Regash

[Cptn Corizon 0]

The smoldering ruins of the largest city on Regash steamed in the cold, dark night. From his vantage point five kilometers away, Kalen, Vorta Functionary of Regash shook his head. Forty-thousand Dominion citizens completely obliterated. Infrastructure of an entire mining complex laid to waste, and 700 of his most loyal Jem’Hadar dead in the ruble.

 

In his previous eight lifetimes, he could not recall a time when such…drastic…measures had been inflicted on world that had been under rule of the Dominion for as long as Regash. Sure there was the occasional uprising on the more…backwater worlds. But they were easily suppressed. And the resistance crushed beneath the heals of the Jem’Hadar’s boots. This was different though… the Regash were actually organized.

 

The fought against Dominion rule, openly and as a people. Though none of them had ever tasted…freedom…they marched into battle clinging to the hope that the Dominion would simply grow weary and leave them alone. They obviously were ignorant to the reality of the situation.

 

For the first time since it’s inception thousands of years ago, the Dominion’s foundations were quaking. Regash was but a snapshot, an example of the ever growing discontent and anxiety that spread through the Great Dominion.

 

Kalen silently said a prayer to the Founders. He blamed Keevan for this. It was Keevan’s order that had turned so many against the Vorta Council. His…purge…right or wrong lacked legitimacy with the people. In the old days, had the Founders given such an order, it would have been obeyed without question.

 

But now, as the Vorta…and the Dominion itself, went into withdraw from the drug of the Founders wisdom. The entire order of the universe seamed to crumble.

 

As much as Kalen wished to blame Keevan, he knew that his only option was to follow the orders he’d been given. Keevan was the chosen leader of the Council now, and his orders came proxy of the Founders…however misconstrued they might have become...

 

Kalen sighed and turned to his first. “Rak’Tomjan,” his voice shallow and burdened. “Send your men into the city. Any who remain alive…kill them. We must make an exampleo them to the rest of the Dominion. Show them what will happen if they continue to resist…”

 

Rak’Tomjan nodded obediently. He was a Gamma, born in the cloning vats, long before the Dominion War with the Alpha Quadrant. Remarkably, he’d lived through that war, and was now among the most respected of the Jem’Hadar. Though he knew he would soon become useless in old age, and he would have to die. He only hoped it was in the service of the Founders.

 

As Rak’Tomjan headed off in the direction of his encampment. Kalen envied him. At least the Founders had made the Jem’Hadar's addiction obvious. And at some level, he suddenly wished he had a tube of ketrical white attached to his throat, instead of the growing desire to commune with his gods.