Into the Darkness, Go I

Coming Soon!

Act One: Teaser

ISS Rosenante

The ISS Rosenante is assigned by Regent Doenitz to travel to the Sunali system. Earlier in 2407 the Sunali people defected to the invading Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. The system did not put up any resistance to the invaders and as such Doenitz feared that the other members of the newly formed Imperial Union of Planets would consider following suit. This action of course would lead to the complete defeat of the IUP. With this in mind the ISS Rosenante was dispatched to make an example of the Sunali.

The Destruction of the Sunali star

By the time that the Rosenante arrived The Klingon-Cardassian Alliance had already begun shifting a large task force into the system. This task force was preparing for a military attack into the heart of the IUP.

The enemy vessel present in the system were:

Twenty-two Klingon ships:

• 12 K'Vort Class, Bird-of-Preys
• 6 B'rel Class Bird-of-Preys
• 4 modified D7 Class Battle Cruiser.

There are also Cardassian starships in the system.

• 18 Galor Class

On the Planet, Sunali II there was a population of 18 million inhabitants.

The ISS Rosenante moved into position by passing the mine perimeter that was only partially completed by the Cardassians. The ship them activated and launched the Omega Device towards the Sunali Star.

The Rosenante then turned, and fought it's way pasts several enemy ships and was just barely able to escape the system just as the Omega Device detonated. The resultant explosion destroyed the entire system along with the enemy task force. An unexpected side affect of the Omega affect was an interaction of the energy waves created by the Omega Molecule's destruction interacting with the Spiral Warp Drive of the Rosenante. Somehow this interaction forced the Mirror Universe ISS Rosenante through an Interphasic Tunnel which deposited it into the Prime Universe, just outside the Sunali System.

Act Two: Prologue

USS Rosenante

Unknown to the USS Rosenante their mirror counterpart has laid in a course to Bardon Alpha. The Rosenante's Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid holds an emergency meeting with his three senior most officers, Jennifer Caskie, T'Larah Sullivan and Jon Nayati. He explains to them that he has just ordered the USS Rosenante off mission to investigate some critical intelligence. He does not reveal to the the nature of this intelligence, but simply asks for their trust in this issue. Salid states that he is aware that he is breaking regulations and that he realizes that there will be consequences if he is proven to be wrong. However he states that he can not take the chance that the intelligence turns out to be accurate without investigating it. It is his belief that the intelligence he has received could threaten not only the United Federation of Planets but also the Alpha Quadrant. All three officers agree to trust Salid's judgment.

Meanwhile back on Earth, Captain Saleke, former Commanding Officer of the USS Hades is called to a lunch with Vice Admiral Errol Heatherby. The admiral begins to explain that he has reason to believe that there may be a conspiracy inside the Admiralty. He cites the bizarre fact that several prior Doenitz supporters are now Starship captains in the border region between the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union. fearing that there could well be a potential to allow conspiracy to thrive under such conditions, he orders Saleke to take command of the USS Furious, a Prometheus Class starship and proceed to the Ikev Sector. He also warns Saleke that the previous Captain of the Furious was killed in a freak Transporter accident and that the Vulcan Captain should proceed with caution.

Act Three: Bardon Alpha

Bardon Alpha

The Attack

The ISS Rosenante arrived at the Bardon mining Facility with the intention of stealing a shipment of highly refined Boronite ore. Captain Salid opened a channel and demanded that the ore be turned over to them. When the facilities administrator, Alix Sorvex, declined, Salid ordered the facility attacked and all personnel except one killed. He ordered an away team to the surface to carry out his orders.

The Assault team was lead by the Mirror Universe version of Jennifer Caskie. Other members of the Mirror Universe crew, including Mike Rosenbauer and Aleesa Wyler accompanied her. Rosenbauer commanded a security team called Mike's Maniacs, which consisted of Mirror Universe versions of Sodra, Tyrone Cooper, Mosh, T'Vyr and Eva Saint-Jean. There were also two disposable members of the ISS Rosenante's Science team sent along to locate the boronite. once theier job was completed, they were executed and their bodies left behind.

During the raid, Jennifer Caskie murdered the administrator with a bladed-weapon, which seemed to be the preferred method of execution. All other members of the facility crew were killed with the exception of technician Dallas, who was seriously injured by Mike Rosenbauer, and Talia Lorenzo who had managed to avoid detection by hiding inside the facility's computer core ventilation system.

The Distress Signal

While enroute to the Ikev Sector the USS Rosenante intercepted a distress communication from the Bardon Alpha Mining Facility. Captain Salid ordered an intercept course set and the Rosenante raced to respond to the signal. The signal itself was standard except for it's contents. The signal claimed that they facility was under attack by a Federation starship, which was identified as the Rosenante. This was not possible as the Rosenante was several hours away when the attack took place.

When the ship arrived at the Bardon Alpha system, they detected no ships and received no replies to their hails.

Wishing to get to the bottom of the signals claim and to search for survivors, Captain Salid ordered an away team to the planet's surface to investigate.

The away team consisted of:

• Commander Jennifer Caskie
• Lieutenant Jon Nayati
• Lieutenant Thomas Jackson
• Ensign V'Shera
• Ensign Mitena Rixx
• Ensign Robert Smith
• Ensign Sam Lopez
• Ensign M'Epak
• Ensign Kimiko Ichijo
• Ensign Mike Rosenbauer

The away team beamed into the facility and immedately broke into two teams. The first two teams began searching the area for survivors, these teams were comprised of Doctors Lopez and Ichijo as well as elements of the security team. The teams did not find any survivors on their assigned search areas but Doctor Ichijo did find a pair of bodies dressed in unusual uniforms, These two corpses were beamed back to the Rosenante for analysis. They were later discovered to belong to the two science officers from the ISS Rosenante. They had been executed by under orders from the Mirror Universe Jennifer Caskie once they had located the refined Boronite.

The second away team consisted of the operations and Engineering team. This group consisted of Lieutenant Jackson and ensigns Rixx and Smith. The team's orders were to recover tha facility's sensor logs for study. Because of the extent of the damage, this team was forced to work there way deeper into the facility until they reached the computer core. once there, they gained access to the core and began copying the data for transfer back to the ship.

The third team consisted of Commander Caskie, Lieutenant Nayati and Ensign Rosenbauer. They made thir way to the Administration center of the facility in the hiopes of accessing the facilities shipping manifests and security tapes. While there, they encountered the seriously wounded John Dallas. Dallas injured Rosenbauer, believing him to the be the same man who had assaulted him earlier. in fact that person had been the Mirror Universe version of the same man. Dallas was subdued and beamed to the Rosenante for medical treatment.

Caskie and Nayati then uncovered the production manifests and the security logs for the facility. The former showed that the facility had been refining boronite to an exceptionally refined state while the latter uncovered a video image showing Rosenbauer, Caskie and Wyler complacent in the death of the administrator and the attack on the facility.

This information coupled with the mysterious appearance of a second Rosenante class starship, which could only have been built in secret, further convinced Captain Salid that there was indeed a high-level conspiracy ongoing.

The Furious Arrives

Despite warnings that they should leave the system by his senior officers, Captain Salid decided to remain at Bardon Alpha in the hopes of gathering some information that could give him a direction of pursuit.

Lieutenant Chance Raschen after reviewing the telemetry data from the facilities computers managed to extrapolate a possible course for the rogue vessel. However, before it could be pursued the USS furious arrived in the system.

The Prometheus Class starship was commanded by Captain Saleke. The Vulcan CO had once been the Commanding Officer of the USS Hades during the Federation Civil War, and was renowned for his tactical skill.

Salid was surprised to see Saleke, and suspected that if he was not a willing participant in the conspiracy concerning the creation of an Omega Device that he may well be manipulated into serving the purposes of that conspiracy. Saleke ordered the surrender of the USS Rosenante, but Salid, uncertain of the Captain's true loyalties declined and attempted to flee the scene in the hopes of exhonerating the names of the crew.

Saleke engaged the Rosenante, whom he considered attempting to escape from the scene of a crime and shot's were fired. Still reluctant to destroy the Furious due the the unknown position of Captain Saleke's affiliations, Salid ordered the long-range communications of the Furious destroyed. inital stages of the battle were ineffective. For the Furious this was caused in part because of the employment of the SEDIS and in part by the superior shielding possessed by the Rosenante Class Starship.

However, Saleke had a trick up his sleeve. Earlier, he had ordered the modification of five quantum torpedoes so that they were equipped with a Phased Cloaking Device. These torpedoes when launched against the Rosenante ignored her shileds and caused significant damage to the latter vessel's Environmental Subsystems, lifeboats, secondary phaser array, forward tractor beam emitter and caused a hull breach in main Engineering. The advantage was short lived however, when Salid managed to deplete the Furious' forward shields enough to cause the vessel to veer off in order to avoid a volley of concussive photon torpedoes.

It was a manuever that would later become known as The Salid Gambit. With the Furious deviated from her pursuit. Salid managed to get the Rosenante into the Magnesite ore filled asteroid field in the Bardon system known as The Mill. It was an area familiar to Lieutenant Chance Raschen, who had often used the area to avoid or lose Cardassian pursuit during the Cardassian-Federation War. Raschen had served in the Irregular Federation Forces during the Doentiz regieme, before defecting to the 52nd Fleet. His knowledge of the area would prove invaluable to evading the Furious. The high concentration of magnesite ore prevented the use of most navigational sensors withn the confines of the Mill, thus preventing the furious from following the Rosenante. in addition, coupled with the HISS Stealth System, the Furious was unable to detect the Rosenante from outside the field either.

Saleke ordered the Furious at best speed course around the field in the hopes of catching the Rosenante exitting the other side in the hopes of taking advantage of the Prometheus Class' Tri-vector assault mode. However, once on the other side, the furious detected the decaying signature left by the Spiral warp Drive of the ISS Rosenante.

Thinking that the Rosenante had already managed to clear the field and set course for Hexikor Prime, Saleke ordered the Furious to pursue. Meanwhile the USS Rosenante remained in The Mill conducting repairs.

Act Four: Hexikor Prime

Hexikor Prime

The ISS Rosenante arrived at Hexikor Alpha before either the USS Furious or the USS Rosenante could intercept her. The crew of the Mirror Universe had a clear set of objectives in mind for the attack and set about capturing them with speed and efficiency. The Mirror Universe Away Team consisted of the Following personnel:

• Commander Jennifer Caskie
• Lieutenant Jon Nayati
• Lieutenant Thomas Jackson
• Ensign Mitena Rixx
• Ensign Mike Rosenbauer
• Ensign Robert Smith

This group was tasked with the objective to locate and acquire two pieces of hardware located aboard the Hexikor Alpha facility. These were a Paratrinic Shield Generator And a Class 11 Bioneural Computer. These components would be essential in defining the defensive capabilities of the Omega Device.

After the away team arrived, they encountered Doctors 12 & 14, the Bynar Scientists working on the Paratrinic shield project. They also encountered Nathan Benoit a recent graduate from Starfleet Academy.

In a struggle, Benoit was attacked and overpowered by the Mirror Universe Thomas Jackson. The Mirror universe away team chose to capture Doctor 12 and use him as bait. However, Doctor 14 activated the shield generator and managed to transport an unprotected Mirror universe Jackson out into the depths of space beyond the hull of the station. The ISS Rosenante's Chief of Operations had been killed.

Meanwhile, Rixx and Smith worked to secure the devices and when they had completed their task, they beamed the equipment back to the awaiting Mirror Universe vessel.

It was during that time that station security showed up and a very brief exchange of phaser fire took place. The Mirror Universe group evacuated the station having secured their prize and left the area unmolested. During the Raid Captain Salid had chosen to destroy both facilities long-range communications capabilities

USS Furious

The USS Furious arrived a little over a day behind the ISS Rosenante's departure. Captain Saleke elected to visit the facility in an effort to ferret out additional information concerning the conspiracy alluded to by the Prime Universe's Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid. During his visit to the station the Furious' CSO Holis Gralen, a Betazoid interviewed Commander Brian Romeo concerning the research of the stolen equipment. Romeo provided a perfect watertight reason for the project, citing a pre-warp culture and an attempt to study a rapidly dying star from the same system. While the evidence was solid, Holis suspected that Romeo was not being entirely truthful.

While Saleke was conducting his investigation abord the Hexikor facility, including interviewing an injured Nathan Benoit, The USS Rosenante entered the Hexikor system under cloak.

Determined not to have a repeat of the encounter at Bardon Alpha, Captain Salid chose to neutralize the threat that the Furious posed by transporting six of their primary power buses off the Furious. These power relay buses, cause the ship to lose all primary power, rendering it unable to use weapons, shields or warp drive. Salid then ordered the surrender of the Furious but was unwilling to accept the surrender of that vessel from their First Officer Commander Erin Sloane.

Saleke was summoned and his presence was requested aboard the Rosenante. Having been convinced by the data that he had collected thus far in his investigation, Captain Saleke informed Captain Salid that he and his ship were no longer suspects in the attack, nor were the complicit in any plot to acquire and build an Omega Device. Saleke had, independently, arrived at the same conclusion, that the ISS Rosenante, a ship from the Mirror universe was in fact responsible for the attacks.

It was also clear that the Mirror Universe Rosenante was following a pattern that must have been established in their own universe. Which explained how the marauding vessel knew where to acquire the components for the creation of a new Omega Device.

After some discussions, it was decided that the USS Furious and the USS Rosenante would need to combine forces in order to counter the tactical and homicidal threat now posed by the ISS Rosenante.

As long range scans indicated that the Mirror Universe vessel was headed for the Kabor System The Rosenante took the Furious under tow, and using their own shields to protect them, opened a Spiral warp conduit to facilitate maneuvers while the Furious conducted the reinstallation of the power relay buses.

Act Five: Kabor Prime

Kabor Prime

A few days after the attack on the Bynar Facility in the Hexikor system, the ISS Rosenante appeared in the Kabor system. Thier target was a secret production facility known as Station Omega. The facility had been built by a secret research and development branch of Starfleet Sciences Division during the Doenitz regime. Thier primary function was the development of an Omega Device.

After the end of the Federation Civil War the facility went underground. Through the actions of a small group of Starfleet Admirals, all records pointing to the existence of such a facility were erased and the personnel there continued with their research. Through covert means, the facility was equipped with large Class XII phaser batteries for defense. At the heart of the facilities power center was a stabilized Omega Molecule. The first that the Station had managed to produce.

The ISS Rosneante arrived in the system, intent on collecting the last few remaining components of the Omega device that they needed to create their own version of the weapon. As the Mirror Universe Ahmed Ibn Salid had worked at this facility in his universe, he had intimate knowledge of the facilities existence and layout. What he had not known was that the station had been armed, as in his universe, it was not protected.

Omega Device

The Mirror universe ship was forced to subdue the facility by force, which cost them a great deal of time, narrowing the lead that they had on their Prime Universe Counterpart the USS Rosenante and the USS Furious. This delay would prove to be a great boon to the federation starship over the next few days.

With the retrieval of the components complete, Salid ordered Mitena Rixx and Nathan Benoit to begin modifications to the base components to bring them up to specifications of the original Mirror universe version of the omega device. This involved the addition of the previously stolen Paratrinic Shield Generator as well as the Class 11 Bioneural Computer.

By the time that the Federation starship had arrived, the mirror universe vessel was gone and the station destroyed. Captain's Salid and Saleke wasted no time in the system, instead following the ISS Rosenante's warp trail towards the Sunali System. With time running out, they realized that they had no choice by to confront the marauding vessel and deal with it once and for all.

Act Six: Finale

Battle of Sunali II

The USS Rosenante and the USS Furious entered the Sunali System to find the ISS Rosenante engaged in the wanton destruction of Cardassian merchant shipping. These ships although peaceful, had been destroyed simply because they were Cardassian.

The USS Rsoenante ordered the Imperial starship to surrender. That vessel refused.

What followed next was a flurry of conflict, with the Stronger ISS Rosenante dealing a tremendous amount of damage to both the USS Rosenante as well as the USS Furious,

During the conflict the Furious engaged her Tri-vector Attack mode to engage the more powerful Mirror Universe vessel. The Mirror universe Andrew Elliot Maddox managed to take over the computer of one of the Furious' sections named the Courageous and overload it's warp core killing all 142 hands on board.

With the battle going against them, captain Salid came up with a plan to stop the Imperial vessel dead in it's tracks. Building off a suggestion made by Lieutenant Chance Raschen, he initiated a transfer of the Omega Directive Protocols into the Imperial Starship's computer after the junior officer reeled them into communications range for the data transfer. That vessel's commander, having no experience with the Omega Directive was unable to unlock the ship's computer, which caused them to lose the battle.

However, the ship had not been neutralized before they had managed to launch the Omega Device at the Sunali Sun. Unable to pursue, the Rosenante was forced to allow the USS Furious to intercept and eventually destroy the weapon.

With the aid of Nathan Benoit the Furious and the Vigiliant (another element of the Furious), managed to shut down the Paratrinic Shield protecting the device by bypassing the operating system of the Class 11 Bioneural Computer that controlled it. With the shields down, The Vigilant was able to destroy the device with Phaser fire just minutes before it would have detonated.

Act Seven: The Boarding Action

With the battle over, Captain Salid ordered boarding parties to take possession of the ISS Rosenante.

• Assigned to take the Bridge were Commander Jennifer Caskie and Lieutenant Tom Jackson

• Assigned to Take Engineering were Ensign Mitena Rixx, Crewman Caroline Winters and Ensign Mike Rosenbauer.

• Assigned to take the Computer Core were Commander T'Larah Sullivan and Ensign Robert Smith.

• Assigned to take the Security Center was Lieutenant Chance Raschen.

• Assigned to take Sickbay was Doctor Sam Lopez and Ensign Marta Nunez

The teams achieved their goals quickly and with little resistance, as the Mirror Universe Salid had ordered his crew not to resist.

Meanwhile back aboard the USS Rosenante Lieutenant Alimi Morrow fought to prevent a warp core collapse. his efforts and those of Lieutenant Jon Nayati and Ensign V'Shera managed to prevent the destruction of the federation vessel. However, it was not without cost. Morrow was seriously injured in the attempt and was treated for severe radiation poisoning. His condition was so critical that he was placed in Stasis unitl such time as he could receive treatment at Starbase Geneva. His life was saved by the quick thinking and intervention of Doctor Kimiko Ichijo

Act Eight: Homeward Bound

After the Capture of the ISS Rosenante a deal was struck by which all the data concerning the Omega Conspiracy in the prime universe would be handed over to Captain Salid and Saleke in exchange for returning the Imperial ship home. The agreement was made, after some discussion between The two Federation Commanding Officers and the Rosenante's First officer Jennifer Caskie.

A technical team was assigned to install an Interphasic Field Generator aboard the Imperial starship, which would force the ship back into it's normal universe. This same generator would then self destruct, making it impossible for the Imperial Union of Planets to recreate the devices for their use. Once the device was installed, the imperial ship was returned to the command of the Mirror Universe Salid and sent home. All indications suggest that the vessel was returned to their proper universe intact.

The Rosenante, towing the USS Furious then returned to Starbase Geneva for repairs.