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Operation: Son Tay, The Moabite Prisoner Rescue into Fluidic Space[]
"Someone Else could've done it better, Maybe someone else wouldn't have lost half the people we pulled out of that place. We weren't the best equipped, certainly. Hell, most of us really WERE just kids, we weren't the best prepared, we weren't the best trained or the best of the best. Someone else could've done it better, maybe Starfleet MACO-Delta or MACO-Epsilon could've done it with fewer losses and fewer mistakes, maybe Yan-Isleh could've done it and actually hurt the fucking tripods. We'll never know, because They Didn't do it, and we did."
-(Former) Staff Sgt. Geena Pak (2395-2412), Son Tay veteran, Moab Confederacy Defense Force Marine. (compiler's note: Staff Sgt. Pak committed suicide in 2412, after barely surviving two years as a civilian.)
"I still have nightmares about the pullout from the third level in that place. They-the guys who we had to leave, they could see us, but we ran out of time. I remember them calling to us, while we had to fall back to the Transporter point. I'll be haunted by that to the day I die. we were so fucking close, and we had to pull out..."
-(former)Staff Sgt. Judah Lees (interview by Starfleet Academy counselor, 2412) MCDF (Cadet Lees graduated Starfleet Academy in the third class of 2416 and is currently serving on the USS Melissa Travis, a Cerritos Class vessel in the science department.)
"What I remember from the rescue? do you really want to know? The Marine who got me out of the cell and moving, led me to the beamout point and protected me? she couldn't have been as old as my daughter. I remember her face, when the Undine counterattacked us at the beamout point, she just...froze up, and then, her head exploded, because one of them crushed it telekinetically, and I was materializing on a surplus Klingon transporter pad in a surplus bird of prey, with that little girl's brains all over my face, her blood all over me. that's what I remember most...god, I didn't even know her name..."
-Captain David Bryan, Federation Starfleet (Confidential Therapy notes, Starfleet Medical Review)
"Missy Travis, Kanril Eleya, and Ssharki's pet Psychopath Uminoe Kicur were the only reason we got twelve ships through the gate. The Undine had our number, they knew where we were going and they DEFINITELY knew who we were carrying there..."
-Colonel Peregrine Wahlberger, Moab Confederacy Defense Force (interview, 2416)
"It was a noble mistake, a grand stategic error...Noble, heroic, and ultimately pointless. The success was minor, the inconvenience to Species 8472's infiltration was survivable, and they did survive, though they lost a few of their deep cover agents, ultimately, all the Confederates really did, was get nearly three hundred prisoners, 500 Starfleet Crew, and nearly that many KDF officers and crew killed for a publicity stunt. A stunt that would lay impossible expectations on that sad band of rebels for the rest of their micro-nation's existence..."
-Zakdorn Strategic Analyst Yarim Limphok, {FNN Special Report)
The Situation:[]
Species 8472's penetrations of the Gorn Hegemony, portions of the Klingon Empire, and the government of the United Federation of Planets (specifically Starfleet) was still being publicly denied by Starfleet officials and the UFP nearly a decade into the Federation/Klingon war. It can be argued (and was successfully in the secessionist Moab Confederacy) that the grievances that motivated the Secession were, at least partly, the result of hostile infiltration (See: Starbase 24 incident).
Certain events during the Hromi Conflict suggested that Starfleet might be taking the threat seriously, which suggested in turn, that the Empire might have a path to winning the war by negotiating from a position of strength, as opposed past experiences in which the Klingon Empire only accepted peace talks after they started losing.
In order to secure their position as a sovereign state, the Moab Confederacy needed a robust show of strength, and a diplomatic peace offering to forestall the at that time seemingly inevitable Federation punitive expedition should peace occur. Secession under wartime and siding with the enemy is still, in most polite circles, default Treason, and the Moab Confederacy's activities during the war would not put them in a good position should Diplomacy sway the Klingons to withdraw their support-a possibility considered likely by the Moab Confederacy's leadership at the time.
The Plan[]
Klingon Intelligence operations working with the Yan-Isleh and Task Force Omega identified a possible Prison Camp configured to hold non-fluidic space aliens, including humanoids, being run in Fluidic Space by Species 8472 (aka "The Undine"). KI speculated that the fluidic aliens were holding hostages, possibly the persons replaced by their infiltrators, and pumping them for information to make the impersonations more perfect.
First Minister of the Confederacy, Governor Elizabeth Tran, working with her military and intelligence advisors, concocted a plan to stage a hostage rescue in Fluidic Space-specifically to retrieve captives of the Undine. Initially this was to shop them to the Empire, but General B'Sanos (2nd Fleet KDF) suggested a different objective-deliver the rescuees to Risa, where the Peace Talks were being held, and force the Federation Media and Government to confront what officials had been denying since the Gorn Conflict.
The MCDF took off in 24 reconditioned Birds of Prey on a six month mission to Gamma Orionis where a pathway into Fluidic Space had been identified. This was determined to be the best force they could physically achieve with the resources they had available.
Central to this, was that elements of Starfleet's G3 office (Tactics and Strategy) had also identified the target site, but analysis showed that the mission had too low a probability of success (mirroring the KDF's own analysis) with too high a probable loss rate (over fifty percent by KDF analysis, with the numbers being significantly higher according to Starfleet's analysts). The exact percentages between the analysts at Ty'Gokor and Livermore were within five percent plus or minus parity. Under neither doctrine was a mission likely to succeed, given the projected casualties of a successs, and the specific, cunning choice to exploit the site's structural weakness such that sufficient firepower would kill the hostages, while a lighter force would be annihilated.
24 modified Birds of Prey launched from Moab III, officially on 'joint training missions' as a KDF Tributary Reserve force supposedly going to conduct said exercises with KDF's 3rd Fleet under recently appointed General K'Ragh, son of D'ward, who replaced General K'ugh of House K'lek in typical Klingon Fashion.
Monitoring by Hromi sector command on Starbase K7 noted that the Birds of Prey did not arrive, or reappear for several months where various sources inside the Klingon Government had told Starfleet Intelligence they would appear.
Instead, some six months later, the remains of that task force reappeared, fleeing a veritable fleet of Undine ships, making hard for the Omega Force Gateway.
Outcome: Risa[]
Out of 24 Birds of Prey who left Moab, 14 made it to the Omega assembly area before Undine infiltrators attempted to stop them from escaping pursuit, resulting in a veritable shooting war right on the doorstep of TF Omega's conflict with the Borg. 2 of those Birds of Prey were damaged too severely to continue in the melee that followed, and only 12 made it through the transwarp gate for Risa in Federation Space.
Fifty percent losses. over 300 Starfleet personnel who nobody knew were even missing were brought to the Peace Talks on Risa.
Governor Elizabeth Tran walked into the conference escorted by her KDF liaison officer, and, taking advantage of the chaos, killed two Undine infiltrators with a modified projectile handgun after surrendering her Disruptor. Whereupon, she announced the delivery of several hundred victims of Undine abduction and replacement.
General B'Sanos, as the senior KDF negotiator for the talks, took advantage of this to at least temporarily secure recognition from the Federation for the Moab Confederacy. (this temporary state of affairs would later be reversed by court order in the UFP). The temporary Armistice froze the Hromi front where it was, and brought a pause that let both the Federation and Klingon Empires focus on wooing the Romulan Republic, while also opening the door to a summit between the President of the Federation (Annik Okeg) and the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire (J'mpok).
Longer Term Impacts:[]
This operation overshadowed the brilliant POW rescue at Cursa by Starfleet forces earlier in the Federation War. It also, on the political front, bought back some of the lost good-will from worlds in the Federation, including securing an abeyance of charges and temporary amnesty for the personnel who staged the rescue, signed by the President of the Federation itself, aand narrowly approved in the Federation Council.
Many of the rescued personnel had to be treated for the various traumas in their ordeal-not merely the traumas of their captivity, but for events they witnessed or experienced during the rescue operation itself.
The other impact was that the Undine, now no longer confident that doctrine would prevent a rescue attempt, moved their captives and dispersed or disposed of them, making any future attempts far less likely to succeed in such spectacular fashion.
Analysts may speculate that the mission had another unforeseen consequence-the disruption of operations and the sudden violence so close to Borg territory may have made it easier for the Borg to stage their short-lived invasion of Fluidic Space, contributing to some escalations of the conflict, including additional motivation for the Undine to move to open warfare in staging their attacks on Earth, and Qo'noS. (this can be debated as it is neither something verified, nor denied by the relevant parties.)
Critical Figures:
Janice O'Neill Qua(Later Colonel Qua)-former Starfleet Officer, Colonel, MCDF
Elizabeth Tran-Governor, Moab III/First Minister, Moab Confederacy
Saul Mokowitz: Commandant of the Corps, MCDF, Defense Minister, Moab
Cham Nguoc: Former Starfleet Captain, former Undine Prisoner, appointed Commandant of the Corps after Fek-Day
Stephen Alcott, Starfleet Admiral Hromi command (out of DS K-7)
Kanril Eleya, Starfleet Officer, Commanding Officer USS Kagoshima
Melissa Travis, Starfleet Officer, CO USS Nighthawk
B'Sanos, Klingon General, CO KDF 2nd Fleet (Regulars), promoted to the Nobility, Governor of the Hromi Sector as Klag's replacement.
Damojena 'D'Moj' Massaana: KDF Officer, Klingon Citizen, Orion
Vivian Lorus Gorton Kingsley III: Starfleet Admiral, G3 officer handling 'Unorthodox scenarios and strategic Planning' during the Klingon/Federation war.
Ngoc Trung, Coxswain/Chief Petty Officer: MCDF personnel, rejected application to Starfleet Academy on medical grounds. At Son Tay he was slated to enter an officer's training program at Ty'Gokor the following year.
primary sources:
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1107372/pear-shaped-story
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1239446/fanfiction-spiked/p1
(more coming)