Personal Log: Ben Versteegt

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.

Categories: BOTF