Commander Blake Loughty had been fast asleep when he had received a wake-up call from the duty team. Making his way from his very small quarters, he climbed two levels up via the access tubes ladders and eventually made his way into the operations area. Charon Monitoring Station was the lead base for the outer-Sol sensor detection grid. It was the job of twenty-six people on the station to liaise with the other smaller monitoring bases to keep an eye on the traffic coming in and out of the Sol system. Loughty, was the leader for it and had always wondered if he had been assigned here because he had annoyed the late Admiral Maxwell a few years ago while attending a luncheon.

“A subspace distortion?” He muttered as he climbed through the access hatch and pulled himself out to see his night-shift team. The call that had awoken him was over the fact their long-range sensors had picked up large subspace distortion, moving towards the Sol system at an approximate speed of warp one.

The three young analysts, who were assigned to the operations area, were all parked at one of the monitoring stations. The operations area was in a pentagon shaped design with stations based around the perimeter while a small command table sat in the middle of the centre.

Ensign Audrey Westbay, the shift supervisor nodded towards her superior officer. “Yes sir, and it’s getting closer towards our direction, we are now reading it to be moving at sub-light speeds.”

“How big are we talking?” Loughty asked as he pulled up a stool by the pool table and began to access the sensor grid’s readouts.

“Undetermined sir, it keeps fluctuating in size and mass.” Westbay replied, “We’ve got Eris and Hydra Stations sending us their data to see if we can triangulate our readings. They should be able to send it to us any moment now.”

Loughty looked over at one of the other crewmembers. Crewmember Enzo Pillay, who had recently joined Charon Station, sat at the communications board. “Enzo,” Loghty said to grab his attention, “check flight paths to see if it’s anything already planned that’s entering the system that Command has kept quiet from the public.”

Crewmember Pillay looked over from his console, “I already have sir, there’s no logged activity that large at this time. It’s not Starfleet or any civilian traffic.”

Flinching at that news, Loughty looked back to Westbay, “Audrey have we heard anything from Eris or Hydra Stations?”

Westbay just nodded slowly once as she stared at her screen. “Sir, Eris station transmitted their last recording before they went offline.”

Confused at that statement, Loughty looked at the ensign. “What do you mean by their last recording?”

“Eris Station is gone sir.” She replied and tapped her console to bring up the last imagery sent to them by the lone station that sat on the dwarf planet that it got its namesake from. The main screen in the room changed and showed a Romulan Birds-of-Prey opening fire with a green bolt of energy before the transmission was cut from its disruption.

“God damn it!” Loughty shouted, “Enzo, send a priority alpha message to Starfleet Command and all nearby units.” He paused to take a breath, “We’ve engaged the Romulans! Send them the Eris recording.”

“Aye sir.”

“How many ships are we picking up out there Audrey?” Loughty asked as he issued tactical alert across the base. The klaxon went off and it would wake everyone up.

“Commander, sensors are picking up further warp signatures. Five-point-eight kilometres, closing above.” Westbay announced. “I think they’re going after the sensor grid sir. We’ve just lost three orbital arrays.”

“Enzo, did you get that message out?” Loughty asked, now worried they wouldn’t survive this assault and desperate for Starfleet Headquarters to know.

The South-African man nodded. “Message sent and I’m picking up the arrival of the Pandora, it looks like she is taking a defensive position near us sir.”

Loughty was confused, why would the Daedalus-class ship attempt to take on an entire fleet?  

Westbay interrupted his thoughts, “I’m reading two Romulans vessels. Make that three. Four. No, five.” She paused in between breaths before speaking further, “Fifteen Romulans vessels at least. Distance two point one kilometres and closing.”

“Hull polarisation to maximum. Stand by all weapons.” Loughty ordered. The station was only armed with four pulse-phase cannons and a single torpedo launcher with eighty photonic torpedoes. He knew they wouldn’t survive against the Romulan fleet, but he would be damned if they let the Pandora go down without back-up.

“They’re in visual range.” Westbay announced.

Loughty took a breath before speaking up and knowing he will regret what they saw. “On screen.”

“My God.” Pillay whispered in complete dismay as she stared at the main screen to show more than fifteen Romulan ships heading towards them.

“Fire at will, all weapons, make every shot count!” Loughty commanded.

As soon as the base opened fire, the Romulans returned the favour with barrage after barrage of plasma fire and nuclear warheads. Their conviction eventually decimated the base before blowing the Pandora into micro-pieces.

The Romulans had arrived.