SEASON 2: EPISODE 08

SEMPER FIDELIS: Prologue

  It took only one word to launch the invasion.  That word flooded the communication channels of every ship in orbit and it begun.  The planet had withstood four hours of orbital bombardment from the orbiting Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan capital ships.  Now it was time to land ground forces.

  Despite the bombardment the force had been unable to destroy the transport inhibitors; this meant that most of the planets garrison had probably survived and were waiting.  This was due to the way the force had gone about bombarding the surface.  The Klingon and Romulans were in favour of a general heavy bombardment while the Federation, wishing to keep collateral damage to a minimum favoured surgical strikes from orbit against known enemy positions.  Given that the operation was planned by the Federation meant that they got their way, despite reservations from the Klingons and Romulans.

  The smaller attack ships descended first.  Their job was to provide close air support to the landing parties and to destroy any enemy positions that would appear once the landing force entered the atmosphere.  The smaller shuttles, hoppers and dropships broke formation with the larger ships and started their descent.  The group were simply the first wave, sent down to secure the Landing Zones or LZs across the planet for the main invasion group that would then transported down if the inhibitors were destroyed or transported down in larger, more vulnerable transport ships.  The first wave was made up primarily of small groups of special forces and shock troops from all three Empires and it was their task to go down secure the area and drive the Jem’Hadar and Cardassians back so to make it safe for the larger transports to land the main invasion force of Starfleet Ground Forces, Klingon warriors, Romulan troops, armour, artillery and supplies.  To conquer the planet it would take hundreds of thousands of troops and to shuttle or transport them down would take too long, so a small percent was usually sent down in shuttles to make it safe for the large lumbering transports to land and disgorge troops, since the transports would be easy targets as then came to land.

  It would have been an amazing sight to see the numerous ships light up the sky as they burnt through the atmosphere.  But the waiting Jem’Hadar would not have cared, for them it was just a sign that they were about to fulfil their duty for the Founders.  As for the Cardassians, many would be familiar with the sight since the Klingon had invaded their territory two years prior.  The defenders prepared for battle.

  As the shuttles broke below the clouds the enemy fire started.  Energy blasts and projectiles lanced through the sky at the shuttles as they went towards their LZs.  Roaming squadrons of fighter craft hunted down the sources of enemy fire.  From orbit starships opened fire at the Dominion and Cardassian positions as they exposed themselves if they were in a position to do so without the risk of hitting the landing force.  As weapons fire went up towards the invaders, even more came down from above, it was a lopsided contest.

  Despite that enemy fire claimed several craft, but the defenders suffered heavily from the attackers.  Explosions racked the surface as phaser and disruptor blasts destroyed weapon emplacements and torpedoes levelled large areas.  The invasion had truly begun.