Personal Log: Ben Versteegt

Admiral Lonal, Starbase Earth
Personal log.

It seems like so long ago since I left Starbase K'taria to lead our forces from the Sol system. In fact, it has only been a couple of weeks. After Sol was taken from the Federation and Earth and its neighbouring planets were occupied, I left K'taria on board my personal warbird, the RNS Fire Owl. When I arrived here, Starbase Earth, a new Romulan Starbase in orbit of the planet, was already under construction, and I did not have to wait long to take up residence here. The war was going well at that time. We had just conquered Earth and were planning to attack nearby Federation systems. No one would be able to oppose us.

And then the Borg came. The Andor system, far away from here, near the Klingon front, was all but obliterated. Millions of lives were lost in the Borg assault. Admiral Vulnis, in charge of all military operations in that region of the empire, hastily scrambled a fleet of 25 out-dated warships and personally led the attack on the Borg cube in his warbird. I sent reinforcements, but they would not arrive in time. Admiral Vulnis was on his own.

And yet, despite the odds being against him, he and his fleet hit the cube with every weapon at their disposal... and won. When the battle was over, Admiral Vulnis' attack fleet had been greatly reduced in size, and many brave soldiers lost their lives that day... But the universe was safe from the Borg threat once again. Inspired by this great, miraculous victory, all Romulans throughout the empire strived to work and fight even harder in honour of the heroes of Admiral Vulnis' fleet.

The boost in morale led to more and more victories for the Romulan Star Empire, and I had the good fortune to be the architect of some, if not most of them. I realised that we had been silent for too long. We had allowed the Federation to survive and the Ferengi to expand. Their ships roamed freely along our borders, occasionally trespassing into our territory and scanning our systems. Although the Federation could no longer harm us, the Ferengi continued to taunt us by expanding their influence and persuading alien races to take up arms against us. They had to be stopped. We could no longer complacently sit by and only act when a ship entered our territory. We had to take a more active part in the war against the Ferengi.

For that reason, I sent a task force consisting of six destroyers, two scouts, two battle cruisers and four troop transports to sector S-9, the same sector I had told the reinforcements to go when Admiral Vulnis needed help fighting the Borg. Our ships had detected a wormhole in that area, which led to an area of space, a dozen sectors away. The wormhole's exit point was only a few sectors removed from Ferengi space. Using the wormhole, the task force was able to take the Ferengi forces by surprise. While they fought off any Ferengi presence and attacked them from behind, conquering the Arvada system in the progress, I ordered the Romulan forces at Sol to attack the Ferengi from the right. After we destroyed a few of their outposts with great ease, our adversaries quickly went on the defensive.

The tactic was a success. The Ferengi were unable to oppose our forces and retreated to their inner systems, leaving the outer systems vulnerable. As one task force kept the Ferengi busy, two other task forces conquered two of the outer Ferengi systems -- Quadra Sigma and Thetis quickly fell into our hands. Meanwhile, I had sent a task force to a nearby Federation system too -- the cursed Titus system, site of a Romulan defeat at the hands of the Federation a few months ago, was finally ours. We took over the system before the Federation could mount a defence. However, the other Federation systems in the area have now all powered up their orbital batteries and have started to dig themselves in. They will not fall as easily as Titus had... But they will fall.

And so, after a mere ten days of extensive fighting, the Ferengi have lost three systems, half their outposts, and they are cut off from their allies, the Federation. The end will come to them soon. We are picking off their outposts and their systems one by one. Soon, they will no longer be a threat to us. The Federation and the Klingons have already been reduced to mere nuisances, and nobody even remembers the Cardassians anymore. There is no doubt who the victors are in these parts of the galaxy: the Romulan Star Empire will soon have dominance over all.

End personal log.

Admiral Vulnis, RNS Battle Roc
Personal Log

This afternoon, at 17:42 hours, an unknown object appeared on the extreme edge of our long range sensors, four sectors away from the Takara sector. I was immediately informed of this new threat, and recognised the power signatures of the intruder instantly.

It's the Borg. Sensors detect a single cube, currently holding position in sector Thelta, at the edge of our sensor range. Even though I have never encountered the Borg in battle before, I have heard stories. Rumours. Their ships are rumoured to be infinitely strong, self-regenerating and nearly impossible to destroy.

And here I thought things were finally peaceful at the Klingon front. The Klingons have made no move against our superior forces, and all the fighting that was done here consisted of a few minor border skirmishes. The Klingons are powerless to stop us -- we have them cornered in their own section of the galaxy. The real fighting is taking place dozens of sectors away, at the Federation front. Reports are still coming in about the glorious victories of Admiral Lonal's forces over the Federation fleets.

Because the real action does not take place here, all the newer ships and the better crews were sent to the Federation front. All I have are a couple of destroyers and a bunch of ships we stole from the Klingons. All in all, I have no more than 25 ships at my disposal, spread across six sectors. I have given the order for all available ships to cancel their current missions and proceed at best speed to the Takara sector. If the Borg attack, it is most likely they will attack there. For now, however, we remain hopeful that the Borg might simply leave us alone.

End log.

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Admiral Vulnis, RNS Battle Roc
Personal Log.

The impossible has happened. Within the confines of a few hours, the Borg cube disappeared off our sensors, only to reappear again (using a transwarp conduit, perhaps) in the Andor system, where it attacked and destroyed the orbital outpost and the single destroyer that were guarding the system. They barely had time to send out a distress signal. Recent reports confirm the destruction of our forces in that system, and state that the Borg cube has begun transporting Andorians up from the surface and turning them into drones. Other, more preliminary reports show that the Borg are firing some sort of beam weapon at the surface of the habitable planets in that system, wiping out entire cities and turning whole continents into deserts. 142 million casualties have already been reported.

I have recalled all my forces and have ordered them to rendezvous in the Andor system in two days. My ship is currently en-route as well at maximum warp -- we will meet the Borg in battle in two days and try to put an end to this planetary genocide. With 25 ships, there must be some damage we can inflict on the Borg. It may not be much, but it's all we have.

I have contacted Admiral Lonal over subspace, and she has agreed to send a total of nearly forty ships to Sector S-9, three sectors away from Andor. Since they are unable to reach our position in time, the ships will have to set up a secondary defence perimiter in that system. The reinforcements will not arrive there before we engage the Borg either, but if we fail, they will make their last stand there.

The next two days will be filled with reports of even more casualties, as the Borg will continue to turn the planets of the Andor system into deserts. Why they do this is unknown to me, but the fact remains that their actions will wipe out millions of Andorians every day. The Borg seem to be content with exterminating all life in the system. It is cruel to even think it, but I hope the Borg will want to remain in the system until they have destroyed every single living organism there. That will keep the cube there until our fleet arrives. And when we do arrive, we will engage the Borg in the name of the millions of Andorians who have died. We will attack them and we will win. We simply have no other choice.

End log.

Admiral Lonal, Starbase K'taria
Personal Log.

Some would call it luck. Others would call it pure brilliance. I am not sure what I would call it. Good planning, I suppose. But I'm getting ahead of things. Let's first start at the beginning, as the humans say. I mentioned the victory in the Titus and Sol systems in my previous personal log -- that seems like as good a place as any to start.

After those victories, it seemed that there was nothing we couldn't do. Some enthusiastic members of my staff suggested we fly straight to Sol and conquer Earth. Deal a crippling blow to the Federation. But I knew we had to be more careful than that. I have always been taught never to reveal your true strength. If we rushed into an invasion now, we might not be ready for the opposition the Federation would throw at us. So instead, I ordered a task force of destroyers to raid the Sol system for several days -- lay siege to the system, if you will. This not only prevented important Federation leaders from entering or leaving the system, but it also struck fear into the hearts of our enemies. They knew we were out there, ready to strike at any moment.

These raids bought time for the rest of our ships to attack other Federation systems first. The Sol system was a few sectors away, mind you, and we couldn't just charge it without first forming an effective supply route to that system. To do so, I ordered a fleet of warships and troop transports to begin an invasion of Kea, the Federation system nearest to our borders. Resistance was light, and Kea quickly fell under our control.

The Corvan system was next. Our entire assault fleet assigned to these sectors participated in the conquest of Corvan, and it too fell without much losses. We were advancing on the Federation, and they must have known that we wouldn't stop now, because they kept trying to distract us by attacking our fleets in desperation. I do not know whether the Federation commanders were brave or foolish for taking on our fleets of warships with their single science vessels or Miranda-class destroyers. Did they hope these last-ditch efforts would make us see how stubborn the humans were? I must admit I was hardly impressed. We subjugated Klingon colonies before and bent them to our will. Humans could not be much harder to conquer.

The closer our attack force got to Sol, the heavier the resistance became. Ultimately, though, the opposition was no match for us. Their heavy cruisers were blown to smithereens as their commanders were paralysed with fear when they saw our fleets decloaking before them. But that didn't stop the Federation from trying, again and again, to stop us from reaching the Sol system.

By the time we did reach the Sol system and our attack fleets were getting ready for the invasion of Earth, four Galaxy class command cruisers showed up. Alone, they would not be much of a threat for our massive invasion fleet, but they had the orbital defence platforms around Earth and the other planets to aid them. I must admit, they fought bravely, and they did manage to take out an entire squadron of destroyers. But in the end, the orbital platforms were destroyed and the burning wrecks of the Galaxy class cruisers vaporised in Earth's atmosphere, even as our troop transports began their descent.

But the people of Earth were not yet beaten. They struck back hard and hit our troops with every weapon at their disposal. When we incinerated the Federation headquarters in Paris, however, most humans started to realise that there was no fighting us. The resistance was quickly suppressed by our military troops, and order was restored. The Sol system had fallen; Earth was part of the Romulan Star Empire.

We will not stop here. We will continue to push on until the entire Federation has fallen, or until they surrender unconditionally to us. I only hope that the people of Earth will be able to see that living under Romulan rule is not the end of the world. Ultimately, they will be better off, because their planet is now under Romulan leadership and is therefore no longer on the losing side.

I am leaving for Earth shortly. Plans are underway to construct a Starbase in its orbit, from where I will be guiding the fleet, as I have done here in the K'tarian system. K'taria hasn't been the front line for quite a while, and as borders change, so does my temporary home. I am leaving commander Jitala in charge of the K'tarian sector; I trust she will handle the job with distinction.

With any luck, this is my last personal log from the K'tarian starbase. The next log entry will hopefully take place from Earth... from the ruins of Starfleet command.

End log.

Admiral Lonal's personal log
Starbase K'taria.

War is a peculiar thing, not in the least for a Fleet Commander. The last few days it seemed as though the war had taken a break; not only were there no ships spotted along the Federation border, but the Klingons and the Ferengi seemed to be ignoring us as well. Oh, there were the occasional battles with Ferengi scout ships who blatantly violated our territory to try to steal our secrets, but all in all, last two to three weeks have been remarkably quiet. Ever since the Federation tried and failed to invade K'taria a few weeks ago, they've been too afraid to challenge our supremacy in this sector.

The situation has improved drastically since our lost battle against the Federation in the Titus system. When they retaliated against K'taria, we destroyed their attack fleet easily. Between then and now, the sensor array at K'taria has been brought on line and reinforcements have been sent to us from both Romulus and the Klingon front. The destroyed outpost in the K'taria system (which I managed to escape before the Federation forces destroyed it) has been rebuilt, and troop transports have finished upgrading it into a Starbase. The outpost in the Ennan sector has also been upgraded, making it more difficult for the Federation to attack either system.

Also, our scientists recently discovered how to upgrade the shields, weapons and power usage of the Battle Cruiser command ships. These ship are the main bulk of our fleet and are currently being upgraded. Our hold on the K'taria, Ennan and Angosia systems has increased, and with the addition of the neighbouring system -- the Chalnoth -- as a new member of our empire, our position in these sectors is stronger than ever.

For that reason, I decided to send out another reconnaissance fleet. The last fleet we sent into Federation space to gather intelligence was brutally slaughtered by overwhelming forces in the Titus sector, and I was determined not to let such a tragedy come to pass this time. I sent a fleet of seven upgraded Battle Cruisers as well as seven destroyer-class ships and one scout ship, to not only gather intelligence, but, if possible, strike the Federation and cripple their supply lines. The fleet was led by the elite crew of the RNS Blood Raven, who have served in numerous victorious battles with distinction.

Under cloak, the fleet crossed into Federation space two days ago, and proceeded to the Titus system. The very same site of the destruction of so many Romulan ships was now the site of a glorious victory: they caught the few Federation ships in that system off guard, and destroyed the outpost as well. They moved on to the adjacent system, where, according to our intelligence, the Ferengi had placed an outpost. Our intelligence operatives were correct. The outpost in the Mizar system was quickly destroyed and the Ferengi opposition was dealt with swiftly and silently.

The fleet then moved on to a Federation system near the very edge of our sensor range. It took the fleet a while to get there, but when they arrived and dropped out of warp, they sent word back to us that they had entered the Sol system: the headquarters of the Federation. Surprisingly, the resistance in that system was minimal: several command ships and a few destroyers patrolled the area, and Earth itself was protected by a mere outpost, not a Starbase. At my order, our fleet decloaked and attacked the surprised Federation ships, who did not stand a chance against our armada of warships.

This relatively easy victory will increase popular support for the military, and it will show the Federation that we are stronger than ever. The attack on Sol has crippled their military operations for a while, and they undoubtedly now realise that starting a war with the Romulan Star Empire was not such a good idea after all.

I have just received word from my colleague, Admiral Vulnis, who is in charge of fleet operations along the Klingon border. It seems that his forces have attacked four Talarian command ships in the Talar system, and have won gloriously. It is well known that the Talarians are secretly aiding the Klingons, and Admiral Vulnis has rightly shown that such treachery will not go unpunished.

It seems that our fleets have achieved two major victories in one day after weeks of silence. It is a sign to our enemies that we have allowed them a brief respite, and are now pushing on once again. The Romulans are on the winning hand, while the Federation and the Klingons are struggling to stay alive. Such are the fortunes of war...

...And fortune, it seems, is on our side.

Computer, end log.

NRPG: A slightly different format now... Not a log, but more of a post. RPG:

Admiral Lonal rubbed the bridge of her nose. She felt like she hadn't slept in days, and that was probably because she had, in fact, been awake for at least fifty hours. After receiving orders directly from the Praetor himself to send a reconnaissance task force into Federation space, she had to come up with a plan to tackle the problem she was facing: The forces at her disposal were all currently assigned to protecting the three star systems nearest to Federation space: Ennan, K'taria and Angosia. If the Federation decided to attack the Romulan Star Empire, it would be in one of those sectors.

Read more!

RNS Blood Raven, Romulan battle cruiser
Commander Tellin, personal log.

It was going to be a simple operation. The Federation had recently colonised the Endar star system near our border, to be used as a base of operations against us, but despite this the system wasn't well protected. There were no orbital batteries in place to fend off any attacking ships, and our sensors detected no Federation starships in the vicinity. Our massive fleet, stationed two sectors away at K'taria, was hardly needed in full force to take over the system. We wanted to subjugate the population, not destroy them entirely.

Based on the intelligence available, the fleet commander sent only two troop transport ships to the Endar system, accompanied by a single strike cruiser, the RNS War Martin. The transport ships had no ability to cloak, so it was very likely the Federation saw them coming, which was why the War Martin accompanied them. Still, sensors had detected no Federation ships anywhere in the area, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Just to be on the safe side, my ship and its sister ship, the RNS Red Martin, were sent ahead to scout the area under cloak. If any enemies showed up, we were ordered to incapacitate them. Based on the latest intelligence reports, the Federation didn't have any ships that could reach the Endar system in time, and if they did, they would be no match for two battle cruisers. I personally believed that this was going to be another boring mission, but it certainly beat sitting around doing nothing in the K'taria sector.

As predicted, we arrived to find the system completely devoid of any defences. We signalled the transports and the War Martin that they had a go to proceed with the mission. Not much later, the strike cruiser and the transports dropped out of warp, after which the War Martin dropped its cloak to start the attack on the first inhabited planet in the system.

That was what the Federation forces had been waiting for. All of a sudden, four Galaxy-X class heavy cruisers dropped out of warp only a few hundred kilometres from our position. They must have used the radiation from the nearby neutron start to mask their approach. I immediately ordered my ship to be put on red alert and told Lieutenant Kala at the helm to put us into a fighting position. The mission to attack the planets in this system was quickly aborted, and as the strike cruiser prepared to engage the enemy, the transports were given the order to retreat.

Immediately the Federation ships opened fire at the only threat they could see: the War Martin. The strike cruiser returned fire, and for a few moments the space between the Federation and the Romulan ships was filled with torpedoes. Our two battle cruisers quickly decloaked to come to the War Martin's aid, and together we managed to destroy two out of four Federation heavy cruisers.

They had, however, already fired their weapons. With four heavy cruisers targeting the one single strike cruiser, the War Martin didn't stand a chance. While its destruction did buy enough time for the troop transports to warp away, 89 brave Romulan soldiers had died when the War Martin exploded. Those deaths had to be avenged. Two Federation heavy cruisers were left, and our two Romulan battle cruisers opposed them. Our presence had been as much a surprise to them as theirs had been to us.

Now, it was two against two. But Federation heavy cruisers have superior shields... Our advantage lies in our cloaking system to remain invisible. Now that we were visible, however, they had their advanced weapons trained on us. I quickly ordered Lieutenant Kala to execute a flyby manoeuvre, taking us past their port flank. My colleague on the Red Martin followed the same strategy, and together we focused our fire on a single heavy cruiser.

Unfortunately, the Federation ships employed the very same tactic. They arrived at our port flank and targeted only one of our two ships. This round of fighting resulted not only in the destruction of one of the Federation vessels... But also in the destruction of the Red Martin. Another Romulan cruiser was lost, another few dozen lives ended prematurely.

Now it was just the two of us. With the viewscreen set to aft view, I looked at the Federation ship, and I knew the Federation commander was staring back at me. Our ships were nearly evenly matched -- my adversary had more powerful shields, to be sure, but my manoeuvrability was greater than his. I could still prevail... But I had to execute my strategy carefully.

Our previous flyby had taken us too far away from the enemy in order for our plasma weapons to be effective, so I ordered Lieutenant Kala to turn the ship around and to execute another flyby. We would fire all of our weapons at close range, ensuring that none of our torpedoes would miss. It was a risky plan, but at the time I felt it was the only one that had a chance of success.

As we turned around, however, sensors indicated that the Federation starship was charging its warp engines. The cowards were retreating! Still too far away for maximum weapon efficiency, I nonetheless ordered my tactical officer to take out their warp engines. He fired a plasma beam... And missed. Not a second later, the Federation ship jumped to warp. With our target having escaped, we felt we hadn't won the battle. We had merely survived.

I wanted to pursuit my enemy and make them fight me. I would have targeted the vessel and ripped it apart one component at a time. But my duty did not permit me that pleasure. When the Federation ship had escaped and the sector was safe again, the transport ships returned to finish what they had started. With their escort gone, it was my duty to see to their safety.

The transports eventually succeeded in their mission, even without the aid of the strike cruiser. The Endar system was taken from the Federation, and its disgruntled population is now under Romulan control. We were victorious, but at a great cost. Many lives were lost today, all because we had underestimated the Federation. We will not make the same mistake again.

Computer, end log.

NRPG: 'BOTF' stands for 'Birth of the Federation'. It's a Star Trek game by Microprose, and it's one of the best games ever. I've recently dug it up again, wiped off the dust and installed it, and it's working great.

In BOTF, you control one of five empires: the Federation, the Klingons, the Cardassians, the Ferengi or the Romulans. The goal is to dominate most of the galaxy, either through alliances or through conquest. Of course, conquest is more fun. :-P In this game, you have to manage your empire's economy, keep your people happy, put them to work, create ships, explore the galaxy, fight battles or make peace, etc. There's a lot to do, and it's a fun strategy game to play.

It occurred to me that, since I'm leading my ships into dangerous battles, it would be fun to write a post of sorts from the perspectives of one of the commanding officers of those vessels. And that's exactly what I did. I play the Romulans, and I'm at war with the Klingons, Federation and the Ferengi. The Cardassians are, at this point in the game, already wiped out or conquered. Despite all this, things are looking up for me, but only if I can defend my borders. Well, I noticed that the Klingons were preparing an attack force, so I took the fight to them and destroyed their ships. The following log is made by the Commander of the Shadowfly, a Destroyer-type Romulan vessel, who took her ship into a great battle at my orders. This fight actually happened in-game.

If I have time, I'd like to continue to write these little logs from the viewpoint of these characters under my command. The possibilities are virtually endless... Not only ship captains, but also intelligence officers, ambassadors, outpost commanders, civil leaders and the praetor himself would all probably have a lot to say about the way I'm running this empire. ;-)

RPG:

RNS Shadowfly, Romulan destroyer,
Commander Ranala's personal log.

The word of the Romulan victory over the Ferengi in the Endar system reached us even as we pushed our engines to take us to a victory of our own. Extensive scans had confirmed that the Andor system hosted a fleet of Klingon ships as well as an outpost; clearly they were amassing a force large enough to launch an all-out attack on the border worlds of our great empire. We -- a fleet of four destroyers, two scout ships and two battle cruisers -- had been ordered to take the fight to the Klingons instead.

Although I knew that our cloaking devices would render us invisible to the Klingons' sensors, I could not help but wonder what casualties this battle might have in store for us... And what surprises. The news of the easy victory over the Ferengi ships came at a decisive time, right before our battle, and I welcomed it. The crew was visibly elated, and spirits were high. The Klingons would not know what hit them, we told each other. Some even speculated that this would be over so soon the Klingons wouldn't be able to fire a single shot. But I've learned in my time as the commander of the Shadowfly that if there's one thing you shouldn't do, it's underestimating the Klingons.

When we dropped out of warp, under cloak, we found their fleet mobilised and their weapons running hot. They knew we were coming. While they couldn't scan through our cloak, they weren't going to make it easy for us. I still do not know how or why they had seen us coming. It was possible that one of our ships' warp fields was out of balance and triggered a reading on their sensors. Whatever the cause, they were waiting for us.

Taking care of the outpost wasn't going to be such a big problem; I could have flown towards it and single-handedly destroyed it myself if it wasn't for the other Klingon ships; one of our intelligence operatives inside the Klingon empire had hidden an explosive device on the inner hull of the outpost during the station's construction, and the device had been triggered a few hours before the battle, when the Klingons nearly found it. This had weakened the outpost severely, and its hull integrity was down to 36%. Its shields, weapons and sensors were, however, still functioning.

What worried me most at the time were the two battle cruisers the Klingons had waiting for us. They would co-ordinate the battle, much like the battleships on our side, and they would put their great firepower to destructive use. I figured that if we were fast enough, we could surprise the Klingons and take out their battlecruisers before they could even fire a shot.

The fleet commander agreed with me, and ordered our two battle cruisers to focus their fire solely on their Klingon counterparts. The fast attack group -- among which, of course, was the Shadowfly -- was ordered to charge the four destroyer-type light cruisers the Klingons had waiting for us. We were not to attack the outpost on our first run and instead concentrate all our fire on the more manoeuvrable destroyers.

When the fleet commander gave the word, I ordered the Shadowfly into battle. The moment we dropped cloak, my tactical officer fired a series of torpedoes to maximise the damage to the enemy, while my helmsman sped at full impulse to our targets. We had fired an entire round of torpedoes and were halfway through our plasma beam batteries before the Klingons noticed that we were there -- apparently they hadn't been so prepared after all.

During the first fifteen seconds of the battle, we had already obliterated two Klingon destroyers and crippled one other. Our two battle cruisers had dealt with the Klingon battleships easily -- I could see the burning wreck of one of those cruisers as my helmsman came about for another pass, and for a moment I felt I could relax again.

All that changed, however, when two B'Rel class birds of prey decloaked directly in front of us and fired an impressive array of torpedoes and disruptor blasts at the fast attack portion of our fleet. The Shadowfly was damaged severely -- having taken the brunt of the attack, our shields were down and our life support was running at minimal power. I found myself on the floor of the Bridge as explosions and fires had their way with the consoles around me. My helmsman had fallen to the floor as well, and I crawled towards him, determined to help him back on his feet. But the light in his eyes had left him; he was dead.

I'll never forget how sick I suddenly felt at that moment. The look on his lifeless face was one of pain; he had broken his neck when he fell to the ground. I had the urge to run away and hide in the darkest corner I could find, to try to forget what had happened. But I couldn't. There was still a battle going on, and a mission to complete. The Shadowfly was certainly damaged, but not down for the count... Not by a long shot.

I jumped into the pilot's seat and practically willed the Shadowfly to move again. I got the engines to start, and flew us in an attack vector towards the nearest Klingon ship; it was a destroyer, with its shields still half intact. My weapons officer fired the Shadowfly's impressive arsenal of torpedoes at our enemy, after which I circled around, picking on the Klingon destroyer with our secondary phaser batteries. The Klingon moved to pursue, and sensors indicated that he was shunting auxiliary power to his weapons -- if he hit us, we wouldn't have survived. Fortunately for us, one of our battle cruisers interfered and blasted the Klingon ship to dust.

When I regained my bearings, I found that the outpost had been destroyed, as had all but one of the Klingon ship. The remaining vessel, one of the birds of prey, was frantically evading weapons fire, and was actually doing an impressive job at it. The ship managed to activate its warp engines and fled the battlefield. For a Klingon, such is a fate worse than death. I think the fleet commander meant to let him go, just to infuriate the Klingons.

All in all, our mission was a success. The Klingon fleet and outpost had been destroyed, and an invasion had been prevented. However, the damage to the Shadowfly is extensive, and we will require a few days of repair at the nearest starbase. I've lost good members of my crew, and the doctor says that three more crewmembers have injuries that might yet cost them their lives. As Commander of this vessel, it is difficult to deal with these losses. I am not looking forward to writing letters to the families of the deceased members of my crew.

I must say, however, that another death has shocked me even more on a personal level. The Klingons managed to destroy one of our ships during the battle; a scout, the RNS Firecrow. The Firecrow's first officer was subcommander Nellik... Tapan Nellik. He and I went through the Naval Academy together, and I'll never forget his jokes, his bravery, and most of all, his dedication. Tapan is... was... a unique officer, and an extra-ordinary person. I will miss him. It's funny... You never notice a person as much as when he's not coming back. I always took his presence and his jokes for granted... But in death, he is much more noticeably present than he was in life.

We have to win this war, and we have to win it soon. The Klingons, the Ferengi, and now the Federation... They're all against us now. I, for one, am going to do what I can to make sure this war ends in a Romulan victory... And if, in the meantime, I can have revenge for what the Klingons did to Tapan, so much the better.

Computer, end log.