By Nathan Warner
The Dominion has retreated from Batezed, but Battle for paradise is far from over.
The workhorse of Starfleet, a lone Danube Runabout pulls into the skies over Betazed before the sun rises to cast a sharp relief on its battle-weary, Duranium hull. It carried a small detachment of special operation forces, which had moments before been dispatching hell-fire below on the enemies of the Federation. In orbit, the aptly named U.S.S. Vengeance, a newly minted Prometheus class waited to receive its stealth strike-force. While the end of the Dominion War was approaching, Jem'Hadar "sleepers" still needed to be mopped up on every recovered Federation world. Left behind after the Dominion occupation was forced to retreat from this jewel of a planet, these "sleepers" wove terror and chaos into the once pleasant nights. "Fight fire with fire," Admiral Bane was fond of repeating, and he did just that, burning out the shadows that still lurked in Eden with surgical strike teams. Yes, it would not be long now before "Paradise Lost" would be restored to its former glory from the clutch of its tormentors.
