- CHAPTER 37 -
- Section 31 Star Ship 619, Refit Constitution Class, A few minutes earlier -
The deep blue light panels that activated when the Section 31 vessel was under phase cloak burned steadily on the heavily modified Constitution. Some might think that a ship close to fifty years into its second century of service should have been decommissioned long ago. Yet despite the vessels age, there were very few systems currently on board her that were over five years old. Refits of vessels as old as the Constitution class, usually involved nearly a front to back reworking, and the sole remaining original part from the ISS Eagle, NCC-956 was her dedication plaque. Though she now was referred to SSS 619 in official reports and communiqués, her crew still called her Eagle unofficially. While the design might not be as fast as the new Prometheus or Soulwolf, or as safe from concentrated attacks as a Sovereign, it did mount the very latest in Terran Empire tech. It was more for what the Constitution represented in the Terran Empire's consciousness that it remained in limited service. No other vessel was as well or widely known to the people of the Empire, and no other vessel was as loved. The Constitution was the vessel that had won the war with the Klingons and the war with the ISC. No other vessel from that era was so widely produced, and no other vessel before or since had stuck in the peoples minds as a symbol of Imperial might. Hence its continued service, though not usually on the front lines, in Section 31's fleet.
Like all Section 31 vessels, the Connie mounted a multiphaseic cloak, allowing her to remain hidden from any known sensor and pass freely through solid matter. If she wanted to, she could sit in the center of a star with no noticeable effects. She mounted almost as much ablative armor as a Sovereign, giving her neck and nacelle pylons a slight bloated look. Her captain and crew were willing to accept this because it meant that the vulnerable neck and nacelles of a Connie would be much harder targets to damage. A regenerative shield array allowed her to rapidly recharge drained shield arcs. Ablative armor generators rounded out the Constitutions defenses. They were of a new design being tested on Section vessels. It was supposed to give them a near 30 % jump in ablative armor generator stopping power. A quantum slipstream core powered her, allowing her to cross the entire breadth of the Terran Empire in a little over a week. While vessels like the Soulwolf could do it in less than four days, it was still better than the 70 odd years it would take at warp 9. For a heavy cruiser based on a classic design, she was exceptionally well armed, packing Quantum torpedoes, Tri-cobalt tactical subspace torpedoes, multiple Pulse Phaser Cannon Turrets, Type XV phaser strips and a Type I Phaser Lance. That was her normal weaponry. She also usually carried a compliment of six Genesis torpedoes, allowing her to rapidly depopulate a designated solar system. Yet these weren't usual times, for nearly the entire stockpile of Genesis torpedoes had been depleted during the Borg/Imperial war. There were only a handful left in the entire TE, and SSS 619 had been issued one for her mission.
619's Captain, 39 year old Jonathan Breu, still didn't know why Jack Chambers, former head of Section and as close a personal friend as one in the spy/big brother business could have, had ordered him here to destroy 2nd Fleet. He would execute them to the best of his ability, for if he failed, he knew exactly what was in store for him and quite possibly his family as well, but the man's reasoning remained a complete mystery to him. The counter beside him wound steadily downward as 619 crept closer to her unsuspecting quarry.
The tactical plot beeped for attention from the console next to the right of the helm, directly to the front of the Captains command chair. On the screen, distinctly alien vessels began to spew from the portal.
"Species 8472 vessels transiting the Borg Portal Sir." 619's tac officer said, then began to list ship classes using Borg designations for them. It was simplest to do it that way, as everybody that knew about Species 8472 knew about them courtesy of the Borg database. "CIC tentatively has them at one large ship nearly the size of a Bastion, 200 Battleships, 100 Frigates, 150 Destroyers and 50 of another yet unknown class approximately heavy cruiser in size. They are assuming combat formation and are vectoring in on 2nd Fleet."
"Continue on course." Jonathan said. "We will be at the launch point shortly, and then we can leave this god forsaken corner of space and get back to civilization."
Suddenly the ISS Athena slip jumped out of the formation. While the Section Captain's first reaction was that it was due to his ship being detected, the ship jumped even further away and merely sat there. Soon random power fluctuations began to appear within her. The Captain frowned. What had happened that would cause the most powerful vessel in all Starfleet to act like the Athena was acting? No matter though, for his mission remained the same.
"Alter target point to coordinates 559 mark 33." That would put the device into a position to affect both the Athena and the rest of 2nd Fleet. It was fortuitous that it would still be able to affect the Borg Portal, for otherwise the Eagle would have to close in and finish its structure off with more conventional weaponry.
On the view screen, a battle on a massive scale broke out as the two fleets entered attack range, here and there a black disk blotted out the painful flare of matter-antimatter explosions. The Section Captain had to admit that on the whole, 2nd Fleet was accounting itself quite well against the superior weaponry and defenses of Species 8472. But then that was only to be expected of the Empire's premiere strike force for 2nd Fleets officers and crews were some of the best warriors in all of Starfleet. Why Jack had ordered them exterminated was unknown, but ordered it he had, and Jonathan Breu had no choice but to follow them. His conscience that he had thought lost long ago, began to pick at him. What he had done before could be explained away as dealing with traitors to the Empire. But these poor souls had done nothing. They were shining bastions to what humankind could accomplish. And they were about to be stabbed in the back by one of their own.
Then the Athena popped back into slipstream and reappeared amongst the enemy fleet. It was truly a sight to behold. She became a whirlwind of death, meeting out her vengeance on the enemy fleet, striking in every possible direction, cutting down entire squadrons of the enemy in a single pass of her mighty weaponry. Then 200 Soulwolf class Heavy Destroyers dropped out of slipstream and engaged the enemy fleet as well. Where the Athena was a Great White Shark, they were hungry Piranha, eating away at the outside of the fleet, killing ships left and right with their phaser lances and powerful quantums and phaser strips. It was an eerily beautiful sight, brilliant beams and torpedoes crisscrossing the star speckled ebony of space. Jonathan shook himself out of his awed silence. Now it looked as if 2nd Fleet would actually win the engagement, for Species 8472's numbers were dropping steadily. Within a few minutes they'll have destroyed all of the enemy, and then who knew what they would be doing. Right now was the perfect time to strike, while 2nd Fleet's attention was focused on the enemy and not on unexpected friendly targets that appeared far away from the battle.
"Alter aim point again, coordinates 503 mark 02." He was going to kill nearly a half a million loyal servants of the Empire, what were a few more unexpected Fleet personnel and their starships next to that. "Increase speed to full impulse." The counter beside him began to count down even faster as the time to the launch point dropped faster and faster.
The remaining Species 8472 vessels struck back even as they died. Their powerful main armament lashed out and four vessels died. The three remaining Wraiths and a Galaxy simply disappeared in a violent clash of bio- pulse beams as they were targeted by close to 25 ships each. They never even knew what happened because they were targeted and attacked so fast the human brain didn't have time to compute what was going on till after it had already happened. The Athena herself bucked as a similar number of beams clawed at her. Great molten strips were gouged in her armor, and here and there a few managed to pierce through her nearly impenetrable hide. Those piercing left trails of debris, bodies and vaporized plasma in the ship's wake, yet she scarcely slowed down her attack. If anything, the last hurrah of the Species 8472 fleet merely caused 2nd Fleet to speed up in its destruction of them.
"Coming up on launch point now sir." The tac officer looked over his shoulder, his eyes pleading with his captain not to give the order. Jonathan couldn't meet his eyes. Instead he stared at the Genesis torpedo's control console and spoke.
"Drop phase cloak and launch the device." For a brief instant he thought that he would have a mutiny on his hands. Then after a seeming eternity the Eagle's tac officer turned and followed his orders. The bridge's normal lighting came up as the faint powering down sound of the phase cloak was heard.
"Device away." There was anger in those words, along with no small part of self-loathing. Jonathan couldn't blame him, for those were the two feelings competing for primacy within his own self.
"Recloak and set course 003 mark 86." The blue light panels reappeared and the bridge's lighting went back down to its cloak operation levels. On the viewer, the bright green man made pin point of light that marked the Genesis torpedo streaked away from the Eagle. A split second later it to phase cloaked, disappearing from even the best sensors as it closed with its target like some vampire in the night.
Then disaster struck. For some inexplicable reason the entire body of 2nd Fleet turned and jumped to slipstream. The few scattered functional biowarships of Species 8472 that remained among the expanding cloud of wreckage of their fellows had scant seconds to try and deduce this latest turn of events before the Genesis torpedo phased back into normal space. There was a brilliant flash of light that caused the main viewer to automatically dampen its brightness to protect the eyes of the bridge crew. Then as the light faded, where there had been only wreckage, a few scattered enemy warships and a former Borg station and research facility, a new planetoid was taking shape. Veins of fire crisscrossed its surface, then a solid thick wave of orange yellow flame enveloped the new planetoid, moving from pole to pole. Where there had been only rock and vacuum before, behind the wave life and atmosphere sprang forth. While this couldn't last due to the feeble light from the systems tiny solar furnace being to little to keep water liquid, for a brief time, there was life made from lifelessness. Former Borg System A875 34B9 gained a new spacial body. How that would alter the other lifeless planets the system contained would be sorted out later, if at all. All that mattered to Jonathan Breu was that he had failed Jack Chambers, and that both he and his family were going to pay the price because of it.
Without a word, Jonathan pulled out his dagger and slit his own throat. He hoped that with his own suicide, Jack would spare his family. It was a slim chance, for despite Jack's seeming affability and friendliness, there was a hidden ruthlessness and cold-blooded single-minded pursuit of power that made him virtually unable to tolerate failure of his orders. While his appetite for revenge and power might be sated with news of Jonathan's own death, it very well might not. And Jonathan had no intention of witnessing the depravity Jack Chambers would undoubtedly employ on his family while forcing him to watch. No, there was no way he would give Jack the pleasure of seeing the terror, pain and helplessness that he would experience if, nay when that would happen.
- Section 31 Star Ship 619, Refit Constitution Class, A few minutes earlier -
The deep blue light panels that activated when the Section 31 vessel was under phase cloak burned steadily on the heavily modified Constitution. Some might think that a ship close to fifty years into its second century of service should have been decommissioned long ago. Yet despite the vessels age, there were very few systems currently on board her that were over five years old. Refits of vessels as old as the Constitution class, usually involved nearly a front to back reworking, and the sole remaining original part from the ISS Eagle, NCC-956 was her dedication plaque. Though she now was referred to SSS 619 in official reports and communiqués, her crew still called her Eagle unofficially. While the design might not be as fast as the new Prometheus or Soulwolf, or as safe from concentrated attacks as a Sovereign, it did mount the very latest in Terran Empire tech. It was more for what the Constitution represented in the Terran Empire's consciousness that it remained in limited service. No other vessel was as well or widely known to the people of the Empire, and no other vessel was as loved. The Constitution was the vessel that had won the war with the Klingons and the war with the ISC. No other vessel from that era was so widely produced, and no other vessel before or since had stuck in the peoples minds as a symbol of Imperial might. Hence its continued service, though not usually on the front lines, in Section 31's fleet.
Like all Section 31 vessels, the Connie mounted a multiphaseic cloak, allowing her to remain hidden from any known sensor and pass freely through solid matter. If she wanted to, she could sit in the center of a star with no noticeable effects. She mounted almost as much ablative armor as a Sovereign, giving her neck and nacelle pylons a slight bloated look. Her captain and crew were willing to accept this because it meant that the vulnerable neck and nacelles of a Connie would be much harder targets to damage. A regenerative shield array allowed her to rapidly recharge drained shield arcs. Ablative armor generators rounded out the Constitutions defenses. They were of a new design being tested on Section vessels. It was supposed to give them a near 30 % jump in ablative armor generator stopping power. A quantum slipstream core powered her, allowing her to cross the entire breadth of the Terran Empire in a little over a week. While vessels like the Soulwolf could do it in less than four days, it was still better than the 70 odd years it would take at warp 9. For a heavy cruiser based on a classic design, she was exceptionally well armed, packing Quantum torpedoes, Tri-cobalt tactical subspace torpedoes, multiple Pulse Phaser Cannon Turrets, Type XV phaser strips and a Type I Phaser Lance. That was her normal weaponry. She also usually carried a compliment of six Genesis torpedoes, allowing her to rapidly depopulate a designated solar system. Yet these weren't usual times, for nearly the entire stockpile of Genesis torpedoes had been depleted during the Borg/Imperial war. There were only a handful left in the entire TE, and SSS 619 had been issued one for her mission.
619's Captain, 39 year old Jonathan Breu, still didn't know why Jack Chambers, former head of Section and as close a personal friend as one in the spy/big brother business could have, had ordered him here to destroy 2nd Fleet. He would execute them to the best of his ability, for if he failed, he knew exactly what was in store for him and quite possibly his family as well, but the man's reasoning remained a complete mystery to him. The counter beside him wound steadily downward as 619 crept closer to her unsuspecting quarry.
The tactical plot beeped for attention from the console next to the right of the helm, directly to the front of the Captains command chair. On the screen, distinctly alien vessels began to spew from the portal.
"Species 8472 vessels transiting the Borg Portal Sir." 619's tac officer said, then began to list ship classes using Borg designations for them. It was simplest to do it that way, as everybody that knew about Species 8472 knew about them courtesy of the Borg database. "CIC tentatively has them at one large ship nearly the size of a Bastion, 200 Battleships, 100 Frigates, 150 Destroyers and 50 of another yet unknown class approximately heavy cruiser in size. They are assuming combat formation and are vectoring in on 2nd Fleet."
"Continue on course." Jonathan said. "We will be at the launch point shortly, and then we can leave this god forsaken corner of space and get back to civilization."
Suddenly the ISS Athena slip jumped out of the formation. While the Section Captain's first reaction was that it was due to his ship being detected, the ship jumped even further away and merely sat there. Soon random power fluctuations began to appear within her. The Captain frowned. What had happened that would cause the most powerful vessel in all Starfleet to act like the Athena was acting? No matter though, for his mission remained the same.
"Alter target point to coordinates 559 mark 33." That would put the device into a position to affect both the Athena and the rest of 2nd Fleet. It was fortuitous that it would still be able to affect the Borg Portal, for otherwise the Eagle would have to close in and finish its structure off with more conventional weaponry.
On the view screen, a battle on a massive scale broke out as the two fleets entered attack range, here and there a black disk blotted out the painful flare of matter-antimatter explosions. The Section Captain had to admit that on the whole, 2nd Fleet was accounting itself quite well against the superior weaponry and defenses of Species 8472. But then that was only to be expected of the Empire's premiere strike force for 2nd Fleets officers and crews were some of the best warriors in all of Starfleet. Why Jack had ordered them exterminated was unknown, but ordered it he had, and Jonathan Breu had no choice but to follow them. His conscience that he had thought lost long ago, began to pick at him. What he had done before could be explained away as dealing with traitors to the Empire. But these poor souls had done nothing. They were shining bastions to what humankind could accomplish. And they were about to be stabbed in the back by one of their own.
Then the Athena popped back into slipstream and reappeared amongst the enemy fleet. It was truly a sight to behold. She became a whirlwind of death, meeting out her vengeance on the enemy fleet, striking in every possible direction, cutting down entire squadrons of the enemy in a single pass of her mighty weaponry. Then 200 Soulwolf class Heavy Destroyers dropped out of slipstream and engaged the enemy fleet as well. Where the Athena was a Great White Shark, they were hungry Piranha, eating away at the outside of the fleet, killing ships left and right with their phaser lances and powerful quantums and phaser strips. It was an eerily beautiful sight, brilliant beams and torpedoes crisscrossing the star speckled ebony of space. Jonathan shook himself out of his awed silence. Now it looked as if 2nd Fleet would actually win the engagement, for Species 8472's numbers were dropping steadily. Within a few minutes they'll have destroyed all of the enemy, and then who knew what they would be doing. Right now was the perfect time to strike, while 2nd Fleet's attention was focused on the enemy and not on unexpected friendly targets that appeared far away from the battle.
"Alter aim point again, coordinates 503 mark 02." He was going to kill nearly a half a million loyal servants of the Empire, what were a few more unexpected Fleet personnel and their starships next to that. "Increase speed to full impulse." The counter beside him began to count down even faster as the time to the launch point dropped faster and faster.
The remaining Species 8472 vessels struck back even as they died. Their powerful main armament lashed out and four vessels died. The three remaining Wraiths and a Galaxy simply disappeared in a violent clash of bio- pulse beams as they were targeted by close to 25 ships each. They never even knew what happened because they were targeted and attacked so fast the human brain didn't have time to compute what was going on till after it had already happened. The Athena herself bucked as a similar number of beams clawed at her. Great molten strips were gouged in her armor, and here and there a few managed to pierce through her nearly impenetrable hide. Those piercing left trails of debris, bodies and vaporized plasma in the ship's wake, yet she scarcely slowed down her attack. If anything, the last hurrah of the Species 8472 fleet merely caused 2nd Fleet to speed up in its destruction of them.
"Coming up on launch point now sir." The tac officer looked over his shoulder, his eyes pleading with his captain not to give the order. Jonathan couldn't meet his eyes. Instead he stared at the Genesis torpedo's control console and spoke.
"Drop phase cloak and launch the device." For a brief instant he thought that he would have a mutiny on his hands. Then after a seeming eternity the Eagle's tac officer turned and followed his orders. The bridge's normal lighting came up as the faint powering down sound of the phase cloak was heard.
"Device away." There was anger in those words, along with no small part of self-loathing. Jonathan couldn't blame him, for those were the two feelings competing for primacy within his own self.
"Recloak and set course 003 mark 86." The blue light panels reappeared and the bridge's lighting went back down to its cloak operation levels. On the viewer, the bright green man made pin point of light that marked the Genesis torpedo streaked away from the Eagle. A split second later it to phase cloaked, disappearing from even the best sensors as it closed with its target like some vampire in the night.
Then disaster struck. For some inexplicable reason the entire body of 2nd Fleet turned and jumped to slipstream. The few scattered functional biowarships of Species 8472 that remained among the expanding cloud of wreckage of their fellows had scant seconds to try and deduce this latest turn of events before the Genesis torpedo phased back into normal space. There was a brilliant flash of light that caused the main viewer to automatically dampen its brightness to protect the eyes of the bridge crew. Then as the light faded, where there had been only wreckage, a few scattered enemy warships and a former Borg station and research facility, a new planetoid was taking shape. Veins of fire crisscrossed its surface, then a solid thick wave of orange yellow flame enveloped the new planetoid, moving from pole to pole. Where there had been only rock and vacuum before, behind the wave life and atmosphere sprang forth. While this couldn't last due to the feeble light from the systems tiny solar furnace being to little to keep water liquid, for a brief time, there was life made from lifelessness. Former Borg System A875 34B9 gained a new spacial body. How that would alter the other lifeless planets the system contained would be sorted out later, if at all. All that mattered to Jonathan Breu was that he had failed Jack Chambers, and that both he and his family were going to pay the price because of it.
Without a word, Jonathan pulled out his dagger and slit his own throat. He hoped that with his own suicide, Jack would spare his family. It was a slim chance, for despite Jack's seeming affability and friendliness, there was a hidden ruthlessness and cold-blooded single-minded pursuit of power that made him virtually unable to tolerate failure of his orders. While his appetite for revenge and power might be sated with news of Jonathan's own death, it very well might not. And Jonathan had no intention of witnessing the depravity Jack Chambers would undoubtedly employ on his family while forcing him to watch. No, there was no way he would give Jack the pleasure of seeing the terror, pain and helplessness that he would experience if, nay when that would happen.