The dark smoke filled room was silent save for the sparking of broken panels and ruptured heavy cabling hanging from the ceiling; red light could be seen through the thick smoke as a haze of light flashing on and off, the silent environment was suddenly breached by the whirring noise of a transporter re-materialization, bathing the smoke cloaked room with blue light, a striking contrast from the blinking red.

Six heavily armoured people finished materialisation and began scanning the room; the armour looked like a matte plastic and was reminiscent of knights in the 15th or 16th century, except the helmet it looked to be one complete plate of the black material. The first thing that struck Major Sakar as he materialised was the smoke, it seemed that the fire suppression control was offline; he nodded to the Andorian colour sergeant he had transported with the rifle company, he had split the force into three teams each having six men, he had himself and the first squad transported to the ops centre, the second squad to the armoury and the third squad to the main engineering section, razing a black armoured hand he tapped the Starfleet decal over his left pectoral

"This is the Major all teams report"

"Team two here sir, armoury is secure no life signs, no bodies and no weapons it seems that whatever happened the crew were armed" the voice was gruff and heavy

"Team three here sir, we have signs of a battle here sir, heavy plasma discharge detected phaser burns on the walls and there are choke points along the halls leading here sir, it looks like they were overrun"

"Intriguing, team two begin sweeps of the station, team three try to get the power back online myself and team one will head down to the main computer core"

"Captain Picard, we have secured our LZ's and are begging the investigation as ordered"

"Copied Major be careful, though the scanners show no life signs that doesn't mean there are none, the Jem'hadar have shown us one way our life sign scanners can be tricked"

"Aye sir"

He tapped the decal again ending communications though keeping a line to the ship open through the helmet cam's, looking to his left he saw his colour sergeant

"Peterson and Rodriguez you will stay here, as soon as the power is online I want you to download the sensor data and any logs pertaining to what happened here" he turned to the two in question then saluted "we are headed to the main computer core" he projected a holographic map of the station, and pointed to a room highlighted in orange "here, it's not far but it's one of the most heavily shielded rooms on this station, if there are any people alive here they would be there" one of the Jefferies tubes in red "this Jefferies tube leads directly from main engineering to the computer core, if my suspicions are correct the stand in engineering may have been a rouse to draw the enemy, whilst the survivors retreated to the security of the computer core"

"So it's like a panic room" said the soft voice of the Orion woman privet Briana

"Indeed, the core room has transport inhibiters, dampening fields, and the entire section is armoured with a foot of thick plates of pure refined Neutronium, it is by far the most secure place on the station".

"So survivors, if any would be there" said Cain the young Bajoran privet

Major Sakar nodded shutting down the projection,

"Move out" the four troopers made their way towards the closed door; taking out some small magnetic grips they attached them to each door panel, standard procedure was one trooper on each panel pulling with a third covering the slowly opening door, it was text book and done just as they had practiced a thousand times before in simulation and in action.

The corridor mirrored the opps centre smoke filled and barren the only sound was the foot prints of their feet as they cautiously made their way into the smoke. Suddenly the regular lighting clicked on and the hall was eliminated brightly, and the smoke was bled away.

A slight beep brought Sakar's attention

"Team one here" he spoke as Private Cain began to approach a corner cautiously he began to do what is known as slicing the pie, up and down movements with his phase pistol his heavy phase cannon magnetically strapped to his back

"Team two here sir we have found some bodies" he said a quiver in his voice "they have been mutilated and partly eaten" he paused for a second "it's a real mess down here, no evidence so far of what did this we are continuing our search"

"Team three here sir we have returned power to the station, and are beginning scans of the battle zone, but there is some kind of interference we are compensating now, we should have a full analysis in a few minutes"

"Acknowledged, team two proceed with caution team three get the analysis as soon as possible"

"Rodriguez to team one" came the voice of the young corporal

"Team one here report"

"Sir internal sensors are offline, short range communications are online and long range is off line, computer reads a fault in the system but cannot seem to get around it may be in the communications section itself, the logs and sensor data have been corrupted either on purpose by the crew or by whatever attacked"

"Weapons systems?" he asked

"Phase cannons power cells are depleted sir, and all two hundred and sixty six quantum torpedoes have been launched, main shields have been overloaded and the emitters have melted down, whatever happened here they put up one hell of a fight"

"Indeed" he stopped for a moment "keep me apprised of the situation and any new information report immediately"

"Aye, aye sir"

"Sakar to Enterprise"

"Enterprise here" came the voice of Captain Picard

"Sir is there any debris of unknown origins in the imitate vicinity"

There was a few seconds of pause

"No, there is no debris that we can detect Major, but the nebular is interfering with our sensors why"

"Sir according to the computer here the was a heavy battle here, so heavy it necessitated all the photon torpedoes and draining the power cells of all the phase cannons"

"Môn dieu" Picard whispered "Major get to the computer core double time, then get out of there"

"Aye sir" he tapped his communications decal again shutting down the comm. line "you heard him gentlemen and ladies double time"

(Enterprise)

Picard was slightly stunned and very worried; anything that could take the amount of firepower the station could give out would be a more than formidable opponent

"Mr Data are you sure that there is no debris out there"

"No sir I can't be sure" he said as he spun towards the captain "the background radiation is making scanning very difficult, and anything as small as debris would be near imposable to find"

"Near Mr Data but not absolute" he said rubbing his chin "that station threw everything at whatever attacked it, there must be debris, or something that indicates what attacked this station"

"There might be sir, but finding it would be like trying to find a man whispering amid a rock concert"

"Sir" came the voice of the sensor operator a young human female "were getting a strange sensor reading, it's at long range now but it is closing" she said turning to the captain her tactical screen showing a blip appearing and disappearing seemingly at random "its also fading in and out but it is on a direct coarse"

"Is it a comet or a rouge asteroid?"

"Unknown sir but it is quite large, over ten times the size of the station and moving at what looks like one quarter impulse, and we are unable to tell what its made of or its density"

"How large lieutenant?" came the astonished reply of the captain

"It could be a ship" interrupted Data

"Yes but whose" said the Captain only knowing a few local races that could build something that big "we are the only imperial ship in this sector, were too far away from Klingon territory, the Romulans don't go this far out, the Cardassians are rebuilding and need every ship to guard their borders"

"Sir" the young lieutenant looked at him looking for orders

"Computer" he spoke, it acknowledged with a bleep "Action Stations this is no drill" a steady loud alarm like a heart beat began to throb abler blinking lights changed to red and amber and blinked in time with each beat, the computerised female voice began to speak over the ships intercom

"Action Stations, Action Stations this is no drill all crews to man your ready stations" the voice repeated about five times before only the alarm and sirens were heard, a sudden whoosh the turbo lift doors opened and four marines in full armour and weapons stepped through taking positions guarding the doors so that they cover both sets of turbo lifts.

Data looked to the captain for a moment as if searching for an answer but knew better than to ask, but he didn't wait long for his answers

"Sir Station is sending the computer information now" Picard Nodded is mind fixated on the new mystery

"Mister Data" Picard had sat back down in his command chair securing himself with the belts "send a probe I have a bad feeling about this rouge asteroid" Data nodded

"Or comet sir" said Data as his hands danced across his panel

"Or comet Mister Data but one way or another we will know" Data nodded as he pushed the red button , the photon launcher in the dorsal section of the main body fired one missile like projectile several hundred meters striate up, it then reoriented itself and blasted off twenty degrees to port speeding away.

Picard waited his eyes fixed on the screen, he knew in a moment weather he was over reacting or weather his gut was right and there was something more out there.

He didn't have to wait long, as the static cleared the screen as filled with a ship of mammoth proportions, a leviathan of metal, but as the probe analysed the ship its power readings, its hull makeup and its design a familiar picture began to unfurl, and it was one of dread the dominion had returned.

All at once a grim scenario began to unwind in his mind.

"Communications, contact the away teams tell them to bug out now, Helm as soon as they are aboard take us into the densest part of the nebular"

"Sir are we abandoning the station?"

"Mister Data" said Picard turning to his first officer and pseudo son "we have no choice"

(On the station, a few minutes before probe launch)

The team approached the thick sealed doors of the main computer room.

"Cain" said the Major the man in question turned to his commander, the man nodded, he moved to the door control and tried the controls, and they bleeped unresponsively, Cain then grabbed his gagger and popped the door console, he then cut two of the controls cables and jammed them together, the doors popped open slightly.

"Grips" said Cain looking at Briana as he pulled a dick like device from his belt she mirrored him they attached one to each door the handle flipped up, as soon as it was secure they pulled with all there might, the Major threw a stun grenade as per protocol into the room and a second later it popped,

Unlike the deadly explosive grenade the stun grenade pops with a field of energy designed to temporarily interrupt the brain impulses, making a person sleep for a few hours.

The main computer room was huge, easily as large as a Galaxy class hanger bay having three leaves, the first level was below the door down a set of three steps, the level itself was bear and a table and chairs could be accessed from the floor panel, the second level could be accessed by steps on the far side of the room, the second level balcony over looked the door leaving a field of fire clear for defenders, the third and final level contained the computer room and main controls, the whole room was protected by transport inhibitors and shields making it almost imposable for the room to be breached

The team made their way to the main computer room Sakar had sent his men to sweep the room every level and every hidden nook and cranny

"Sakar to Enterprise" he spoke as he entered the main computer room and sat behind the control console his decal glowed awaiting the response from the ship

"Enterprise here" the decal blinked

"We have breached the computer room" he said as the last of his squad entered the room "prepare for the down load" he said as he reached the computer console and began to enter commands

"Excellent" the decal blinked before Sakar tapped it cutting the communication

The squad began their full search of the room

"Sir" shouted Cain "I've found them" something in his voice unsettled Sakar and it took a few seconds for his Vulcan will to stamp down on it, and as he approached the feeling seemed to increase.

Cain was in one of the second levels armoury and spoke as the team approached

"It looks like the wounded made it here" there were a few bodies two Human and one Vulcan they were dead they looked exsanguinated red and green blood mixed in the pools beneath their bodies. Sakar began to scan the bodies

"There wounds have been effected by some type of disrupter" he said as his scanner beeped "the energy has a type of anticoagulant effect, they were doomed as soon as they were hit even if they survived the initial blast"

"Team 3 to team 1"

"Sakar here"

"Sir we have finished the analysis of the weapons discharges"

"What have you found?"

"It was some type of layered dampening field" spoke the voice of Lieutenant Thompson "it was designed to give off a false reading"

"And the weapons"

"The readings are Dominion sir there back"

Suddenly there communications decals began to beep then a call came out

"Emergency, Emergency all teams Enterprise is declaring Emergency, fall back at once and prepare for emergency transport"

Sakar and his team ran back out of the door of the computer room and halted disappearing into a shower of sparkling lights.

(On the enterprise bridge)

The computer beeped showing the away teams back onboard "take us into the nebula" he turned to his helm officer a young Orion woman "run silent and run deep"

"Aye aye sir" replied the young officer as she keyed in the command.

The Enterprise turned gracefully its impulse engines glowing brightly as it moved turning hard to port almost rolling before she was engulfed in the glowing clouds, as the last of her nacelles were engulfed the titanic ship appeared firing its purple beams at the station destroying it.