OPERATION : CRIMSON FILE BY : MARK HANFORD
It has been about a year since the Romulan Praetor and key members of the Empires Senate were assasinated by Shinzons Reman forces. Although that Romulan coup was repulsed through the help of the Federations Starfleet Flagship, the USS Enterprise 1701-E, peace negotiations have not come about with any true progress. There are forces within the Romulan Empire that feel that too much political upheaval has come about...and that the Federation might take advantage of their vulnerability at this point in time. Evidence of that is an incident known only to the Tal Shiar segment of the Empire that is trying to take control of the Empire. A Federation Special Operations force recovered a stolen Stafleet Intelligence file code named Crimson File. This group escaped with the file plus a Tal Shiar equivalent. That force crash escaped Romulan territory but crash landed on a planet in the Neutral Zone. The Tal Shiar has dispatched a strike force of Warbirds to that vicinity to not only recover the files but protect their borders from what they believe may be an invasion from the Federation.
The USS Challenger received orders from Starfleet Headquarters to divert from its present mission to the border of Federation/Romulan Neutral Zone Outpost 8 where members of its Starfleet Marine Strike Group will become part of the recovery operation. Launching Runabout Quantico, a modified craft which posses the cloaking device once used by the USS Challenger NCC-1676-A (Constitution II Class) .
OIC Col. Patrick Comune who along with SFMC reserve Lt. Gen. Robert Vosseller receive a distress call from Outpost 1 along the boarder. Upon their arrival they discover the ISS Lexington and ISS Kerberos, (ISS Shrike and the ISS Lamprey (new vessels from the same parallel universe which the Lexington originates from) engaging a Romulan Strike Force of Warbirds and several other assorted Romulan warships. The USS Starlord which has also been on border patrol duty joins the pitched battle as does the USS Challenger. The Starfleet vessels must push back the apparent invasion.
