• Published 31st Jul 2019
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Star Trek Online: Sacrifice - Part I - Admiral Wyatt Stone



When a new temporal threat emerges, there's only one mare who can halt her efforts. Little does she know, however, that there's more in store for her.

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Chapter 5: Prices to be Paid

"There will be time to grieve... This is not that time."

Costs.

What are you willing to give to give to win the day? How much? It depends on the situation, sometimes, you barely lose anything, and in other cases, you can lose everything. I gave up my innocence to kill the cruel, depraved raider ponies that hurt so many other ponies, I removed my memories to face and defeat the Goddess, and I gave up my life for those who wanted to start Equestria anew.

I lost so much in order to give to the people of the Wasteland, and now I had a lot more to lose if I wanted to stop J'ula… but was I willing to lose it all?

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Rarity walked up to Twilight as she levitated a PADD in her magic, a sad expression on her face as she spoke. "We managed to get about 7,000 people off the starbase, that's counting all aboard each of our ships, the Stratus, the Ticonderoga, and the Sebrova."

"How many people we're left on the station?" Twilight asked with a hint of worry.

"We.... lost 9,000 officers on that station." Rarity said as she tried not to break out into a sob.

I sat near Spike's seat, holding my hoof to my face as I took in Rarity's report, 9,000 lives were ended in that battle, all thanks to J'ula's attack on the starbase. There would've most likely been more had I not stopped the weapon, and after recent events, that device and its power was the least of my concerns.

Those ships must've been from other universes, the Enclave was destroyed when I hooked myself up to the S.P.P. back home, so how could they have gotten one of those things? Time travel, of course, travel back to when the Enclave was still active, take the ship and upgrade it if it wasn't capable of traversing the stars, and boom, one new asset to the massive fleet we saw at Laurentia. I wondered if the other ships were acquired the same way.

Standing up, I turned to Twilight and asked her, "Twilight, do you have any data regarding vessels from other universes? I think I need to gather more knowledge on what we're facing here."

Twilight gave a smile as she replied. "We've been involved in similar conflicts like that, I think Spike could help you with that." She looked to the small dragon as he got up, walking up to my side as he spoke.

"I'd be happy to, we might need to check them after what happened back there." As the two of us turned for the turbolift, the doors opened and Snowdrop appeared on the bridge. Her wound was healed, but her uniform would need some fixing. I trotted over to her and hugged her, my friend doing the same as I spoke to her.

"You're looking better." I said as we ceased the hug.

"Yeah, try telling that to my shirt." The Pegasus mare said with a small laugh, pointing to her shirt's damaged spot.

As the two of us chuckled for a bit, Snowdrop asked me, "Where are you off to?"

"I plan to gather some data on those ships, I think our new enemy is up to something big." I answered as my friend's eyes lit up.

"Oh, I think we can help with that!" She said before tapping on her combadge. "Snowdrop to Stratus, did our other team acquire any intel from the Lukara?"

"Affirmative, why do you ask?" Na'Zev said through the small device.

"Littlepip and I are planning to gather some research about J'ula's plans, and I thought you could help."

"Got it, we'll send everything we could get out of that ship. Notify us when you've finished. Stratus out."

As the badge shut off, Snowdrop joined the two of us as she told her escorts, "I'll be helping Littlepip with her research, will you accompany us?" The two officers nodded as they took positions behind us, all of us continuing on to the turbolift.

As we entered the turbolift and its doors shut, I turned to Snowdrop and asked, "I didn't know you sent two teams."

"Na'Zev felt that we should also gather any and all data regarding her mission, and with a situation like that, how could we afford to miss that?" My friend said as the turbolift made its way down to the nearby research lab, the five of us waiting as the turbolift shifted and moved in another direction.

(||||)

We arrived in the research lab two minutes after leaving the turbolift, it was a very bright room, in one area covered by a wall there was a large table that held several flasks and beakers, along with some filled ones held within the open sections of the wall. The other side of the room held a circular console that could display holographic images, the current image being one of an alien I couldn't remember the name of, though after asking Spike he told me it was a Hur'q creature, one of the stronger ones.

"We had just went through a conflict with them, it turns out that the Dominion were the ones that instigated them, they took away a fungus they fed on, and it caused them to go to various places in the galaxy to harvest from, the war nearly destroyed the Dominion." As I listened to him, my jaw dropped. The Dominion was one of the most powerful entities in the galaxy, and if the Hur'q could hurt them that badly, I was sure glad we weren't fighting them now.

I walked over to one of the four wall consoles and tapped several buttons before I saw what I was looking for. "The data's been sent, now we just have to analyze it."

"I'll check the ship designs." Snowdrop said as she moved to one of the other wall consoles.

"I've got the visual recordings." Spike said as he moved to the third console.

That left me with the auditory logs, and there we're quite a few of them. As we investigated the files, Spike and Snowdrop would occasionally take a look at the video files together, myself too focused into the logs to be curious. Many of the logs had some information that supported the idea I was looking for, but after several minutes of listening to them all, only one caught my ears.

"Asset Acquisition Log #824, Stardate 4511.6:

We have acquired two new operatives in our journey to Universe #2537, one was a member of a large group that was lead by the entity known as "The Goddess", he has been rescued from a dishonorable death at the hands of one of his enemies the people of this world know as the "Light Bringer". He has shown his gratefulness at our rescue and we have repaired his body using our gifts from the entity called "Na'kuhl". The other asset we've acquired has proven to be... reluctant to our indoctrination attempts. Though I could find one like him and send him back to his grave he has important qualities I require from him. I've placed a device on him that will ensure his obedience, another gift of the Na'kuhl, though they claim it was from another ally of theirs by the name of the Terran Empire. I hope he will serve well in our mission to destroy the puny Federation and reclaim our place in the Empire once and for all."

As I finished listening to the logs, I turned to Snowdrop and asked her, "Snowdrop, could you look at this?" My friend came up to the console, analyzing it before looking at me with a fearful expression.

"I think we've gotten enough information out of all of this, Pip. We should go and let Twilight know." Snowdrop said as Spike walked up to us.

"I've finished as well, there wasn't much I could get from the recordings, but there are exceptions."

"Good. We should head up there and let the crew know." I said to my friends as we made our trip back to the hallway that led to the turbolift.

As the doors closed in front of us, I turned to Snowdrop and asked her, "What did you find in the analysis?"

"They have more than what we saw, Littlepip. They've got several more ships like that star destroyer you saw earlier, as well as more Venomian warships. All together, they could conquer half of the Federation with their fleet." Snowdrop said as I looked on in shock.

I only said one thing as the lift took us to the bridge. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

---------

"So, J'ula intends to take over the Klingon Empire after her house was destroyed during a conflict with the other houses, and destroy the Alliance with her newfound army?" Applejack said as I answered her and the others.

"Sounds about right." The others pondered over how we were to take care of this problem. The crew of the Stratus beamed over when I asked for a meeting, we all talked about the increasing threat of J'ula, her origins, and her recent activities within other universes. The audio and video logs we recovered brought quite a bit of new intel to the table, J'ula was working with several powers in the various realities she traversed in, such as the First Order, the Venomian Empire, and even won the support of a small group of soldiers from the Grand Pegasus Enclave, and that Thunderhead wasn't the only ship they had at the ready, from what we know, J'ula has taken control of one of the few spheres we haven't secured yet. and has brought tech from the other universes to serve her needs, one of them being a station that can build any kind of ship using energy from a star!

As we all took in the news, we discussed our plan. Twilight was the first to begin. "So how do we go about stopping her?"

"Our fleet could help sabotage J'ula's efforts," Captain Na'Zev said before continuing, "But we'll need to make it hit and run attacks, going full force could give her the chance to surround us."

Twilight defended his argument. "Even worse, Admiral Stone can't help us right now, from what he said, he'd be busy with several simulations that would help him in understanding J'ula's tactics."

"That's makes us fewer in numbers." Rarity said as she hung her head low, lifting a cup of tea to her lips as she drank.

I thought for a moment, then had an idea. "What if we infiltrated the ship?" The rest of my friends and allies looked to me with confusion. I defended by stating, "J'ula has one operative who was forced to comply with her commands, perhaps he could be a possible ally for us?"

The others pondered the idea until Na'Zev nodded and spoke to me. "That is possible, when we scanned the Lukara, we detected several lifesigns in the ship's brig, I believe they could help us with stopping her."

Snowdrop then looked to me as she said, "Also Littlepip, we may need to do another intel run, when I was looking at the logs Spike was sharing with me, I noticed the Lukara placed beacons at every place they visited that wasn't in our universe. I have a feeling she has plans for those places later on."

"That sounds like a good idea, I can do that too." I then turned to Na'Zev as I continued. "And I could also try and access the consoles, I might be able to do some sabotage if I'm aboard. With this little bad boy here," I pointed to my MG Stealthbuck II as I lifted it out of my Pipleg. "They won't see me coming."

My friends considered this for a moment before they all nodded, Twilight being the one to speak on everyone's behalf. "I think we all agree, we should get the ship ready for battle as we pursue her. Na'Zev, do you know where they're heading?" The princess said as she turned to the Vulcan captain.

"From what our sensors say, she's heading straight for the Ganalda System, in Klingon territory."

"There are several ships in that system," Flash said as he looked to me. "We won't be fighting alone."

"Perfect! They'll have too much going on to keep focus on me once I'm aboard." I said as the two crews stood, looking at Twilight as she spoke.

"I believe our battle plan is set, beam Littlepip aboard the Lukara, and follow it wherever it goes until we get her back. Any objections?" The room was full of nodding heads as Twilight got her answer. Alright, let's get to our stations and prepare for one hell of a fight. Dismissed." With that, everyone made their way towards the two doors that led out of the meeting room.

As I followed, I made my way to Rarity before asking, "Rarity, I need to ask you something, can you teach me shield spells?"

The beautiful white unicorn with the dazzling purple mane and tail smiled as she replied. "Why of course, Darling, you need them for the mission?"

"Yep." I said as the two of us changed course and made our way towards the holodeck.

"Let's head this way, and I'll show you how it's done." Rarity said as I heard the Red Alert klaxon go off, the officers around us moving into a jog, the two of us dodging through them as we traveled through the hall.