SD 241507.24 POV Log - Livia Merteuil- OMEGA operative

Posted on 241707.25 @ 9:11pm by Fleet Admiral Cerywyn

Mission: https://starfleet.ucip.org/index.php/sim/missions/id/9
Location: Just another border hotspot
Timeline: SD 241707.24

Livia Merteuil stood staring out at nothingness. Compassion, empathy and goodness were traits that were alien to her and had long since been stripped from the remnants of her humanity. OMEGA had left nothing to chance this time. She was an exquisite masterpiece and so totally theirs that she had memory of nothing else. She was a force to be reckoned with and she'd been slipped into the right place at the right time. Amazing how much a man, a woman, a person would divulge in the guise of pillow talk. Livia took great pleasure in seducing others and corrupting them. There was little that she would not do to secure a position of power, no one that she would not destroy if they got in her way. Her spies, OMEGA's spies were scattered everywhere and as their chosen vessel at this junction, Livia Merteuil's reach was deep and wide and her fury cold and steely. She was a woman who was just as ruthless as she was seductive and she had a brain to match. It was a dangerous combination.

The doors to her office slid open and then closed. "What have I told you about bathing before you come in here, Malus?" There was sniveling behind her and she didn't have to turn to know he'd wiped his nose on the foul smelling tunic he wore. "Well, what is it?"

"There's been an incident" he babbled. She turned at that. "And?" she barked? "that means ...." Her eyes narrowed. "Spit it out Malus." He leaned forward as carefully as he dared and handed her the report. "We were slipping through the vector fold and crossed the path of a Federation ship, the USS Jarrod." She raised an eyebrow. "What's the problem? You all know that we leave no survivors, no trace . . ." she paused as the grubby man paled beneath layers of dirt. He cleared his throat and hoarsely whispered, "The ship was badly damaged but not destroyed. We were moving too quickly and were back into the vector fold before we could more than cripple them without leaving too much of presence behind."

"Has there been any sign of retaliatory action? Anything to indicate that the crippled ship could identify us?"

Malus shook his head "No. Those big ships you told us about showed up and some still patrol the area but the lead ship disappeared towing the badly crippled one."

Livia frowned and pulled up overlaying 'normal' space chart. "Those would be the Legion ships which means they'll be heading back here...." She glared at him " Did they give any indication that they noticed us?"

Malus shook his head " No and they were doing sensor sweeps and pretty thorough ones at that. Data has been sent to home base."

"That might be your only saving grace, Malus."

"Still, a damaged ship gets noticed. . . " Her eyes narrowed as she mentally made some calculations. "It's salvageable, but only just. See this dark space that belongs to no-one - set course and get us there. We can use the Gorn transponder signal to mask us further." She reached out quicker than Malus could move and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off of his feet, raising him to eye level. At 6'2" she was far taller than most women and quite a few men. Malus was a small man in more ways than one.

"Let's get one thing straight. There will be no more incidents because the moment that there is you will cease breathing." Malus swallowed hard, nodding quickly muttering hoarsely, "Understood."

She flung him in a heap towards the door. The doors started to open "Dispatch the piranha behind us. They have quite a bite and will deter anyone who might be curious. Now get out." The mines had a self sustaining cloaking mechanism that made them indispensable to OMEGA because they left nothing of themselves behind once detonated. They mightn't destroy completely but they'd leave a vessel crippled and limping...like a wounded animal ensnared. Her hands

The raids her ships had made so far had been simply to gauge what kind of response would be mustered. At first, there was none. The non-aligned worlds had, as expected, attempted to 'escort' their trade vessels and when that did not work they'd reached out to one another thinking there was safety in numbers. That hadn't worked. Then they'd reached out further and so far, the response had been tentative at best until recently. Things had become more interesting as repairs on Versailles were completed and the Border Defense Network brought up to full strength with the addition of the IXL ships.

The IXL had been born at the signing of the 240106.22 Federation treaty that had brought much needed peace to the Beta Quadrant. But, a treaty, like time, is always in flux and most recently the legion had become part of the Federation's border defense network whose headquarters were on SB Versailles and leadership of the border defense assigned to Admiral Korin. The only reason Livia was paying attention to them at all was that the IXL ships were a bit harder to hide from than Starfleet, Klingon, or Romulan ships or the outdated, under gunned non-aligned trade ships of the colonies and outposts along the border.

Over the last decade or so, the OMEGA had rebuilt their forces first from the remnants of Za'Kals little collective and then heir numbers had grown as people became disenchanted with this empire or that one, this government or that. Za'Kal had only ever been an operative, albeit a brilliant one but revenge clouded his judgment. Livia had risen through the ranks of OMEGA by using her brain as much as her body. A body, after all, was simply a tool at the mercy of the brain. It helped that OMEGA was all she'd ever known. She'd been the perfect blank slate – Za'Kal's indiscretion had become OMEGA's sword arm.

These recent raids along the border were OMEGA's way of testing a new method of masking the tetryon signature that could identify them as having 'subspace' properties. It wasn't perfect – obviously. Little ever was but scavenging from as many species and from various technologies had proven more promising than at any other time and the subspace 'stink' was far less than any other previous incursions. Combined with the amount of time that had elapsed between then and now, no one was really expecting OMEGA to resurface. They were nothing more than a historical note that Starfleet and the others thought they had defeated. The problem was the Federation couldn't give way to wonton destruction the way the OMEGA had done. OMEGA cared nothing for the sacrifices that had to be made but the Federation did. The Federation had scruples. OMEGA had none. Time dulled people's memory and that worked to OMEGA's advantage. They had watched, waited and built and time was fast approaching when once more they would be feared.