- CHAPTER 30 -
- Flag Bridge, ISS Athena, that same time -
T'var had completed her communiqué to the still returning arm of 2nd Fleet, Battle Group B, not even a minute before when Species 8472 bioships began to spew from the portal. She had had even less time than she thought, but even that didn't change the plan. 2nd Fleet would hold the enemy here till the portal closed, or they would die taking as many of their living warships with them as they could. It would at least help the follow on fleets that would inevitably root them out, but it didn't place much chance on 2nd Fleet's survival. Vessel after vessel piled through the slowly weakening portal. When the last one came through, there were nearly as many enemy vessels in the system as there were Imperial ones. And those of the enemy had both more powerful main weaponry than most of 2nd Fleet, they also were considerably tougher targets to boot. The organism that made up the lions share of a Species 8472 vessel was highly resistant to standard phaser strikes, healing itself with stunning rapidity after every hit, so that it could accept a lot more punishment than a comparable Imperial vessel. Worse still, there were previously unknown bioship classes present in the S-8472 fleet. One was nearly the same size as the Athena herself, though only in general dimensions, not in volume. Three shafts extended from that ship like three desiccated fingers, making up nearly 2/3s the ships total size. They three were attached to a rear section that held a lot of design similarities with the standard bio battleship rear hull, only on a larger scale. Taken together, the ship looked like a giant talon mounted on ribbed wings, ready to crush any starship who dared to mess with it. Fortunately it wasn't all bad news, for the massive ship seemed to be even clumsier on its helm than a standard Bastion class was, and with the Athena's STL drive upgrade, she could handily run circles around it any day of the week.
Without her noticing it, Corval had slunk up onto the platform beside her. It was almost like he was trying to hide from the fleet that seemed to hang within hands reach in front of him He was shuddering slightly, and had his hands clasped around his head as if trying to hold it from falling apart and his eyes tightly shut as if in pain. Sweat beaded on his brow, and collected along his cranial ridges. His normally pale skin was now even more lacking in color, making the pitiful experiment look like death warmed over. He forced out a stuttering whisper.
"Iiii c.can HEAR themmm! The.they sssay the wweakk ssshhaallll perissshhh!" With as much emotion as she had ever let slip past her shield of logic and iron self-control, T'var reached out and placed a steadying hand on Corval's wrinkled tunic clad shoulder. There was a slight frown on her usually impassive face, and genuine concern sparked in her eyes. She sent as much support to him as she could telepathically, trying to strengthen his weakening mind shields. While she herself couldn't hear their evidently telepathic siren song, she also wasn't nearly as powerful of a mind as he was, so it was entirely possible that she never would hear their "voice" either.
"Be strong Corval, feel my strength flow through you, reinforcing your defenses." Even as she spoke it seemed to have an effect, for he lowered his hands, opened his eyes and stood slightly straighter.
"Thankkk you A..Admiiiirrralll!" A child like grin creased his face and T'var's heart warmed at the thought that she had been successful in easing his pain. There was still a slight wince as the telepathic assault by Species 8472, but he now seemed capable of holding it at bay. That little job done, T'var turned towards the projected enemy fleet. She extended a gauntleted hand which caused a targeting recticle to appear on the holo display. She moved her hand till the recticle was centered over the massive enemy vessel, then closed it into a fist. Its crimson bracket changed to the thicker crimson and orange of a primary target. Then she moved the recticle over a nearby finned spindle of an enemy Battleship. She clenched her fist again and spoke
"Designate all ships of same class as secondary targets." The computer pulled in all available sensor data and matched it with records from CIC, and within a second all other enemy Battleships present in A875 34B9 were bracketed in narrow red and orange. They would appear as such on the main viewers of every starship in 2nd Fleet, and once the battle was joined, the Fleet Battle Net would ensure that each enemy got its fair share of attention. While it would most likely be necessary to engage enemy vessels with entire wings of Imperial ships, Battle Net should ensure that three wings weren't chasing the same ship while two others were left to their own devices.
"Engage Ablative Armor Generators. Tell the Aegeans to power up their shield enhancers. Launch the fighters. Wing Commanders discretion as to targets after it is destroyed. It's also the priority of the rest of the fleet as well. Then we move on to their battleships. Give me a Fleet wide address."
"Done Admiral."
"Second fleet, you all know your missions, and you all know what is required of you. Today we face an enemy that is more dangerous to the Empire than even the Borg. Where the Borg merely sought to enslave us into their collective, these beings would be perfectly willing to burn every life-bearing world in the galaxy to ashes. They say that the weak shall perish. They have yet to encounter an unshaken Imperial Fleet that is in full readiness for them. When they do, they will indeed find out who is weak and who isn't. For the Glory of the Empire. T'var out." She turned to the slightly slumped Romulan behind her.
"Mr. Corval, would you be so kind as to do your thing on the enemy flag ship?"
"Yess Adddmiralll." The air seemed to crackle around Corval as the multitudinous safety locks and blocking mechanisms fell away and the full, blinding telepathic power erupted out like a raging torrent that had broken through a dam. With her own telepathic abilities, T'var could almost physically see the immaterial lance of mental energy that lashed out at the enemy.
-The Race was going about its plan of attack as it had practiced since the old Enemies in their cubic ships had come through the portal. This small force was merely the local nodal defense force. The Race had decided long ago that despite this being the only known point of contact with the hostile enemy, it would receive only a slightly heightened fleet presence than was the norm. Although countless new ships were being raised in the stellar nurseries, they were still maturing and not yet ready to advance to become full on warships. As a result, The Race had decided that a nodal fleet disposition with strong forces around the core worlds would be best, as there was nothing known that prevented the old enemy from creating another portal to another area of The Race's space. Transiting the wormholes that linked all known systems in Fluidic Space didn't take that long as their termini were usually clustered near the core of a star system and transit times were virtually instantaneous from one end of the wormhole to the other.
Even now, massive waves of reinforcements from nearby nodal systems were enroute to the artificial warp point that had again sprung up. Within six hours the defensive fleet would be nearly eight times its current size, and with a further seven hours, it would double that total. For a while, it appeared that no further incursions of hostile species would occur into The Race's home space. There had even been some arguments that the continual buildup of warships was a waste of embryos. Fortunately those voices were few and far between, for the buildup had continued according to The Race's citizens own desire for it to be so. Now those dissenting voices would be silent forevermore, for a second force had indeed entered into The Race's territory. They were different than the first, but their hostile intent was even more event that the original enemies had been. Although they didn't seem to be of one "voice" like those who used the cubic craft, nearly all of their individual "voices" were showing both their hostile nature and mission for all to hear clearly. That was why they had been exterminated like the enemies before them.
That was also why the ships of The Race had again returned to this strange place of darkness and pinpricks of light, this void of near nothingness that any member of The Race found disconcerting. If the enemy continued to try and attack The Race, they must be eliminated at their source. Their source was in this odd place, and so it was to here that the fleet came. The Race had as yet no success in duplicating the warp point generator itself, but having done detailed scans of it after first destroying the old enemy's initial assault, it would come eventually. In the mean time, the portal must be secured in order to maintain access to this system and the stars surrounding it. While the race had had no reason for developing FTL drive tech before the old enemies invaded, they were also developing it now. If it did indeed prove true that there was no honeycomb of warp lanes crisscrossing this area, then another form of crossing the interstellar void must be created if a successful campaign was to be mounted in this peculiar area of space.
But all of that was in the future. In the here and now, all that mattered was securing the area around the artificial warp point in order to ensure a bridge head into the enemies own area of space while preventing him from doing likewise. As a result of this, the fleet arrayed itself out in battle formation then launched itself at the enemy. But just as it was about to do so, something strange permeated the Voice of The Race. It was, surprisingly, one of the enemies that was causing it. While this was both intriguing and terrifying, it couldn't be allowed to continue. The Voice was combined and redoubled and sent back down on the lone enemy that had tried to enter it uninvited. It was like a heavy boot squashing a bug, only this helpless bug was only following orders and had never actually wanted to harm anything in his entire life. It wasn't his fault that Section 31 had engineered him to kill with a thought, but he was going to pay the price. -
- ISS Athena, Flag Bridge -
One minute Corval had been concentrating intently on his target, the next he was screaming through clenched teeth at the top of his lungs. T'var whipped her chair around to look at him. The veins in his temples were immediately apparent as he clenched his jaw tightly together. His eyes had rolled back into their sockets and his hands were twitching like he was having a seizure. T'var made to sand to see what had happened, but suddenly she felt light headed and her vision blurred. She staggered back into her seat as the dizziness increased. Then she felt as if a freight train had smashed into her mind.
"Wha.." Her last conscious question faded off into mindless blathering as she stared vacantly ahead with a small trickle of drool collecting at the corner of her mouth to run down her cheek. The Psychonic Blast affected targeted crew differently. Weather you weren't affected at all or went permanently insane was directed to pure chance. The feedback caused by S- 8472 had caused Corval's attack on them to rebound and strike the crew of his own vessel. Throughout the massive warship, the crew began to playfully pull out isonlinear chips, ripping up wiring, pounding panels with blunt objects, and even turning on each other in their madness. The battle was nearly joined when the Athena's helmsman decided that his panel was the neatest thing in the world because it beeped when he pressed it. By pure chance he activated a micro jump to slip drive that carried the Athena out of combat range. It carried the ISS Hopolite in its tractor beam with it. And the Hopolite still carried most of her senior officers. And those senior officers were not affected by the Psychonic Blast in any way.
- Flag Bridge, ISS Athena, that same time -
T'var had completed her communiqué to the still returning arm of 2nd Fleet, Battle Group B, not even a minute before when Species 8472 bioships began to spew from the portal. She had had even less time than she thought, but even that didn't change the plan. 2nd Fleet would hold the enemy here till the portal closed, or they would die taking as many of their living warships with them as they could. It would at least help the follow on fleets that would inevitably root them out, but it didn't place much chance on 2nd Fleet's survival. Vessel after vessel piled through the slowly weakening portal. When the last one came through, there were nearly as many enemy vessels in the system as there were Imperial ones. And those of the enemy had both more powerful main weaponry than most of 2nd Fleet, they also were considerably tougher targets to boot. The organism that made up the lions share of a Species 8472 vessel was highly resistant to standard phaser strikes, healing itself with stunning rapidity after every hit, so that it could accept a lot more punishment than a comparable Imperial vessel. Worse still, there were previously unknown bioship classes present in the S-8472 fleet. One was nearly the same size as the Athena herself, though only in general dimensions, not in volume. Three shafts extended from that ship like three desiccated fingers, making up nearly 2/3s the ships total size. They three were attached to a rear section that held a lot of design similarities with the standard bio battleship rear hull, only on a larger scale. Taken together, the ship looked like a giant talon mounted on ribbed wings, ready to crush any starship who dared to mess with it. Fortunately it wasn't all bad news, for the massive ship seemed to be even clumsier on its helm than a standard Bastion class was, and with the Athena's STL drive upgrade, she could handily run circles around it any day of the week.
Without her noticing it, Corval had slunk up onto the platform beside her. It was almost like he was trying to hide from the fleet that seemed to hang within hands reach in front of him He was shuddering slightly, and had his hands clasped around his head as if trying to hold it from falling apart and his eyes tightly shut as if in pain. Sweat beaded on his brow, and collected along his cranial ridges. His normally pale skin was now even more lacking in color, making the pitiful experiment look like death warmed over. He forced out a stuttering whisper.
"Iiii c.can HEAR themmm! The.they sssay the wweakk ssshhaallll perissshhh!" With as much emotion as she had ever let slip past her shield of logic and iron self-control, T'var reached out and placed a steadying hand on Corval's wrinkled tunic clad shoulder. There was a slight frown on her usually impassive face, and genuine concern sparked in her eyes. She sent as much support to him as she could telepathically, trying to strengthen his weakening mind shields. While she herself couldn't hear their evidently telepathic siren song, she also wasn't nearly as powerful of a mind as he was, so it was entirely possible that she never would hear their "voice" either.
"Be strong Corval, feel my strength flow through you, reinforcing your defenses." Even as she spoke it seemed to have an effect, for he lowered his hands, opened his eyes and stood slightly straighter.
"Thankkk you A..Admiiiirrralll!" A child like grin creased his face and T'var's heart warmed at the thought that she had been successful in easing his pain. There was still a slight wince as the telepathic assault by Species 8472, but he now seemed capable of holding it at bay. That little job done, T'var turned towards the projected enemy fleet. She extended a gauntleted hand which caused a targeting recticle to appear on the holo display. She moved her hand till the recticle was centered over the massive enemy vessel, then closed it into a fist. Its crimson bracket changed to the thicker crimson and orange of a primary target. Then she moved the recticle over a nearby finned spindle of an enemy Battleship. She clenched her fist again and spoke
"Designate all ships of same class as secondary targets." The computer pulled in all available sensor data and matched it with records from CIC, and within a second all other enemy Battleships present in A875 34B9 were bracketed in narrow red and orange. They would appear as such on the main viewers of every starship in 2nd Fleet, and once the battle was joined, the Fleet Battle Net would ensure that each enemy got its fair share of attention. While it would most likely be necessary to engage enemy vessels with entire wings of Imperial ships, Battle Net should ensure that three wings weren't chasing the same ship while two others were left to their own devices.
"Engage Ablative Armor Generators. Tell the Aegeans to power up their shield enhancers. Launch the fighters. Wing Commanders discretion as to targets after it is destroyed. It's also the priority of the rest of the fleet as well. Then we move on to their battleships. Give me a Fleet wide address."
"Done Admiral."
"Second fleet, you all know your missions, and you all know what is required of you. Today we face an enemy that is more dangerous to the Empire than even the Borg. Where the Borg merely sought to enslave us into their collective, these beings would be perfectly willing to burn every life-bearing world in the galaxy to ashes. They say that the weak shall perish. They have yet to encounter an unshaken Imperial Fleet that is in full readiness for them. When they do, they will indeed find out who is weak and who isn't. For the Glory of the Empire. T'var out." She turned to the slightly slumped Romulan behind her.
"Mr. Corval, would you be so kind as to do your thing on the enemy flag ship?"
"Yess Adddmiralll." The air seemed to crackle around Corval as the multitudinous safety locks and blocking mechanisms fell away and the full, blinding telepathic power erupted out like a raging torrent that had broken through a dam. With her own telepathic abilities, T'var could almost physically see the immaterial lance of mental energy that lashed out at the enemy.
-The Race was going about its plan of attack as it had practiced since the old Enemies in their cubic ships had come through the portal. This small force was merely the local nodal defense force. The Race had decided long ago that despite this being the only known point of contact with the hostile enemy, it would receive only a slightly heightened fleet presence than was the norm. Although countless new ships were being raised in the stellar nurseries, they were still maturing and not yet ready to advance to become full on warships. As a result, The Race had decided that a nodal fleet disposition with strong forces around the core worlds would be best, as there was nothing known that prevented the old enemy from creating another portal to another area of The Race's space. Transiting the wormholes that linked all known systems in Fluidic Space didn't take that long as their termini were usually clustered near the core of a star system and transit times were virtually instantaneous from one end of the wormhole to the other.
Even now, massive waves of reinforcements from nearby nodal systems were enroute to the artificial warp point that had again sprung up. Within six hours the defensive fleet would be nearly eight times its current size, and with a further seven hours, it would double that total. For a while, it appeared that no further incursions of hostile species would occur into The Race's home space. There had even been some arguments that the continual buildup of warships was a waste of embryos. Fortunately those voices were few and far between, for the buildup had continued according to The Race's citizens own desire for it to be so. Now those dissenting voices would be silent forevermore, for a second force had indeed entered into The Race's territory. They were different than the first, but their hostile intent was even more event that the original enemies had been. Although they didn't seem to be of one "voice" like those who used the cubic craft, nearly all of their individual "voices" were showing both their hostile nature and mission for all to hear clearly. That was why they had been exterminated like the enemies before them.
That was also why the ships of The Race had again returned to this strange place of darkness and pinpricks of light, this void of near nothingness that any member of The Race found disconcerting. If the enemy continued to try and attack The Race, they must be eliminated at their source. Their source was in this odd place, and so it was to here that the fleet came. The Race had as yet no success in duplicating the warp point generator itself, but having done detailed scans of it after first destroying the old enemy's initial assault, it would come eventually. In the mean time, the portal must be secured in order to maintain access to this system and the stars surrounding it. While the race had had no reason for developing FTL drive tech before the old enemies invaded, they were also developing it now. If it did indeed prove true that there was no honeycomb of warp lanes crisscrossing this area, then another form of crossing the interstellar void must be created if a successful campaign was to be mounted in this peculiar area of space.
But all of that was in the future. In the here and now, all that mattered was securing the area around the artificial warp point in order to ensure a bridge head into the enemies own area of space while preventing him from doing likewise. As a result of this, the fleet arrayed itself out in battle formation then launched itself at the enemy. But just as it was about to do so, something strange permeated the Voice of The Race. It was, surprisingly, one of the enemies that was causing it. While this was both intriguing and terrifying, it couldn't be allowed to continue. The Voice was combined and redoubled and sent back down on the lone enemy that had tried to enter it uninvited. It was like a heavy boot squashing a bug, only this helpless bug was only following orders and had never actually wanted to harm anything in his entire life. It wasn't his fault that Section 31 had engineered him to kill with a thought, but he was going to pay the price. -
- ISS Athena, Flag Bridge -
One minute Corval had been concentrating intently on his target, the next he was screaming through clenched teeth at the top of his lungs. T'var whipped her chair around to look at him. The veins in his temples were immediately apparent as he clenched his jaw tightly together. His eyes had rolled back into their sockets and his hands were twitching like he was having a seizure. T'var made to sand to see what had happened, but suddenly she felt light headed and her vision blurred. She staggered back into her seat as the dizziness increased. Then she felt as if a freight train had smashed into her mind.
"Wha.." Her last conscious question faded off into mindless blathering as she stared vacantly ahead with a small trickle of drool collecting at the corner of her mouth to run down her cheek. The Psychonic Blast affected targeted crew differently. Weather you weren't affected at all or went permanently insane was directed to pure chance. The feedback caused by S- 8472 had caused Corval's attack on them to rebound and strike the crew of his own vessel. Throughout the massive warship, the crew began to playfully pull out isonlinear chips, ripping up wiring, pounding panels with blunt objects, and even turning on each other in their madness. The battle was nearly joined when the Athena's helmsman decided that his panel was the neatest thing in the world because it beeped when he pressed it. By pure chance he activated a micro jump to slip drive that carried the Athena out of combat range. It carried the ISS Hopolite in its tractor beam with it. And the Hopolite still carried most of her senior officers. And those senior officers were not affected by the Psychonic Blast in any way.