Chapter VII
Picard stood in his quarters an hour later, looking out at the stars, when Riker entered. 'Admiral, all evidence of the planet-wrecker's existence is now erased. All the crew have sworn to reveal no information to Starfleet or the Council.' Picard nodded. He remained looking at the stars. Riker frowned.
'Sir, are you troubled about Q?' Picard nodded.
'I started enjoying his presence. He used to spice things up no end. When we first encountered him, he was irritating and dangerous, but lately, I've noticed that he seemed to become more human.'
Riker nodded. 'He must have been catching our evil disease.' He smiled, roguishly. Picard nodded unsmilingly. The pair locked stares for a moment and then Riker left.
When the Enterprise reached Earth, there was complete chaos. While the ship had been in the Beta Quadrant, Vulcan had been attacked and destroyed by the aliens. Only four hundred people were pulled off the planet out of a population of five- and-a-half billion people. The Vulcan Sector Defence Fleet had been decimated in the attack, and contact had been lost with the survivors.
Now the population of Earth was evacuating from the Earth to Deep Space Nine and Bajor, but a lot of the people were still living on the planet.
More ships joined the fleet every day. What was left of the last Maquis raiders fled the Demilitarised Zone, bringing tales of destruction and death as the invaders swept through the former Cardassian Union. The survivors of the Eighth fleet, fleeing the devastation of a chance encounter in the Badlands, brought a report of huge swarms of attack planes leading the city destroyers around to each of the class-M planets in the area.
Through the attacks, more ships and people fled to Earth for sanctuary, escaping the invaders. The Sol system became the last refuge for the Alpha Quadrant's refugees and the last fortress against the attacks of the extra-dimensional enemies.
Picard had called together the new respective leaders of the major races seeking asylum in the embattled Federation. Gul Dukat, leader of the Cardassian forces sat next to Tomalak, last surviving member of the Romulan High Command. Kahless, direct commander of the Klingon forces sat opposite Picard, whilst Admiral Ross, Admiral Paris and Admiral Monnock sat in between him and two high-ranking Ferengi Daimons.
'Gentlemen, I'm not going to lie to you. Our chances of winning this battle are very slim.' At this pronouncement, much to Picard's surprise, the others all nodded their heads solemnly and agreed. He decided to continue, so that they all knew what they faced.
'The city destroyers are protected by what is very nearly an impenetrable shield. The same protection extends to the mother ships, and also, albeit in a weaker form, to the attack planes. At present, we have nothing capable of breaking through their shields. We have very few advantages; even with the full power of our respective fleets combined, we still wouldn't have the numbers to combat them successfully. As things stand at the moment, they hold all of the cards. We may have superior weapons, but our most powerful weapons cannot break down their defences. Our battles with them so far have been inconclusive, at best, in terms of ship-to-ship combats. We can't hurt them; they can inflict only light damage on our ships. We're in a Mexican stand-off and neither side seems able to deliver a decisive blow.
'The situation we face is completely different from any that we have faced before. It is difficult to provide any form of strategy for us all. We know that we must stop them getting to Earth, but quite how to do that has proved to be beyond me. In battle, we must co-ordinate as closely as possible. You all have your attack marks and formation positions?' Picard glanced along the line; one by one the fleet commanders all nodded.
Picard sighed, allowing his shoulders to drop for a moment. 'We must stop them here. There is no second option. If Earth falls, we will be forced from our holdings in the Alpha Quadrant. The invaders will be given time to settle and reinforce their positions and our forces will find it even more difficult to retake our territory once we find a way through their defences.' Even in the midst of a crisis, Picard was determined to sow some seeds of hope. Unfortunately, they failed to take root.
Gul Dukat was first to voice his concern. 'If we do lose, what do we do? The people of our various empires are scattered refugees. Even your people are being steadily evacuated to Deep Space Nine. And if we win –' he snorted, ' - what are we going to do? Several cultures and planets have been destroyed, just like that. It is already too late to repair such severe damage without irreversible changes.'
Picard had expected the question; unfortunately, his expectations had still not given a satisfactory answer, and he was convincing himself as much as the others. 'The civilian leaders have been evacuated to DS9, correct. The same goes for our civilian populations. However, many human civilians have chosen to remain on Earth, the moon colonies or Mars. Our military leaders have remained to co-ordinate the fleet in battle; I shall be commanding the Enterprise in overall command.' He turned his mind to Dukat's question. 'If we lose the answer is simple; we retreat to DS9, and make a stand there. If we win, the answer is too unlikely to think about at the moment. We will have to see what happens.'
At that moment, an aide entered with a terrified expression on his face and a padd in his hand.
'Admiral Picard! The sensors on Charon have detected five large objects heading into the Solar System. The description matches that of the mother ships. They will reach Earth in four hours.' Picard shut his eyes for a moment, wishing for more time. He stood slowly and stared at each of the commanders there assembled.
'It has begun,' he pronounced, a tone of doom running through his voice. The others at the table all looked at each other as if it might be the last time they ever saw each other.
As the commanders filed from the room and hurried to their various commands, Picard indicated that the three Starfleet Admirals should remain. The door closed behind them. Picard turned to Monnock first. 'Admiral, you have the most experience with fighter craft and their deployment. You will be in overall charge of Fighter Command.'
Monnock nodded once, in the Benzite fashion. 'It will be an honour, Admiral.' He turned and left. Picard turned to Paris and Ross.
'Have you made any progress in locating Admiral Nechayev?'
Paris nodded and stepped over to a screen on the wall. Picard and Ross followed him and watched as Paris activated it and brought up a list of access codes. 'These are access codes used to get into security access room 1-1-A,' said Paris.
'That's the planetary defence system command and control centre, isn't it?' asked Picard.
'Correct,' said Ross. He pointed to a series of codes, ordered by stardate and time. 'This list of codes identifies the codes of those who have entered or left the room. Every day, some ten or twenty people enter and leave this room. This shows the records up until five days ago.'
'You must have pulled in some favours to get hold of this,' said Picard half-jokingly. Ross gave him a morose look.
'We got it from one of the Romulan Tal Shiar agents in the Romulan fleet.'
At Picard's shocked look, Paris nearly laughed out loud. 'We get it all the time, Jean-Luc. We have their security penetrated just as well, so we don't worry about it.'
'If you notice,' interrupted Ross, who had become more and more gloomy in the last few days, 'there have been no access codes inputted since about five days ago.'
'The same time as Alynna disappeared,' added Admiral Paris.
Picard blinked and held his eyes closed. 'Hers was the last access code inputted.' He didn't need to see their nods to know he was correct. 'And she hasn't come out again?'
'No,' said Ross bluntly.
'Get men down there, Bill,' said Picard immediately. 'She's to be arrested on sight on charges of treason. I don't care how you get to her; just do it.'
'And if she resists arrest?'
'Kill her!'
Admiral Ross simply nodded and left the room. Paris stepped closer to Picard. 'What do you think she's doing in there?'
'I don't know.' Picard opened his eyes, and there was a flicker of pain there. 'Whatever it is, though, she's had five days to do it in.'
Paris nodded once, and followed Ross from the room. Picard was left shaking his head. How could have I been so wrong?
In the darkness of 1-1-A, Nechayev sat in the chair, fingers stretched out to lightly touch the planetary shields and weapons control systems. She smiled; a smile of malice. The real Alynna Nechayev had died six days before. All that was left was an alien parasite.
Ross stood on the other side of the door, staring at the security lock in annoyance. 'She's modified it so it doesn't respond to any access code but her own.'
'Alynna never had that sort of technical expertise,' said Paris thoughtfully. 'Her skills were in administration and diplomacy.' Ross snorted in derision. Paris smiled in spite of the situation. 'Diplomacy, I said; not man management,' he added.
Abruptly, the lights went out throughout the room, to be replaced by red emergency lighting. Lieutenant Holder, wearing security gold, hurried into the room. 'We've cut power to this section, Admirals,' he reported unnecessarily. 'However, the power supply to 1-1-A has been isolated to that section, and we can't get to it.'
'But shutting down the power to this section has shut down the security defence devices?' asked Paris.
The lieutenant nodded. 'She won't be able to stop us getting in eventually.'
'That's a duranium alloy door,' said Ross mildly. 'It could take hours to get through.'
Paris picked up a phaser and stepped back to join the security guards grouped behind him, equipped with phaser rifles. 'We'd better get started then.'
The preparations for the battle were completed hurriedly. The fleet waited in between the invaders and the Earth, in the orbit of Mars. Only a small portion of the population of Earth and also the off-planet colonies, all obvious secondary targets, had been moved to DS9. However, there were still ten million people living on the moon, and another six billion left on Mars, and eight billion people on Earth. The Earth had lost contact with the Saturn and Jupiter colonies soon after the transport ships had left for DS9. The last report from Io had described a large ship moving over the central building.
The invaders were advancing even quicker than before and the approach of the huge vessels seemed to cast a pall of darkness over the entire fleet.
Picard stood in the observation lounge on the Enterprise, looking at the distant blue planet and also at the closer red one, around which orbited the Utopia Planitia Shipyards and the entire defence fleet. Lieutenant Thames entered and Picard turned, an involuntary smile breaking over his face.
'Admiral, the last freighter has left. The fleet is fully assembled in attack formation. ETA on the invaders is ten minutes.' Her voice held a tremble. Picard nodded reassuringly, gazing at her.
'Are you all right, Lieutenant?' asked the Admiral. Thames nodded.
'I'm just... nervous about confronting these invaders, sir.' Picard nodded understandingly.
'So am I.' He smiled again and motioned towards the door. She smiled back, quickly.
Thames turned, and Picard followed her onto the bridge. He walked around to the front of the screen, and faced the crew.
'Lieutenant Commander Hedly, open a channel to all ships.' Hedly nodded, and pressed a few buttons. A beep came over the comm system.
'This is Grand Admiral Jean-Luc Picard to the fleet. We shall meet the city destroyers in ten minutes. This is where the line must be drawn in order to preserve all of our cultures. We must destroy and defeat these alien invaders in order to live on as sentient life forms, and not bow to subservience. This is the first time in history that our races must fight for the right to life. This is our most basic right of all and we must preserve it. Our priorities are to stop them getting to Earth at all costs.' Picard sat. 'All ships, stand by for launch marks.'
From Ops, Thames said, 'All ships, attack on my mark.' Her voice was now studied and professional. Picard marvelled at the change.
He glanced down at his chair's readout, checking the formation for any last-minute mistakes he might spot.
The Romulan Warbirds and Starfleet heavy cruisers, such as the Galaxy and Sovereign-class, held the centre and the Enterprise stood in the centre of that mass of ships. On the inner left flank were the combined forces of the Cardassian Galor and Keldon-class warships and the Ferengi Marauders. On the right flank stood the Klingon Attack Cruisers, the K't'inga battle cruisers and the rest of the Starfleet medium starships, such as the Miranda-class and the Excelsior-class starships. Flanking the fleet on the left and right were the faster attack vessels, the Birds of Prey, Cardassian Hideki patrol ships, Defiant-class warships, and other smaller vessels. And, as a protective screen for the heavier starships, rested the Starfleet fighter craft, Maquis Raiders, runabouts, shuttles and Romulan scout ships. In all, Picard thought, it was the most formidable fleet ever formed in the Alpha Quadrant – and it stood no chance whatsoever if a miracle did not happen.
Hedly studied her controls and alarm crossed her face.
'Admiral, I'm reading nine hundred attack planes, approaching on various attack vectors fast!' Her voice was tense.
Picard nodded once to acknowledge. 'All ships, raise shields. Fighter squadrons; move to intercept. All squadron leaders; your objective is to keep those fighters off our backs. Ignore the city destroyers.'
The fast attack ships roared in. They fired, their laser beams deflecting from the shields of the fleet. The defence screen of fighters peeled away from the larger ships of the fleet, and dogfights began to break out around the huge starships.
The Enterprise shook imperceptibly. Hedly said, 'Shields undamaged. Larger ships; intercept in one minute.'
The huge ships moved towards Phobos, overshadowing the tiny moon of Mars. The huge city destroyers left the surface of the massive mother ships and formed up, ready to face the fleet before them. They clouded the darkness of space like a dark storm front. They moved around the side of the small moon, and into full view of the fleet.
Three of them headed straight for the Fleet Yards in a close orbit around Mars, whilst the others headed straight for the fleet.
Thames turned to Picard. 'Sir, those ships are different to the others.'
Picard frowned. 'How so?'
'They look the same from here,' added Riker.
'Their basic shapes are the same, sir,' said Thames, hurriedly trying to get her point across, 'but they appear to have developed a different hull surface. I fitted a silhouette from our sensor logs of the first city destroyer to appear over a silhouette of these ships. They didn't quite match. These ships have projections and decorations all over their surface.'
'Purpose?' asked Picard quickly. He glanced up at the city destroyers, and he could indeed make out small bumps and marks were there had been none before.
'Unknown, sir,' admitted Thames, ashamed.
'Lieutenant Hedly,' said Riker, 'send a message to all ships informing them of this development.'
'Aye, sir,' Hedly said.
'Range is two hundred thousand kilometres and closing,' warned Ensign Truper. 'They're coming into outer kill zones.'
Picard said, quietly, 'Thames.'
'Attack. All ships launch attack pattern delta.'
A moment later, the fleet advanced, the flank attack ships sweeping forward to clash with the city destroyers head-on, allowing the heavier cruisers to strike at the mother ships. Phaser blasts and photon torpedoes cut through space, impacting against the shields of the giant vessels in violent explosions, but the city destroyers advanced implacably, shrugging off the efforts of the fleet to slow them down.
Behind them, the mother ships waited, as if they knew that the balance of the battle would change in a moment....
On the lead Klingon ship, the Vor'Cha-class Kral, Kahless watched the battle with a savage grin on his face. 'This is how a warrior is meant to be. In battle!'
The crew roared their approval as they fired again on the lead city destroyer. As they did so, an attack plane flashed by, and ran straight into the disruptor blasts, exploding in a blast which rocked the Kral.
As the viewscreen cleared, Kahless watched as the totally unexpected happened. A return salvo from the city destroyer had been fired towards the Kral. Kahless whispered, 'Today is a good day to die!'
The huge blue blasts of energy struck the Kral, collapsing the shields and shattering the hull of the attack cruiser. Its warp drive went critical and exploded.
The flash blinded the crew of the Enterprise who watched the Kral burn in space. 'That blast came from the lead city destroyer!' said Thames, shocked.
'Get me an analysis of that shot!' yelled Picard, losing his composure for one terrible moment.
Now that they had revealed their secrets, the city destroyers opened fire as a unit, matching the fleet blow for blow from the newly formed weapons mounted on all their vessels. As the fleet hit the shields of the invading ships, their enemy fired back with blue balls of energy that rocked the fleet's ships. Occasionally, shields would fail, and the unlucky vessel would be vaporised in a ball of fire.
Picard himself knew that the invaders had delivered a telling blow, just as he had confidently predicted that they would not be able to.
And he didn't know quite what he was going to do.
The city destroyers came within range of Utopia Planitia, and phaser beams and photon torpedoes were fired instantly, with the same lack of effect that the distant fleet was getting against the main attack fleet. The unshielded shipyards were an easy target for the immense ships, which began firing immediately they came into range. Blast after blast of energy tore into the long thin metal structures, which crumpled and exploded under the hail of fire. Several ships that were being repaired inside the yards were hit and destroyed too.
Watching the destruction helplessly, Picard ordered the fleet to fall back to their positions near the moon. Quickly, the fleet disengaged and fled the advancing city destroyers. As their advance guard descended over Mars, the main fleet pursued the defenders at an almost leisurely pace back to Earth.
As the fleet fled at full impulse power, beams of energy from the invading ships pursued them, cutting into shields and damaging those with less shield strength than others. From the flanks, the attack planes harried them, as they managed to evade the defence fighters pursuing them.
As they reached their fallback positions, the fleet broke into several smaller units. The former flanking vessels now sat in orbit around the moon, using their greater manoeuvrability to avoid the ranging blasts of the city destroyers. Closer to Earth, the larger medium vessels assumed a new formation, forming a literal screen before Earth, one that the invaders would need to get through before they could attack. This was the most dangerous part of the formation, and if that failed, the heavy cruisers behind them, in close proximity to Earth would have to take the full brunt of the attack on their own. The fighters swarmed around the fleet, fighting a smaller, but no less deadly battle.
And, before the fleet, the black ships of death blotted out the stars, looking, for all the fleet to see, like a visible spread of a deadly disease.
Picard took a short moment to glance around the bridge. He and Riker were uninjured, but Hedly had taken a bad fall and was swaying at her console. For a moment, Picard was tempted to order her to sickbay, but he knew that the next few minutes, if they survived, could determine the battle, and he needed his best officers at their posts.
Ensign Truper was bleeding from a cut to the forehead, but Thames was uninjured at Ops. Picard felt his gaze linger on her a moment too long again, his worry about the battle mixing with a concern for Thames' wellbeing.
He felt Riker's look more than he saw it, and covered his slip-up by ordering, 'Lieutenant Thames, bring up a tactical display of the fleet on main viewer.' He glanced at Riker, daring him to say something. Somehow, even in the thick of a desperate battle, Riker found time to grin briefly.
Am I that easy to read? thought Picard.
He stared at the tactical grid for a moment, observing with satisfaction that the fleet was moving into position quickly and efficiently. 'Order Galor squadron three to fall back to the third line of defence,' he ordered. 'They're too exposed there.'
'Aye, sir,' replied Hedly, her voice still strong.
'And tell the Azetbur to get closer to the centre,' said Riker, thinking for a moment of Deanna Troi, who had been reassigned to the Intrepid-class starship. Picard nodded tersely, acknowledging his first officer's support. If anything, Riker was an even better tactician than he was.
'Sir,' said Hedly, 'the Azetbur reports heavy damage to her starboard thrusters. She's having trouble keeping formation.'
'Get the Sao Paulo and the Excalibur to cover her,' said Riker, glancing at Picard, who nodded.
'Aye, sir.'
'Time to attack range,' said Picard.
'Five minutes, thirty-two seconds,' said Thames. Picard smiled for a moment. Data's tutelage had obviously worked well. And, turning slightly, he found Riker grinning at him, a raised eyebrow in place.
'Of all the times –' he began quietly.
'Don't even think about it, Captain,' warned Picard, half-seriously. Riker turned back to face the screen, eyebrow lowered, but grin still in place.
'Cease fire!' ordered Admiral Paris. The phaser beams which had been attempting to penetrate the door cut out, and Admiral Ross glared at the immovable door for an angry moment.
'Has it been reinforced at all?' asked Paris. Lieutenant Holder shook his head slowly.
'The tricorder's not picking up any form of strengthening material. It appears to be just a duranium composite alloy.'
Paris frowned for a moment. As he raised his phaser, his commbadge bleeped for attention. 'Paris here.'
Picard's voice came clearly through, sounding as calm as ever. 'Have you made any progress in getting Admiral Nechayev out of there?'
'No, sir,' said Paris. 'She appears to have reinforced the door, although we're not quite sure how.'
Ross tapped his commbadge as well. 'How's the battle progressing?'
'Not too well,' replied Picard. 'We're taking a pounding. They've forced us back to Earth orbit, and taken out the Utopia Fleetyards and hit Mars itself.' One of the security guards cursed. 'They appear to have developed some form of directed energy weapon very similar to disruptor weapons. If Admiral Nechayev is working with them, she might have given technical information to them.'
Paris glanced at Ross, who frowned. It was the first time that a conspiracy with the invaders had been mentioned. 'Understood. We'll try and hurry things up a little bit here.'
'Acknowledged. Enterprise out.' And that was it. No acknowledgement that they might all be dead in less than ten minutes. Picard was never one to give up hope.
'Contact security and get them to bring a demolition charge of some form down. We've got to get this door out of the way now,' ordered Ross. He glanced at Paris.
'What is she doing in there?'
Nechayev sat, silent still, watching the battle in her mind from the city destroyer's point of view. She waited for the right moment to strike.
'We're reading massive explosions on Mars,' reported Thames, her voice just slightly off. 'Utopia Planitia's been levelled; so has Olympus City. Reports of widespread devastation. Heavy casualties, sir.' She glanced at Picard, anguish written in her face.
Picard stared, resolute, at the tactical grid before him, blotting out the deaths from his mind.
'Fighter squadrons report that they're having trouble containing the attack planes, sir,' added Hedly. 'Two minutes until the city destroyers come into range.'
Picard nodded tensely, aware of the figures, but glad that someone was keeping the bridge crew informed. 'Picard to all ships. Prepare for attack pattern epsilon. On my mark.'
As the city destroyers advanced towards Earth, four of their number broke off and headed directly for the moon. Picard watched silently as he realised that the invaders had guessed his battle plan. 'Signal the warships in moon orbit to attack.'
The smaller warships came blazing out of the moon's shadow, weapons ready. A moment later, the Birds of Prey unleashed a savage salvo of disruptor fire against the lead city destroyer. A volley of photon torpedoes followed, exploding against the green shield that shimmered into life as the fire struck home. The phaser beams of the slightly slower Cardassian and Starfleet vessels struck the shields moments later. The city destroyers shook off the attack as though it had never happened. The starships peeled away and came back for another pass, but this time, the city destroyers returned fire, mixing the beams of green and yellow energy with their own blasts of blue fire.
No quarter was given or asked for. The fleet pounded the destroyers, who returned the attack with equal ferocity. The explosions and energy blasts lit up the dark surface of the moon.
'Sir,' reported Hedly, a trace of concern in her voice, 'the fleet reports making contact with the enemy.'
'Main viewer,' ordered Picard, and the tactical grid was replaced by a view of the violent clash going on directly ahead of them. An explosion was first to catch their attention, as a Galor-class warship crumpled under a hail of fire. Two squadrons of K't'inga-class battle cruisers swept towards the hole that had appeared, plugging it before the enemy ship could sneak through. They immediately began pounding the immense ship.
The USS Endeavour was shattered by an intense hail of fire, and once again, the fleet moved to back up the loss, with a pair of Galaxy-class starships, reminding Picard of the Enterprise-D, taking their comrade's resting place.
However, on the flanks, two of the weaker starships were failing to keep back a concentrated attack. The USS Azetbur and the IKS Ga'roth were taking a heavy pounding from a pair of city destroyers and a swarm of attack planes.
'Get some back-up on the left flank,' ordered Riker, spotting the danger immediately.
'Sir, the Azetbur's losing guidance control,' reported Thames, 'They've lost shields as well -'
On the ruined bridge of the Azetbur, smoke swirled from blackened consoles. Flames licked at the consoles. A flash illuminated the bridge long enough for Deanna Troi to pull herself to the helm console. She tried to activate the engines. The ship started to pull up. Then, the destroyer they had fired at appeared at close range on the screen. She had only enough time to throw her arms up over her face before -
The Intrepid-class ship scraped the shields of the huge ship. An explosion ripped along the side of the port warp nacelle, the Azetbur flashed into light, and exploded.
And the hole was finally opened.
On the Enterprise, Riker watched the Azetbur vanish into fiery oblivion, and he stared at the screen, mind reeling, and mouth opening but nothing coming out. His fists clenched and he staggered back to his seat. And through his mind echoed her final thought –
Imzadi!
'Admiral, their forward ships are breaking through!' warned Truper.
'Order all ships to attack in pattern beta. Get that gap plugged!' The battle soared to another plane.
As the city destroyers pushed forward through the opening that had been formed by the destruction of the Azetbur, the heavier starships rushed in to stop their advance, the Enterprise leading the way. A salvo of fire hit their shields, which the Enterprise absorbed easily, and then battle was truly joined.
Disruptor blasts and photon torpedoes and phaser beams and quantum torpedoes all flew through the darkness of space. All of the fleet fought with a savageness and a desperate anger that made absolutely no impact. As fierce as the battle raged, the invaders simply closed ranks and battered their way through.
Ships roared across space, unleashing their cargoes of death, but seeing them impact against the shields. Elsewhere in the line of defence, the destroyers began to break through the weak points, faster than cover could be rushed to the aid of those in trouble. The line wavered for a moment, bent and then broke.
In a mass of explosions that signalled the simultaneous destruction of five Romulan and Cardassian warships, the city destroyers broke through and poured through the gap.
Before them hung Earth's glittering prize.
Picard watched this disaster emotionlessly. 'Order all ships to come about and pursue. Tell planetary defence to raise planetary shields and open fire.'
This was the moment that Nechayev had been waiting for. She watched as, aft of the city destroyers, the fleet headed towards them, fully expecting Earth's defences to take up the fight. The city destroyers wasted no time, heading straight for atmospheric insertion. Nechayev joined the battle.
From Earth's surface, rising through the atmosphere, trailing white-hot streaks of ionised air behind, came the firepower of Starfleet's defensive systems. However, they did not hit the city destroyers as expected. Instead, they shot past the immense ships and hit the forward ships of the fleet. In the first confused seconds, two Romulan Warbirds were crippled by the attack and a Klingon Attack Cruiser exploded from twelve photon torpedo impacts. Another phaser salvo ripped apart the USS Sao Paulo and damaged the USS Lexington.
Picard stared, horrified, as the defences meant to save Earth condemned it to death.
Paris watched as the security team wrestled the charge into place. All of a sudden a shout erupted from his commbadge. 'Enterprise to Admiral Paris! Get into that room now!'
He stared at Ross for a horrified second. Both of them had heard the sound of explosions behind the transmission.
'Paris here. Admiral, we're preparing to –'
'Well hurry up then!' The channel broke off.
The fleet evaded the attack from Earth, but this made it a lot harder to attack the city destroyers. Now, most of the city destroyers had formed a perimeter against the fleet, guarding their numerous fellows who descended to the planet's surface slowly.
From the moon, glowing explosions arose over the cities of humanity's colonies as the invaders delivered a death blow to the moon's population.
Photon torpedoes and phaser blasts from Earth struck its defending fleet.
The city destroyers pounded the defenders.
And from the bridge of the Enterprise, helpless to prevent any of it, Jean-Luc Picard bowed his head in shame.
On the surface of the planet Earth, the huge shape of a city destroyer hovered over the Starfleet Headquarters, casting an immense black shadow across the city. The firing circle opened outwards and the point of the superlaser was forced downwards into the once blue sky. The green tracer beam was emitted.
All over the planet, this pattern was repeated. A destroyer hung over the old Houses of Parliament in London. In New York, one hovered over the Empire State Building. In Paris, the destroyer hovered above the Eiffel Tower. All over the planet, death came to Earth.
Admirals Paris and Ross stood back from the door, criss-crossed with wires and charges. 'It's liable to take out half of the surrounding frame,' cautioned Ross.
'Well, if the reports are anything to go by, it won't really matter anyway,' replied Paris. He held out his hand and Ross shook it. 'It's been nice knowing you, Bill.'
They both turned to the security team and said their farewells. Finally, Paris turned to Lieutenant Holder. 'Detonate.'
Holder pressed a button on his tricorder and the door exploded inwards with a devastating crash. Waiting until the smoke and rubble cleared, Paris and Ross eventually came out of hiding. 'Phasers up, and follow us,' ordered Ross. He drew his phaser for emphasis and entered the room.
Above the atmosphere, the defence weapons abruptly cut out. Picard smiled briefly, acknowledging the small victory. 'All ships, attack.'
Ross stepped into the tiny dark room, seeing little but dead, burning consoles and an empty chair before him. Paris nodded behind him. 'The explosion must have destroyed the power supply. The consoles overloaded.'
Ross stared at the chair. 'Alynna?'
As if responding to the last forgotten vestiges of Admiral Alynna Nechayev that this name dragged up, something, dressed in what was left of an Admiral's uniform, lurched up from behind the chair. Ross took a step back, fighting his revulsion, whilst Paris stared in horror and recognition at the thing that stood before them.
Admiral Nechayev's body was mostly intact. Her chest was blown away, as was most of her face. Inside the chest cavity, they could see pulsating organs - and something else. It reared its head and howled at them from its hiding place. And, when Admiral Ross raised his phaser to disintegrate it and simultaneously heard a faint whine above his head, he realised that this abomination was the last thing that he would see.
But he destroyed it anyway.
On the Enterprise, watching the effects of the last bombardment, Thames said, 'Their shields are not damaged, Admiral.' Picard took a deep breath. His next order could be his last.
However, before he could give it, Thames voice leapt a notch.
'The tracer is gone, Admiral!' Picard's heart leapt into his mouth.
'It's not possible....'
Thames shook her head in sorrow and final, crushing, humiliating despair.
'They are firing.'
A white beam speared into the top of the Starfleet Headquarters. A single pulse of laser energy was dropped down the beam and a huge explosion blasted the building apart from within.
Ross never had time to realise his death.
From within the burning wreckage, the wall of fire rolled out from the blast, burning the gardens, parks, buildings, and hundreds of people surrounding the building. It swept outwards, tearing through the city, eradicating all in its path.
Several other massive explosions heralded the destruction of Paris, London, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Delhi and every major city around the world. All of the cities of Earth were destroyed in a single instant by the alien invaders. As it had happened to all others before, the Earth fell in fire.
In San Francisco, the explosion burnt itself out. There was nothing left but a huge charred black bowl where the city had rested before the attack. All over the planet, millions of people were killed as the cities burned under the onslaught of the city destroyers.
Picard stared at the huge explosions covering the cities of the Earth. His heart filled with despair, horror and every other dark emotion that had ever invaded the human heart. Behind him, Riker said his first words since Deanna's death, his voice heavy, 'Commander Hedly, what is the status of the fleet?' Hedly stared at the screen, her eyes twin mirrors of hate, and then forced her attention to her instruments. She fought to keep her voice calm, but a note of anger crept into her voice.
'We still have nineteen hundred ships left, Captain....' Her voice trailed away. On the screen, the explosions were dying out. The crew of the Enterprise watched in mute horror as the world they had known and loved for so long fell prey to these merciless invaders.
Picard closed his eyes in total despair. He had seen this merciless act committed on many worlds now, but the horror of watching it happen to his own planet finally showed him the pitiless destructive power of these silent, invulnerable destroyers.
When he spoke, Picard's voice had, for the only time in living memory, lost all of its power and authority. 'Ensign Truper, set course to Deep Space Nine, warp nine.' Truper said nothing, and simply complied with the order automatically, his eyes never leaving the screen. Next to him, Thames silently wept for the dead Earth.
'Lieutenant Hedly, send to the rest of the fleet: We are defeated. Head to Bajor.' Picard turned and faced Hedly for the first time. 'Send a message ahead to Deep Space Nine. The Earth is... lost.'
The fleet turned from the destroyed Earth. The Enterprise flashed into warp speed. The other ships followed it. The burning blue planet hung alone in space.
As the commander of the invasion swarm turned away from the screens that displayed the burning Earth, his subordinates could feel the surge of joy and victorious celebration that ran through the fleet. They had destroyed the homeworld of their archenemies, the humans. Their atrocities upon their race had been avenged.
Now, it was time to bring the survivors of that race to justice.