"

The Ensign seemed a bit, well old to be an Ensign.  Most Ensigns you saw around starfleet were one of two types.  They were either the ‘forever ensign’, or they were the trouble making kind that hadn't always been Ensigns, but had returned to the rank through whatever shenanigans they had pulled.

“I'm a scientist sir, specializing in energy waves.  I was part of Project Henshin II most recently.”

“I'm sorry, did you say Project Henshin? the failed personal shields project from 30 years ago?”  Sky was surprised, to be sure.  Project Henshin was famously a massive waste of time and resources, with no unit being functional without a massive generator being brought alongside the operator.

“Not quite, captain.  Henshin II was an attempted redesign utilizing some of the technology brought back by Voyager, we had some limited success with a much more mobile design.”  the Ensign looked quite proud of this.

“So why are you here then, and not enjoying success with that project?” Sky was confused, most scientists would rather stick with the big-ticket project rather than be on a no-name vessel in the middle of nowhere.

“Put simply sir, the project went the way of Henshin I, even though we had limited successes, we still couldn't shrink the device enough for Starfleet to continue providing the resources for our research. I saw the light earlier than most and took the chance to try my luck with Starfleet academy.”

“Well, either way, welcome to the crew, I'm sure you'll be a fine addition.”

The Orange continued the labor of setting up the new comms array.  Aboard the Marduk, Ensign Olivet and Ensign Rios were manning the bridge, checking the incoming transmissions the ship was still expected to sort and pass along.

“Well, whaddya know? that don't look right.”  Olivet was peering at some of the data on the transmissions themselves.

“What was that Olivet?” Desiree looked over at the station that Olivet was using.

“I thought it was nothing, but there's a variance on these messages.”

“A Variance?”

“Yeah, these messages should be coming in at a cyclic interval of .045, but they keep coming in at an interval of .67.  Something out there is bouncing the message."

Desiree ran the telemetry on the messages.  “There's no spacial anomalies in the way of the messages on scans.  What could be causing this?”  Nothing in the academy detailed anything other than spacial anomalies causing this type of interference.

Olivet turned to Desiree, “The only thing I can think of would be the signal is being interrupted briefly before resuming. But I can't think of what would interrupt it so briefly while still allowing the whole signal through.”

“Let's take this to the captain.”

Inside the Captain’s Cabin aboard the Marduk, Sky was reviewing the latest updates from local Starfleet Command, with a map displayed on the wall in front of his bed.  The Marduk was small enough that Sky felt comfortable enough working without a traditional desk, instead preferring to utilize a holographic interface from the armchairs.

“Looks like most of the fleet is a ways away.” Sky muttered to himself.  As peaceful as this mission was supposed to be, and he didn’t believe that for a minute, he was still nervous about being this far away from much of the fleet’s firepower.

Just then, the doorway chirped. “Enter” Sky closed out the map and his notes before looking to the doorway.

“Hello Captain” It was Desiree and Olivet, each holding a PADD. “Olivet found something I think should be brought to your attention.”

Captain Sky walked onto the bridge, flanked by Desiree and Olivet, and signaled to open hailing frequencies to the USS Orange. Desiree moved to her seat and tapped a few controls.

“Frequencies open, Captain.”

“Thank you Desiree.  USS Orange, this is The Marduk, please respond”

“USS Marduk, this is the Orange.  How can we assist?”

“Orange, we’re detecting something strange with the signals we’ve been receiving and we’d like to investigate.  So we’re requesting you take over the comms duties so we can move out of position to do so.”

“One moment Marduk, I’ll have to check with my captain on that.”

“Understood.”  It was quite understandable if the Orange didn’t want to take over the comms, they were already building the new one and didn’t want to overburden the california class ship’s computer with the flood of messages that the Marduk was currently having to deal with.

A Short few minutes later, the captain of the Orange came into view “Marduk, this is the Orange.  Go ahead on your little trip, you guys have been stuck here for long enough.”

The Marduk‘s nacelles flashed as she accelerated to just above lightspeed, leaving the Orange behind as she followed the trail of the messages.

In the depths of the black cluster, a damaged Federation Comms buoy sits still trying to complete its mission by sending out the messages as quickly as it can.  Nearby, the Marduk arrives, shields at full and sensors to max.

On the bridge of the Marduk, the full crew was assembled at their respective stations.  “Sir” Desiree was the one to break the silence, “we’ve arrived at Federation comm buoy 1323332-B.”

“Ok, scans at full, let’s solve this quickly before someone notices we’re alone.  Olivet, I’d like you to take our Captain’s Yacht to take a closer look.”  Sky had that look on his face, the one that usually told Desiree that he was about to lose a chess match.

Meanwhile, Olivet looked confused. “Sir I was not aware that Phoenix class vessels had a captain’s yacht.” This prompted a chuckle from the rest of the crew. 

Sky placed his hand on Olivet’s shoulder, “You’ll see.”

Olivet did see, and he wasn’t sure he got the joke.  He flew the worker bee over to the comm buoy, noting the damage to the buoy.  He brought the worker bee around the far side of the buoy and scanned what appeared to be weapons residue.  “Marduk, this appears to be damage from disruptors.  I know we were betting on this being Lost Fleet interference, but it honestly looks more like its from the Breen.” Suddenly, all communication with the Marduk ceased.  Acting quickly, he brought the worker bee back to the side where the Marduk should be, and just caught a glimpse of the damaged Marduk being towed away by a Breen Plesh Tral Heavy Raider.

“Crap.”

Sparks flew from the corridor ceiling, showering down on the unconscious form of Dr. Harper.  Around the corner, a Breen soldier marched, unopposed in his route through the ship.

Elsewhere, in Engineering, Cruger and Cooper lay across the consoles, the warp core dimming as it powered down.  A pair of Breen engineers investigating the core step right past the unconscious officers.

Desiree Rios held her phaser rifle at the ready, pointed at the only entryway to the bridge.  “Sir, I don’t know how long we can hold them.”

“You won’t let me down Ex.” came the voice of the captain. “It’s only until I can reengage the engines to get us out of here, then I’ll be up there to assist.  You just need to be ready to hit the button to take us to warp.”

An hour later…

“So, Captain, how’d they get you?” the sarcasm in Desiree’s voice was thicker than cold gagh.

“You know, it’s the darndest thing, I popped out of the jeffreys tube and got hit before I even knew they were in there.”

“I know, I watched on the monitor as you popped up facing the wrong direction.”

 Back at the workerbee

James Olivet was working on his solution.  He cannibalized the nearby defunct comms array for parts, and over the past hour had managed to make a partially functional delta wave generator.  Attaching it to the bee was a bit harder than he thought it’d be, but with the addition of a smaller comms antenna, his project was finished.

Now if it’d only hold until he got to the crew.  The last time he tried this was the Henshin II project.  He pointed the nose of the bee at the still visible Plesh Tral ship in the distance.  “Engage”

He would later describe this part as being much more dramatic than the overworked thrusters inching the bee towards its final destination.

It took about thirty minutes for the bee to reach the position.  Once there Olivet donned the emergency flight suit and set the generator’s timer.  Three seconds should do it. He pulled the door’s latch, ejecting himself into space.

3…

2…

1…

The Delta generator kicked in, and the antenna began spinning the delta waves at the nose of the bee like a spider’s spinneret.  Olivet grabbed hatch doors on the Marduk and braced himself.  This part should be done in-

With an imagined might crash, the Wave Generator Launched the coalesced waves forwards at near light speed, right into the hangar of the Plesh Tral ship.  The devastation was immense, as the delta waves unspun and began unraveling the DNA of any unfortunate enough to be within 67 meters of the generator.  Luckily, delta waves aren’t able to survive in a vacuum, so he and the Marduk was quite safe.  The bee, however, was not so lucky, as the pure force being unleashed burned out the batteries on both the bee and the delta wave generator before spinning the unfortunate craft off into space, likely never to be seen again.

Olivet saluted.  The brave little craft would probably be forgotten, but it had served its purpose.  Then he turned to the airlock and began working on opening it.

The airlock door opened with a hiss.  Olivet poked his head in and, seeing the surrounding area free of Breen, rushed to the nearest room, which turned out to be a spare bedroom currently being used as a storage room.  Upon entering, he rushed over to the computer terminal.

“ok let's see just what happened while I was out.”

Ten very disappointing minutes later, he had lost much faith in the crew.  They had been taken out like they were cadet candidates!  The scientists at the various projects he had participate in would have given a bigger fight.

“the Captain didn't even activate the ESH system.” muttering to himself, he went to that very system and prepped it for activation.  “Computer, activate the Emergency Security Holograms.”

On the other end of the ship, a compartment in the ceiling opened and two small spheres fell out and activated, turning into holographic security officers who then retrieved their rifles from the nearby compartment.

“Computer, have the ESH officers begin sweeping the ship for Breen intruders.”

“confirmed”

Meanwhile, Olivet had grabbed a hand phaser from the airlock's armory and began moving towards his room.  Turning the corner, he ran into a single Breen engineer, and their quick draw contest was short.  Leaving the unconscious engineer behind, he safely makes it to the room.

“It should be around here somewhere.”

Meanwhile, Sky and Desiree were grouching at each other as a disguise to keep the Breen from figuring out their plans.  Unfortunately, they were so good at speaking in code, they were not sure what their plans were.  Sky was pretty sure Desiree wanted him to feign ill to get to sickbay and release a sedative into the air, an Desiree thought Sky wanted her to reach a comms panel to try and electrify the guard.

Needless to say, it was not going well.

Olivet stood at his door, finalizing his preparations to exit the room and return to combat.  On his wrist was a curious device about 15 centimeters in length with a dial and three buttons.  He set the dial to ‘1’ and pressed the first button.  A light hum was now audible in the air around him. 

“Hope this doesn't fry me like it did subject 97.”  Olivet muttered.  He tuned the phaser pistol to the same frequency as the Henshin device, and opened the door.

This was obviously a mistake, as right when the door opened, a Breen guard happened to be stalking through the hallway.  The Breen guard immediately shot the poor scientist, but the Henshin device held, scattering the blast in multiple directions and giving Olivet the chance to stun the guard.  Then the device started smoking, before Olivet flipped open the cover and ejected a chip, replacing it with one from a bag he had over his shoulder.  He then set the device to ‘2’ and pressed the first button again, resuming the humming.

Three cleared rooms later, and he ran into his second Breen, managing to get the hit in before this guard could fire.  He swore his aim was improving.  Up next was the medbay, and his luck started running out again, as the four Breen inside were ready for him.

A very intense firefight later, the Henshin was smoking again as he stood victorious over three stunned breen and one that managed to get himself killed by friendly fire.  Olivet sighed as he changed the chip out for his last replacement, set the dial to 3, and pressed the second button.  This time, instead of a hum, there was a visible sheen over his body. “Last one.”

Desiree had been stunned when she went for the comms panel while Sky was faking a stomachache.  The Breen hadn't bought it at all.   Now he was handcuffed to an unconscious Desiree on his right and an unconscious Dr. Harper on his left.  The Breen didn't seem to keen on paying attention to him, however, as they started discussing something too quietly for him to make out before one of them ran out the door, weapon ready.  It was not long before Sky heard the phaser fire and the door opened again, showing a… shiny James Olivet, firing at the remaining Breen.  It took a few tries, but Olivet managed to knock out the Breen and free the members of the crew on hand.  

“Captain, the two ESH officers are clearing engineering as we speak.  We can now transport the unconscious Breen to a makeshift holding cell and get out of here.”

Captain’s Log Supplimental:

It’s only been a few weeks since I was given command of the USS Marduk, since then we’ve seen far more combat than I thought was possible for an unarmed ship.

After James Olivet freed the ship from the Breen boarders, he collapsed from the shock of using his Henshin device, which I have ordered locked away in my ready room.  Doctor Harper says she’ll have him back on his feet in two days.  Luckily we have managed to avoid serious injury beyond Ensign Olivet.

“That's great Olivet, but there's still a warship out there that disabled us in the first place.” Sky was trying to see Olivet's plan.

“That's the thing, before boarding the Marduk, I sent a pulse of delta wave radiation into the Breen warship.  It should incapacitate them temporarily, should be just long enough for us to start running.”

Turned out, a Phoenix class ship doesn't need much to get her going.  However, the Plesh Tral raider started chasing them almost immediately.  Meanwhile, Olivet notified Sky that he'd managed a distress signal during his time abandoned on the array, so help should be coming.

“Captain, they're swinging around to the port.” 

“I see 'em” Sky swung the ship around, using the damaged comms array as cover, being grateful that the rest of the crew was not that hard to wake up once liberated from Breen custody.  “Maybe we can keep them on their toes until help arrives.”

The hull shook as the rear Medical console exploded in a shower of sparks, just missing the good doctor as she had just moved over to scan Antylion Cruger, making sure everyone is ok.

“Hopefully”

At that moment, Antylion waved the doctor away, “Captain, I've got a really stupid plan that might buy us a few moments.”

“At this point Cruger, I'll try anything.”

Anything turned out to be having Antylion grab the antipersonnel phase cannon from storage, stand on the outer hull of the Marduk, patch the phase cannon to the ship's power supply where the worker bee was supposed to go, and fire indiscriminately at the Plesh Tral raider.

It took quite a few shots before he managed to even hit the raider, but it did little more than annoy the ship.  After a couple of hits, Antylion figured out that he was more effective attempting to intercept incoming fire, managing at one point to hit a photon torpedo right out of its tube. 

Sky, on the other hand, could not be more stressed as he wrangled the small corvette into moving in ways it was never designed to.  He even managed, at one point, to flip upside down, causing the ship to slide backwards for half a kilometer before the impulse engines managed to slow the ship.  An alert popped up on the console, warning him that the impulse reactors were overheating and would undergo emergency shutdown procedures in 10… 9…

It was a bad day to be a soldier for the Breen.  First, the only prey their trap brought in was a small Federation Corvette, which they overwhelmed quite quickly.  Second, before they could break the corvette's computers, a strange type of radiation washed throughout the ship, causing physical deformities and damage to most of the crew.  Then, when they were finally able to get enough crew well enough to run the ship, the corvette started running away.  When the Torpedo blew up less than a foot outside its tube, it rocked the whole ship.  The Breen commander was seriously thinking about whether continuing to mess with the corvette was a good idea.

It wasn't. But not for the reason anyone else expected, but for a much larger, more dangerous reason. A four nacelled reason. A four nacelled, Borg technology inspired reason. Emerging from her warp drive vortex, the comparatively massive Sagan-class USS Hathaway flew into a protective position between the Breen vessel and the Federation corvette. Within seconds, the much smaller Marduk was encompassed in the protective shield bubble of the Hathaway as a tractor beam locked onto her and dragged the smaller ship along with her. 

It did not take long after that for the five remaining Plesh Tral Raider crew members to lose the resultant fight.  With the Hathaway firing all phasers, the unfortunate ship was carved into several pieces.

“Hathaway to Marduk,” a voice from the heavens seemed to fill the corvette. “Standby to receive medical and engineering teams.”

“Are we glad to hear from you Hathaway,” Sky sank so deeply into his seat from exhaustion that he slid right out of it onto the floor. “Welcome aboard.”

“Captain's Log, Supplemental.  With the timely assistance of the USS Hathaway, we were able to defeat the Breen Raider.  Honestly we got out of this one with sheer luck.  James Olivet is in sickbay, apparently his Henshin device has some backlashes to its use, and the doctor says he'll be out of commission for at least a few days.  Antylion survived his little stunt, though he suffered some rather extreme vertigo at first.  Hathaway and Orange have brought the damaged array back online after replacing the parts Olivet used.  The Marduk is back to operational status, the impulse engines took some time to fix, however.  Hathaway was even nice enough to retrieve my Captain's Yacht, which is charging in its port again.  Our new orders have us stopping over at Starbase 514 for a refuel and resupply, which we will accomplish tomorrow.  For now, goodnight.”

Starbase 514 was not the largest port the Marduk had docked at, but it's pretty hard to beat Starbase 1.  The Refuel and Resupply was going well, with the Marduk getting a fresh paintjob while they were at it.  Sky was liking the new red paintjob, it made the ship feel much faster.

“Captain Sky” a voice came from the other end of the lounge.

Turning around, Sky saw one of his classmates from the academy.  “Tina, that you?”

“Look at you, Sky, already making it into the command of a vessel.” she teased “I mean, I knew you were going to be in charge of a ship soon, but Isabel is going to flip out. She was sure she'd be in command before you were.”

“So what have you been up to since the academy? Last I heard you were going to be assigned to the USS Kokomo as a diplomatic atache."

“She went down in the early days of this skirmish.  I've been reassigned to be the aide of one of the Diplomats on New Romulus.” She seemed rather nervous about this, like she'd be intruding by sharing more information.

“That's wonderful.  Wish you the best of luck in your new assignment.”  He started turning back to the resupply reports on the table in front of him.

“Well… Here's the thing.  I need to get to New Romulus and my ride just blew up.  I was wondering if I could cash in that favor you owe me to get you to take me there.”

He stopped in shock. “Hold up, at last count, you owed me the favor.  Don't forget I pulled you out of that cave in New Mexico.”

“And did you forget how you wouldn't have passed the diplomacy final without me?  You owed me two for that, your words not mine.”

“What do you call setting you up with my roommate for that date? I seem to remember your eyes sparkling that night.”

“We both know you only did that to get out of the date yourself.  So will you give me a lift or what?"

“Now Hear This, All Captains report to Farpoint Station for battle.”

It had been repeating for about 5 minutes over the station’s speakers.  Sky was in a meeting with other Phoenix captains when it came in.  Both of them immediately contacted their crews and had them prepare for departure.  Sky was only a few moments behind them.

All around the station, the various ships of the 514’s remaining forces were disengaging from dock and angling towards Farpoint for battle.  Just outside the windows, Sky saw a pair of Springfield Class ships flicker with the pseudomotion of warp.  Even the runabouts were getting in on the action, as they lifted off from their docking pads and joined the fleet.  Sky swore he saw a tugcraft attempting to join in as well.

Arriving at the Marduk, Sky ran into Desiree. “Stow that bag Ex, we’re launching immediately.”

She nodded and stepped in after him, closing the airlock door and prepping for disengagement from the station.  Continuing on to the bridge, Antylion and Olivet were already at their stations there, having heard the announcement.

“I assumed we’d be joining in Captain?” Antylion smirked.

“Like I’d have it any other way.  Looks like most of the fleet has launched, we’ll be running a bit behind, but hopefully we can get some good work done.”

“Captain, we’re still connected to the repair bay’s cargo pod, are we bringing it along with?” Desiree queried, and upon receiving a nod from Sky, turned towards the console in front of her, modifying the warp field to better include the pod.

“Set course for Farpoint Station.” 

“Course set sir”

“Punch it”

Tina had been packing her things into the Marduk’s only Ambassadorial Suite, which apparently was usually used as extra storage, since it took one of the crewmembers, she’s not sure who yet, a few minutes to relocate the stuff to another room.

Suddenly, the ship lurched, causing her to drop the robe she was holding.  “Now what are they up to up there? We’re not supposed to leave for New Romulus until tomorrow.” Determined to see what tomfoolery Sky was up to, she left her room and headed towards the bridge.

“Ok sir, we are en route to Farpoint.”

“Thank you Desiree.  Now, we all know the combat capabilities of this vessel, I want each of you to workshop an Idea so we’ll be useful there.  You have until 5 minutes before arrival to present one to me.  In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on navigation.”

“””Yes Sir”””

Just then, the door to the bridge opened and Tina walked on.  “What is going on here? Why are we at warp?”

Sky grimaced, then swiveled around to face her.  “Going to be completely honest here, I totally forgot you would already be on board.”

“You Forgo-”

“ANYWAYS, the Marduk has been called into battle, so until further notice, you’ll be in the Ambassadorial suite, since it’s the most reinforced room on the ship.  Can’t have our diplomat being hurt, can we? Fenris, take attaché Sanchez to her room please.”

Tina was not having it, but Fenris was able to get her into her room before resuming his combat idea, which involved a repeat of Antylion’s feat from the last fight.

“Ok, anyone got a good plan? I know we’re still about 30 minutes from arrival, but I’m willing to hear your plans.”

Desiree was the first to bring attention to herself. “Sir, my plan is for us to act as a boarding team, and attempt to take over a small Jem’Hadar vessel to use.”

“Ok, love the idea, but how do we pilot both the Marduk and this hypothetical Jem’Hadar vessel with only the six of us?”

“I hadn’t thought that far yet, sir.”

“Ok, keep workshopping that one.”

Up next was James Olivet, who almost reluctantly laid out his plan.  “We have that cargo pod of repair supplies, we could use the different materials inside as physical projectiles to distract, confuse, and maybe damage a Jem’Hadar fighter.”

“That’s intriguing, work out the details and come back to me on that one.”

Antylion looked a little too eager for his idea. “We could put me back out on the hull with a rifle, firing at the enemy ships again.”

“No, the rifle was too low power to do any damage.  What else you got?”

He looked a little crestfallen, but indicated he didn’t have anything else yet.  Fenris, however interjected, “What if we were to replicate a larger weapon for him to be manning out there?”

“Ok, now the idea has some merit, see just what you can build that won’t drain power too much from the engines.  Doctor, you’re up.”

“We could rescue life-pods from damaged vessels.”

“Nice and simple, I’ll keep that one on the back burner for now.  Here’s what my Idea was, we use the repair materials we have aboard to fix up damaged ships mid fight.”

Everyone agreed this was a nice gesture, but impossibly impractical in active combat.

Farpoint was pure chaos.  The Marduk dropped from warp right in-between a Jem’Hadar fighter and a Tugcraft pulling the saucer section of a Cheyenne class as it fired its phasers.  Just a little ways behind them were the two Sprinfield Class ships, chasing and firing upon the same Fighter.  Farther in the distance, a trio of Jem-Hadar fighters were engaging a pair of Sabre Class ships.

Right out the gate, the Marduk had three plans running.  Out on the hull was Antylion in a exosuit, with the Henshin device on mode-3 attatched to his arm.  Attatched to the hull in front of him was the H7-X Phaser repeater, tied directly to the Workerbee’s charging port.  In the back, Olivet was working on the attached repair pod, prepping the Tritanium plates with beacons and setting the door on a hair-trigger.  Meanwhile, Desiree was suited up with a rifle, prepping to go full EVA with the plates, in an attempt to use them as a distraction so she could close in on the Jem’Hadar fighter.

“Man I really hope these plans work.” Sky muttered under his breath.

“I agree, you are all either genius or crazy.” Tina quipped.

Sky jumped, “How the heck are you on the bridge?!?  Didn’t I have you confined to quarters for your own safety?”

“One, you didn’t have the doors locked. Two, like heck I’m going to sit out a battle in my quarters with no reference for what’s happening!”

The Tugcraft took a hit, its warp core going critical, leaving the now-drifting Cheyenne Saucer to try and get by with just thrusters.  Nearby, the first Springfield class, the USS Iskandar’s left nacelle dimmed and lost power.  The Marduk swung around, and the pod bay doors opened.  If one looked closely, the slightest shimmer of metal was visible.

Aboard the Jem’Hadar fighter, the Vorta in charge was targeting the drifting Cheyenne Saucer when he noticed a new ship warping in.  The USS Sisko’s Revenge (Akira Class) appeared on sensors, and the Vorta immediately redirected all fire to the new vessel.

“Sky to Olivet.  Really?”

“What? It’s meant to catch their attention.  Besides, it worked, didn’t it?”  There were at least a dozen of these transponders, and for them to work effectively, they had to have different names.  Hopefully it wouldn’t get down to the ‘USS Alexander Beckett’, as that would be the last one in the line.

It didn’t take long for the Vorta to be suspicious of the Akira class that took no hits and fired no weapons.  Eventually they managed to hit something and the Akira class just disappeared.  With that out of the way, weapons fire resumed on the beleaguered Cheyenne saucer.  Only a few hits later, and the saucer detonated, sending shrapnel in all directions.

The other Starfleet ships targeting them from the rear were next on the chopping block, before a small, heretofore unimportant Starfleet ship raced across the firing arc, tanking several hits meant for one of the larger ships.  Smaller weapons fire dotted across the hull of the Jem’Hadar Fighter, leaving next to no damage behind.

Just after the pass of the smaller vessel, two more Starfleet Vessels appeared from nowhere, the USS Failure to Comply and the USS Resistance is Futile, both Saber class ships.

Olivet watched as the two transponders activated and the small phaser rifles he’d attatched at the last moment fired, missing completely but giving the illusion of a real ship more credit.  The Fighter wasted no time in firing multiple torpedoes at the pair of ‘ships’ before one connected, making a rather impressive explosion. The second ‘ship’ was sent careening through space, still indicating that the USS Failure to Comply was active.

Captain Stan Mitchell, of the USS Journey’s End, a Springfield class ship, watched as the USS Marduk continued to enact the weirdest combat plan he’d ever seen work.  With the Starfleet in-jokes appearing as ships for a moment before his own ship’s sensors were able to notice the difference, he wasn’t sure whether to applaud or laugh at the ridiculousness of this fight.

The Marduk arced around again, coming up on the Jem’Hadar fighter’s rear, and dropping another item, this time not one with a transponder.  A relatively decent sized explosion occurred, knocking the fighter’s aim off just in time to miss the USS Failure to Comply, again. 

Antylion was having the best day of his life.  Usually you only get to fire weapons this big in a holodeck.  He forever has bragging rights at Whiskey whiskers, the bar he frequented on Luna Colony.  He had to let the weapon rest every few moments, as it could only take sustained fire for about 45 seconds before needing a 15 second cooldown.  However, it appeared that the Jem’Hadar fighter paid him no mind, as he continued to rack up hits without ever coming under fire himself.  When Sky blocked that torpedo for the Journey’s End, he got shaken up a bit, but that wasn’t an on purpose shot.

Desiree had given up on the boarding plan, and was now helping Olivet vary the packages being dropped off.  “I was not aware we had the materials on board for a homemade Photon Torpedo.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say torpedo, Photon Bomb might be more accurate, it didn’t have propulsion.  Besides, it’s relatively easy to stage a small antimatter explosion.  Stopping it is the real trick.”  Olivet heaved the next Transponder out the open doorway “Here goes the USS Good Day To Die”

“Klingons.  Really?”

“I ran out of ideas, ok? I had like ten minutes to come up with these.”

The USS Good Day to Die lived up to its name, with the Vorta one-shotting it without a thought.  “I’m starting to see the pattern, Focus fire on the USS Journey’s End.”

Sky’s flight combat training was seeing its full use today, Tina, however, didn’t seem to appreciate the intricacies of the feat.  After more than a few complaints from her end, he started quipping back at her.

“I’m sorry but could you try to block those shots?”

“Do you think they teach how to get hit as a course in Starfleet Academy?! NO! they teach how not to get hit.  Reversing those instincts is harder than it looks!”

The Marduk shook more violently than before.  “Antylion, see if you can’t shoot down those incoming torpedoes.”  Only static answered him, “Antylion?  Cruger, can you hear me?”

Outside, next to a burnt out turret, stood the charred remains of Antylion Cruger’s boots, still attached to the ship via magnetic seal.

Moments Before

The Jem’Hadar Fighter launched a furious volley at the USS Journey’s End, and the Marduk raced to intercept.  Antylion was firing at full burst, trying to destroy at least one torpedo.  However, as the torpedoes got closer and closer, Antylion realized they were going to miss one torpedo by a mere few feet.  He tried firing, only to realize his gun had overheated beyond even regular use.  Realizing what he had to do, he detatched the magnetic overboots, and jumped, punching the final torpedo in a last act of desperation. “Goodbye, friends.”

With the last, desperate attack from the Jem’hadar figher blocked, the Journeys End and her sister ship finally destroyed the formidable vessel.  The Marduk came to a stop, engines overheating.

“Captain Mitchell, this is Captain Sky.  Our engines are shot and we’re out of tricks.  I think you’ll be on your own for the rest of this fight.”

“Captain Sky, this is Captain Fitzgerald of the USS Invalidentityname.  We’ve got no engines either, but our thrusters should let us reach you.  We should be able to team up and hold the fort until the end of the battle.”

“Much appreciated Invalidentityname, Journey’s End, go ahead and continue the fight for all of us.”