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5. The battle.
By the time the massive Galor Class ship undocked from DS9, the area of space around the station was full of ships. Most were small -runabouts, shuttles, trader vessels, but Julie knew some of those packed much more punch than they appeared to. The Klingons would be the first to meet the Cardassians as they came in, and were not in sight. The only other warship that was here was the Defiant.
Not long after they were in position, the Klingons sent the message they spotted the first Cardassian ships on long-range sensors. Much too soon after that initial warning, the attack came as five Keldan Class ships decloaked right in front of a Klingon cruiser. As they kept the Klingons busy, several Galor Class ships came through to the Station. Dukat moved the Bara'Tra to engage the Keldan Class ships. Two of the ships turned away from the Klingons and attacked them.
They used disruptors only, so Julie could not use her torpedo trick. She aimed at the exact spots where the enemy disruptor beams ran, and got some results, but nothing as spectacular. As the helm officer worked miracles trying to avoid fire and at the same time give her the best shots, she got an idea.
"Can this ship handle a Picard manoeuver?" she asked Dukat.
He looked at her in surprise. Galor Class ships were build on fire power more than manoeuvrability. "I don't know. I don't think it has ever been tried with a Cardassian warship."
"Good. Then they won't be expecting it," Julie said.
Dukat looked at his helm officer. "Do it."
"Yes sir!" The helm officer sounded confident. Julie felt secure he would manage -she wouldn't have suggested the tactic with this ship if she had not felt the helm officer knew his job.
The big ship strained as it made the warp jump, but it worked -Julie got a clear shot at the lead Keldan Class ship's bridge as they sailed in. The shields buckled and a bulkhead blew. Immediately, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey used the opening to deposit a torpedo in the engineering section, and the ship exploded.
Three Klingon ships and a small Maquis vessel had disposed of another Keldan Class. Two down, three to go, and they had barely taken a hit yet. Still, they knew that would not remain that way.
Kira held on to the panel in front of her as the station shook. She fired several volleys of photon torpedoes, and the phasers were firing as fast as they could re-charge.
There weren't as many Cardassian ships out there as there had been Klingons, only about six months earlier. But this time there would be no back-up coming. She shouted orders as the station shook again.
The Defiant cut through the shields of one of the Galor Class ships. Bulkheads blew, and a part of the right wing blew clear off. The ship veered off to deal with the next invader, as this one started to slowly spin out of control.
Dukat saw the tiny distortions in subspace on his screen. The warship's sensors were calibrated to pick up any and all signs of a cloaked ship, however inconclusive. He checked the tactical display. The Defiant was between Bajoran and Maquis space, battling another ship. He hailed Kulak.
"Do you have any other cloaked ships in the area?" he asked.
"All our ships are engaged in the battle," the Klingon answered. "To stay in hiding would not be honourable."
Dukat broadened the hail, so all ships in the force would hear him. "More Keldan Class coming in. Four or five ships under cloak, heading 2-4-1 mark 4-6-5."
He gave orders to turn about, and with Kulak's ship, they charged in on the distortions. The warships decloaked, and they found themselves under heavy fire from five of the large ships.
Several other ships came in to help, but not before they had taken a bad hit on the navigational array. They could stay in the fight, but any of those fancy-flying tricks would be out of the question.
Dukat was surprised to find the Ferengi vessel among the forces. Most likely, it had been caught in the invasion while evacuating Deep Space Nine. He couldn't imagine the Ferengi taking so much interest in anyone's affairs as to stay around voluntarily. Well, whatever their motives, they could sure use them. Ferengi vessels were rather heavily armed for the peaceful traders they claimed to be.
He ordered the ship about, attacking the Keldan ships from behind. The aft disruptor banks were less powerful than the front ones and here, the ships would be most vulnerable to Julie's weapon's fire.
The Keldan Class ships were heavily shielded, and it took a lot to punch through. With Kulak's Vor'Cha class, they picked off one ship, but were still under heavy fire from the other four when the Defiant came in. It launched a volley of torpedoes and phaser fire that the Keldan Class' shields could not stand, and blew one almost immediately. A third went as it tried to turn into the Defiant with number four, exposing its back side, which had already taken several hits from the Bara'Tra, to the Ferengi vessel. One of the remaining vessels turned and fled. The last one had no chance, and as the shields went down under the heavy weapons of the Defiant, Julie used precision phaser fire to disable all engines and weapons. With luck, they could pick this one up later.
Later turned out to be almost immediately. The Cardassians obviously hadn't counted to be met with co-ordinated resistance this heavy, even though they had known Dukat would warn the Station. When they turned back to where the Galor Class ships had been, most were drifting, or clouds of space dust altogether. A few had turned around and fled, as the Keldan Class had done, the others limped off when they saw the warships coming in.
Kulak escorted them out with the other Klingon ships, to make sure they went back all the way to Cardassian space. The others returned to Deep Space Nine.
The station had taken several hits, as well, but in Ops everyone was working hard to clear the mess. Several panels had blown out and one work station still trailed smoke, but most of Ops was in working order.
"Report," Sisko said as he stepped off the turbolift.
"Small hull breach in docking pylon two, three casualties. I don't have a number on the injuries -between 50 and 60 according to the last reports from Julian. The Bajorans lost four runabouts, the Maquis report three small vessels lost and heavy damage on some others. They request help from the Infirmary, the first vessels are on their way. Dukat has six deaths and 83 injured -no reports from the Ferengi or from the Klingons," Kira summed up.
"Good," Sisko replied. Actually, that was much better than he'd hoped. If he hadn't had the warning of the attack... He took his thoughts back to the current situation. The whole battle had only taken hours. He wanted to hold a conference with all parties involved before calling it a day. They might have won the battle; the war was far from over. He wondered if there was any chance the Cardassian extremists could be beaten by this defeat, but he was afraid it would not be so. Cardassia itself had not sustained any damage. Perhaps the Klingons would be for moving in again, but he did not see that as a valid option. He looked around, saw all his officers had their hands full, and made the calls to invite the various parties himself.
Julie had stayed at her post at tactical, even though the invasion seemed to be repelled for now. The officer at communications called her attention.
"Call from the Thalys. I will route it through to you."
"Thanks, Ulek," Julie replied. Saying thanks when someone did their duty might not be Cardassian protocol, but she did not pretend to be a Cardassian. She worked with them as a human, and kept her human habits. Sabi appeared on the screen.
"Julie. Thought you'd like to know we pulled through," Sabi said. "We sustained some damage, but she held up beautifully. Say, is that a Keldan you're towing?"
Julie grinned. "Sure is." She looked up as Sisko came on the main viewer. As Sisko asked them to attend the meeting at Deep Space Nine, Julie quickly conferred with Dukat. Then she turned to Sabi again.
"We've been asked to attend a conference at the Station. I would like you to be there, too."
Sabi nodded. "We're on our way."
Actually, the little vessel docked before the Bara'Tra did, as they still had to turn about and dock the Keldan class at one of the lower docking pylons, where the repair facilities were. They could use some repairs too, but the first priority would be to make all ships space-worthy again.