The Last Voyage of the Avenger:
Chapter One:
N.C.C. 1860, the U.S.S. Avenger was one of the oldest combatant vessels that was still in commission in the Federation Fleet. The Avenger had originally been constructed as a Surya class frigate and was now over fifty years of age. The Avenger, like her much better know sister ship U.S.S. Reliant, had been rebuilt to the point that she had an almost a completely different appearance than she did when she was first built. All of the Surya class frigates that had not been modified like the Avenger had been scrapped previously and Starfleet was planning to start decommissioning the rebuilt Avengers class starting with the U.S.S. Avenger herself within five years. The Avenger had been the first ship modified and the ships modified were generally considered a new class. This class was the Avenger heavy frigate class. There were no plans to decommission the new construction ships based on the Avenger class and the Cyane class frigate would likely remain in service with the Federation for at least decades to come. The term frigate did not mean the same thing it did in the late Twentieth Century and are combatant vessels almost the same size as cruisers and are consider capital units unlike destroyers. While the Avenger class looked little like the Enterprise class and the Surya class looked little like Constitution class, the reconstruction of the U.S.S. Avenger and her sisters were very similar to the reconstruction on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Unlike the Enterprise, the Avenger was designed more for combat roles and not general purpose. While slightly smaller, the Avenger carried more weapon systems and the combat abilities of an Avenger were shown almost ten years previously when the U.S.S. Reliant under an un-experienced captain almost destroyed the U.S.S. Enterprise which was under command of the man that was thought to be the best captain in the whole of Starfleet. While the Reliant had been destroyed in the end, then Admiral James T. Kirks flagship was deemed to be un-repairable and had been planned to be scrapped. The Avenger's main energy weapons are two mega-phaser mounts which are far more powerful than any hull mounted phaser mounts. The Avenger also had six banks of hull mounted phaser banks on the dish shaped hull of the Frigate. In a special pod, the Avenger carried four photon torpedo launchers with two tubes firing forward and two tubes firing aft. Even though the Avenger was an aged warrior, she was still one of the dangerous ships in the Federation Arsenal.
The Avenger was quite satisfying for the first command of a relatively young commander. Even though the Avenger was planned to be decommissioned within a few years, she had been thoroughly refitted and has only about a month previous came from out of the shipyard. The most visible sign was that she had just come out from the shipyards was her gleaming white grey paint. Previously, she had shown scorch marks from a skirmish with a Klingon heavy cruiser. While none of the actual weapon systems had been upgraded since the original reconstruction that had given the Avenger her new shape, the fire control systems, the tactical systems, and the computer banks had been upgraded during the refit that she had just come out of. She presently had some of the best sensors of any of the ships in StarFleet.
The new Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Avenger was Commander Gwendolyn Ross. In many ways, her physical appearance was the opposite of what most people expected to see when they think of a female commanding officer. She was fairly short and stood only 157 centimeters tall and had a more or less boyish instead of feminine figure. She considered her appearance to have little that set her apart. She was small chested, had neither an exotic light or dark skinned appearance, and had plain dark brown hair and brown eyes. She only allowed her hair to grow down to the top of the collar of her uniform. Even so, her hair tended to become quickly disarrayed if she did not constantly check on it. She saw no need to wear makeup and as she recalled, the only person to ever call her beautiful was her father. In reality, she was attractive but she had always considered herself an ugly duckling. Even though she considered herself not to be particularly attractive, she normally worked out for several hours each day and had little excess fat on her. She had been wearing one version or another of the starfleet uniform for eighteen years and was glad that the skimpy mini skirt style female uniforms had gotten out of style before she had joined. While she had the skirt that could be worn with the present uniform, she had never worn it because she found that it restricted her movement too much. At age thirty six, she was still quite young to be wearing the rank insignia of a commander and was one of the youngest officers to have been given command of a major combatant vessel. She had served on several ships and she had been tactical officer on the U.S.S. Excelsior before she had gone to be a tactical instructor at the StarFleet Academy on Earth. She had been an instructor for three years and was known to create incredibly difficult tactical situations and there was a rumor that she had beaten the Kobayashi Maru scenario without cheating. Few cadets had wanted her initially as an instructor but many were glad of her instruction when they were ensigns in the fleet. Her students were routinely praised for their level thinking while in combat and several captain in the fleet had looked her up to thank her for training their officers right. She refused to allow improperly trained officers into the fleet and her refusal to do just that could easily have cost her any future promotions. A few months previously, she had given a failing grade to Admiral Phillip Fulton's son while all of the other instructors had given the young man excellent marks. The cadet was both lazy and used to getting every due to the rank of his father. Admiral Fulton was one of the Federation's most senior officers and was likely to become Chief of Naval Operations when the present one retired. Commander Ross was respected by many officers and was known as one of the best tactical officers but had no connections with any other flag officer. She might have been able to work through Captain Sulu, her commanding officer on the U.S.S. Excelsior, to James T. Kirk if the famous officer had not been demoted from his rank of Admiral. Due to her reputation, the Admiral could not immediately have Commander Ross cashiered but had gotten his staff to be creative. Previously, the rumor had been that she would be advanced to the rank of Captain within the next two or three years and given command of a newly commissioned Excelsior class battleship. A few weeks previously, the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Avenger had retired and Commander Ross was offered the command of the old frigate. If she refused to take the position, her career would be finished. An officer that refuses to take command is assumed to be stagnant and would not be given a position of authority again and their careers would end. She ultimately decided to accept the position but she knew this was another trap. The U.S.S. Avenger would decommission within a few years and she would likely find that no positions of command would be available. This will be followed by the councilors suggesting that she retire and if she did not accept the suggestion, she would be given a desk job somewhere and be forgotten. Even if none of her plans to head this off worked, the dream of all officers with drive was to have an independent command. Even a tiny destroyer or an old ship that was about to be retired was considered by her to be better than to have no command at all. As it was, she had some plans the admiral that had placed her in that situation would not expect and she had no plans to be shuffled off to a desk position and simply forgotten. She had some new, some might even say revolutionary, ideas in both ships tactics and operations. These plans would have actually been harder to develop on a new Excelsior which would be considered a showboat and Command of the Avenger was actually a much better position to fully develop her new ideas. If changes in tactic and shipboard operations worked out as well as she hoped, Admiral Fulton might find himself cashiered due to having sat on her report on the subject.
While not in the top percentages like Excelsior crew members normally are, the crew of the Avenger was not an incompetent crew. They had simply gotten lazy under Captain Derrick Eason, the pervious commanding officer. He had been marking time until he retired and had allowed both training and drills to fall behind. The ships executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson, knew that she was partial to blame as well but she had become lazy after the former captain had canceled the training that she had planned. The executive officer was as puzzled as any of the crew by her new skipper. The new commanding officer definitely had more drive than her previous one and over the last few days a large amount of supplies had been brought onboard the Avenger and she had been curious and looked at what the cargo was. She had looked at the manifest and discovered that it was a huge amount of hazardous duty suits and stellar probes. The suits were normally worn by ships engineers but there were more than enough brought onboard for the entire ship's crew. The probes were built in the casing of normal photon torpedoes and while the ships mission might require the use of probes, a huge amount had been brought onboard.
Commander Ross sat quietly in her command chair and listened to the various reports from her crew. The U.S.S. Avenger had just been given permission to clear docking cradles. The official reason why Commander Ross had been given the command of the Avenger was that the ship needed an experienced officer for the newly assigned mission. A nebula that gave off very unusual energy emissions had been detected in unexplored space outside of Federation claimed territory. Curiosity had caused several Federation scientist to request that a ship go out there and check it out. While the old frigate was as not well suited to exploration missions as a heavy cruiser, it had been available and Commander Ross thought it was likely that it was a chance to get the troublesome commander out of sight for a few months. It would likely take six months to get to the location and to thoroughly explore the anomaly, The helmsman cleared the Avenger from her berth and while his maneuvers were within tolerances, his maneuvers were still not as crisp as she wanted. He slowly rotated the massive frigate towards the hanger doors. As the main doors of the cavernous hanger of spacedock opened, the U.S.S. Avenger edged towards the huge doors. As the back tips of the warp nacelles passed outside of the doors, Gwendolyn Ross gave an inaudible sigh of relief. She was finally free to make her own decisions. Technically, this would not become reality until the heavy frigate left the Sol system but the Spacedock gave her a feeling of being closed in. The ship steadily got further from the orbital station under maneuvering thrusters. As soon as the ship got far enough away to activate the ship's impulse drives, the ship leapt in speed and the Earth quickly faded to a dot. Soon, the ship entered warp speed and even Sol quickly faded from unaided sight.
The captain waited for fifteen minutes to pass before she stood up from her command chair and walk over to where the executive officer was standing. Her executive officer was keeping a careful eye on the helmsman plotting in the ship's new course. As soon as Gwendolyn got near her second in command's position, she said to her, "Commander, I would like a meeting with all department heads in forty five minutes in the main briefing room. If you could, have a junior officer take the bridge because I need you there as well. In the meantime, you have the bridge and I will be in my quarters taking advantage of this time to get some of my stuff unpacked."
The executive officer acknowledged her captain with a simple "Yes, Sir", giving the address for both male and female officers of a senior rank.
Captain Ross walked over to the bridge's main turbolift and punched in her cabin as the destination. No matter what the maneuvering behind the scenes, it was very unusual for an officer to take command of a ship and be expected to leave for a mission within ninety-six hours. While she had been far to busy to unpack, this rush had allowed her to do some creative logistics using the rush to disguise them. The Captain had ordered hazardous duty suits from three different supply installations and due to the rush, the installation's personnel had not checked to see if she had ordered them from any other depots as well. She had originally expected to have to take months to order enough suits for her entire crew. Commander Ross had also managed to order from weapon stores a second full set of probes which she planned to modify for other uses. She had claimed that the ship's normal store of probes had never arrived and that they would be needed for the mission. At least she presently had a few minutes to unpack and would give her a chance to go over mentally what she planned to tell her senior officers. Her uniforms and her few non military sets of clothing could wait but she wanted to get her precious collection unpacked. She had worked hard in order to get a collectors permit to keep an antique firearms collection. The Captain had only managed to collect a few Twentieth Century and early Twenty First century weapons but it had been slowly growing during her time as an instructor at the Academy. She presently had a Colt .357 revolver, a .44 revolver, a MAC-10 sub-machinegun, and a .30 caliber M-1 Carbine from World War II.
Gwendolyn had just gotten her weapons collection unpacked when her alarm rang to let her know that she had to get to the meeting herself. She realized that she would probably shock her officers with her plans but she hoped that they would not actively resist them. The door to the briefing room opened silently and all the officers in the room quickly stood up upon her entry. It looked like the room had been used for other purposes than briefing the senior staff with boxes with unknown contents stacked along the walls. A chair at the head of the table was empty for the captain and she sat down waving for her officers to sit down at the same time. She did a quick look at her seniors officers, looking at each one individually including her executive officer. She made eye contact with each of them so they could get a measure of her as well. She clasped her hands in front of her on the table for a few seconds and then pulled out a data pad. She started her briefing with "Thank you all for coming. I will get into the main portion of the briefing as quickly as I can but first I have a few statements. First, the briefing will be long but I ask that you do not interrupt in the middle and to bear with me. Second, I have only been your commanding officer for a few days and none of you know me. Over the next few weeks, I plan to get to know each of you and your personnel." Commander Ross paused for a short time before starting on the main part of her briefing but shortly continued with "We all need to face two things. The first is that the Avenger will be decommissioned within a few years and will most likely be scrapped. The reason stated will probably be something like ‘The structure of the ship has been warped due to decades of being exposed to subspace fields.' The second, which is related to the first, is that none of us are considered the ideal ship's crew. Some of might simply have gotten that way by pissing off the wrong senior officer but others have not performed up to the demands of the service. Face it but also realize that we all have a choice. We can chose to be caretakers of a dying lady and fade away into the dark along with our ship. We can also chose to fight it and dare them to prove us to be an unfit crew or that the Avenger is too old to remain in service.
"As many of you know, I was a tactical instructor at Starfleet Academy before I took command of the Avenger. While I was an instructor, I worked on new tactics and new methods of ship operation. These were designed to increase both the ship's combat performance and the ship's survivability. Being honest, I have a lack of friends in high places and I present a report on these new ideas this a few months ago but the report seems to have been misplaced" She did not mention to them that the cause of the misplacement was Admiral Fulton and his son. She continued with "My plan is to prove these concepts workable by real life application of them on the Avenger and I would like the cooperation of all of you with them."
Continuing with her prepared briefing "You should have all noticed that we have taken on a huge amount of stores during the last few days. A large portion of the stores are hazardous duty suits mostly used by engineers. In our case, there are enough suits for all the crew members on the ship. In the Academy, we get to read many unedited after combat reports and in many, the infallible atmospheric systems have failed. Hull breaches and toxic gas leaks have killed many crew members that if the had been protected by some sort of suit would have survived. No system is perfect, especially in combat, so every form of safety equipment possible should be used. Supply officer, I need you to get your supply clerks to distribute the suits to the ship's crew and have any modifications done that are needed to fit individuals. For all departments, I need for your crews to get used to wearing the suits and in about one quarter of any drills, I expect the crew to be fully suited in the hazardous duty suits."
She looked at them all very seriously and her eyes lingered on her executive officer for a few minutes longer than any of the others. "I have looked at the previous captain's logs and have noted that it has been some time since the last drill. I plan to have drills far more often and plan to run two all hands drills per day until the crew can pass all of the standards that I will set forth. We will them reduce the tempo to some extent and reduce drills to one full drill every two days once I consider all departments up to proficiency. In addition, I expect each department to perform their own drills in addition to any drills that I prescribe.
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"Next, I would like to change the general methods of damage control procedures. Most of these will require more time then we can afford in the briefing but one important one is that I plan to create a damage control section under the engineering department. I also intend to increase training and the training will come under the damage control section." Addressing a slightly overweight male that appeared to be about mid forties and wearing the rank of Lieutenant Commander "Chief Engineer Dunstan, I need you to come up with an officer to be in charge of damage control and personnel for the damage control section. I will look at your list and make judgements myself. You will continue to be in charge of engineering but the Damage Control Officer will be in charge of training and coordination during emergency situations. Once this section has been set up and the officer chosen, I want all departments to coordinate with the damage control officer for a training program.
"Weapons, Tactical, and Helm, your work will be as difficult or more difficult than any of the others." She started with Michael Anson, the ships tactical officer "Lieutenant Anson, I will create on the computer some new tactical training exercises and I will be making them quite difficult and I expect a serious increase in performance. I believe you know my reputation as an instructor in Starfleet Academy. One problem I have seen many times is when the tactical data is not relayed to the captain has enough to make a decision. As well, I have seen many tactical officers that are not willing to make decision without the captain telling them to." She next switched her attention to her weapons officer "Lieutenant McMilligan, I plan to have you work with the tactical officer but I also have plans for use to train at individually and with your gunner crews. I want you to run simulated snap short firing on small targets. Once I am satisfied that you and your crews can hit at a reasonable percentage small targets, I will have you do some live firing because computer simulation is far from perfect. I plan to have the Avenger travel at slightly faster than cruising speed to give you a chance to practice for a few days. The first targets will be asteroids and when you get goo at hitting them, I plan to have your practice on small moving targets. I have taken on extra sensor probes and plan to have some modified to act as targets simulating photon torpedoes. There has been a successful use of phasers for this purpose under Captain James T. Kirk during an incident and I myself practice it in the Academy while I was an instructor. If two ships are fighting a missile duel at long range, the ability to destroy some of the missile in the missile volleys coming in could very well tip the balance in the favor of the ship that has practiced it. In combat situations and we are not using our phaser banks against other ships, I want you to target missiles coming in without my direct say so at the time. The delay could easily cause us to take his that we might have otherwise avoided." Finally she switched he attention to her Helmsman and continued "Lieutenant Hanley, part of your job will be to integrate whatever you do with the tactical and weapons officer but there is far for you to work on. I want you to work on practical maneuvers to make the Avenger less of a target. I do not want the fancy labeled maneuvers that many officers seem to want. Most of them are good at getting their own ships destroyed. Just a simple ‘S' pattern maneuver gives the enemy a much harder target to hit and when you make the pattern random and more complex, makes for a ship much harder to hit. I also want you to practice 360 degree rotation maneuvers around the center of the ship. There are two main reasons for this. If a ship is pursuing, this will allow us to bring our batteries to bear much quicker than if we attempt to actually change the course of the ship. In long range combat, a continuous spinning will make the ship lose most of its acceleration but will allow us to fire all of our photon torpedo tubes at an enemy."
She stopped for a minute to catch her breath but continued "This is the main body of my plans but I have a more detailed written version that I expect each of you to read. Now, the ship has just finished loading stores and making final preparation. Many members of the crew are exhausted from this so it will not be idea to start with the changes today. I plan to have the whole crew stand down for twenty four hours to catch up with their sleep and so they will be ready. These plans I have will require many long hours for both us and our enlisted crew and likely will cause tempers to fray as well. I will pay attention to crew moral as this goes on and will adjust my plans if we are having too much loss of moral. I am about to start taking questions but I will also accept suggestions as well. Now, who has questions?"
The officers in the room just sat quiet for a few minutes but then the all seem to start asking questions at the same time to the point that they were unintelligible. Commander Ross shook her head because she was afraid of a response like this. She motioned for her officers to quiet down and motioned for her executive officer to begin her questions
The Last Voyage of the Avenger
Moderator: LadyTevar
The Last Voyage of the Avenger - Chapter Two
Chapter Two:
The Avenger had just left warp travel from her huge trip into unknown space. On maximum visual magnification, the high energy plasma nebula glowed brightly in a vast variety of different colors. The Avenger was slowly approaching the interesting anomaly but would be stopping before it entered it. Finally busy, the scientist that had been brought onboard at Earth were happily chatting with each other. They were examining the steady stream of new sensor data that they were getting on the unusual plasma nebula. To the scientists, this whole trip was worth it.
To the Executive Officer, this trip was worth it as well. She considered the crew of the Avenger to now be the most dangerous team in all of the Federation. The first three week of the trip out here was pure hell on everyone including the captain who worked as hard as she expected her crew to. The crew had finally meshed and a strong fellowship had replaced complacency. At present, Captain Ross was catching up on some of her sleep and her second in command was sitting in bridge command chair. Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson had brown hair and brown eyes in common with her captain but was tall, slim, and curvaceous. While she wore her hair pinned up while she was on duty, her rich and wavy hair would fall to the small of her back when she unpinned it. Although she would not admit it except to herself, she liked the old mini-skirt style uniforms that had been worn before she had joined because it would allow her to show off her long and shapely legs. She had realized that her captain considered herself to be an ugly duckling and hope to convince her of her own beauty eventually. The executive officer herself had collected non military clothes from all over her travels and thought that some styles, if cut down for the captains stature, would be quite attractive. Even if she was to have her own cut down, it would not hurt because Paula's cabinets were almost stuffed full as is. She felt she owed the captain anyway because after the initial briefing after the Avenger left Sol system, Captain Ross never mentioned previous performance and treated her executive officer with full respect. Even though the captain had laid no blame for the pour initial performances of the crew, Commander Masterson blamed herself for allowing herself and the rest of the crew to fall into a pattern of Laziness from the old captain. Captain Eason had been a nice person but had been simply looking forward to retirement. Now, the executive officer was hoping that the Avenger could complete it's mission quickly so that they could compete in the next annual War Games. Many captains would be very upset when they were beaten by an old frigate with a brand new captain and a crew that was barely considered proficient. Even Captain Sulu and Captain Kirk might find themselves on the losing side and they had been holding the number one and number two positions for the last few years.
Two days later, almost all the data that could be collected externally had been collected and internal data was what the scientists wanted now. The Avenger had moved slightly closer and now was just outside the effects of the high energy nebula. A large number of sensor probes had already been fired at the plasma clouds to get information but all had quickly stopped communicating. The scientists had told Captain Ross that the probes were not very well protected and had quickly been destroyed by the plasma but as long as the Avenger went in with full shields, the ship could enter the Nebula without any chance of being damaged. She had her own science officer, Lieutenant junior grade Josephine Phelps, look as well at the data the probes had gotten and the science officer had agreed with the transient scientists. All of this meant that she had no reason to say no. She had the ship prepared to go within the Nebula in a few minutes and already had the ships shields raised as well as having the ship on yellow alert. A course of entry had already been worked out which should give her the maximum amount of safety margin. The Avenger would proceed using just maneuvering thrusters and would only engage impulse engines when it was proven safe. Captain Ross could no help being nervous anyway and was standing beside her chance and wringing her hands to avoid showing her nervous anticipation. She knew the longer that she waited, the more tension she would have. Overcoming her own tension she requested to her helmsman "Dennis, if could please, please proceed on the planned course into the nebula." She was pleased that she had been able to keep any nervousness from her voice. Strange anomalies scared her more than battle.
The helmsman answered her with the expected "Yes, Sir" and activated the program that would control the ships entry into the nebula. Lieutenant Dennis Hanley had his hands on the manual controls in case something went wrong but there seemed to be no problems. The maneuvering thrusters activating providing just a few Gravities of thrust and shut down after less than five minutes. The ship drifted towards the outer layer of the nebula on pure inertia. As the bow of the frigate entered into the Nebula, the bow of the ship acted much like a sail and was forced upwards by a crosscurrent caused by millions of particles went from the bottom to the top of the nebula. The helmsman made some corrections so the thrusters would compensate for the particle hitting the ships. The particles fluoresced as the struck the Avengers shields but the hammering inflicted no real damage to the shields.
The Tactical Officer reported the status of the shields in response to an unasked question "Captain, our shields are holding near 100 percent and there seems to be no problems with the ship staying in the nebula for an extended period of time."
The captain did a quick look at her own repeaters to verify the status of the shields and seeing it for herself, addressed the science officer with "Science Officer, you may tell our guests that they may begin their testing of the inside of the nebula" realizing that the science officer wanted to join the scientists at probing the secrets of the nebula..
Almost a week later, the scientists were virtually finished with all the testing they could do. They were not satisfied with the results but there were few tests left to do. The captain could soon order the Avenger out of the plasma nebula. The final tests were interrupted by an unknown anomaly that started far below the subatomic level. A massive amount of energy fed the anomaly and it became a wormhole about four centimeters across. It would have collapsed in less than a second but it interacted with and was further fed the subspace fields of the Avenger and expanded a few million fold. Less than a second later, all power failed and the entire frigate was plunged into total darkness. After about 10 seconds, the ship emergency lights came on and the ship was lit by dim red lights.
Bypassing the communications officer, Gwen Ross opened a channel to main engineering and with a voice that the rest of the bridge could tell was agitated said "Chief Engineer, Damage Control Officer, I need status reports and I need them now!"
Lieutenant Commander Charles Dunstan, the Chief Engineer, was first in finding his voice "Sir, as far as I can determine, all the main safeties have blown but anti-matter storage is holding steady. I should be able to get the emergency fusion backups online within a few minutes and I should be able to get main power online within fifteen minutes provided that there was no system damage. I need to run a few tests to determine if there is a problem. One place I need to specifically check is the anti-matter feed lines."
The time it had taken for the chief engineer to report his situation had given the Damage Control Officer time to collect her thoughts. Lieutenant junior grade Sabrina Lee was a bit old for her rank but was quite competent. She was of Asian descent and had an ageless quality. She began her report as soon as her chief engineer was finish with his report, "Captain, I have received no reports of damage but I am checking deck by deck and should be able to give a full report within less than five minutes." By her tone, it sounded like she expected her captain to jump on her for not getting full data.
Captain Ross, now that she had a few moment to calm down, she realized that it would take a few minutes for full reports to be completed. The captain replied in a now calm sounding voice with "Understood" and she paused for a moment but continued with "But I need you to expedite in any way possible." She knew that by yelling, she would just take longer for the crew to complete her orders. She did order her executive officer to put the ship on yellow alert .
The captains restraint was rewarded just four minutes later with the fusion reactors coming online and emergency power being put online. When power came back, she had the helmsman bring the ship to a complete stop. As sensors came back online, both the science officer and the tactical officer reported that the sensor reading were different than they had been just a few minutes earlier and neither could offer any explanation. Gwendoline looked at her own restored sensors and the systems data did not make sense to her either when compared to the previous readings. Thankfully, she got a report from the damage control officer a moment later and there was no damage being reported other than some light shock damage and none of the crew had any serious injuries. The Chief Engineer reported soon after that with some bad news. It would take about thirty minutes before main power could be restored due to some minor damage to the anti-matter reactor feed systems.
Gwendoline Ross made a snap decision and ordered her Navigator "John, I want you to plot a least time course out of this nebula and pass it to the helmsman as soon as you have it plotted." She switched he attention to her helmsman and continued with "Dennis, I want you to follow the course but keep the ship down to ten percent of the speed of light." She switched to her tactical officer and her science officer, "Mike and Josephine, I want you to keep a vigilant sensor watch and warn me if you see anything unusual. Josephine, could you please tell the scientists to make any last minute tests that they have planned because I d not plan to go back into this nebula until and unless we can find out what happened"
Five hours later, the science officer and tactical officers could finally detect the edge of the plasma nebula. The gasses in the nebula prevented getting exact fixes and the entire structure of the clouds of super heated particles were different than previously observed. The Avenger had been on yellow alert for the entire trip out of the nebula and were getting tired. Commander Ross shared her crews exhaustion but knew that within about half an hour, the ship would finally be out of the nebula. The ships main power system had been more stubborn than expected. Instead of require a half an hour, the repair had taken almost a full hour due to some hidden damage. Now the ship was as close to 100% as could be attained and the Avenger was fully operational. The Captain had her science officer and the scientist ‘guests' working on a solution to what had occurred but they had no theories beyond that it was the effects of some type of subspace anomaly. This answer could mean one of a few million events and told the captain nothing.
Time seemed to travel very slowly as the Avenger got closer to the end of the nebula. While the captain seemed to be relaxing in her command chair, she was in reality keeping a very careful watch on the data coming from the science and tactical sensors. While she considered it slightly undercutting her junior officers rolls, she found it very hard not to do so because she had been a tactical officer herself. In just a few minutes, the frigate would be out of the nebula and hopefully safe as well. Just then, she noticed five unusual subspace bubbles that by their patterns normally mean starship drives in operation. They were close to the nebula and they were in fairly close proximity. She also knew that her tactical officer was probably scanning only forward and would not notice the other starships that were off to the side. She brought it to his attention with a calm "Lieutenant Anson, there are some subspace bubbles that probably represent starship drives. They are at position 34.53 degrees by 13.11 degrees. Leave forward scanning to the science officer and see if you can identify the targets." she waited for him to acknowledge the order.
The Tactical Officer frowned for a moment at his scanners but he quickly noted the five targets that had been pointed out by his captain. He replied quickly with a "Yes, Sir" and began refining his targets. They were obviously ships but the targets were at a long range and material of the nebula still reduced the effective sensor range.
The war against the Dominion was not going well and the Federation had already suffered heavy losses. On the USS Atago, NCC 2074, a refitted Excelsior class starship pulled from out of mothball, this was the case as well. Many of the control panels on the bridge had shorted out and many systems were down. Over half of the Atago's weapons had been destroyed and the ship also had severe although repairable structural damage. The shields had previously failed and the ship was taking hit after hit from the enemy. Crew casualties were coming into the bridge at alarming rates and many other crew members were caught in compartments with airless spaces surrounding them. The captain seems badly distracted and only mumbled when his executive officer reported that main power had failed and that if it was not stabilized within a few minutes, the warp core could have to be ejected. The executive officer reflect that the Captain was on the ragged edge of breaking down but that it would not matter in the end because the ship would likely be destroyed within the next ten minutes. The Atago's Captain had previously been in charge of an Oberth class Science Vessel and was not really a combatant officer although executive officer thought of him as a good man. The ship had been ambushed by four Cardassian Galor class cruisers and while they had managed to kill one of the cruisers, they had done no more than light damage to any of the others. With present damage, the Federation vessel could not escape into the badlands in the hopes of hiding either and so was a target waiting to be killed.
A few minutes had allowed the tactical officer on the Avenger to refine his data and he reported "Captain, I now have no drive reading for target three and assume it has been disabled. Target four seems to be a modified Excelsior drive pattern but seems to be fluctuating, probably due to heavy damage. The other three ship drives I cannot identify, although they have similarities to both Romulan and Klingon subspace fields. The ships are large and seemed to be about the size of the Excelsior themselves. From sensor data, it also appears that the three unidentified targets are engage the Excelsior."
Captain Ross blurted out before she could catch herself, "What the hell is an Excelsior class doing way out here" thinking that her ship was the only one had been sent out. She caught herself and continued with "Dennis, I need you to bring our own drive systems to minimal power to reduce the chance of being detected. I also want you to go on an intercept course but start zig zag maneuvers now and begin spinning when we come within torpedo range." Gwen did not wait for her helmsman to acknowledge and continued by addressing her communication officer, "Susan, I need you to send a tight beam message to the Excelsior informing them that we will be coming to their assistance." With her mind going in very fast mode she addressed her weapons and tactical officers without using their first names, "Weapons and Tactical, we need to put in to practice what I have been training you for. I want you watch for missiles coming in and I need you to be ready to shoot with the hull phasers any torpedoes that come into range. As soon as we are within range, I want you to open fire with both the forward and rear torpedo tubes. I want you to concentrate on only one target until it is destroyed. If we can destroy one before entering into phaser weapon range, it will be two ships against two ships."
The communication panel was no longer manned but it still beeped when a communication signal hit the Atago. The situation had become worse and the executive officer expected it to be a message ordering him to surrender. If it was, he need to think about the crews' lives. He sent the signal to one his remaining displays and looked at the file data. He noted it was in an out of date Starfleet signal scramble and encryption and the file date itself was wrong by almost a hundred years. The file listed the sources as U.S.S. Avenger, NCC 1860. Luckily, the Atago's computers had both the scramble and encryption and were able to translate the file. Attached was a visual file which he played immediately. A young women appeared on the display and said "This is Lieutenant junior grade Susan Novak, comm officer on the USS Avenger. To unknown Excelsior class Battleship, we can see you are in trouble and are engaged in combat with them. The Avenger is on its way to render assistance as soon as we are within range. Respond if you can. End of message."
Most of the Atago's sensors were out and there was no way of telling where the message had come from. The executive officer tried to bring it to his commanding officer but the captain was not responding to anything outside of himself. The executive officer knew that any slim chance for his ships and crews survival rested on his shoulders and activated his in ship communications "This is the executive officer, the captain has been injured and as such I am taking command of the ship." With that he sent his crews to stabilize the warp core.
He did not know why but something about the message kept nagging at him. The communication on the other ship called the ship and Excelsior class battleship but they had been reclassified as cruisers. Even more, the position of communication officer was now done by the other bridge positions, especially the helm officer. He called up the message file while dealing with his other duties and set the computer to find matches. The computer quickly beeped. It found a ship USS Avenger NCC-1860. He did a quick through the file and noted that ship's communication officer had been a Lt jg Susan Novak. The ship had been the first ship ever sent to explore the Badlands and had been lost near the time listed on the message he had received. The Avenger had been a predecessor of the Miranda class. This could all be some sort of strange Dominion trick but he though that it was not. This ship had been thought lost but he suspected it had suddenly jumped in time like had ocurred with other vessels before. Unfortunately, he thought it would die here because a Miranda was no match for one let alone three Cardassian Galor class cruisers.
"Torpedo Range" the Avengers tactical officer practically yelled. In the time the old frigate had taken to get to this range, it had accelerated considerably. Due to the ship both writhing like a snake and spinning, the ships acceleration had dropped to almost zero. The Avenger was a very hard target to hit and both sets of launchers could be fired forward.
While she was speaking slightly louder than normal, the captains tone sounded calm and even and she spoke the order "Go to continuous fire". A few seconds later, photon torpedoes were fired from the forward tubes and they were followed a few seconds later by torpedoes from the rear tubes.
It was not until then that the Cardassians noticed that they were under attack from an unexpected direction. The Sensor Officer of the flagship detected the volley coming in ad reported to his captain "Captain, I have detected a large volley of photon torpedoes coming from the edge of the Badlands. I do not detect any ship launching them."
The Cardassian Captain was a already angry at the fact that the Excelsior, in spite of being ambushed, had managed to destroy one of his ships. He snarl at his sensor officer "You Incompetent Idiot, were did this mystery torpedoes come from"
The sensor officer answered nervously, "Sir, I am not...." Just then, he got some sort of ship reading and amended his response "Sir, I am picking up some sort of ship just exiting the Badlands. I cannot tell what class but it appears to be fairly small. It could not be one of their larger cruisers. The subspace field around the ship also seems to shifting in unusual patterns. I cannot get any better than that but it is just inside of our torpedo range."
The Cardassian captain just listen for a few moments and thought about what it could be. The only small ship that he knew of that could fire that large a volley of missiles was a Defiant class escort. Begin as close as he was to Terrok Nor, it had to be the Defiant herself. While the subspace field could show a ship as large as a Miranda, those old ships could not fire this many torpedoes. If he could destroy it with Federation Commander Cisco, he would get awarded for his actions. If he could capture it, he might even get elevated to the rank of Gull. The problem is that the large number of torpedoes would destroy whatever ship they hit. He ordered one of the other cruisers to move forward to act as decoy for the missiles while his ship would drop back and actually use the Excelsior as partial cover. The Federation cruiser had not fired in several minutes and the warp core was fluctuating.
The Atago had not been fired at for a few minutes and in engineering, the ship's chief engineer had finally gotten the Warp Core stabilized and if the ship had just a few more minutes he might be able to make real progress. Bringing the deflectors shields back on line was next on his priorities. He had just finished telling the executive officer his status but he did not think that the commanding officer had been injured.
The executive officer of the Atago had finished listening to the report but he was more concerned with all the torpedoes that had been fired outwards from the Cardassian vessels. While he could not detect the Avenger on his damaged sensors, he imagined that they were firing on the Avenger. On his remaining sensors, he noticed than one of the Cardassian ships was trying to use his ship as cover. The first officer imagined that the ship was the flagship and if they had known that he had a few functional weapon systems on the Atago, they would not have tried anything stupid like this. The executive officer would only have a few seconds to react. He ordered his tactical officer "Open fire on the bridge of that nearby ship with all remaining weapons." A few seconds later, all of the badly mauled Atago's phasers and photon torpedoes were fired. The Cardassian flagship captain did not know what was happening until it was to late and all of his dreams dies with him. Huge shards of armor exploded into the bridge of the Cardassian vessel.
The crew of the other Cardassian cruisers were paralyzed for a few important moments by the loss of their flagship. Just as they were recovering, the first volley of photon torpedoes struck the Cardassian vessel and the ships shields were knocked flat. A few moments later, the second volley stuck the same ship and inflicted severe damage. Yet another volley struck home and the Galor blew up in a massive explosion from a warp core breach. The captain of the remaining Cardassian Galor decided that he was in trouble and changed his vector to 180 degrees away from the attacking vessel and attempted to make a run for it.
The Avenger had not been missed completely. A large number of torpedoes had been launched at her. Most of the missiles lost their targeting because the Avenger did not give a constant target silhouette from the ships weaving and flipping around on its center. Without being ordered, the Avenger's weapon officer locked the phaser banks on incoming missiles and fire wiping out a large percentage of the missiles that had been homing in on his ship. The warheads on theses missiles were Dominion provided and were far more powerful than those carried by Cardassian vessels before joining the Dominion and far more powerful than those carried on the Avenger. Several warheads hit the ships shields but the shields held like champions with only minor damage to the ship and the forward shields were reduced by 80% of what they were before the torpedoes struck. The Captain ordered her helmsman to stop the flat spin of the ship and to bring the Avenger into full pursuit of the remaining enemy vessel.
The captain on the remain Galor vessel caught himself thinking that the situation was not going well. A parting shot from the crippled Excelsior class cruiser had damaged one of his warp nacelles enough that he could not bring his ship into warp and escape. While he was running at full speed, the chasing vessel could out accelerate his vessel. He had been firing torpedoes out of his rear launcher but the ship seemed to be somehow stopping the torpedoes before they reached the pursuing vessel. The good news was that it was a Miranda class and not a Defiant class but it also seemed the missile launchers had been heavily upgraded to fire such large volleys. The volleys had now returned to normal and the captain assumed the ship must be running out of photon torpedoes. He could open up with the rear firing heavy spiral disruptor when the ship came within range but the odds of hitting with the weapon were low. Also, his ships rear shields had taken quite a beating from the Miranda's torpedoes and would quickly collapse if it came to close in beam weapon combat. He decided to take the situation logically. He could turn to fight. He badly out-massed the Miranda and maybe he could get a partial victory from the horrible defeat his fleet had suffered. His forward beam weaponry was better than the Miranda assuming a low number of hits from the ships Mega-Phasers and he could then go back and destroy the Excelsior. The damn Mega-Phasers could inflict massive damage if they hit but few weapon's crews were very good at hitting with the weapon system. He ordered his crews to make the ship turn so that it would be facing the Miranda just as the Federation vessel got within phaser range. Just as he was making the order, another torpedo struck his rear shields and this time it got through. Damage was fairly light but he lost his rear mega-phaser mount. Luckily, the side shields took the next several hits and his ship remained intact. It seemed that he was committed to engage the Federation forces if he was to survive.
While the two ships closed, the crew of the Atago had not been idle. The fight between the Avenger and the Cardassians had allowed the repair crews of the Excelsior class vessel to work in the safer environment of not constantly being fired at. The engineers had finally been able to stabilize the ships anti-matter bottle for the warp core and they were now working on restoring the ship's shields. The Executive Officer though that if he could come up in support of the Avenger, he could get the remaining Galor to make a run for it. The Atago would require several hours to restore warp power so there was a danger that the Cardassians could bring reinforcement but it seemed to be the best chance. Since the Avenger was also within his damaged communication system's range, he should also be able to open up a communication channel with the old vessel. He looked up the old communication protocols so that he could talk with the Avenger.
"This is Commander Jackson, executive officer of the U.S.S. Atago, I need to speak to your commanding officer" was received by Lt jg Novak, Communication Officer of the Avenger.
As far as she knew, there was no Excelsior class vessel known as the Atago which made no sense. Still, it was her job to relay messages to the captain and this is the first message that she had gotten from the vessel. She "Captain, I have a message from the Excelsior class vessel. All communication protocols appear correct but I have no vessel named the Atago in ship registries. I checked my lists of vessels and there is no vessel presently in service by that name."
Captain Ross responded far quicker than the communication officer expected "Lieutenant Novak, did you check vessels under construction? It is possible that we got some bad dating on vessel completion."
Susan Novak had already checked that but rechecked and even check a list of planned but not laid down vessels. The Atago was name planned for a vessel that should be laid down in about ten years and she decided that she should tell her captain this "Sir, the Atago is a name planed for an Excelsior class to be started in about ten years but I have no records other than that.
Gwendoline Ross thought about this for a few moments. What made the most sense to her was that the name might have been given to an earlier vessel but even that did not seem very likely. Well, none of this internal debate would get the problem solved so she asked the communication officer to put the Atago's executive officer on the main screen/ She would have a few minutes before having to engage the remaining enemy vessel in combat.
Captain Ross was proud that none of her crew reacted to the scene that they saw on the visual display. The inside of the bridge looked like it was set up in the same pattern as a standard Excelsior class battleship but display screens had exploded, electrical conduits were hanging from the overhead. Several bodies could be seen on the bridge as well as a figure in the captains chair that was rolled into a ball. It was partially due to the destruction distracting them and partially due to the poor remaining lighting on the Atago's bridge, but neither the captain or any other member the crew of the Avenger noticed that the uniforms on the crew members on the Atago were different.
"This is Commander Jackson, there is much I need to explain but I doubt we have the time, Captain. I believe that it would be best to retreat from the engagement and allow the Cardassian vessel to retreat. I do not believe you understand the capabilities of a Cardassian Galor class vessel" In the calm he saw on the Avenger, the Atago's Second in Command noticed that the bridge crew were wearing hazardous duty suit and was confused by that but before he could comment on it, Gwendolyn Ross answered.
Commander Ross shook her head thinking about the attitude of retreating when engaging would be the better solution. As she watched, the Cardassian vessel turned around and headed towards the Avenger in an intercept course. "He is coming back to attack because I think that ships weaponry is damaged. If I make a straight up attack, I can use the Mega Phasers to cripple his forward shields. As I pass, I can do a 360 degree spin and open up of the rear of his vessel. If you bring the Atago to occupy him in front, he will need to choose who he will engage and we should be able to quickly destroy the vessel." The Atago's second in command looked a little confused but made no comment so the Avengers Captain continued after a few moments pause "I assume that the Captain is injured so you are in command, Commander Jackson?" Commander Jackson gave an almost imperceptible nod and she continued "How long until you can restore warp drive?"
There he answered promptly because it was something that he had been working with the engineers since the battle had started "Captain, I have been checking with the engineers and they say about eighteen hours. Along with serious damage to the Warp Drive, the ship has lost a large number of Engineers and I do not have many crew members from other departments than can be spared" The executive officer nervously clasped his hands together nervously. He knew how bad normal hit rates with the Mega-Phasers are at long range and was concerned that Commander Ross could not deliver what she promised. Then again, she had already done some incredible feats with her old cruiser.
Captain Ross did not react for a few moments but after pausing answered calmly "Commander, perhaps I can spare a few engineers after the engagement is finished. I would like you to follow us at best speed possible and assist in the engagement. We have run out of time and we will be in phaser range soon" hoping that the Commander would agree with her. If not, the Avenger would end up engaging this ‘Cardassian' vessel by itself. She left the communication channel open but began giving directions to her bridge crew.
Commander Jackson realized that this captain was different than any that he had met before and that she would never fall apart in a battle "Captain, we will follow you at best speed possible" he turned to the helm control and activated the battered impulse and set the Atago to follow the Avenger.
Gwendolyn Ross stood calmly beside her command chair watching the displays as the Avenger went through the last few light seconds before firing its mega-phasers. The Avengers forward shields were back up to eighty percent from the missile engagement and everything looked ready. The frigate's helmsman had already began side to side maneuvers as the tactical officer began attempting to confuse the Cardassian sensors. The Captain nodded to her weapons officer to indicate that he could begin firing as soon as the ship was within range.
As soon as the Avenger was within range, Lieutenant McMilligan began firing the mega-phasers. One of the specific training areas that weapons department had been to increase the amount of hits with the mega-phasers and as a result, far more hits were scored on the Galor than the Cardassian captain though was possible. Both Mega-Phasers struck the Cardassian vessel. While these hits did not do much more than scorch the hull, the forward shield was knocked flat. Soon, both the Galor's and the Avenger's main weaponry came within range and both ships fired every weapon that they could in an all out attempt to kill each other. The Avenger's forward shields were intact when the battle started and had her forward shields knocked down and lost two of her phaser banks as well as having a hole blown in the side of the bridge. The ship's main communication systems went with the bridge but lucky the whole bridge crew was in the hostile environment suits and no one was killed. The Cardassian Galor class cruiser was not so lucky. Every forward weapon system was demolished by the Avenger's six phaser banks but that did nor matter. A close range strike with a mega-phaser clawed deep within the Galor's hull and created a cascade failure within the Warp Core and what was a starship suddenly became an expanding cloud of Gas.
Captain Ross breathed a sigh of relief along with almost everybody on the bridge crew. The hole in the bridge was glaringly obvious and Commander Masterson came just a few inches from being hit by the disruptor beam. She considered herself extremely lucky. The bridge displays confirmed that the Avenger had no more than moderate damage but the damage to some of the phasers banks would likely require shipyard or at least a repair ship. The communication systems were also badly messed up and would require more repairs than could be completed with on-board supplies. The short range communications were functional and Commander Ross spoke to the Atago's second in command "Until repairs are complete, I think we will try and hide in the plasma nebula"
A few hours later, a slightly confused Commander Gwendolyn Ross found herself walking on the bridge of the Excelsior class Cruiser ‘U.S.S. Atago'. She had managed to get repairs started on both her vessel and the much larger Atago. She had transferred a large number of engineers to the Excelsior class and the time for repair had been revised from eighteen to ten hours to get the Warp Drives online. By then, half of the Avenger's damaged phasers would be restored and the hull beside the bridge was already patched and atmosphere was restored. Until all needed repairs were complete, the vessels would be sitting in the Badlands hiding as best they could The captain of the Atago was laying in medical and had been sedated. The whole crew knew by now that he would never command a ship again.
Captain Ross had discovered that her ship had been thrown into the far future and that the Federation was fighting a star empire known as the Dominion. The Dominion were winning against the Federation and it seemed that the Federation had another enemy know as the Borg. It sounded like there had been many changes within the Federation as well. She had no problem with the change of uniforms, the Federation had already changed its uniforms several times from her original time frame. She got the impression that the crew of the Atago considered themselves to be explorers that were stuck in a military role. While she did not know the full story, she knew that the Atago was named after a Japanese cruiser from World War II and yet the crew seemed to have distaste for military matters. When she mentioned about making payroll arrangement for her crew, she got the comment "Money is outmoded" from Commander Shawn Jackson, the executive officer, now acting captain, of the Atago. The society that she was learning about seemed more socialist than anything else. Many of the terms that the commander used seemed to be straight from Karl Marx, a person from the early part of the twentieth century that she had read about when she was a student in the academy. All industry was now controlled by the government and are supposed to be owned by the people. This seemed to cause a stagnation in general technological discoveries and based on most of the new equipment added to the Atago, little advancement seems to have been made. This would seem to be cause by no competition in product development. Since going to war with the Dominion and the Borg, Technical Development had been boosted but not half as much as would have been if there were several competing companies. It also seemed that all long range communication was run by the Federation and was maintained by Starfleet. As well, most starships had ships councilors assigned to them. These people sounds like political officers from the histories she had read of the Soviet Union before its collapse. Gwendolyn thought she had established a strong espre-de-corp with her crew and did not want to subject her crew to the changes and was trying to figure out how she could do this. She rubbed her eyes as the other Commander continued he speak about how wonderful the Federation had become. Commander Jackson seemed to be a good person but he had been brainwashed by the Starfleet Schools. Well, it was time for her to get back to her own vessel.
The Avenger had just left warp travel from her huge trip into unknown space. On maximum visual magnification, the high energy plasma nebula glowed brightly in a vast variety of different colors. The Avenger was slowly approaching the interesting anomaly but would be stopping before it entered it. Finally busy, the scientist that had been brought onboard at Earth were happily chatting with each other. They were examining the steady stream of new sensor data that they were getting on the unusual plasma nebula. To the scientists, this whole trip was worth it.
To the Executive Officer, this trip was worth it as well. She considered the crew of the Avenger to now be the most dangerous team in all of the Federation. The first three week of the trip out here was pure hell on everyone including the captain who worked as hard as she expected her crew to. The crew had finally meshed and a strong fellowship had replaced complacency. At present, Captain Ross was catching up on some of her sleep and her second in command was sitting in bridge command chair. Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson had brown hair and brown eyes in common with her captain but was tall, slim, and curvaceous. While she wore her hair pinned up while she was on duty, her rich and wavy hair would fall to the small of her back when she unpinned it. Although she would not admit it except to herself, she liked the old mini-skirt style uniforms that had been worn before she had joined because it would allow her to show off her long and shapely legs. She had realized that her captain considered herself to be an ugly duckling and hope to convince her of her own beauty eventually. The executive officer herself had collected non military clothes from all over her travels and thought that some styles, if cut down for the captains stature, would be quite attractive. Even if she was to have her own cut down, it would not hurt because Paula's cabinets were almost stuffed full as is. She felt she owed the captain anyway because after the initial briefing after the Avenger left Sol system, Captain Ross never mentioned previous performance and treated her executive officer with full respect. Even though the captain had laid no blame for the pour initial performances of the crew, Commander Masterson blamed herself for allowing herself and the rest of the crew to fall into a pattern of Laziness from the old captain. Captain Eason had been a nice person but had been simply looking forward to retirement. Now, the executive officer was hoping that the Avenger could complete it's mission quickly so that they could compete in the next annual War Games. Many captains would be very upset when they were beaten by an old frigate with a brand new captain and a crew that was barely considered proficient. Even Captain Sulu and Captain Kirk might find themselves on the losing side and they had been holding the number one and number two positions for the last few years.
Two days later, almost all the data that could be collected externally had been collected and internal data was what the scientists wanted now. The Avenger had moved slightly closer and now was just outside the effects of the high energy nebula. A large number of sensor probes had already been fired at the plasma clouds to get information but all had quickly stopped communicating. The scientists had told Captain Ross that the probes were not very well protected and had quickly been destroyed by the plasma but as long as the Avenger went in with full shields, the ship could enter the Nebula without any chance of being damaged. She had her own science officer, Lieutenant junior grade Josephine Phelps, look as well at the data the probes had gotten and the science officer had agreed with the transient scientists. All of this meant that she had no reason to say no. She had the ship prepared to go within the Nebula in a few minutes and already had the ships shields raised as well as having the ship on yellow alert. A course of entry had already been worked out which should give her the maximum amount of safety margin. The Avenger would proceed using just maneuvering thrusters and would only engage impulse engines when it was proven safe. Captain Ross could no help being nervous anyway and was standing beside her chance and wringing her hands to avoid showing her nervous anticipation. She knew the longer that she waited, the more tension she would have. Overcoming her own tension she requested to her helmsman "Dennis, if could please, please proceed on the planned course into the nebula." She was pleased that she had been able to keep any nervousness from her voice. Strange anomalies scared her more than battle.
The helmsman answered her with the expected "Yes, Sir" and activated the program that would control the ships entry into the nebula. Lieutenant Dennis Hanley had his hands on the manual controls in case something went wrong but there seemed to be no problems. The maneuvering thrusters activating providing just a few Gravities of thrust and shut down after less than five minutes. The ship drifted towards the outer layer of the nebula on pure inertia. As the bow of the frigate entered into the Nebula, the bow of the ship acted much like a sail and was forced upwards by a crosscurrent caused by millions of particles went from the bottom to the top of the nebula. The helmsman made some corrections so the thrusters would compensate for the particle hitting the ships. The particles fluoresced as the struck the Avengers shields but the hammering inflicted no real damage to the shields.
The Tactical Officer reported the status of the shields in response to an unasked question "Captain, our shields are holding near 100 percent and there seems to be no problems with the ship staying in the nebula for an extended period of time."
The captain did a quick look at her own repeaters to verify the status of the shields and seeing it for herself, addressed the science officer with "Science Officer, you may tell our guests that they may begin their testing of the inside of the nebula" realizing that the science officer wanted to join the scientists at probing the secrets of the nebula..
Almost a week later, the scientists were virtually finished with all the testing they could do. They were not satisfied with the results but there were few tests left to do. The captain could soon order the Avenger out of the plasma nebula. The final tests were interrupted by an unknown anomaly that started far below the subatomic level. A massive amount of energy fed the anomaly and it became a wormhole about four centimeters across. It would have collapsed in less than a second but it interacted with and was further fed the subspace fields of the Avenger and expanded a few million fold. Less than a second later, all power failed and the entire frigate was plunged into total darkness. After about 10 seconds, the ship emergency lights came on and the ship was lit by dim red lights.
Bypassing the communications officer, Gwen Ross opened a channel to main engineering and with a voice that the rest of the bridge could tell was agitated said "Chief Engineer, Damage Control Officer, I need status reports and I need them now!"
Lieutenant Commander Charles Dunstan, the Chief Engineer, was first in finding his voice "Sir, as far as I can determine, all the main safeties have blown but anti-matter storage is holding steady. I should be able to get the emergency fusion backups online within a few minutes and I should be able to get main power online within fifteen minutes provided that there was no system damage. I need to run a few tests to determine if there is a problem. One place I need to specifically check is the anti-matter feed lines."
The time it had taken for the chief engineer to report his situation had given the Damage Control Officer time to collect her thoughts. Lieutenant junior grade Sabrina Lee was a bit old for her rank but was quite competent. She was of Asian descent and had an ageless quality. She began her report as soon as her chief engineer was finish with his report, "Captain, I have received no reports of damage but I am checking deck by deck and should be able to give a full report within less than five minutes." By her tone, it sounded like she expected her captain to jump on her for not getting full data.
Captain Ross, now that she had a few moment to calm down, she realized that it would take a few minutes for full reports to be completed. The captain replied in a now calm sounding voice with "Understood" and she paused for a moment but continued with "But I need you to expedite in any way possible." She knew that by yelling, she would just take longer for the crew to complete her orders. She did order her executive officer to put the ship on yellow alert .
The captains restraint was rewarded just four minutes later with the fusion reactors coming online and emergency power being put online. When power came back, she had the helmsman bring the ship to a complete stop. As sensors came back online, both the science officer and the tactical officer reported that the sensor reading were different than they had been just a few minutes earlier and neither could offer any explanation. Gwendoline looked at her own restored sensors and the systems data did not make sense to her either when compared to the previous readings. Thankfully, she got a report from the damage control officer a moment later and there was no damage being reported other than some light shock damage and none of the crew had any serious injuries. The Chief Engineer reported soon after that with some bad news. It would take about thirty minutes before main power could be restored due to some minor damage to the anti-matter reactor feed systems.
Gwendoline Ross made a snap decision and ordered her Navigator "John, I want you to plot a least time course out of this nebula and pass it to the helmsman as soon as you have it plotted." She switched he attention to her helmsman and continued with "Dennis, I want you to follow the course but keep the ship down to ten percent of the speed of light." She switched to her tactical officer and her science officer, "Mike and Josephine, I want you to keep a vigilant sensor watch and warn me if you see anything unusual. Josephine, could you please tell the scientists to make any last minute tests that they have planned because I d not plan to go back into this nebula until and unless we can find out what happened"
Five hours later, the science officer and tactical officers could finally detect the edge of the plasma nebula. The gasses in the nebula prevented getting exact fixes and the entire structure of the clouds of super heated particles were different than previously observed. The Avenger had been on yellow alert for the entire trip out of the nebula and were getting tired. Commander Ross shared her crews exhaustion but knew that within about half an hour, the ship would finally be out of the nebula. The ships main power system had been more stubborn than expected. Instead of require a half an hour, the repair had taken almost a full hour due to some hidden damage. Now the ship was as close to 100% as could be attained and the Avenger was fully operational. The Captain had her science officer and the scientist ‘guests' working on a solution to what had occurred but they had no theories beyond that it was the effects of some type of subspace anomaly. This answer could mean one of a few million events and told the captain nothing.
Time seemed to travel very slowly as the Avenger got closer to the end of the nebula. While the captain seemed to be relaxing in her command chair, she was in reality keeping a very careful watch on the data coming from the science and tactical sensors. While she considered it slightly undercutting her junior officers rolls, she found it very hard not to do so because she had been a tactical officer herself. In just a few minutes, the frigate would be out of the nebula and hopefully safe as well. Just then, she noticed five unusual subspace bubbles that by their patterns normally mean starship drives in operation. They were close to the nebula and they were in fairly close proximity. She also knew that her tactical officer was probably scanning only forward and would not notice the other starships that were off to the side. She brought it to his attention with a calm "Lieutenant Anson, there are some subspace bubbles that probably represent starship drives. They are at position 34.53 degrees by 13.11 degrees. Leave forward scanning to the science officer and see if you can identify the targets." she waited for him to acknowledge the order.
The Tactical Officer frowned for a moment at his scanners but he quickly noted the five targets that had been pointed out by his captain. He replied quickly with a "Yes, Sir" and began refining his targets. They were obviously ships but the targets were at a long range and material of the nebula still reduced the effective sensor range.
The war against the Dominion was not going well and the Federation had already suffered heavy losses. On the USS Atago, NCC 2074, a refitted Excelsior class starship pulled from out of mothball, this was the case as well. Many of the control panels on the bridge had shorted out and many systems were down. Over half of the Atago's weapons had been destroyed and the ship also had severe although repairable structural damage. The shields had previously failed and the ship was taking hit after hit from the enemy. Crew casualties were coming into the bridge at alarming rates and many other crew members were caught in compartments with airless spaces surrounding them. The captain seems badly distracted and only mumbled when his executive officer reported that main power had failed and that if it was not stabilized within a few minutes, the warp core could have to be ejected. The executive officer reflect that the Captain was on the ragged edge of breaking down but that it would not matter in the end because the ship would likely be destroyed within the next ten minutes. The Atago's Captain had previously been in charge of an Oberth class Science Vessel and was not really a combatant officer although executive officer thought of him as a good man. The ship had been ambushed by four Cardassian Galor class cruisers and while they had managed to kill one of the cruisers, they had done no more than light damage to any of the others. With present damage, the Federation vessel could not escape into the badlands in the hopes of hiding either and so was a target waiting to be killed.
A few minutes had allowed the tactical officer on the Avenger to refine his data and he reported "Captain, I now have no drive reading for target three and assume it has been disabled. Target four seems to be a modified Excelsior drive pattern but seems to be fluctuating, probably due to heavy damage. The other three ship drives I cannot identify, although they have similarities to both Romulan and Klingon subspace fields. The ships are large and seemed to be about the size of the Excelsior themselves. From sensor data, it also appears that the three unidentified targets are engage the Excelsior."
Captain Ross blurted out before she could catch herself, "What the hell is an Excelsior class doing way out here" thinking that her ship was the only one had been sent out. She caught herself and continued with "Dennis, I need you to bring our own drive systems to minimal power to reduce the chance of being detected. I also want you to go on an intercept course but start zig zag maneuvers now and begin spinning when we come within torpedo range." Gwen did not wait for her helmsman to acknowledge and continued by addressing her communication officer, "Susan, I need you to send a tight beam message to the Excelsior informing them that we will be coming to their assistance." With her mind going in very fast mode she addressed her weapons and tactical officers without using their first names, "Weapons and Tactical, we need to put in to practice what I have been training you for. I want you watch for missiles coming in and I need you to be ready to shoot with the hull phasers any torpedoes that come into range. As soon as we are within range, I want you to open fire with both the forward and rear torpedo tubes. I want you to concentrate on only one target until it is destroyed. If we can destroy one before entering into phaser weapon range, it will be two ships against two ships."
The communication panel was no longer manned but it still beeped when a communication signal hit the Atago. The situation had become worse and the executive officer expected it to be a message ordering him to surrender. If it was, he need to think about the crews' lives. He sent the signal to one his remaining displays and looked at the file data. He noted it was in an out of date Starfleet signal scramble and encryption and the file date itself was wrong by almost a hundred years. The file listed the sources as U.S.S. Avenger, NCC 1860. Luckily, the Atago's computers had both the scramble and encryption and were able to translate the file. Attached was a visual file which he played immediately. A young women appeared on the display and said "This is Lieutenant junior grade Susan Novak, comm officer on the USS Avenger. To unknown Excelsior class Battleship, we can see you are in trouble and are engaged in combat with them. The Avenger is on its way to render assistance as soon as we are within range. Respond if you can. End of message."
Most of the Atago's sensors were out and there was no way of telling where the message had come from. The executive officer tried to bring it to his commanding officer but the captain was not responding to anything outside of himself. The executive officer knew that any slim chance for his ships and crews survival rested on his shoulders and activated his in ship communications "This is the executive officer, the captain has been injured and as such I am taking command of the ship." With that he sent his crews to stabilize the warp core.
He did not know why but something about the message kept nagging at him. The communication on the other ship called the ship and Excelsior class battleship but they had been reclassified as cruisers. Even more, the position of communication officer was now done by the other bridge positions, especially the helm officer. He called up the message file while dealing with his other duties and set the computer to find matches. The computer quickly beeped. It found a ship USS Avenger NCC-1860. He did a quick through the file and noted that ship's communication officer had been a Lt jg Susan Novak. The ship had been the first ship ever sent to explore the Badlands and had been lost near the time listed on the message he had received. The Avenger had been a predecessor of the Miranda class. This could all be some sort of strange Dominion trick but he though that it was not. This ship had been thought lost but he suspected it had suddenly jumped in time like had ocurred with other vessels before. Unfortunately, he thought it would die here because a Miranda was no match for one let alone three Cardassian Galor class cruisers.
"Torpedo Range" the Avengers tactical officer practically yelled. In the time the old frigate had taken to get to this range, it had accelerated considerably. Due to the ship both writhing like a snake and spinning, the ships acceleration had dropped to almost zero. The Avenger was a very hard target to hit and both sets of launchers could be fired forward.
While she was speaking slightly louder than normal, the captains tone sounded calm and even and she spoke the order "Go to continuous fire". A few seconds later, photon torpedoes were fired from the forward tubes and they were followed a few seconds later by torpedoes from the rear tubes.
It was not until then that the Cardassians noticed that they were under attack from an unexpected direction. The Sensor Officer of the flagship detected the volley coming in ad reported to his captain "Captain, I have detected a large volley of photon torpedoes coming from the edge of the Badlands. I do not detect any ship launching them."
The Cardassian Captain was a already angry at the fact that the Excelsior, in spite of being ambushed, had managed to destroy one of his ships. He snarl at his sensor officer "You Incompetent Idiot, were did this mystery torpedoes come from"
The sensor officer answered nervously, "Sir, I am not...." Just then, he got some sort of ship reading and amended his response "Sir, I am picking up some sort of ship just exiting the Badlands. I cannot tell what class but it appears to be fairly small. It could not be one of their larger cruisers. The subspace field around the ship also seems to shifting in unusual patterns. I cannot get any better than that but it is just inside of our torpedo range."
The Cardassian captain just listen for a few moments and thought about what it could be. The only small ship that he knew of that could fire that large a volley of missiles was a Defiant class escort. Begin as close as he was to Terrok Nor, it had to be the Defiant herself. While the subspace field could show a ship as large as a Miranda, those old ships could not fire this many torpedoes. If he could destroy it with Federation Commander Cisco, he would get awarded for his actions. If he could capture it, he might even get elevated to the rank of Gull. The problem is that the large number of torpedoes would destroy whatever ship they hit. He ordered one of the other cruisers to move forward to act as decoy for the missiles while his ship would drop back and actually use the Excelsior as partial cover. The Federation cruiser had not fired in several minutes and the warp core was fluctuating.
The Atago had not been fired at for a few minutes and in engineering, the ship's chief engineer had finally gotten the Warp Core stabilized and if the ship had just a few more minutes he might be able to make real progress. Bringing the deflectors shields back on line was next on his priorities. He had just finished telling the executive officer his status but he did not think that the commanding officer had been injured.
The executive officer of the Atago had finished listening to the report but he was more concerned with all the torpedoes that had been fired outwards from the Cardassian vessels. While he could not detect the Avenger on his damaged sensors, he imagined that they were firing on the Avenger. On his remaining sensors, he noticed than one of the Cardassian ships was trying to use his ship as cover. The first officer imagined that the ship was the flagship and if they had known that he had a few functional weapon systems on the Atago, they would not have tried anything stupid like this. The executive officer would only have a few seconds to react. He ordered his tactical officer "Open fire on the bridge of that nearby ship with all remaining weapons." A few seconds later, all of the badly mauled Atago's phasers and photon torpedoes were fired. The Cardassian flagship captain did not know what was happening until it was to late and all of his dreams dies with him. Huge shards of armor exploded into the bridge of the Cardassian vessel.
The crew of the other Cardassian cruisers were paralyzed for a few important moments by the loss of their flagship. Just as they were recovering, the first volley of photon torpedoes struck the Cardassian vessel and the ships shields were knocked flat. A few moments later, the second volley stuck the same ship and inflicted severe damage. Yet another volley struck home and the Galor blew up in a massive explosion from a warp core breach. The captain of the remaining Cardassian Galor decided that he was in trouble and changed his vector to 180 degrees away from the attacking vessel and attempted to make a run for it.
The Avenger had not been missed completely. A large number of torpedoes had been launched at her. Most of the missiles lost their targeting because the Avenger did not give a constant target silhouette from the ships weaving and flipping around on its center. Without being ordered, the Avenger's weapon officer locked the phaser banks on incoming missiles and fire wiping out a large percentage of the missiles that had been homing in on his ship. The warheads on theses missiles were Dominion provided and were far more powerful than those carried by Cardassian vessels before joining the Dominion and far more powerful than those carried on the Avenger. Several warheads hit the ships shields but the shields held like champions with only minor damage to the ship and the forward shields were reduced by 80% of what they were before the torpedoes struck. The Captain ordered her helmsman to stop the flat spin of the ship and to bring the Avenger into full pursuit of the remaining enemy vessel.
The captain on the remain Galor vessel caught himself thinking that the situation was not going well. A parting shot from the crippled Excelsior class cruiser had damaged one of his warp nacelles enough that he could not bring his ship into warp and escape. While he was running at full speed, the chasing vessel could out accelerate his vessel. He had been firing torpedoes out of his rear launcher but the ship seemed to be somehow stopping the torpedoes before they reached the pursuing vessel. The good news was that it was a Miranda class and not a Defiant class but it also seemed the missile launchers had been heavily upgraded to fire such large volleys. The volleys had now returned to normal and the captain assumed the ship must be running out of photon torpedoes. He could open up with the rear firing heavy spiral disruptor when the ship came within range but the odds of hitting with the weapon were low. Also, his ships rear shields had taken quite a beating from the Miranda's torpedoes and would quickly collapse if it came to close in beam weapon combat. He decided to take the situation logically. He could turn to fight. He badly out-massed the Miranda and maybe he could get a partial victory from the horrible defeat his fleet had suffered. His forward beam weaponry was better than the Miranda assuming a low number of hits from the ships Mega-Phasers and he could then go back and destroy the Excelsior. The damn Mega-Phasers could inflict massive damage if they hit but few weapon's crews were very good at hitting with the weapon system. He ordered his crews to make the ship turn so that it would be facing the Miranda just as the Federation vessel got within phaser range. Just as he was making the order, another torpedo struck his rear shields and this time it got through. Damage was fairly light but he lost his rear mega-phaser mount. Luckily, the side shields took the next several hits and his ship remained intact. It seemed that he was committed to engage the Federation forces if he was to survive.
While the two ships closed, the crew of the Atago had not been idle. The fight between the Avenger and the Cardassians had allowed the repair crews of the Excelsior class vessel to work in the safer environment of not constantly being fired at. The engineers had finally been able to stabilize the ships anti-matter bottle for the warp core and they were now working on restoring the ship's shields. The Executive Officer though that if he could come up in support of the Avenger, he could get the remaining Galor to make a run for it. The Atago would require several hours to restore warp power so there was a danger that the Cardassians could bring reinforcement but it seemed to be the best chance. Since the Avenger was also within his damaged communication system's range, he should also be able to open up a communication channel with the old vessel. He looked up the old communication protocols so that he could talk with the Avenger.
"This is Commander Jackson, executive officer of the U.S.S. Atago, I need to speak to your commanding officer" was received by Lt jg Novak, Communication Officer of the Avenger.
As far as she knew, there was no Excelsior class vessel known as the Atago which made no sense. Still, it was her job to relay messages to the captain and this is the first message that she had gotten from the vessel. She "Captain, I have a message from the Excelsior class vessel. All communication protocols appear correct but I have no vessel named the Atago in ship registries. I checked my lists of vessels and there is no vessel presently in service by that name."
Captain Ross responded far quicker than the communication officer expected "Lieutenant Novak, did you check vessels under construction? It is possible that we got some bad dating on vessel completion."
Susan Novak had already checked that but rechecked and even check a list of planned but not laid down vessels. The Atago was name planned for a vessel that should be laid down in about ten years and she decided that she should tell her captain this "Sir, the Atago is a name planed for an Excelsior class to be started in about ten years but I have no records other than that.
Gwendoline Ross thought about this for a few moments. What made the most sense to her was that the name might have been given to an earlier vessel but even that did not seem very likely. Well, none of this internal debate would get the problem solved so she asked the communication officer to put the Atago's executive officer on the main screen/ She would have a few minutes before having to engage the remaining enemy vessel in combat.
Captain Ross was proud that none of her crew reacted to the scene that they saw on the visual display. The inside of the bridge looked like it was set up in the same pattern as a standard Excelsior class battleship but display screens had exploded, electrical conduits were hanging from the overhead. Several bodies could be seen on the bridge as well as a figure in the captains chair that was rolled into a ball. It was partially due to the destruction distracting them and partially due to the poor remaining lighting on the Atago's bridge, but neither the captain or any other member the crew of the Avenger noticed that the uniforms on the crew members on the Atago were different.
"This is Commander Jackson, there is much I need to explain but I doubt we have the time, Captain. I believe that it would be best to retreat from the engagement and allow the Cardassian vessel to retreat. I do not believe you understand the capabilities of a Cardassian Galor class vessel" In the calm he saw on the Avenger, the Atago's Second in Command noticed that the bridge crew were wearing hazardous duty suit and was confused by that but before he could comment on it, Gwendolyn Ross answered.
Commander Ross shook her head thinking about the attitude of retreating when engaging would be the better solution. As she watched, the Cardassian vessel turned around and headed towards the Avenger in an intercept course. "He is coming back to attack because I think that ships weaponry is damaged. If I make a straight up attack, I can use the Mega Phasers to cripple his forward shields. As I pass, I can do a 360 degree spin and open up of the rear of his vessel. If you bring the Atago to occupy him in front, he will need to choose who he will engage and we should be able to quickly destroy the vessel." The Atago's second in command looked a little confused but made no comment so the Avengers Captain continued after a few moments pause "I assume that the Captain is injured so you are in command, Commander Jackson?" Commander Jackson gave an almost imperceptible nod and she continued "How long until you can restore warp drive?"
There he answered promptly because it was something that he had been working with the engineers since the battle had started "Captain, I have been checking with the engineers and they say about eighteen hours. Along with serious damage to the Warp Drive, the ship has lost a large number of Engineers and I do not have many crew members from other departments than can be spared" The executive officer nervously clasped his hands together nervously. He knew how bad normal hit rates with the Mega-Phasers are at long range and was concerned that Commander Ross could not deliver what she promised. Then again, she had already done some incredible feats with her old cruiser.
Captain Ross did not react for a few moments but after pausing answered calmly "Commander, perhaps I can spare a few engineers after the engagement is finished. I would like you to follow us at best speed possible and assist in the engagement. We have run out of time and we will be in phaser range soon" hoping that the Commander would agree with her. If not, the Avenger would end up engaging this ‘Cardassian' vessel by itself. She left the communication channel open but began giving directions to her bridge crew.
Commander Jackson realized that this captain was different than any that he had met before and that she would never fall apart in a battle "Captain, we will follow you at best speed possible" he turned to the helm control and activated the battered impulse and set the Atago to follow the Avenger.
Gwendolyn Ross stood calmly beside her command chair watching the displays as the Avenger went through the last few light seconds before firing its mega-phasers. The Avengers forward shields were back up to eighty percent from the missile engagement and everything looked ready. The frigate's helmsman had already began side to side maneuvers as the tactical officer began attempting to confuse the Cardassian sensors. The Captain nodded to her weapons officer to indicate that he could begin firing as soon as the ship was within range.
As soon as the Avenger was within range, Lieutenant McMilligan began firing the mega-phasers. One of the specific training areas that weapons department had been to increase the amount of hits with the mega-phasers and as a result, far more hits were scored on the Galor than the Cardassian captain though was possible. Both Mega-Phasers struck the Cardassian vessel. While these hits did not do much more than scorch the hull, the forward shield was knocked flat. Soon, both the Galor's and the Avenger's main weaponry came within range and both ships fired every weapon that they could in an all out attempt to kill each other. The Avenger's forward shields were intact when the battle started and had her forward shields knocked down and lost two of her phaser banks as well as having a hole blown in the side of the bridge. The ship's main communication systems went with the bridge but lucky the whole bridge crew was in the hostile environment suits and no one was killed. The Cardassian Galor class cruiser was not so lucky. Every forward weapon system was demolished by the Avenger's six phaser banks but that did nor matter. A close range strike with a mega-phaser clawed deep within the Galor's hull and created a cascade failure within the Warp Core and what was a starship suddenly became an expanding cloud of Gas.
Captain Ross breathed a sigh of relief along with almost everybody on the bridge crew. The hole in the bridge was glaringly obvious and Commander Masterson came just a few inches from being hit by the disruptor beam. She considered herself extremely lucky. The bridge displays confirmed that the Avenger had no more than moderate damage but the damage to some of the phasers banks would likely require shipyard or at least a repair ship. The communication systems were also badly messed up and would require more repairs than could be completed with on-board supplies. The short range communications were functional and Commander Ross spoke to the Atago's second in command "Until repairs are complete, I think we will try and hide in the plasma nebula"
A few hours later, a slightly confused Commander Gwendolyn Ross found herself walking on the bridge of the Excelsior class Cruiser ‘U.S.S. Atago'. She had managed to get repairs started on both her vessel and the much larger Atago. She had transferred a large number of engineers to the Excelsior class and the time for repair had been revised from eighteen to ten hours to get the Warp Drives online. By then, half of the Avenger's damaged phasers would be restored and the hull beside the bridge was already patched and atmosphere was restored. Until all needed repairs were complete, the vessels would be sitting in the Badlands hiding as best they could The captain of the Atago was laying in medical and had been sedated. The whole crew knew by now that he would never command a ship again.
Captain Ross had discovered that her ship had been thrown into the far future and that the Federation was fighting a star empire known as the Dominion. The Dominion were winning against the Federation and it seemed that the Federation had another enemy know as the Borg. It sounded like there had been many changes within the Federation as well. She had no problem with the change of uniforms, the Federation had already changed its uniforms several times from her original time frame. She got the impression that the crew of the Atago considered themselves to be explorers that were stuck in a military role. While she did not know the full story, she knew that the Atago was named after a Japanese cruiser from World War II and yet the crew seemed to have distaste for military matters. When she mentioned about making payroll arrangement for her crew, she got the comment "Money is outmoded" from Commander Shawn Jackson, the executive officer, now acting captain, of the Atago. The society that she was learning about seemed more socialist than anything else. Many of the terms that the commander used seemed to be straight from Karl Marx, a person from the early part of the twentieth century that she had read about when she was a student in the academy. All industry was now controlled by the government and are supposed to be owned by the people. This seemed to cause a stagnation in general technological discoveries and based on most of the new equipment added to the Atago, little advancement seems to have been made. This would seem to be cause by no competition in product development. Since going to war with the Dominion and the Borg, Technical Development had been boosted but not half as much as would have been if there were several competing companies. It also seemed that all long range communication was run by the Federation and was maintained by Starfleet. As well, most starships had ships councilors assigned to them. These people sounds like political officers from the histories she had read of the Soviet Union before its collapse. Gwendolyn thought she had established a strong espre-de-corp with her crew and did not want to subject her crew to the changes and was trying to figure out how she could do this. She rubbed her eyes as the other Commander continued he speak about how wonderful the Federation had become. Commander Jackson seemed to be a good person but he had been brainwashed by the Starfleet Schools. Well, it was time for her to get back to her own vessel.
The Last Voyage of the Avenger - Chapter Three
Chapter Three:
‘So, this is the fleet of the future' thought Commander Gwendolyn Ross, impressed with the size and number of ships especially in light of what she had learned from the Atago's executive officer. She could see a vast array of ships on her visual displays as the Avenger shut down its drives and it entered parking orbit. Commander Ross could recognize many of the other vessels in parting orbits. This included a few Avenger class frigates and a good number of Excelsior class Battleships. Some of the other ships looked like the used components of vessels that she recognized and she had been told by Commander Jackson that the ships had been salvaged from ships being scrapped for the use in the war. Many of the vessels she did not recognize at all. Commander Jackson had been helpful with the identity of many of those as well. Gwendolyn knew that the large ship that they were heading for was the USS Bright Star, a Galaxy class starship and flagship of Twelfth Fleet. Captain Ross and her executive officer had already been requested onboard the flagship to be debriefed. Captain Ross stood up in her chair and stated "Lieutenant Hanley, you have the bridge" and headed for the door to the lift from the bridge. Commander Masterson got up from her position and followed her captain to the transporter room.
In long discussions previous to arriving into orbit, Gwendolyn had discussed with her senior officers what they should do. So much had changed in the time their ship had skipped and the Federation seemed almost alien now to the values they had been brought up on. Commander Ross had heard several of her officers saying that it was impossible but she had seen the signs creeping into the Federation during her time serving in Star Fleet Academy but she herself did not expect it to go as far as it had gotten. Even so, she and her senior officers felt that the Federation was in trouble and that they needed every bit of help they can get. The sad truth was while Governments can be reformed, this is much harder if the people are enslaved and impossible if they are all dead. During the discussions, Gwendolyn was most concerned about keeping about keeping her crew together. It had been decided that a purely military standpoint would be the best argument to use against senior officers. When she met with the admiral, she would use the previous victory as an example of why the crew should be kept together. If she could then show a series of successes, she could use them as further evidence to keep her crew intact. One problem she could see is that they would have to volunteer for dangerous missions and would likely have to deal with incompetent flag officers. There had been a good number of them from her original time frame and she was sure they would only have increased with the new social structure and government. The Civilian scientists had begged the captain to keep them onboard as well once they had found what had happened to the Federation in the intervening years. The Captain was still not sure what she would do about them.
Commander Gwendolyn Ross and Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson slowly materialized on the transporter pad of the U.S.S. Bright Star. It was immediately apparent to them how much larger this chamber was compared to the transporter room on the Avenger. Both of the Avengers senior officers were in their dress uniforms and they classed against the new uniforms of the others in the transporter room. The executive officer of the Atago had tried to be helpful and offered to replicate for them more modern uniforms. Both the captain and her second in command considered that it would put them on the wrong starting terms and would not be honest. Standing in front of the transporter pad were two figures. One was a tall women with blond hair streaked with white was wearing the collar pips of a captain. The other figure was younger, shorter, and of Asian descent and had the collar insignia of a full commander.
The women stepped forward and held out her hand out "Captain Joyce Parker, Captain of the U.S.S. Bright Star, Welcome onboard."
Commander Ross shook her hand "Commander Gwendolyn Ross, thank you."
The captain of the Bright Star continued "This is my executive officer, Commander Tem Lee. My second and I will be escorting to see Admiral Sykes.
"This is my executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson." hands were shaken all around and the four senior officers headed towards the Admiral's Briefing Room. Like the transporter room, the corridors were much wider than their equivalents on the Avenger.
Commander Masterson asked a question "I have never seen a starship this larger, I imagine that it is very well armed?"
The Bright Star's captain answered "Actually, the Galaxy class starship was not designed primarily as a combatant vessel. They were designed for space exploration and have the added feature of having been designed from the start to carry the families of crews onboard." Gwendolyn noted that her executive officer seemed surprised but the Captain Parker did not seem to notice and continued. "Right now, the quarters of the family have been converted to carrying marines but I hope that they will be converted back once this altercation is over. Before the present war, the Bright Star was engaged in space exploration. We were called back when the war stated and the Bright Star became flagship for Admiral Sykes and Twelfth Fleet." She turned to the Captain of the avenger and asked "What were you doing previous to skipping forward in time?"
"If you mean what the Avenger was doing just before then, we were surveying what you call the Badlands."
"Umm, I mean what were doing before then?"
"Before I took command of the Avenger, I was a tactical instructor at Star Fleet Academy on Earth." She decided that it would be a bad idea to tell her how little time she had been captain of the Avenger. She could also see from the tightening of the expression on the other captains face that Captain Parker disliked combat officers.
After just a few moments, Captain Parkers expression cleared "After you finish with Admiral Sykes, I can show you my ship. I am quite proud of her and I am sure the holodecks will be fascinating to you. I am sure that you will want to have some put on the Avenger as soon as possible.
Gwendolyn had read extensively about V.R. addiction in her past in history recording and new how seriously had been. She had already heard someone talk about holodeck addiction and though that it would be even more of a problem than what she had read about V.R. addiction. She silently vowed to herself that she would keep holodecks out her ship for as long as possible. She could see there being uses for military simulation but the power requirements must be absolutely incredible.
The Captain of the Bright Star stopped at a door with the label in the middle of the door "Admiral's Briefing Room" in white letters on a black background and her charges stopped along with her. Captain Parker pressed the button for the door chime and was rewarded a few moments later with a response of "Enter" from the other side of the door.
The door opened and on the other side and older man with the pips of a full admiral. was standing behind a table in the center of the room. While he stood completely straight, he had a severely lined face and completely white hair which pointed to being far older than most officers, including senior admirals. Sill, he looked the part of a full admiral with a thin and strong frame. He looked carefully at the four officers that entered into his briefing room. He gave special attention to the two women who were wearing old style Federation Uniforms. He cleared his throat and said "Joyce, Tem, I am sure the Bright Star needs your attention and I am sure that you have better things to do than listen to an old fossil like me" chuckling a bit to himself.
After the Bright Star's Commanding Officer and Executive Officer left and the door closed, Admiral Sykes sat down seeming to show some pain from bending. He motioned for both of his guests to sit down as well. He sighed and said "Sorry, these old bones do not move like they used to. I am Admiral Sykes, Commander of the Twelfth Fleet. I already know who you are but go ahead and introduce yourselves."
Gwendolyn replied "I am Commander Ross, the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Avenger and this is my Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson."
"I will bet you are wondering why so old an officer would still be serving on active duty. I retired after the war with the Cardassians but I was called back to service from retirement. Truthfully, I was brought back because we are losing the War and Starfleet has a desperate need for flag officers. In the course of the fighting we have lost a large number of flag officers when their ships were destroyed. I personally believe that the Dominion and Cardassian forces are deliberately targeting flagships but few of the other admirals share my opinion. Another sad truth is the fact that I am taken as too old to be taken seriously by my own High Command." The old admiral chuckled to himself for a moment and continued "Well, captain, you are the woman of the hour. We have to take victories where we can get them and you defeat of the Cardassian patrol should help to boost my crews moral. I am in you debt." He sat back for a moment and asked "Now, I am sure you have some things that you want to discuss?"
Gwendolyn knew she was dealing with an admiral that was much shrewder than she expected. Even so, the plan that she and her senior officers seemed the best way to proceed. The plan might even work better with him because he was much more intelligent than expected. She decided to begin with a joke "when can we get out back pay?"
The old man chuckled again and wagged his white eyebrows at her. "Don't you know that the Federation had done way with money?" obviously not expecting an answer.
She continued after a few moments "Admiral, it sounds like the War against the Dominion has drawn heavily on both starships and starship crews. A case in point is the Atago. While we were able to save her, it will likely take months at the nearest Starbase to get the ship repaired." she could tell from the Admirals expression that he knew where she was going with this but he did not interrupt so she continued. "Due to the extreme emergency, you need every vessel you can get and other than the communication system, the Avenger is completely operational with a seasoned crew. If we could get repair parts, it would be a matter of a few days to repair the communication systems." She challenged the old admiral by staring him straight in the eyes.
Admiral Sykes met her eyes in response to the challenge but quickly dropped his eyes and responded "You are right, of course. The problem is what might be expected. The procedure in this cases is suppose to be to send the ship back to a major fleet base and determine if the ship is worth refitting. The crews will at the same time be taken off the ship and be indoctrinated in the new policies of the Federation. I need every starship I can get and will communicate that fact with Starfleet Command. I understand that you do not want to lose you command but I cannot make any promises if hostilities end." Gwendolyn was relieved by was wondering why a senior officer would work against the Federation high command but was not about to do anything to ruin it. Admiral Sykes continued after a moment "I need some help from you being that you were a tactical instructor. My fleet is considered a strategic reserve and I cannot commit most of my ships to any operations. At the same time, I have instructions to send a force to retake a system recently taken by the Dominion. Federation Intelligence is concerned that this system might be used as an advanced base. I planned to detach eight vessels with Commodore Langford in command. I plan to attach you to his forces and have you help him with tactical planning. I also help that you can get the majority of my people out if something goes wrong and you become senior officers. You are technically the most senior Commander in Starfleet service and the Commodore and his flag captain will be the only officers that will be of higher rank than you. We have had to promote many junior officers to command to cover losses and I can arrange for the ships to be commanded by relatively junior officers." He pauses for a moment not sure if he should add anymore but decides for it. "I will deny it if anything come back but I do not consider Commodore Langford to be a very good flag officers. Unfortunately, I have no flag officers other than him.
Gwendolyn Ross could think of many responses but did not want to make any responses that would make problems for the Admiral. Instead she settled for the simple response "I am willing to do as you ordered. I can have the Avenger ready to leave with the task force once we bring some supplies on board."
"Well, in that case I think we are finished for the moment. A little more information. I am assigning two troop transports and two cargo vessel carrying eight squadrons total of Peregrine class fighters. They are very capable and I think you will want to study about them. I also have some toys for you ships that might interest. We have developed a new high yield torpedo that has been named Quantum Torpedoes. They have about double the yield of a Photon Torpedo. I will send a team of engineers on your ship to modify you shields. The Dominion weapons can almost go right through shield unless they are modified. I will also send teams to help repair the long range communication systems." He got up and the two Avengers officers stood up at the same time. "Well, It has been a pleasure meeting you, Commander Ross" as he shook her hand. He turned to her second in command "It has been a pleasure meeting you as well, Commander Masterson." and repeat the gesture.
As if to make up for the ease of dealing with Admiral Sykes, Commander had found during the trip to the Dominion held system that dealing with Commodore Langford was even harder than she initially expected. He seemed to be almost tactically inept and unimaginative yet he would not listen to the suggestions from any of his junior officers. This had included Commander Ross and he had told he specifically that she had no idea how the tactical situation had changed since the time her ship had come from. About the only thing he had going for him was the fact that he was very motivated but she suspected that this was just because he had an eye for promotion.
Now that the fleet was in the system that they were to take, Commander Ross was even more concern. Commander Ross was sitting in her chair and watching the main fleet get closer and closer to the positions of the Dominion ships. The commodore had detached her frigate to protect the transports and headed with his eight capital ship into system in tight formation lead by his flagship. He had stated that her ship had not been upgraded to be able to withstand the battle with his battle line and would be a weak link in her squadron. He had also decided that the fighters would get in the way of his cruisers maneuvering freely so had kept them in the transports that had been converted to carry fighters. After reviewing the data on both the Peregrine class fighters, which the combat abilities had impressed he, and on the Jem-Hardar Attack Ships had knew that this was a mistake and the fighters would be needed to keep the Jem-Hadar light combatants from swarming his vessels. In many ways Commodore Langford reminded her of the World War admirals she had read about in history books that were called "Battleship Admirals". Their ideas were seemed to be that they would steam towards each other and attack each other while steaming in formation. The had at the time not considered the aircraft to be a viable weapon and had lost many battles with fighters before changing their minds. She was not sure if she was glad that she was not part of the main group but she was afraid that she knew what would happen to his squadron.
The Jem-Hadar commander watched the Federation ships come towards his ships at a very slow speed and he and his men and anticipated the slaughter to come. The ships seemed to be coming towards his ships as if they expected some form of formal dance. Well, he had no intention on playing this game. His only concern was that his Cardassian allies were not up to the situation. He could tell by warp drive fields that the Federation admiral had an Ambassador class cruiser, two Norway class cruisers, one Centaur class cruiser, two Saber class light cruisers, and a couple of ships that appeared to be rebuilds of one sort or another. He also saw an old Miranda class that was escorting four transports. The Miranda was too far out to help and even if it had been part of the formation, it would not have given the Feds enough firepower to defeat his ships. Still, he hoped that the captain of that ship would be foolish and attack to attack his ships. Likely the transports were carrying ground troops to get control over the planet and based on the number of transports, it was a sizeable force. Well, he had one of his own battlecruiser and twelve attack ships along with eight Cardassian vessels. The four Galor and four Keldon class vessels were not as powerful as his ships but had been upgraded and by themselves would have been quite dangerous to the Federation ships if handled correctly. He was waiting for the federation ships to get a little closer and then he would spring his trap. He figured that the Ambassador was the flagship and had already ordered that the whole initial volley of anti-ship torpedoes from every ship be targets at it. He would then use his light attack ships to decimate the Federation forces while they were in confusion and use his other ships to deal with any heavy resistance and to mop up.
Commodore Langford knew that the only way to be promoted quickly in the Federation was in battle and he was headed for a great victory. He could see himself wearing the uniform of a rear admiral after he finished clearing the Dominions clocks. He had many patrons and they would be sure to see his deeds. Some of his men might get killed but that is what they had volunteered for.
It was time to begin ordering his fleet "I want all ships to fire a spread out volley of Quantum torpedoes on the Dominion cruisers. This should weaken their shields enough that our phasers can destroy them. Once the cruisers are destroyed, we will then destroy the light attack ships. Begin firing now!"
As he watched the Federation ships spread out fire to all of his ships, the Jem-Hadar commander ordered "All ships, fire on the Ambassador" and laughed "the poor fools".
In just a few minutes, torpedoes from both forces homed in on their targets. The individual hits of the Federation torpedoes did little more than lowering some shields and a tiny amount of hull damage. The Dominion torpedoes effect was completely different. All of the torpedoes struck the forward shield of the Ambassador class cruiser and her shields had never been designed to withstand that kind of concentrated firepower. Her shield bucked virtually instantly and several torpedoes struck near her warp core and the safeties failed causing the Commodores flagship to disappear in an anti-matter / matter immolation. Along with the ship, the lives of the Commodore and over eight hundred crew members and marines were snuffed out in an instant.
If the remaining ships had elected to simply accelerate at maximum and pass the Dominion forces at maximum, they could likely have generated enough velocity to escape with only light or moderate damage but instead they elected to turn around to run away back the way they had come from. This allowed the squadron of Jem-Hadar Attack Craft to swarm the seven Federation cruisers and within just a few minutes, the ship joined the Commodores flagship in death. Complete pandemonium enveloped the bridges of the remaining Federation vessels as they attempted to escape death. If the ship had been able to remain in good order, the ships might still have been able to make a fighting retreat and would have had a much better chance of survival. As it was, each ship was operating by itself and because of that, none would make it to be able to warp away.
The bridge crew on the Avenger jumped as Commander Ross hit her arm on the arm of her command chair. This is exactly what she was afraid would happen and the Dominion commander seemed to be even better than she expected. Still, she thought she knew a way to snatch the lives of some of those ships crews out of the Dominion meat grinder. She saw on her tactical display that the ragged group of Federation vessels was retreats in a direction that was close to the position of her frigate and the four transports. She had though about in an emergency attempting to ambush the Dominion ships in a nearby asteroid cluster but had hoped that shew was wrong and that it would not bee needed. She had discussed it with her executive officer but no one else. She did want her crew to get in trouble for not following the orders of a senior officer. This way, she could take the full blame. The problem was that things had happened much quicker than she had expected. Now, it seemed to be her only hope. Before entering the system, Commander Ross had the fighters carried on her ship loaded with full size torpedoes. While her interceptors could carry no torpedoes, the larger fighters carried on her ship could carry torpedoes each. After Commodore Langford had detached his forces, the Avenger's commanding officer had ordered the transports to load the Peregrine class fighters with Quantum torpedoes as well. All of the Peregrine class fighters could carry six torpedo each and there were far more of them than she had of her older fighters. Between all the fighters, she could deploy over 700 torpedoes which she figured should be capable of destroying the Dominion vessels if she used them in a surprise attack. She had initially considered having her ship operate with the fighters but it would be a much larger target and could easily ruin any chance of surprise. As well, it was likely that they had been monitoring the position of the Avenger and it would be likely that they would get suspicious if the lost sensor lock on her vessel. It would be better to show them what they wanted to see and depend entirely on the fighters.
The captain was about to give orders when her communications officer interrupted the order she was about to make with "Captain, the Captain of the transport Evergreen requests instructions on the course of retreat."
Gwendoline winced because the Wintergreen was one of the transports that had been converted to a fighter carrier. She answered after a few moment a bit huskier than the crew was used to but still in a calm voice, "Order the Wintergreen and the other transports to hold station until ordered.." She paused for a few moments and continued "Susan, tell them to launch all fighters but keep the drives and shield only on standby on the fighters."
Susan Peters sent the message to the four transports and only the Wintergreen did not comply with orders of the Avengers captain. The Wintergreen began maneuvering to get into a course to escape the system.
Seeing this, the captain responded instantly "Tell the Wintergreen that Il will fire on her unless she complies with my orders." Gwendolyn Ross quickly turned to her weapons officer, "I want you to lock fire control of the ship so the captain knows we are not bluffing. If she does not stop, fire to disable. I need the fighters on her intact."
Apparently the captain of the Wintergreen believed her because she stopped forward momentum and joined its converted sister at launching her fighters.
The Avengers communication officer waved to get her captains attention and said "Commander Ross, the captain of the Wintergreen is protesting and he wants to speak to you, what do you want me to do?"
"Tell him to clear off communication channels because we need them. If he continues, I want to ignore anything from him until I tell you otherwise." Commander Ross ran her hand through her hair thoroughly messing it up and then she eyes her entire bridge crew before starting. "We have only a few minutes to do this. First, we launch all of out fighters to join with the Peregrines. I realize that ours do not have the firepower of the newer fighters but they have too much to hold back. I would like to use the Avenger as well but she would simply be too easy to detect. Instead, the Avenger and the four transports will head away as if we are heading out of the system. While we are doing this, the fighters will head for that nearby asteroid cluster to intercept the Dominion ships. They will sit there at minimum power and fire all torpedoes at the Dominion ships when they get within range. I want a squadron of Peregrine fighters to specifically target the light attack ships with all of their torpedoes but the remaining ships to target the large ships. Dennis, I need you to come up with a course to get to the Asteroid cluster and I want them just to use navigational thrusters to reduce emissions. Weapons, I need you come up with the fire plan. I want target tracking done without any active sensors so they do not expect the torpedoes coming in or detect the fighters."
During the time that the Avenger and the fighters prepared for the ambush, a third Federation ship was disabled. Luckily, this one had not been hit all at once and had been able to dump its warp core before the core had gone critical. It was hoped by Captain Ross and her crew that some of the crew had survived to be picked up. As well, concentrating on the remaining fleeing vessels, the Dominions ships had not fired on the crippled ship which gave the crew of the crippled vessel a much better chance to survive.
Within eight minutes, the fighters had cleared their hangers and were on their way to the asteroid cluster to ambush the Dominion forces. At the same time, the Avenger and the transports started departing the system as if they considered the fight lost. With all systems on minimum and the fighters traveling on maneuvering thrusters, they were in many ways harder to detect than cloaked vessels would have been. The attention of the Dominion ships was divided towards the remaining cruisers that they were in pursuit of and the retreating transports so they never noticed the comparatively tiny fighters.
As the fighters drifted to their on, another Federation cruiser was killed. It had gotten luckier than any of the others and had managed to cripple one of the Cardassian Keldon class battlecruisers. Almost all of its weapons and all of its drives were destroyed and the Cardassian ship was forced to use its maneuvering thrusters to decelerate. The remaining Dominion ships were still intent on pursuing the remaining four Federation vessels.
The silent fighters decelerated as they moved into parking positions within the asteroid cluster. Onlky maneuvering thrusters were used and all systems were at minimum power. Unlike what is shown in many science fiction stories, asteroid belts are not think with asteroids throughout the belt but in reality are in clusters. Most the asteroids were around the same size as the fighters. The metal and movement within the cluster makes even larger starships hiding within them hard to detect and the fighters were near invisible.
The launchers on all the fighters were linked so that they would fire simultaneously. The launch was programmed for when the whole group of Dominion ships were within range of the torpedoes and all of the attack ships where within close range so that could attempt to engage them in dogfighting if necessary. While it would likely not be needed, Commander Ross liked to plan for as many contingencies as possible.
As they passed within range, all of the fighters fired within a half second of each other. Even the experienced Jem-Hadar commander of the flagship was caught by surprise by the huge number of torpedoes suddenly coming from the asteroid cluster but he had only a few seconds to reflect on this. He had never seen that many torpedoes ever fired at one time. Just over seven hundred missiles traveled towards the Dominion ships. His attack craft were a few seconds ahead of his ships so were destroyed before his ship and he could see what would strike his ships before he was engulfed. He had no time to reflect because his ship was soon surrounded by the explosions of hundreds of quantum torpedoes. Less than even a second later, the other large ships were bathed in subatomic fire. In many ways, it could not be described as many small explosions but once huge starship engulfing fire. View screens on the Avenger darkened as if the ship had been closely examining a star. Other than the disabled Cardassian battlecruiser that had fallen behind, no other ship survived. As a testament to the builders, the Jem-Hadar Battlecruiser was still recognizable as a starship but the remaining Dominion ships were little more than frozen metal droplets.
The surviving Keldon captain immediately surrendered. The USS Avenger flipped and began decelerating at maximum. Amid the wild cheers of her crew, Commander Ross said "Great Job, now let us see about rescuing the survivors of both sides." With that, the rest of her crew realized how many deaths both sides had received and the bridge was once more silent.
‘So, this is the fleet of the future' thought Commander Gwendolyn Ross, impressed with the size and number of ships especially in light of what she had learned from the Atago's executive officer. She could see a vast array of ships on her visual displays as the Avenger shut down its drives and it entered parking orbit. Commander Ross could recognize many of the other vessels in parting orbits. This included a few Avenger class frigates and a good number of Excelsior class Battleships. Some of the other ships looked like the used components of vessels that she recognized and she had been told by Commander Jackson that the ships had been salvaged from ships being scrapped for the use in the war. Many of the vessels she did not recognize at all. Commander Jackson had been helpful with the identity of many of those as well. Gwendolyn knew that the large ship that they were heading for was the USS Bright Star, a Galaxy class starship and flagship of Twelfth Fleet. Captain Ross and her executive officer had already been requested onboard the flagship to be debriefed. Captain Ross stood up in her chair and stated "Lieutenant Hanley, you have the bridge" and headed for the door to the lift from the bridge. Commander Masterson got up from her position and followed her captain to the transporter room.
In long discussions previous to arriving into orbit, Gwendolyn had discussed with her senior officers what they should do. So much had changed in the time their ship had skipped and the Federation seemed almost alien now to the values they had been brought up on. Commander Ross had heard several of her officers saying that it was impossible but she had seen the signs creeping into the Federation during her time serving in Star Fleet Academy but she herself did not expect it to go as far as it had gotten. Even so, she and her senior officers felt that the Federation was in trouble and that they needed every bit of help they can get. The sad truth was while Governments can be reformed, this is much harder if the people are enslaved and impossible if they are all dead. During the discussions, Gwendolyn was most concerned about keeping about keeping her crew together. It had been decided that a purely military standpoint would be the best argument to use against senior officers. When she met with the admiral, she would use the previous victory as an example of why the crew should be kept together. If she could then show a series of successes, she could use them as further evidence to keep her crew intact. One problem she could see is that they would have to volunteer for dangerous missions and would likely have to deal with incompetent flag officers. There had been a good number of them from her original time frame and she was sure they would only have increased with the new social structure and government. The Civilian scientists had begged the captain to keep them onboard as well once they had found what had happened to the Federation in the intervening years. The Captain was still not sure what she would do about them.
Commander Gwendolyn Ross and Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson slowly materialized on the transporter pad of the U.S.S. Bright Star. It was immediately apparent to them how much larger this chamber was compared to the transporter room on the Avenger. Both of the Avengers senior officers were in their dress uniforms and they classed against the new uniforms of the others in the transporter room. The executive officer of the Atago had tried to be helpful and offered to replicate for them more modern uniforms. Both the captain and her second in command considered that it would put them on the wrong starting terms and would not be honest. Standing in front of the transporter pad were two figures. One was a tall women with blond hair streaked with white was wearing the collar pips of a captain. The other figure was younger, shorter, and of Asian descent and had the collar insignia of a full commander.
The women stepped forward and held out her hand out "Captain Joyce Parker, Captain of the U.S.S. Bright Star, Welcome onboard."
Commander Ross shook her hand "Commander Gwendolyn Ross, thank you."
The captain of the Bright Star continued "This is my executive officer, Commander Tem Lee. My second and I will be escorting to see Admiral Sykes.
"This is my executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson." hands were shaken all around and the four senior officers headed towards the Admiral's Briefing Room. Like the transporter room, the corridors were much wider than their equivalents on the Avenger.
Commander Masterson asked a question "I have never seen a starship this larger, I imagine that it is very well armed?"
The Bright Star's captain answered "Actually, the Galaxy class starship was not designed primarily as a combatant vessel. They were designed for space exploration and have the added feature of having been designed from the start to carry the families of crews onboard." Gwendolyn noted that her executive officer seemed surprised but the Captain Parker did not seem to notice and continued. "Right now, the quarters of the family have been converted to carrying marines but I hope that they will be converted back once this altercation is over. Before the present war, the Bright Star was engaged in space exploration. We were called back when the war stated and the Bright Star became flagship for Admiral Sykes and Twelfth Fleet." She turned to the Captain of the avenger and asked "What were you doing previous to skipping forward in time?"
"If you mean what the Avenger was doing just before then, we were surveying what you call the Badlands."
"Umm, I mean what were doing before then?"
"Before I took command of the Avenger, I was a tactical instructor at Star Fleet Academy on Earth." She decided that it would be a bad idea to tell her how little time she had been captain of the Avenger. She could also see from the tightening of the expression on the other captains face that Captain Parker disliked combat officers.
After just a few moments, Captain Parkers expression cleared "After you finish with Admiral Sykes, I can show you my ship. I am quite proud of her and I am sure the holodecks will be fascinating to you. I am sure that you will want to have some put on the Avenger as soon as possible.
Gwendolyn had read extensively about V.R. addiction in her past in history recording and new how seriously had been. She had already heard someone talk about holodeck addiction and though that it would be even more of a problem than what she had read about V.R. addiction. She silently vowed to herself that she would keep holodecks out her ship for as long as possible. She could see there being uses for military simulation but the power requirements must be absolutely incredible.
The Captain of the Bright Star stopped at a door with the label in the middle of the door "Admiral's Briefing Room" in white letters on a black background and her charges stopped along with her. Captain Parker pressed the button for the door chime and was rewarded a few moments later with a response of "Enter" from the other side of the door.
The door opened and on the other side and older man with the pips of a full admiral. was standing behind a table in the center of the room. While he stood completely straight, he had a severely lined face and completely white hair which pointed to being far older than most officers, including senior admirals. Sill, he looked the part of a full admiral with a thin and strong frame. He looked carefully at the four officers that entered into his briefing room. He gave special attention to the two women who were wearing old style Federation Uniforms. He cleared his throat and said "Joyce, Tem, I am sure the Bright Star needs your attention and I am sure that you have better things to do than listen to an old fossil like me" chuckling a bit to himself.
After the Bright Star's Commanding Officer and Executive Officer left and the door closed, Admiral Sykes sat down seeming to show some pain from bending. He motioned for both of his guests to sit down as well. He sighed and said "Sorry, these old bones do not move like they used to. I am Admiral Sykes, Commander of the Twelfth Fleet. I already know who you are but go ahead and introduce yourselves."
Gwendolyn replied "I am Commander Ross, the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Avenger and this is my Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Paula Masterson."
"I will bet you are wondering why so old an officer would still be serving on active duty. I retired after the war with the Cardassians but I was called back to service from retirement. Truthfully, I was brought back because we are losing the War and Starfleet has a desperate need for flag officers. In the course of the fighting we have lost a large number of flag officers when their ships were destroyed. I personally believe that the Dominion and Cardassian forces are deliberately targeting flagships but few of the other admirals share my opinion. Another sad truth is the fact that I am taken as too old to be taken seriously by my own High Command." The old admiral chuckled to himself for a moment and continued "Well, captain, you are the woman of the hour. We have to take victories where we can get them and you defeat of the Cardassian patrol should help to boost my crews moral. I am in you debt." He sat back for a moment and asked "Now, I am sure you have some things that you want to discuss?"
Gwendolyn knew she was dealing with an admiral that was much shrewder than she expected. Even so, the plan that she and her senior officers seemed the best way to proceed. The plan might even work better with him because he was much more intelligent than expected. She decided to begin with a joke "when can we get out back pay?"
The old man chuckled again and wagged his white eyebrows at her. "Don't you know that the Federation had done way with money?" obviously not expecting an answer.
She continued after a few moments "Admiral, it sounds like the War against the Dominion has drawn heavily on both starships and starship crews. A case in point is the Atago. While we were able to save her, it will likely take months at the nearest Starbase to get the ship repaired." she could tell from the Admirals expression that he knew where she was going with this but he did not interrupt so she continued. "Due to the extreme emergency, you need every vessel you can get and other than the communication system, the Avenger is completely operational with a seasoned crew. If we could get repair parts, it would be a matter of a few days to repair the communication systems." She challenged the old admiral by staring him straight in the eyes.
Admiral Sykes met her eyes in response to the challenge but quickly dropped his eyes and responded "You are right, of course. The problem is what might be expected. The procedure in this cases is suppose to be to send the ship back to a major fleet base and determine if the ship is worth refitting. The crews will at the same time be taken off the ship and be indoctrinated in the new policies of the Federation. I need every starship I can get and will communicate that fact with Starfleet Command. I understand that you do not want to lose you command but I cannot make any promises if hostilities end." Gwendolyn was relieved by was wondering why a senior officer would work against the Federation high command but was not about to do anything to ruin it. Admiral Sykes continued after a moment "I need some help from you being that you were a tactical instructor. My fleet is considered a strategic reserve and I cannot commit most of my ships to any operations. At the same time, I have instructions to send a force to retake a system recently taken by the Dominion. Federation Intelligence is concerned that this system might be used as an advanced base. I planned to detach eight vessels with Commodore Langford in command. I plan to attach you to his forces and have you help him with tactical planning. I also help that you can get the majority of my people out if something goes wrong and you become senior officers. You are technically the most senior Commander in Starfleet service and the Commodore and his flag captain will be the only officers that will be of higher rank than you. We have had to promote many junior officers to command to cover losses and I can arrange for the ships to be commanded by relatively junior officers." He pauses for a moment not sure if he should add anymore but decides for it. "I will deny it if anything come back but I do not consider Commodore Langford to be a very good flag officers. Unfortunately, I have no flag officers other than him.
Gwendolyn Ross could think of many responses but did not want to make any responses that would make problems for the Admiral. Instead she settled for the simple response "I am willing to do as you ordered. I can have the Avenger ready to leave with the task force once we bring some supplies on board."
"Well, in that case I think we are finished for the moment. A little more information. I am assigning two troop transports and two cargo vessel carrying eight squadrons total of Peregrine class fighters. They are very capable and I think you will want to study about them. I also have some toys for you ships that might interest. We have developed a new high yield torpedo that has been named Quantum Torpedoes. They have about double the yield of a Photon Torpedo. I will send a team of engineers on your ship to modify you shields. The Dominion weapons can almost go right through shield unless they are modified. I will also send teams to help repair the long range communication systems." He got up and the two Avengers officers stood up at the same time. "Well, It has been a pleasure meeting you, Commander Ross" as he shook her hand. He turned to her second in command "It has been a pleasure meeting you as well, Commander Masterson." and repeat the gesture.
As if to make up for the ease of dealing with Admiral Sykes, Commander had found during the trip to the Dominion held system that dealing with Commodore Langford was even harder than she initially expected. He seemed to be almost tactically inept and unimaginative yet he would not listen to the suggestions from any of his junior officers. This had included Commander Ross and he had told he specifically that she had no idea how the tactical situation had changed since the time her ship had come from. About the only thing he had going for him was the fact that he was very motivated but she suspected that this was just because he had an eye for promotion.
Now that the fleet was in the system that they were to take, Commander Ross was even more concern. Commander Ross was sitting in her chair and watching the main fleet get closer and closer to the positions of the Dominion ships. The commodore had detached her frigate to protect the transports and headed with his eight capital ship into system in tight formation lead by his flagship. He had stated that her ship had not been upgraded to be able to withstand the battle with his battle line and would be a weak link in her squadron. He had also decided that the fighters would get in the way of his cruisers maneuvering freely so had kept them in the transports that had been converted to carry fighters. After reviewing the data on both the Peregrine class fighters, which the combat abilities had impressed he, and on the Jem-Hardar Attack Ships had knew that this was a mistake and the fighters would be needed to keep the Jem-Hadar light combatants from swarming his vessels. In many ways Commodore Langford reminded her of the World War admirals she had read about in history books that were called "Battleship Admirals". Their ideas were seemed to be that they would steam towards each other and attack each other while steaming in formation. The had at the time not considered the aircraft to be a viable weapon and had lost many battles with fighters before changing their minds. She was not sure if she was glad that she was not part of the main group but she was afraid that she knew what would happen to his squadron.
The Jem-Hadar commander watched the Federation ships come towards his ships at a very slow speed and he and his men and anticipated the slaughter to come. The ships seemed to be coming towards his ships as if they expected some form of formal dance. Well, he had no intention on playing this game. His only concern was that his Cardassian allies were not up to the situation. He could tell by warp drive fields that the Federation admiral had an Ambassador class cruiser, two Norway class cruisers, one Centaur class cruiser, two Saber class light cruisers, and a couple of ships that appeared to be rebuilds of one sort or another. He also saw an old Miranda class that was escorting four transports. The Miranda was too far out to help and even if it had been part of the formation, it would not have given the Feds enough firepower to defeat his ships. Still, he hoped that the captain of that ship would be foolish and attack to attack his ships. Likely the transports were carrying ground troops to get control over the planet and based on the number of transports, it was a sizeable force. Well, he had one of his own battlecruiser and twelve attack ships along with eight Cardassian vessels. The four Galor and four Keldon class vessels were not as powerful as his ships but had been upgraded and by themselves would have been quite dangerous to the Federation ships if handled correctly. He was waiting for the federation ships to get a little closer and then he would spring his trap. He figured that the Ambassador was the flagship and had already ordered that the whole initial volley of anti-ship torpedoes from every ship be targets at it. He would then use his light attack ships to decimate the Federation forces while they were in confusion and use his other ships to deal with any heavy resistance and to mop up.
Commodore Langford knew that the only way to be promoted quickly in the Federation was in battle and he was headed for a great victory. He could see himself wearing the uniform of a rear admiral after he finished clearing the Dominions clocks. He had many patrons and they would be sure to see his deeds. Some of his men might get killed but that is what they had volunteered for.
It was time to begin ordering his fleet "I want all ships to fire a spread out volley of Quantum torpedoes on the Dominion cruisers. This should weaken their shields enough that our phasers can destroy them. Once the cruisers are destroyed, we will then destroy the light attack ships. Begin firing now!"
As he watched the Federation ships spread out fire to all of his ships, the Jem-Hadar commander ordered "All ships, fire on the Ambassador" and laughed "the poor fools".
In just a few minutes, torpedoes from both forces homed in on their targets. The individual hits of the Federation torpedoes did little more than lowering some shields and a tiny amount of hull damage. The Dominion torpedoes effect was completely different. All of the torpedoes struck the forward shield of the Ambassador class cruiser and her shields had never been designed to withstand that kind of concentrated firepower. Her shield bucked virtually instantly and several torpedoes struck near her warp core and the safeties failed causing the Commodores flagship to disappear in an anti-matter / matter immolation. Along with the ship, the lives of the Commodore and over eight hundred crew members and marines were snuffed out in an instant.
If the remaining ships had elected to simply accelerate at maximum and pass the Dominion forces at maximum, they could likely have generated enough velocity to escape with only light or moderate damage but instead they elected to turn around to run away back the way they had come from. This allowed the squadron of Jem-Hadar Attack Craft to swarm the seven Federation cruisers and within just a few minutes, the ship joined the Commodores flagship in death. Complete pandemonium enveloped the bridges of the remaining Federation vessels as they attempted to escape death. If the ship had been able to remain in good order, the ships might still have been able to make a fighting retreat and would have had a much better chance of survival. As it was, each ship was operating by itself and because of that, none would make it to be able to warp away.
The bridge crew on the Avenger jumped as Commander Ross hit her arm on the arm of her command chair. This is exactly what she was afraid would happen and the Dominion commander seemed to be even better than she expected. Still, she thought she knew a way to snatch the lives of some of those ships crews out of the Dominion meat grinder. She saw on her tactical display that the ragged group of Federation vessels was retreats in a direction that was close to the position of her frigate and the four transports. She had though about in an emergency attempting to ambush the Dominion ships in a nearby asteroid cluster but had hoped that shew was wrong and that it would not bee needed. She had discussed it with her executive officer but no one else. She did want her crew to get in trouble for not following the orders of a senior officer. This way, she could take the full blame. The problem was that things had happened much quicker than she had expected. Now, it seemed to be her only hope. Before entering the system, Commander Ross had the fighters carried on her ship loaded with full size torpedoes. While her interceptors could carry no torpedoes, the larger fighters carried on her ship could carry torpedoes each. After Commodore Langford had detached his forces, the Avenger's commanding officer had ordered the transports to load the Peregrine class fighters with Quantum torpedoes as well. All of the Peregrine class fighters could carry six torpedo each and there were far more of them than she had of her older fighters. Between all the fighters, she could deploy over 700 torpedoes which she figured should be capable of destroying the Dominion vessels if she used them in a surprise attack. She had initially considered having her ship operate with the fighters but it would be a much larger target and could easily ruin any chance of surprise. As well, it was likely that they had been monitoring the position of the Avenger and it would be likely that they would get suspicious if the lost sensor lock on her vessel. It would be better to show them what they wanted to see and depend entirely on the fighters.
The captain was about to give orders when her communications officer interrupted the order she was about to make with "Captain, the Captain of the transport Evergreen requests instructions on the course of retreat."
Gwendoline winced because the Wintergreen was one of the transports that had been converted to a fighter carrier. She answered after a few moment a bit huskier than the crew was used to but still in a calm voice, "Order the Wintergreen and the other transports to hold station until ordered.." She paused for a few moments and continued "Susan, tell them to launch all fighters but keep the drives and shield only on standby on the fighters."
Susan Peters sent the message to the four transports and only the Wintergreen did not comply with orders of the Avengers captain. The Wintergreen began maneuvering to get into a course to escape the system.
Seeing this, the captain responded instantly "Tell the Wintergreen that Il will fire on her unless she complies with my orders." Gwendolyn Ross quickly turned to her weapons officer, "I want you to lock fire control of the ship so the captain knows we are not bluffing. If she does not stop, fire to disable. I need the fighters on her intact."
Apparently the captain of the Wintergreen believed her because she stopped forward momentum and joined its converted sister at launching her fighters.
The Avengers communication officer waved to get her captains attention and said "Commander Ross, the captain of the Wintergreen is protesting and he wants to speak to you, what do you want me to do?"
"Tell him to clear off communication channels because we need them. If he continues, I want to ignore anything from him until I tell you otherwise." Commander Ross ran her hand through her hair thoroughly messing it up and then she eyes her entire bridge crew before starting. "We have only a few minutes to do this. First, we launch all of out fighters to join with the Peregrines. I realize that ours do not have the firepower of the newer fighters but they have too much to hold back. I would like to use the Avenger as well but she would simply be too easy to detect. Instead, the Avenger and the four transports will head away as if we are heading out of the system. While we are doing this, the fighters will head for that nearby asteroid cluster to intercept the Dominion ships. They will sit there at minimum power and fire all torpedoes at the Dominion ships when they get within range. I want a squadron of Peregrine fighters to specifically target the light attack ships with all of their torpedoes but the remaining ships to target the large ships. Dennis, I need you to come up with a course to get to the Asteroid cluster and I want them just to use navigational thrusters to reduce emissions. Weapons, I need you come up with the fire plan. I want target tracking done without any active sensors so they do not expect the torpedoes coming in or detect the fighters."
During the time that the Avenger and the fighters prepared for the ambush, a third Federation ship was disabled. Luckily, this one had not been hit all at once and had been able to dump its warp core before the core had gone critical. It was hoped by Captain Ross and her crew that some of the crew had survived to be picked up. As well, concentrating on the remaining fleeing vessels, the Dominions ships had not fired on the crippled ship which gave the crew of the crippled vessel a much better chance to survive.
Within eight minutes, the fighters had cleared their hangers and were on their way to the asteroid cluster to ambush the Dominion forces. At the same time, the Avenger and the transports started departing the system as if they considered the fight lost. With all systems on minimum and the fighters traveling on maneuvering thrusters, they were in many ways harder to detect than cloaked vessels would have been. The attention of the Dominion ships was divided towards the remaining cruisers that they were in pursuit of and the retreating transports so they never noticed the comparatively tiny fighters.
As the fighters drifted to their on, another Federation cruiser was killed. It had gotten luckier than any of the others and had managed to cripple one of the Cardassian Keldon class battlecruisers. Almost all of its weapons and all of its drives were destroyed and the Cardassian ship was forced to use its maneuvering thrusters to decelerate. The remaining Dominion ships were still intent on pursuing the remaining four Federation vessels.
The silent fighters decelerated as they moved into parking positions within the asteroid cluster. Onlky maneuvering thrusters were used and all systems were at minimum power. Unlike what is shown in many science fiction stories, asteroid belts are not think with asteroids throughout the belt but in reality are in clusters. Most the asteroids were around the same size as the fighters. The metal and movement within the cluster makes even larger starships hiding within them hard to detect and the fighters were near invisible.
The launchers on all the fighters were linked so that they would fire simultaneously. The launch was programmed for when the whole group of Dominion ships were within range of the torpedoes and all of the attack ships where within close range so that could attempt to engage them in dogfighting if necessary. While it would likely not be needed, Commander Ross liked to plan for as many contingencies as possible.
As they passed within range, all of the fighters fired within a half second of each other. Even the experienced Jem-Hadar commander of the flagship was caught by surprise by the huge number of torpedoes suddenly coming from the asteroid cluster but he had only a few seconds to reflect on this. He had never seen that many torpedoes ever fired at one time. Just over seven hundred missiles traveled towards the Dominion ships. His attack craft were a few seconds ahead of his ships so were destroyed before his ship and he could see what would strike his ships before he was engulfed. He had no time to reflect because his ship was soon surrounded by the explosions of hundreds of quantum torpedoes. Less than even a second later, the other large ships were bathed in subatomic fire. In many ways, it could not be described as many small explosions but once huge starship engulfing fire. View screens on the Avenger darkened as if the ship had been closely examining a star. Other than the disabled Cardassian battlecruiser that had fallen behind, no other ship survived. As a testament to the builders, the Jem-Hadar Battlecruiser was still recognizable as a starship but the remaining Dominion ships were little more than frozen metal droplets.
The surviving Keldon captain immediately surrendered. The USS Avenger flipped and began decelerating at maximum. Amid the wild cheers of her crew, Commander Ross said "Great Job, now let us see about rescuing the survivors of both sides." With that, the rest of her crew realized how many deaths both sides had received and the bridge was once more silent.
The Last Voyage of the Avenger - Chapter Four
Chapter Four:
Commander Ross sat at her command chair and pondered the last battle. It appeared that the Federation media had declared it a major victory but she considered that entirely too many Federation ships had been destroyed and too many crew members had lost their lives. The Avenger was headed back to the staging system for a briefing with Admiral Sykes. Gwendolyn suspected that a new offensive was in the works but was curious to know the particulars. She was wondering if an adaptation of the tactics she used in the previous battle could be used in the supposed future engagement. If the events of the battle were controlled better, she might be able to incur heavy losses against the Dominion with minimal losses on the Federation side. The problem was that many enemy commanders might consider that any similar maneuver was a trap especially if the Dominion was able to get intelligence on what had just occurred. Perhaps a direct attack but with the fighters masked by the movement of the capital ships and not attempting to lure the enemy ships.
Commander Ross was waiting with virtually all the other ship captains of Twelfth Fleet in the main briefing room of the U.S.S. Bright Star. She still wore her old uniform and looked out of place in a sea of jumpsuit style uniforms. She still thought that their uniforms looked more like children's pajamas than actual uniforms. The admiral was running late and the captain of the Bright Star had come down to inform the captains that the admiral was having problem with the commander of the Klingon's local forces. The Bright Star's captain had stated that Admiral Sykes would be down to the briefing room as soon as he could.
During the delay, the captains were discussing recent events with each other. The subject changed to Captain Cisco, commander of Deep Space Nine, and what he had done just before the Dominion War and just before it. Most of the captains seemed to think that he had done an incredible job and were extolling his virtues. She was not impressed with what she had heard and what she had gathered from looking in various records. One of her biggest problems was that he seemed to believe that the ends justify the means in most cases. She had not said very much during the discussion but she was sure that her expression had given much of her opinion away. Most of the eyes were on her and one of the other captains asked "Commander Ross, you seem to have an opinion on Captain Cisco, would you like to share it with us?"
Well, they had asked. She began with "Captain, I wish I could agree with the rest of you on Captain Cisco but I cannot." Short and to the point. She continued after a moment "He has shown himself to be foolish and willing to sacrifice just about anything to salve his own ego. He has also repeatedly chosen to take a complex solution which cost lives when a simpler solution would have cost far fewer lives and had a much better chance of success." While none of the other officers said anything, they all were staring at her, many with daggers in their eyes. "His tactic with the Maquis and Solosos 3 should have end him in the nearest penal colony. I have read reports that state that the dusting of Trilithium will not allow human habitation for fifty years. That only tells half the story. That dusting also killed all Terran Flora and Fauna and completely destroyed the ecosystem of the planet. This all because his old security officer beat him and Captain Cisco wanted to prove himself better." It appeared that many of the captains wanted to disagree with her but no one spoke so she continued. She was surprised also that a few of the captains looked like they might agree with her. "I also do not like his tactics during the battle that ended up with the retaking of the Deep Space Nine Station. He lost sight of what the purpose of the whole engagement. If he had, he would have had the Klingon forces attack the station while his forces were engaging the Dominion fleet. Even if he had only had a fairly small number of Klingon ships attack the station, he could have kept the minefield from being destroyed. The true goal was to keep the minefield intact so no additional Dominion forces could arrive to reinforce those in the Alpha Quadrant. In the actual engagement, he made poor use of the forces at his disposal. It is better to destroy an enemy than too distract him. The idea of using the fighters to divert the Cardassian forces was a waste because he had no plans on how to take advantage of the situation. He should have planned some type of trap that would have destroyed or crippled the Cardassian vessels. The problem was that anything he did was purely temporary because he did not have enough power to destroy the Dominion forces with his forces detached into different groups."
It appeared as if several of the other officers were going to argue with her but it was at that point that the Admiral entered the room. He sat quickly down at the head of the table and said "Before I get started with the main reason for the meeting, I have a couple of announcements to make. First, the review of damage on the Atago has been completed. The damage on the ship is more severe than first thought and the vessel will be heading to a shipyard behind the front for repairs and a full refit. Second, Ms Ross, you are out of uniform!" A few of the other officers in the room laughed and several pointedly looked at her old style uniform. The Admiral did not give any time for comments before he continued "As of this date, You have been promoted to the rank of Captain. Congratulations, Captain." The Admiral tossed a new rank insignia in front of her. It must have been special made because the rank insignia was from the time that the Avenger had jumped from. The Admirals statement and action stopped the laughter abruptly.
"Most of you have likely guessed the reason why we are here. To make it official, I am announcing that Starfleet command has ordered us to make an offensive against local Dominion forces. I think this is in prelude to a major assault against them and we are suppose to eliminate reinforcements from this sector of space. In too many cases, we have been losing against the Dominion. I do not want to see this happening here and want a plan that reduces losses wherever possible. I plan to have several more sessions like this and at this point in time I am just looking for any ideas you might have." He looked around to see who would respond. The room was completely silent.
Gwendolyn also looked around the room. She thought to herself, what do you expect. Cadets are the academy are only taught a few fancy maneuvers and they think that these maneuvers are grand tactics. When the crews get onto the ships, there are few drills which means the skills the do have are lost and there is no chance to develop new tactics. Well, she would likely be the one to speak. "Admiral, a trap for their forces would probably be the best way to destroy their ships. Perhaps using fighters similar to the way they were used to ambush the Dominion forces that were chasing Commodore Langford's task force." She stopped and was motioned by Admiral Sykes to continue. "Admiral, what we could do is attack with the main portion of your forces with a heavy bombardment on what is likely their flagship. The attack should get their attention and the fighters could be approaching on a different course at low power levels. The fighters would do a surprise torpedo strike and if just the Jem-Hadar ships are destroyed, we should be able to deal with the others fairly easily."
One of the captains asked "What if the Dominion chooses not to engage our forces as you have planned? That could throw the position of all of your forces."
Gwendolyn did not recognize the speaker but it looked like one of the younger officers in the room. While she considered the answer pretty simple, at least he was asking questions. "Well, the best idea would be to target a location that they cannot afford to not protect. Make it so that radical maneuvering to trap our forces would result in the potential destruction of the target. A shipyard or a major supply depot would be two ideal targets but I am sure there are others as well. The second benefit is that we could make a double blow to their forces in one mission."
Captain Joyce Parker, Commanding Officer of Bright Star, broke in "Captain Ross, a good location might be the Ketrion System. The system contains what is likely the most important Dominion shipyard in the sector and there is a major supply depot as well." Gwendolyn nodded at the senior captains suggestion. Captain Parker though for a moment and then turned to the Admiral, "Admiral, if we can destroy their mobile forces, it might be possible to capture some examples of Dominion technology before we destroy the shipyards. I know it is impossible to hold the system but if we could get an assault team. I am sure that an samples would be of major help to R&D."
Admiral Sykes replied "Joyce, I have to admit that for that reason alone, the mission could be useful not even counting losses in their shipyard and forces." He turned to Gwendolyn "Captain Ross, I want you to work on a training plan for all ships based on the tactics that you used when you engaged the Cardassian ships near the Badlands." He looked at the assembled captains and note that several seemed to want to protest. He continued to head off their statements "I want to state that Captain Ross has my full support. I realize that many of you are senior to her but I would like your full support of her as well. She has developed a number of new tactics that might very well be instrumental in the next fight. Please, everyone, listen to her. Captains, If there is nothing else to discuss, we will meet again in two days to start developing a battle plan. I will have my captain comm you with the time of the meeting. Captain Ross, I would like to speak to you and Captain Parker in my office. Everyone else, dismissed.
The two female captains and the admiral had moved from the Admiral's office to his lounge. Captain Parker was prone in a recliner and had taken off her boots. Captain Ross was still a bit uncomfortable but she thought that this was mostly because it reminded her of the instructors lounge in the Academy. She also knew that she simply was not used to simply chatting with an admiral. She had taken off her red over tunic and was wearing her white turtleneck. Over the course of the evening, Captain Parker had become Joyce and Captain Ross had become Gwen. Admiral Parker remained ‘Admiral' but woe be an officer call an officer four ranks above them by their first name while still nominally on duty.
Joyce stated "You know, Gwen, stating that Ben Cisco is an idiot is not the most polite thing you could have done in the presence of all of those other captains? He is considered by many starfleet officers to be a great hero." The senior captain shook her head
Gwendolyn Ross clasped her hands together and responded "Joyce, You are probably right but they asked me my opinion and I just could not lie about it. What is your opinion on Captain Cisco?"
"More or less the same as you but I would not want to say it in such a public setting. You know that your speaking out is what will keep you from getting about the rank of captain or so. If you antagonize the wrong person, you will end your career."
Gwendolyn replied "It is just that those two victories of his probably cost more than many of the defeats you have suffered. Being honest, most of the defeats were due to our mistakes than the Dominion itself."
The conversation was making her nervous so she decided to change subjects. She looked over at the admiral to include him before asking her question. "One situation I do not understand. I have read reports on the Dominion attacking out convoys. Why don't we have Klingon Birds of Prey going after their convoys? Those small ships with their cloaking devices would be very hard to catch and convoy losses would hurt them as much as losses of warships."
Captain Parker was about to answer but the Admiral waved his hand indicating that he would answer Captain Ross. "Simply put, Gwen, the Klingons are much like they were in your time. Their warrior philosophy makes it that attacking unarmed cargo vessels as dishonorable."
Gwendolyn said "If we could impede their merchant traffic, there would be fringe benefits beyond just the loss of their supplies. I do imagine that in the short run that the losses of supplies would be incredible. In the long run, it would make them have to move vessels from the battlefront to protect convoys. Likely, the would also want to form independent hunter groups in the attempt to destroy the ships attacking their convoys. Once the Dominion begins to organize, we can start forming "Wolf Packs" to go after defended convoys." She thought for a few moments "How about using some of those Defiant class escorts and equipping them with cloaking devices?"
Joyce replied once she looked to see if the Admiral wanted to respond again "Gwen, only a small number of the Defiants have been built. I do not know the reasoning behind it. The Defiants we have are all assigned to the main battle fleet and it is unlikely that command would allow those ships to be put on detached service. Even if Starfleet Command agreed to it, the Federation has signed an agreement with the Romulan Empire that we will not operate cloaking devices on Federation Starships. The Defiant herself is the only exception to that rule."
Gwendolyn smiled and said "Well, that shoots down my other idea. That was to detach a bunch of destroyers and equip them with cloaking devices." She thought for a moment "From what I have read, the Romulans are no better at following agreements than they were in my time. How about their statement about putting just a medical facility on one of Bajor's moons while in reality they were building a defense outpost. I have to admit that I would have considered that myself if I was in their position. I would also be very tempted to collapse the wormhole as well. This is, of course, if these so called prophets would let it remain closed!" She paused for a few moments and asked "Isn't there any groups which we could employ against convoys? How about hiring Orions as privateers?"
The Admiral shook his head. Gwendolyn saw that his expression was more tense than the conversation indicated. He asked "I have a question for you that is a bit sensitive. I would normally ask for an honest answer but I am sure that is what I would get from you anyway. How do you feel about the Maquis? I know you have been reading up on the general situation and I suspect that you have head others discussing them as well."
Gwendolyn sat for just a moment or two before responding. "The term ‘Peace in our Time' comes to mind." Both the Admiral and Joyce gave he a blank stare. She added an explanation "The Prime Minister of England just before World War Two. Winston Churchill, no, **** Chamberlin ***. He said that after selling out Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler. You don't sell out your people, especially to an enemy who will not respect agreements anyway."
The Admiral asked her "What about the situation since then?"
Gwendolyn laughed. "A small number of rag tag ships with no support base are able to hold the forces of a supposed major power at bay. That says wonderful things about the state of Cardassian military forces. The Federation leadership decides that they have to intervene. Even better, they don't intervene on the side of the colonists but against them." she looked at both of them, half expecting anger and disagreement in spite of the fact the admiral asked her opinion. Instead, both of them nodded when she looked at them. The admiral appeared to be eyeing her to see if he could trust her.
After what seemed like ten minutes of staring at each other, the Admiral finally spoke "Well, Gwendolyn, I am about to tell you something that would at least destroy both Joyce and my careers if it got out. It might even land us in the brig or a prison planet somewhere. I will not tell you to keep it secret, I trust your own judgement on this matter. The captain and I are Maquis sympathizers.' Gwendolyn was initially surprised at the statement but when she thought about it, she realized that it made sense with their actions and personalities. The admiral continues once she had a chance to digest the admirals statement. "I initially tried to get the Federation to change their stance without making myself out to obviously be a Maquis sympathizer and we both did what we could behind the scenes to help the colonies. I am sure that you would find many of them were much like yourself. I mean as in wanting to be independent and not wanting the government to run everything. Joyce arranged that excess supplies would get to the Maquis and I provided the Maquis with intelligence on Cardassian activities."
Gwendolyn nodded her head. While they had technically committed treason, she could not condemn them because as she had just stated that she thought that the Federation's treatment of the whole situation was wrong. She also had no particular love for how the present Federation was being run. She did have a question she had to ask though "You would not have told me this unless it had something relevant to the present discussion?"
The Admiral replied "The Maquis still have a few ships and they want to strike back at the Dominion in any way that they can. I have so far been able to restrain them from making a suicidal attack against the Dominion but it is only a matter of time unless I can come up with something useful for them to do. Based on your idea, I figure we could equip their ships with cloaking devices and their ships could be used to raid Dominion supply task forces. It would be less risky than anything that they are presently contemplating and my, umm, our," as he nodded to his flagship's captain, "connection with the Maquis could remain covert."
Gwendolyn had to admit she liked the idea.
Commander Ross sat at her command chair and pondered the last battle. It appeared that the Federation media had declared it a major victory but she considered that entirely too many Federation ships had been destroyed and too many crew members had lost their lives. The Avenger was headed back to the staging system for a briefing with Admiral Sykes. Gwendolyn suspected that a new offensive was in the works but was curious to know the particulars. She was wondering if an adaptation of the tactics she used in the previous battle could be used in the supposed future engagement. If the events of the battle were controlled better, she might be able to incur heavy losses against the Dominion with minimal losses on the Federation side. The problem was that many enemy commanders might consider that any similar maneuver was a trap especially if the Dominion was able to get intelligence on what had just occurred. Perhaps a direct attack but with the fighters masked by the movement of the capital ships and not attempting to lure the enemy ships.
Commander Ross was waiting with virtually all the other ship captains of Twelfth Fleet in the main briefing room of the U.S.S. Bright Star. She still wore her old uniform and looked out of place in a sea of jumpsuit style uniforms. She still thought that their uniforms looked more like children's pajamas than actual uniforms. The admiral was running late and the captain of the Bright Star had come down to inform the captains that the admiral was having problem with the commander of the Klingon's local forces. The Bright Star's captain had stated that Admiral Sykes would be down to the briefing room as soon as he could.
During the delay, the captains were discussing recent events with each other. The subject changed to Captain Cisco, commander of Deep Space Nine, and what he had done just before the Dominion War and just before it. Most of the captains seemed to think that he had done an incredible job and were extolling his virtues. She was not impressed with what she had heard and what she had gathered from looking in various records. One of her biggest problems was that he seemed to believe that the ends justify the means in most cases. She had not said very much during the discussion but she was sure that her expression had given much of her opinion away. Most of the eyes were on her and one of the other captains asked "Commander Ross, you seem to have an opinion on Captain Cisco, would you like to share it with us?"
Well, they had asked. She began with "Captain, I wish I could agree with the rest of you on Captain Cisco but I cannot." Short and to the point. She continued after a moment "He has shown himself to be foolish and willing to sacrifice just about anything to salve his own ego. He has also repeatedly chosen to take a complex solution which cost lives when a simpler solution would have cost far fewer lives and had a much better chance of success." While none of the other officers said anything, they all were staring at her, many with daggers in their eyes. "His tactic with the Maquis and Solosos 3 should have end him in the nearest penal colony. I have read reports that state that the dusting of Trilithium will not allow human habitation for fifty years. That only tells half the story. That dusting also killed all Terran Flora and Fauna and completely destroyed the ecosystem of the planet. This all because his old security officer beat him and Captain Cisco wanted to prove himself better." It appeared that many of the captains wanted to disagree with her but no one spoke so she continued. She was surprised also that a few of the captains looked like they might agree with her. "I also do not like his tactics during the battle that ended up with the retaking of the Deep Space Nine Station. He lost sight of what the purpose of the whole engagement. If he had, he would have had the Klingon forces attack the station while his forces were engaging the Dominion fleet. Even if he had only had a fairly small number of Klingon ships attack the station, he could have kept the minefield from being destroyed. The true goal was to keep the minefield intact so no additional Dominion forces could arrive to reinforce those in the Alpha Quadrant. In the actual engagement, he made poor use of the forces at his disposal. It is better to destroy an enemy than too distract him. The idea of using the fighters to divert the Cardassian forces was a waste because he had no plans on how to take advantage of the situation. He should have planned some type of trap that would have destroyed or crippled the Cardassian vessels. The problem was that anything he did was purely temporary because he did not have enough power to destroy the Dominion forces with his forces detached into different groups."
It appeared as if several of the other officers were going to argue with her but it was at that point that the Admiral entered the room. He sat quickly down at the head of the table and said "Before I get started with the main reason for the meeting, I have a couple of announcements to make. First, the review of damage on the Atago has been completed. The damage on the ship is more severe than first thought and the vessel will be heading to a shipyard behind the front for repairs and a full refit. Second, Ms Ross, you are out of uniform!" A few of the other officers in the room laughed and several pointedly looked at her old style uniform. The Admiral did not give any time for comments before he continued "As of this date, You have been promoted to the rank of Captain. Congratulations, Captain." The Admiral tossed a new rank insignia in front of her. It must have been special made because the rank insignia was from the time that the Avenger had jumped from. The Admirals statement and action stopped the laughter abruptly.
"Most of you have likely guessed the reason why we are here. To make it official, I am announcing that Starfleet command has ordered us to make an offensive against local Dominion forces. I think this is in prelude to a major assault against them and we are suppose to eliminate reinforcements from this sector of space. In too many cases, we have been losing against the Dominion. I do not want to see this happening here and want a plan that reduces losses wherever possible. I plan to have several more sessions like this and at this point in time I am just looking for any ideas you might have." He looked around to see who would respond. The room was completely silent.
Gwendolyn also looked around the room. She thought to herself, what do you expect. Cadets are the academy are only taught a few fancy maneuvers and they think that these maneuvers are grand tactics. When the crews get onto the ships, there are few drills which means the skills the do have are lost and there is no chance to develop new tactics. Well, she would likely be the one to speak. "Admiral, a trap for their forces would probably be the best way to destroy their ships. Perhaps using fighters similar to the way they were used to ambush the Dominion forces that were chasing Commodore Langford's task force." She stopped and was motioned by Admiral Sykes to continue. "Admiral, what we could do is attack with the main portion of your forces with a heavy bombardment on what is likely their flagship. The attack should get their attention and the fighters could be approaching on a different course at low power levels. The fighters would do a surprise torpedo strike and if just the Jem-Hadar ships are destroyed, we should be able to deal with the others fairly easily."
One of the captains asked "What if the Dominion chooses not to engage our forces as you have planned? That could throw the position of all of your forces."
Gwendolyn did not recognize the speaker but it looked like one of the younger officers in the room. While she considered the answer pretty simple, at least he was asking questions. "Well, the best idea would be to target a location that they cannot afford to not protect. Make it so that radical maneuvering to trap our forces would result in the potential destruction of the target. A shipyard or a major supply depot would be two ideal targets but I am sure there are others as well. The second benefit is that we could make a double blow to their forces in one mission."
Captain Joyce Parker, Commanding Officer of Bright Star, broke in "Captain Ross, a good location might be the Ketrion System. The system contains what is likely the most important Dominion shipyard in the sector and there is a major supply depot as well." Gwendolyn nodded at the senior captains suggestion. Captain Parker though for a moment and then turned to the Admiral, "Admiral, if we can destroy their mobile forces, it might be possible to capture some examples of Dominion technology before we destroy the shipyards. I know it is impossible to hold the system but if we could get an assault team. I am sure that an samples would be of major help to R&D."
Admiral Sykes replied "Joyce, I have to admit that for that reason alone, the mission could be useful not even counting losses in their shipyard and forces." He turned to Gwendolyn "Captain Ross, I want you to work on a training plan for all ships based on the tactics that you used when you engaged the Cardassian ships near the Badlands." He looked at the assembled captains and note that several seemed to want to protest. He continued to head off their statements "I want to state that Captain Ross has my full support. I realize that many of you are senior to her but I would like your full support of her as well. She has developed a number of new tactics that might very well be instrumental in the next fight. Please, everyone, listen to her. Captains, If there is nothing else to discuss, we will meet again in two days to start developing a battle plan. I will have my captain comm you with the time of the meeting. Captain Ross, I would like to speak to you and Captain Parker in my office. Everyone else, dismissed.
The two female captains and the admiral had moved from the Admiral's office to his lounge. Captain Parker was prone in a recliner and had taken off her boots. Captain Ross was still a bit uncomfortable but she thought that this was mostly because it reminded her of the instructors lounge in the Academy. She also knew that she simply was not used to simply chatting with an admiral. She had taken off her red over tunic and was wearing her white turtleneck. Over the course of the evening, Captain Parker had become Joyce and Captain Ross had become Gwen. Admiral Parker remained ‘Admiral' but woe be an officer call an officer four ranks above them by their first name while still nominally on duty.
Joyce stated "You know, Gwen, stating that Ben Cisco is an idiot is not the most polite thing you could have done in the presence of all of those other captains? He is considered by many starfleet officers to be a great hero." The senior captain shook her head
Gwendolyn Ross clasped her hands together and responded "Joyce, You are probably right but they asked me my opinion and I just could not lie about it. What is your opinion on Captain Cisco?"
"More or less the same as you but I would not want to say it in such a public setting. You know that your speaking out is what will keep you from getting about the rank of captain or so. If you antagonize the wrong person, you will end your career."
Gwendolyn replied "It is just that those two victories of his probably cost more than many of the defeats you have suffered. Being honest, most of the defeats were due to our mistakes than the Dominion itself."
The conversation was making her nervous so she decided to change subjects. She looked over at the admiral to include him before asking her question. "One situation I do not understand. I have read reports on the Dominion attacking out convoys. Why don't we have Klingon Birds of Prey going after their convoys? Those small ships with their cloaking devices would be very hard to catch and convoy losses would hurt them as much as losses of warships."
Captain Parker was about to answer but the Admiral waved his hand indicating that he would answer Captain Ross. "Simply put, Gwen, the Klingons are much like they were in your time. Their warrior philosophy makes it that attacking unarmed cargo vessels as dishonorable."
Gwendolyn said "If we could impede their merchant traffic, there would be fringe benefits beyond just the loss of their supplies. I do imagine that in the short run that the losses of supplies would be incredible. In the long run, it would make them have to move vessels from the battlefront to protect convoys. Likely, the would also want to form independent hunter groups in the attempt to destroy the ships attacking their convoys. Once the Dominion begins to organize, we can start forming "Wolf Packs" to go after defended convoys." She thought for a few moments "How about using some of those Defiant class escorts and equipping them with cloaking devices?"
Joyce replied once she looked to see if the Admiral wanted to respond again "Gwen, only a small number of the Defiants have been built. I do not know the reasoning behind it. The Defiants we have are all assigned to the main battle fleet and it is unlikely that command would allow those ships to be put on detached service. Even if Starfleet Command agreed to it, the Federation has signed an agreement with the Romulan Empire that we will not operate cloaking devices on Federation Starships. The Defiant herself is the only exception to that rule."
Gwendolyn smiled and said "Well, that shoots down my other idea. That was to detach a bunch of destroyers and equip them with cloaking devices." She thought for a moment "From what I have read, the Romulans are no better at following agreements than they were in my time. How about their statement about putting just a medical facility on one of Bajor's moons while in reality they were building a defense outpost. I have to admit that I would have considered that myself if I was in their position. I would also be very tempted to collapse the wormhole as well. This is, of course, if these so called prophets would let it remain closed!" She paused for a few moments and asked "Isn't there any groups which we could employ against convoys? How about hiring Orions as privateers?"
The Admiral shook his head. Gwendolyn saw that his expression was more tense than the conversation indicated. He asked "I have a question for you that is a bit sensitive. I would normally ask for an honest answer but I am sure that is what I would get from you anyway. How do you feel about the Maquis? I know you have been reading up on the general situation and I suspect that you have head others discussing them as well."
Gwendolyn sat for just a moment or two before responding. "The term ‘Peace in our Time' comes to mind." Both the Admiral and Joyce gave he a blank stare. She added an explanation "The Prime Minister of England just before World War Two. Winston Churchill, no, **** Chamberlin ***. He said that after selling out Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler. You don't sell out your people, especially to an enemy who will not respect agreements anyway."
The Admiral asked her "What about the situation since then?"
Gwendolyn laughed. "A small number of rag tag ships with no support base are able to hold the forces of a supposed major power at bay. That says wonderful things about the state of Cardassian military forces. The Federation leadership decides that they have to intervene. Even better, they don't intervene on the side of the colonists but against them." she looked at both of them, half expecting anger and disagreement in spite of the fact the admiral asked her opinion. Instead, both of them nodded when she looked at them. The admiral appeared to be eyeing her to see if he could trust her.
After what seemed like ten minutes of staring at each other, the Admiral finally spoke "Well, Gwendolyn, I am about to tell you something that would at least destroy both Joyce and my careers if it got out. It might even land us in the brig or a prison planet somewhere. I will not tell you to keep it secret, I trust your own judgement on this matter. The captain and I are Maquis sympathizers.' Gwendolyn was initially surprised at the statement but when she thought about it, she realized that it made sense with their actions and personalities. The admiral continues once she had a chance to digest the admirals statement. "I initially tried to get the Federation to change their stance without making myself out to obviously be a Maquis sympathizer and we both did what we could behind the scenes to help the colonies. I am sure that you would find many of them were much like yourself. I mean as in wanting to be independent and not wanting the government to run everything. Joyce arranged that excess supplies would get to the Maquis and I provided the Maquis with intelligence on Cardassian activities."
Gwendolyn nodded her head. While they had technically committed treason, she could not condemn them because as she had just stated that she thought that the Federation's treatment of the whole situation was wrong. She also had no particular love for how the present Federation was being run. She did have a question she had to ask though "You would not have told me this unless it had something relevant to the present discussion?"
The Admiral replied "The Maquis still have a few ships and they want to strike back at the Dominion in any way that they can. I have so far been able to restrain them from making a suicidal attack against the Dominion but it is only a matter of time unless I can come up with something useful for them to do. Based on your idea, I figure we could equip their ships with cloaking devices and their ships could be used to raid Dominion supply task forces. It would be less risky than anything that they are presently contemplating and my, umm, our," as he nodded to his flagship's captain, "connection with the Maquis could remain covert."
Gwendolyn had to admit she liked the idea.
The Last Voyage of the Avenger - Chapter Five
Chapter Five:
Things were not going well though Tralle, the Vorta who acted as the Dominion representative in this sector. It had been going so well before. The Dominion had been beating the Federation in virtually every battle in this war. Now, in what amounted to a few weeks, every had gone to ruin for the Dominion. He had been cloned to act as an administrator for the Changelings but he certainly did not know how to deal with recent events.
The whole situation seemed to start with a Cardassian patrol being ambushed and destroyed on the edge of what the humans called ‘The Badlands'. The loss of a handful of Cardassian ship was insignificant but it began an alarming pattern. Changeling spies within the Federation had discovered that a new captain had come back from that battle but nothing was know about her. It was like they had no records of her existing. He wondered if this new captain had anything to do with the present situation.
Then there was the Federations retaking of Tylar. The loss of ships there and all indications had been than any Federation attacks would be crushed. He had no idea what could have gone wrong. The Jem-Hadar that had been commander of the systems forces had been one of his best.
Now, the losses of convoys were on the way to crippling his forces. The supply on White, the drug used by the Jem-Hadar, was so low that he had to ration it and he was afraid he would have to cut rations of the drug even further. If he lost control over his Jem-Hadar, they would lose the sector. He was almost as sort in general supplies and ordnance as he was in the drug. The only reason he was getting some supplies through was due to the fact that he had detached two thirds of his light attack ships to perform convoy escort and to hunt the raiders. The extra maintenance and ordnance expended by these escorts and hunting parties were drawing heavily on his remaining supplies. He could not afford to not operate the groups because then virtually no supplies would get though then. The pirates were Maquis vessels that had gotten cloaking devices from somewhere. His information had come from the examination of the wreckage of the small number of pirate vessels that his forces had managed to destroy. One problem was that the Maquis had managed to capture a couple of convoys virtually intact before convoy escorts were introduced. As a result, the Marquis were well equipped. Even worse though was the tactics that they used. The Maquis did not attack convoys the way that he would expect the Klingons would attack convoys. He had initially thought that it had been Klingon light forces attacking his supply vessels and had expected them to revert to attacking his escort vessels once the convoys were properly escorted. Instead, the Maquis raiders did their best to leave the escorts alone and simply attack the supply vessels. He had to admit that the tactic was the smartest for the Maquis forces. The Maquis vessels were badly outclassed by the Jem-Hadar light attack ships and would take crippling losses if the attempted to fight.
With the lack of supplies and the large number of warships that he had been forced to detach, he would have a hard time dealing with Federation raids in many sectors. His mind kept going in circles thinking about it. He could not help it.
He looked up from his desk to a Jem-Hadar officer who just entered his office. The Jem-Hadar reported, "We have just detected a large force coming this way. Course indicates a straight line course from where we think the staging area for the Federation's Twelfth Fleet. The number of ships makes it seem likely that it is all the ships that they have available assuming a number are down for repairs. The Jem-Hadar handed the Vorta a data pad as he spoke.
Tralle looked at the data pad. The Dominion still had a sizeable force advantage against the Federation forces heading towards the system although they could severely hurt him. Still, he could win this battle and it would give him victory in this system. Without having to be prepared for a major battle, he could use more of his forces to protect convoys and hunt down the remaining Maquis pirates. If the Federation had attacked some of his less defended systems, he might have been forced to pull more ships from him main forces and an attack like this could have gone badly but the Federation fleet against him simply was not large enough to defeat him in battle.
One danger was that engaging them near his supply facilities might endanger them so it would be best if his ships engaged away from the facilities. He stood up from his desk and said quietly to the Jem-Hadar, "Have all ships put on alert, we are going out to greet them."
This was going to be the largest battle Captain Gwendolyn Ross had ever fought in outside of a simulator. If she won or lost, there would be casualties. Both the training and the battle plan was hers. In the weeks proceeding this moment, she had done everything she could to reduce the Federations casualties in the next few hours. She had drilled them remorselessly on using their ship's phasers against photon torpedoes. None of the ships had the Avenger's level of success but all ships were scoring at least 35% and the flagship was closing on a hit ratio of 50%. In addition to training the other captains and their crews to use their phasers for point defense, she had been also training them to use their ships maneuverability more effectively. She was training them to make random dodges as well as to spin their vessels so that both the forward and after torpedo launchers could be fired on the same bearing. While not all Federation class carried rear firing torpedo launchers, averaging out the number of rear torpedo launchers still added over fifty percent to the number of torpedoes that could be fired at one time. If a large number of the light attack ships had been detached for convoy duty, this should give the Twelfth Fleet about an equal number of torpedo tubes on capital ships useable in the initial engagement.
That was without fighters, With the fighters, the amount of torpedoes that could be fired would be several times greater than that. Of course, it would only be the first volley but it should still be quite impressive. At first, she had considered using the fighters in a parallel attack to her capital ships. They could then strike with surprise from a totally unexpected direction. She decided to go for a more conservative plan instead. The Twelfth fleet would instead tow the fighters behind them using tractor beams. The tractor beams would be harder to detect than the drive fields of the fighters. As soon as the Dominion forces got within Torpedo range, all of the fighters would pull to the sides and front of the capital ships. At that point, all capital ships and fighters of the Twelfth fleet would open fire simultaneously with torpedo launchers. Her tactic on the first volley was to target the vessels with the most torpedo launchers yet the least protected. She had targetted all of her first volley on the Cardassian ships that made up almost a third of the Dominion fleet ahead of the Twelfth Fleet in this sector. She planned to make the Jem-Hadar attack ships, being small and relatively lightly armored, but carrying a lot of firepower the target for her later volleys. If her battle plan worked out properly, by the time the two forces reached beam weapon range, the Twelfth Fleet would have a decisive advantage over the Dominion forces arrayed against her.
Tralle decided he would accompany the Jem-Hadar flag ship. If the Federation attempted to use their fighters to get the Cardassian ships to leave formation to chase them like in a previous battle, he figured he would be the most able to keep their ships with the main strike force. He had learned his lesson about interfering in battle and planned to allow the Jem-Hadar fleet commander to make any necessary tactical decisions.
The Jem-Hadar commander hoped that the Vorta would be smart enough to leave him alone in the battle. He had been under several who had attempted to dictate battle tactics to disastrous results. The Federation forces were acting quite strangely and had never seen anything quite like it. Their main tactic of acceleration to quarter impulse speed seemed normal enough although foolish. The speed the ships were going, they would be unable to disengage from his forces and would end up at energy weapon range before the could stop and turn around. The rest he did not understand. It looked like the ships warp fields and shields were oscillating and he was having trouble targeting the ships. In addition, the ships were moving side to side. He supposed that was to make them harder to hit.
The Jem-Hadar commander stated to the Vorta "Sir, my plan is to concentrate on the center vessels which are most of the larger vessel. While they are the toughest, they most likely carry the flag officers and destroying them is most like to create confusion in the other fleet. It might actually cause each ship to operate independently. Some will try and attack while others would try and escape enabling us to destroy their forces in detail." Trelle nodded his agreement to the commander. The truth was that the attack was already programmed into the vessels computer and it was far too late for the Vorta to do anything about it.
At the moment the Jem-Hadar commander was telling the Vorta his battle plan, the Federation fleet prepared to spring its trap. Captain Ross looked at her Executive Officer make some minor changes to the programming of the attack but for the most part they were spectators, just like the Jem-Hadar and Vorta were, at this point. The attack parameters for the Torpedo strike were already programmed into the vessels computers and were be executed in about ten seconds when the two forces got within range of each other.
As the ten second mark was reached, the fighters activated their drives and pulled forward of the Capital ships both to help defend the larger vessels and to be able to fire their torpedoes without the cruisers and frigates being in the way. On computer control, the Avenger first fired its rear launchers and then as the ship spun back around, its forward launchers a second later. All of the other ships and fighters of the Twelfth fleet fired like clockwork and the largest volley of torpedoes ever launched headed for the Dominion fleet. The Dominion force fired just a few seconds later but the number of missiles was pitiful in comparison. As well, they were not fired virtually simultaneously and would be much easier targets to hit.
The Jem-Hadar fleet commander watched the new development with surprise. There was nothing her could do now. He turned to look at the Trelle to see if the Vorta had any new orders but the Vorta was simply staring at the tactical screen. Well, at least he was not interfering.
As the fleet commander watched, the Federation force fired a second volley. This one was composed of less torpedoes but still about fifty percent more than might be expected for the ships he saw on his sensors. Obviously the first volley was mostly fired from fighters but he needed to figure out why the second volley was still so heavy. He thought about the oscillating fields were the answer. Spinning a ship might cause something very similar to this and would allow both forward and rear launchers to be used. If he was able to beat the Federation force, he would see about adapting it for his own ships.
Just as he though about how the Federation force was firing so many torpedoes, the Dominion force were hit by the massive first volley of Torpedoes. The Jem-Hadar commander had not thought that they would be virtually all targeted at the weaker Cardassian ships or he may have attempted to protect them by putting the heavier armored Jem-Hadar battle cruisers between the torpedoes and the lighter ships. It likely would not have mattered anyway. Half of the Cardassian ships were destroyed outright or crippled. Virtually all of the other Cardassian vessels were badly damage. Two Cardassian captains panicked and attempted to maneuver out of the formation and make a run for it.
The Dominion torpedoes reached the Federation forces only a few seconds later but the Federation was far more ready and there was also a far smaller total number of torpedoes fired at the Federation ship. Still, a large number of torpedoes were targeted on a comparatively small number of vessels and chances are some of the Torpedoes would get through. Almost half of the torpedoes fired against the Twelfth Fleet were unable to look onto targets. A combination of the strange warp fields and radical maneuvers confused the missiles. The Avenger was near the middle of the fleet and while not one of the larger vessels was targeted with twelve torpedoes. Fighters destroyed three of the missiles before they reach the Avenger and four more missiles were confused by the ship's maneuvers. Five remained targeted and while the phaser banks were able to take out four more torpedoes, one struck the Avenger. The shield was weakened bu held. The Bright Star was the very center of the formation and was targeted more than any other vessel. It had multiple hits and actually had its shields breached.
As the two forces closed, the Federation force decelerated. This would enable them to remain within missile range longer and allow them to keep beam range once reached. A fast pass between the two groups would probably allow the Dominion force to escape with comparatively minor damage. The two groups slowly advanced to beam weapon range and the numerical superiority shifted to the Federation forces as the ranges shrank. The Dominion commander simply did not have enough speed to accelerate fast enough to escape the Federation ships. The follow up torpedo volley, while much smaller than initial volley, struck the Jem-Hadar light attack vessels. The next few volleys destroyed many of the remaining Cardassian vessels and then shifted to the Jem-Hadar capital ships. While few were outright destroyed, many were badly damaged. The number of missiles fired back at the Federation fleet diminished as ranges decreased but still the Federation vessels were hit and took damage. Few were severely damaged. The combination of radical maneuvering and using phasers as point defense had greatly reduced the effectiveness of the Dominion torpedoes. There were exceptions though, the Bright Star had received multiple more hits being the center of the formation and lost her forward torpedo launchers and one of her phaser arrays. The Avenger had taken a bit of light damage although it was limited to hull damage. Wearing vacuum survival suits enabled most of the crew in those sections to survive where if they had not worn them, they would have died.
Captain Mayfair watched as the Avenger got within range of a Jem-Hadar battlecruiser. The battlecruiser fired a moment before the Avenger and the frigate received three more hits. Another inflicted more light hull damage but the other were more serious. One inflicted damage on one of her warp drive supports and the other wiped out one of her port phaser banks. It was the Avengers turn to fire back and she was supported by three destroyers and a cruiser. While individually weaker, the Jem-Hadar vessel was not designed to fight all five vessels at the same time. The shields quickly went down and hull plates collapsed and weapons were wiped away. One of the Avenger's mega-phasers clawed deep within the battlecruisers hull striking at the anti-mater reactor. Suddenly the Flagship, along with the Jem-Hadar commander and the Vorta, became a bright flash as massive amounts of matter and anti-matter joined.
Things were not going well though Tralle, the Vorta who acted as the Dominion representative in this sector. It had been going so well before. The Dominion had been beating the Federation in virtually every battle in this war. Now, in what amounted to a few weeks, every had gone to ruin for the Dominion. He had been cloned to act as an administrator for the Changelings but he certainly did not know how to deal with recent events.
The whole situation seemed to start with a Cardassian patrol being ambushed and destroyed on the edge of what the humans called ‘The Badlands'. The loss of a handful of Cardassian ship was insignificant but it began an alarming pattern. Changeling spies within the Federation had discovered that a new captain had come back from that battle but nothing was know about her. It was like they had no records of her existing. He wondered if this new captain had anything to do with the present situation.
Then there was the Federations retaking of Tylar. The loss of ships there and all indications had been than any Federation attacks would be crushed. He had no idea what could have gone wrong. The Jem-Hadar that had been commander of the systems forces had been one of his best.
Now, the losses of convoys were on the way to crippling his forces. The supply on White, the drug used by the Jem-Hadar, was so low that he had to ration it and he was afraid he would have to cut rations of the drug even further. If he lost control over his Jem-Hadar, they would lose the sector. He was almost as sort in general supplies and ordnance as he was in the drug. The only reason he was getting some supplies through was due to the fact that he had detached two thirds of his light attack ships to perform convoy escort and to hunt the raiders. The extra maintenance and ordnance expended by these escorts and hunting parties were drawing heavily on his remaining supplies. He could not afford to not operate the groups because then virtually no supplies would get though then. The pirates were Maquis vessels that had gotten cloaking devices from somewhere. His information had come from the examination of the wreckage of the small number of pirate vessels that his forces had managed to destroy. One problem was that the Maquis had managed to capture a couple of convoys virtually intact before convoy escorts were introduced. As a result, the Marquis were well equipped. Even worse though was the tactics that they used. The Maquis did not attack convoys the way that he would expect the Klingons would attack convoys. He had initially thought that it had been Klingon light forces attacking his supply vessels and had expected them to revert to attacking his escort vessels once the convoys were properly escorted. Instead, the Maquis raiders did their best to leave the escorts alone and simply attack the supply vessels. He had to admit that the tactic was the smartest for the Maquis forces. The Maquis vessels were badly outclassed by the Jem-Hadar light attack ships and would take crippling losses if the attempted to fight.
With the lack of supplies and the large number of warships that he had been forced to detach, he would have a hard time dealing with Federation raids in many sectors. His mind kept going in circles thinking about it. He could not help it.
He looked up from his desk to a Jem-Hadar officer who just entered his office. The Jem-Hadar reported, "We have just detected a large force coming this way. Course indicates a straight line course from where we think the staging area for the Federation's Twelfth Fleet. The number of ships makes it seem likely that it is all the ships that they have available assuming a number are down for repairs. The Jem-Hadar handed the Vorta a data pad as he spoke.
Tralle looked at the data pad. The Dominion still had a sizeable force advantage against the Federation forces heading towards the system although they could severely hurt him. Still, he could win this battle and it would give him victory in this system. Without having to be prepared for a major battle, he could use more of his forces to protect convoys and hunt down the remaining Maquis pirates. If the Federation had attacked some of his less defended systems, he might have been forced to pull more ships from him main forces and an attack like this could have gone badly but the Federation fleet against him simply was not large enough to defeat him in battle.
One danger was that engaging them near his supply facilities might endanger them so it would be best if his ships engaged away from the facilities. He stood up from his desk and said quietly to the Jem-Hadar, "Have all ships put on alert, we are going out to greet them."
This was going to be the largest battle Captain Gwendolyn Ross had ever fought in outside of a simulator. If she won or lost, there would be casualties. Both the training and the battle plan was hers. In the weeks proceeding this moment, she had done everything she could to reduce the Federations casualties in the next few hours. She had drilled them remorselessly on using their ship's phasers against photon torpedoes. None of the ships had the Avenger's level of success but all ships were scoring at least 35% and the flagship was closing on a hit ratio of 50%. In addition to training the other captains and their crews to use their phasers for point defense, she had been also training them to use their ships maneuverability more effectively. She was training them to make random dodges as well as to spin their vessels so that both the forward and after torpedo launchers could be fired on the same bearing. While not all Federation class carried rear firing torpedo launchers, averaging out the number of rear torpedo launchers still added over fifty percent to the number of torpedoes that could be fired at one time. If a large number of the light attack ships had been detached for convoy duty, this should give the Twelfth Fleet about an equal number of torpedo tubes on capital ships useable in the initial engagement.
That was without fighters, With the fighters, the amount of torpedoes that could be fired would be several times greater than that. Of course, it would only be the first volley but it should still be quite impressive. At first, she had considered using the fighters in a parallel attack to her capital ships. They could then strike with surprise from a totally unexpected direction. She decided to go for a more conservative plan instead. The Twelfth fleet would instead tow the fighters behind them using tractor beams. The tractor beams would be harder to detect than the drive fields of the fighters. As soon as the Dominion forces got within Torpedo range, all of the fighters would pull to the sides and front of the capital ships. At that point, all capital ships and fighters of the Twelfth fleet would open fire simultaneously with torpedo launchers. Her tactic on the first volley was to target the vessels with the most torpedo launchers yet the least protected. She had targetted all of her first volley on the Cardassian ships that made up almost a third of the Dominion fleet ahead of the Twelfth Fleet in this sector. She planned to make the Jem-Hadar attack ships, being small and relatively lightly armored, but carrying a lot of firepower the target for her later volleys. If her battle plan worked out properly, by the time the two forces reached beam weapon range, the Twelfth Fleet would have a decisive advantage over the Dominion forces arrayed against her.
Tralle decided he would accompany the Jem-Hadar flag ship. If the Federation attempted to use their fighters to get the Cardassian ships to leave formation to chase them like in a previous battle, he figured he would be the most able to keep their ships with the main strike force. He had learned his lesson about interfering in battle and planned to allow the Jem-Hadar fleet commander to make any necessary tactical decisions.
The Jem-Hadar commander hoped that the Vorta would be smart enough to leave him alone in the battle. He had been under several who had attempted to dictate battle tactics to disastrous results. The Federation forces were acting quite strangely and had never seen anything quite like it. Their main tactic of acceleration to quarter impulse speed seemed normal enough although foolish. The speed the ships were going, they would be unable to disengage from his forces and would end up at energy weapon range before the could stop and turn around. The rest he did not understand. It looked like the ships warp fields and shields were oscillating and he was having trouble targeting the ships. In addition, the ships were moving side to side. He supposed that was to make them harder to hit.
The Jem-Hadar commander stated to the Vorta "Sir, my plan is to concentrate on the center vessels which are most of the larger vessel. While they are the toughest, they most likely carry the flag officers and destroying them is most like to create confusion in the other fleet. It might actually cause each ship to operate independently. Some will try and attack while others would try and escape enabling us to destroy their forces in detail." Trelle nodded his agreement to the commander. The truth was that the attack was already programmed into the vessels computer and it was far too late for the Vorta to do anything about it.
At the moment the Jem-Hadar commander was telling the Vorta his battle plan, the Federation fleet prepared to spring its trap. Captain Ross looked at her Executive Officer make some minor changes to the programming of the attack but for the most part they were spectators, just like the Jem-Hadar and Vorta were, at this point. The attack parameters for the Torpedo strike were already programmed into the vessels computers and were be executed in about ten seconds when the two forces got within range of each other.
As the ten second mark was reached, the fighters activated their drives and pulled forward of the Capital ships both to help defend the larger vessels and to be able to fire their torpedoes without the cruisers and frigates being in the way. On computer control, the Avenger first fired its rear launchers and then as the ship spun back around, its forward launchers a second later. All of the other ships and fighters of the Twelfth fleet fired like clockwork and the largest volley of torpedoes ever launched headed for the Dominion fleet. The Dominion force fired just a few seconds later but the number of missiles was pitiful in comparison. As well, they were not fired virtually simultaneously and would be much easier targets to hit.
The Jem-Hadar fleet commander watched the new development with surprise. There was nothing her could do now. He turned to look at the Trelle to see if the Vorta had any new orders but the Vorta was simply staring at the tactical screen. Well, at least he was not interfering.
As the fleet commander watched, the Federation force fired a second volley. This one was composed of less torpedoes but still about fifty percent more than might be expected for the ships he saw on his sensors. Obviously the first volley was mostly fired from fighters but he needed to figure out why the second volley was still so heavy. He thought about the oscillating fields were the answer. Spinning a ship might cause something very similar to this and would allow both forward and rear launchers to be used. If he was able to beat the Federation force, he would see about adapting it for his own ships.
Just as he though about how the Federation force was firing so many torpedoes, the Dominion force were hit by the massive first volley of Torpedoes. The Jem-Hadar commander had not thought that they would be virtually all targeted at the weaker Cardassian ships or he may have attempted to protect them by putting the heavier armored Jem-Hadar battle cruisers between the torpedoes and the lighter ships. It likely would not have mattered anyway. Half of the Cardassian ships were destroyed outright or crippled. Virtually all of the other Cardassian vessels were badly damage. Two Cardassian captains panicked and attempted to maneuver out of the formation and make a run for it.
The Dominion torpedoes reached the Federation forces only a few seconds later but the Federation was far more ready and there was also a far smaller total number of torpedoes fired at the Federation ship. Still, a large number of torpedoes were targeted on a comparatively small number of vessels and chances are some of the Torpedoes would get through. Almost half of the torpedoes fired against the Twelfth Fleet were unable to look onto targets. A combination of the strange warp fields and radical maneuvers confused the missiles. The Avenger was near the middle of the fleet and while not one of the larger vessels was targeted with twelve torpedoes. Fighters destroyed three of the missiles before they reach the Avenger and four more missiles were confused by the ship's maneuvers. Five remained targeted and while the phaser banks were able to take out four more torpedoes, one struck the Avenger. The shield was weakened bu held. The Bright Star was the very center of the formation and was targeted more than any other vessel. It had multiple hits and actually had its shields breached.
As the two forces closed, the Federation force decelerated. This would enable them to remain within missile range longer and allow them to keep beam range once reached. A fast pass between the two groups would probably allow the Dominion force to escape with comparatively minor damage. The two groups slowly advanced to beam weapon range and the numerical superiority shifted to the Federation forces as the ranges shrank. The Dominion commander simply did not have enough speed to accelerate fast enough to escape the Federation ships. The follow up torpedo volley, while much smaller than initial volley, struck the Jem-Hadar light attack vessels. The next few volleys destroyed many of the remaining Cardassian vessels and then shifted to the Jem-Hadar capital ships. While few were outright destroyed, many were badly damaged. The number of missiles fired back at the Federation fleet diminished as ranges decreased but still the Federation vessels were hit and took damage. Few were severely damaged. The combination of radical maneuvering and using phasers as point defense had greatly reduced the effectiveness of the Dominion torpedoes. There were exceptions though, the Bright Star had received multiple more hits being the center of the formation and lost her forward torpedo launchers and one of her phaser arrays. The Avenger had taken a bit of light damage although it was limited to hull damage. Wearing vacuum survival suits enabled most of the crew in those sections to survive where if they had not worn them, they would have died.
Captain Mayfair watched as the Avenger got within range of a Jem-Hadar battlecruiser. The battlecruiser fired a moment before the Avenger and the frigate received three more hits. Another inflicted more light hull damage but the other were more serious. One inflicted damage on one of her warp drive supports and the other wiped out one of her port phaser banks. It was the Avengers turn to fire back and she was supported by three destroyers and a cruiser. While individually weaker, the Jem-Hadar vessel was not designed to fight all five vessels at the same time. The shields quickly went down and hull plates collapsed and weapons were wiped away. One of the Avenger's mega-phasers clawed deep within the battlecruisers hull striking at the anti-mater reactor. Suddenly the Flagship, along with the Jem-Hadar commander and the Vorta, became a bright flash as massive amounts of matter and anti-matter joined.
The Last Voyage of the Avenger - Chapter XX
Basically, I have been unable to figure out where to go in the middile of the story so I have posted the later chapters. Figure about one or two chapters will go between.
Chapter XX:
It was official, Star Fleet engineers had looked at the Avenger and had officially notified the captain of the Avenger that the ship was not worth repairing. The ship had simply taken too much damage in the last battle and in honesty, Captain Ross had to agree with them. The appearance of the bridge was a close mirror of the rest of her ship. Most of the bridge stations were destroyed and even her own captain's chair was almost hit by the attack that had smashed the rest of the bridge. The main view screen was gone and a patch had to be put in its place. If not the bridge would be expose to the vacuum of space. She remembered the last few moments when a piece of battle steel fragment cut through her executive officer. Dried blood could still be seen where her second in command died. Emergency panels had been set up to enable the ship to be piloted to the nearest shipyard for dismantling. The auxiliary bridge was completely open to space and was completely unsalvageable so an emergency system had to be set up. Well, Star Fleet would likely try to give her a multitude of metals and then retire her. As long as she was in command of her crew, they could not be sent to be reeducated and she needed to come up with some plans to keep her remaining crew somewhere safe. Perhaps she could find a way for them to create a colony with other people who agree with her. She had run into plenty of people who did not agree with the Federation's socialist society.
The battle between the Residents of the Alpha quadrant and the Dominions had not gone unnoticed. The Borg had been looking intently in the Alpha Quadrants direction for years and noted that the military forces had taken heavy losses. This would be a good opportunity to take over the Alpha Quadrant and acquire huge numbers of drones. The losses in the battle against Species 8472 had severely depleted their drones and they needed replacements. Each time previously, they had only sent one cube. Instead they would be sending four cubes into the Alpha Quadrant.
Captain Gwendolyn Ross stateroom had been spared by the incredible explosions and powerful energy beams which had wrecked the rest of her ship. Like she had been doing too often since her ship had docked at the shipyard, Gwendolyn was siting on her bed crying. Just too many of her crew had died and she was so weary. The yard had not begun the scrapping of her ship but it would come soon. She would then have to decide what to do and she knew her crew was waiting on her. She knew the Atago was at the yard being refitted but she had not gone to check and see if Commander Jackson was still onboard. While he seemed to be stuck in the strange socialist ideals the Federation had evolved, he was nice enough. She also felt that she had been slowly bringing him to her way of thinking before his ship was ordered to the shipyard for repair and refit.
Her intercom beeped. She had left orders to only beep her if it was extremely important . She answered it a little unsteadily and lethargically "Yes, what do you want?"
She could hear the slightly panicked voice of her assistant communication officer "Sir, the commander of the shipyard has just sent a message to all senior officers. It is marked ‘Emergency', Captain". The communication officer of the Avenger had survived but she was still in the medical station in the shipyard. The doctors had promised they would release her within a few days.
Captain Ross was curious what Commodore Von Gehr's message was about. She spoke more steadily and firmer than before "Go ahead and transmit the message down here, Lilly"
A visual image of the commander of the shipyard appeared on the monitor. She had only met the grey haired man once when her ship docked at the shipyard. He seemed harried and perpetually busy. The Commodore appeared nervous, "I have just received grave news. Long range tracking has detected four Borg cubes heading for the Alpha Quadrant. Their course will bring them near this system. There is presently an attempt to gather together a battle fleet to intercept the Borg forces but there is little concrete information. From background data, it seems doubtful that High Command will be able to get enough ships together to stop the Borg fleet."
Something clicked inside the Captain and a wall separated her from her grief that had been haunting her lately. Most people in StarFleet were deathly afraid of the Borg but she had read up on the Borg and thought she knew a tactic to deal with them. She brought her com system back up to talk to her assistant communications officer. The young ensign could see a thoughtful expression on the captain and knew that her captain was back.
Gwendolyn got up from her bed and spoke in a firm and strong voice "Lilly, do you know what a half kilometer long asteroid can do." The captain could tell from the ensigns expression that she was more confused than anything else. "Never Mind", she continued, "I need you to open a com channel with Commodore Von Gehr and ask is he would contact me directly. Let him know that I have a plan to defeat the Borg. Next, I want all remaining officers not on watch to join me as soon as possible in the Officers Mess.
Ten minutes later, the last of her remaining officers stepped through the hatch onto the mess decks. While the space had not completely remained intact, it was the only space that she could fit all of her remaining officers onto and had only minor damage. If she had her full officers compliment still, the other place she could have addressed them all would have been the hangers which were now open into space. As it was, only about half of her officers remained and many had been acting as department heads even those were Lieutenant Junior Grades or Ensigns. She motioned for everybody to be quiet and began speaking, "Officers of the Avenger, I have been informed by the Commodore that an enemy known as the Borg is heading for Federation space and their course brings them right through this system in all likely hood. What I need to know is what the status of the Avenger is?"
Not really knowing what the Borg were, the officers were actually more surprised at her question on the status of the Avenger. She could not really mean to bring the vessel into combat again. The Engineering Officer, who was now her second in command, was the first to break his stun. He had survived the last battle intact if you did not include the multiple broken ribs which had to be quick healed "Captain, the....."
At that moment, the chime from the communication panel chirped and the Communication ensign broke in "Captain, Commodore Von Gehr is on the comm and wishes to speak to you"
Captain Ross responded "Go ahead and transfer him down here. I can explain part of what is going on to the officers down her that way. Go ahead and keep a channel open and listen in yourself." Captain Ross did not like leaving her crew in the dark whenever possible and while she would have to fill in many details to her officers, this would help fill in some of the background.
The Commodore's image appeared on the view screen "Captain, I am to understand from your communication officer that you ‘Might'", the Commodore strongly emphasizing the ‘might', "have a plan to deal with the Borg forces heading in this direction? Understand if I am skeptical, the last time it took a whole fleet of the Federation's best vessels to destroy one Borg Cube and even then it was a disaster. Over half of our ships involved in the battle were either destroyed or disabled. If it was not for your incredible record during the Dominion War, I would be less likely to consider discussing this with you!"
Captain Ross took a deep breath and started "Basically, I plan to distract the Borg fleet with whatever vessels I can scrape together and then throw asteroids at sublight speeds at the Borg vessels. I have never heard of anything that could withstand a one hundred million ton asteroid being thrown at it at one quarter of the speed of light" Before he could respond, she chuckled mirthlessly and continued, "It is not like we have very many options. Our vessels are too slow to retreat from the Borg vessels and even if we could, where would we go. They are targeting the Federation for assimilation and I would prefer to go down fighting then become one of their mindless drones."
Gwendolyn had done a bit of research on the Commodore and had found at that he had never served in combat. She hoped that he would be willing to defer to an officer who had served in combat even if she was junior to him. She was the second most senior officer currently at the shipyard, outranking both the Commodore's executive officer and all of the other ship captains. What she had found out indicated that he was intelligent, innovative, and reputed to be an incredible administrator in engineering fields. He had been in charge of this yard for several years and had converted two Intrepid class cruisers, the ‘Scharnhorst' and ‘Gneisenau', into much more effective and heavier armed vessels. The two sisters were considered some of the best small vessels in Star Fleet and there was discussion of building more of the class.
Commodore Von Gehr paused for a few moments before answering. It appeared that the commodore was going over in his head what she said. He seemed to resolve an inner discussion and replied to her "Alright, I see your point. Obviously, you only have the most basic framework of the plan and will need time to fully develop it. What I want to know now is what you think you need?"
Gwendolyn had already created a preliminary list in her head. In reality, she had formed it within a few moments of coming up with her basic plan. She did not know specifics but she knew approximately what was available. She started with the obvious "Commodore, I am going to need every combat vessel that can be readied within the next four days and I am going to need crews for them. I think a little careful management will allow the use of crews on the vessels already in the system but unable to be repaired in time. I think that some yard crews could also be utilized on the vessels as well. The other major item I will need are impulse engines that I can have attach to asteroids." The number of impulse engines was the limiting factor because this system had a reasonable sized asteroid belt which could be used for the asteroids themselves.
The Commodore mulled over the items for a few moments "I see no problem with attaching impulse engines to asteroids within the time frame but I believe I only have twelve impulse engines powerful enough to give an asteroid a reasonable acceleration. The asteroids will be very jury rigged and will have only limited endurance. I think a few hours are the best that could be hoped for. As far as ships, that is probably our worst situation. I have an Excelsior class cruiser, the Atago, which is almost finished its refit. The ship still has a full crew although it is lacking in senior officers. There is a Centaur class cruiser, the Kraken, which a refit is almost done as well. The ship had an engineering casualty but is just about ready for service. The ship has a full crew and can be made ready for combat within a few days. I will let you use your own judgement on the Avenger. I have four old Akyazi Perimeter Action Ships which were being made ready for service in the Dominion War but progress was stopped when the war ended. There were crews training onboard before the war ended but they were transported home at the end of hostilities. I have no personnel trained in the use of the vessels but they are close tobeing fully operational. I have instructions to mothball the vessels but the process has not begun yet. I have a bunch of ships that are to be scrapped and are completely non operational. There are a few vessels that might be repairable but the crews went home after the close of hostilities and the ships were to be repaired and be put in mothball status as well. Newer vessel, which are meant to remain in service, have been sent to other shipyards. If I had two weeks, I might be able to bring eight more vessels back into service but we do not have the time presently. The only other ship I have is an Akira class heavy cruiser which was being built in this yard because the other yards were overloaded. If I had another month, I might be able to get the ship combat operational although I doubt I could bring it to full functionality for an addition few months. The crew has not even began to arrive yet and there has even been discussion of suspending the project. I could use my shipyard personnel to fill many of the engineering slots but trained personnel for tactical and weapon and especially command with combat experience will be impossible to find."
Gwendolyn had not known about the refitted Akyazi Perimeter Action Ships and they could be a welcome addition to her limited forces. As long as they had not been refitted to the point that the small ship's controls were unrecognizable, she was sure that some of her people could operate the ships at least reasonably well. The ships were small but carried a large fraction of the firepower of a frigate or cruiser. In many ways, it could be considered the predecessor to the Defiant class which she had heard so many officers brag about. She was hoping for at least sixteen impulse engines so that she could throw four asteroids at each Borg Cube but as long as she had eight or more asteroids available, her plan should have a good chance of success. She had some requests that the Commodore would likely find unusual but could be helpful as well, "Commodore, I have read some of the reports on the Borg and I understand that, like their ships, the Borg drones can adapt to most energy weapons within a few shots and Borg troops boarding Federation vessels has been a significant problem in the past?" The Commodore nodded in agreement and she continued "I believe I have a relatively simple solution to this. I have an antique rifle know as an ‘M-1 Carbine'. The design could be copied and adapted for shipboard troops. Like most antique rifles, it is a slug thrower and I do not believe that the Borg can adapt to that type of weapon because otherwise they should have adapted to punches and kicks a long time ago. A firearm just uses the same forces but several magnitudes higher. This is pretty much the same plan I have for the Borg cubes."
The Commodore looked stunned and Gwendolyn was not sure why. To him it was a revelation, so simple yet he knew of no one who had thought of something similar. Sometimes more advanced ideas were simply more complicated and a simpler solution was the best solution. Captain Ross seemed very good at coming up with simple solutions for complex problems. To prevent decompression, the Federation had been developing more and more complex structural integrity and environmental force fields. The problem was that the depressurization of the spaces were still a serious problem. Captain Ross had solved that but simply equipping all of her crew with light environmental suits which acts as vac suits. The lives lost that could have been saved with these two simple solutions and the amount of resources that had been invested in environmental force fields and energy weapons to deal with the Borg were staggering. He wondered how many other problems could be solved by simply using simple solutions. He remembered a story he had heard about the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States in the middle of the Twentieth Century. He did not even know if it was true or not but it made a great example of the same situation. The story was that the United States had invested hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in designing a pen that would write in space while the Russians had simply given their Astronauts a pencil. Well, now that he had visited the back alleys in his brain, it was time he answered the captain. He replied "Captain, that is a very interesting idea and could be quite useful. I believe that I have some extra crews who I could get started on the project as soon as I am able to get the weapon down here."
Captain Ross nodded to him while she considered how to bring up her final point. She was still just a captain and the person whom it would seem she was criticizing was an admiral. As well, most admirals do not appreciate when a relatively recently promoted captain tries telling him or her what to do. Her history of criticizing senior officers had managed to alienate many of them and had hurt her career in the past. Her career was not her real concern but whether she would be listen to or not. The Commodore seemed to respect her and if she angered him, it would make any working relationship much more difficult. Tens of thousands of lives were at stake and that decided her. She decided that it would be best though to discuss it privately. She asked "Commodore Von Gehr, I have a few items that I need to speak to you in private about. With your permission, I will have the signal transferred to my stateroom and finish up a few last items?"
Just a few minutes later, the captain was seated in her favorite chair in her quarters. She considered it a far better location than one of the ship's briefing rooms. All had been damaged severely and several were without atmosphere. She had thought about her crews apprehension about bringing the Avenger back into combat on her way down. About eighty percent of her weapon systems were operational but the hull had been stressed everywhere from damage and her warp drives were damaged as well. While she doubted that the Avenger would survive this final battle, there was no way she could afford to leave the ship's available firepower behind. Well, if she had to doom her crew, she would stay with them until the end.
The Commodore's face appeared on her monitor and she did not say anything initially because she did not know where to start. Commodore Von Gehr solved this problem by breaking in with, "Captain Ross, from the way you asked, I doubt I going to like what you have to say so you may as well get started!"
The Commodore had a point, she might as well get started. Time was running fast and the sooner the message was sent, the better. "Commodore, you are well regarded as a staff officer but you have no reputation as a combat officer. In spite of my recent records and maybe even because of them, there are many senior officers who do not regard my judgement very well. I am considered a maverick and unwilling to respect my seniors. As well, I come from what is regarded as the distant pass and many consider me to not have a very good grasp on the present situation. Because of this, there are a large number of Admirals who would dismiss any suggestions from us out of hand without considering it. The problem is that I believe that the main fleet intercepting the Borg forces would be better trying to make a stand in this system. From a simple numbers stand point, such a stand would give them seven more vessels which to fight the Borg with. The extra ships would also increase the distraction and make the asteroid strike more likely to succeed. Most importantly, if the trap succeeds, there would be a far lower loss of vessels than would otherwise occur because I plan to spring the trap virtually as soon as the Borg vessels are engaged. Of course, the lower loss of vessels would also mean a lower loss of life. There is one major problem though, we can tell the Admiral vaguely about the plan but not about the specifics. If he decides not to go with the plan and he is told the full plan, this creates a danger of the Borg finding out about the plan if he is captured and assimilated. All that the admiral can be told without risk is that we have several older ships that could be used to strengthen his fleet and that we have a special weapon that could be very effective against the Borg cubes. In addition, there are a multitude of reasons why the Admiral could reject the plan. There is a tendency in Combatant Officers to steer for the sounds of battle. It is often a good plan when you do not have a better idea. As an old Earth general said ‘An imperfect plan today is better than a perfect plan when it is too late.' Also, in many cases, fighting defensively gives the enemy the opportunity to dictate where the battles are fought. The further from the Federation border that the Borg are engaged, the more time which may be available to gather up additional forces to help to protect the Federation. There is also a possibility that the Borg may go in an unexpected direction and if an ambush is set up in this system, then the fleet will be unable to catch the Borg if this occurs. The final is that he is concerned that we are trying to steal his victory from him. While I hope that is not the case, I have met flag officers with that attitude." She wondered if she had stuck her foot in her mouth with the last one but she kept being reminded of Commodore Langford and the loss of so many crew members on the ships that were lost in that battle.
Well, Captain Ross was known to stick her foot in her mouth but that last comment was surprising. Everybody knew there were officers that were willing to risk their crews for their own gains but they were rarely talked about. Ross seemed to not understand that junior officers were not to talk about their seniors. The commodore after a moment and decide to ignore any impropriety on her part. It still took him what seemed like forever, and she could not help but to think that she cut off her own head. His reply stopped her line of thinking "I can send a message to the Admiral in charge of the fleet but I do not know who is in charge so I cannot know what their response will be." The commodore paused for a few moments and switched to a new subject, "Captain Ross, I noted you stated that you had three useable capital ships. I assume that means that you plan to use the Avenger in spite of her condition. I know that while the ship is partially operation, the ship has unrepairable battle damage. Now, I accept the argument that the ship will add too much firepower, no matter what the condition of the ship, to leave behind. What I am asking is if you will give command of the Avenger to someone else and take command of the Atago? The cruiser is almost fully repaired and has been upgraded in weapon systems and shields. The ship likely has the best chance to survive the encounter.
Gwendolyn thought about how she could reply to the commodore without creating a new crisis. She knew that she still considered the Avenger hers but she thought her reasoning for not transferring command went beyond that. Well, it was likely best to get her reply over with "I cannot ask a crew to serve on a vessel that I am not willing to serve on. The crew would distrust the ship and the transfer would severely hurt moral. The crew might consider me to be abandoning them. It would be a different situation if I was already transferred to command the Atago but it is too late now to consider transferring." She wondered if Commander Jackson was still onboard and what position he held. If he was now captain, she would not want to relieve him of command. She continued before the commodore could answer "In addition, the Captain of the Atago does not deserve to be relieved of command and the crew might very well resent him being relieved of command. Transferring would be a lose / lose situation in multiple ways."
How dare that Captain thought Commodore Von Gehr. She is the same person who was said to have ridiculed half the flag officers and captains. She was supporting a captain she did not even know and was being smug and was lecturing about the need to keep moral up. He knew that the captain could see the anger in his face but she was still staring him in the eyes challenging him. He realized that this situation was different then those she had been in before. In previous cases, she had been the junior officer in the group and had to either trick the senior officer into accepting her plan and in this case, she could simply command the junior officers if she had to. She did not need to attack anybodies reputation If he argued, she would probably come up with reasons until he gave up. He had to admit that her reasons were pretty compelling anyway. Shipyards did not need to run like warships and he did not have the right familiarity to make a judgement. He decided for a very clipped reply, "Alright Captain, I will not press the point."
Admiral Cynthia Norton, commander of Fourteenth fleet, had just finished reviewing for the second time a message she had received from Commodore Lester Von Gehr, Commanding officer of Sigma eighteen shipyard. The yard was simple to far from her ships for any kind of real time conversation. The commodore message recommended for her to change course and to intercept the Borg vessels in the system which the shipyard was located in. The arguments in the message were good and she thought she knew who actually originated the plans. She had read a report that the U.S.S. Avenger had went to that shipyard for scrapping due to heavy battle damage and the captain of the Avenger was a certain Captain Gwendolyn Ross who had an incredible ability to win battles and to anger other officers. When Admiral Norton realized that her fleet was the closest to intercept the Borg fleet, she had looked up where Captain Ross was. Ross's unconventional tactics might have helped with fighting the Borg vessels and might have balanced the fight. The Avenger was in no condition to join her ships and even it the ship was, there would be no chance to work out tactics. The Admiral thought she knew what the secret weapon was. The yard had laid down an improved Akira class battlecruiser which utilized many of the systems first mounted on the Sovereign class and it could be very useful if the ship was completed. It was likely that the ship was complete except the warp drives. The warp drive system was new in many ways and would likely require tuning. If a warp drive was not tuned properly, the engines could create an uncontrolled wormhole. The admiral had read reports of the old Enterprise under Captain Kirk. The uncontrolled wormhole the Enterprise created during the VGER incident was enough to give star fleet collective paranoia when it came to warp drives.
No, the problem was not with the plan but with factors that were unknown to Captain Ross. There had been hurried negotiations with the Klingons and Romulans and both races had agreed to send vessels to help the Federation forces against the Borg. A specific locations had been agreed for the ships of the three powers to join together and it was impractical to change where the forces met at this point. The Romulan had promised to send four Warbirds and the Klingons had agreed to send two K'Vort class Birds of Prey and eight to ten smaller B'Rel class Birds of Prey. With the thirty Federation ships she had been able to collect, this was the largest fleet gathered outside some of the largest engagements of the Dominion Wars. All too many of the Federations vessels were still in the shipyard or they might be able to gather a fleet three times the size of what they have. She also knew that every day that she could delay the Borg advance, there would be more time to patch together ships and gather forces. The problem was if there would really be enough time even if she managed to delay the Borg cubes. Well, she would do the best she could like she was sure that Commodore Von Gehr and Captain Ross would do the same. The Admiral's present plan was to engage the Borg ships directly while the Klingon and Romulan ships made a surprise attack from being cloaked. She also figured that concentrating firepower on one cube and as best possible on one location would be the best tactic. If she could destroy one Borg cube, she would greatly increase the odds of another fleet of being able to defeat all of the Borg vessels. She then considered the thought that she wanted to hide from. She hoped that she would be killed in this battle instead of being assimilated into the Borg.
Gwendolyn had finally been able to go over the Status of her ship with her Chief Engineer and it was grimmer than she had originally thought. About Eighty percent of the weapon systems were operational with the losses of one set of her Mega-Phasers and four hull Phaser mounts. At least all of her torpedo launchers were operational. As well, her shields would be fully operational by the time the Avenger had to go out to fight the Borg Fleet. The real problem was the severe structural damage that the Avenger had and the less severe damage the warp drives had taken. The wrap drive damage prevented the ship from going into any of the higher warp speeds and the structural damage prevented the ship from accelerating any faster than half of normal.
Well, she had gathered all of the captains and their second in commands together to discuss her plans and any options the other senior officers could come up with and she did not have time to dwell on the damages to her ship. The other captains had interrupted their busy schedules to transport over to the station. Even though she was effectively squadron commander, she considered her ship too badly damaged to host the other captains. Using the base also allowed the Commodore to attend while not seeming to intrude as he might had the meeting been on another captains ship. The only other place that the meeting could have been held was the Atago because the Kraken was smaller than the Avenger and was more of a destroyer than anything else. The commodore was standing off to the side from the other officers and actually seemed a bit nervous even though he was the highest ranking person present. He had made it clear to both her and the other officers that he was mostly just observing and that Captain Ross was to be considered the squadron commander. Even though the Commodore was deferring to her, she kept in mind that she was the second most senior officer present. It would not be good idea to antagonize him.
She saw a face she recognized. Commander Jackson was still on the Atago and he had been given command of the old Excelsior class cruiser. His ship had been retained in the shipyard longer than originally planned due to the fact that materials and crews had been used to repair vessels that were considered more valuable or could be patched together faster. In the end, it was decided that the Atago would receive a full upgrade similar to what had been done on the Lakota. The refit had been almost finished when the War stopped. Star Fleet Command had considered scrapping the vessel but it was in comparatively good condition after being refitted and finishing touches were being done until the Borg fleet had been discovered. The work was done but the Atago would not get to the main Borg engagement before it started.
The situation with the Kraken was unusual and she tried to keep from being suspicious of the captain. The ship had been assigned border patrol when the bulk of the Federation forces had been assigned to the Dominion War. Ships that had the luck of getting these patrols did not retain them for very long and he had gone through four cycles without being assigned to the Dominion front. This seemed to suggest that he knew someone high up that could write orders to keep him from the War. The ship was scheduled to be transferred to the Dominion front but the captain had filed reports indicating that his ship had engineering problems that needed refit before the ship headed out to the War Front. She was very curious who had approved the ships refit. She had heard something very disturbing from the Commodore. He had gotten a communication message from the captain that had reported that he could not joint the fleet intercepting the Borg fleet with a list of new engineering problem. The Commodores information before that had indicated that his ship was fully operation and could report for duty. The main problem that Captain Ross saw was that the captain of the Kraken, Captain Maxwell Borek, had made captain only two months after her and as such was the third most senior officer at the yard.
The captain of the Akyazi Perimeter Action Ships were chosen from the best available officers from the shipyard and the three vessels. For captains, the officers with combat experience but who were not executive officers of the three warships. Captain Ross had decided that for this short a time frame, the removal of executive officers would harm the command structure more than the skills of the executive officers would help the Perimeter Action Ships. As well, both executive officer on the Avenger and the Atago were junior officers that were acting in the role of Executive Officer. One of the smaller vessels captains had been her acting tactical officer. None of the other captains were known to her but one she should have met when she was on the Atago before.
Her second in command had previously been her engineering officer and was obviously nervous about being her executive officer. While technically only an acting executive officer, she treated him with all the respect an executive officer respect. He seemed capable if he could get over his nervousness. His status report on the Avenger was grim but very well detailed and honest. It was written not like a report on why the ship could not be used but what problems would need to be accepted.
The preparations for the ships seemed to be going relatively well so she saw no need to rush the officers through the meeting. She patiently waited for all of the officers to settle in their seats before starting the beginning briefing portion of meeting. For the most part, the information was what she had told Commodore but she had time to clear up many of the details. Even though she had been unable to persuade the Admiral to sign on with her plan, Captain Ross was confident of a high chance of success. Survival would be much less likely but she thought she could destroy all four of the Borg cubes. She ended the briefing with "Well, two final points. First, if any ships seem to be acting strangely, the possibility of the ship being controlled by the Borg has to be considered. In that case, you are to destroy that vessel. Second, after the engagement, before coming back to the shipyard we need to examine every inch of our vessels to make sure that the Borg have not managed to stow away on any of ours." The ‘if we survive' was not said but everybody heard it anyway. She paused, waiting for questions or discussion from any of the other officers
The captain of the Kraken was the first to respond and she notes a pasty look that seemed to denote fear "Captain Ross, you are new to this time frame and have never had to deal with the Borg before. They can adapt to any weapon fired at them and you plan to stop a fleet of them with three starships and a few rocks. One ship of theirs has devastated whole fleets. I think you are not thinking about the situation clearly. Our only option is to load everyone onto what ships are here and retreat."
Gwendolyn looked at the officers around the room to see how they were reacting. Most did show some fear at engaging the Borg but Captain Borek was the only one that looked like he was about to panic. There seemed to be not of confusion in the Executive Officer of the Kraken. This was likely because she did not know if she should stand with her captain or should follow the instructions of a senior officer. Gwen decide that she could probably work with that eventually but time was quickly running out. Captain Ross decided that the safest course would be to answer Captain Borek cold and dispassionately and try to use reason "Captain, retreat to where. Earth is likely to be one of their next targets. I have attempted to simulate the variables on the Avenger's computer and the computer has shown that the plan has a high probability of success. I would give us a sixty to eighty percent chance of success based on the simulations. Captain, the truth is that the simulator results do not matter. I would try this even with a poorer chance of success. I personally prefer death to being captured and turned into one of their drones. With the Dominion, if they had won, we would have at least retained our minds and hope. The Borg are not like that."
Unfortunately, Captain Borek already had a new reply formed, one that let her know what his true intentions were. His reply came out almost pleading, "Captain Ross, the Kraken is only a light cruiser and is still under refit. You have chosen to reassign many of my best crew to other ships, including my helm officer, and I am unable to use my ship to its best efficiency. You have also sent some combat strategy files that include new and radical tactics. I would need time to train my crew in these maneuvers. In light of this, I think the Kraken could be better used in carrying reports back to Starfleet Headquarters so that they can be made aware of the situation." Gwendolyn thought she could see a smile that he was trying to hide. He must have done similar tricks in the past to get out of dangerous situations and this seemed to support the idea that he had someone senior in the chain of command to cover for him. Thankfully, cowards that would sacrifice anyone for themselves were rare. He had a problem at the moment because it would take too long for his benefactor to order him out of the system. The turn around time for a message, especially if Starfleet Communications were in chaos like she suspected, would mean that the message would arrive after the battle with the Borg was already resolved.
Gwendolyn sat for a moment considering how she should respond to him. Before she could come up with an answer, Commander Jackson responded for her. She was not sure if she should hug him or punch him but obviously he had been listening to her too much. He began with "Captain Borek, respectfully, Captain Ross is going into battle in an ancient frigate with has lost about twenty percent of its weapons and has severe structural and propulsion damage. The Avengers top acceleration and maneuverability will be greatly reduced compared to all of the other ships. In addition, a huge amount of her crew was killed or injured in one of the final battles to defeat the Dominion." Commander Jackson never actually sounded respectful but as he continued, he sounded even less respectful of the Kraken's Captain. "If she is willing to go into battle onboard such a ship, you better be willing to go into battle in a fully operational ship. The survival of the human race is at stake. Of course, if you feel unable to command the Kraken in battle, you could step down and I am sure another officer would be willing to take command of the ship. You might even be able to get onboard one of the cargo shuttles that has been designated to leave the system before the Borg get here" Captain Ross hid a smile. This was a response that she might expect to have come up with herself.
Like many people like him, Captain Borek's arrogance would not allow him to give up his authority as captain even because of fear. His reaction had changed. Now, instead of fear, he showed anger and seemed about to explode violently. He was beaten by any response by Commodore Von Gehr. His statement made it clear what his opinion was "Captain Borek, I have placed Captain Ross in command of the defense of the system due to having the most combat experience of any officer here including myself. You will follow any orders that she gives as if I gave the orders myself." Captain Borek seemed to just shrink back into his chair and nodded as if he was afraid to say anything. The Commodore then turned towards Commander Jackson and did not seem to be any happier. "Commander, Captain Borek is a senior officer to you. I expect you to treat him with respect. What I have read in your files indicates that you show a lot of promise. I do not want to have to a reprimand in your records." Commander Jackson stared at the Commodore challenging but nodded his head and replied with a response of yes sir. Gwendolyn thought that the Commodore had been too strong but she understood his reasoning even though she did not agree with him. Captain Borek should have never been accepted as an officer, let alone been promoted to the rank of captain.
Now that Captain Borek's attempt to escape the situation had been stopped, she hoped that she would get some reasonable suggestions or questions. Commander Jackson spoke after he looked around and saw that no one else was going to put up any ideas. The Kraken's Captain had started fuming quietly but everyone else seemed nervous about saying anything. Commander Jackson asked "We only have a total of seven ships, the loss of one ship would severely weaken us. I know that this facility has a huge amount of repair shuttles. Do we have time to take some of these shuttles and hit a beacon into them that would make them look like full sized starships? It would give the Borg more targets and by moving the ships and shuttles in a random pattern, the Borg would not know what targets are the shuttles and what targets are actually starships."
The idea intrigued Gwendolyn but there were some problems that needed to be worked out. The pilots would be in vessels than could withstand minuscule damage compared to even her damaged frigate. She thought about putting them under remote control. The problem was that she thought the remote control program would not be flexible enough to deal with the situation. Ok, time to lay the idea on the table "Alright, a very interesting and potentially very useful idea. I assume the idea is technically possible but I seem time being to short to produce a large number of them?"
Her second in command responded, "Captain, I would gather that we might have time to built a couple of dozen with the other projects that we are working on at this time." The Commodore nodded in agreement with Commander Dunstan.
Captain Ross continued with "I do not see a remote control package as being flexible enough to control the shuttles in the situation so I see our only option to have them piloted. The crews will be far more naked than any of us in capital ships will be and I want volunteers only. They should also be clearly informed about the dangers involved. The Borg may be targeting them as if they were capital ships so they might be able to evade hits but any hit will utterly destroy the shuttles."
The discussion continued for several hours with most of the other officers willing to contribute the discussion once Commander Jackson got the discussion going. Captain Borek continued to fume as before but she did not expect anything useful from him after his initial response. Captain Ross caught a couple of glances of the Kraken's Executive Officer towards her captain and she seemed as disgusted as the other officers in the room were. Several changes in the general plan were made including using the asteroid belt more effectively to hide the asteroid weapons. Also, all station stores were to be emptied to attempt to provide hostile environment suits to as many crew members as possible. Finally, some ideas for a crash course in ne tactics had been formed and it was planned for the training to continue until virtually the last minute.
As the meeting broke up, most of the officers stood up and headed out the doors towards the transporters to get back to their ships. Gwendolyn noted that Commander Jackson had nodded to his second in command who headed out the hatch behind the other officers. The Commander walked over to Gwendolyn where she was gathering up her notes so that she could head back to her vessel as well. Her chief engineer had already left and would be checking on some supports that he had his engineers weld onto several main support structures to attempt to shore up some damage. She wanted to know how the repair work herself but it was obvious that Commander Jackson had something that he wished to discuss with her privately.
"Captain Ross, I would like to know if you would have dinner with me when all this is done"
She looked up at him in surprise and blinked a few times in shock. She was an ugly duckling who's simply refused to stay under control. She felt herself blushing as well, something that had not happened to her since she was a teenager. She started to consider how she would say no but the likely hood of her surviving this was remote anyway. She was glad that Commander Jackson would have a reasonable chance of survival. His ship had the strongest shields and had an intact hull. She might as well tell him. She used his first name and said "Shawn, you know what the likely hood of either of us surviving is" meaning herself but not wanting to make him feel guilty.
He stared back at her, refusing to yield. "Gwendolyn", using her first name for the first time as well, ‘You will survive. After all, you are considered the Demi-God of war by half my crew and the God of Death to the Cardassians. No measly fleet of four Borg ships is going to be able to beat you. Is a yes or no so hard?"
She chuckled to herself. Well, there was no reason not to "Why not." and then a stronger "Yes!" she then continued "Only one stipulation, where ever we go will serve Earth food not something strange, exotic, and inedible. Most of the other races foods taste like reprocessed power trunk insulation. We are both humans and should eat like humans."
Chapter XX:
It was official, Star Fleet engineers had looked at the Avenger and had officially notified the captain of the Avenger that the ship was not worth repairing. The ship had simply taken too much damage in the last battle and in honesty, Captain Ross had to agree with them. The appearance of the bridge was a close mirror of the rest of her ship. Most of the bridge stations were destroyed and even her own captain's chair was almost hit by the attack that had smashed the rest of the bridge. The main view screen was gone and a patch had to be put in its place. If not the bridge would be expose to the vacuum of space. She remembered the last few moments when a piece of battle steel fragment cut through her executive officer. Dried blood could still be seen where her second in command died. Emergency panels had been set up to enable the ship to be piloted to the nearest shipyard for dismantling. The auxiliary bridge was completely open to space and was completely unsalvageable so an emergency system had to be set up. Well, Star Fleet would likely try to give her a multitude of metals and then retire her. As long as she was in command of her crew, they could not be sent to be reeducated and she needed to come up with some plans to keep her remaining crew somewhere safe. Perhaps she could find a way for them to create a colony with other people who agree with her. She had run into plenty of people who did not agree with the Federation's socialist society.
The battle between the Residents of the Alpha quadrant and the Dominions had not gone unnoticed. The Borg had been looking intently in the Alpha Quadrants direction for years and noted that the military forces had taken heavy losses. This would be a good opportunity to take over the Alpha Quadrant and acquire huge numbers of drones. The losses in the battle against Species 8472 had severely depleted their drones and they needed replacements. Each time previously, they had only sent one cube. Instead they would be sending four cubes into the Alpha Quadrant.
Captain Gwendolyn Ross stateroom had been spared by the incredible explosions and powerful energy beams which had wrecked the rest of her ship. Like she had been doing too often since her ship had docked at the shipyard, Gwendolyn was siting on her bed crying. Just too many of her crew had died and she was so weary. The yard had not begun the scrapping of her ship but it would come soon. She would then have to decide what to do and she knew her crew was waiting on her. She knew the Atago was at the yard being refitted but she had not gone to check and see if Commander Jackson was still onboard. While he seemed to be stuck in the strange socialist ideals the Federation had evolved, he was nice enough. She also felt that she had been slowly bringing him to her way of thinking before his ship was ordered to the shipyard for repair and refit.
Her intercom beeped. She had left orders to only beep her if it was extremely important . She answered it a little unsteadily and lethargically "Yes, what do you want?"
She could hear the slightly panicked voice of her assistant communication officer "Sir, the commander of the shipyard has just sent a message to all senior officers. It is marked ‘Emergency', Captain". The communication officer of the Avenger had survived but she was still in the medical station in the shipyard. The doctors had promised they would release her within a few days.
Captain Ross was curious what Commodore Von Gehr's message was about. She spoke more steadily and firmer than before "Go ahead and transmit the message down here, Lilly"
A visual image of the commander of the shipyard appeared on the monitor. She had only met the grey haired man once when her ship docked at the shipyard. He seemed harried and perpetually busy. The Commodore appeared nervous, "I have just received grave news. Long range tracking has detected four Borg cubes heading for the Alpha Quadrant. Their course will bring them near this system. There is presently an attempt to gather together a battle fleet to intercept the Borg forces but there is little concrete information. From background data, it seems doubtful that High Command will be able to get enough ships together to stop the Borg fleet."
Something clicked inside the Captain and a wall separated her from her grief that had been haunting her lately. Most people in StarFleet were deathly afraid of the Borg but she had read up on the Borg and thought she knew a tactic to deal with them. She brought her com system back up to talk to her assistant communications officer. The young ensign could see a thoughtful expression on the captain and knew that her captain was back.
Gwendolyn got up from her bed and spoke in a firm and strong voice "Lilly, do you know what a half kilometer long asteroid can do." The captain could tell from the ensigns expression that she was more confused than anything else. "Never Mind", she continued, "I need you to open a com channel with Commodore Von Gehr and ask is he would contact me directly. Let him know that I have a plan to defeat the Borg. Next, I want all remaining officers not on watch to join me as soon as possible in the Officers Mess.
Ten minutes later, the last of her remaining officers stepped through the hatch onto the mess decks. While the space had not completely remained intact, it was the only space that she could fit all of her remaining officers onto and had only minor damage. If she had her full officers compliment still, the other place she could have addressed them all would have been the hangers which were now open into space. As it was, only about half of her officers remained and many had been acting as department heads even those were Lieutenant Junior Grades or Ensigns. She motioned for everybody to be quiet and began speaking, "Officers of the Avenger, I have been informed by the Commodore that an enemy known as the Borg is heading for Federation space and their course brings them right through this system in all likely hood. What I need to know is what the status of the Avenger is?"
Not really knowing what the Borg were, the officers were actually more surprised at her question on the status of the Avenger. She could not really mean to bring the vessel into combat again. The Engineering Officer, who was now her second in command, was the first to break his stun. He had survived the last battle intact if you did not include the multiple broken ribs which had to be quick healed "Captain, the....."
At that moment, the chime from the communication panel chirped and the Communication ensign broke in "Captain, Commodore Von Gehr is on the comm and wishes to speak to you"
Captain Ross responded "Go ahead and transfer him down here. I can explain part of what is going on to the officers down her that way. Go ahead and keep a channel open and listen in yourself." Captain Ross did not like leaving her crew in the dark whenever possible and while she would have to fill in many details to her officers, this would help fill in some of the background.
The Commodore's image appeared on the view screen "Captain, I am to understand from your communication officer that you ‘Might'", the Commodore strongly emphasizing the ‘might', "have a plan to deal with the Borg forces heading in this direction? Understand if I am skeptical, the last time it took a whole fleet of the Federation's best vessels to destroy one Borg Cube and even then it was a disaster. Over half of our ships involved in the battle were either destroyed or disabled. If it was not for your incredible record during the Dominion War, I would be less likely to consider discussing this with you!"
Captain Ross took a deep breath and started "Basically, I plan to distract the Borg fleet with whatever vessels I can scrape together and then throw asteroids at sublight speeds at the Borg vessels. I have never heard of anything that could withstand a one hundred million ton asteroid being thrown at it at one quarter of the speed of light" Before he could respond, she chuckled mirthlessly and continued, "It is not like we have very many options. Our vessels are too slow to retreat from the Borg vessels and even if we could, where would we go. They are targeting the Federation for assimilation and I would prefer to go down fighting then become one of their mindless drones."
Gwendolyn had done a bit of research on the Commodore and had found at that he had never served in combat. She hoped that he would be willing to defer to an officer who had served in combat even if she was junior to him. She was the second most senior officer currently at the shipyard, outranking both the Commodore's executive officer and all of the other ship captains. What she had found out indicated that he was intelligent, innovative, and reputed to be an incredible administrator in engineering fields. He had been in charge of this yard for several years and had converted two Intrepid class cruisers, the ‘Scharnhorst' and ‘Gneisenau', into much more effective and heavier armed vessels. The two sisters were considered some of the best small vessels in Star Fleet and there was discussion of building more of the class.
Commodore Von Gehr paused for a few moments before answering. It appeared that the commodore was going over in his head what she said. He seemed to resolve an inner discussion and replied to her "Alright, I see your point. Obviously, you only have the most basic framework of the plan and will need time to fully develop it. What I want to know now is what you think you need?"
Gwendolyn had already created a preliminary list in her head. In reality, she had formed it within a few moments of coming up with her basic plan. She did not know specifics but she knew approximately what was available. She started with the obvious "Commodore, I am going to need every combat vessel that can be readied within the next four days and I am going to need crews for them. I think a little careful management will allow the use of crews on the vessels already in the system but unable to be repaired in time. I think that some yard crews could also be utilized on the vessels as well. The other major item I will need are impulse engines that I can have attach to asteroids." The number of impulse engines was the limiting factor because this system had a reasonable sized asteroid belt which could be used for the asteroids themselves.
The Commodore mulled over the items for a few moments "I see no problem with attaching impulse engines to asteroids within the time frame but I believe I only have twelve impulse engines powerful enough to give an asteroid a reasonable acceleration. The asteroids will be very jury rigged and will have only limited endurance. I think a few hours are the best that could be hoped for. As far as ships, that is probably our worst situation. I have an Excelsior class cruiser, the Atago, which is almost finished its refit. The ship still has a full crew although it is lacking in senior officers. There is a Centaur class cruiser, the Kraken, which a refit is almost done as well. The ship had an engineering casualty but is just about ready for service. The ship has a full crew and can be made ready for combat within a few days. I will let you use your own judgement on the Avenger. I have four old Akyazi Perimeter Action Ships which were being made ready for service in the Dominion War but progress was stopped when the war ended. There were crews training onboard before the war ended but they were transported home at the end of hostilities. I have no personnel trained in the use of the vessels but they are close tobeing fully operational. I have instructions to mothball the vessels but the process has not begun yet. I have a bunch of ships that are to be scrapped and are completely non operational. There are a few vessels that might be repairable but the crews went home after the close of hostilities and the ships were to be repaired and be put in mothball status as well. Newer vessel, which are meant to remain in service, have been sent to other shipyards. If I had two weeks, I might be able to bring eight more vessels back into service but we do not have the time presently. The only other ship I have is an Akira class heavy cruiser which was being built in this yard because the other yards were overloaded. If I had another month, I might be able to get the ship combat operational although I doubt I could bring it to full functionality for an addition few months. The crew has not even began to arrive yet and there has even been discussion of suspending the project. I could use my shipyard personnel to fill many of the engineering slots but trained personnel for tactical and weapon and especially command with combat experience will be impossible to find."
Gwendolyn had not known about the refitted Akyazi Perimeter Action Ships and they could be a welcome addition to her limited forces. As long as they had not been refitted to the point that the small ship's controls were unrecognizable, she was sure that some of her people could operate the ships at least reasonably well. The ships were small but carried a large fraction of the firepower of a frigate or cruiser. In many ways, it could be considered the predecessor to the Defiant class which she had heard so many officers brag about. She was hoping for at least sixteen impulse engines so that she could throw four asteroids at each Borg Cube but as long as she had eight or more asteroids available, her plan should have a good chance of success. She had some requests that the Commodore would likely find unusual but could be helpful as well, "Commodore, I have read some of the reports on the Borg and I understand that, like their ships, the Borg drones can adapt to most energy weapons within a few shots and Borg troops boarding Federation vessels has been a significant problem in the past?" The Commodore nodded in agreement and she continued "I believe I have a relatively simple solution to this. I have an antique rifle know as an ‘M-1 Carbine'. The design could be copied and adapted for shipboard troops. Like most antique rifles, it is a slug thrower and I do not believe that the Borg can adapt to that type of weapon because otherwise they should have adapted to punches and kicks a long time ago. A firearm just uses the same forces but several magnitudes higher. This is pretty much the same plan I have for the Borg cubes."
The Commodore looked stunned and Gwendolyn was not sure why. To him it was a revelation, so simple yet he knew of no one who had thought of something similar. Sometimes more advanced ideas were simply more complicated and a simpler solution was the best solution. Captain Ross seemed very good at coming up with simple solutions for complex problems. To prevent decompression, the Federation had been developing more and more complex structural integrity and environmental force fields. The problem was that the depressurization of the spaces were still a serious problem. Captain Ross had solved that but simply equipping all of her crew with light environmental suits which acts as vac suits. The lives lost that could have been saved with these two simple solutions and the amount of resources that had been invested in environmental force fields and energy weapons to deal with the Borg were staggering. He wondered how many other problems could be solved by simply using simple solutions. He remembered a story he had heard about the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States in the middle of the Twentieth Century. He did not even know if it was true or not but it made a great example of the same situation. The story was that the United States had invested hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in designing a pen that would write in space while the Russians had simply given their Astronauts a pencil. Well, now that he had visited the back alleys in his brain, it was time he answered the captain. He replied "Captain, that is a very interesting idea and could be quite useful. I believe that I have some extra crews who I could get started on the project as soon as I am able to get the weapon down here."
Captain Ross nodded to him while she considered how to bring up her final point. She was still just a captain and the person whom it would seem she was criticizing was an admiral. As well, most admirals do not appreciate when a relatively recently promoted captain tries telling him or her what to do. Her history of criticizing senior officers had managed to alienate many of them and had hurt her career in the past. Her career was not her real concern but whether she would be listen to or not. The Commodore seemed to respect her and if she angered him, it would make any working relationship much more difficult. Tens of thousands of lives were at stake and that decided her. She decided that it would be best though to discuss it privately. She asked "Commodore Von Gehr, I have a few items that I need to speak to you in private about. With your permission, I will have the signal transferred to my stateroom and finish up a few last items?"
Just a few minutes later, the captain was seated in her favorite chair in her quarters. She considered it a far better location than one of the ship's briefing rooms. All had been damaged severely and several were without atmosphere. She had thought about her crews apprehension about bringing the Avenger back into combat on her way down. About eighty percent of her weapon systems were operational but the hull had been stressed everywhere from damage and her warp drives were damaged as well. While she doubted that the Avenger would survive this final battle, there was no way she could afford to leave the ship's available firepower behind. Well, if she had to doom her crew, she would stay with them until the end.
The Commodore's face appeared on her monitor and she did not say anything initially because she did not know where to start. Commodore Von Gehr solved this problem by breaking in with, "Captain Ross, from the way you asked, I doubt I going to like what you have to say so you may as well get started!"
The Commodore had a point, she might as well get started. Time was running fast and the sooner the message was sent, the better. "Commodore, you are well regarded as a staff officer but you have no reputation as a combat officer. In spite of my recent records and maybe even because of them, there are many senior officers who do not regard my judgement very well. I am considered a maverick and unwilling to respect my seniors. As well, I come from what is regarded as the distant pass and many consider me to not have a very good grasp on the present situation. Because of this, there are a large number of Admirals who would dismiss any suggestions from us out of hand without considering it. The problem is that I believe that the main fleet intercepting the Borg forces would be better trying to make a stand in this system. From a simple numbers stand point, such a stand would give them seven more vessels which to fight the Borg with. The extra ships would also increase the distraction and make the asteroid strike more likely to succeed. Most importantly, if the trap succeeds, there would be a far lower loss of vessels than would otherwise occur because I plan to spring the trap virtually as soon as the Borg vessels are engaged. Of course, the lower loss of vessels would also mean a lower loss of life. There is one major problem though, we can tell the Admiral vaguely about the plan but not about the specifics. If he decides not to go with the plan and he is told the full plan, this creates a danger of the Borg finding out about the plan if he is captured and assimilated. All that the admiral can be told without risk is that we have several older ships that could be used to strengthen his fleet and that we have a special weapon that could be very effective against the Borg cubes. In addition, there are a multitude of reasons why the Admiral could reject the plan. There is a tendency in Combatant Officers to steer for the sounds of battle. It is often a good plan when you do not have a better idea. As an old Earth general said ‘An imperfect plan today is better than a perfect plan when it is too late.' Also, in many cases, fighting defensively gives the enemy the opportunity to dictate where the battles are fought. The further from the Federation border that the Borg are engaged, the more time which may be available to gather up additional forces to help to protect the Federation. There is also a possibility that the Borg may go in an unexpected direction and if an ambush is set up in this system, then the fleet will be unable to catch the Borg if this occurs. The final is that he is concerned that we are trying to steal his victory from him. While I hope that is not the case, I have met flag officers with that attitude." She wondered if she had stuck her foot in her mouth with the last one but she kept being reminded of Commodore Langford and the loss of so many crew members on the ships that were lost in that battle.
Well, Captain Ross was known to stick her foot in her mouth but that last comment was surprising. Everybody knew there were officers that were willing to risk their crews for their own gains but they were rarely talked about. Ross seemed to not understand that junior officers were not to talk about their seniors. The commodore after a moment and decide to ignore any impropriety on her part. It still took him what seemed like forever, and she could not help but to think that she cut off her own head. His reply stopped her line of thinking "I can send a message to the Admiral in charge of the fleet but I do not know who is in charge so I cannot know what their response will be." The commodore paused for a few moments and switched to a new subject, "Captain Ross, I noted you stated that you had three useable capital ships. I assume that means that you plan to use the Avenger in spite of her condition. I know that while the ship is partially operation, the ship has unrepairable battle damage. Now, I accept the argument that the ship will add too much firepower, no matter what the condition of the ship, to leave behind. What I am asking is if you will give command of the Avenger to someone else and take command of the Atago? The cruiser is almost fully repaired and has been upgraded in weapon systems and shields. The ship likely has the best chance to survive the encounter.
Gwendolyn thought about how she could reply to the commodore without creating a new crisis. She knew that she still considered the Avenger hers but she thought her reasoning for not transferring command went beyond that. Well, it was likely best to get her reply over with "I cannot ask a crew to serve on a vessel that I am not willing to serve on. The crew would distrust the ship and the transfer would severely hurt moral. The crew might consider me to be abandoning them. It would be a different situation if I was already transferred to command the Atago but it is too late now to consider transferring." She wondered if Commander Jackson was still onboard and what position he held. If he was now captain, she would not want to relieve him of command. She continued before the commodore could answer "In addition, the Captain of the Atago does not deserve to be relieved of command and the crew might very well resent him being relieved of command. Transferring would be a lose / lose situation in multiple ways."
How dare that Captain thought Commodore Von Gehr. She is the same person who was said to have ridiculed half the flag officers and captains. She was supporting a captain she did not even know and was being smug and was lecturing about the need to keep moral up. He knew that the captain could see the anger in his face but she was still staring him in the eyes challenging him. He realized that this situation was different then those she had been in before. In previous cases, she had been the junior officer in the group and had to either trick the senior officer into accepting her plan and in this case, she could simply command the junior officers if she had to. She did not need to attack anybodies reputation If he argued, she would probably come up with reasons until he gave up. He had to admit that her reasons were pretty compelling anyway. Shipyards did not need to run like warships and he did not have the right familiarity to make a judgement. He decided for a very clipped reply, "Alright Captain, I will not press the point."
Admiral Cynthia Norton, commander of Fourteenth fleet, had just finished reviewing for the second time a message she had received from Commodore Lester Von Gehr, Commanding officer of Sigma eighteen shipyard. The yard was simple to far from her ships for any kind of real time conversation. The commodore message recommended for her to change course and to intercept the Borg vessels in the system which the shipyard was located in. The arguments in the message were good and she thought she knew who actually originated the plans. She had read a report that the U.S.S. Avenger had went to that shipyard for scrapping due to heavy battle damage and the captain of the Avenger was a certain Captain Gwendolyn Ross who had an incredible ability to win battles and to anger other officers. When Admiral Norton realized that her fleet was the closest to intercept the Borg fleet, she had looked up where Captain Ross was. Ross's unconventional tactics might have helped with fighting the Borg vessels and might have balanced the fight. The Avenger was in no condition to join her ships and even it the ship was, there would be no chance to work out tactics. The Admiral thought she knew what the secret weapon was. The yard had laid down an improved Akira class battlecruiser which utilized many of the systems first mounted on the Sovereign class and it could be very useful if the ship was completed. It was likely that the ship was complete except the warp drives. The warp drive system was new in many ways and would likely require tuning. If a warp drive was not tuned properly, the engines could create an uncontrolled wormhole. The admiral had read reports of the old Enterprise under Captain Kirk. The uncontrolled wormhole the Enterprise created during the VGER incident was enough to give star fleet collective paranoia when it came to warp drives.
No, the problem was not with the plan but with factors that were unknown to Captain Ross. There had been hurried negotiations with the Klingons and Romulans and both races had agreed to send vessels to help the Federation forces against the Borg. A specific locations had been agreed for the ships of the three powers to join together and it was impractical to change where the forces met at this point. The Romulan had promised to send four Warbirds and the Klingons had agreed to send two K'Vort class Birds of Prey and eight to ten smaller B'Rel class Birds of Prey. With the thirty Federation ships she had been able to collect, this was the largest fleet gathered outside some of the largest engagements of the Dominion Wars. All too many of the Federations vessels were still in the shipyard or they might be able to gather a fleet three times the size of what they have. She also knew that every day that she could delay the Borg advance, there would be more time to patch together ships and gather forces. The problem was if there would really be enough time even if she managed to delay the Borg cubes. Well, she would do the best she could like she was sure that Commodore Von Gehr and Captain Ross would do the same. The Admiral's present plan was to engage the Borg ships directly while the Klingon and Romulan ships made a surprise attack from being cloaked. She also figured that concentrating firepower on one cube and as best possible on one location would be the best tactic. If she could destroy one Borg cube, she would greatly increase the odds of another fleet of being able to defeat all of the Borg vessels. She then considered the thought that she wanted to hide from. She hoped that she would be killed in this battle instead of being assimilated into the Borg.
Gwendolyn had finally been able to go over the Status of her ship with her Chief Engineer and it was grimmer than she had originally thought. About Eighty percent of the weapon systems were operational with the losses of one set of her Mega-Phasers and four hull Phaser mounts. At least all of her torpedo launchers were operational. As well, her shields would be fully operational by the time the Avenger had to go out to fight the Borg Fleet. The real problem was the severe structural damage that the Avenger had and the less severe damage the warp drives had taken. The wrap drive damage prevented the ship from going into any of the higher warp speeds and the structural damage prevented the ship from accelerating any faster than half of normal.
Well, she had gathered all of the captains and their second in commands together to discuss her plans and any options the other senior officers could come up with and she did not have time to dwell on the damages to her ship. The other captains had interrupted their busy schedules to transport over to the station. Even though she was effectively squadron commander, she considered her ship too badly damaged to host the other captains. Using the base also allowed the Commodore to attend while not seeming to intrude as he might had the meeting been on another captains ship. The only other place that the meeting could have been held was the Atago because the Kraken was smaller than the Avenger and was more of a destroyer than anything else. The commodore was standing off to the side from the other officers and actually seemed a bit nervous even though he was the highest ranking person present. He had made it clear to both her and the other officers that he was mostly just observing and that Captain Ross was to be considered the squadron commander. Even though the Commodore was deferring to her, she kept in mind that she was the second most senior officer present. It would not be good idea to antagonize him.
She saw a face she recognized. Commander Jackson was still on the Atago and he had been given command of the old Excelsior class cruiser. His ship had been retained in the shipyard longer than originally planned due to the fact that materials and crews had been used to repair vessels that were considered more valuable or could be patched together faster. In the end, it was decided that the Atago would receive a full upgrade similar to what had been done on the Lakota. The refit had been almost finished when the War stopped. Star Fleet Command had considered scrapping the vessel but it was in comparatively good condition after being refitted and finishing touches were being done until the Borg fleet had been discovered. The work was done but the Atago would not get to the main Borg engagement before it started.
The situation with the Kraken was unusual and she tried to keep from being suspicious of the captain. The ship had been assigned border patrol when the bulk of the Federation forces had been assigned to the Dominion War. Ships that had the luck of getting these patrols did not retain them for very long and he had gone through four cycles without being assigned to the Dominion front. This seemed to suggest that he knew someone high up that could write orders to keep him from the War. The ship was scheduled to be transferred to the Dominion front but the captain had filed reports indicating that his ship had engineering problems that needed refit before the ship headed out to the War Front. She was very curious who had approved the ships refit. She had heard something very disturbing from the Commodore. He had gotten a communication message from the captain that had reported that he could not joint the fleet intercepting the Borg fleet with a list of new engineering problem. The Commodores information before that had indicated that his ship was fully operation and could report for duty. The main problem that Captain Ross saw was that the captain of the Kraken, Captain Maxwell Borek, had made captain only two months after her and as such was the third most senior officer at the yard.
The captain of the Akyazi Perimeter Action Ships were chosen from the best available officers from the shipyard and the three vessels. For captains, the officers with combat experience but who were not executive officers of the three warships. Captain Ross had decided that for this short a time frame, the removal of executive officers would harm the command structure more than the skills of the executive officers would help the Perimeter Action Ships. As well, both executive officer on the Avenger and the Atago were junior officers that were acting in the role of Executive Officer. One of the smaller vessels captains had been her acting tactical officer. None of the other captains were known to her but one she should have met when she was on the Atago before.
Her second in command had previously been her engineering officer and was obviously nervous about being her executive officer. While technically only an acting executive officer, she treated him with all the respect an executive officer respect. He seemed capable if he could get over his nervousness. His status report on the Avenger was grim but very well detailed and honest. It was written not like a report on why the ship could not be used but what problems would need to be accepted.
The preparations for the ships seemed to be going relatively well so she saw no need to rush the officers through the meeting. She patiently waited for all of the officers to settle in their seats before starting the beginning briefing portion of meeting. For the most part, the information was what she had told Commodore but she had time to clear up many of the details. Even though she had been unable to persuade the Admiral to sign on with her plan, Captain Ross was confident of a high chance of success. Survival would be much less likely but she thought she could destroy all four of the Borg cubes. She ended the briefing with "Well, two final points. First, if any ships seem to be acting strangely, the possibility of the ship being controlled by the Borg has to be considered. In that case, you are to destroy that vessel. Second, after the engagement, before coming back to the shipyard we need to examine every inch of our vessels to make sure that the Borg have not managed to stow away on any of ours." The ‘if we survive' was not said but everybody heard it anyway. She paused, waiting for questions or discussion from any of the other officers
The captain of the Kraken was the first to respond and she notes a pasty look that seemed to denote fear "Captain Ross, you are new to this time frame and have never had to deal with the Borg before. They can adapt to any weapon fired at them and you plan to stop a fleet of them with three starships and a few rocks. One ship of theirs has devastated whole fleets. I think you are not thinking about the situation clearly. Our only option is to load everyone onto what ships are here and retreat."
Gwendolyn looked at the officers around the room to see how they were reacting. Most did show some fear at engaging the Borg but Captain Borek was the only one that looked like he was about to panic. There seemed to be not of confusion in the Executive Officer of the Kraken. This was likely because she did not know if she should stand with her captain or should follow the instructions of a senior officer. Gwen decide that she could probably work with that eventually but time was quickly running out. Captain Ross decided that the safest course would be to answer Captain Borek cold and dispassionately and try to use reason "Captain, retreat to where. Earth is likely to be one of their next targets. I have attempted to simulate the variables on the Avenger's computer and the computer has shown that the plan has a high probability of success. I would give us a sixty to eighty percent chance of success based on the simulations. Captain, the truth is that the simulator results do not matter. I would try this even with a poorer chance of success. I personally prefer death to being captured and turned into one of their drones. With the Dominion, if they had won, we would have at least retained our minds and hope. The Borg are not like that."
Unfortunately, Captain Borek already had a new reply formed, one that let her know what his true intentions were. His reply came out almost pleading, "Captain Ross, the Kraken is only a light cruiser and is still under refit. You have chosen to reassign many of my best crew to other ships, including my helm officer, and I am unable to use my ship to its best efficiency. You have also sent some combat strategy files that include new and radical tactics. I would need time to train my crew in these maneuvers. In light of this, I think the Kraken could be better used in carrying reports back to Starfleet Headquarters so that they can be made aware of the situation." Gwendolyn thought she could see a smile that he was trying to hide. He must have done similar tricks in the past to get out of dangerous situations and this seemed to support the idea that he had someone senior in the chain of command to cover for him. Thankfully, cowards that would sacrifice anyone for themselves were rare. He had a problem at the moment because it would take too long for his benefactor to order him out of the system. The turn around time for a message, especially if Starfleet Communications were in chaos like she suspected, would mean that the message would arrive after the battle with the Borg was already resolved.
Gwendolyn sat for a moment considering how she should respond to him. Before she could come up with an answer, Commander Jackson responded for her. She was not sure if she should hug him or punch him but obviously he had been listening to her too much. He began with "Captain Borek, respectfully, Captain Ross is going into battle in an ancient frigate with has lost about twenty percent of its weapons and has severe structural and propulsion damage. The Avengers top acceleration and maneuverability will be greatly reduced compared to all of the other ships. In addition, a huge amount of her crew was killed or injured in one of the final battles to defeat the Dominion." Commander Jackson never actually sounded respectful but as he continued, he sounded even less respectful of the Kraken's Captain. "If she is willing to go into battle onboard such a ship, you better be willing to go into battle in a fully operational ship. The survival of the human race is at stake. Of course, if you feel unable to command the Kraken in battle, you could step down and I am sure another officer would be willing to take command of the ship. You might even be able to get onboard one of the cargo shuttles that has been designated to leave the system before the Borg get here" Captain Ross hid a smile. This was a response that she might expect to have come up with herself.
Like many people like him, Captain Borek's arrogance would not allow him to give up his authority as captain even because of fear. His reaction had changed. Now, instead of fear, he showed anger and seemed about to explode violently. He was beaten by any response by Commodore Von Gehr. His statement made it clear what his opinion was "Captain Borek, I have placed Captain Ross in command of the defense of the system due to having the most combat experience of any officer here including myself. You will follow any orders that she gives as if I gave the orders myself." Captain Borek seemed to just shrink back into his chair and nodded as if he was afraid to say anything. The Commodore then turned towards Commander Jackson and did not seem to be any happier. "Commander, Captain Borek is a senior officer to you. I expect you to treat him with respect. What I have read in your files indicates that you show a lot of promise. I do not want to have to a reprimand in your records." Commander Jackson stared at the Commodore challenging but nodded his head and replied with a response of yes sir. Gwendolyn thought that the Commodore had been too strong but she understood his reasoning even though she did not agree with him. Captain Borek should have never been accepted as an officer, let alone been promoted to the rank of captain.
Now that Captain Borek's attempt to escape the situation had been stopped, she hoped that she would get some reasonable suggestions or questions. Commander Jackson spoke after he looked around and saw that no one else was going to put up any ideas. The Kraken's Captain had started fuming quietly but everyone else seemed nervous about saying anything. Commander Jackson asked "We only have a total of seven ships, the loss of one ship would severely weaken us. I know that this facility has a huge amount of repair shuttles. Do we have time to take some of these shuttles and hit a beacon into them that would make them look like full sized starships? It would give the Borg more targets and by moving the ships and shuttles in a random pattern, the Borg would not know what targets are the shuttles and what targets are actually starships."
The idea intrigued Gwendolyn but there were some problems that needed to be worked out. The pilots would be in vessels than could withstand minuscule damage compared to even her damaged frigate. She thought about putting them under remote control. The problem was that she thought the remote control program would not be flexible enough to deal with the situation. Ok, time to lay the idea on the table "Alright, a very interesting and potentially very useful idea. I assume the idea is technically possible but I seem time being to short to produce a large number of them?"
Her second in command responded, "Captain, I would gather that we might have time to built a couple of dozen with the other projects that we are working on at this time." The Commodore nodded in agreement with Commander Dunstan.
Captain Ross continued with "I do not see a remote control package as being flexible enough to control the shuttles in the situation so I see our only option to have them piloted. The crews will be far more naked than any of us in capital ships will be and I want volunteers only. They should also be clearly informed about the dangers involved. The Borg may be targeting them as if they were capital ships so they might be able to evade hits but any hit will utterly destroy the shuttles."
The discussion continued for several hours with most of the other officers willing to contribute the discussion once Commander Jackson got the discussion going. Captain Borek continued to fume as before but she did not expect anything useful from him after his initial response. Captain Ross caught a couple of glances of the Kraken's Executive Officer towards her captain and she seemed as disgusted as the other officers in the room were. Several changes in the general plan were made including using the asteroid belt more effectively to hide the asteroid weapons. Also, all station stores were to be emptied to attempt to provide hostile environment suits to as many crew members as possible. Finally, some ideas for a crash course in ne tactics had been formed and it was planned for the training to continue until virtually the last minute.
As the meeting broke up, most of the officers stood up and headed out the doors towards the transporters to get back to their ships. Gwendolyn noted that Commander Jackson had nodded to his second in command who headed out the hatch behind the other officers. The Commander walked over to Gwendolyn where she was gathering up her notes so that she could head back to her vessel as well. Her chief engineer had already left and would be checking on some supports that he had his engineers weld onto several main support structures to attempt to shore up some damage. She wanted to know how the repair work herself but it was obvious that Commander Jackson had something that he wished to discuss with her privately.
"Captain Ross, I would like to know if you would have dinner with me when all this is done"
She looked up at him in surprise and blinked a few times in shock. She was an ugly duckling who's simply refused to stay under control. She felt herself blushing as well, something that had not happened to her since she was a teenager. She started to consider how she would say no but the likely hood of her surviving this was remote anyway. She was glad that Commander Jackson would have a reasonable chance of survival. His ship had the strongest shields and had an intact hull. She might as well tell him. She used his first name and said "Shawn, you know what the likely hood of either of us surviving is" meaning herself but not wanting to make him feel guilty.
He stared back at her, refusing to yield. "Gwendolyn", using her first name for the first time as well, ‘You will survive. After all, you are considered the Demi-God of war by half my crew and the God of Death to the Cardassians. No measly fleet of four Borg ships is going to be able to beat you. Is a yes or no so hard?"
She chuckled to herself. Well, there was no reason not to "Why not." and then a stronger "Yes!" she then continued "Only one stipulation, where ever we go will serve Earth food not something strange, exotic, and inedible. Most of the other races foods taste like reprocessed power trunk insulation. We are both humans and should eat like humans."
The Last Voyage of the Avenger - Chapter XX+1
Chapter XX+1:
At least we managed to destroy one thought Admiral Norton. She sat on the flag bridge of her disabled ship and watched the wreckage of her fleet on her surviving displays. The bridge was badly damaged and the main bridge was completely gone. Her surviving bridge crew looked as exhausted as she felt. As a final, she sent a message to Starfleet Command and local Federation stations informing them about the results of the battle. Only some structural integrity fields running on battery power kept the flag bridge with an atmosphere and life support was inoperable. The concentration of firepower from her ships and the assistance of the Romulans and Klingons had enabled them to wreck one of the cubes and badly damage another. The other two cubes had lighter damage but she hoped that she had given the Federation time enough to line up a second line of defense. A couple of the smaller Birds of Prey had survived with only light damage and she had ordered them to break off from combat. There was nothing more they could do other than to sacrifice themselves with no purpose. She hoped that they would join the defense forces being cobbled together by Captain Ross but this was out of her control.
Her ship was completely disabled and she did not even see a point of even ordering the crew to the life pods but they would simply be captured by the Borg. At least onboard the ship, they might be able to take a few of the Borg down. The chief engineer had ejected the warp core before the magnetic bottle had collapsed but she wondered if it would not have been better if the core had exploded and taken the ship with it. Unfortunately, the ship's fusion reactors were so she could not self destruct the ship that way either. Within a few minutes, the Borg would begin to board her vessel. She had her hand phaser for as long as it remained useful. Maybe she could get someone down to the photon torpedo storage and detonate the torpedoes. The problem is that the person would have to get into a vacuum suit because there was no atmosphere in that section of the ship.
She raised her hand to activate her com link but she was too late. Four Borg drones transported onto her bridge. She was sure that more had beamed into other sections of the ship including engineering. She pulled her phaser pistol and brought down one of the Borg Drones. The idea of becoming one of them was one of her few remaining fears. Other surviving bridge crew fired their phasers simultaneously and the first wave was stopped before they could make more than a couple of steps. Four more Borg transported onto the bridge. Like the first wave, these drones were quickly cut down. Admiral Norton knew it was only a matter of time before the Borg adapted. Well, at least not yet she thought. A third wave transported onto the bridge and was cut down like the previous two waves.
A fourth wave of Borg Drones transported into the wreckage of her flag bridge. She aimed the phaser and fired. Several other crew members fired as well. The Borg Drone which was her target shuttered but continued moving towards her. The Borg had adapted to their phasers. Just them she realized that there was still one means of escape. She hoped her crew would have the courage to take it. She turned her hand phaser towards the side of her own head and fired.
The Klingon Commanders of the Birds of Prey had decided to go to the shipyard where the human admiral had asked them to join the fleet gathering there to attempt to stop the Borg fleet again. They were a decent distance from the Klingon Empire and their crews were thirsting for revenge after what had happened to the remainder of their ships. Even the Romulans and Humans had fought valiantly but they had been overwhelmed as well. The destruction of one of the Cubes and damage that had been inflicted on the remaining Borg cubes had enable their ships to reach this system a few hours before the Borg cubes arrived here.
Commander K'Leth, the senior of the two captains of the Birds of Prey, ordered a comm channel opened to the Federation flagship. His junior officer open a channel and the computers of the two ships established com protocols so the two captains could communicate with each other. Commander K'Leth could see by the header that the ship was named Avenger. Not a sissy name like the Federation selected for most of their ships such as the name for some silly poet. He had heard that Captain Ross, who the Cardassians called the butcher, was in command. He had heard that she was as large as any female Klingon warrior and able to fight an armed Gem'Hadar bare handed.
The image resolved itself and he saw a short and stocky woman with tangled hair. This could not be the terror of the Cardassians. Ah, it must be the ship's communication officer. The women spoke and immediately dashed that thought, "I am Captain Gwendolyn Ross. I welcome you to the fleet." She did not know what else to call her ragtag group of ships.
Even her voice did not sound like that of a true warrior the Klingon thought. On closer examination of the view screen, he noted that the bulkhead behind the Captain was cracked and scorched from extreme heat. He also noted that captain's chair also seemed warped. This likely occurred from the same hit that damaged the bulkhead. The human captains grabbed his for a few moment. He found no one who could do that and it was as if something predatory staring from those eyes. On second thought, the short human female was a real warrior. The Klingon Commander replied firmly "I am Commander K'Leth of the Targoth. I am here to put the Targoth and the Bargor under your command."
The human captain responded "Time is at a premium. I will need to brief you and the other captain on the plan as soon as possible."
It had been two hours since the Klingon Birds of Prey had arrive in the system and before two more hours went by, they would find themselves engaging the Borg. She had received a message from Admiral Norton stating that one Borg cube had been destroyed and the other three Borg cubes had been damaged to a greater or lesser degree. This had been confirmed by the Klingon commander. Captain Ross had only a total of four days to get ready since being informed that Borg were headed into the Alpha Quadrant and that time was running out. She devoutly wished she had more time to prepare but she might as well have wished for a fleet of a hundred battle cruisers while she was at it. The Avenger had been reinforced to the best of the ability of the crew in the time they had and the shields were fully operational. The ship was very fragile and would not require much damage before it literally would start coming apart. The rest of her ships were fully operational but the crews were still green and could use more training. A total of twenty two repair shuttles had been refitted to act as decoys. She had been surprised at how many volunteers she had gotten for the decoy ships. She suspected that at least a few wished to die quickly instead of being captured by the Borg and turned into mindless zombies. A large number of crew members of the Kraken had volunteered which had made her wonder against about the relationship between the Captain of the Kraken and his crew. A hostile environment suit manufacturing area had been set up by some shipyard crew that were not otherwise occupied and suits had been made for all crew member except the Klingons. The facility simply did not have enough time to complete suit for the Klingons. Captain Ross thought it was an open question whether the Klingons would use the suits anyway. Copies of her M-1 Carbine had been issued to all marines and one in four crew members. She had her MAC-10 hanging on a strap over her shoulder and she was carrying her .357 revolver tucked into her jacket. In retrospect, she probably would have been better off having the MAC-10 copied because if was a more portable weapon but she thought the rifle would still do the job she needed. She had heard that many crew members considered her choice of weapons barbaric. This opinion seemed most prevalent on the other ships but she had overheard some of her own people that seemed to share that opinion. Well, the Klingons seemed to like the new weapons but they liked cutting opponents heads off with swords as well.
It was about time to set the acceleration of the asteroids. They would need to be set up before the borg vessels entered into the system. If there was a future, she would recommend that some sort of hyper velocity rail gun was developed to fire solid weapons at the borg cube but this is the best she could do in the time she was given. The course of the asteroids was planned that the Federation fleet would be in close range combat for about six minutes before the asteroids collided with the Borg ships. This was to give her fleet enough time to get the Borg ships into the right position. The asteroids did carry guidance to enable course changes and last minute maneuvers but targeting would the easiest close to the planned engagement area.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Susan Novak, Captain Ross's Communication Officer, had insisted on returning to duty and was on the Avenger's makeshift communication station. She broke Gwendolyn out of her thoughts, "Captain, the outer array repots that the Borg cubes are within 105 minutes of entering the system. You asked me to keep you informed."
It was time to get everything started, "Susan, could you please inform the stations to set the asteroids on their proper courses." She got out of her command chair to look at what slim data tactical had on the approaching Borg cubes.
One of the impulse engines on a asteroid failed and Captain Ross only had eleven asteroids for three targets. She decided to make a last minute change because of the loss of one of the asteroids. She ordered the reduction in acceleration of two of the asteroids. That would leave three asteroids for each Borg cubes and an additional two rocks that could be targeted at a Borg cube if none of the first set managed to hit their assigned target. The trailing asteroids would intercept the Borg's positions four minutes after the first set.
Three Borg cubes dropped out of Transwarp near the edge of the system and immediately started towards the shipyard's location. Some of the lesser beings that they had assimilated had information that their was something valuable in the system. What it was, none of them knew but whatever it was would be soon added to the collective. The Borg Cubes detected a group of ships heading on a reciprocal of their course. The force contained more ships than had intercepted them previously but there were ships larger than what the humans identified as an "Excelsior" class cruiser. There was also none of the ship of those ships known as a "Romulan Warbird." The analysis indicated that they could be destroyed easily.
Captain Ross watched the Borg forces in the Avenger's main tactical display while her ragtag fleet headed to intercept the three Borg Cubes. As they closed, her plan was to concentrate all torpedoes onto a single cube. They would begin firing torpedoes as soon as they got within range. She did not think her ships had enough missile firepower to do appreciable damage to the cube but she wanted it to look like a real attack so that the Borg would not look for an attack coming from another source. From the battle records she had read, it looked like the Borg used single minded tactics anyway. Her ships were accelerating slowly so not to built up too much velocity. If the Avenger and the Decoy shuttles could have kept up, she might have considered a full acceleration attack run and a rapid deceleration once passed and a second run at the Borg ships. The Avenger still could not achieve anything close to full acceleration and none of the shuttles were as fast as even the Avenger was in her damaged state. If she decided to let the faster ships attack by themselves and have the slower ships follow behind, they risked being defeated in detail. Instead her group was approaching slowly and the Avenger and Atago were spinning around their center point so that they could use both front and rear torpedo launchers at the same time.
As the Federation and Klingon ships reached the half way point between where their planned to meet the Borg fleet, the ships began to decelerate. The ships would be close to a complete stop when they got within energy weapon range. The hope was that the Borg Cubes would stop to engage the Federation force instead of continuing on to the shipyard. While engaging Borg Cubes in a stand up fight with the ships she had was fairly ludicrous but if she could only keep them in the planned engagement area for eight minutes then the asteroids should take care of the Borg vessels. The Borg vessels began decelerating as well. She assumed that they wished to destroy her ships before getting to the shipyard's fixed defenses. Some stationary weapon arrays, like those on the stations Deep Space Nine, were very impressive. While the reality was that the defenses around the station were actually negligible, there was not reason for the Borg to assume that even if they had assimilated Federation personnel that had been at the shipyard previously. After all, it was a shipyard and could construct its own defenses. It was one of her few complaints about Commodore Lester Von Gehr. If she had been in command of the yard, she would have used weapon systems from unsalvageable ships to construct fixed defenses around the shipyard. The weapon systems would not need to be as powerful as those mounted on new starships to be effective. Any lack of individual firepower could be made up by an overwhelming number of weapons platforms.
The Avenger's acting tactical officer reported "Captain, we are within torpedo range"
Gwendolyn looked over at the tactical display herself and saw the projected targeting for the torpedo. It was her job to initiative the fire plan. Gwendolyn turned toward her communication officer "Tell the other ships to initiate fire" and she nodded at her own weapon's officer.
Within two seconds, the first volley of torpedoes were fired. This was followed as rapidly as possible by a second volley of torpedoes. All of a single volley were programmed to hit the leading Borg cube at the same instant. The Borg noted that only nine of the ships were firing missiles at their ships. The remaining ships were either some type of decoy or some sort of ships that did not carry any torpedoes. Two of the nine ships were firing torpedoes more rapidly than see in most ships of their size. As the torpedoes hit, the Borg Cube under onslaught took some minor damage as the torpedo hits began to accumulate. These torpedoes had already been encountered and had been adapted against so damage was slight.
The Borg transmitted to all of the Federation and Klingon ships, "Lower your shields, we will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own."
The torpedo fire lasted for six minutes before both sides came within beam weapon range. All of the vessels had expended their torpedoes and only had beam weapons they could fire anyway. Both sides opened fire at the same time. The decoy shuttles and the smaller warships began weaving back and forth to confuse the targeting from the Borg vessels. The three capital ships were also maneuvering to avoid fire although Captain Ross had to limit the Avengers maneuvers so not to overstress the ship's damaged hull and structure. For the beginning of the engagement, the Federation and Klingons were lucky. The Avenger was hit once and the frigates shields withstood the hit. Most of the Borg's fire had been targeted at decoy vessels and most of them managed to dodge the fire. Only five were hit by the Borg beam weaponry and at least one of the pilots managed to eject in time. The Borg ships seemed to receive no damage but they had stopped to fully engage the Federation and Klingon vessels. The Federation and Klingon ships would only have to survive about five more minutes and the asteroids would come into collision with the Borg Cubes.
As the battle continued, it turned against the defenders. One of the Klingon Bird of Prey received a direct hit from one of the Borg Cubes directly in engineering. The shields simply could not withstand the power of the Borg energy beam and the Bird of Prey simply exploded. Several of the other warships received hits but none were hit directly and were able to withstand the fire with only moderate damage. One of the Perimeter Action Ships lost a warp drive but the ships fighting power was unimpaired. Eight more of the decoy vessels were destroyed leaving only nine decoy shuttles remaining. The defense forces could see no damage to the Borg vessels. No one knew if forces that remained would be able to survive the four more minutes before the asteroid weapons came into play.
The battle continued and the Avenger received her fourth hit. The frigate's shields had already been badly weakened and the Borg energy weapon cut through the remaining shields as if they were cobwebs. The helmsman was maneuvering the Avenger up and to port when it was hit. Several main support frames were burned completely through and the most of the remaining sheared off from the stress of the frigate making its turn. The engineering section half ripped away from the forward section of the hull. The chief engineer activated the emergency warp core ejection system and so the Avenger was not blown up within a few seconds when the warp core exploded. The Avenger's fusion reactors were all damaged by the ship half ripping itself apart and only emergency battery power remained. Because the crew were in hostile environment suits, only those crew that had been directly in the path of the Borg energy weapon or crushed when the hull shredded were killed. The ships sensors, computer, and weapon systems were all down. The hull had fractured all over and greater than half of the ships compartments had lost atmosphere. Life support systems and gravity generators were completely destroyed, leaving the crew in a ship with no gravity, few lights, and mostly dependant on their suits life support for survival. The tractor units on the bottom of their boots would also prevent the crews from floating around the inside of the ship. The worst was that the ship had no power and no shields. Without shields, there was nothing to stop the Borg from transporting onboard.
Outside the Avenger, the battle still raged. The Kraken received its first hit of the battle. It was a solid hit and managed to drop the cruisers forward shields and inflict some damage. Two compartments were emptied into space but there was no damage to weapons or propulsion. Captain Borek decided that his ship could not take many more hits like that one. He did not want to die like that silly captain from the past and this whole plan was foolhardy and stupid. With the Avenger gone, command of the remaining ships fell to him and there was no one who could contradict his orders. It was time to get his ship out of here. He ordered "Helm, take my ship out of here on the fastest course out of the system." He realized that the whole bridge crew was watching him and added "Now!" He waited a few moments before he ordered "Communication Officer, signal retreat to the other ships and send my regrets to the Commodore,"in a bored sounding voice which sounded to the rest of his bridge crew that he only cared about getting himself to safety.
Four more of the decoy shuttles had been destroyed in the battle and only five remained. The shuttles did not have enough power to keep up with the cruiser accelerating at full impulse and had no warp drives so they were stuck in system. The Perimeter Action Ship with the warp drive damage could not leave system either and so was forced to stay and fight. The captain of that ship had previously been Captain Ross's acting tactical officer and was determined to not go down without a fight. The other three Federation escort vessels turned and followed behind the retreating cruiser. The remaining Klingon Bird of Prey's crew was simply too angry to retreat and so remained fighting.
Commander Jackson's face drained of all its color as he heard his communication officer play the message from the captain of the Kraken. The ships only had to hold the Borg Cubes at bay from three more minutes and the trap would be sprung. It looked like Captain Ross had died to make this all possible and Captain Borek was going to throw it all way to protect his own skin. Commander Jackson cleared his throat and said to his bridge crew "We have to stay. It would be criminal to sacrifice the Federation for our own hides." he looked over at the rest of his bridge crew to see how they were reacting to his mutiny. None of them looked like they disagreed with him and a couple looked anticipatory of getting revenge. Whether that revenge was against the Borg or against Captain Maxwell Borek he did not know.
As time remaining until the asteroids intercepted the Borg ships went below three minutes, one Centaur class cruiser and three Perimeter Action Ships pulled towards the edge of the system accelerating at full impulse, three warships remained behind to try and fight the Borg Cubes. Many of the personnel on the ships that had elected to stay and fight could only hate the ones that had run away. The odds were lousy that the remaining ships could hold the Borg ships long enough.
With less opponents to deal with, the Borg estimated that they could afford to beam drones onboard the crippled ship and capture the crew to add to their drones that had been acquired in the previous battle. They expected few losses because they had already encountered the Federations new hand phasers and had adapted to them. Captain Ross saw her first group of Borg Drones as they transported onboard her bridge. The event seemed to mimic what had happened onboard Admiral Norton's flagship with four beaming onboard her ship. The drones were certainly as ugly as she had seen in pictures. They had diseased looking pasty skin and had wires and tubes stuck all over their heads, arms, and torso. None of the tubes or wires seemed to have any discernable function. Well, she thought, they are in for a surprise. She shouldered her MAC-10 and fired a short burst at the nearest Borg Drone. The other personnel on the bridge who were armed with M-1 Carbines fired as well. Four drones were down within seconds although she now knew that ricocheted could be a problem. Gwendolyn wished that she knew how the fight was going outside of her ship.
The Borg themselves decide that the retreating ships were not worth their attention at this time and they would concentrate on the remaining ships. They concentrated much of their firepower on the Atago as the only remaining capital ship. Commander Jackson was trying to keep to keep his ship alive for just two more minutes. So far he had been able to keep his shields up but not even a Sovereign class battlecruiser was designed to withstand the abuse his Excelsior class cruiser was being subject to. Two more of decoy shuttles disappeared under the Borg fire.
Commander Jackson knew he had only one hope. He opened a comm channel to the retreating vessels and sent a message begging for them to come back, "This is Commander Jackson, I am in trouble. I have all three Borg cubes attacking my ship. We only have to hold them for a few minutes. We may be the last hope of the Federation." He thought his plea had been horrible but it seemed to work because the three Perimeter Action Ships did a 360 degree rotation and started decelerating to negate the velocity built up while they were on course. Even the Escort who's captain had been the Krakens helm officer turned back. Maybe it was a guilty conscience but whatever reason, the ships would be re-engaging the cubes within about a minute. The Kraken had not slowed and continued heading out of the system.
There was over a couple dozen bodies of Borg Drones floating on the bridge of the Avenger. Various fluids had squirted onto the bridge from the drones. Some, like blood, froze instantly while others remained viscous liquid. All of the shooters had to be careful not to hit another crew member with a ricochet. The problem was that it was only a matter of time. She had found that the bullets of the MAC-10 tended to ricochet less than the bullets from the M-1 Carbine. Another reason why the submachinegun would have been a better weapon to copy than the carbine. The Borg had been unable to adapt so they simply sent wave after wave onto the bridge of her crippled ship. If she could hold the Borg from taking over her bridge for a little under two minutes, she might actually survive this. The biggest problem was that all of their ammunition was running low.
The three returning Perimeter Action Ship strafed the cubes as they attempted to return to formation. This caught the attention of the Borg and they turned to concentrate on the attacking wave. The cubes opened fire and because the small ships were attempted to get back as quickly as possible, they were much easier targets than they would be otherwise. Two of the escort vessel were hit dead on and had their shields dropped and suffered heavy damage. The third of the Perimeter Action Ships in the formation was hit only lightly and the shields held.
The attacks of the small escorts did give Commander the break he needed and he was able to strengthen the forward shield of the vessel by pulling power from his rear shields. It was a risk but it should allow his shield to withstand a few more hits. Before getting a chance to adjust his shields, his ship's forward shield would probably have collapsed on the next hit. He had already taken damage including the loss of four of his phaser banks. Time until the asteroids should obliterate the Borg Cubes was now just over a minute. He was not sure if his ship would survive the battle but he should be able to hold the Borg until the trap was sprung.
Even more Borg drones had transported onto the bridge of the Avenger. Captain Ross would have thought that they would have stopped by now for the simple reason of loss versus potential gain. She had miscalculated on the Borg' single minded nature. She had already heard the triggers click on the carbines carried by other bridge crew and when she squeezed her trigger, she got a click from her MAC-10 indicating that she was out of ammunition as well. The Borg Drone continued towards her. She reached into her belt and pulled out the revolver that she thought she would not need. From a range of two meters, she fired. She had aimed directly at the drones head and blew the entire back skull out of it.
The two Perimeter Action Ships that had been damaged had received several more hit and both were out of action. One had gotten relatively lucky and just had the drive system demolished. The ship was able to keep up shields but only had maneuvering thrusters remaining and was heading away from the position of the Borg ships. The other had been less lucky and had suffered a Warp core explosion taking all hands with it. All three cubes targeted the Atago. Virtually instantly, they knocked the cruisers shields flat. The Atago also suffered major damage to its forward hull and lost two more phaser banks. Commander Jackson knew that one more hit like that would likely disable or destroy his vessel. The Atago had fought valiantly. Suddenly, the escort vessel which had stayed by his ships side for the entire fight put itself between the Borg cubes and the Atago. It blocked the next volley of fire but literally disintegrated under the weight of fire. It had saved the heavy cruiser and the lives of her crew.
Nine asteroids came streaking in at an incredible velocity. Most of the Borg's attention had been targeted on the attacking vessels and what few sensor sweeps that had been doing in other directions was directed at looking for warp drive and anti-gravity signatures which indicated a starship. As a result, they did not detect the asteroids until they were very close. When they did detect the high velocity asteroids, they immediately changed targets and fired at the rocks. Unfortunately for the Borg, multi billion ton metallic asteroids are incredibly resistant to energy weapon fire, no matter how heavy. The cubes made no attempt to dodge the incoming asteroids. It is unlikely that the Borg vessels could have dodged in time but they would have had a better chance that they did at destroying the asteroids. Even if they had managed to break one up, the Cube would have been pelted by so much debris that they would have been destroyed anyway. Each Borg Cube was hit within a few seconds of each other. These asteroids would have decimated an Earth sized planet if they had hit. Some of the Kinetic energy was converted into other forms during the impact. This included heat, radiation, and light. The light released by the impact lit up the system as if there was second sun in the system. The Avenger was the closest vessel to any of the Borg cubes and had no shields protecting it. The intense energy cooked the hull of the cruiser in the same as if the ship had gotten too close to a star. The hull ended up half melted and blistered from the intense heat but the majority of the crew survived, protected by the damaged ship's hull. Well, at least the other two asteroids would not be needed.
Gwendolyn Ross sat on her command chair on the bridge. It had been almost thirty minutes since any Borg Drones had beamed onboard what was left of her vessel. The attacks had stopped just in the nick of time. All of the other bridge crew had run out of ammunition and she had only three rounds left in her revolver. The bridge had pushed all of the Borg bodies into one corner of the bridge. They had noted that some of the Borg Drones had the remains of Federation uniforms. Gwendolyn at least considered that this was a better fate than being drones for the rest of their lives.
While her bridge crew had cleaned up the bridge to the best of their abilities, she and her communication officer had used their suit's comm units to get in contact with surviving crew members. They had gotten in contact with sixty percent of the crew and hoped that more had survived. The crew still had hours of life support left in the hostile environment suits but there was no hope of restoring life support to the ship. If there was no rescue coming soon, they could all suffocate if they did not do something.
She had already sent someone to check on the escape pods and all escape pods they had been found had been destroyed. It looked like the entire outside of her vessel had been melted. It was possible that some shuttles had been protected inside of their hanger bay and had survived. There were several dangers involved in checking. First, the hanger bays seemed to be partially separated from the rest of the hull and could involve floating through open space to get to the hangers. Second, while most of the Borg seemed to have been transported to the bridge or engineering, it was possible that Borg drones were still wandering around her ship and most of per crew and troops were low on ammunition. Well, it was better to at least try than just have the crew sit and wait for their suits to run out of air.
Just as she was about to give the order to form a team to head for the hanger bays, the visual effect of eight transporter beams appeared in front of where the main view screen had been. It did not look like what Borg Drones transporting had looked like. Instead, it looked like the pattern from a standard Federation transporter. Eight humanoid figures in hostile environment suits appeared on her bridge. Seven of the figures had the insignia of Federation Marines and carried M-1 Carbines at the ready. The final figure was wearing the rank insignia of a full Commander. All of the figures wore the ship patch of the USS Atago on their shoulder.
Gwendolyn got a private message through the comm unit built into her suit's helmet "I just came onboard to see if our date was still on."
Captain Gwendolyn Ross stood behind the tactical station on the bridge of the Atago. She was looking at the melted and twisted hull of the Avenger using maximum visual magnification. Commander Jackson had sent rescue parties over to rescue the surviving members of her crew. Commander Jackson had been delayed by the need to search his ship for any Borg Drones before starting the rescue mission. Luckily, none had been found but with the dropping of his shields, he felt it need to be done. Slightly over seventy percent of the Avengers crew had been rescued alive although some had been badly hurt. The number of survivors had been incredible but both Captain Ross and Commander Jackson wished that they had been able to save more.
The searchers had only found a handful of Borg left onboard the Avenger. The marines had dealt with the Borg Drones they had found but there was no way to know if there were any others hiding in the wreckage of her ship. The wisest choice was simply to destroy her ship but that did not mean that she would enjoy it. The Avenger's weapon officer had replaced the Atago's weapon officer at the weapons station. He had the ships fire control looked onto the Avenger's hull and was prepared to fire all remaining phasers at the frigate's hull. He was simply waiting on Captain Ross to order him to fire. Commander Jackson had made it clear that he considered that it was her call.
Captain Ross sighed before giving the order. She calmly said "Fire!"
Lieutenant McMilligan stumbled for a moment "Yyessm Mmaam" and pressed the activate button to execute the fire control program. The surviving phasers began raking the hull of the Avenger and the hull disintegrated under the continuous onslaught. Gwendolyn wanted to look away but was determined to see her command's final moments. Many others had turned their eyes. She hoped that no one could see that tears filled her eyes. She thought about all of the people she had lost.
Captain Ross had ordered Captain Borek to return to the shipyard. She got no reply and the Kraken had continued warping from the star system. Commodore Von Gehr had also ordered him back to the system which he had not replied to either. It had required the Commodore to order that the executive officer to take command of the cruiser before the Kraken turned around to head back to the shipyard. He probably could not be convicted of the charge of ‘Failure to Follow the Direct Orders of a Senior Officer' for his retreat from battle but she had hopes that the charge of ‘Cowardice in the face of battle' could be sustained. If he had not ordered the retreat of the forces, the survival of the crew of the two destroyed Perimeter Action Vessel would have been far more likely.
The battle had been the greatest victory the Federation had ever had against the Borg but it had been bloody.
Captain Ross wore her dress uniform. It was out of place with all the new jumpsuit style uniforms but somehow it made her look like a real officers while the others looked like kids in pajamas. While she did not particulary enjoy the attention she was receiving, she had manipulated her popularity so that she, and her crew, could retain the old style uniforms. After the victory against the Borg, she was one of the most popular officers in the Federation and would likely be recorded in the history books as the second most well known Captains in the history of Starfleet. Because of this, no one wanted to cross her.
She had been further honored by being given command of the improved Akira class battlecruiser that was under construction in the yard. The ship would be commissioned in a few weeks and had been renamed the Avenger. The ship had many improvements including the shield and phaser designs that had first been mounted onboard the Sovereign class battlecruiser. She had made some changes to the design such as complete conventional computer backup to the bio-organic computer system that was the ships main computer system. She was impatient for the ship to be completed so she could take the ship for its trials.
In addition to modifications to her ships, she had several other projects that she was working on. She had also gotten an engineering group working on a more practical suit for shipboard service that would be lighter weight. She had another engineering group working on a new projectile weapon for use against the Borg. The leader of the group who had been a historic weapons buff and was going through historical weapons to look at different features.
She had been given the option to chose any crew she wished. She retained as many crew members from the old Avenger that she could. Some of her old crew had been too badly injured to go back to full duty and had been restricted from shipboard service because of it. She had managed to get a few of the disabled officers to get positions as instructors at Starfleet Academy and her hope was that they could keep the next generation of Starfleet Officers from becoming brainwashed socialists puppets. For the remainder of the crew, she had looked for the most skilled personnel that she could find but she also looked for crew members who had records that seemed to show that they were disaffected with the socialist way that the Federation and Starfleet were being run. She figured that she would give them a break from the way that they were treated in many commands and hopefully her treating them with respect would cement their loyalties.
It was obvious that Captain Borek had an important patron. He had been reassigned before Commodore Von Gehr could convene a court marshal. Officially, the records were suppose to be sent so that he could be tried at his new station but Gwendolyn knew that the trial would never occur.
Still, all in all, the future looked exciting.
At least we managed to destroy one thought Admiral Norton. She sat on the flag bridge of her disabled ship and watched the wreckage of her fleet on her surviving displays. The bridge was badly damaged and the main bridge was completely gone. Her surviving bridge crew looked as exhausted as she felt. As a final, she sent a message to Starfleet Command and local Federation stations informing them about the results of the battle. Only some structural integrity fields running on battery power kept the flag bridge with an atmosphere and life support was inoperable. The concentration of firepower from her ships and the assistance of the Romulans and Klingons had enabled them to wreck one of the cubes and badly damage another. The other two cubes had lighter damage but she hoped that she had given the Federation time enough to line up a second line of defense. A couple of the smaller Birds of Prey had survived with only light damage and she had ordered them to break off from combat. There was nothing more they could do other than to sacrifice themselves with no purpose. She hoped that they would join the defense forces being cobbled together by Captain Ross but this was out of her control.
Her ship was completely disabled and she did not even see a point of even ordering the crew to the life pods but they would simply be captured by the Borg. At least onboard the ship, they might be able to take a few of the Borg down. The chief engineer had ejected the warp core before the magnetic bottle had collapsed but she wondered if it would not have been better if the core had exploded and taken the ship with it. Unfortunately, the ship's fusion reactors were so she could not self destruct the ship that way either. Within a few minutes, the Borg would begin to board her vessel. She had her hand phaser for as long as it remained useful. Maybe she could get someone down to the photon torpedo storage and detonate the torpedoes. The problem is that the person would have to get into a vacuum suit because there was no atmosphere in that section of the ship.
She raised her hand to activate her com link but she was too late. Four Borg drones transported onto her bridge. She was sure that more had beamed into other sections of the ship including engineering. She pulled her phaser pistol and brought down one of the Borg Drones. The idea of becoming one of them was one of her few remaining fears. Other surviving bridge crew fired their phasers simultaneously and the first wave was stopped before they could make more than a couple of steps. Four more Borg transported onto the bridge. Like the first wave, these drones were quickly cut down. Admiral Norton knew it was only a matter of time before the Borg adapted. Well, at least not yet she thought. A third wave transported onto the bridge and was cut down like the previous two waves.
A fourth wave of Borg Drones transported into the wreckage of her flag bridge. She aimed the phaser and fired. Several other crew members fired as well. The Borg Drone which was her target shuttered but continued moving towards her. The Borg had adapted to their phasers. Just them she realized that there was still one means of escape. She hoped her crew would have the courage to take it. She turned her hand phaser towards the side of her own head and fired.
The Klingon Commanders of the Birds of Prey had decided to go to the shipyard where the human admiral had asked them to join the fleet gathering there to attempt to stop the Borg fleet again. They were a decent distance from the Klingon Empire and their crews were thirsting for revenge after what had happened to the remainder of their ships. Even the Romulans and Humans had fought valiantly but they had been overwhelmed as well. The destruction of one of the Cubes and damage that had been inflicted on the remaining Borg cubes had enable their ships to reach this system a few hours before the Borg cubes arrived here.
Commander K'Leth, the senior of the two captains of the Birds of Prey, ordered a comm channel opened to the Federation flagship. His junior officer open a channel and the computers of the two ships established com protocols so the two captains could communicate with each other. Commander K'Leth could see by the header that the ship was named Avenger. Not a sissy name like the Federation selected for most of their ships such as the name for some silly poet. He had heard that Captain Ross, who the Cardassians called the butcher, was in command. He had heard that she was as large as any female Klingon warrior and able to fight an armed Gem'Hadar bare handed.
The image resolved itself and he saw a short and stocky woman with tangled hair. This could not be the terror of the Cardassians. Ah, it must be the ship's communication officer. The women spoke and immediately dashed that thought, "I am Captain Gwendolyn Ross. I welcome you to the fleet." She did not know what else to call her ragtag group of ships.
Even her voice did not sound like that of a true warrior the Klingon thought. On closer examination of the view screen, he noted that the bulkhead behind the Captain was cracked and scorched from extreme heat. He also noted that captain's chair also seemed warped. This likely occurred from the same hit that damaged the bulkhead. The human captains grabbed his for a few moment. He found no one who could do that and it was as if something predatory staring from those eyes. On second thought, the short human female was a real warrior. The Klingon Commander replied firmly "I am Commander K'Leth of the Targoth. I am here to put the Targoth and the Bargor under your command."
The human captain responded "Time is at a premium. I will need to brief you and the other captain on the plan as soon as possible."
It had been two hours since the Klingon Birds of Prey had arrive in the system and before two more hours went by, they would find themselves engaging the Borg. She had received a message from Admiral Norton stating that one Borg cube had been destroyed and the other three Borg cubes had been damaged to a greater or lesser degree. This had been confirmed by the Klingon commander. Captain Ross had only a total of four days to get ready since being informed that Borg were headed into the Alpha Quadrant and that time was running out. She devoutly wished she had more time to prepare but she might as well have wished for a fleet of a hundred battle cruisers while she was at it. The Avenger had been reinforced to the best of the ability of the crew in the time they had and the shields were fully operational. The ship was very fragile and would not require much damage before it literally would start coming apart. The rest of her ships were fully operational but the crews were still green and could use more training. A total of twenty two repair shuttles had been refitted to act as decoys. She had been surprised at how many volunteers she had gotten for the decoy ships. She suspected that at least a few wished to die quickly instead of being captured by the Borg and turned into mindless zombies. A large number of crew members of the Kraken had volunteered which had made her wonder against about the relationship between the Captain of the Kraken and his crew. A hostile environment suit manufacturing area had been set up by some shipyard crew that were not otherwise occupied and suits had been made for all crew member except the Klingons. The facility simply did not have enough time to complete suit for the Klingons. Captain Ross thought it was an open question whether the Klingons would use the suits anyway. Copies of her M-1 Carbine had been issued to all marines and one in four crew members. She had her MAC-10 hanging on a strap over her shoulder and she was carrying her .357 revolver tucked into her jacket. In retrospect, she probably would have been better off having the MAC-10 copied because if was a more portable weapon but she thought the rifle would still do the job she needed. She had heard that many crew members considered her choice of weapons barbaric. This opinion seemed most prevalent on the other ships but she had overheard some of her own people that seemed to share that opinion. Well, the Klingons seemed to like the new weapons but they liked cutting opponents heads off with swords as well.
It was about time to set the acceleration of the asteroids. They would need to be set up before the borg vessels entered into the system. If there was a future, she would recommend that some sort of hyper velocity rail gun was developed to fire solid weapons at the borg cube but this is the best she could do in the time she was given. The course of the asteroids was planned that the Federation fleet would be in close range combat for about six minutes before the asteroids collided with the Borg ships. This was to give her fleet enough time to get the Borg ships into the right position. The asteroids did carry guidance to enable course changes and last minute maneuvers but targeting would the easiest close to the planned engagement area.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Susan Novak, Captain Ross's Communication Officer, had insisted on returning to duty and was on the Avenger's makeshift communication station. She broke Gwendolyn out of her thoughts, "Captain, the outer array repots that the Borg cubes are within 105 minutes of entering the system. You asked me to keep you informed."
It was time to get everything started, "Susan, could you please inform the stations to set the asteroids on their proper courses." She got out of her command chair to look at what slim data tactical had on the approaching Borg cubes.
One of the impulse engines on a asteroid failed and Captain Ross only had eleven asteroids for three targets. She decided to make a last minute change because of the loss of one of the asteroids. She ordered the reduction in acceleration of two of the asteroids. That would leave three asteroids for each Borg cubes and an additional two rocks that could be targeted at a Borg cube if none of the first set managed to hit their assigned target. The trailing asteroids would intercept the Borg's positions four minutes after the first set.
Three Borg cubes dropped out of Transwarp near the edge of the system and immediately started towards the shipyard's location. Some of the lesser beings that they had assimilated had information that their was something valuable in the system. What it was, none of them knew but whatever it was would be soon added to the collective. The Borg Cubes detected a group of ships heading on a reciprocal of their course. The force contained more ships than had intercepted them previously but there were ships larger than what the humans identified as an "Excelsior" class cruiser. There was also none of the ship of those ships known as a "Romulan Warbird." The analysis indicated that they could be destroyed easily.
Captain Ross watched the Borg forces in the Avenger's main tactical display while her ragtag fleet headed to intercept the three Borg Cubes. As they closed, her plan was to concentrate all torpedoes onto a single cube. They would begin firing torpedoes as soon as they got within range. She did not think her ships had enough missile firepower to do appreciable damage to the cube but she wanted it to look like a real attack so that the Borg would not look for an attack coming from another source. From the battle records she had read, it looked like the Borg used single minded tactics anyway. Her ships were accelerating slowly so not to built up too much velocity. If the Avenger and the Decoy shuttles could have kept up, she might have considered a full acceleration attack run and a rapid deceleration once passed and a second run at the Borg ships. The Avenger still could not achieve anything close to full acceleration and none of the shuttles were as fast as even the Avenger was in her damaged state. If she decided to let the faster ships attack by themselves and have the slower ships follow behind, they risked being defeated in detail. Instead her group was approaching slowly and the Avenger and Atago were spinning around their center point so that they could use both front and rear torpedo launchers at the same time.
As the Federation and Klingon ships reached the half way point between where their planned to meet the Borg fleet, the ships began to decelerate. The ships would be close to a complete stop when they got within energy weapon range. The hope was that the Borg Cubes would stop to engage the Federation force instead of continuing on to the shipyard. While engaging Borg Cubes in a stand up fight with the ships she had was fairly ludicrous but if she could only keep them in the planned engagement area for eight minutes then the asteroids should take care of the Borg vessels. The Borg vessels began decelerating as well. She assumed that they wished to destroy her ships before getting to the shipyard's fixed defenses. Some stationary weapon arrays, like those on the stations Deep Space Nine, were very impressive. While the reality was that the defenses around the station were actually negligible, there was not reason for the Borg to assume that even if they had assimilated Federation personnel that had been at the shipyard previously. After all, it was a shipyard and could construct its own defenses. It was one of her few complaints about Commodore Lester Von Gehr. If she had been in command of the yard, she would have used weapon systems from unsalvageable ships to construct fixed defenses around the shipyard. The weapon systems would not need to be as powerful as those mounted on new starships to be effective. Any lack of individual firepower could be made up by an overwhelming number of weapons platforms.
The Avenger's acting tactical officer reported "Captain, we are within torpedo range"
Gwendolyn looked over at the tactical display herself and saw the projected targeting for the torpedo. It was her job to initiative the fire plan. Gwendolyn turned toward her communication officer "Tell the other ships to initiate fire" and she nodded at her own weapon's officer.
Within two seconds, the first volley of torpedoes were fired. This was followed as rapidly as possible by a second volley of torpedoes. All of a single volley were programmed to hit the leading Borg cube at the same instant. The Borg noted that only nine of the ships were firing missiles at their ships. The remaining ships were either some type of decoy or some sort of ships that did not carry any torpedoes. Two of the nine ships were firing torpedoes more rapidly than see in most ships of their size. As the torpedoes hit, the Borg Cube under onslaught took some minor damage as the torpedo hits began to accumulate. These torpedoes had already been encountered and had been adapted against so damage was slight.
The Borg transmitted to all of the Federation and Klingon ships, "Lower your shields, we will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own."
The torpedo fire lasted for six minutes before both sides came within beam weapon range. All of the vessels had expended their torpedoes and only had beam weapons they could fire anyway. Both sides opened fire at the same time. The decoy shuttles and the smaller warships began weaving back and forth to confuse the targeting from the Borg vessels. The three capital ships were also maneuvering to avoid fire although Captain Ross had to limit the Avengers maneuvers so not to overstress the ship's damaged hull and structure. For the beginning of the engagement, the Federation and Klingons were lucky. The Avenger was hit once and the frigates shields withstood the hit. Most of the Borg's fire had been targeted at decoy vessels and most of them managed to dodge the fire. Only five were hit by the Borg beam weaponry and at least one of the pilots managed to eject in time. The Borg ships seemed to receive no damage but they had stopped to fully engage the Federation and Klingon vessels. The Federation and Klingon ships would only have to survive about five more minutes and the asteroids would come into collision with the Borg Cubes.
As the battle continued, it turned against the defenders. One of the Klingon Bird of Prey received a direct hit from one of the Borg Cubes directly in engineering. The shields simply could not withstand the power of the Borg energy beam and the Bird of Prey simply exploded. Several of the other warships received hits but none were hit directly and were able to withstand the fire with only moderate damage. One of the Perimeter Action Ships lost a warp drive but the ships fighting power was unimpaired. Eight more of the decoy vessels were destroyed leaving only nine decoy shuttles remaining. The defense forces could see no damage to the Borg vessels. No one knew if forces that remained would be able to survive the four more minutes before the asteroid weapons came into play.
The battle continued and the Avenger received her fourth hit. The frigate's shields had already been badly weakened and the Borg energy weapon cut through the remaining shields as if they were cobwebs. The helmsman was maneuvering the Avenger up and to port when it was hit. Several main support frames were burned completely through and the most of the remaining sheared off from the stress of the frigate making its turn. The engineering section half ripped away from the forward section of the hull. The chief engineer activated the emergency warp core ejection system and so the Avenger was not blown up within a few seconds when the warp core exploded. The Avenger's fusion reactors were all damaged by the ship half ripping itself apart and only emergency battery power remained. Because the crew were in hostile environment suits, only those crew that had been directly in the path of the Borg energy weapon or crushed when the hull shredded were killed. The ships sensors, computer, and weapon systems were all down. The hull had fractured all over and greater than half of the ships compartments had lost atmosphere. Life support systems and gravity generators were completely destroyed, leaving the crew in a ship with no gravity, few lights, and mostly dependant on their suits life support for survival. The tractor units on the bottom of their boots would also prevent the crews from floating around the inside of the ship. The worst was that the ship had no power and no shields. Without shields, there was nothing to stop the Borg from transporting onboard.
Outside the Avenger, the battle still raged. The Kraken received its first hit of the battle. It was a solid hit and managed to drop the cruisers forward shields and inflict some damage. Two compartments were emptied into space but there was no damage to weapons or propulsion. Captain Borek decided that his ship could not take many more hits like that one. He did not want to die like that silly captain from the past and this whole plan was foolhardy and stupid. With the Avenger gone, command of the remaining ships fell to him and there was no one who could contradict his orders. It was time to get his ship out of here. He ordered "Helm, take my ship out of here on the fastest course out of the system." He realized that the whole bridge crew was watching him and added "Now!" He waited a few moments before he ordered "Communication Officer, signal retreat to the other ships and send my regrets to the Commodore,"in a bored sounding voice which sounded to the rest of his bridge crew that he only cared about getting himself to safety.
Four more of the decoy shuttles had been destroyed in the battle and only five remained. The shuttles did not have enough power to keep up with the cruiser accelerating at full impulse and had no warp drives so they were stuck in system. The Perimeter Action Ship with the warp drive damage could not leave system either and so was forced to stay and fight. The captain of that ship had previously been Captain Ross's acting tactical officer and was determined to not go down without a fight. The other three Federation escort vessels turned and followed behind the retreating cruiser. The remaining Klingon Bird of Prey's crew was simply too angry to retreat and so remained fighting.
Commander Jackson's face drained of all its color as he heard his communication officer play the message from the captain of the Kraken. The ships only had to hold the Borg Cubes at bay from three more minutes and the trap would be sprung. It looked like Captain Ross had died to make this all possible and Captain Borek was going to throw it all way to protect his own skin. Commander Jackson cleared his throat and said to his bridge crew "We have to stay. It would be criminal to sacrifice the Federation for our own hides." he looked over at the rest of his bridge crew to see how they were reacting to his mutiny. None of them looked like they disagreed with him and a couple looked anticipatory of getting revenge. Whether that revenge was against the Borg or against Captain Maxwell Borek he did not know.
As time remaining until the asteroids intercepted the Borg ships went below three minutes, one Centaur class cruiser and three Perimeter Action Ships pulled towards the edge of the system accelerating at full impulse, three warships remained behind to try and fight the Borg Cubes. Many of the personnel on the ships that had elected to stay and fight could only hate the ones that had run away. The odds were lousy that the remaining ships could hold the Borg ships long enough.
With less opponents to deal with, the Borg estimated that they could afford to beam drones onboard the crippled ship and capture the crew to add to their drones that had been acquired in the previous battle. They expected few losses because they had already encountered the Federations new hand phasers and had adapted to them. Captain Ross saw her first group of Borg Drones as they transported onboard her bridge. The event seemed to mimic what had happened onboard Admiral Norton's flagship with four beaming onboard her ship. The drones were certainly as ugly as she had seen in pictures. They had diseased looking pasty skin and had wires and tubes stuck all over their heads, arms, and torso. None of the tubes or wires seemed to have any discernable function. Well, she thought, they are in for a surprise. She shouldered her MAC-10 and fired a short burst at the nearest Borg Drone. The other personnel on the bridge who were armed with M-1 Carbines fired as well. Four drones were down within seconds although she now knew that ricocheted could be a problem. Gwendolyn wished that she knew how the fight was going outside of her ship.
The Borg themselves decide that the retreating ships were not worth their attention at this time and they would concentrate on the remaining ships. They concentrated much of their firepower on the Atago as the only remaining capital ship. Commander Jackson was trying to keep to keep his ship alive for just two more minutes. So far he had been able to keep his shields up but not even a Sovereign class battlecruiser was designed to withstand the abuse his Excelsior class cruiser was being subject to. Two more of decoy shuttles disappeared under the Borg fire.
Commander Jackson knew he had only one hope. He opened a comm channel to the retreating vessels and sent a message begging for them to come back, "This is Commander Jackson, I am in trouble. I have all three Borg cubes attacking my ship. We only have to hold them for a few minutes. We may be the last hope of the Federation." He thought his plea had been horrible but it seemed to work because the three Perimeter Action Ships did a 360 degree rotation and started decelerating to negate the velocity built up while they were on course. Even the Escort who's captain had been the Krakens helm officer turned back. Maybe it was a guilty conscience but whatever reason, the ships would be re-engaging the cubes within about a minute. The Kraken had not slowed and continued heading out of the system.
There was over a couple dozen bodies of Borg Drones floating on the bridge of the Avenger. Various fluids had squirted onto the bridge from the drones. Some, like blood, froze instantly while others remained viscous liquid. All of the shooters had to be careful not to hit another crew member with a ricochet. The problem was that it was only a matter of time. She had found that the bullets of the MAC-10 tended to ricochet less than the bullets from the M-1 Carbine. Another reason why the submachinegun would have been a better weapon to copy than the carbine. The Borg had been unable to adapt so they simply sent wave after wave onto the bridge of her crippled ship. If she could hold the Borg from taking over her bridge for a little under two minutes, she might actually survive this. The biggest problem was that all of their ammunition was running low.
The three returning Perimeter Action Ship strafed the cubes as they attempted to return to formation. This caught the attention of the Borg and they turned to concentrate on the attacking wave. The cubes opened fire and because the small ships were attempted to get back as quickly as possible, they were much easier targets than they would be otherwise. Two of the escort vessel were hit dead on and had their shields dropped and suffered heavy damage. The third of the Perimeter Action Ships in the formation was hit only lightly and the shields held.
The attacks of the small escorts did give Commander the break he needed and he was able to strengthen the forward shield of the vessel by pulling power from his rear shields. It was a risk but it should allow his shield to withstand a few more hits. Before getting a chance to adjust his shields, his ship's forward shield would probably have collapsed on the next hit. He had already taken damage including the loss of four of his phaser banks. Time until the asteroids should obliterate the Borg Cubes was now just over a minute. He was not sure if his ship would survive the battle but he should be able to hold the Borg until the trap was sprung.
Even more Borg drones had transported onto the bridge of the Avenger. Captain Ross would have thought that they would have stopped by now for the simple reason of loss versus potential gain. She had miscalculated on the Borg' single minded nature. She had already heard the triggers click on the carbines carried by other bridge crew and when she squeezed her trigger, she got a click from her MAC-10 indicating that she was out of ammunition as well. The Borg Drone continued towards her. She reached into her belt and pulled out the revolver that she thought she would not need. From a range of two meters, she fired. She had aimed directly at the drones head and blew the entire back skull out of it.
The two Perimeter Action Ships that had been damaged had received several more hit and both were out of action. One had gotten relatively lucky and just had the drive system demolished. The ship was able to keep up shields but only had maneuvering thrusters remaining and was heading away from the position of the Borg ships. The other had been less lucky and had suffered a Warp core explosion taking all hands with it. All three cubes targeted the Atago. Virtually instantly, they knocked the cruisers shields flat. The Atago also suffered major damage to its forward hull and lost two more phaser banks. Commander Jackson knew that one more hit like that would likely disable or destroy his vessel. The Atago had fought valiantly. Suddenly, the escort vessel which had stayed by his ships side for the entire fight put itself between the Borg cubes and the Atago. It blocked the next volley of fire but literally disintegrated under the weight of fire. It had saved the heavy cruiser and the lives of her crew.
Nine asteroids came streaking in at an incredible velocity. Most of the Borg's attention had been targeted on the attacking vessels and what few sensor sweeps that had been doing in other directions was directed at looking for warp drive and anti-gravity signatures which indicated a starship. As a result, they did not detect the asteroids until they were very close. When they did detect the high velocity asteroids, they immediately changed targets and fired at the rocks. Unfortunately for the Borg, multi billion ton metallic asteroids are incredibly resistant to energy weapon fire, no matter how heavy. The cubes made no attempt to dodge the incoming asteroids. It is unlikely that the Borg vessels could have dodged in time but they would have had a better chance that they did at destroying the asteroids. Even if they had managed to break one up, the Cube would have been pelted by so much debris that they would have been destroyed anyway. Each Borg Cube was hit within a few seconds of each other. These asteroids would have decimated an Earth sized planet if they had hit. Some of the Kinetic energy was converted into other forms during the impact. This included heat, radiation, and light. The light released by the impact lit up the system as if there was second sun in the system. The Avenger was the closest vessel to any of the Borg cubes and had no shields protecting it. The intense energy cooked the hull of the cruiser in the same as if the ship had gotten too close to a star. The hull ended up half melted and blistered from the intense heat but the majority of the crew survived, protected by the damaged ship's hull. Well, at least the other two asteroids would not be needed.
Gwendolyn Ross sat on her command chair on the bridge. It had been almost thirty minutes since any Borg Drones had beamed onboard what was left of her vessel. The attacks had stopped just in the nick of time. All of the other bridge crew had run out of ammunition and she had only three rounds left in her revolver. The bridge had pushed all of the Borg bodies into one corner of the bridge. They had noted that some of the Borg Drones had the remains of Federation uniforms. Gwendolyn at least considered that this was a better fate than being drones for the rest of their lives.
While her bridge crew had cleaned up the bridge to the best of their abilities, she and her communication officer had used their suit's comm units to get in contact with surviving crew members. They had gotten in contact with sixty percent of the crew and hoped that more had survived. The crew still had hours of life support left in the hostile environment suits but there was no hope of restoring life support to the ship. If there was no rescue coming soon, they could all suffocate if they did not do something.
She had already sent someone to check on the escape pods and all escape pods they had been found had been destroyed. It looked like the entire outside of her vessel had been melted. It was possible that some shuttles had been protected inside of their hanger bay and had survived. There were several dangers involved in checking. First, the hanger bays seemed to be partially separated from the rest of the hull and could involve floating through open space to get to the hangers. Second, while most of the Borg seemed to have been transported to the bridge or engineering, it was possible that Borg drones were still wandering around her ship and most of per crew and troops were low on ammunition. Well, it was better to at least try than just have the crew sit and wait for their suits to run out of air.
Just as she was about to give the order to form a team to head for the hanger bays, the visual effect of eight transporter beams appeared in front of where the main view screen had been. It did not look like what Borg Drones transporting had looked like. Instead, it looked like the pattern from a standard Federation transporter. Eight humanoid figures in hostile environment suits appeared on her bridge. Seven of the figures had the insignia of Federation Marines and carried M-1 Carbines at the ready. The final figure was wearing the rank insignia of a full Commander. All of the figures wore the ship patch of the USS Atago on their shoulder.
Gwendolyn got a private message through the comm unit built into her suit's helmet "I just came onboard to see if our date was still on."
Captain Gwendolyn Ross stood behind the tactical station on the bridge of the Atago. She was looking at the melted and twisted hull of the Avenger using maximum visual magnification. Commander Jackson had sent rescue parties over to rescue the surviving members of her crew. Commander Jackson had been delayed by the need to search his ship for any Borg Drones before starting the rescue mission. Luckily, none had been found but with the dropping of his shields, he felt it need to be done. Slightly over seventy percent of the Avengers crew had been rescued alive although some had been badly hurt. The number of survivors had been incredible but both Captain Ross and Commander Jackson wished that they had been able to save more.
The searchers had only found a handful of Borg left onboard the Avenger. The marines had dealt with the Borg Drones they had found but there was no way to know if there were any others hiding in the wreckage of her ship. The wisest choice was simply to destroy her ship but that did not mean that she would enjoy it. The Avenger's weapon officer had replaced the Atago's weapon officer at the weapons station. He had the ships fire control looked onto the Avenger's hull and was prepared to fire all remaining phasers at the frigate's hull. He was simply waiting on Captain Ross to order him to fire. Commander Jackson had made it clear that he considered that it was her call.
Captain Ross sighed before giving the order. She calmly said "Fire!"
Lieutenant McMilligan stumbled for a moment "Yyessm Mmaam" and pressed the activate button to execute the fire control program. The surviving phasers began raking the hull of the Avenger and the hull disintegrated under the continuous onslaught. Gwendolyn wanted to look away but was determined to see her command's final moments. Many others had turned their eyes. She hoped that no one could see that tears filled her eyes. She thought about all of the people she had lost.
Captain Ross had ordered Captain Borek to return to the shipyard. She got no reply and the Kraken had continued warping from the star system. Commodore Von Gehr had also ordered him back to the system which he had not replied to either. It had required the Commodore to order that the executive officer to take command of the cruiser before the Kraken turned around to head back to the shipyard. He probably could not be convicted of the charge of ‘Failure to Follow the Direct Orders of a Senior Officer' for his retreat from battle but she had hopes that the charge of ‘Cowardice in the face of battle' could be sustained. If he had not ordered the retreat of the forces, the survival of the crew of the two destroyed Perimeter Action Vessel would have been far more likely.
The battle had been the greatest victory the Federation had ever had against the Borg but it had been bloody.
Captain Ross wore her dress uniform. It was out of place with all the new jumpsuit style uniforms but somehow it made her look like a real officers while the others looked like kids in pajamas. While she did not particulary enjoy the attention she was receiving, she had manipulated her popularity so that she, and her crew, could retain the old style uniforms. After the victory against the Borg, she was one of the most popular officers in the Federation and would likely be recorded in the history books as the second most well known Captains in the history of Starfleet. Because of this, no one wanted to cross her.
She had been further honored by being given command of the improved Akira class battlecruiser that was under construction in the yard. The ship would be commissioned in a few weeks and had been renamed the Avenger. The ship had many improvements including the shield and phaser designs that had first been mounted onboard the Sovereign class battlecruiser. She had made some changes to the design such as complete conventional computer backup to the bio-organic computer system that was the ships main computer system. She was impatient for the ship to be completed so she could take the ship for its trials.
In addition to modifications to her ships, she had several other projects that she was working on. She had also gotten an engineering group working on a more practical suit for shipboard service that would be lighter weight. She had another engineering group working on a new projectile weapon for use against the Borg. The leader of the group who had been a historic weapons buff and was going through historical weapons to look at different features.
She had been given the option to chose any crew she wished. She retained as many crew members from the old Avenger that she could. Some of her old crew had been too badly injured to go back to full duty and had been restricted from shipboard service because of it. She had managed to get a few of the disabled officers to get positions as instructors at Starfleet Academy and her hope was that they could keep the next generation of Starfleet Officers from becoming brainwashed socialists puppets. For the remainder of the crew, she had looked for the most skilled personnel that she could find but she also looked for crew members who had records that seemed to show that they were disaffected with the socialist way that the Federation and Starfleet were being run. She figured that she would give them a break from the way that they were treated in many commands and hopefully her treating them with respect would cement their loyalties.
It was obvious that Captain Borek had an important patron. He had been reassigned before Commodore Von Gehr could convene a court marshal. Officially, the records were suppose to be sent so that he could be tried at his new station but Gwendolyn knew that the trial would never occur.
Still, all in all, the future looked exciting.
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Crazedwraith
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 11948
- Joined: 2003-04-10 03:45pm
- Location: Cheshire, England
I finished the two middle chapters that i was having so much problems with:
Chapter Six:
Captain Ross grumbled to herself "another meeting" and "this had better be important" as she beamed onboard the Bright Star. Gwendolyn was still wearing her hostile environment suit. She knew her engineering officer was capable but she wanted to see herself what could be done about repairing the Avenger. She had been personally checking out the hull damage rear the damaged upper port phaser when had an urgent order to come onboard the Bright Star. There was a force field over the hull breach but she did not trust a force field like she did an alloy plate. The Admiral had ordered all Captains and their Executive Officers immediately onboard the Bright Star for an emergency briefing. She did not know what was so important that simply setting up a com with all of the senior officers would not do. It was not as if the captain of the Bright Star herself would want to leave her duties trying to get her ship fixed.
While the Twelfth Fleet had pretty much annihilated the Dominion forces, the Federation ships had received some heavy damage themselves. About fifteen percent of the Twelfth Fleet's vessels had been crippled or destroyed and an additional twenty percent were damaged to the point of not being considered combat effective. These ships would soon have to head to shipyards where the less damaged vessels would be repaired and others would be scrapped. The remainder of the vessels were lighter damaged and remained combat effective. The Bright Star was in the category of needing to go back to a shipyard. The ship had lost most of its weaponry and had damaged to the warp drives. The trip to the shipyard would be very slow for the Bright Star. In addition, the Bright Star had almost exploded from a Warp Core failure. Gwendolyn had read up on the Galaxy class and the number of times these vessels were almost lost through Warp Core failure or the number of them actually lost through it was incredible. If she had been in charge, she would have called the whole class back as soon as pattern emerged to refit the class to prevent it from happening. Instead, they had built more Galaxy class starships without addressing the problem.
The loss of personnel in most of the fleet was far higher than that for the Avenger. The fact that the whole crew of the Avenger wore hostile environment suits meant that many had survived when they otherwise would not. Captain Ross had never had to deal with any large loss of crew and this battle was by the worst she had ever seen. All of the actions she had been involved in before becoming captain of the Avenger had been battles between a small number of starships. To be honest, few Federation captains from her time had experience in mass starship battles.
None of this self examination would solve what the Admiral wanted so she stepped onto the transporter pad with her executive officer. A few moments later, they materialized on the transporter pad of the wounded Galaxy class starship. The executive officer of the Bright Star was waiting for them. It appeared that the Asian commander had been thrown into a bulkhead during the combat due to sporting a large bruise on the side of her cheek and the fact that she walked stiffly over to the transporter. Still, she appeared to not be seriously injured. She flatly stated to her guests "I am to direct you to ten-forward, the main briefing room is not accessible at the moment."
After a short turbo-lift ride and being led through a series of corridors, Captain Ross found herself in what was called ‘Ten-forward.' It seemed to large to fit on a starship and the compartment seemed to be yet another weakness in the vessel's design. She might have been willing to believe that it was enlisted mess deck but it seemed to be set up wrong for that. Well, she knew that the Avenger's hanger decks were larger than these so it was probably simply her own prejudice against these new starships. The compartment was actually large enough for all of the captains and executive officers in the Twelfth Fleet with room to spare. Of course, several captains had been killed and others were injured. Still, there was a huge amount of officers in the room. She noted that her uniform made her stand out in the room but was able to quickly find a pair of unoccupied seats. She also noted that virtually all of the other captains had already arrived. The only one she could see that was missing was the Captain of the Bright Star and she was likely with the Admiral. Unlike the previous meeting, everybody was sitting quietly and not engaging in small talk. Gwendolyn herself was thinking about the repairs which the Avenger would require. She was spared the need to write letters home to the families due to the fact that their families were all gone. The Avenger was their family in most respects. The Federation had changed to be almost unrecognizable. Maybe she should come up with a speech for the crew.
Just as she was starting to think about what she would say, Captain Parker and Admiral Sykes came through the main hatchway. As the captains prepared to stand up, the Admiral waved for them to stay down. He walked up to a podium which had been prepared for him. He stated as soon as her reach the podium, "I am sorry I had to call you away from your ships. I know many of you are concerned with repairs but I have very important news. Based on the success of our attack here, Star Fleet has determined that it is time for the main assault against the Dominion. As a result, many of the ships of Twelfth Fleet will be reassigned to the main strike force. Basically, all of Twelfth Fleet's undamaged vessels will be assigned to the strike force at Deep Space Nine. The fleet is to include Klingon and Romulan forces and will finish the war." He waited a moment to see the reaction from the assembled captains. He knew his statement had sunk in due to the stunned silence and continued with "Including fighters, the force is to consist of over a thousand vessels. The Federation Forces are to be commanded by Admiral Ross, no relation as far as I know to our Captain Ross, and Captain Cisco. The Bright Star is too badly damaged to take part in the engagement and is headed back to the yard. I have elected to go with my flagship and retain command of the heavily damaged units of Twelfth Fleet. Captain Parker will read off those who are being assigned to the assault force at Deep Space Nine and those who will be heading back to the yard with the Bright Star." He sat back down as his younger captain took the podium.
Gwen payed scant attention to the Captain until the Avenger was mentioned. The Admiral stared directly at her when her name was read. Admiral Sykes waited until the remainder of the names were read before standing, "A few additions, Captain Campen and Ross, you will take command of the combat capable ships of Twelfth Fleet until you join up with Admiral Ross with the acting rank of Commodore." Gwen knew that some of the other captains were senior to her and look around to see if there was any resentment. She did not see any and hoped it was a good omen. The admiral continued with "In accordance with Admiral Ross's instructions, I have divided my operational ship into eight ship squadrons and have assigned twenty fighters to each squadron. Captain Campen, Ross, Dixon, and McRae will each take command of a squadron." The Admiral took a sip of water from his glass and stated "Captain Parker has the list of assigned squadrons for each ship." as he relaxed once more. Captain Ross was assigned two Saber class light cruisers, four Avenger class Frigates which Captain Parker of course called the Miranda class, and two Excelsior class cruisers. Neither of the Excelsiors class cruisers had been upgraded but otherwise her forces seemed to be pretty capable. She noted that all but the two light cruisers were of older designs and she knew their combat capabilities. The hangers in her ships had space for at least twice as many fighters as she had embarked but she had additional older fighters to compliment the Peregrine fighters. Once the entire list had been read, Admiral Sykes stood up again and simply stated "Supply vessels will be bringing your stocks of torpedoes up to capacity although many of the torpedoes are older mark Photon Torpedoes. All ships are to be underway by eighteen hundred hours, It has been an honor to serve will all of you. Good luck!" and with that headed for the exit.
As the meeting broke up, she tried with mixed success to find the captains which had been assigned to her squadron. She was able to find five of the other captains but the other two had already left the briefing. She waved to her executive officer and as soon as she got within earshot asked "Paula, can you try and intercept the other two captains before the reached the transporter room. I need to arrange a meeting with all of them and their executive officers on the Avenger before we depart." She turned to the five captains which she had been able to snag "We need to discuss tactics for the upcoming battles and any information you might have about the flag officer we will be serving under. I need to understand his style so I can work any tactics out with his most likely plans. It is thirteen-twenty two right now which only gives up about five hours to come up with tactics. I would ask that all of you and your executive officers come onboard the Avenger by fourteen-hundred. Unless we have something that needs to be stated now, I will see you all then" She waved for them to break up and headed for the transporter room to get back to the Avenger and see how her repairs were coming along.
All of the Captains and Executive Officers of her newly formed squadron were sitting patiently around the round table in the middle of Avenger's briefing room. They still were waiting on the squadron's two senior Peregrine pilots which Gwendolyn had only thought to include at the last minute. Her executive officer had been unable to catch the two light cruiser's captains before they had gotten back to their ships but her comm officer had been able to complete arrangements for the meeting. The two senior fighter pilots slid through the hatch at Fifteen- Oh-Five, which was far better than she expected. She spoke as soon as they found seats "Thank you for coming, This is Paula Masterson, my executive officer, and I am Captain of the Avenger and squadron commander. I guess I could insist on being called ‘Commodore' but I really would prefer to simply be called ‘Captain' if possible. In my own time, I had only been captain of the Avenger for a short period but I had been an instructor at Star Fleet Academy in strategy and tactics prior to taking command of the Avenger. My understanding is that this squadron is being given the designation squadron 12.2" She looked at the captain which appeared to be the oldest in the room, "If each of you would give a short introduction, I would appreciate it, I don't really know any of you."
The captain looked to be in his mid to late fifties with hair along the sides and back of his head but completely bald on top. He looked a bit uneasy, maybe due to being commanded by a so much younger officer, "I am Captain Jason Samuels, captain of the Renown which I have been the captain for over four years." The Renown was one of her Excelsior class cruisers. He continued with, "The Renown had been assigned to exploration duties until the Dominion war when I was assigned to Twelfth Fleet. This is Commander Melissa Morganstern, my executive officer." The executive officers could have been a poster girl for star fleet recruiting with blond hair and blue eyes. Still, Gwendolyn thought she saw a spirit in the executive officer's eyes which seemed to be lacking in her captain's eyes. Gwendolyn thought it might have been best for the captain oif the Renown to have retired and allow a younger captain to take command. The introduction went smoothly as she motioned to each captain to introduce herself or himself. She thought that one of the commanders who commanded the Katana, one of Saber class light cruisers, might be problem and might not want to follow orders. Both the fighter pilots were survivors and seemed pretty calm for their profession. If a captain is unable to follow their Commander's orders, they could be worse than useless.
Once introductions were completed, Gwendolyn continued with "Now that we all know each other a bit, we can begin with the actual meat of the discussion. Do any of you know anything about Admiral Ross?"
Terri Kim, the tiny Asian Commander of the Saber class light cruiser ‘Rapier' spoke up first. I was once the assistant tactical officer onboard his ship when he was a Captain but I was only an ensign at the time." Captain Ross like the small black haired Asian commander because she reminded her of Captain Sulu even though the two looked little alike. She seemed to have exactly the right combination of drive and willingness to obey orders. Gwen nodded for her to go ahead. Commander Kim continued "The Captain preferred letting the individual officers determine their own strategies and tactics and considered that individually would keep the enemy off guard. I understand that he prefers that captains under him are expected to operate on their own initiative as well."
Gwendolyn looked around the rest of the room to see if anyone else had anything to add and no one seemed to have anything else to say. She thought hard for a few seconds trying to compose her thoughts. She chose her next words very carefully "There is much to be said about the individual skills of captains but when working in a squadron, they need to be controlled and the tactics of the squadron as a whole must be considered primarily. I don't remember were I read it or the exact words but eight individuals is a mob while eight people who work together can be considered a team. I think we would be far better off if we do not split off and ‘dogfight' as the old term goes and instead protect each other. I think it would be best if we concentrate on larger Cardassian vessels and Jem-Hadar battlecruisers. We will fight attack craft only as they engage us. Any tactics we come up with here may have to be modified based on Admiral Ross's battle plans but I think we can come up with some preliminary ideas." She sat back for a moment and watched the members of her squadron to see what kind of reaction she would get before she continued. She did not see any undue concern so she continued.
"My plan it to begin any battle with a torpedo strike similar to what we did in the previous engagement, probably concentrating on four large vessels and about twice as many attack ships. I figure that the concentrated firepower will allow us to reduce odds against us quickly. I want the three Avengers, excuse me, Mirandas and the two Sabers to continue closing with the enemy with the fighters acting as a spearhead but I want the two Excelsior class cruisers to stay back from beam range and continue firing torpedoes until they are all expended. Once your ere empty of torpedoes, go ahead and come into phaser range but stay information. I plan to concentrate on only one or two large ships at a time, that way we can overwhelm their defenses quickly. We will only engage those Jem-Hadar attack crafts who are within range and no pursue them. While we head for fleet rendevous, we will continue practicing drills of firing phasers at incoming torpedoes. Hopefully, we can limited the damage we take in early stages of the engagement. This is the basics of my plans, does anyone else have any ideas to add or any changes you wish to make?"
One of the fighter pilots raised his hands and Gwendolyn nodded to him. He asked "Captain, once the initial missile engagement is finished, what do you want the fighters to do?"
She thought that the role of the fighters was pretty obvious but did not put that into her tone or expression. She stated "I want all of the fighters to act as an outer perimeter to protect the capital ships from attacks of small craft. If at all possible, I do not want any one on one combat but instead want to engage with superiority. I suggest that you stay in groups of three or four. A definite kill is far better than damaging several attack craft." She asked "What is the next question?"
Chapter Six:
Captain Ross grumbled to herself "another meeting" and "this had better be important" as she beamed onboard the Bright Star. Gwendolyn was still wearing her hostile environment suit. She knew her engineering officer was capable but she wanted to see herself what could be done about repairing the Avenger. She had been personally checking out the hull damage rear the damaged upper port phaser when had an urgent order to come onboard the Bright Star. There was a force field over the hull breach but she did not trust a force field like she did an alloy plate. The Admiral had ordered all Captains and their Executive Officers immediately onboard the Bright Star for an emergency briefing. She did not know what was so important that simply setting up a com with all of the senior officers would not do. It was not as if the captain of the Bright Star herself would want to leave her duties trying to get her ship fixed.
While the Twelfth Fleet had pretty much annihilated the Dominion forces, the Federation ships had received some heavy damage themselves. About fifteen percent of the Twelfth Fleet's vessels had been crippled or destroyed and an additional twenty percent were damaged to the point of not being considered combat effective. These ships would soon have to head to shipyards where the less damaged vessels would be repaired and others would be scrapped. The remainder of the vessels were lighter damaged and remained combat effective. The Bright Star was in the category of needing to go back to a shipyard. The ship had lost most of its weaponry and had damaged to the warp drives. The trip to the shipyard would be very slow for the Bright Star. In addition, the Bright Star had almost exploded from a Warp Core failure. Gwendolyn had read up on the Galaxy class and the number of times these vessels were almost lost through Warp Core failure or the number of them actually lost through it was incredible. If she had been in charge, she would have called the whole class back as soon as pattern emerged to refit the class to prevent it from happening. Instead, they had built more Galaxy class starships without addressing the problem.
The loss of personnel in most of the fleet was far higher than that for the Avenger. The fact that the whole crew of the Avenger wore hostile environment suits meant that many had survived when they otherwise would not. Captain Ross had never had to deal with any large loss of crew and this battle was by the worst she had ever seen. All of the actions she had been involved in before becoming captain of the Avenger had been battles between a small number of starships. To be honest, few Federation captains from her time had experience in mass starship battles.
None of this self examination would solve what the Admiral wanted so she stepped onto the transporter pad with her executive officer. A few moments later, they materialized on the transporter pad of the wounded Galaxy class starship. The executive officer of the Bright Star was waiting for them. It appeared that the Asian commander had been thrown into a bulkhead during the combat due to sporting a large bruise on the side of her cheek and the fact that she walked stiffly over to the transporter. Still, she appeared to not be seriously injured. She flatly stated to her guests "I am to direct you to ten-forward, the main briefing room is not accessible at the moment."
After a short turbo-lift ride and being led through a series of corridors, Captain Ross found herself in what was called ‘Ten-forward.' It seemed to large to fit on a starship and the compartment seemed to be yet another weakness in the vessel's design. She might have been willing to believe that it was enlisted mess deck but it seemed to be set up wrong for that. Well, she knew that the Avenger's hanger decks were larger than these so it was probably simply her own prejudice against these new starships. The compartment was actually large enough for all of the captains and executive officers in the Twelfth Fleet with room to spare. Of course, several captains had been killed and others were injured. Still, there was a huge amount of officers in the room. She noted that her uniform made her stand out in the room but was able to quickly find a pair of unoccupied seats. She also noted that virtually all of the other captains had already arrived. The only one she could see that was missing was the Captain of the Bright Star and she was likely with the Admiral. Unlike the previous meeting, everybody was sitting quietly and not engaging in small talk. Gwendolyn herself was thinking about the repairs which the Avenger would require. She was spared the need to write letters home to the families due to the fact that their families were all gone. The Avenger was their family in most respects. The Federation had changed to be almost unrecognizable. Maybe she should come up with a speech for the crew.
Just as she was starting to think about what she would say, Captain Parker and Admiral Sykes came through the main hatchway. As the captains prepared to stand up, the Admiral waved for them to stay down. He walked up to a podium which had been prepared for him. He stated as soon as her reach the podium, "I am sorry I had to call you away from your ships. I know many of you are concerned with repairs but I have very important news. Based on the success of our attack here, Star Fleet has determined that it is time for the main assault against the Dominion. As a result, many of the ships of Twelfth Fleet will be reassigned to the main strike force. Basically, all of Twelfth Fleet's undamaged vessels will be assigned to the strike force at Deep Space Nine. The fleet is to include Klingon and Romulan forces and will finish the war." He waited a moment to see the reaction from the assembled captains. He knew his statement had sunk in due to the stunned silence and continued with "Including fighters, the force is to consist of over a thousand vessels. The Federation Forces are to be commanded by Admiral Ross, no relation as far as I know to our Captain Ross, and Captain Cisco. The Bright Star is too badly damaged to take part in the engagement and is headed back to the yard. I have elected to go with my flagship and retain command of the heavily damaged units of Twelfth Fleet. Captain Parker will read off those who are being assigned to the assault force at Deep Space Nine and those who will be heading back to the yard with the Bright Star." He sat back down as his younger captain took the podium.
Gwen payed scant attention to the Captain until the Avenger was mentioned. The Admiral stared directly at her when her name was read. Admiral Sykes waited until the remainder of the names were read before standing, "A few additions, Captain Campen and Ross, you will take command of the combat capable ships of Twelfth Fleet until you join up with Admiral Ross with the acting rank of Commodore." Gwen knew that some of the other captains were senior to her and look around to see if there was any resentment. She did not see any and hoped it was a good omen. The admiral continued with "In accordance with Admiral Ross's instructions, I have divided my operational ship into eight ship squadrons and have assigned twenty fighters to each squadron. Captain Campen, Ross, Dixon, and McRae will each take command of a squadron." The Admiral took a sip of water from his glass and stated "Captain Parker has the list of assigned squadrons for each ship." as he relaxed once more. Captain Ross was assigned two Saber class light cruisers, four Avenger class Frigates which Captain Parker of course called the Miranda class, and two Excelsior class cruisers. Neither of the Excelsiors class cruisers had been upgraded but otherwise her forces seemed to be pretty capable. She noted that all but the two light cruisers were of older designs and she knew their combat capabilities. The hangers in her ships had space for at least twice as many fighters as she had embarked but she had additional older fighters to compliment the Peregrine fighters. Once the entire list had been read, Admiral Sykes stood up again and simply stated "Supply vessels will be bringing your stocks of torpedoes up to capacity although many of the torpedoes are older mark Photon Torpedoes. All ships are to be underway by eighteen hundred hours, It has been an honor to serve will all of you. Good luck!" and with that headed for the exit.
As the meeting broke up, she tried with mixed success to find the captains which had been assigned to her squadron. She was able to find five of the other captains but the other two had already left the briefing. She waved to her executive officer and as soon as she got within earshot asked "Paula, can you try and intercept the other two captains before the reached the transporter room. I need to arrange a meeting with all of them and their executive officers on the Avenger before we depart." She turned to the five captains which she had been able to snag "We need to discuss tactics for the upcoming battles and any information you might have about the flag officer we will be serving under. I need to understand his style so I can work any tactics out with his most likely plans. It is thirteen-twenty two right now which only gives up about five hours to come up with tactics. I would ask that all of you and your executive officers come onboard the Avenger by fourteen-hundred. Unless we have something that needs to be stated now, I will see you all then" She waved for them to break up and headed for the transporter room to get back to the Avenger and see how her repairs were coming along.
All of the Captains and Executive Officers of her newly formed squadron were sitting patiently around the round table in the middle of Avenger's briefing room. They still were waiting on the squadron's two senior Peregrine pilots which Gwendolyn had only thought to include at the last minute. Her executive officer had been unable to catch the two light cruiser's captains before they had gotten back to their ships but her comm officer had been able to complete arrangements for the meeting. The two senior fighter pilots slid through the hatch at Fifteen- Oh-Five, which was far better than she expected. She spoke as soon as they found seats "Thank you for coming, This is Paula Masterson, my executive officer, and I am Captain of the Avenger and squadron commander. I guess I could insist on being called ‘Commodore' but I really would prefer to simply be called ‘Captain' if possible. In my own time, I had only been captain of the Avenger for a short period but I had been an instructor at Star Fleet Academy in strategy and tactics prior to taking command of the Avenger. My understanding is that this squadron is being given the designation squadron 12.2" She looked at the captain which appeared to be the oldest in the room, "If each of you would give a short introduction, I would appreciate it, I don't really know any of you."
The captain looked to be in his mid to late fifties with hair along the sides and back of his head but completely bald on top. He looked a bit uneasy, maybe due to being commanded by a so much younger officer, "I am Captain Jason Samuels, captain of the Renown which I have been the captain for over four years." The Renown was one of her Excelsior class cruisers. He continued with, "The Renown had been assigned to exploration duties until the Dominion war when I was assigned to Twelfth Fleet. This is Commander Melissa Morganstern, my executive officer." The executive officers could have been a poster girl for star fleet recruiting with blond hair and blue eyes. Still, Gwendolyn thought she saw a spirit in the executive officer's eyes which seemed to be lacking in her captain's eyes. Gwendolyn thought it might have been best for the captain oif the Renown to have retired and allow a younger captain to take command. The introduction went smoothly as she motioned to each captain to introduce herself or himself. She thought that one of the commanders who commanded the Katana, one of Saber class light cruisers, might be problem and might not want to follow orders. Both the fighter pilots were survivors and seemed pretty calm for their profession. If a captain is unable to follow their Commander's orders, they could be worse than useless.
Once introductions were completed, Gwendolyn continued with "Now that we all know each other a bit, we can begin with the actual meat of the discussion. Do any of you know anything about Admiral Ross?"
Terri Kim, the tiny Asian Commander of the Saber class light cruiser ‘Rapier' spoke up first. I was once the assistant tactical officer onboard his ship when he was a Captain but I was only an ensign at the time." Captain Ross like the small black haired Asian commander because she reminded her of Captain Sulu even though the two looked little alike. She seemed to have exactly the right combination of drive and willingness to obey orders. Gwen nodded for her to go ahead. Commander Kim continued "The Captain preferred letting the individual officers determine their own strategies and tactics and considered that individually would keep the enemy off guard. I understand that he prefers that captains under him are expected to operate on their own initiative as well."
Gwendolyn looked around the rest of the room to see if anyone else had anything to add and no one seemed to have anything else to say. She thought hard for a few seconds trying to compose her thoughts. She chose her next words very carefully "There is much to be said about the individual skills of captains but when working in a squadron, they need to be controlled and the tactics of the squadron as a whole must be considered primarily. I don't remember were I read it or the exact words but eight individuals is a mob while eight people who work together can be considered a team. I think we would be far better off if we do not split off and ‘dogfight' as the old term goes and instead protect each other. I think it would be best if we concentrate on larger Cardassian vessels and Jem-Hadar battlecruisers. We will fight attack craft only as they engage us. Any tactics we come up with here may have to be modified based on Admiral Ross's battle plans but I think we can come up with some preliminary ideas." She sat back for a moment and watched the members of her squadron to see what kind of reaction she would get before she continued. She did not see any undue concern so she continued.
"My plan it to begin any battle with a torpedo strike similar to what we did in the previous engagement, probably concentrating on four large vessels and about twice as many attack ships. I figure that the concentrated firepower will allow us to reduce odds against us quickly. I want the three Avengers, excuse me, Mirandas and the two Sabers to continue closing with the enemy with the fighters acting as a spearhead but I want the two Excelsior class cruisers to stay back from beam range and continue firing torpedoes until they are all expended. Once your ere empty of torpedoes, go ahead and come into phaser range but stay information. I plan to concentrate on only one or two large ships at a time, that way we can overwhelm their defenses quickly. We will only engage those Jem-Hadar attack crafts who are within range and no pursue them. While we head for fleet rendevous, we will continue practicing drills of firing phasers at incoming torpedoes. Hopefully, we can limited the damage we take in early stages of the engagement. This is the basics of my plans, does anyone else have any ideas to add or any changes you wish to make?"
One of the fighter pilots raised his hands and Gwendolyn nodded to him. He asked "Captain, once the initial missile engagement is finished, what do you want the fighters to do?"
She thought that the role of the fighters was pretty obvious but did not put that into her tone or expression. She stated "I want all of the fighters to act as an outer perimeter to protect the capital ships from attacks of small craft. If at all possible, I do not want any one on one combat but instead want to engage with superiority. I suggest that you stay in groups of three or four. A definite kill is far better than damaging several attack craft." She asked "What is the next question?"
Chapter Seven:
The motley assortment of ships from Twelfth Fleet arrive at Deep Space Nine several days later. There was no layover and the ships immediately joined the combined Federation / Klingon / Romulan fleet. Gwendolyn had been told that the fleet consisted of over a thousand ships but may of them were fighters, small Klingon birds of prey, and other small ships. The number of true capital ships was much smaller than that. A solid core of Galaxy class cruisers and Romulan Warbirds formed the heart of the forces but their numbers were fairly small. She could also see the Icon of the U.S.S. Defiant. She would have concentrated on building a large corp of those vessels if their performance was anywhere near their reputation. Still, a large percentage of the Jem-Hadar forces would be their smaller attack ships as well. She had used the time she had to shake her ships together as a squadron and several of the other squadron commanders had attacked their organizational duties with as much gusto. Gwen considered the ships of Twelfth squadron to be far more than the sum of their totals. She just wished she knew a way of working with the other fleet officers to train together to become a single fighting unit. She was working on several dispatches to send to Admiral Ross with alternate tactics but she did not know if he would get them or if he would respond to them if he did get a chance to peruse them.
When the fleet had formed up and were moving out, Lieutenant Susan Novak, her communication officer stated "Captain, you have a message from Admiral Ross. It has a header to all captains, Sir. "
Gwendolyn replied "Go ahead and put it on the forward screen unless it is ‘for captain only.'" She wondered what kind of briefing the Admiral would give. The Admiral's head appeared on the forward view screen "To all captains for Twelfth Fleet, welcome. This is the final battle, where we drive the dominion out of the Alpha quadrant for good. I have some last minute information to brief you with. First, and most important, ships are to only engage Cardassian ships if they seem to be attacking us. There is suppose to be a resistance movement within the Cardassian movement and we hope to get them on our side. You are to still attack them if they look hostile. I will allow you to use your own judgement. The Second note is that we will be likely outnumbered so that individual tactics is what is going to win the battle and I need all of my captains to fight smart. If we can find a way to split the Breen forces from the Dominion forces, theses should be shared with the rest of the fleet. Finally, some of the captains, especially old timers, may have problems working with Klingons and Romulans. I do not want any problems in that regard. Good luck, Admiral Ross out" and the screen went blank.
Captain Ross considered what the higher ranking Ross had stated. She did not know how likely the Cardassians splitting from the Dominion would be but she was sure that she would have plenty of targets just engaging Jem-Hadar ships. Gwen pulled up known data on the Breen ships and noted that their shielding was considered very tough. She also knew that it would not be individual tactics which would win the battle but it would be teamwork. She hoped he would read her dispatches but did not know what the reaction would be. She tried to raise him directly but his flagship's communication officer stated that he was presently in comm link with Captain Cisco and did not want to be interrupted except for in emergency but would leave a message that she had attempted to contact him. Gwendolyn decide that it would be best if she at least reiterated her stance that the squadron should stay together and mention the advantages to the other squadrons from Twelfth Fleet. If the forces stayed together, combat losses should be much less. She wondered if Captain Cisco would wish to speak to her before they went into combat.
In just a few minutes, the whole joint fleet would drop out of warp at the edge of the Cardassian system. Admiral Ross had never gotten back to her on her dispatches or her attempt to comm him. She was kind of surprised that Captain Cisco had apparently not tried to Comm her either. The whole fleet knew that a large force was waiting for them but they did not know how large it was. Gwendolyn ordered her executive officer "Bring us to red alert and signal the rest of the squadron to do the same." The whole fleet was on yellow alert already. The klaxon began sounding on the Avenger and her squadron mates along with shields going up to full power and weapons fully energized. The Avenger was beat up and a bit old but was ready for battle.
As the combined fleet dropped from warp, the entire Dominion fleet stood between them and the Cardassian home world. Both sides began closing and firing various types of torpedoes. The Avenger and her squadron mates began an intricate dance which included spinning to bring both the forward and aft launchers to bear on the same time and a side to side motion to confuse fire control. Most of the ships on both sides fired limited numbers and at widely spread out targets. The ships which had come from the Twelfth fleet were the exception. Most of them went to maximum fire and concentrated on a very small number of targets. Most of Twelfth Fleets fighters joined their torpedoes with their capital ships. Gwendolyn's Squadron 12.2 concentrated on only four Dominion battlecruisers and eight Jem-Hadar attack ships. Five of the attack ships exploded outright with the other three so badly crippled that they had no fighting capability remaining. Of the four Dominion battlecruisers, two were destroyed outright. It looked like their anti-matter containment had failed but there could have been several other causes. One of the Dominion battlecruisers was completely crippled and would not be firing back but the final one appeared to be only lightly damaged. The Dominion forces had fired torpedoes back at her forces but the sporadic nature of their fire had meant that virtually of of the incoming torpedoes had been destroyed. All but one torpedo had lost lock from the erratic maneuvers of the squadron. That one struck the Vincennes, one of the Avenger class frigates in her fleet, but the shields had survived the hit intact.
The second volley of torpedoes was smaller with all the fighters having launched their torpedoes but was concentrated on just two targets, one of which was already damaged. The already damaged battlecruiser exploded in a huge anti-matter explosion and the other battlecruiser had lost its shield and many of its weapons. The volley of torpedoes from the Dominion was still targeted across her entire squadron and this time, no torpedoes hit any of her ships. They probably had not had time to change the targeting of their torpedoes and were firing from the original fire control plan.
As the two fleets passed into beam range, Captain Ross had all of her Avenger class frigates concentrate their mega-phasers on the damaged Jem-Hadar battlecruiser. The Dominion ship had transferred power from its rear and side shields but was unable to withstand six mega-phasers opening up on it. The whole forward part of the ship broke away from the rest of the ship. The two Excelsior class cruisers continued firing torpedoes, targeting a single enemy battlecruiser. The big Dominion ship appeared to take no damage but the shields appeared to be failing. At least only three large Dominion ships had been in a position to open fire themselves and one was destroyed in the exchange although more were moving into position. The battlecruisers ignored her light cruisers and instead concentrated on the three Avenger class frigates. The Avengers maneuvering caused the whole first volley to miss her ship although her two escorts were not as lucky. They each received several hits. The hits had dropped the Vincennes's forward shields but had not done much more than burn the paint on the hull. Further hits would likely be a different story though. The shields on the Swiftsure, the third Avenger class frigate, held but it was unknown how much longer that they would hold. The fighters had managed to destroy two attack ships which were attempting to engage the squadron from the flanks although three of the fighters were lost. Two others were destroyed by the main phaser mounts of the rest of the squadron.
Captain Ross ordered to her comm officer "I want all all ships to target the battlecruiser with damaged shields." Torpedoes from the Excelsiors had already targeted the ship but they had run out of quantum torpedoes and were firing old type photon torpedoes. All three of the Avengers fired both their mega-phasers and main phaser mounts at the battlecruisers. The Rapier also added its firepower to the other ships but the Katana appeared to be breaking off in pursuit of a group of Jem-Hadar attack ships. The combined phaser and photon torpedo fire turned the battlecruiser into a funeral pyre. The destroyed Jem-Hadar battlecruiser had managed to get its teeth into the Avenger and drop her forward shields by almost forty percent. The undamaged enemy battlecruiser opened on the already weakened Vincennes and was able to blow a large hole into the saucer section of the frigate. The hit just barely missed the bridge but took out a phaser bank and part of the ship's computers. She had also lost two more fighters in the battle. She was now down to eighteen Peregrines and twenty-eight of the Avenger's older fighters. She knew her older fighters could only take a fraction of the damage that the new fighters could and were much lighter armed but they were needed to keep the attack craft off their backs while the capital ships concentrated on the Dominion battlecruisers.
Gwen pounded her fist into her chair as she saw the Katana break from the formation. She ordered, "Lieutenant Novak, order the Katana back into formation" as she maneuvered the remainder of her fleet against the one enemy battlecruiser that was within range although two more would be within range in moments. The remaining battlecruiser concentrated fire on the badly damaged Vincennes and the whole saucer section irrupted in fire and the ship fell out of formation. One of the backup fusion reactors must have lost containment. There would be few in any survivors onboard the Vincennes. The Vincennes along with her undamaged sisters had opened fire on the battlecruiser which had destroyed the frigate. It was not a complete kill like the last hit but had at least crippled the battlecruiser. Unfortunately, she lost four more fighters keeping attack ships off of the squadron. It seemed like the attack craft were everywhere.
The captain of the U.S.S. Katana had ignored his orders and continued chasing after the Jem-Hadar ships. He found himself in a four way trap and was destroyed with only minor damage to his attackers. Although she did not care about the captain, she could not the loss of another capital ship and his crew did not ask to commit suicide. She was left with only six ships with two more battlecruiser and an unknown number of attack craft closing with her ships.
Something had happened, the Cardassian forces had switched sides and were attacking the Dominion fleet. Gwendolyn's communication officer had received a transmission that indicated that the Dominion had destroyed a Cardassian city to keep the population in line and it had backfired. It seemed pretty stupid to Gwendolyn to destroy one of your allies cities when you should know that will show how you treat your allies. At the same time, Captain Cisco seemed to find a tactic which took advantage of a weakness in the Breen ships. The shields in the rear of the ships seemed weaker than in other places. After taking heavy losses, the Breen forces had warped out of the system. That left only the Dominion forces and they were retreating back to the Cardassian home world.
Task force 12.2 was done to three ships, the Avenger, Rapier, and Renown. They were also completely out of Photon Torpedoes and down to four fighters total. Each of the ships had damage to multiple system. The Avenger had moderate structural damage and she had completely lost one of her hull phasers. Eighteen of her crew were dead and another forty were in medical with serious injuries. The frigate's emergency bridge was gone and the ship had lost about half of its computers. With the Dominion forces retreating, the Avenger should be able to bring her shields back up but the chief engineer thought one of the shield generators had some minor damage. Still, there was much to be proud out, the squadron had taken out ten battlecruisers and twenty-six attack ships in the course of battle. The Excelsior class starship Dunkirk had been overwhelmed with attacking Jem-Hadar attack ships and the Swiftsure had been lost when engaging Dominion battlecruisers.
Gwendolyn wondered what the next orders would be as she listened to damage control reports from all over her ship. She figured the odds were already around fifty-fifty that her ship would have to be scrapped. She was interrupted from this train of thought by her comm officer. "Captain, all ships are ordered to the Cardassian homeworld. Apparently, the Dominion ships have been ordered to attack the planetary surface."
Even though she did not know that much about the Cardassian people, the wholesale slaughter of a population was too much. Captain Ross sat straight up in her chain and ordered "Full speed ahead." to her helmsman. She hoped that they could get there before too much damage was done.
It seemed like it took forever to get through the outer system to the inner system although the trip was actually much shorter than it felt like. Reports started coming in of cities which were being destroyed from orbit. She wished she could come up with some tactic to beat the Dominion forces but she could not think of anything. She could only get into harms way and hope to protect some civilians with her death. Suddenly, the Avenger was in the home world's orbit.
Captain Ross ordered "Helm, I want you to bring the Avenger through the Dominion Fleet and put us between the Fleet and the planet. The shields on the Avenger can take a few hits from the fleet's weapons, unshielded cities cannot. As the rest of the combined fleet entered orbit, the Avenger slid between the Dominion forces which did not seem to be concerned with a single Avenger class frigate.
As the Avenger entered low orbit of the planet, Lieutenant Michael Anson, her tactical officer stated "Captain, one of the Dominion battlecruisers has its weapons locked onto a city. Gwen had just a second to react, either allow millions of Cardassians to die or sacrifice the Avenger.
"Helm, put us between the battlecruiser and the city."
The motley assortment of ships from Twelfth Fleet arrive at Deep Space Nine several days later. There was no layover and the ships immediately joined the combined Federation / Klingon / Romulan fleet. Gwendolyn had been told that the fleet consisted of over a thousand ships but may of them were fighters, small Klingon birds of prey, and other small ships. The number of true capital ships was much smaller than that. A solid core of Galaxy class cruisers and Romulan Warbirds formed the heart of the forces but their numbers were fairly small. She could also see the Icon of the U.S.S. Defiant. She would have concentrated on building a large corp of those vessels if their performance was anywhere near their reputation. Still, a large percentage of the Jem-Hadar forces would be their smaller attack ships as well. She had used the time she had to shake her ships together as a squadron and several of the other squadron commanders had attacked their organizational duties with as much gusto. Gwen considered the ships of Twelfth squadron to be far more than the sum of their totals. She just wished she knew a way of working with the other fleet officers to train together to become a single fighting unit. She was working on several dispatches to send to Admiral Ross with alternate tactics but she did not know if he would get them or if he would respond to them if he did get a chance to peruse them.
When the fleet had formed up and were moving out, Lieutenant Susan Novak, her communication officer stated "Captain, you have a message from Admiral Ross. It has a header to all captains, Sir. "
Gwendolyn replied "Go ahead and put it on the forward screen unless it is ‘for captain only.'" She wondered what kind of briefing the Admiral would give. The Admiral's head appeared on the forward view screen "To all captains for Twelfth Fleet, welcome. This is the final battle, where we drive the dominion out of the Alpha quadrant for good. I have some last minute information to brief you with. First, and most important, ships are to only engage Cardassian ships if they seem to be attacking us. There is suppose to be a resistance movement within the Cardassian movement and we hope to get them on our side. You are to still attack them if they look hostile. I will allow you to use your own judgement. The Second note is that we will be likely outnumbered so that individual tactics is what is going to win the battle and I need all of my captains to fight smart. If we can find a way to split the Breen forces from the Dominion forces, theses should be shared with the rest of the fleet. Finally, some of the captains, especially old timers, may have problems working with Klingons and Romulans. I do not want any problems in that regard. Good luck, Admiral Ross out" and the screen went blank.
Captain Ross considered what the higher ranking Ross had stated. She did not know how likely the Cardassians splitting from the Dominion would be but she was sure that she would have plenty of targets just engaging Jem-Hadar ships. Gwen pulled up known data on the Breen ships and noted that their shielding was considered very tough. She also knew that it would not be individual tactics which would win the battle but it would be teamwork. She hoped he would read her dispatches but did not know what the reaction would be. She tried to raise him directly but his flagship's communication officer stated that he was presently in comm link with Captain Cisco and did not want to be interrupted except for in emergency but would leave a message that she had attempted to contact him. Gwendolyn decide that it would be best if she at least reiterated her stance that the squadron should stay together and mention the advantages to the other squadrons from Twelfth Fleet. If the forces stayed together, combat losses should be much less. She wondered if Captain Cisco would wish to speak to her before they went into combat.
In just a few minutes, the whole joint fleet would drop out of warp at the edge of the Cardassian system. Admiral Ross had never gotten back to her on her dispatches or her attempt to comm him. She was kind of surprised that Captain Cisco had apparently not tried to Comm her either. The whole fleet knew that a large force was waiting for them but they did not know how large it was. Gwendolyn ordered her executive officer "Bring us to red alert and signal the rest of the squadron to do the same." The whole fleet was on yellow alert already. The klaxon began sounding on the Avenger and her squadron mates along with shields going up to full power and weapons fully energized. The Avenger was beat up and a bit old but was ready for battle.
As the combined fleet dropped from warp, the entire Dominion fleet stood between them and the Cardassian home world. Both sides began closing and firing various types of torpedoes. The Avenger and her squadron mates began an intricate dance which included spinning to bring both the forward and aft launchers to bear on the same time and a side to side motion to confuse fire control. Most of the ships on both sides fired limited numbers and at widely spread out targets. The ships which had come from the Twelfth fleet were the exception. Most of them went to maximum fire and concentrated on a very small number of targets. Most of Twelfth Fleets fighters joined their torpedoes with their capital ships. Gwendolyn's Squadron 12.2 concentrated on only four Dominion battlecruisers and eight Jem-Hadar attack ships. Five of the attack ships exploded outright with the other three so badly crippled that they had no fighting capability remaining. Of the four Dominion battlecruisers, two were destroyed outright. It looked like their anti-matter containment had failed but there could have been several other causes. One of the Dominion battlecruisers was completely crippled and would not be firing back but the final one appeared to be only lightly damaged. The Dominion forces had fired torpedoes back at her forces but the sporadic nature of their fire had meant that virtually of of the incoming torpedoes had been destroyed. All but one torpedo had lost lock from the erratic maneuvers of the squadron. That one struck the Vincennes, one of the Avenger class frigates in her fleet, but the shields had survived the hit intact.
The second volley of torpedoes was smaller with all the fighters having launched their torpedoes but was concentrated on just two targets, one of which was already damaged. The already damaged battlecruiser exploded in a huge anti-matter explosion and the other battlecruiser had lost its shield and many of its weapons. The volley of torpedoes from the Dominion was still targeted across her entire squadron and this time, no torpedoes hit any of her ships. They probably had not had time to change the targeting of their torpedoes and were firing from the original fire control plan.
As the two fleets passed into beam range, Captain Ross had all of her Avenger class frigates concentrate their mega-phasers on the damaged Jem-Hadar battlecruiser. The Dominion ship had transferred power from its rear and side shields but was unable to withstand six mega-phasers opening up on it. The whole forward part of the ship broke away from the rest of the ship. The two Excelsior class cruisers continued firing torpedoes, targeting a single enemy battlecruiser. The big Dominion ship appeared to take no damage but the shields appeared to be failing. At least only three large Dominion ships had been in a position to open fire themselves and one was destroyed in the exchange although more were moving into position. The battlecruisers ignored her light cruisers and instead concentrated on the three Avenger class frigates. The Avengers maneuvering caused the whole first volley to miss her ship although her two escorts were not as lucky. They each received several hits. The hits had dropped the Vincennes's forward shields but had not done much more than burn the paint on the hull. Further hits would likely be a different story though. The shields on the Swiftsure, the third Avenger class frigate, held but it was unknown how much longer that they would hold. The fighters had managed to destroy two attack ships which were attempting to engage the squadron from the flanks although three of the fighters were lost. Two others were destroyed by the main phaser mounts of the rest of the squadron.
Captain Ross ordered to her comm officer "I want all all ships to target the battlecruiser with damaged shields." Torpedoes from the Excelsiors had already targeted the ship but they had run out of quantum torpedoes and were firing old type photon torpedoes. All three of the Avengers fired both their mega-phasers and main phaser mounts at the battlecruisers. The Rapier also added its firepower to the other ships but the Katana appeared to be breaking off in pursuit of a group of Jem-Hadar attack ships. The combined phaser and photon torpedo fire turned the battlecruiser into a funeral pyre. The destroyed Jem-Hadar battlecruiser had managed to get its teeth into the Avenger and drop her forward shields by almost forty percent. The undamaged enemy battlecruiser opened on the already weakened Vincennes and was able to blow a large hole into the saucer section of the frigate. The hit just barely missed the bridge but took out a phaser bank and part of the ship's computers. She had also lost two more fighters in the battle. She was now down to eighteen Peregrines and twenty-eight of the Avenger's older fighters. She knew her older fighters could only take a fraction of the damage that the new fighters could and were much lighter armed but they were needed to keep the attack craft off their backs while the capital ships concentrated on the Dominion battlecruisers.
Gwen pounded her fist into her chair as she saw the Katana break from the formation. She ordered, "Lieutenant Novak, order the Katana back into formation" as she maneuvered the remainder of her fleet against the one enemy battlecruiser that was within range although two more would be within range in moments. The remaining battlecruiser concentrated fire on the badly damaged Vincennes and the whole saucer section irrupted in fire and the ship fell out of formation. One of the backup fusion reactors must have lost containment. There would be few in any survivors onboard the Vincennes. The Vincennes along with her undamaged sisters had opened fire on the battlecruiser which had destroyed the frigate. It was not a complete kill like the last hit but had at least crippled the battlecruiser. Unfortunately, she lost four more fighters keeping attack ships off of the squadron. It seemed like the attack craft were everywhere.
The captain of the U.S.S. Katana had ignored his orders and continued chasing after the Jem-Hadar ships. He found himself in a four way trap and was destroyed with only minor damage to his attackers. Although she did not care about the captain, she could not the loss of another capital ship and his crew did not ask to commit suicide. She was left with only six ships with two more battlecruiser and an unknown number of attack craft closing with her ships.
Something had happened, the Cardassian forces had switched sides and were attacking the Dominion fleet. Gwendolyn's communication officer had received a transmission that indicated that the Dominion had destroyed a Cardassian city to keep the population in line and it had backfired. It seemed pretty stupid to Gwendolyn to destroy one of your allies cities when you should know that will show how you treat your allies. At the same time, Captain Cisco seemed to find a tactic which took advantage of a weakness in the Breen ships. The shields in the rear of the ships seemed weaker than in other places. After taking heavy losses, the Breen forces had warped out of the system. That left only the Dominion forces and they were retreating back to the Cardassian home world.
Task force 12.2 was done to three ships, the Avenger, Rapier, and Renown. They were also completely out of Photon Torpedoes and down to four fighters total. Each of the ships had damage to multiple system. The Avenger had moderate structural damage and she had completely lost one of her hull phasers. Eighteen of her crew were dead and another forty were in medical with serious injuries. The frigate's emergency bridge was gone and the ship had lost about half of its computers. With the Dominion forces retreating, the Avenger should be able to bring her shields back up but the chief engineer thought one of the shield generators had some minor damage. Still, there was much to be proud out, the squadron had taken out ten battlecruisers and twenty-six attack ships in the course of battle. The Excelsior class starship Dunkirk had been overwhelmed with attacking Jem-Hadar attack ships and the Swiftsure had been lost when engaging Dominion battlecruisers.
Gwendolyn wondered what the next orders would be as she listened to damage control reports from all over her ship. She figured the odds were already around fifty-fifty that her ship would have to be scrapped. She was interrupted from this train of thought by her comm officer. "Captain, all ships are ordered to the Cardassian homeworld. Apparently, the Dominion ships have been ordered to attack the planetary surface."
Even though she did not know that much about the Cardassian people, the wholesale slaughter of a population was too much. Captain Ross sat straight up in her chain and ordered "Full speed ahead." to her helmsman. She hoped that they could get there before too much damage was done.
It seemed like it took forever to get through the outer system to the inner system although the trip was actually much shorter than it felt like. Reports started coming in of cities which were being destroyed from orbit. She wished she could come up with some tactic to beat the Dominion forces but she could not think of anything. She could only get into harms way and hope to protect some civilians with her death. Suddenly, the Avenger was in the home world's orbit.
Captain Ross ordered "Helm, I want you to bring the Avenger through the Dominion Fleet and put us between the Fleet and the planet. The shields on the Avenger can take a few hits from the fleet's weapons, unshielded cities cannot. As the rest of the combined fleet entered orbit, the Avenger slid between the Dominion forces which did not seem to be concerned with a single Avenger class frigate.
As the Avenger entered low orbit of the planet, Lieutenant Michael Anson, her tactical officer stated "Captain, one of the Dominion battlecruisers has its weapons locked onto a city. Gwen had just a second to react, either allow millions of Cardassians to die or sacrifice the Avenger.
"Helm, put us between the battlecruiser and the city."
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Crazedwraith
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 11948
- Joined: 2003-04-10 03:45pm
- Location: Cheshire, England
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Col. Crackpot
- That Obnoxious Guy
- Posts: 10228
- Joined: 2002-10-28 05:04pm
- Location: Rhode Island
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Seriously, Avenger is done although Star Trek: Rebellion is under consideration and will be set in the universe with some of the same characters....Col. Crackpot wrote:so there is more coming, right?
EDIT: damn you authors posting comments in your story threads!
Is there a certian way I should post stories?