[USS Anaheim – Bridge]

The stars coalesced into view as the ship leapt out of warp. The viewscreen showed an array of planets,  and then a Galaxy class starship having taken up a central position in the quadrant. The first officer whistled, Commander McCleod clearly impressed with the ship’s size and beauty. He’d seen a Galaxy class before but never in relation to the ship that he’d served on, and never in person.

”An olde but a beauty,” he said, realizing that their ship was just as old, legacies of a Starfleet past. The others on the bridge nodded silently, some agreeing with him and others not caring. It was an impressive display none the less. As close to one got to the original Enterprise-D, the famed ship that had done everything from tackle the Borg to time travel. 

“Get us a steady orbit around Hahana III please,” Captain Hawthorne said, and the view screen changed to the colony and a static view of it. The Vulcan Chief Flight Control Officer nodded, and set to work adjusting the USS Anaheim‘s trajectory until a solid orbit was achieved. She reported back once she had finished.

The Captain hit a button on his chair’s arm rest that activated the comm system, “Doctor Mueller your teams are a go.”

He repeated the move to send the Operations teams, and the non-Starfleet teams on their ways as well. Soon shuttles full of supplies and staff began and continually steady trek down to the planet’s surface and what lay below. 

”I’ll head down in the next round, provide support during triage,” Commander McCleod who had been a Chief Medical Officer on his last posting said. Captain Hawthorne nodded, he knew Starfleet rules about Captain’s going planet side, and for this mission it did not bother him to remain cooped up on the starship. 

The turbolift to the bridge opened and Chief Counsellor Yuhiro Kolem entered, her hand on her head. She looked dazed as if she’d just walked into a door.

”Are you okay Counsellor?” the Captain asked.

”I’ll manage,“ she answered, “Just the empathic feedback from so much pain and loss. I had heard on this scale, hundreds of thousands of people lost someone, that it was bad but I’ve never experienced it before. I’ll be fine, I’ll learn to block it out.”

The Captain looked at his half-Betazoid Councellor sympathetically, “Okay but if you need anything let me or Doctor Mueller know.“

”Come to sickbay with me,” said the first officer, “I’ll give you something for the pain.”

Kolem looked at the man with dark eyes and nodded, “Okay.”

She was not slated to travel to the planet’s surface until later that week, and so taking something to ease her burden seemed reasonable. The First Officer, who was also a doctor, lead her back to the turbolift and to sickbay.

[Hahana III – Capital City]

The civilain teams worked well despite not being Starfleet, the devastation was significant. Doctor Mueller had to cover her moth and nose at first, as the smell of human waste and death was still lingering in the air.  The dam had been hit by ships from orbit, crashing the river though the city and killing thousands. It was not new, or novel but it was beyond what any of them had seen before, beyond what they thought was possible out here. Lines had formed almost immediately in the three main urban centers as Operations from the USS Anaheim started to set up the industrial replicators that Starfleet had sent. More supplies were coming from the ship, as the crew was already overwhelmed.

Chief Petty Officer Vanessa Constable asked Doctor Mueller, “Is this what it takes to make you want to kill someone? Whoever did this deserves anything and everything we can throw at them.”

”Maybe. It’s hard to not be angry, but I have to remember what being a doctor stands for,” Mueller answered, “I save lives, not take them.”

Constable shrugged, not believing that the doctor was as principaled as she thought she was, but not wanting a pointless argument. She went back to setting up a surface=-to-space phaser canon. It was easy to stand by principals when you did not have the power to violate them, it was much harder when you did. Or at least that was her thinking.

When she was done she got the next crate loaded onto a anti-grav lift and started to walk toward the capital‘s main seat of government where she would install It. Some would eventually also go up near the dam, but the Starfleet Civil Engineering teams that they had brought with them had to work on it a lot more before that was going to be useful. They had to reroute the river around the city, and then ideally dam it for power, if such a thing was even possible any more. 

Tapping her comm badge she contacted her boss, Lieutenant James Young the Chief Engineer, “Hey skip.”

”Not my name,” his voice came through her badge as if they were standing right next to one and another.

”Well you made the right decision not coming down yet, it’s brutal here. I don’t blame those Galaxy class hot shots not wanting to stick around,“ she said.

”They’re protecting us,” Young said.

”Nah, I figure they’re relaxing on the hold deck while we count bodies,” Constable said, feeling annoyed at the thought. 

There was a noise about fifty yards to the right, so ending the comms call she rushed to where a wall had collapsend, and began digging. Eventually she found what was making the noise.

”Kids, we got at least a dozen kids, alive,” she yelled as people came rushing. Soon about two dozen children aged ten to fifteen had been recovered, and were wrapped in newly created blankets, sipping on water from a replicator. Constable sat on a rock, alone, and felt like this was the worst day of her life.

On the other side of the planet Kan Th’kaotross also was having angry thoughts. He believed in honor and this attack had been without it. Not even a Romulan (or to be honest a Vulcan) would do this. Hahana III was not a military world, and had had no defenses. It was a struggling colony of (mostly) humans trying to make their way in the great expansive universe. Now there was no telling if the colony could be saved, even with Starfleet rebuilding the most important infrastructure. It was easier to build at first, than it was to pick up the pieces and carry on.

This was, as he noted not for the first time, was without honor.

His eyes scanned the horizon, surveying the scene. This was going to be what the humans called ‘Hell’.