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Saber-Class Escort USS Murasame, Archanis System
Personal Log, Ensign Takeshi Yamato, Stardate 83052.1.
Talk about a busy first assignment - fresh out of the Academy, and I'm already on a ship headed for the front lines!
Apparently, the Klingons are making a move on the Archanis Sector again. They'd claimed it once back before the Dominion War, and now they're moving to claim it once more.
Our ship is part of a fleet in the Archanis System itself, though we've heard there's a much larger Klingon Fleet inbound. We won't be able to hold them off forever, but we're supposed to buy time for civilian transports to evacuate all non-combatants. No one wants to leave the civilians behind as prisoners for the Klingons, or slaves for the Orions.
I'm a bit nervous, but the Captain apparently trusts my piloting skills enough to make me the helmsman of the ship. I just hope I can live up to that trust, and live up to the legacy of all the Yamatos who have come before me.
The Federation fleet were standing by to engage the Klingons should they arrive earlier then expected, and the flagship was relaying orders to every ship in the fleet, including one ship of the Saber-Class, which was patrolling the outer perimeter, ready to sound the alarm if the Klingons came in guns blazing. The Captain, a veteran of the service, sighed before looking at the Helmsman. "Ensign, you seem a bit anxious," he said.
The Helmsman, a young man of 21 just barely out of the Academy, with dark brown hair done in a buzzcut, a fairly bushy dark brown moustache, and violet eyes, turned to look at the Captain. "Well, not so much anxious as nervous, sir," he replied. "I know my Flight Scores in the Academy were top-notch, but this'll be my first time piloting a starship under actual combat conditions, and given how much is at stake in this battle…"
"You'll do fine, Ensign," the Captain informed. "Your family's been producing some of the best pilots in the fleet since the earliest days of the Federation. Although one in particular had a checkered past, all of them were the best of the best. You're just the latest in a VERY long line."
Ensign Takeshi Yamato nodded. "Th… thank you, sir," he replied. "I'll do my best…"
"Knowing your family, you'll do better than that," the Captain replied, before turning to the Sensors Station - what would be Science on a Cruiser or Science Vessel. "Sensors, anything to report?" he asked.
"Nothing as of yet, Captain," the Sensor Operator replied. "The Klingons could be using their cloaking devices, however."
"Keep an eye out," the Captain ordered. "The civilians are evacuating, but it's going slowly, and this sector's contested."
"Understood, sir," the Sensor Operator replied, before turning back to his screens.
The Murasame continued her patrol, but Takeshi was beginning to get a bad feeling. And not the normal bad feeling, either. This was an 'OH, SHIT!' bad feeling.
"Sir!" the Sensor Operator called out urgently. "Picking up ships dropping out of Warp! 20 signatures - no, 30 - 50! 50 Warp Signatures detected, mostly Klingon with a few Orion vessels!"
"Son of a - that's more than we expected," the Captain remarked. "Red Alert, all hands to battle stations!" The Murasame was too lightly armed to engage 50 Klingon ships alone, but the Saber wasn't designed to fight massive fleets. Contrary to popular belief, the Saber wasn't designed to fight the Borg. The Saber-Class was designed for possible conflict with the Cardassian Union and anti-pirate duties, meaning they were lightly built and heavily armed for their size. But Klingon ships were built to do one thing: wage war. From the lowest B'rel-Class bird of prey to the largest Vo'quv-Class carrier, all of them were built for war and battle. Starfleet could reclaim Archanis later: right now, the civilians needed to be made safe.
Suddenly, like in some of his Live Exercises, Takeshi could… sense, for lack of a better term, hostile intent directed at whatever he was piloting. Said hostile intent usually preceded weapon fire, so he immediately initiated evasive maneuvers, kicking the impulse engines to full and snap-rolling to the left to evade a withering barrage of cannon fire from a Negh'Var-Class Heavy Battle Cruiser.
The Klingons were shocked, but not as shocked as the Murasame's crew. The Saber-Class ship dodged a fair number of disruptor bolts and a number of torpedoes, with Takeshi doing his best to make sure the ship survived to do what needed to be done: delay the Klingons by giving them a challenging target.
The Communications Officer had alerted the rest of the fleet, and they were all moving to assist. It wouldn't be enough to stop the Klingons, given that the defense fleet consisted of only 16 ships, and only four of those were the heavier types like Retrofit Excelsiors, Nebulas, or Sovereigns. However, they still needed to delay the Klingons and their Orion allies at least long enough for the last of the transports to escape.
"Ensign, I don't know how you did that," the Captain said, "but keep it up! The Klingons are getting pissed off, and if there's anything that applies to all races, it's that if someone gets angry, they make mistakes. Keep them angry!"
"Yessir!" Takeshi called out, making the ship dance almost as if it were a Peregrine Fighter, ducking and weaving through the enemy fire as the Tactical Officer let loose with the Phasers and Quantum Torpedoes.
The Klingons were angry at the Saber that was dodging their shots left and right, but a K'tang-Class bird of prey decided to end the Murasame's flight. The smaller BoP fired her weapons, which were different than standard Klingon disruptors, being tetryon-based cannons. The tetryon-infused beams cut through the shields as the bolts hit, allowing one lucky torpedo to hit the Bridge. But that one torpedo was enough to change history.
Takeshi was thrown from his seat to the deck as the ship was rocked by the torpedo hit - though that was probably the best thing that could have happened as consoles exploded all over the Bridge. As Takeshi got back to his feet, he could see the Bridge in shambles, the other Bridge Officers and the Captain all around him, unconscious or dead. Knowing that he didn't have time to check on them, he got back to the helm, and started steering the ship away from the Klingon Fleet and towards the Federation fleet that was approaching, even as he tapped his combadge. "Yamato to Sickbay!" he called out. "Medical Emergency on the Bridge! Most of the Bridge Crew is down!"
"Understood, Ensign," came the reply from Sickbay. "We're sending a medical team up there now, but we've got a great deal of wounded. Several EPS conduits blew out when whatever hit us hit us. We're going to need you to reroute power from up there and cut the coolant flow, otherwise the air's going to get toxic!"
"Right!" Takeshi replied. He set an auto-evasive program at the helm and started it running, then bolted to the Engineering station and did what he could to cut the coolant flow and reroute power away from the blown conduits. He tapped his combadge again. "Yamato to Engineering, please let there be someone still alive down there!"
"Main engineering here," came the reply. "We're a mess down here. We've had a major plasma coolant breach: half the engineering staff are gone. Just… liquified by the coolant." Not a pretty way to die. Even the Borg weren't immune to plasma coolant's nasty side-effect, as the incident on the Enterprise-E in 2373/2063 showed.
"Understood," Takeshi replied, getting back to the helm and deactivating the auto program, taking control of the ship once again. "Computer, locate the highest ranking officer still alive on this ship," he said.
"Highest Ranking Officer currently aboard is Ensign Takeshi Yamato," the voice of the computer replied.
At that point, Takeshi felt a weight settle itself on his shoulders. All he wanted was to pilot starships! He didn't want to be a Captain! Unfortunately, he was the Senior Ranking Officer on the ship at the moment - that left him in charge. He transferred the Captain's chair functions over to his Console, then hit the shipwide announcement button. "Attention all hands," he began. "This is Ensign Takeshi Yamato speaking. As the highest ranking officer still aboard the Murasame, I am now taking command."
He paused a few moments to let that statement sink in. "I need damage control teams to fix all damaged EPS and Coolant Conduits. I also need any survivors of the Beta and Gamma Shift Bridge Crews to report to the Bridge - I'm going to need help to run this ship. That said, we still have a job to do. We need to keep the Klingons busy long enough for the last of the transports to escape. Let's do what we can, people. Acting Captain Yamato out."
The ship rocked again, followed by several consoles sparking. Takeshi knew exactly who was shooting at him: the K'tang-Class BoP. Normally, he would run, but right now, he was angrily focused. That Klingon ship was going to pay for that.
Transferring the Tactical Controls to his station, as well, he keyed up a barrage of four Quantum Torpedoes as he pulled the ship into a loop, using normally evasive maneuvers in an offensive manner to get behind the K'tang before it could react. He snarled as he hit the firing controls, sending blasts of orange energy from the ship's forward-mounted Phaser Arrays, following up with the Torpedoes. The Phaser Blasts splashed against the K'tang's aft shields, weakening them enough for the first Torpedo to punch a hole large enough for the other three to go through, hitting the K'tang in its engines and causing catastrophic damage.
The K'tang blew up spectacularly, and Takeshi reinforced the shields as best he knew how as the Murasame flew through the resulting fireball, a savage grin on his face.
The Klingons were waiting for that moment, however, and when Takeshi wasn't paying attention, they pounded the Murasame with everything they had. Thankfully, Takeshi was spared death when several photon torpedoes hit the lead Negh'Var, sending it into an uncontrolled spin toward one of the Vo'quv-class dreadnought carriers. The result was rather predictable. The rest of the fleet had finally arrived. "Osiris to Murasame," came a transmission from one of the support ships."Stand by: we're locking a tractor beam on you now!"
Takeshi sighed, glad that backup was finally here. "This is Acting Captain Yamato of the Murasame," he replied, after opening the channel. "Thank you very much, Osiris - we're in pretty bad shape here."
"Yamato?" came the reply from the Osiris. "You're in command? Damn it, that seems to be a thing nowadays. We've finished the evacuation: it's time to get the hell out of here."
"Understood," Takeshi replied. "Thanks again for the assist." The ship seemed to vibrate slightly as the tractor beam from the Osiris latched on. As the ship was towed away from the Klingon/Orion fleet while the heavies 'discouraged' pursuit, Takeshi tapped his combadge. "Yamato to Engineering," he said. "Damage report."
"You know, I could give you a litany of damaged systems, Captain," came the reply from the Acting Chief Engineer, "but suffice to say, this ship is not going to be on the front lines in our lifetimes. Best just to scrap it."
"Understood," Takeshi replied. "Can she survive one more trip at Warp, even under tow, and get us to the fallback point, or are we going to need to evac?"
"I'd say the Murasame's got one more flight out of her, but the SIF is on the verge of giving out," came the reply. "We'll see what we can do to keep her alive a little longer, Bridge."
Takeshi sighed. That was about as good as could be expected. "Thanks, Engineering," he said. "Bridge out." He then sat back in his chair, the last chair still standing on the Bridge, and sighed again.
At least they'd gotten the civilians out. Takeshi was just hopeful that he'd get a new ship to fly soon.
Deep Space station K-7
K-7 had a long and eventful life, most notably in 2267 when the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 paid a visit to the station, uncovering a Klingon plot to take over Sherman's Planet, as well as what was the last straw for the Klingons to begin the long heard of Great Tribble Hunt. Needless to say, K-7 was old, but VERY important to the defense of the Federation. Dozens of starships orbited the station, including one that was very out of place: a Defiant-Class Tactical Escort.
Takeshi stood at one of K-7's viewports, looking out on the ship, the USS Tempest. He'd been assigned to the ship, alright, but not as her Helmsman.
His fingers idly traced the Captain's Rank Insignia adorning his uniform now, wondering what Command was smoking, giving him that ship to command, and why they weren't sharing. True, the Defiant-Class was one of his favorite ship classes, being Starfleet's first dedicated warship class, but he'd dreamed of flying one of them, not commanding one! Being promoted to Captain and being given one of those ships… well, it was not what he was expecting, that's for sure.
"Captain Yamato, your presence is requested on the Tempest," an aide informed. "Something about a 'proper welcome'."
"Right," Takeshi replied, sighing. "Well, I guess it can't be helped."
He walked away from the viewport, and towards the Transporters, to be beamed over to his new command.
This war wasn't going to fight itself, after all.
Takeshi Yamato: OK, in case people are wondering as to what this is, this is a Side Story Fic for the Star Trek Frontier story over on 117Jorn's Profile, where we show the things that might get mentioned there, but never get shown, and backstory for the characters.
Ron the True Fan: You'll be seeing things that our characters have mentioned and made you wonder 'what the hell was that about?' Like the next chapter. This is like Armed Resistance: Side Stories, but focused on the main characters rather than everyone else.
Titanic X: So be ready to keep your eyes open and read away! There's plenty more where this came from! :D
117Jorn: So until next time…
Everyone: JA NE!