Ensign Criollo Sorraia taps on her communicator, "Sir...we have reached the set meeting place." "Acknowledged," replies Slover, "we are on our way."

All of the officers leave the conference room, they step onto the bridge only to see the USAG Haggart bearing down on their barge. Slover steps to a panel and opens a channel. "Good to see you again Captain Hilliard. You know why we're here. Simply lead the way!"

The Haggart begins to pull away from the barge, and Sorraia plots a course to follow the ship. The two ships proceed to a nearby planet. They land and Slover's team exits the stolen barge.

Captain Hilliard approaches them, "Welcome to USAG headquarters. I am glad to see that you finally decided to join us James. I will now take you to see Gregory Hannigan."

The team follows Captain Hilliard to a large building. They enter and Slover's team is instructed to wait in the lobby. Then Hilliard and Slover enter Hannigan's office. They both take a seat.

Hannigan leans forward placing his hand on his desk and looks at Slover. "So this is the guy you have been telling me so much about, Hilliard. I hope you can live up to his expectations Mr. Slover. He has really pumped up your image. Maybe you could be the captain of the Inferno!" "I hope that I can, Emperor Hannigan." Replies Slover.

With a big grin on his face, Hannigan says, "Very good, you will make a fine USAG officer. And for future reference, I am not the Emperor. I am only a king destined to rule the Alpha quadrant for my lord." "Good to know," says Slover, "I look forward to meeting him one day."

Slover and his crew are put in the main lobby of the barracks, while they await their room assignment. They begin to talk silently amongst each other. Slover leans in to report the latest news. "Starfleet has it all wrong. Hannigan is not the big cheese. He is just a flunky to the main guy." Lt. Don Abbott asks, "How could Starfleet have messed that up? Such a simple thing. I wonder what else they screwed up on?" "Stop it Don," states Ensign Sorraia. "We have a specific mission. We can't start questioning Starfleet now. We will just have to wing it."

Just then, a large man approaches the team and tells them that their quarters are ready. Since there are few barracks currently built, the entire team must share one multi-person room. As the man starts out the door, he calls over his shoulder, "You stay here until someone comes for you." then he exits.

"Ensign Langly, see if you can get into the computer system." says Slover. "So Sorraia...on our way down did you see anything on the scanners that might be a new ship?" "I did notice 2 of the other known USAG ships on the premises." replies Sorraia. "I also noticed one other ship. It could be the one we are looking for." Lt. Don Abbott sits down. "That is our best bet. But how are going to find out if it is what we want?"

Suddenly Langly shouts, "Sir. I think I have something here!" The three officers stand up and walk over to the desk. Slover looks over Langly's shoulder. "What do you have?" "These guys aren't much about security," Langly says as she points to the screen. "as you can see they have this place completely mapped out. This is where the new ship is being kept. The records show that they are refitting them for battle."

"Good!" says Slover as he turns to face Don, "Any idea how we can get to that ship without being noticed?" Don replies, "It may be possible, but it will be difficult. They may not have big security on their computer system, but there are guards all over this complex. I don't see any chance of us getting to that new ship. We will have to take our chances and prepare for an attack." "That is not a good idea right now," says Sorraia, "you must remember that there are 3 USAG ships. Two this base, plus the new one. I don't think the Phoenix would stand a chance against those odds." Langly begins to stand up, "She's right. As good as the Phoenix is, one of those ships is the Gemini. It would tear us apart by itself, add two more ships, not a good idea. We will have to wait for those ships to leave." "Agreed," replies Slover. "we will simply have to wait. The USAG's attacks seem to be consistent, so we may not have to wait very long. I figure we'll be here a day...two days max. Since we have nothing but time, anyone up for a game of cards?"

At about 0700 hours the following day, Slover and his team are awakened by roaring sirens. Slover steps out the door and asks what is going on. Apparently the Gemini, Haggart, and Enlai had been called into battle. The time had come. Slover steps back into the room. "Lets get going! We should be able to use the confusion to get off the base. Once the ships are gone we will call for the Phoenix."

As the ships take off, the team begins to leave the base. The team leaves the building and starts to move across the courtyard. Two guards stop them, "Where are you going?" they ask. "We are Hannigan's new elite team. "Says Langley. "Hannigan believes that there may be a small force just outside the base. He asked us to go and take them out." The guards lower their guns. One guard taps his communicator, "We'll have to check this out." says the guard. Suddenly Langly kicks the guard directly in the face knocking him unconscious. Don Abbott tackles the other guard, and snaps his neck.

As they exit the compound Slover turns to Langly, "How did you know what to tell the guard?" "I am quite proficient when I get hold of a computer. I noticed a special file marked Elite Force, so I took a shot," replies Langly. "OK." Slover opens a small communicator, which was hidden in his boot. "Slover to Phoenix. We are ready for you Mr. Parker."

The Phoenix arrives at the planet and beams up Captain Slover and his team. Parker gets up from the Captain's chair, "So what did you learn sir?" "I learned were are gonna take out that complex!" shouts Slover. "Battle stations! Ms. Sorraia set a course for the complex. Mr. Parker, ready weapons. Since we couldn't learn anything about the new ship, we will just blow it up."

The Phoenix enters the atmosphere and makes an attack run on the complex. They seem to destroy the complex, but as the Phoenix turns to make another run, a ship rises from the ashes. "Sir!", shouts Sorraia, "I think we found that ship!" "Take us out of the atmosphere." The captain says as he stands up. "Mr. Parker, make your way to bridge 3. I am heading for bridge 2. Lt. Abbot, you have the main bridge. We are gonna have to separate to beat this thing."

As the Phoenix begins to split into three separate ships, the Inferno leaves the planets atmosphere. The three sections of the Phoenix proceed to surround the Inferno. A sudden blast hits the main section of the separated Phoenix, disabling the entire section. "What the heck?!" shouts Slover. "It's a Breen energy beam! Target their weapons system!"

Slover's section makes a run, which destroys the Inferno's weapons systems. Then the Inferno suddenly jumps to high warp and gets out of the battle. The three sections of the ships rejoin and the engineering crew begins to return power to the main section. Ten minutes later, the Phoenix makes it way back to Starbase 7. Captain Slover enters his ready room and contacts Fleet Admiral Dean over a private subspace channel.

"I'm sorry Admiral, we failed." says Slover in a depressed voice. Admiral responds, "Why would you say that?"replies Dean. "We could not gain any real info on the Inferno and we couldn't destroy it either." Slover says as he lets his head hit the desk. "You must know something...you called it the Inferno," says Dean. "It's just something I heard Hannigan call it...Yes!" shouts Slover. "I forgot all about it! All we know about the ship is type, name, and that it has a Breen energy weapon installed, but that's not the big news. Hannigan is not the head of USAG! He is high ranked, but he isn't the head cheese!" "That's good to know Captain," Dean says in a surprised voice. "You may not have gotten the info you went in to get, but you did come out of it with some other really helpful info. Job well done Captain!"