Written by Stephen V. Cole.Converted to d20 Modern by Jonathan M. Thompson.

Edited by Jean Sexton

Additional material by Steven P. Petrick, MatthewFrancois, Ken Burnside, Gary Plana, and John Sickels.

Cover by Mark Evans.Illustrations by Alvin Belflower and Dale McKee.

Starship data by Aaron Hendricksand Matthew Francois.

Graphics by Ted Geibel, Adam Turner, and Stephen V. Cole.

G1 Gunboat deck plans by Nick Blank.

www.StarFleetGames.com/pdindex.shtml

Developers: Ken Burnside, Andrew Palmer, John Hall, Doug E. Lampert.Playtesters: Adam R. Thompson, Wanda Thompson, B.L. Sisemore,

Edward McBrayer, Christopher Helton, Mark Vorwerk, Richard A. Spake,Dave Walters, Michael Scott, Dale Davis, Chad Calkins.

Proofreaders: Nick Samaras, Kenneth Humpherys, with Ethan Dawe, Peter Miller.

Klingons PD20M is copyright © 2005, 2009 by Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.; all rights reserved. Printed in USA.Klingons PD20M is a product of the Star Fleet Universe. Publication Date 19 October 2009.

“d20 System” and the “d20 System” logo are trademarks of Wizards of theCoast, Inc. and are used according to the terms of the d20 System Licenseversion 5.0. A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.

Elements of the Star Fleet Universe are the property of Paramount Pictures Corporation and are used with their permission.

The Imperial Race in the Star Fleet Universe

TABLE OF CONTENTSKopec’s Duty .................................................................. 2Overview ...................................................................... 11Biology ......................................................................... 12History .......................................................................... 12Politics .......................................................................... 16The Imperial Line ......................................................... 19Society ......................................................................... 21Justice .......................................................................... 27Planetary Surveys ........................................................ 33

Military Forces .............................................................. 68Rank Insignia ............................................................... 70Starting Occupations .................................................... 80Armory .......................................................................... 85Warships ...................................................................... 91G1 Gunboat Deck Plans ............................................ 119Visions of Duty ........................................................... 129Verlix Station .............................................................. 132Lieutenant-Governor Karek’s Duty ............................. 138Publisher’s Information .............................................. 145

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KOPEC’S DUTY 2 KLINGONS PD20M

The battle alarm woke Lieutenant Kopec from his rest-less sleep. Instantly awake, he swung out of his bunk andthrust his feet through the legs of his duty uniform and intohis boots even as his eyes flashed to the display on thewall of his quarters. The display told the story — an enemyship was in the area and the watch officer had called theship’s company to combat stations.

A quick glance across the compartment showed thatLieutenant Kelshenk was not present. Kopec rememberedhis roommate being on the third watch in Engineering. Bythe time his mind had processed all of this, Kopec waspulling on his shirt and reaching for his officer’s sash. Evenin an alert, officers must properly present themselves be-fore the crew. There was respect, and morale, to keep up.

Exiting his quarters, Kopec noted two other officers inthe corridor, one headed aft toward the shuttle bay, theother already diving into the gravity tube to the next deckdown. Kopec followed him, knowing that it had to be Lieu-tenant Kolarn who was in charge of the starboard phasercompartment. Kopec exited the gravity tube hard onKolarn’s heels and turned in the opposite direction, head-ing for the port phasers.

Arriving at his duty station, Kopec noted the SlirdarianMarine guard posted outside the open hatch. That armoreddoor was closed most of the time, but had been opened bythe watch crew to allow the rest of the crew to reach theirbattle stations. The hulking Marine snapped to attentionas Kopec ran past him, slapping the stock of his disruptorrifle. Kopec noted that the bayonet was fixed to the muzzle,something done only when the ship was at combat sta-tions. Kopec had been on the Pitiless for three years now,and had climbed his way up to a prized post in commandof three of the ship’s phasers. He had eight crewmen work-ing for him, two or three of them being on duty at any giventime. But this was combat stations, and everyone wouldbe here.

They had better be. His crew held the record for get-ting their station manned, and he wouldn’t give that up.

He entered the compartment and turned right towardhis station, scanning the seats as he entered. Two of thegunners were already strapped in, as was one of the tech-nicians and Bakten, the petty officer who was the seniorgunner. Kopec’s quarters were closer to the compartmentthan any of his other crewmen, and he knew they would allbe here in another ten seconds. Bakten looked up at himas he sat down and reported: “Enemy ship is a Federationlight cruiser, 53 kilikams away, on the starboard bow. Notargets as yet.” This was as it should be. The watch officerhad called combat stations in plenty of time.

“Very well,” Kopec responded, adjusting his panel toshow the overall situation on his main screen. He felt, ratherthan heard, Slishpok, his technical petty officer, flop intothe seat to his left. Hilidarians, being large quadrupedallizards, always spun the standard-issue combat chairsaround backwards, pushed them forward against the stops,and laid on them rather than sat in them.

Folik-ten, the Cromarg technician for the #6 waistphaser, was already briefing Slishpok, as Kopec knew hewould. Folik-ten had been on duty this shift, and was oc-cupying the technical petty officer’s station before the alarmsounded. Kopec didn’t waste time thinking about it, but heinstinctively knew that once Bakten had determined thedistance to the enemy was far enough to not be an imme-diate threat, Folik-ten had abandoned the petty officer’sstation and moved to his own chair and strapped in.

Folik-ten’s briefing was short, but loud and clearenough for everyone to hear. “Capacitors full. Numberseven on backup gyros. Alert to twitch on number four cool-ing readout.” Everyone absorbed the information. Withcapacitors full, the phasers could be fired instantly. Thegyro on the #7 waist phaser had burned out yesterday andwas still waiting on replacement, but with the backup andreserve gyros available it was unlikely to be an issue. Thecooling system on the #4 wing phaser was stable but thesensors that reported its status were balky and oftenshowed a problem that didn’t exist.

Kopec only grunted when Bakten tapped him on thearm and handed him a phaser pistol. The small weapon,less powerful than the disruptor pistols carried on plan-etary landing missions, was intended to provide Kopec witha last measure of control over the crew in his compart-ment. Only he and Bakten had such weapons, althoughseveral more were locked in a safe below and betweentheir stations.

Moktar, the last of the gunners, arrived wet and out ofbreath but in proper uniform; obviously he had been in theshowers when the alarm sounded. There will be time tomake sport of this later, Kopec thought to himself. Kopecnow had all four of his Klingon gunners in position, and thelast two technicians, a Dunkar named Sporl and anotherCromarg, Devik-zan, scrambled into the compartment onlyseconds later. Kopec wondered for a split second why theMarine guard had not closed the hatch when he remem-bered that Cadet Kvin had been assigned to the compart-ment for this cycle. The cadet must at least be in sightrunning up the corridor or the Marine would have sealedthem in by now. Kvin was a good boy but so very young,four years Kopec’s junior. The cadet was in his final year

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KLINGONS PD20M 3 KOPEC’S DUTY

at the academy and making his cadet cruise on a realwarship. Well, he would get more than he had hoped forwhen he left Klinshai. As expected, Kvin arrived in a flus-tered state of agitation and barely got through the hatchbefore the Slirdarian Marine slammed it shut. Kopec couldimagine the mirth that the Slirdarian, and everyone else,had felt at the cadet’s expense. Time for that later. Kopecnodded as Bakten asked whether to give the cadet a phaserpistol; keeping track of it would give the cadet somethingto do as he had no station in the compartment, but wasjust here to learn.

Kopec watched the enemy in his situation display, andnoted that the cruiser was not approaching but had turnedto maintain a parallel course outside of weapons range.

“Typical,” Kopec muttered to himself. A Klingon shipapproaching a Federation cruiser over a Klingon planetwould have attacked immediately. But the Federation al-ways gave the Klingons a chance to withdraw. That wasn’tgoing to happen. Pitiless was orbiting the Federation colonyplanet for a reason and the mission parameters did notindicate withdrawal when the first responding starship ap-peared. Sometimes they did, when the Klingons were justharassing the Federation or testing their reactions, butKopec had been briefed that the ship’s mission called for itto locate something on the planet and send the Marinesdown to retrieve it. The scanner crews must still be tryingto locate it, whatever “it” was. Kopec had not been briefedon that part of the mission and had not asked.

A check of the panels showed that no Marines wereon the planet, and that nothing else was in the systemexcept the Pitiless and the Federation cruiser. The cruiserwas one of the old Province-class ships, and no match forthe Klingon battlecruiser. Perhaps it was waiting for an-other ship to arrive? That would complicate things, Kopecestimated, putting a time limit on how long the ship wouldhave for its mission, as once two cruisers were present,Pitiless would have to withdraw. Worse, it would be diffi-cult to land troops with an enemy warship, even an inferiorone, present in the system. Kopec mentally flipped throughthe options and came to the inevitable conclusion just asthe captain turned the ship toward the enemy and flashedthe “imminent action” message throughout the ship. Thesolution was obvious. The enemy ship must be forced towithdraw immediately so Pitiless could complete its mis-sion before any more Federation ships appeared.

“Caution, Gunner Grillik,” Sporl said in a calm but clearvoice to the Klingon gunner beside him. “If you use thepain switch again, the officer may think you enjoy it.” Thecompartment erupted in a brief spasm of laughter. Grillikhad been on duty for several hours and was showing fa-tigue, and had pressed his hand on the electric stud on hispanel that shot pain through his body to keep him alert.Many Klingons, and a few of the Subject Races, madeuse of such devices, but Grillik had used his pain stud threetimes since Kopec had arrived, and the lieutenant made anote to check the log and find the reason why Grillik wasso tired. With a full night’s sleep, he should have beenable to remain alert for an entire shift.

Kopec watched the readout on the situation monitor.

The Federation ship was still on the starboard bow andthe captain apparently intended to engage on that side.The approach looked like a standard one, intending to putthe Federation ship at the desired combat range and atexactly sixty degrees to the right of the bow, where both ofthe starboard waist phasers could be added to the initialsalvo. That would give Kopec only one phaser to fire, the#4 wing phaser, aiming across the ship and under the com-mand boom to get in its shot. The #6 and #7 phaserswouldn’t have a target, at least not on the first pass, butwould have to remain on alert.

Kopec shot a glance at Bakten, noting that his boardwas already prioritized for the #6 and #7 phasers. That leftKopec to supervise Gunner Grillik on the #4 wing phaser.A press of a button brought Grillik’s gunnery screen ontothe main panel on Kopec’s station. This sent the situationscreen to the right-hand secondary panel. Grillik was hisbest gunner, and Kopec noted that he was tracking thetarget and calculating a solution despite his fatigue.

The range was continuing to close, and Kopec noteda drone missile launch indicator on the situation panel. Itwas, of course, from his own ship and he ignored it.

Checking weapon status on the left-hand panel, Kopecnoted that the disruptors were overloaded. The captain wasgoing for an all-out attack, and wouldn’t fire before reach-ing a range of eight kilikams. The readout on that panelalso noted that one of the shuttlecraft was loaded with mis-siles and ready for launch. As the missiles were only ca-pable of Warp 2.7, the captain would not launch this scat-ter-shuttle until the range was much closer and the Fed-eration ship was committed to a closing course.

He had half expected to see the Federation ship turnand run, but it had maneuvered to face the Pitiless head-on. It was going very slowly, obviously pumping the powerfrom its warp engines into its forward shield to block thecoming Klingon barrage. A Federation ship of this classhad only half of the firepower of the Pitiless, and was try-ing to even the odds at the cost of the tactical initiative.

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KOPEC’S DUTY 4 KLINGONS PD20M

The Pitiless continued to close, moving to the left ofthe Federation cruiser. As the range continued to drop,Kopec anticipated the command to fire, but the rangeclicked below 8 kilikams and continued to wind down to 7,then 6. Finally, at 5.83 kilikams, the Bridge overrode thefiring controls and fired seven phasers and four disruptorsin a massive volley, using the targeting data input by eachgunner. Kopec was honored to see his phaser was one ofthose which struck the target, knowing that this would benoted in his service record. The Klingon barrage hadcrushed the reinforced shield of the Federation ship andhad caused some internal damage.

The Federation ship returned fire a split-second later,its volley knocking down the facing shield. This was unex-pectedly good shooting, and while damage was only trivial(the shield would be repaired quickly enough) the Federa-tion ship showed surprising audacity. The situation panelon Kopec’s screen showed transporter signatures just asKopec felt the tingle of a transporter field and watched theshimmer as Federation Marines materialized in front of hisstation. He scrambled for the phaser on his belt as a gre-nade exploded somewhere to his right and a phaser blasttore into the panel in front of him. Ducking instinctively, hecame back up with his phaser ready and shot a Marinewho was fumbling with a grenade. Kopec ducked again,anticipating the explosion, and his brain had time to pro-cess that if the enemy was using grenades inside the smallarmored compartment, they must be harmless flash-banggrenades intended to startle and frighten, not injure. Kopecmoved to his left, scrambling across the body of the Hili-darian technician, and came back up to fire only to find allof the Federation Marines laying on the deck. Cadet Kvinwas leaning against the aft bulkhead, his arms extendedin an isocelese triangle with the small hand phaser ex-tended fully before him. Kopec assumed that the cadethad frozen, but Moktar corrected this impression by prais-ing the cadet for his expert shooting. “He got three of them,Lieutenant. You got one and when the grenade he droppedwent off, Sporl and Devik-zan wrestled the other one tothe floor.” Kopec wondered for a moment why the Federa-tion ship did not retrieve its boarding party, but quickly ig-nored the question.

“Bakten,” Lieutenant Kopec turned to make sure hisgunnery petty officer was all right, “situation?”

“Enemy ship is fleeing,” Bakten reported.“Very well,” Kopec responded. “Status, everyone.”“Technical Master, active,” Slishpok reported.“Phaser 4 Gunner, active,” Grillik reported.“Phaser 6 Gunner, active,” Moktar reported.“Phaser 7 Gunner is a casualty,” Kvin reported. “I am

taking his station.” Kopec flashed a confirmatory hand sig-nal as the roll call continued.

“Phaser 4 Technician, I am unhurt but off station,” Sporlresponded, looking at Kopec with the obvious question.Kopec made a circular motion with his hand, indicatingthat Sporl was to continue securing the prisoners.

“Phaser 6 Technician, active,” Folik-ten reported.“Phaser 7 Technician, unhurt but off station,” Devik-

zan reported. He had secured two prisoners with the plas-

tic wrist restraints kept ready in case a crewmen mutinied,and was attending to the injured gunner with the medicalkit. “He’s hurt bad,” Devik added. This technically violatedthe roll-call protocol, but as Devik was last in line, he knewhe could get away with it and that the officer would want toknow the status of a wounded Klingon.

“Watch the systems, Slishpok,” Kopec commanded,knowing that the Hilidarian could be counted on to backup the two gunners who did not have the current assis-tance of their technicians. He had returned to his own sta-tion, only to find the panel largely inoperable due to thephaser blast. He looked over Bakten’s shoulder at the situ-ation panel and realized that the Federation ship was longgone and the Pitiless was turning back toward the planet.

“Sporl, prisoner status?”“Two dead, two unconscious, one waking up. All five

are secured. I have a situation,” the Dunkar responded,the last phrase indicating an important but complex matterneeding the attention of his officer. Kopec motioned him tocontinue. “The enemy Marines brought a bomb with them.The primary timer is not active, but the secondary has 30seconds to run. Emergency beacon attached.”

Kopec reached for his intercom switch, but it wasn’tfunctional. Slishpok was ahead of him. “Engineering, emer-gency jettison of munitions, transporter code 3214. Urgent.”Seconds ticked by before the tingle of a transporter markedthe disappearance of the bomb. The Marines had appar-ently set the secondary fuze before transporting over justin case they were all killed. This was, of course, their stan-dard doctrine, just as the crew of the Pitiless were trainedto quickly search any area where enemy forces had beenon the ship and locate the bomb they inevitably left be-hind. Even a few pounds of high explosive would havebeen enough to clean out the compartment and kill all ofthem.

“Bridge has asked for our status,” Bakten reported.“Tell them,” Kopec responded, his pulse steadying. He

had not realized how fast his heart had raced during theboarding action and the disposal of the bomb.

“I already did,” Bakten replied, “but security wants tohear it from the officer on station.”

Moving to Slishpok’s station, Kopec keyed the inter-com. “This is Kopec. Port phaser battery secure. We haveone casualty and three wounded prisoners.” Nothing moreneeded to be said. The security station had equipment toverify his voice, and would know to send a detail to collectthe prisoners and interrogate them, although it was doubt-ful that they knew anything beyond the rumors that flewaround any ship on the edge of a battle. The security de-tail would, eventually, arrange for the removal of the en-emy bodies. Auxiliary Control had already been notified oftheir own casualties by Slishpok, and would send a medi-cal team to take the casualty to sick bay and a repair teamto fix his panel. Bakten offered to vacate his seat, but Kopecmotioned him to stay in place and sat back in his own chair.It had been a short battle, but an intense one, and thesituation monitor (easily visible from his seat) would alerthim if another enemy ship appeared. Checking the chro-nometer, about the only thing of any use still working on

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KLINGONS PD20M 5 KOPEC’S DUTY

his panel, Lieutenant Kopec noted that he had been awakefor less than ten minutes.

“Lieutenant Kopec,” came a voice from the intercom.“The captain wants you on the Bridge immediately. Turnover your station to the senior crewman.” Kopec acknowl-edged with one word and waved to Bakten as he left hisseat. If his station had been functional, he might have al-lowed the cadet to sit there in nominal “command” of thecompartment, counting on Bakten to keep anything stupidfrom happening. But there was no point in having the ca-det sit at a useless station, and besides, the boy seemedquite happy to be sitting at a live gunnery console scan-ning for targets. Kopec made a note to speak with the ca-det later, perhaps over a meal, and explain all of this tohim, to let him know that denying him the opportunity for auseless honor was no insult. The cadet had done well and,perhaps, had saved all of their lives. If he had the nervesto be steady on the trigger with an enemy Marine squadstanding two meters away, he could learn the technologythat would make him a fine officer someday.

Kopec moved to the hatch, keying the lock that wouldallow it to open. The Slirdarian Marine opened the hatchfrom the outside, and Kopec headed down the corridor ata brisk walk.

The captain’s order had been to report immediately,but was not noted as an emergency, and it would upsetthe crew to see an officer running down the corridor. Theymight think another combat emergency was underway.Kopec nodded to the medical and repair crews as hepassed them, and allowed himself to wonder what this wasall about. He had done nothing to deserve censure, and ifhe was to be praised, it would have come over the inter-com. He proceeded to the turbolift and took a car to theboom section, reporting to the Bridge in just over a minute.

The compartment was filled with officers and was alivewith energy. The captain noted the entry of Kopec and thecompartment fell silent when he began speaking.

“Lieutenant Kopec,” the captain began, “Marine Cap-tain Korgol was a casualty in the recent boarding action.You are to take command of the Marine detachment andexecute a raid on the surface of the planet.”

Kopec nodded and remained silent, knowing that thecaptain would brief him as soon as he had mentally shiftedto this new assignment. He did not even wonder what shapeKorgal was in; it wasn’t relevant. Kopec had spent two toursin the ship’s Marine detachment, one as an ensign and thesecond as a junior lieutenant. While every naval officer onthe Pitiless also held a commission in the Marines, Kopechad been promoted to first lieutenant (one step below hisnaval rank) during his Marine second tour and was theobvious choice to replace the Marine commander shouldhe be eliminated. There was no need for a formal orderdesignating him as the one in line to take the job; everyofficer on the ship already knew it.

“The mission is to raid the Federation defense com-mand installation on the planet and recover their computerdata files. These will demonstrate to the Organians thatthe colony is not thriving and that the Federation is main-taining it only as an intelligence post in the Neutral Zone.

With their own information to use against them, we canforce them to give up the planet under the treaty.”

“Has a battle order been written for this raid?” Kopecasked. If so, he could just use it; if not, he would have totake time to study the situation and write one.

“Captain Korgal had just completed the plan when thebattle began,” the captain responded. “I have approvedhis plan. You will execute it. Report to the Marine stagingarea and be prepared to deploy immediately upon my or-der. Do you have any questions?” The captain tossed acombat tricorder to Kopec, already open to the plan.

“No questions, Sir!” Kopec responded, turning to leaveonly when the captain waved a dismissal and returned tohis other duties. Kopec stepped back into the turbolift carand keyed it to take him to the large compartment in therear hull that provided space for four large transportersand enough room for an entire company of 50 Marines toorganize for battle. He scanned the plan while the car rock-eted to the rear of the ship, and found nothing overly com-plex or out of place. It was a fairly standard plan and couldbe executed by any officer, even the new ensign he knewwas with the Marines. But the plan would go wrong oncethe shooting started, and it was obvious that only some-one with battle experience could adapt and overcome.

As he entered the compartment, the senior sergeantcalled out “Attention on deck!” and the entire Marine con-tingent of the Pitiless snapped into formation with an au-dible “crack.” The naval ensign assigned as the executiveofficer of the unit turned to face Kopec and saluted, an-nouncing “Company formed and ready for action, Sir!”

“Very well,” Kopec responded, studying the troops ar-rayed before him. Some of these troops, and most of thesergeants, had been part of the contingent the last time heserved as its executive officer, less than a year ago.

“Do we have a deployment time from the Bridge?”“Six minutes,” replied the ensign, checking the chro-

nometer on the arm of his combat armor.“Very well,” Kopec replied. “Sergeants have four min-

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KOPEC’S DUTY 6 KLINGONS PD20M

utes to complete preparations. Carry on.” Kopec felt a touchon his arm and turned to face a diminutive Klingon, hisarms loaded with combat armor and field equipment.

“I got your equipment out of storage,” Technician Kopussaid with a subservient smile. “I even found the disruptorcarbine you carried when last with us.” Kopec smiled inreturn. Kopus was a Klingon but not a warrior, as the whitedisk on his rank insignia betrayed, but Kopus was the bestarmorer that Kopec had ever met, and the other Klingonstreated him as something of a pet, an endearing youngerbrother who was never going to be “one of them” but whowas accepted rather than tolerated because of his skills.He had come onto Pitiless six years ago when the entireMarine detachment had been replaced, and the Klingonofficers had warmed to him even if he was little better thanone of the Subject Races — and in some ways worse.Kopec knew that Kopus would have all of his equipmentready, adjusted to his size and rigged as the Lieutenantwas known to prefer it. Reaching into his memory for justthe right way to thank the man, Kopec asked how his sonwas doing at the university and tuned out the reply beyondhearing that the younger Kopus was doing well. Kopus theelder helped Kopec get into his armor, and was pleasantlysurprised when Kopus produced an open combat rationand encouraged the Lieutenant to eat something beforecombat. Kopec had not even realized that he was hungry.

Turning back to his troops, Kopec reviewed the planin his mind and mentally checked off the required elements.There was an ESS sergeant standing only a few metersaway who would serve as his bodyguard through the mis-sion. Three computer technicians, one of them a Cromarg,were ready to accompany the raid. Two medics werepresent, their own weapons holstered as they strappedmedical packets to their combat harnesses. The seniorsergeant was a tough old Klingon with more than forty land-ing missions noted on his uniform by the appropriatebadges. The training sergeant was also a Klingon, ofcourse, and was adjusting a combat tricorder, his ownweapons slung over his back. The young ensign was look-ing nervous; this would be his first action. The platoon ser-geants, a Dunkar, a Slirdarian, and a Klingon, were all bark-ing orders at their troops as the junior sergeants tried toresolve any final problems.

Off to one side stood ten commandos, special forcestroops not actually a part of the unit but assigned to thePitiless just before the mission. Their leader was a Klin-gon, but most of the troops were Hilidarians or Zoolies.The Slirdarians of the regular Marine unit glared across atthem as they finished their preparations.

Another cluster of newcomers were the two sectionsof heavy rocket launcher crews and the one section ofcombat engineers. All of these had come on board justbefore Pitiless had set out on this mission from Battle Sta-tion Zeral-Four, and most of them were Cromargs. Theygot along well with the regular Marines and the Hilidariancommandos, seemingly unaware of the intense rivalrybetween the lizards and the bear-apes.

A handful of supply personnel and armorers bustledaround the compartment handing out food packets, am-

munition, and even replacements for weapons that failedtheir final checks. These people, mostly Dunkars, wouldnot be going on the mission, of course, but were neededjust the same. Kopec knew that the battle could only bewon on the ground, but it could be lost right here if thetroops were not properly prepared or equipped.

“Two minutes,” advised the ensign, and Kopec notedthat the sergeants had their troops in combat landinggroups and the non-combat supply personnel andtechnicans were being herded out of the compartment.

Kopec called the Bridge and spoke to the executiveofficer. “Ready” was the only word Kopec had to speak.

“Acknowledged,” was the only reply from the Bridge,followed moments later by the voice of the captain.

“Execute One. Fight well.”In accordance with the plan, the special forces unit

and the Third Platoon, already on the transporters, weresent to the planet’s surface. The special forces would at-tack one of the weapon stations while the Marine platoon,with the young ensign and a medic in tow, would attackthe shuttle landing field. Both of these raids were diver-sions intended to show the Federation what it expected tosee, infrastructure attacks intended to reduce the colony’sability to function and defend itself. Capturing the shuttlelanding field would also momentarily convince the Fed-eration that more Klingon troops were due to arrive byshuttle, even if the imaginary reinforcements hardly neededthe shuttle landing field to land their shuttles.

Kopec knew that as soon as the first troops were down,the ship would fire its main batteries to rupture the shieldsof the command facility, and once that happened, his mainattack would begin.

The captain’s voice crackled in Lieutenant Kopec’s ear.“Execute Two. Attack swiftly.”

Kopec waved the Second Platoon and the heavy weap-ons unit onto the transporter. They would land outside ofthe enemy command structure and attack through the cargodoors, heading for the power generators in the basement.

“Execute Three. Achieve success,” came the voice ofthe captain.

Kopec led the headquarters unit onto the transporterpad. This included his ESS bodyguard, the first sergeantand training sergeant, the combat engineers, the computertechnicians, a squad borrowed from Second Platoon, andone of the medics. The Second Platoon’s other two squadstook the transporters to either side of him. All went intocombat posture, individuals crouching and their weaponstrained outward in a 360° circle.

Kopec felt the tingle of the transporter and the gut-wrenching nausea that he always felt when being rippedapart and having digital copies of his molecules sentkilikams across space. He materialized into Pandemonium,as the Federation headquarters was on fire and heavilydamaged. Weapons fire rang from every direction, and heeven felt the whistle of solid metal projectiles from old weap-ons in the hands of some of the reservists. Having raidedcolony planets with the Marines before, Kopec knew toexpect this and didn’t note it as unusual.

Following standard battle doctrine, Kopec (who landed

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