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FredM

The Perspective Of The Galorndon Core Evacuation

The Perspective Of The Galorndon Core Evacuation

Stardate 1411.13

 

Even under the best of circumstances, it was a chess board any sane individual would take great efforts to avoid. A fleeing civilian population caught between two titans preparing for war. Throughout the lessons of history the often futility of such situations was well documented. It honestly didn’t matter what species the teaching hailed from, those that would judge rarely looked kindly on such circumstances. Yet as horrible as that would have normally been, the circumstances of the day were far worse than anyone aboard the Reaent had realized.

 

As historians and scholars would debate in the decades to come, when the USS Churchill and USS Reaent encountered the massive firefight occurring in the middle of nowhere, they had no idea of what had taken place before. In what would be called the Galorndon Core Evacuation, although the system itself was one light year away, it was the only system visible on sensor scans during the conflict. It had been here that the Federation Council had given permission for Starfleet’s Tenth Fleet, led by the USS Apollo, to enter the Neutral Zone. Yet not even six hours after the orders had been issued, the need to act had once again become to gruesome to ignore.

 

The scene had been simple. A large group of civilian ships had been seen moving from the Devron system towards Starbase 10. The fleet of nearly fifty had suddenly changed course, clearly attempting to avoid something they detected but no one else could see. “At first, we thought it would be a six minute fight. The simply time it would take to aim and fire with that many ships. But when the Tal Shiar Fleet decloaked and opened fire, they were totally unprepared for what was waiting,” Apollo Executive Officer Commander Terrell Gonzalez would recount later.

 

What actually happened was the first visual record of what everyone had been suspecting for weeks. The elite intelligence group of the Romulan Star Empire was taking advantage of the power vacuum that now existed. Their goal was simple: defeat anyone not loyal to their cause through any means necessary. This required tools and resources of course, which many helpless civilians were happy to provide….one way or another.

 

In the weeks that had followed however was a rapidly changing mindset from the remaining structure of the Romulan Navy. With most centralized command and control out, local divisions had turned to the only place they could to seek aide…and it only served to further infuriate the Tal Shiar. “What decision was there? We were to protect the Romulan people, even from ourselves,” Major Vreenal recounted years later.

 

So when the Tal Shiar fleet decloaked to take the resources they so desired, there was never an expectation that a fleet of similar size was lying in wait. There had not even been the exchange of pleasantries before the Romulan warbirds had decloaked and fired on what had been their own intelligence agency. In a few precious moments, the civilians had increased speed with their Romulan protectors providing as much time as they could. More would have been provided of course of there had been a full understanding of the second Tal Shiar fleet that was within range, they had actually been late due to the need to engage a Romulan warbird the Reaent and Churchill were quite familiar with. Yet that is when the formerly brilliant statisticians of the intelligence agency had been in error.

 

Within less than two light years to the border, the Tenth Fleet had crossed to intercept the civilians and escort them to Starbase 10. The Tal Shiar had found the need to immediately redeploy to prevent such an act, believing their former comrades would join in arms against Starfleet. Instead, the reverse had occurred. The Reaent and Churchill had entered the equation after forty-five minutes of the intense fighting. It would not end for another four hours.

 

While the tactical contribution of the Reaent, incapacitated and showing her age, would be questioned; the results would not. As the conflict raged on, over thirty civilian ships from freighters to civilian cruise liners would follow the Ambassador Class vessel out and to safety. While others from the Tenth Fleet dealt with aggressors, fighters from the Churchill would support the Reaent’s efforts of simply focusing on keeping those who were innocent alive.

 

It had mostly worked.

 

Once the dust settled, a total of thirty-eight non-combat vessels were under power and in one piece. Due to the ongoing chaos of the region and war, they sat inside a remote section of the Gamma Hydra system…waiting. With a CAP protection being provided by two quadroons from the Churchill, who herself had gone back to the conflict to aide in cleanup, the Reaent found herself sitting as the ship in charge…and in silence. The fact was, there was no way of knowing if another Tal Shiar fleet was in waiting or not. The only other military vessel was one moderately damaged Romulan Valdor Class Cruiser. At least they would be providing a refuge for the Reaent’s guests and a purpose once again, at least once the transporters were online again.

 

During the efforts however, the Tenth Fleet had continued to engage…at least as best one could. Throughout it all, the Reaent herself had physically come out of the conflict in good shape. There had never been an opportunity to fire one of the tactically unstable torpedoes developed by Mr. Shamor, more out of a fear it would destroy too many ships at once than effectiveness. Despite runs on duct tape, shields had held…hull breaches had not reopened into the great void beyond. They sat about the way they had entered, minus a few injuries.

 

Now the game was a simple one…don’t let anyone find you and get to safety as fast as you can.

 

So the fleet sat in radio silence. Advance to Starbase 10 near Deneva? Divert deeper into Federation space? Hide in the Devron system instead? These were the questions….ones needed answers. They were also ones that couldn’t be answered, at least not yet.

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