Pouring through the massive amount of data that had gathered from the hidden base on the rogue planet the intelligence department have determined where the pirates have hidden their base. It is situated in a planetary nebula  deep in Cardassian space, it is a region of space that affects sensors so an entire fleet could be hiding within and no one would know. 

The USS Leyton, Eagle and IKS Mupwi’ assemble and enter the nebula together, the Mupwi’ scouts ahead and reports that half a dozen stolen and repurposed ships are docked with a Cardassian Nor Class starbase. Since none had been built in this region Pax and the Bridge crew reason that this station must have been removed from the records and towed here sometime during or after the Dominion War.

Pax is committed to taking the station and finding out more about this group’s activities, the defending ships shouldn’t pose much of a threat, the station however is armed to the teeth having been upgraded using the example of DS9. The USS Manticore is on route, but they are delayed by their current mission. The fight would have to begin with her, surging into the ‘clearing’ the station occupied, Engineering and Operations work together and find the command codes for the repurposed Oberth, they are able to drop the shields and disable them which would leave the small ship defenseless.

The Leyton and Eagle pull ahead of the WabiSabi and engage a large bird of prey, tag teaming it with hit and run attacks. The Wabi Sabi reaches out with her powerful Phaser Banks and strikes the Oberth and a smaller BoP, breaching the hulls and forcing them to break off their flanking attacks of the Leyton and Eagle. The Mupwi’ sweeps around and opens up on a pair of armed freighters, destroying one and crippling the second sending it spinning and adrift.

The two forces clashed, the witheringly immense firepower unleashed seemed to ripple and shake the very fabric of space time. The Station targeted the Leyton and Sabi, the crimson beams splashed across the shields of the two ships but failed to connect with their armored hulls. Both vessels replied with torpedoes but the Nors shields held firm, weathering the titanic release of energy.

Elli and Kogen worked the entire time to try and hack into the computers of the Nor, it was the biggest threat and needed to be dealt with quickly. It took long minutes that seemed like hours but the Wabi Sabi’ computers and communications arrays were 20 years more advanced and the cyber attack was somewhat of a surprise and a connection was made. In short order the station’s shields were lowered and the Sabi deployed her Marines across the station to capture it. The Klingon too boarded and the small elite forces from the Eagle and the Leyton beamed aboard also.

In a tense few minutes it took the attack force dealt with the remaining Pirate vessels and moved towards the station again. The ground units soon reported that they had taken the key areas of the station and that squads were now sweeping the station for loose ends. It quickly became clear that there was a mole in Starfleet, regular communications from Deep Space Nine. The Wabi Sabi’s computer crunched the data and was able to pull several important clues from the communications and other Station logs.

Enough evidence was gathered to point towards a Strat Ops officer by the name of LtCmdr Henry Hons, security forces on DS9 were quickly dispatched but were too late. Hons had stolen a Runabout, the Defiant had left on the chase but they lost the much smaller craft in the plasma fields of the badlands. A frustrating outcome for sure, one that would surely come back to bite them in the ass later!