Disclaimer: Star Trek is not owned by me, nor do I own any of the characters that are used in the story, unless they are my creation. Paramount and CBS own all things Star Trek.
Chapter 12 - War - Cease Fire
- Kronos System -
As the Enterprise moved away at high impulse, the three Klingon battle cruisers moved to intercept their escape from the system.
Kirk punched the intercom, "Scotty, what's the warp drive repair estimate?"
"About thirty minutes, sir...maybe less," he replied
"We're not going to have thirty minutes, can you give me maximum shields and weapons?"
"Aye, with the redesign, the phasers and photons are not functionally tied with the warp drive anymore, but I canna only guarantee about 75 percent power…"
"I'll take it, Mr. Scott. I need warp drive back online." Kirk finished as he closed the comm link.
He looked to Mr. Chekov's weapons position, "Chekov, I need phasers and photons ready to fire. Multiple targets...fire when ready.."
"Aye, sir."
Mr. Sulu, evasive maneuvers at your discretion, keep us moving out of the system."
"Aye, sir, engaging impulse engines to the red line...Mr. Scott's not going to like this." He shook his head.
"Let's get out of here and we'll listen to him over a bottle of Saurian brandy, my treat."Kirk smiled.
As the Klingons moved within weapons range, their disruptors pounded the ship's shields attempting to bring them down. Coming into range of the Enterprise's weapons' systems, Mr. Chekov unleashed a tremendous volley of photon torpedoes against the shields bringing them down. Followed by a pre-programmed volley of phaser fire, Chekov was able to disable the shield systems on the nearest approaching Klingon ship.
Kirk looked over to Mr. Spock, "Shield status?"
"85% and holding, for now, sir. It's fluctuating wildly, but engineering is continuing to modify. They are attempting to bottleneck us into the system and not let us out."
"Acknowledged, Mr. Spock." He looked back to Chekov, "Have you found a weak one to target, Mr. Chekov?"
"Sir, the port side Klingon cruiser's deflector shield is down. Initiating a cyber attack on its systems."
"Good, I just want them disabled for now, no need to destroy."
"Aye, sir," He punched command on his command board.
As the Enterprise continued to move out of the system at impulse, another four Klingon ships were coming at them from out of the system. Mr. Spock looked up from his scanner, "Sir, there are four Klingon Birds of Prey approaching at 132 Mark 7, coming at from outside the system. It's a trap."
Kirk sat back, click on the commlink, "Mr. Scott, really need that warp drive, now, please."
"Sir...I have to realign the dilithium crystals..another two minutes at most."
"Make it fast, Scotty. We're about to have guests and they're not friendly."
"No pressure, sir. We'll make it happen. Scott out."
"Sir," Mr. Spock began, "I'd estimate our chances of survival at about 50 to one right now, barring any miracles Mr. Scott can pull off."
"I don't intend to lose Mr. Spock," He smiled.
-U.S.S. Hathaway-
Racing at high warp towards Kronos, the Hathaway was making it as fast as it could to back up the Enterprise. Having been rerouted from Gagarin colony to ensure Kirk made it out of Klingon space, Captain Harris had been pushing his ship and crew to the breaking point.
"ETA, Mr. Stensen," he looked at his helmsman.
"Two minutes, sir."
"Push it to the max, Stensen!" Harris looked at his science officer, Commander Tenor, "Are we in range of long-range scanners, commander?"
"Yes, sir," She peered over the scanner, "I read seven Klingon ships and the Enterprise. She's currently moving at high impulse. Warp drive must be down."
He looked over to his weapons officer, "Raise shields, all hands go to red alert. All weapons systems prepare to engage targets."
"Aye, sir," his weapons officer, a Lt Willington replied, "Sir, I have range on our first target with the new penetrator missile system."
"Fire!" the captain ordered without hesitation.
This new weapon system was one of the newer technologies recently introduced into Starfleet's defensive systems. A small, but lethal missile with an embedded AI system to guide it to its target via a small warp drive and the ability to use a miniature cloak to avoid ship defenses. It contained a miniature cobalt nuclear warhead that could easily, according to the designers, disable and or destroy any type of shipboard shields.
Using the inertia of the warp field of the Hathaway, the missile left the tubes of the Hathaway and once spaceborne, it's internal AI systems accelerated it to an unbelievable warp 10. This speed enables no targets to escape. Mr. Willington chose the furthest target away from Enterprise to minimize collateral damage.
- Enterprise -
"Sir," Chekov reported, "I have an inbound missile, a penetrator I believe, moving towards the farthest Klingon ship. Impact in five seconds."
"The cavalry's here, let's give them some room to move. Mr. Sulu, let's give them targets to shoot at."
"With pleasure, sir." With that, Sulu continued his evasive maneuvers around and behind the Klingon warships. Despite the size and mass of the Enterprise and the hands of a skilled helmsman, it moved gracefully in and around incoming enemy disruptors and Klingon torpedoes. Sulu moved the Enterprise up and away from the majority of the enemy vessels, but they still continued to try and box it in. With the explosion of the missile against the shields of the Klingon ship, it caused a momentary confusion in the attack on the Enterprise. Mr. Sulu took advantage of the confusion broke out of the engagement area leaving six remaining Klingons astern. Seeing the Hathaway drop out of warp in the distance, Kirk ordered a rendezvous with the ship.
As the Enterprise came near the Hathaway, Uhura said, "Sir, it's Captain Harris for you."
Nodding, Kirk punched the comm button on his chair, "Mike, glad you to make it. Thanks!"
"Wouldn't want to keep you from having all the fun, sir. What's your status?"
"Warp drive is down, it's about a minute from coming back online. Our cloak is non-functional, and our shields are down to…" he looked at Mr. Spock, who responded,"...60 percent. We could use a little backup."
"We're going to get between you and the Klingons, to give you a bit of time to finish your repairs."
"Thanks, Mike. Starfleet wants us back as soon as possible. I might have stretched the mission parameters here a bit."
"I don't they'll mind with what the effect of the destruction of the facility had on the Klingons. The Klingon high council just sent a message to Federation that they wish to discuss terms for surrender."
Before he could comment further, Mr. Scott commed the bridge, "..sir, warp drive is back online. I'd suggest we keep it to warp three just to be safe or the plasma relays will overload."
"Understood, Mr. Scott, your miracles never cease to amaze," Kirk smiled. "I'd give you a pay raise if I could."
"Aye, I'd rather have some 15-year-old Scotch if you have it…"
"It's yours, Mr. Scott. I think they were brewing it back on Gagarin. Kirk out."
He looked to Mr. Sulu, "Mr. Sulu, plot a course to the Gagarin colony."
As both ships got ready to disengage from the engagement, the Hathaway laid down a murderous barrage of photon and phasers disabling the remaining seven cruisers. Not wanting to stay around, the Hathaway warped out of the system covering Enterprise. Caught unawares due to the explosions and confusion created by the weapons of the Hathaway, the Klingons were unable to pursue. During the engagement, weapon officers on the Hathaway initiated system virus attacks on Klingon onboard computer controls further ensuring unable to fight back.
- Kronos System -
As a result of the destruction of the energy facility on the moon of Praxis, the Klingon Empire was now faced with a planetary, if not empire-wide, disaster. With the devastating explosion on the surface of Praxis, a significant chunk of the moon actually broke away and created an asteroid belt around Kronos. Pieces of Praxis hit Kronos in the form of meteors caused damage to many of the major planetary cities. In addition to the impact of the meteors, a sudden shift in gravitational forces created severe tidal waves that caused major climatic damage to the planet and loss of life along the populated coastlines.
Faced with a significant planetary threat, the Klingon High Council held an emergency session to sue for peace with the Federation. Many of the Klingon houses that had backed the war effort against the Federation were summarily killed, discommodated, and or forced off of the High Council. These council members made the strategic error of seeking a campaign against the 'weak' humans and they paid for it dearly. Kalrath challenged and killed the sitting Klingon Chancellor in honorable combat. Taking over the High Council, he immediately opened up a direct line to the Federation asking for their terms of surrender and the same time asking for assistance for their world. The Klingons had underestimated the resolve and ruthlessness of the humans to fight back. Reeling with the loss of their primary power facility on Praxis, the Klingon Empire no longer had the ability to wage combat in the Archanis sector.
Going into the command center for the Klingon High Command, his next orders were to have all Klingon forces stand down and retreat to their side of the border with the Federation. The first general refused the order. Kalrath, without hesitation, stabbed him in the chest, killing him instantly. As the general slide off his knife dying in his own pool of blood, he looked around, "Any more challengers?" He looked around and the rest of them shook their heads. Kalrath looked to the deputy commander of the High Command, "You're in charge. Carry out my orders!" He looked to the controller at said, "Open transmission to all Klingon forces, now!"
"At once, milord!"
As the orders of the new Klingon Chancellor were transmitted fleetwide, some Klingon forces ignored it and continued fighting. These forces thought it was a ruse by the Federation to trap them. For those unfortunate enough to ignore the order, Starfleet and Fed Army forces were more than happy to oblige them a warrior's death. For the ones that surrendered planetside, the Klingon forces opened direct communication with those Fed Army forces asking for a cease-fire. As the Klingons stopped fighting, they were disarmed by Fed Army and Marine forces and removed from all occupied areas. As transports became available in conjunction with stabilizing actions by Starfleet and the Fed Army, the Klingons were removed off the planets. to leave the planet along with a release of any Klingon prisoners taken by the Feds.
Gradually over a period of a few days since the surrender of the Klingons, they were 'escorted' by Starfleet vessels out of the Archanis sector. As a show of good faith, the Federation President promised to honor the pre-war borders of the Federation and prevented Starfleet vessels from entering Klingon space.
- Starbase 7 -
Admiral Mendez and his staff were relaying information to all Starfleet forces that new orders were to approach the Klingons and offer them to surrender as opposed to direct engagement. As reports of more and more colony worlds being liberated and Klingon forces leaving those systems, his staff was crafting new orders for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers to begin the reconstruction effort. The Fed Army forces provided the much-needed manpower to isolate and move off planet several hundred captured Klingon warriors. The Federation, being who they were, treated the Klingons with honor and dignity. The Klingons, again, faced with extinction, accepted this offer.
Of the many occupied worlds in the Archanis sector, the Klingons planetside chose to fight to the death bringing about more death and destruction near the main settlements. With the final defeat of the Klingons on Donatu V with the 1st Army - Mechanized invasion, General Taylor secured the planet.
Just prior to the cease-fire, the 2nd Army - Mechanized was able to get into the sector and was tasked to liberate the Hydra system. Seeing that the local ground forces on Sherman's planet had repelled the Klingon invaders, General Tormulov, another Augment general from the 20th century, who commanded the newly formed Federation Army 2nd Army division, split up his regiments to assist in the mopping up of Klingon forces on the other occupied worlds. Moving his forces around the sector to aid the worlds in moving the Klingons off their planet.
Overall, despite the occupation of at least five worlds in the Archanis sector, control was moving back to Federation authority by the end of the week. The wounded were treated, both civilian and military. The dead were buried and rendered proper honors. Many of the structures planetside that were affected by the bombing and or planetary artillery fire were assessed for either repair or reconstruction.
Planetary governments were transitioning back to civilian control and military forces planetside became search and rescue for many of the displaced citizens that may have got caught in the initial bombardments of the planet. Rescue and recovery efforts were underway with many more ships coming from the Federation core worlds to aid in the recovery.
As the war ended, several thousand Federation citizens were killed and or wounded throughout the Archanis sector as a result of the invasion. During many of the invasion efforts, both Starfleet and the Fed Army lost several crewmembers and soldiers. Fifteen Starfleet vessels were lost beyond repair and another ten ships were damaged but repairable at space dock facilities. Starbase 7 became the hub for all inbound and outbound traffic going into the sector for humanitarian relief.
As the Federation recovered, many on the Federation Council were opposed to providing help to the Klingon Empire seeing that their fate was decided by them. Cooler heads prevailed, mainly the Vulcans and the Humans, and it was decided, if permitted by the Klingon government, to provide them what relief could be spared going to the Archanis sector. The rationale being was to do the honorable thing and not let them die as a race, plus it showcased that the Federation did not harbor any future ill will towards the Klingon race.
- TBC -
Author's Note: Yes, this was long in coming, work and other home issues took over my time. Plus my muse kind of left me for this story...ah well, next chapter, I'll try and wrap it up. Haven't yet decided how to end this...it was kind of fun highlighting all the new tech that was discovered over the last 10 years.. :)
