- CHAPTER 43 -
- Flag Officer's Quarters, Starbase 10, Sector Command, Qo'noS System -
The faint fire pricked blackness filtering through the rooms windows showed a nearly empty bottle of Champaign and two tall glasses on the table along with the remains of a meal. Discarded articles of clothing, one set an Admiral's uniform, the other that of a Flag Staff Lieutenant, trailed towards the adjoining room. Girlish giggles and throaty male laughter echoed throughout the darkened suite, joined here and there by a soft gasp of pleasure, emanated from the bedroom.
The computer beeped in the nearly pitch black quarters, demanding the Admiral's attention. But that would mean dividing his attention from his companion. He had no intention of doing that, so he ignored it and instead kept his attention on the squirming, giggling body beneath his own. The terminal beeped again after a few seconds, this time louder and in a more grating tone. Gritting his teeth in anger Admiral Irving Johnston continued to explore every curve of his recently acquired junior staff officer. Whomever it was that was bothering him would get some time in the Agonizer once he was through here. He had left specific instructions that he wasn't to be disturbed and heaven help those who disobeyed his orders.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
"Still no response from the Admiral sir." The terrified looking com officer told Commodore Alex Mushashi. He had every right to be scared, for while the Commodore could bring him pain immediately, the Admiral could do so later, and for a considerably longer time period. He was caught between a rock and a hard place and he knew it. The fear of immediate pain spurred him into action, and he clung to the faint hope that the Admiral's wrath would fall on the Commodore instead of the messenger.
"Try again, this time open full voice connection." Alex snapped, her brown almond eyes boring into the hesitant com officer. Weather the Admiral liked it or not he needed to be informed of what was happening immediately.
"The Imperial vessels are deeper into the Qo'noS system at maximum sustainable warp. Our sensors and the Corridor Terminus Picket Fleet say that they are indeed severely damaged, just like they claimed in their mayday Sir." The watch tactical officer said from Alex's right. "CIC says that they are two Sovereigns, the Reliant and the Mars, two Galaxies, the Vengeance and the Goddard, four Akira's, the Iroquois, the Basilisk, the Pike and the Cochrane, and seven Defiants, all with varying degrees of battle damage. According to their Ident, they are part of the local Sector Rapid Response Fleet. They say they were out on maneuvers when some heavily armed Klingon vessels ambushed them. After getting over their initial surprise, they proceeded to destroy the Klingons, but not after taking the damage. Seeing as how we were the closest repair facility, they plotted a course and entered the Subspace Corridors."
"Damn Klingon barbarians, don't they know when they're licked?" Alex muttered softly to herself. "Have you gotten that line through yet?!" She said to the com officer.
"Yes Ma'am, channel open."
"Admiral Irving Johnston, I am sorry to disturb you but we have some unexpected."
"Shut the F*** up and deal with it yourself you sorry excuse for an Imperial officer!" the venom filled voice of the Qo'noS Sector fleet commander cut her off. "When I leave orders I expect them to be followed to the letter. I'm occupied right now, but I'll deal with this little interruption by you afterward, of that you can be certain." The connection died.
"Always thinking with his dick instead of with his brain." Alex muttered with a sour expression. Well fine, if he wanted her to deal with it, then that was all there was to it. It wasn't like she had never spent time in an Agonizer before, and it likely wouldn't be the last. "Open a channel to the lead Imperial vessel."
- Grand Alliance Klingon Attack Fleet, just beyond sensor range of Qo'noS system
The massive fleet made up mostly of Klingon vessels hovered in cloak, waiting for the time to strike. It should be happening right about now.
- Captured Imperial Star Ship Reliant -
Their ruse was working perfectly. Within a few minutes the next wave would begin, and then the Klingon Empire would be reborn.
"Imperial Vessel Reliant, this is Qo'noS system command."
"We read you loud and clear command." The computer generated Terran Officer replied.
"You are to proceed to coordinates 3309 mark 68 and hold position. An engineering team will be dispatched to assess your damage. Command out."
The Klingon officer smiled a toothy smile. It was working, the false life signs that were being generated across the captured ships were fooling the Imperials into thinking that this ship was one of their own. It was fortunate that the Qo'noS system's defenses, while formidable, were no where near as extensive as those of say Terra or Vulcan. Here there were no vast swarms of mines and OWPs, no Stations seeded so thick you could nearly walk from one to the next across the system, and no warp inhibitors to slow traffic to a crawl.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
The six Imperial vessels cruised deeper into the system, the few automated sentries and battle stations letting them pass without a hitch. Yet that did nothing to calm Alex. She was uneasy and her stomach was in knots. There was no reason for it, yet she couldn't ease it at all.
"Scan them again. Something isn't quite right here. I can't put my finger on it, but its there."
"Scanning them again, aye Ma'am."
"Anything anomalous?"
"Other than a slight irregularity in their warp signature, no Ma'am."
"Slight irregularity!" She pounced like a cat on a mouse.
"Easily explained by their battle damage Commodore. It could have easily knocked their warp drive field out of alignment, causing minor irregularities the sensor's are picking up."
"Hmmm." Alex replied with a frown. Was she only jumping at shadows? Perhaps the thoughts of the Admiral's retaliation was affecting her more than she would admit to, even to herself?
- Captured Imperial Star Ship Reliant -
"They are scanning us again Captain." The Klingon Tactical officer said.
"Any change in the status of their weapons and shields?"
"No sir. It would appear that the modifications to our warp signature and the false life signs are working exactly as they are supposed to."
"Continue on course then."
The seconds ticked by, seemingly taking an eternity for each one to pass.
"Coming up on deployment time frame."
"Prepare for deployment on my mark." The small flotilla of captured Imperial warships cruised to within striking range of the main fixed and mobile defenses of the Qo'noS system. 10th Fleet was arrayed in squadrons around the Klingon homeworld, with rings of shipyards, starbases, orbital weapons platforms and battle stations seeded thick amongst them. All told there were over 300 OWPs, 20 Battle Stations, 35 smaller Starbases and 5 mammoth shipyards in Qo'noS orbit. They were backed by 6 Wraiths, 50 Sovereigns, 75 Galaxies, 200 Prometheuses, 50 Nebulas of various classes, 80 Akiras, over 2000 mixed Defiants, Sabers, Norways and Intrepids and close to 3000 fighters based either ground side or on orbiting battle stations. Only half of this mighty fleet was near Qo'noS at any one time. The rest were cruising the outer system or patrolling nearby systems. The mobile forces were a nearly up to strength Nodal Sector Defense Fleet, and they were currently going about their daily routine with out a care in the world. The captured warships spread out their formation as they came out of warp, putting greater and greater distance between them selves.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
"Well that's peculiar." The tactical officer said, more perplexed than concerned.
"What is?!" Alex demanded, striding towards the tactical console.
"For some reason, the damaged ships are increasing the spacing between themselves. It almost looks like they are moving to combat separation."
"WHAT!?"
- Captured Imperial Star Ship Reliant -
". Two, one, Mark!" The Klingon Captain said with great relish and a clench of his fist.
On the exterior of the captured warships, concealed paneling blew away as its explosive charges activated. They revealed the hidden weapons systems beneath, and they began to spit out a seemingly endless stream of energy torpedoes. The defenses of Qo'noS, both mobile and fixed, were caught completely flatfooted. They had no reason to suspect that their own vessels would attack them, or that they had been modified to carry such a devastating payload.
Silvery pulsating energy bursts vomited forth from their formerly hidden launchers. Every one launched was fired at a separate target. Many only had their navigational shields in operation, yet even their fully deployed armor and fully energized shields would have proven no obstacle to the weapons effects. When they struck, the lighting of the target flickered and died as main power disappeared. Engines, shields, weapons, life support, even the targets internal gravity was thrown offline. In a mere handful of seconds, close to 1/3 of Qo'noS's defenses were inoperative and adrift, moving merely on their own inertia or the attraction of a nearby planet or moon.
Within seconds, Qo'noS's planetary shield ramped up to full power as all of the deorbit corridors were slammed shut, shrouding the entire planet in a solid wall of energy. The generators were rated at holding back close to 72 hours of continuous bombardment from an entire Borg Fleet, so the Terran rulers of Qo'noS felt justifiably secure. With only the vessels currently attacking them, they wouldn't even scratch the shield grid before the surviving warships blew them apart from long range with proximity-fused torpedoes and phaser lance fire.
Then the other punch of the combination struck. Perimeter sensors had a brief glimpse of a massive incoming warp signature before they were well and thoroughly jammed. Then the sensors themselves were struck by Breen energy dampening torpedoes, and they shut down exactly like the ships and stations in the inner system.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
The wail of the Red Alert klaxon was screaming in the background chirps and beeps of Ops, but the Human and even Vulcan controllers were shocked into nonfiction. By some miracle of fate, Sector Command Starbase 10 had been on the far side of Qo'noS when the captured Starfleet vessels had begun their attack. They therefore had full access to what was happening, and it was horrifying. In a mere handful of seconds, over a third of the fixed and mobile forces in the system were now highlighted in the amber cored crimson of inoperative units. And it wasn't even the inoperative units reporting in themselves, ALL readings and com systems on them were totally gone. Even their independently powered redundant IFF was inoperative. The only reason it was even known that they were still there at all was that sensors outside of the initial attack were still picking up their hulls.
It was beyond belief. It couldn't be happening. Yet even as the duty crew stared in petrified silence, more allied units along the periphery of the blight began to join their inoperative companions. Alex finally jerked her panicked mind into action.
"Orders to all operative Fleet units, engage hostile forces at maximum range. Keep your formations and watch out for their weapons. They appear to completely disable a vessel in one shot, so stay sharp." As she spoke, the planetary shield grid on Qo'noS snapped to full combat power. Good, she thought, at least someone down there is on the ball. She also saw the ready fighter squadrons light off and start screaming for space, both from the surviving stations and their ground bases. Good, good, this entire escapade would be shortly dealt with, and she would get full credit for the win. After all, she thought with savage delight, that dirty sex hound made it my baby, so he can't do a damn thing.
Then she felt like she had been punched in the gut. The holo display shifted to display new priority data transmitted from the perimeter sensor net. No! There was NO WAY IN HELL that that transmission was correct! In the brief instant that the sensors had before they were totally jammed, they showed one of the largest fleets Alex had ever seen, but it wasn't a friendly one. It was assuredly a Klingon one, for no one could mistake the lines of a B'rel or K'Tinga class and the rest of the vessels were largely of the same styling. The data stream shifted to enhanced visuals, and Alex got a glimpse of the enemy formation. Lying at its heart was a monstrous ship, easily near Bastion class in size. "Dear God!" She whispered.
"Open a subspace com to Starfleet Command immediately!" She shouted, her voice showing her terror clearly. Even if the entire defense fleet and stations were operational, they would be hard pressed to stand up to what was headed their way.
"We can't sir!" came an equally terrified shout from her com officer. "They are jamming all long range subspace and hyper com channels!"
"Keep trying damn it! Are short-ranged com channels still working?"
"Barely ma'am! Our tactical nets are shot all to hell, but there are still some channels that are relatively free from interference."
"Open a channel to the Fleet"
"Channel open sir."
"This is Sector Command to all operational Fleet units. Form up and engage in one firing pass on the enemy before retreating back to Qo'noS orbital defensive perimeter. We need to know what we are up against!" If the enemy fleet had only conventional weaponry, the coming battle would be very bad. If they had the same weapons as the modified Imperial vessels that were now cooling clouds of wreckage, then the Second Battle of Qo'noS outcome would be quite different than the first's.
- Captured Imperial Warships, Qo'noS orbit -
The duce of Sovies and Galaxies were lunging outward, eager to bring more targets into range of their toys. They had the Akiras and Defiants that had accompanied them close at their heels. Then a tidal wave of quantums crashed down about them. The launching vessels were still well outside normal weapons ranges, and well beyond visual range. But proximity fused quantums, while not as accurate as when operating in their optimal range, were still deadly if used in numbers. And used in numbers they were. The recently launched fighters joined in with the surviving stations and starships to fire close to 5000 torps in their opening volley. They were like a blue/white wave of pure light as they closed in from all directions on the former Imperial warships. The Terran Empire built their vessels tough, but not even they could withstand that much energy released against their fully energized and reinforced shields and deployed ablative armor.
The wave of torps seemed to coalesce around the enemy vessels, wreathing the enemy's dispersed units in death. Nearly as one, the quantums detonated, the glare they produced causing computers to automatically blank out the brightness on view screens system wide. All that was left in the detonations wake was expanding clouds of plasma that had once been multimillion ton and multibillion credit ships of war. The surviving warships formed up, then engaged warp. So far, only 1st Fleet at Sol, 2nd Fleet, 3rd Fleet at Vulcan and certain couriers and exploratory craft had been refitted with slipstream drive. It was fortunate that the enemy fleet appeared not to have it either, but it still only meant a level playing field in terms of speed. The Terran Empire seldom liked to play that way, but they didn't have any choice in the matter. But that wasn't the truly bad part. What was, was that the oncoming fleet was five times as large as the Imperial one rushing out to meet it.
- Flag Officer's Quarters, Starbase 10, Sector Command, Qo'noS System -
The faint fire pricked blackness filtering through the rooms windows showed a nearly empty bottle of Champaign and two tall glasses on the table along with the remains of a meal. Discarded articles of clothing, one set an Admiral's uniform, the other that of a Flag Staff Lieutenant, trailed towards the adjoining room. Girlish giggles and throaty male laughter echoed throughout the darkened suite, joined here and there by a soft gasp of pleasure, emanated from the bedroom.
The computer beeped in the nearly pitch black quarters, demanding the Admiral's attention. But that would mean dividing his attention from his companion. He had no intention of doing that, so he ignored it and instead kept his attention on the squirming, giggling body beneath his own. The terminal beeped again after a few seconds, this time louder and in a more grating tone. Gritting his teeth in anger Admiral Irving Johnston continued to explore every curve of his recently acquired junior staff officer. Whomever it was that was bothering him would get some time in the Agonizer once he was through here. He had left specific instructions that he wasn't to be disturbed and heaven help those who disobeyed his orders.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
"Still no response from the Admiral sir." The terrified looking com officer told Commodore Alex Mushashi. He had every right to be scared, for while the Commodore could bring him pain immediately, the Admiral could do so later, and for a considerably longer time period. He was caught between a rock and a hard place and he knew it. The fear of immediate pain spurred him into action, and he clung to the faint hope that the Admiral's wrath would fall on the Commodore instead of the messenger.
"Try again, this time open full voice connection." Alex snapped, her brown almond eyes boring into the hesitant com officer. Weather the Admiral liked it or not he needed to be informed of what was happening immediately.
"The Imperial vessels are deeper into the Qo'noS system at maximum sustainable warp. Our sensors and the Corridor Terminus Picket Fleet say that they are indeed severely damaged, just like they claimed in their mayday Sir." The watch tactical officer said from Alex's right. "CIC says that they are two Sovereigns, the Reliant and the Mars, two Galaxies, the Vengeance and the Goddard, four Akira's, the Iroquois, the Basilisk, the Pike and the Cochrane, and seven Defiants, all with varying degrees of battle damage. According to their Ident, they are part of the local Sector Rapid Response Fleet. They say they were out on maneuvers when some heavily armed Klingon vessels ambushed them. After getting over their initial surprise, they proceeded to destroy the Klingons, but not after taking the damage. Seeing as how we were the closest repair facility, they plotted a course and entered the Subspace Corridors."
"Damn Klingon barbarians, don't they know when they're licked?" Alex muttered softly to herself. "Have you gotten that line through yet?!" She said to the com officer.
"Yes Ma'am, channel open."
"Admiral Irving Johnston, I am sorry to disturb you but we have some unexpected."
"Shut the F*** up and deal with it yourself you sorry excuse for an Imperial officer!" the venom filled voice of the Qo'noS Sector fleet commander cut her off. "When I leave orders I expect them to be followed to the letter. I'm occupied right now, but I'll deal with this little interruption by you afterward, of that you can be certain." The connection died.
"Always thinking with his dick instead of with his brain." Alex muttered with a sour expression. Well fine, if he wanted her to deal with it, then that was all there was to it. It wasn't like she had never spent time in an Agonizer before, and it likely wouldn't be the last. "Open a channel to the lead Imperial vessel."
- Grand Alliance Klingon Attack Fleet, just beyond sensor range of Qo'noS system
The massive fleet made up mostly of Klingon vessels hovered in cloak, waiting for the time to strike. It should be happening right about now.
- Captured Imperial Star Ship Reliant -
Their ruse was working perfectly. Within a few minutes the next wave would begin, and then the Klingon Empire would be reborn.
"Imperial Vessel Reliant, this is Qo'noS system command."
"We read you loud and clear command." The computer generated Terran Officer replied.
"You are to proceed to coordinates 3309 mark 68 and hold position. An engineering team will be dispatched to assess your damage. Command out."
The Klingon officer smiled a toothy smile. It was working, the false life signs that were being generated across the captured ships were fooling the Imperials into thinking that this ship was one of their own. It was fortunate that the Qo'noS system's defenses, while formidable, were no where near as extensive as those of say Terra or Vulcan. Here there were no vast swarms of mines and OWPs, no Stations seeded so thick you could nearly walk from one to the next across the system, and no warp inhibitors to slow traffic to a crawl.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
The six Imperial vessels cruised deeper into the system, the few automated sentries and battle stations letting them pass without a hitch. Yet that did nothing to calm Alex. She was uneasy and her stomach was in knots. There was no reason for it, yet she couldn't ease it at all.
"Scan them again. Something isn't quite right here. I can't put my finger on it, but its there."
"Scanning them again, aye Ma'am."
"Anything anomalous?"
"Other than a slight irregularity in their warp signature, no Ma'am."
"Slight irregularity!" She pounced like a cat on a mouse.
"Easily explained by their battle damage Commodore. It could have easily knocked their warp drive field out of alignment, causing minor irregularities the sensor's are picking up."
"Hmmm." Alex replied with a frown. Was she only jumping at shadows? Perhaps the thoughts of the Admiral's retaliation was affecting her more than she would admit to, even to herself?
- Captured Imperial Star Ship Reliant -
"They are scanning us again Captain." The Klingon Tactical officer said.
"Any change in the status of their weapons and shields?"
"No sir. It would appear that the modifications to our warp signature and the false life signs are working exactly as they are supposed to."
"Continue on course then."
The seconds ticked by, seemingly taking an eternity for each one to pass.
"Coming up on deployment time frame."
"Prepare for deployment on my mark." The small flotilla of captured Imperial warships cruised to within striking range of the main fixed and mobile defenses of the Qo'noS system. 10th Fleet was arrayed in squadrons around the Klingon homeworld, with rings of shipyards, starbases, orbital weapons platforms and battle stations seeded thick amongst them. All told there were over 300 OWPs, 20 Battle Stations, 35 smaller Starbases and 5 mammoth shipyards in Qo'noS orbit. They were backed by 6 Wraiths, 50 Sovereigns, 75 Galaxies, 200 Prometheuses, 50 Nebulas of various classes, 80 Akiras, over 2000 mixed Defiants, Sabers, Norways and Intrepids and close to 3000 fighters based either ground side or on orbiting battle stations. Only half of this mighty fleet was near Qo'noS at any one time. The rest were cruising the outer system or patrolling nearby systems. The mobile forces were a nearly up to strength Nodal Sector Defense Fleet, and they were currently going about their daily routine with out a care in the world. The captured warships spread out their formation as they came out of warp, putting greater and greater distance between them selves.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
"Well that's peculiar." The tactical officer said, more perplexed than concerned.
"What is?!" Alex demanded, striding towards the tactical console.
"For some reason, the damaged ships are increasing the spacing between themselves. It almost looks like they are moving to combat separation."
"WHAT!?"
- Captured Imperial Star Ship Reliant -
". Two, one, Mark!" The Klingon Captain said with great relish and a clench of his fist.
On the exterior of the captured warships, concealed paneling blew away as its explosive charges activated. They revealed the hidden weapons systems beneath, and they began to spit out a seemingly endless stream of energy torpedoes. The defenses of Qo'noS, both mobile and fixed, were caught completely flatfooted. They had no reason to suspect that their own vessels would attack them, or that they had been modified to carry such a devastating payload.
Silvery pulsating energy bursts vomited forth from their formerly hidden launchers. Every one launched was fired at a separate target. Many only had their navigational shields in operation, yet even their fully deployed armor and fully energized shields would have proven no obstacle to the weapons effects. When they struck, the lighting of the target flickered and died as main power disappeared. Engines, shields, weapons, life support, even the targets internal gravity was thrown offline. In a mere handful of seconds, close to 1/3 of Qo'noS's defenses were inoperative and adrift, moving merely on their own inertia or the attraction of a nearby planet or moon.
Within seconds, Qo'noS's planetary shield ramped up to full power as all of the deorbit corridors were slammed shut, shrouding the entire planet in a solid wall of energy. The generators were rated at holding back close to 72 hours of continuous bombardment from an entire Borg Fleet, so the Terran rulers of Qo'noS felt justifiably secure. With only the vessels currently attacking them, they wouldn't even scratch the shield grid before the surviving warships blew them apart from long range with proximity-fused torpedoes and phaser lance fire.
Then the other punch of the combination struck. Perimeter sensors had a brief glimpse of a massive incoming warp signature before they were well and thoroughly jammed. Then the sensors themselves were struck by Breen energy dampening torpedoes, and they shut down exactly like the ships and stations in the inner system.
- Ops, Starbase 10 -
The wail of the Red Alert klaxon was screaming in the background chirps and beeps of Ops, but the Human and even Vulcan controllers were shocked into nonfiction. By some miracle of fate, Sector Command Starbase 10 had been on the far side of Qo'noS when the captured Starfleet vessels had begun their attack. They therefore had full access to what was happening, and it was horrifying. In a mere handful of seconds, over a third of the fixed and mobile forces in the system were now highlighted in the amber cored crimson of inoperative units. And it wasn't even the inoperative units reporting in themselves, ALL readings and com systems on them were totally gone. Even their independently powered redundant IFF was inoperative. The only reason it was even known that they were still there at all was that sensors outside of the initial attack were still picking up their hulls.
It was beyond belief. It couldn't be happening. Yet even as the duty crew stared in petrified silence, more allied units along the periphery of the blight began to join their inoperative companions. Alex finally jerked her panicked mind into action.
"Orders to all operative Fleet units, engage hostile forces at maximum range. Keep your formations and watch out for their weapons. They appear to completely disable a vessel in one shot, so stay sharp." As she spoke, the planetary shield grid on Qo'noS snapped to full combat power. Good, she thought, at least someone down there is on the ball. She also saw the ready fighter squadrons light off and start screaming for space, both from the surviving stations and their ground bases. Good, good, this entire escapade would be shortly dealt with, and she would get full credit for the win. After all, she thought with savage delight, that dirty sex hound made it my baby, so he can't do a damn thing.
Then she felt like she had been punched in the gut. The holo display shifted to display new priority data transmitted from the perimeter sensor net. No! There was NO WAY IN HELL that that transmission was correct! In the brief instant that the sensors had before they were totally jammed, they showed one of the largest fleets Alex had ever seen, but it wasn't a friendly one. It was assuredly a Klingon one, for no one could mistake the lines of a B'rel or K'Tinga class and the rest of the vessels were largely of the same styling. The data stream shifted to enhanced visuals, and Alex got a glimpse of the enemy formation. Lying at its heart was a monstrous ship, easily near Bastion class in size. "Dear God!" She whispered.
"Open a subspace com to Starfleet Command immediately!" She shouted, her voice showing her terror clearly. Even if the entire defense fleet and stations were operational, they would be hard pressed to stand up to what was headed their way.
"We can't sir!" came an equally terrified shout from her com officer. "They are jamming all long range subspace and hyper com channels!"
"Keep trying damn it! Are short-ranged com channels still working?"
"Barely ma'am! Our tactical nets are shot all to hell, but there are still some channels that are relatively free from interference."
"Open a channel to the Fleet"
"Channel open sir."
"This is Sector Command to all operational Fleet units. Form up and engage in one firing pass on the enemy before retreating back to Qo'noS orbital defensive perimeter. We need to know what we are up against!" If the enemy fleet had only conventional weaponry, the coming battle would be very bad. If they had the same weapons as the modified Imperial vessels that were now cooling clouds of wreckage, then the Second Battle of Qo'noS outcome would be quite different than the first's.
- Captured Imperial Warships, Qo'noS orbit -
The duce of Sovies and Galaxies were lunging outward, eager to bring more targets into range of their toys. They had the Akiras and Defiants that had accompanied them close at their heels. Then a tidal wave of quantums crashed down about them. The launching vessels were still well outside normal weapons ranges, and well beyond visual range. But proximity fused quantums, while not as accurate as when operating in their optimal range, were still deadly if used in numbers. And used in numbers they were. The recently launched fighters joined in with the surviving stations and starships to fire close to 5000 torps in their opening volley. They were like a blue/white wave of pure light as they closed in from all directions on the former Imperial warships. The Terran Empire built their vessels tough, but not even they could withstand that much energy released against their fully energized and reinforced shields and deployed ablative armor.
The wave of torps seemed to coalesce around the enemy vessels, wreathing the enemy's dispersed units in death. Nearly as one, the quantums detonated, the glare they produced causing computers to automatically blank out the brightness on view screens system wide. All that was left in the detonations wake was expanding clouds of plasma that had once been multimillion ton and multibillion credit ships of war. The surviving warships formed up, then engaged warp. So far, only 1st Fleet at Sol, 2nd Fleet, 3rd Fleet at Vulcan and certain couriers and exploratory craft had been refitted with slipstream drive. It was fortunate that the enemy fleet appeared not to have it either, but it still only meant a level playing field in terms of speed. The Terran Empire seldom liked to play that way, but they didn't have any choice in the matter. But that wasn't the truly bad part. What was, was that the oncoming fleet was five times as large as the Imperial one rushing out to meet it.