As the Federation patrol entered the system, their scanners picked up four Romulan vessels, two Sparrowhawk cruisers, and War Eagle and a Snipe frigate... they were accompanied by a small armed cutter. As the sensors picked up the ships, the Romulan vessels fired a huge volley of plasma at the Federation Dreadaught, then disappeared from all scanners.
As the plasma flew in, the Federation ships began to take evasive maneuvers around a nearby planet to avoid the torps. Then they saw a blip on the sensors, and picked up tracking on the Romulan frigate. The federation destroyer fired and severly damaged the ship. The Snipe was forced to break off from the conflict. soon thereafter, the other Romulan ships uncloaked and fired. As plasma bolts flew in on the Federation cruiser, it was lost in a huge explosion. It however did injure one Sparrowhawk, who then recloaked along with his other ships in order to recharge their plasma. As the Fed ships then attempted to prepare for the attack that they knew was coming, they reformed near the planet.
As they Romulans once again uncloaked, they appeared on either side of the Dreadnaught and unleashed fire, and the Federation ships fired back. The federation ships concentrated fire onto the already injured Sparrowhawk, and obliterated it, and were also able to destroy the War Eagles type R torp launcher, rendering it combat ineffective. The Sparrowhawks unleased phasers and plasma bolts at knife range, and were able to cripple and destroy most of the weapon systems on the dreadnaught, leaving it in a very bad state. About this time the reinforcements began to show up on the Federations sensors as the Snipe was able to escape from the combat and get news to the main force. The Federations ships were forced to retreat, surrender, or be destroyed, and the Romulans were able to secure a minor, and costly victory over the Federation.
