{editors note: What follows is a graphic depiction of the horrors of war, it is intended that this thread serve as a lesson to future generations, so that they may learn the value of settling disputes in a peaceful fashion. Proceed at your own risk.}
Galactic News Network (GNN)
GNN News Anchor: ???.and it was no surprise to anyone in the audience that the award for the most ?Assenine Celebraty Opinion? went to Michael Mooron. Well that concludes our coverage of this years Oscar Myer Weiner Awards, but stay tuned because your about to enter the No-Win-Zone on the (warp)Factor where our very own Billy-boy O?ImRealyRiledUp (aka Dizzy) will be verbally abusing SOS ?Foxy? Cleopatra of the Al Tal'Shiazeera Subspace Disinformation Network, who will attempt to get a word in edgewise about issues ranging from why frogs stink to peaceful applications of amphibian sex toys. Plus, unprecedented live coverage of the war on the Romulan Empire from our reporters embedded with the troops somewhere deep in the Neutral Zone.?
Billy-boy O?ImRealyRiledUp: ?Warning you are about to enter a No-Win-Zone, so if you don?t agree with me you can just STFU! My special guest tonight is the ?Tokyo Rose? of the Romulan Star Empire, Al Tal'Shiazeera News Fabricator SOS Cleopatra, but first in our ?Mocking Points Manifesto? tonight I would like to point out that #1 everyone with a sense of smell thinks frogs stink, #2 Romulans are sneaky pointy eared bastards, #3 there is no valid sexual application of ISC phasor rifles, #4 I am not compensating for anything, I really am the best damn pilot that ever lived, and finally #5 I?m not wearing any pants.?
Turning to face Cleopatra, Billy-boy continues: ?Well now that we have that out on the table, what say you Ms Cleo??
SOS Cleopatra: ?Billy-boy if I may, I would like to address your first and third points right off the bat, because it is clear that they are nothing more than simple cultural misunderstandings. You see Billy-boy, fragrance and erotica, much like conceptual norms of beauty are in the nose, mind, and ?eye? of the beholder. You see in certain?.?
Billy-boy cutting her off in mid sentence: ?Oooohhh come on! You don?t think you can sit here and tell me, and my viewing audience, that you actually enjoy the stench of an unwashed Meskeen? I will remind you Ms Cleo, that this is a No-Win-Zone.?
SOS Cleopatra: ?Well?.sure I don?t happen to find Meskeen Musk all that pleasing of an aroma, but I would hope you would concede that there are those that just might? I mean the very foundation of your IDIC philosophy states that?.?
Billy-boy in a mocking tone: ?Ok?ok?.Let?s just say for arguments sake that in some backward part of the galaxy there is a group of bicycle seat sniffing weirdos that actually get off on that kind of thing. That still doesn?t explain how a phasor rifle can be used as a sexual enhancement device?.an ISC phasor rifle no less.?
SOS Cleopatra: ?Well I can assure you as a Romulan that there is no form of foreplay that puts a Centurion in the mode for rape like vaporizing his intended victim?s spouse and children first. And furthermore, as a female Romulan I can attest to the usefulness of a phasor rifle for castrating my lovers, you know, so as to insure fidelity. <glancing down at Billy-boy?s unclothed lower half> BTW, I have to admit, as you stated in ?Mocking Point? #4, you aren?t compensating for anything . What are you doing after the show anyway??
In yet another (warp)Factor first, Billy-boy is speechless as he quickly tries to put his pants back on.
Desperately trying to change the subject Billy-boy continues: ?What about the common perception by Alliance members?.not me mind you <grinning nervously at Cleo>?.but there are those that consider all Romulans to be ?sneaky pointy eared bastards???
Cleopatra starting to chuckle: ?Well as a Romulan I am loath to admit this, but even I would find this difficult to deny in the face of Minister J?inn?s recent defection.?
Billy-boy smiling now as well: ?Well there you have it folks, another first on the (warp)Factor, a Win-Win in the No-Win. Stay glued to your seat because right after this shameless plug for by new book titled, ?I?m OK, and you?re a stupid leftist sack of SH*T, so STFU!?, we will be joining embedded war correspondent Hondo ?the hot tub hunk? Rivera where he will be broadcasting Live from the Battle Cruiser GCS Prima Ballerina in an undisclosed location deep inside the Romulan Neutral Zone.?
After shameless plug for book and (warp)Factor gear bearing the ?STFU!? logo we return.
Billy-boy: ?Aaaannnnd we are back on the (warp)Factor. Ms Cleo, I am going to assume from the fact that you insinerated our producer when he came up to show you the way back to the Green Room during the commercial break, that you would like to remain with us during our next segment.?
Cleopatra leveling phasor at Billy-boy: ?I wouldn?t miss it for all the Ale on Romulus.?
Billy-boy: ?We are joined now LIVE by the ?Don Juan of the hot tub?, Hondo Rivera, aboard the flagship of the Alliance armada, the GCS Prima Ballerina. Hondo, can you give us any information on your location or mission objectives.?
Hondo: ?Well not if I don?t want my Dance card punched by Captain Kroma <visible shudder>.?
Billy-boy looking perplexed: ?Dance card? Don?t you mean Press card??
Hondo, glancing around nervously: ?Don?t ask, don?t tell Billy. What I can share with you is that we have just detected a large fleet of Romulan warships approaching our current position at high warp and among them is none other than the RIS Riverboat Casino and the RIS Scaredy Kat believed to be captained by the recent Kzinti defectors Minister J?inn and Captain Chuut Ritt respectively. All in all we would appear to be out numbered by about 3 to 1.?
Billy-boy faking concern, but barely able to contain his glee at this rating bonanza: ?Wow?.3 to 1?.so tell us, how are the troops holding up? I mean considering the odds their moral must really be suffering. Any talk of turning tail and heading back to Alliance controlled territory in the south.?
Hondo: ?Not at all, it?s amazing what guts these guys have, they have been training hard for months and it shows in the confidence they have in their abilities. Besides, Captain Kroma is literally itching for a fight.?
Billy-boy: ?Ummmm?well I?m no military expert but isn?t there any concern that Captain Kroma may be over extending himself in his desire to engage the enemy??
Hondo: ?No, no, no you misunderstood me. I mean he is itching, as in scratching under his tutu, ever since being infected with the Romulan bioengineered virus. Thus it is the opinion of the top Alliance strategist that a line in the sand must be drawn here in order to contain the Romulans and prevent them from any further opportunity to unleash their illegally obtained WMDs on innocent Alliance planets.?
Suddenly the bridge of the GCS Prima Ballerina is seen to burst into action as it goes to Red Alert, and in the background Captain Kroma can be heard giving an order for all ships in the armada to turn off their forward view screens.
Billy-boy: ?Hondo, did we just hear correctly, that Captain Kroma gave an order to turn off the fleets forward view screens? I mean, My God, you?ll be flying blind right into the path of a superior force.?
Hondo: ?Not to worry my friend, it?s all part of a new set of Allied rules of engagement, that are specifically designed to cut down on the number of friendly fire incidents that we suffered during the last Romulan/Gorn border skirmish. I don?t want to bother you with the technical details, but the military planners have assured us it is for the best.?
Billy-boy looking doubtful: ?Well I guess we will just have to take their word for it, but I still can?t help but feel a bit concerned that these new rules might be hindering our forces. Is there any intelligence that suggest the Romulan might be operating under similar rules of engagement designed to reduce their own friendly fire incidents.?
Hondo: ?Well there was some speculation that this might be the case, however, our deep scans and probing of the Romulan fleet has just put that to rest with the realization that the River Boat Casino was allowed to leave spacedock with a full load of transporter bombs. Apparently, this is another fleet of Romulan conscripts for whose safety the Romulan dictator has little regard.?
Billy-boy: ?Well that?s pretty much what we have come to expect from the Romulans. What else can you tell us about your situation or current battle plans, that of course won?t get your Dance card punched??
Hondo: ?I can do one better than that, as I have just been cleared to begin beaming live tactical telemetry back to you in the studio. Apparently, the powers that be have weighed the risk and decided that it is more important to make sure that the truth gets out regardless of the risks to operational security in order to be sure that the lies that we are confident will be spread by that moisant tart sitting next to you and her cohorts over at the Al Tal'Shiazeera Subspace Disinformation Network.?
Ms Cleo looking incredulous: ?Billy-boy considering I am pointing this phasor at our groin, I am sure you won?t mind if I interject to refute this ridiculous claim. We at the Al Tal'Shiazeera Subspace Disinformation Network, were manufacturing the truth long before Mr Hondo was out of diapers. Why we have practically made the manipulation of the Romulan public towards outward, as opposed to inward, aggression into an art form.?
Billy-boy: ?Hondo, before we switch to the tactical view can you tell us if we are about to finally see the beginning of the Campaign of ?Shock and Awe? Starfleet Headquarters has been telling us about??
Hondo: ?Well Billy-boy, your guess is as good as mine, but we have been continually reminded that we will know it when we see it.?
The scene in the studio is replaced by a top down tactical view of the two enormous fleets converging on an asteroid field.
/rp off
Yes J?inn you know it?s coming ;-)
We would like to take this opportunity to remind any members of PETJ in our viewing audience to please avert their eyes, as well as anyone with a full stomach.
/rp on
Mere seconds before the blinded Alliance fleet stumbles into optimum weapons range of the lead Romulan warships, a Starbase sized gornographic image of Captain Kroma BaSyl is projected between the two warring fleets from the deflector dish of the Alliance flagship GCS Prima Ballerina. The 300+ story image of the Reptilian Diva then begins the most graceful pirouette this side of the Joffery Ballet, finishing in what appeared to be an impossibly low curtsy considering Kroma?s half ton frame, at which point he grabs the hem of his tutu standing straight up lifting his arms (and lord help us, with them his tutu) above his head. It was at that point confirmed by later analysis of the Romulan intership communications that all hell broke lose. Careful analysis of the tapes revealed the unmistakable sounds of ?Shock and Awe? that overcame those unfortunate enough to be looking at the forward view screens, namely and tragically for the Romulan conscripts the helm officers, intent on there jobs, were universally afflicted. The tapes also revealed, after considerable computer enhancement the sounds of retching and of bodies of hitting the deck and convulsing. Only two coherent words were ever deciphered from the tapes, and they were simply and ominously, ?My Eyes?, accompanied by what has been theorized to be the sounds of several thousand of Romulus? finest gouging their eyes out. However, all that was apparent to the billions of Alliance citizens watching the live feed of the battle was the aftermath. Immediately following what would henceforth be known as the Kroma Maneuver, over 85% of the entire Romulan fleet, whose helms had been directly linked to the River Boat Casino?s for the purpose of coordinating tactical maneuvering, lurch violently to port and subsequently slammed straight into an asteroid, in the single most destructive occurrence in recorded history of the famed J?inn Maneuver. The remainder of the Romulan fleet never even got this far as their warp cores exploded when panicked engineering crews attempting to cut power to the forward view screens accidentally shutdown the power to their anti-matter containment fields.
Cleopatra with a wry smile for Billy-boy: ??.and you have the nerve to accuse us of using Weapons that Mess with Digestion (WMD), now that has got to be ?the Most Ridiculous Item of the Day?.
Epilog and Historical footnote: While it was originally believed that no Romulan ships survived this battle, they could never quite account for all the mass that should have been present as in the debris field based on the original scans of the Romulan fleet. It was eventually chalked up to a sensor anomaly and the real truth wasn?t revealed until decades later when the Romulan Star Empire having emerged from the General War as a Republic declassified their sole account of the battle from the one ship that survived. A brief excerpt from that account follows:
First Officers log from the RIS Scaredy Kat: ?I can only thank the deities for having stayed my hand, when I so desperately wished to summarily execute the traitorous and cowardly Captain Chuut Ritt for abandoning our glorious yet doomed fleet in their time of greatest need. Luckily the state of shock I was left in, after Captain Ritt ordered an Emergence 180 degree HET and hasty retreat only moments before engaging the Alliance fleet, indirectly allowed our ship to escape with news of this new Alliance super weapon. Apparently it was a standard Kzin battle tactic to make for the border once their supply of drones was depleted, and having been informed by the weapons officer that a scatter pack could not be prepared due to the fact that Romulan ships are not equipped with drones Captain Ritt instinctively ordered the tactical retreat. In conclusion, I can only say that in my entire career as a Centurion in the Romulan Royal Navy the phrase ?war is hell? has never rung more true, and may the Gods protect us from this terrible new Gorn weapon.?