The story starts out during the final days of a Federation-Klingon War, set in the closing days of the 23rd century. After chapter two or three, the story shifts forward several decades, a few years prior to the Cardassian War. Cardinal, Paladin, Valiant classes were conjectural ships made by Red Admiral. He hasn't objected to them making cameos.Chapter one:
The entire ship shook as it took another direct hit, throwing several crewmembers on the bridge, including the first officer, to the deck. Commander Garret Cho rose from the deck and looked about. Most of the people who were knocked down were on their feet again, but others weren't. He didn't need a status report to tell him things were bad. The bridge was filling with the smell of smoke, the bridge lighting was running on emergency power, meaning that either the ship had lost main power or the fires had melted some of the power conduits. But things kept getting worse. Captain Santiago lay in his chair dead, his skull crushed by a falling bulkhead. Another impact shook the ship and sent Cho into action.
"Alright, someone take the con and iniate evasive manuevers! Let's get these fires out pronto and someone give me a status report."
Someone moved and sat in helmsman chair, plotting evasive manuevers. The former helmsman of the Virginia lay on the deck beside his station, his neck twists in an unnatural way. At the sametime, a group of ensigns, wielding extinguishers, rushed to the small fires that had erupted at the rear of the bridge. The Ops officer began typing at his console, accessing the damage reports coming in from all over the ship.
"Aft shielding is down, remaining shields are down to 52%. Multiple hull breaches on lower decks in the engineering and main hulls. Much of the ships lost main power, including the bridge. Engineerings reporting that damage to the port nacelle has caused the loss of warp and impulse engines are borderline. Also, I'm getting casualty reports from all over the ship." Reported Lieutenant Yasmine Balara.
"Weapons?" Asked Cho, watching as the ensign manning the conn manuevered the damaged ship, trying to avoid direct hits from the many Klingon warships. Medics by this time had made it to the bridge and were tending to the injured.
"Phasers are at 75% and torpedo launchers are still functioning."
"Looks like we're still in the fight." Cho replied, eyes scanning the main screen. The area all around the Virginia was filled with both Federation and Klingon ships, duking it out in what was one of the biggest battles of the Federation-Klingon War. "Helm, set course for the nearest enemy ship, load torpedo bays."
The Virginia, a refitted Constitution veered to port and moved diagnaly towards a K't'inga. It was a fair sized ship, smaller than a Constitution, but powerful. Cho could see that it's crew was attempting to move the ship from the attack vector the Virginia was headed in. Fortunatly, the ship appeared to have suffered damage on it's nacelles and impulse engines, causing the ship to move slower than normal.
"Torpedos locked, loaded and ready to fire on your command, sir." Reported Balara. The ship shuddered as distrupter shots skimmed the shields of the ship as the crew of the K't'inga fired randomly at the incoming Federation ship. Huh, I suppose their targeting systems are damaged aswell. Cho thought to himself as he watched the incoming fire streak pass the Virginia.
Cho uttered the command to fire and watched four torpedos speed towards the K't'inga and impact against it's hull. He couldn't help but smile as a chain reaction of explosions began to rip the Klingon battlecruiser apart. The helmsman moved the ship away as a series of explosions amputated the fore section from the rest of the ship at the long skinny neck. A Bird of Prey was the next ship to fall victim to the Virginia, then another, both to the ships phasers. The battle, which appeared to be a stalemate, finally began to turn in favor of the Federation fleet. Unfortunatly, the hope for a quick end to the battle was dashed to bits when a Federation ship exploded off the Virginia's starboard bow.
"The hell was that?" Shouted the ensign manning helms, turning the ship slightly to avoid debris from the exploding ship.
"According to sensors," Balara said, tapping at her console. "That was the Hamilton."
There was another explosion, then another as two more Federation ships were destroyed.. Then, the ship was rocked hard by an explosion. Again, Cho and other crewmembers lifted themselves off the deck.
"Report!" Shouted Cho, rubbing his right arm. He grunted and bracing himself, reset the broken bone in his arm.
"We've taken a direct hit, shields down to 32%. Phaser power down to 29%." Lieutenant Balara reported, wiping away a trickle of blood from a cut on her forehead.
"Evasive manuevers. What the hell hit us?"
"The D-7 that came with the Klingon Fleet."
Cho cringed. According to the information from Starfleet Intelligence, the Klingons had refitted a number of D-7 class battlecruisers, reinforcing their shields, armor and boosting weapon power at the sametime. He also cringed because he knew that the Virginia's shields would not be able to take another direct hit.
"Shit..." Yasmine cursed alittle to loud.
"Please tell me you're ordering some ensign to relieve himself." Ensign Melbourne, the helmsman said while piloting the damaged ship around the enemy battlecruisers attacks.
"I just recieved a report from the torpedo room. The launchers were damaged from that last hit."
"...And we can't fire torpedos?" Cho asked, rubbing his left temple and noticing for the first time that he was bleeding.
"We can fire them, but they wouldn't have much velocity. They would only be effective at close range."
"This day just gets better and better, doesn't it?"
"Oh yeah, just a grand old day."
Garret knew he had to act fast. The ship wouldn't last long if he didn't and the fleet couldn't afford to lose anymore ships. The D-7 was taking a pounding that would've destroyed most ships by now. That's when he noticed something and came up with the inklings of a plan.
"Bella, scan that D-7's shields, find a weakpoint."
"Found one on their bow, sir. The shields there have taken alot of damage."
"Now we're cooking with fire. Ensign, bring us around in a wide loop and then take us in on an attack vector towards the weakpoint. Lieutenant, load torpedos and prepare to fire on my command. Engineering, reroute all power from non-essential systems and from life support from the abandon decks to forward shields."
"And do you want pull a rabbit out of my ass too?" Retorted Lieutenant Commander Robert Stukov, Chief Engineer of the Virginia from main engineering.
"Just do it, Bob."
"I've managed to boost the shields to 67%, but that's all you're going to get from them till I can do more repairs to the ship."
"Good enough."
The Virginia looped around and flew towards the heavily armed battlecruiser, Melbourne doing his best to weave the ship in and out of incoming fire. Despite this, the ship shuddered from near misses and direct hits. Balara began counting down shield power as it dropped from the hits. Cho gritted his teeth as the emergency lights on the bridge began to flicker on and off. He hoped the ship could survive long enough for the attack.
"We're at 500 meters and closing." Reported Melbourne.
"Get us closer, Ensign."
"How close, sir?"
"Close enough for them to see my middle finger when I flip em off."
"Er, Aye sir."
The ensign began counting down the distance as they approached the D-7.
"475...450...425...400...375...325...275 meters!"
Sweat rolled down Garrets face, causing his head wound to sting even more. The collision alert blared as the Virginia got within 250 meters, then 225.
"Yasmine, fire torpedos! Conn, pull us away!" Cho shouted as the ship got within 200 meters of the enemy ship. Balara jammed her finger against the fire button, sending out a burst of four torpedos from the dual forward torpedo launchers. He stumbled back abit when the ship lurched up to avoid slamming into Klingon ship. The attack worked beautifully. The first two torpedos battered the already weak shields and annihilated them. The second two impacted directly against the armored hull, their combined power causing an explosion that left a fair sized hole. Nearby ships caught on and began to launch swarming attacks against the D-7. Constitutions, Mirandas, Paladins, Valiants and a Federation dreadnought began unloading photon torpedos and raking phasers across the shields of the opposing battlecruiser. The crew of the embattled warship knew things weren't going so well and attempted to retreat. By this time, it was suffering shipwide shield failure, leaving it's hull vunerable to abuse.
"Oh no you don't." Commander Cho said. "Bring us back around for another attack, target their port nacelle and fire when we're within range."
"Sir," Began Ensign Conner Melbourne. "Our shields are down to 20%, if we get hit again, we're done for."
"Noted. Now set course and prepare to attack." Cho ordered.
"Aye, sir."
The Virginia swung around in another wide loop and flew towards it's target. This time, they didn't have to deal with any weapons fire, as the battlecruiser was preoccupied with other ships. Cho watched as the red streaks of the phasers struck out as the Federation heavy cruiser reached weapons range. The glowing blue torpedos followed and combined with the phasers, destroyed the port nacelle of the battlecruiser, crippling it. The ship exploded moments later, the victim of an anti matter containment failure. It's death was a signal to the other Klingon ships that the battle was lost and they began to retreat with haste. Cho let out a sigh of relief and leaned against one of the rails that encircled the command pit with his left arm. After a few minutes, he stood and straightened his sweat stained tunic.
"Good work everyone. Damage report, Lieutenant?"
"Hull breaches all over the ship, most of the ships also running on back and emergency power. Warp drives offline, phasers are almost drained and we've depleted our supply of torpedos. We've suffered 5% casualties." Reported the dark skinned Turkish Lieutenant and tactical officer. "Sir, message from Admiral Johansons flagship to the entire fleet. We're to fall back into formation and resume course to Qon'oS."
"Make it so. Send the damage report to the flagship and dispatch repair crews and medics. Have a medic sent to the captains ready room to fix my damn arm, while you're at it."
"Aye, sir."
"You have the bridge then, Lieutenant. Keep a look out for the Klingons, they might try another attack."
"Yes sir."
With a nod, Cho turned and broken arm craddled, walked to the door of the ready room, which opened and stepped inside. The ready room was something new added to the Constitutions when they underwent a second refit a few years ago. The ready room was in reasonably good condition, only three statues Captain Santiago had put in there were knocked off the tables they were set on. The chair was also knocked over. Garret stepped over the broken statues, he'd clean them up later. He went over to a small cabinet and using his good hand, opened it and retrieved a glass bottle of brown liquid. He used the upper part of his broken arm to hold it while he took a glass out of the cabinet and stood, closing the door with his foot. Walking over to the desk, he set down the glass and the bottle. He plopped down in the red chair after he set it back up and using his teeth and hand, unscrewed the bottle, poured some of the non synthenol whiskey into the glass and downed it in one gulp. Filling the glass again, he turned and looked out the window. A Cardinal class medium cruiser slowly passed by, a black mark on it's engineering hull like a blemish. He took a sip from the glass and let his mind wonder. Santiago was dead, which meant a likely field promotion to Captain for Cho. Most officers would be overjoyed at the prospect of a promotion, but not him. While others would get their promotions the normal way, he'd get his through the death of a man he had known for years. His mind then drifted to the ship itself. He had to wonder if it would be battle ready by the time the fleet reached the Klingon homeworld in what would now take nearly two days, since some ships weren't warp capable at the moment, due to damage.
He finished his drink and continued staring out the window, an odd sense of forboding creeping up his spine. Something bad was going to happen, something that would change his life forever.
