Valley of the Fallen

Posted on Wed May 7th, 2025 @ 1:02am by Caeda & Endia

Mission: Historiae Terrae Et Imperii
Location: Alpha Onias III
Timeline: Date 2371-11-06 at 1430
2541 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

The engines of the powerful flagship of the Romulan Fleet spoiled down as they did when the ship dropped out of warp. Aeler Nairok knew that could only mean one thing. He stood from his desk in the office and started to return his beverage to the replicator.

It had been five hours since the man had ordered a change of course directly to his pilot. He hadn’t bothered to brief the whole ship, and the only officers who would be truly aware were those on the bridge who might choose to monitor such things. None, however, would know their destination.

It was moments before the shift change, and Savi Rydek, Sub-Commander of the R’Vandrix, was first to arrive. He made his way immediately over to his seat and picked up the log book that would give him all the information he would need about ships operations during the night.

“What on Tantar’s Peak is this?” He asked, his energetic voice cutting through the relative silence of the Bridge. He looked to the helm, starting to cross the distance. “Lieutenant, what is our location?”

“Alpha Onias III, Sub-Commander.” Saeihr replied from her station in an easy, informative voice that offered no more explanation. She adjusted how she was sitting slightly, pulling one of her legs back closer to her chair and hand. It was innocuous enough, a simple shifting to be more comfortable, but to her it was more. “As ordered. We are currently sitting under cloak.”

“As ordered by whom?” He asked, incredulous, shifting his own weight as he stood up taller and looked at the purple and orange marble of a world on the viewscreen. He frowned. “We’re 6 hours off our patrol, Lieutenant. I wasn’t informed of any course change.”

“Ordered by Commander Nairok, sir. Respectfully, you’ll have to take that up with him. I follow his orders.” She replied, though dipped her head in deference to the man as if in apology.

“Hmm. I know you do.” He said, his expression skeptical. “When did you receive these orders? Under what circumstances?”

The doors to the Bridge swished open and Aeler entered dressed in his crisp uniform. He observed the situation immediately.

“Sub-Commander. We will talk later. For now, helm, take us closer to the planet. Put us in orbit over the crash site.” Aeler said, sitting in the command chair and speaking in a tone that invited no disagreement or questions.

“Aye, sir.” Saeihr complied immediately, bringing their large ship in closer to the planet and the site of the massacre of the Terran marines. “Standard orbit achieved, Commander.”

“Transporter Room, be ready to receive an away team.” He said into the comms. “Saehir, Lieutenant Hlak. You’re with me.”

“Commander, I must insist you explain this.” The Sub-Commander said, exasperated but clearly intimidated.

“You can insist what you like. Later.” Aeler answered.

“But rumor indicated this planet is off limits to military personnel.”

“I don’t respond to rumor, but to orders. Are you aware of any standing order that forbids our entering this system?” Aeler asked.

Rydek hesitated, his lips standing open. After a moment, he lowered his head, wordless.

“You have command until my return. Hold orbit and keep watch.” Aeler commanded, and then made his way back to the turbolift.

Saeihr joined him near immediately after handing her station off to her second. She took a deep breath, centering herself and trying not to think about what she was going to find on the planet. She was deep into her cover, but at her heart, she was and always would be Terran. She ached for the loss of so many, but she knew she needed to maintain her focus.

The three of them, Nairok, the pilot, and the chief of security, headed down to the transporter room in the turbolift. They got several seconds of walking through the corridor before Hlak spoke to Saeihr as their commander walked ahead of this.

“What is this all about?” He asked under his breath.

“You’ve heard the rumors of what happened here.” She supplied, walking next to the man with her hands behind her back. “I assume we are going along to investigate the validity of the matter.”

“But with no orders coming in through comms and no information given from the Commander, this..” he paused in his hushed speech. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be doing this.”

“It isn’t our place to question this. We need to assist our commander in whatever he is doing - that is our duty. We can worry about anything else later. Besides, we shouldn’t make assumptions about his motives.” She pointed out, her tone understanding of his concerns but resolved in support of their commander.

“Okay, I see that’s what we’re doing.” Hlak said, sounding a bit dismissive but not bothering to counter her claim. Instead, he followed after Nairok up until the point the stepped into the transporter room. Once they were in and stepping up to the pad, Nairok turned to the two of them.

“It’s not clear to me what happened down on the surface a week ago, but I’ve done everything I can to find the answers conventionally. I keep hitting dead ends.” Aeler admitted. “Something deeper is going on, and for the sake of the Republic, I intend to poke my head in and take a look. I just need to know the two of you are with me, in for the truth and nothing but, no matter what we find.”

“Of course, Commander.” She nodded, facing Aeler, but her blue eyes shifted slowly over to their security chief, communicating her suspicion of him in silence, but obvious to her lover.

“Yes, sir.” Hlak said, his tone obedient, but nothing more. It didn’t take a psychologist to tell he was far from pleased with the arrangement, but he wasn’t going to make a big deal about it at this point. After all, he and just about everyone else on the ship felt that their commander was the future. “I will follow your orders as always.”

“Good. I don’t know what we’ll find down there, but I know I need bright, quick, discreet officers with me.” Aeler said. He turned to the transporter chief then. “Energize.”

They materialized in a valley of orange fields of grass. Above them were vibrant lavender skies. No structures graced their view, but streaks of blood and carnage ravaged the golden ground. In the air was the powerful stench of death. The bodies had been collected for the most part, but the filth that couldn’t be identified as being from one particular soldier or another remained, rotting in the open sun.

Aeler’s arm moved over his mouth and nose.

“Gods. It’s…it’s horrible.”

Saeihr looked around, her blue eyes wide. While she knew the numbers of the massacre, it had hardly prepared her for this. Tears sprung into her eyes, and she buried her face into her arm, gagging and trying not to be sick from both the visceral and emotional reaction. She could feel her heart breaking - so many Terran men and women senselessly slaughtered; she had to do everything in her power to see this made right.

Hlek, for his part, neither covered his face or gagged, but he did wince at the smell. His dull eyes surveyed the scene with interest, looking down to make sure he wasn’t standing in filth.

“The rumor is the Klingons took the Terrans completely by surprise. Air raids softened their defenses, and then they beamed in with bat’leths in hand…took those still left alive with overwhelming numbers. A blood bath, plain and simple.” He said, sounding almost like he wished he could have seen it himself.

“The question is…how did the Klingons know the who, where, and why that allowed them to completely destroy our allies.” Aeler said.

“Because someone told them, sir.” Hlak said without thinking, and then hesitated after the fact. “Or, perhaps I should say, some bad actor or double agent got the information for them.”

Saeihr looked over toward Hlak very quickly, then focused on straightening herself, pointedly not looking down at the viscera surrounding them. The way he said it made her wonder, but she didn’t want to jump to conclusions. “Perhaps… what are we looking for, Commander?”

“A sign..a clue. I have no more than that yet.” Aeler said, turning his eyes to the gathering of Klingon corpses rotting on the ground. “Let’s start with these..they’re the most complete remains.”

“Alright.” She agreed, resigned, and moved with the two men toward the fallen Klingons and the Terrans around them. Her people had fought valiantly; they had died like Terrans - as much as they could have in circumstances like this. Squatting down, she began to inspect the bodies as carefully as she could without touching them at first.

The Commander displayed the same care and caution Saeihr was showing, searching the bodies with a sense of reservation and respect, but Hlak took a more direct approach. He was the one to flop open one of the Klingon bodies and comment first.

“Interesting patches on these uniforms.”

Aeler left his own search to join his security chief. He looked at the swirl pattern indicated and from.

“I’ve seen it before. Do you recognize it, Saeihr?”

With the two men briefly distracted, Saeihr was able to remove the patch from one of the Klingons and slide it into her uniform. She had seen it seconds before Hlak, and when Aeler and gone to him it provided her the opportunity to take it unseen. She stood and moved over to them, looking down at the patch.

“It looks vaguely familiar, but I’m not sure.”

“Take one, Hlak. We’ll have to search for the insignia when we return.” Aeler said. “Perhaps it’s nothing, but it’s all we have so far.”

“What a fight this must have been.” Saeihr sighed and shook her head. “So typical for the Klingons though. I’ve never known a species to take so much pleasure in killing.”

“That’s true. And it was supposed to be a joint exercise, but no Romulans in sight.” Aeler said, and then something came to him. “We could assume a transport with Romulan troops was en route, yes? That would be easy to find out.”

“Yes, it should be.” Saeihr agreed thoughtfully. “If there was one and they didn’t arrive though, the question will be why and if there is a reason, is it actually true.”

“R’Vandrix to Commander Nairok.” Came the voice of Subcommander Rydek over the coms. “We may have a problem up here.”

“Subcommander, report.” Aeler said, furrowing his brow.

“The IRW S’Freyr just warped into the system. Vice Admiral Kitan asked for you directly. When I told her you were on the planet’s surface, she took her ship into orbit. I believe she’s planning on contacting you.”

Saeihr narrowed her eyes. The sub-commander could have alerted them before and had the party return to the ship, but undoubtedly he wanted them to be caught red-handed down here. She frowned and looked to Aeler, her brows lifting in question as to what he wanted to do.

“She can contact me in any way that she likes.” Aeler said, but then thought better of it. “On second thought, request the Admiral to join us here on the surface.”

It was a bold move to be sure, and Saeihr found herself drawing closer to the two men she had accompanied down to this gruesome graveyard of a place. It was suspicious that this woman and her ship had shown up here - especially so quickly. Were they watching the planet, or were they watching Aeler?

Several moments past in tense silence as the three of them seemed to wait amongst the lifelessness of the valley. After a few moments, their patience seemed increasingly ridiculous. Then, when the moment was pregnant, Green transporter beams brought in two forms.

The one on the right was tall, strong, and young with the pips of a centurion and the second was shorter with smooth skin and just a shock of gray in her hair to tell her age. The woman immediately covered her timeless face, but the taller man barely blinked.

“Admiral Kitan. I’m surprised to see you here.” Aeler said, looking a significant amount less disturbed than her, mostly from exposure.

“I could say the same to you, Commander Nairok.” Kitan said, forcing back a gag as she stepped off of some brain matter. “You’re going to have to explain your presence here.”

“And why is that, Admiral? I’m aware of no regulation or order which would prevent me from being here.” He asked, a challenge in his eyes.

“That’s hardly the point.” She responded. “You’ve taken the flagship hours away from its patrol. What happens if the Klingons attack?”

“Then we won’t be present to pull back from battle and retreat as your orders suggest we should.”

“Not my orders, Commander. High Command.” She cut back, some tension entering her voice. “As you know, I’ve always been in favor of engagement.”

Saeihr’s eyes moved between the two as they spoke and sniped at each other. Of course, she wanted to interject, but bringing unwanted attention to herself was too much of a risk. Instead, she looked over at the other officer who had beamed down with her. She had noticed his complete lack of reaction to what they had beamed down into, and she watched him quite carefully for anything else that might be of interest about him.

I know you’ve said that, ma’am. Whether it’s true or not, none can say. Certainly not me.” Aeler responded, looking to the soiled dirt beneath them. “This is a tragedy. The result of an act of violence from the Klingons. But I wonder if any on our side knew.”

“What are you suggesting, Commander?”

“Nothing, Admiral. I’m wondering.”

The Admiral frowned, more concerned than angry, and turned to the other two officers with Aeler.

“Lieutenants, return to your ship immediately. Commander Nairok will return to mine for a conversation.” She said.

Saeihr frowned, looking to the admiral but back to Nairok. Her loyalty was to him, and despite the differences in rank she waited on his command to depart with Hlek back to the ship. She didn’t betray her feelings, simply looked the part of the loyal officer.

“Go. I will return to the R’Vandrix after our conversation.” Aeler said, his chiseled body standing more erect and confident. “And if I don’t, you will know for sure that treachery is afoot.”

“There is nothing to worry about, I assure you.” The Admiral said, monotone.

“Aye, Commander.” There was an appropriate amount of reluctance in her voice then moved close to Hlek. The security officer tapped his badge and called for transport, and the two of them vanished in a shimmer of green.

OFF