Disclaimer
All characters appearing in Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager are copyright Paramount Pictures. All characters appearing in the Star Wars saga are copyright Lucas Arts and the Walt Disney Cooperation. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder.
All original characters are the property of Celgress.
Star Trek/Star Wars – Galaxy at War: Interlude IV Tholian Entrapment
by
Celgress
Star Trek Dimension - April 2375 C.E.
A Federation Fleet just outside the binary Detrian System not far from Meles II the Beta Quadrant
USS Cairo
Admiral Edward Jellico drummed the fingers of his right hand impatiently on the armrest of his command chair. Recently promoted from Commodore, in late 2073 C.E, Jellico was placed in command of the Eleventh operating out of Starbase 74 in the Titus Sector. Responsibility for the defense of six sectors including important worlds such as Benzar, along with its strategically vital regional repair depot, Delb II and Cestus III, rested heavily upon his shoulders. Things had been running relatively smoothly since the Sith withdrawal three months ago until yesterday that is when the Tholians had declared war allying with the Imperium.
"Where the hell are they?" Jellico said softly. "Any sign of our allies?" He asked a second later.
"Negative sir, no sign of Gorn energy signatures on either short range or long range sensors." A Republican Clone Trooper at tactical said.
While certain Starfleet commanders prefered not to have clone troopers sever Jellico did not share their mindset. By contrast he found the clones polite, astute and highly efficient. They truly were a major in Jellico's opinion.
"They should have arrived already." Jellico mused a note of disquiet detectable in his typically unflappable voice.
"Sir, a large number of unidentified vessels are approaching our position at high speed." The Clone Trooper at tactical reported not long after. "There Tholian sir." He commented said a split second before a sizable Tholian fleet appeared directly ahead of Jellico's own force.
"Red alert, battle stations, open a channel to our fleet," Jellico commanded. "This is Admiral Jellico open fire full weapon spread once the enemy ships are within range. Attack pattern omega, full frontal assault. Hit the bastards with everything we've got!"
Space
Barrages of fire were exchanged between combatants. Initially, it seemed the Federation fleet who outnumbered their enemy by nearly two to one might pull off a quick paced, decisive victory as the Tholians took heavy damage. However, these hopes rapidly faded when the capital ships of the Tholian formation, their imposing Tarantula Dreadnoughts of which there was easily three dozen present, did something devastating and wholly, although perhaps not wisely given the nature of their foe, unexpected. Crackling amber energy nets or webs several times the size of an average starship were launched into space from wide-mouthed canons positioned in the center of the joined triple triangle shapes that made up the Tholian vessels. Each of these caught multiple vessels within their grid pattern construction and sliced through shields as effortless as a hot knife did through butter dissipating against the hulls but not before doing substantial kinetic damage.
USS Cairo
"What the hell just happened!?" Jellico exclaimed as the bridge rocked violently around him and his crew. He held onto his command chair for dear life. Intense showers of sparks rained down from ruptured conduits overhead.
"Their nets are composed of protons. Our shields can't block them, sir." The Clone Trooper at tactical stated.
"Damage reports are coming in from all decks, sir. We're losing hull integrity. Shield generators have suffered major damage." A female human ensign desperately reported from ops. She added grimly not long after. "Our shields have failed."
Space
From behind the Tarantula Dreadnoughts, another class of Tholian ship emerged equal in number to the Dreadnoughts. These Tholian Recluse Carriers each unleashed a swarm of at least one hundred much smaller, more maneuverable Tholian Widow Fighters that bombarded every stricken Federation ship with wave after wave after wave of Thermionic Torpedoes. These incendiary weapons caused less explosive damage that typical energy based torpedoes but ignited multiple blazes inside each target. Blazes which did not require oxygen to continue raging because of the biochemical reaction released on impact. Ten Minutes after their fist assualt the Tarantula Dreadnoughts fired a second volley of energy nets followed by more volleys of Thermionic Torpedoes from the Widow Fighters the cycle of destruction repeated twice more. When it was finally finished every Federation ship, over three hundred in all, were dead in space.
One by one then two by two they were picked off by Tholian directed energy beams. The Eleventh Fleet had been annihilated in under one standard solar hour, as had been their Gorn allies one system away before they even arrived. Nothing now stood between much of the Beta Quadrant and the Tholian invaders. Dark days lay ahead for the Alliance.
To Be Continued