When the Warden Fell
Posted on Sun Oct 19th, 2025 @ 6:51pm by Commander Jenna Ramthorne
520 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
For Bajor!
Location: Bajor
The Nausicaan snarled as another coded message blinked unanswered across his console. Orders. Delays. Excuses. The Bajorans bickered, the humans stalled, and all the while the skies poured mercy on a world that did not deserve it.
He slammed a fist against the armrest and rose from his chair. Enough waiting. If the others were too weak to finish the job, he would finish it himself.
Moments later, his ship’s engines roared to life, a guttural growl that shook the docking clamps loose. The Nausicaan’s vessel tore from orbit, cutting a path toward Deep Space Nine like a thrown blade. He didn’t need stealth, only spectacle. Let them see him. Let them chase.
At the station’s perimeter, he swung the ship hard, veering back toward Bajor and climbing into the thin edge of orbit. One more target. One more order fulfilled.
His targeting array locked onto the Master Satellite Warden, the central node that kept the planet’s fragile weather grid alive. “Rain is mercy,” he muttered with a grin, echoing the creed he’d been paid to enforce. “And mercy ends today.”
He armed the ship’s cannons and fired. The first volley ripped through the Warden’s hull; the second detonated its power core. The explosion lit the darkness, scattering pieces of molten metal like sparks from a forge.
A flash. A blossom of light. The Warden shuddered, then fractured, its signal dying in a storm of static.
Then silence.
The Nausicaan exhaled, satisfied. “Let the skies starve again,” he rumbled, setting a new course for Ashalla. Beneath the capital waited the man who had promised him riches and purpose — Vekar Dane, the architect of famine and faith alike.
He bared his tusks in a grin.
“Time to collect.”
Mirror Coy’s dark eyes burned with barely restrained fury as she stepped close to the Nausicaan’s ship as it landed. “Are you completely daft? Do you understand what you’ve just done?” Her voice cut like a vibroblade through the hum of the engines. “Dane doesn’t pay for half-assed chaos. He pays for precision. And you...” she jabbed a finger at him, tusks flashing in the dim light, “...you’ve just handed him a reason to cut us loose and leave you floating in the void!”
The Nausicaan bristled, chest heaving, but Coy didn’t give him a chance to respond. “You think destroying the Master Warden proves strength? It proves stupidity. If Dane survives this intact, and he always does, he’ll see the mess you’ve made and we’ll see our pay vanish. Do you even care about the consequences?”
In the shadows, MU Bonnie leaned back, arms crossed, lips curled into a sneer. Silent, amused, but deadly, she watched the display, reveling in Coy’s controlled venom and the Nausicaan’s red-hot temper. She didn’t intervene; she didn’t need to. The storm between them was enough to scorch the hull and keep everyone on edge. “This is going to be messy,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. “And I live for messy.”
TBC
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