-Chapter Eleven - Volley and Thunder -
-ISS Voyager-
Deployed armor and active shields might have stemmed the worst of the damage, but the PPD was designed to be a long ranged heavy attack weapon. With it, ISC fleets could tear the heart out of enemy forces from well beyond their own maximum range. This was exactly what -Path of the True- and her consorts were doing to the Voyager Battlegroup. Waves of deadly plasma accelerated to FTL velocities slammed into the naked Imperial vessels, slashing into their hulls, wiping out phaser arrays, engines, shield grids, armor nodes and sensors.
The first inkling -Voyager- had that it was under attack was when the first plasma wave hit. By luck of the draw, it was only a glancing blow, but it was still more than sufficient to shear away a good portion of the upper front saucer section. Damage caused by the stupendous energies being released on her hull temporally overloaded her cloak's ability to mask her signature. Her cloak failed in the area around the PPD strike while the rest of the ship remained cloaked. A third of her port dorsal phaser array and her secondary sensor array was obliterated. Flame and debris streamed into space only to be cut of abruptly as shimmering emergency force fields and thick armored bulkheads slammed into place. Then the force of the blast shunted -Voyager- down and to starboard. Then the cloak snapped back fully online hiding the hideous wound from all sensors.
Admiral Janeway and her staff were atomized when the knife of plasma cut deep into the armored primary hull and vaporized the Flag Bridge. They never even knew what hit them, never even suspected that they were the first direct casualties in the continuation of a war the Imperials thought won long ago.
The starfield shown on the main viewscreen on the bridge shifted as -Voyager- lurched drunkenly aside while her red alert alarms began to knell. Fleeting glimpses of destruction were caught on the shifting starfield as PPD's streamed into the formation from nearly all sides. Starships flashed into fiery partial existence as their cloaks overloaded, then disappeared like phantoms leaving behind clouds of debris as their cloaks came back online. That was the truly scary thing, for the damage was happening so fast and against cloaked ships that there was no time to get an accurate reading on how badly the Battlegroup was being hurt.
Tom tried desperately to bring -Voyager- back under control even as the Battlegroup shed its failed stealth in favor of as much defensive systems as it could bring online. -Socrates- and -Othello- rippled out from under their cloak and began frantic evasion patterns in an effort to break weapons lock. ECM drones spat from their racks, creating exponentially expanding sensor signatures in an effort to confuse ISC sensors. Yet they did not know that standard Imperial deception ECM settings had been analyzed in their entirety by ISC engineers.
-Path of the True-
"Good hits on all targets." The Korlivilaran said, then continued. "ECM drone separation sir."
"I see it." Grot said as his tactical repeater began to blossom hostile signatures. Yet a full ¾ of them disappeared rapidly as CIC rightly designated them as attempts to spoof the sensor systems and squelched them out. While the plot was still cluttered with false signatures, starships regularly fought using the full play of their ECM systems. The effective drones represented more of a nuisance than anything else and one that would soon be eliminated.
"Order the BG to close to extreme plasma torp range and engage with all tubes" The powerful Battlecruisers thrusted to 85 PSL while their smaller consorts kept pace easily. The ISC's new internal damper design allowed for a full 10% increase in dependable max speed. An ISC Destroyer could press 90 PSL with little inherent risk
-Voyager-
Captain Cavit was in shock. The Admiral was gone. Admiral October soon joined her as the dyeing -Socrates- blew in half as her AM tanks and warp core let go. With his death, command of the Battlegroup devolved to him.
"Order the Battlegroup to go to warp NOW!" Cavit shouted.
"Impossible Captain." Tuvok coolly responded from his Tactical station. "A high level anti warp field has come online. Warp speed is impossible."
"Then lay in a course for the nearest subspace corridor locus!" He ordered even as he gripped the armrests of his command chair tightly. Tom Paris was maneuvering -Voyager- as hard as he could in an effort to avoid the PPD fire. Unfortunately even the enemy destroyers mounted, them if not in the numbers the larger ships did. A spinning, shattered warp nacelle from the -Othello- flashed across the main viewscreen as Tom twitched his ship to avoid it at the last second.
"Enemy is closing on us sir. Sensors say 85 PSL!" Harry Kim told his Captain with an edge of panic piercing his usual almost Vulcan like coolness.
"But that's insane, their sure to have a compensator failure!"
"The sensors don't lie sir. All Enemy vessels are closing at a steady 85 PSL."
"What's the estimated time to the nearest locus and enemy intercept at present speed?" The Captain demanded.
Tuvok regarded him levelly. "One minute 23.8 seconds and 62.5 seconds respectively. Their formation is slightly out of formation. If their lead elements can be delayed we should be able to make it to the locus before they can overtake us." -Voyager- was rocked violently as the remnants of a PPD strike hit her aft shields. It was fortunate that one of the Battlegroups few surviving -Saber's- had been almost directly in the line of fire. Its sacrifice was the only thing that allowed the flagship to survive. "Aft shields now down to 5%"
"Sir," Kim shouted, "CIC says that the enemy is most likely the Interstellar Concordium. Weapons are consistent with known Plasmatic Pulsar Device effects."
"Oh hell..." Scot murmured. So the ISC hadn't been nearly totally destroyed as was originally thought. They had packed up stakes and set about rebuilding their shattered military out here on the galactic rim about as far away from Imperial space as possible.
"Captain, -Aegis- is reporting new sensor contacts bearing 183 Mark 127 approaching at high warp." The Scifleet -Nebula- might be missing half of her starboard warp nacelle and a good chunk of her main deflector, but her sensor suite was still kicking and her impulse drive was pushing her hard to keep pace with the rest of the fleeing Battlegroup. Of course one -Nebula-, two -Intrepids- and a -Saber-, all with battle damage and only one with functional warp engines wasn't much of a Battlegroup. "Preliminary scans indicate that they are a mix of ISC and... and Dominion vessels sir!"
"Well isn't that lovely!" Cavit turned to Lt. Kim. "Give me the -Vanguard- on secure com."
"Channel open."
The haunted face of the -Vanguard's- First Officer stared back at Scot.
"Captain Michelin is dead sir, I have assumed command." Cmdr. Justin Beach said. "I think I know why you're calling sir. Datalink has sent -Aegis'- data to us as well. The Empire must learn of this new threat. We'll do our duty."
"I expected nothing less Cmdr." Scot said with mingled respect and regret. Both knew that only one solution held the best chance of successful escape for the lone ship left in the Voyager Battlegroup that was FTL capable to escape. Part of Scot longed to save at least some part of the other ships personnel, but both he and the other CO's knew that their was neither the time available nor the space onboard -Voyager- to house more than a handful.
"Good luck Sir."
"Same to you Cmdr."
"Don't worry sir, well keep em off your back."
Beach gave a series of orders, and seconds later the three remaining consorts to the -ISS Voyager- swung about. The damaged portions of their hulls and their warp nacelles were still glowing white hot despite the cold of space, yet their impulse drives were still fully functional. Turning to face the enemy, they began to shed escape pods as all nonessential crew and scientists were ordered to abandon ship. The range dropped and PPD fire slackened. Because the carrier beam sent the plasma into subspace for it's transit to the target, it was only effective at long range. At shorter ranges, there wasn't enough distance to both send the plasma waves into subspace and then return them to normal space using any known means. That didn't mean that the ISC vessels teeth had been pulled by any stretch of the imagination, for they still had powerful phaser strips and plasma torpedo batteries. The first volley of yellow plasma torps flashed across space shortly after the surviving imperials launched their quantums. Yet the lead ISC vessels couldn't maneuver excessively lest they allow -Voyager- a lead on them that they would be unable to make up short of the locus. Nearly every quantum hit it's target in spite of the ISC's ECM, for it took quite a bit to fool a SWAC sensor suite.
At the same time the far from nimble plasma torps had to close on furiously jinking targets that, even robbed of ¾ of their customary ECM effectiveness, were considerably harder to hit than their enemies. The blue orbs of quantum torpedoes slammed into ISC Destroyers now firewalling their drives to their max 90 PSL and beyond. Even without a weapons pod, a -Nebula- still possessed the high capacity quantum tube mounted just above its main deflector dish. Volleys of eight quantums spat from it every five seconds and were joined by a steady stream coming from the -Saber- and -Intrepid-. The handful of ISC Destroyers escorting the trio of Battlecruisers was cut down short of intercepting Cavit's command. The three Battlecruisers were forced to begin maneuvering as their shields were stripped away lest a lucky hit take out their impulse drives and allow -Voyager- to escape. The distance between the lead ISC vessels and their highest priority target grew with each passing second, and the enemy commander knew this all to well. Fire shifted from trying to hit the elusive -Voyager- to the three charging Imperial ships. They were considerably closer, and once the ISC ships no longer had to worry about their fire, they could still catch Cavit short of the undefended locus and prevent his escape.
All enemy vessels in range turned their fire on the charging Imperials. Range between the lead ISC vessels and the Imperials was winding down fast as they closed on each other at significant fractions of the speed of light. Phaser fire formed a deadly latticework between the 6 ships. It was joined by PPD fire from the more distant ISC formations and the end result was never in doubt. -Aegis- was blown apart, the largest surviving piece the size of a man's fist. The small -Saber- class -Yanakov- was cut roughly in half in a cloud of vaporized alloy and armor. -Vanguard staggered as long ranged PPD fire clawed at her secondary hull. Her impulse engine was sheared violently off, ceasing her violent evasion patterns and making her a sitting duck for the long ranged snipers closing on her position
Adrift, its engines mangled, sparking wrecks leaking drive plasma in the ship's wake, the -Vanguard- awaited her execution. The enemy swung leisurely toward her, bringing both his powerful PPD and Plasma Torpedo banks on target. The orange beam streamed out from the PPD emitter, intersecting with the stricken Intrepid. The first of five yellow plasma waves dutifully followed the carrier beam down on their target. A loud CRUNCH echoed throughout the Cruiser as it was shaken violently, a large fracture with molten edges forming in what remained of her outer hull and armor. A second CRUNCH, this one louder than the first was heard, forcing the breech wider still, opening more compartments to space. Chunks of ruptured hull plate and splintered bulkheads now trailed from the Intrepid, joining a growing swarm of lifeboats. The third and fourth plasma waves hit, causing the ship to creak and groan from the stresses as her SIF labored to hold the mangled wreckage together. The fifth wave struck with a pair of plasma torps, finally burrowing through the dyeing Intrepid's inner hull to find her AM storage tanks. The resulting explosion claimed what was left of the Imperial Cruiser, vaporizing a good portion of her secondary and primary hulls, sending the remaining primary hull pin wheeling foreword trailing debris and flames. The nacelle pylons and scorched and broken warp nacelles blew aft from the boil of light that marked the -ISS Vanguard's- funeral pyre.
But she and her lost consorts had bought the time that Cavit so desperately needed. -Voyager- flashed from normal space and into the subspace domain that held the subspace corridor network just as an avalanche of PPD fire crisscrossed its vacated location.
The angry, swirling reddish orange tube like vortex of a subspace corridor formed around -Voyager- and she brought her warp engines to full power. The ISC knew how to use subspace corridors, for they had been using them for over 100 years longer than the Empire. And there the come Cavit thought. A trio of ISC Battlecruisers popped into the corridor, but because of the lead granted to him by the Battlegroups sacrifice, they could only gain on him slowly. Their warp drives were more powerful than his, enabling them to slowly make up the distance and engage him, but they would have to close to phaser range. ISC plasma torpedoes didn't have warp sustainer engines and PPD's, by all Imperial science had been able to figure out about them, shouldn't work in subspace corridors.
-ISS Voyager-
Deployed armor and active shields might have stemmed the worst of the damage, but the PPD was designed to be a long ranged heavy attack weapon. With it, ISC fleets could tear the heart out of enemy forces from well beyond their own maximum range. This was exactly what -Path of the True- and her consorts were doing to the Voyager Battlegroup. Waves of deadly plasma accelerated to FTL velocities slammed into the naked Imperial vessels, slashing into their hulls, wiping out phaser arrays, engines, shield grids, armor nodes and sensors.
The first inkling -Voyager- had that it was under attack was when the first plasma wave hit. By luck of the draw, it was only a glancing blow, but it was still more than sufficient to shear away a good portion of the upper front saucer section. Damage caused by the stupendous energies being released on her hull temporally overloaded her cloak's ability to mask her signature. Her cloak failed in the area around the PPD strike while the rest of the ship remained cloaked. A third of her port dorsal phaser array and her secondary sensor array was obliterated. Flame and debris streamed into space only to be cut of abruptly as shimmering emergency force fields and thick armored bulkheads slammed into place. Then the force of the blast shunted -Voyager- down and to starboard. Then the cloak snapped back fully online hiding the hideous wound from all sensors.
Admiral Janeway and her staff were atomized when the knife of plasma cut deep into the armored primary hull and vaporized the Flag Bridge. They never even knew what hit them, never even suspected that they were the first direct casualties in the continuation of a war the Imperials thought won long ago.
The starfield shown on the main viewscreen on the bridge shifted as -Voyager- lurched drunkenly aside while her red alert alarms began to knell. Fleeting glimpses of destruction were caught on the shifting starfield as PPD's streamed into the formation from nearly all sides. Starships flashed into fiery partial existence as their cloaks overloaded, then disappeared like phantoms leaving behind clouds of debris as their cloaks came back online. That was the truly scary thing, for the damage was happening so fast and against cloaked ships that there was no time to get an accurate reading on how badly the Battlegroup was being hurt.
Tom tried desperately to bring -Voyager- back under control even as the Battlegroup shed its failed stealth in favor of as much defensive systems as it could bring online. -Socrates- and -Othello- rippled out from under their cloak and began frantic evasion patterns in an effort to break weapons lock. ECM drones spat from their racks, creating exponentially expanding sensor signatures in an effort to confuse ISC sensors. Yet they did not know that standard Imperial deception ECM settings had been analyzed in their entirety by ISC engineers.
-Path of the True-
"Good hits on all targets." The Korlivilaran said, then continued. "ECM drone separation sir."
"I see it." Grot said as his tactical repeater began to blossom hostile signatures. Yet a full ¾ of them disappeared rapidly as CIC rightly designated them as attempts to spoof the sensor systems and squelched them out. While the plot was still cluttered with false signatures, starships regularly fought using the full play of their ECM systems. The effective drones represented more of a nuisance than anything else and one that would soon be eliminated.
"Order the BG to close to extreme plasma torp range and engage with all tubes" The powerful Battlecruisers thrusted to 85 PSL while their smaller consorts kept pace easily. The ISC's new internal damper design allowed for a full 10% increase in dependable max speed. An ISC Destroyer could press 90 PSL with little inherent risk
-Voyager-
Captain Cavit was in shock. The Admiral was gone. Admiral October soon joined her as the dyeing -Socrates- blew in half as her AM tanks and warp core let go. With his death, command of the Battlegroup devolved to him.
"Order the Battlegroup to go to warp NOW!" Cavit shouted.
"Impossible Captain." Tuvok coolly responded from his Tactical station. "A high level anti warp field has come online. Warp speed is impossible."
"Then lay in a course for the nearest subspace corridor locus!" He ordered even as he gripped the armrests of his command chair tightly. Tom Paris was maneuvering -Voyager- as hard as he could in an effort to avoid the PPD fire. Unfortunately even the enemy destroyers mounted, them if not in the numbers the larger ships did. A spinning, shattered warp nacelle from the -Othello- flashed across the main viewscreen as Tom twitched his ship to avoid it at the last second.
"Enemy is closing on us sir. Sensors say 85 PSL!" Harry Kim told his Captain with an edge of panic piercing his usual almost Vulcan like coolness.
"But that's insane, their sure to have a compensator failure!"
"The sensors don't lie sir. All Enemy vessels are closing at a steady 85 PSL."
"What's the estimated time to the nearest locus and enemy intercept at present speed?" The Captain demanded.
Tuvok regarded him levelly. "One minute 23.8 seconds and 62.5 seconds respectively. Their formation is slightly out of formation. If their lead elements can be delayed we should be able to make it to the locus before they can overtake us." -Voyager- was rocked violently as the remnants of a PPD strike hit her aft shields. It was fortunate that one of the Battlegroups few surviving -Saber's- had been almost directly in the line of fire. Its sacrifice was the only thing that allowed the flagship to survive. "Aft shields now down to 5%"
"Sir," Kim shouted, "CIC says that the enemy is most likely the Interstellar Concordium. Weapons are consistent with known Plasmatic Pulsar Device effects."
"Oh hell..." Scot murmured. So the ISC hadn't been nearly totally destroyed as was originally thought. They had packed up stakes and set about rebuilding their shattered military out here on the galactic rim about as far away from Imperial space as possible.
"Captain, -Aegis- is reporting new sensor contacts bearing 183 Mark 127 approaching at high warp." The Scifleet -Nebula- might be missing half of her starboard warp nacelle and a good chunk of her main deflector, but her sensor suite was still kicking and her impulse drive was pushing her hard to keep pace with the rest of the fleeing Battlegroup. Of course one -Nebula-, two -Intrepids- and a -Saber-, all with battle damage and only one with functional warp engines wasn't much of a Battlegroup. "Preliminary scans indicate that they are a mix of ISC and... and Dominion vessels sir!"
"Well isn't that lovely!" Cavit turned to Lt. Kim. "Give me the -Vanguard- on secure com."
"Channel open."
The haunted face of the -Vanguard's- First Officer stared back at Scot.
"Captain Michelin is dead sir, I have assumed command." Cmdr. Justin Beach said. "I think I know why you're calling sir. Datalink has sent -Aegis'- data to us as well. The Empire must learn of this new threat. We'll do our duty."
"I expected nothing less Cmdr." Scot said with mingled respect and regret. Both knew that only one solution held the best chance of successful escape for the lone ship left in the Voyager Battlegroup that was FTL capable to escape. Part of Scot longed to save at least some part of the other ships personnel, but both he and the other CO's knew that their was neither the time available nor the space onboard -Voyager- to house more than a handful.
"Good luck Sir."
"Same to you Cmdr."
"Don't worry sir, well keep em off your back."
Beach gave a series of orders, and seconds later the three remaining consorts to the -ISS Voyager- swung about. The damaged portions of their hulls and their warp nacelles were still glowing white hot despite the cold of space, yet their impulse drives were still fully functional. Turning to face the enemy, they began to shed escape pods as all nonessential crew and scientists were ordered to abandon ship. The range dropped and PPD fire slackened. Because the carrier beam sent the plasma into subspace for it's transit to the target, it was only effective at long range. At shorter ranges, there wasn't enough distance to both send the plasma waves into subspace and then return them to normal space using any known means. That didn't mean that the ISC vessels teeth had been pulled by any stretch of the imagination, for they still had powerful phaser strips and plasma torpedo batteries. The first volley of yellow plasma torps flashed across space shortly after the surviving imperials launched their quantums. Yet the lead ISC vessels couldn't maneuver excessively lest they allow -Voyager- a lead on them that they would be unable to make up short of the locus. Nearly every quantum hit it's target in spite of the ISC's ECM, for it took quite a bit to fool a SWAC sensor suite.
At the same time the far from nimble plasma torps had to close on furiously jinking targets that, even robbed of ¾ of their customary ECM effectiveness, were considerably harder to hit than their enemies. The blue orbs of quantum torpedoes slammed into ISC Destroyers now firewalling their drives to their max 90 PSL and beyond. Even without a weapons pod, a -Nebula- still possessed the high capacity quantum tube mounted just above its main deflector dish. Volleys of eight quantums spat from it every five seconds and were joined by a steady stream coming from the -Saber- and -Intrepid-. The handful of ISC Destroyers escorting the trio of Battlecruisers was cut down short of intercepting Cavit's command. The three Battlecruisers were forced to begin maneuvering as their shields were stripped away lest a lucky hit take out their impulse drives and allow -Voyager- to escape. The distance between the lead ISC vessels and their highest priority target grew with each passing second, and the enemy commander knew this all to well. Fire shifted from trying to hit the elusive -Voyager- to the three charging Imperial ships. They were considerably closer, and once the ISC ships no longer had to worry about their fire, they could still catch Cavit short of the undefended locus and prevent his escape.
All enemy vessels in range turned their fire on the charging Imperials. Range between the lead ISC vessels and the Imperials was winding down fast as they closed on each other at significant fractions of the speed of light. Phaser fire formed a deadly latticework between the 6 ships. It was joined by PPD fire from the more distant ISC formations and the end result was never in doubt. -Aegis- was blown apart, the largest surviving piece the size of a man's fist. The small -Saber- class -Yanakov- was cut roughly in half in a cloud of vaporized alloy and armor. -Vanguard staggered as long ranged PPD fire clawed at her secondary hull. Her impulse engine was sheared violently off, ceasing her violent evasion patterns and making her a sitting duck for the long ranged snipers closing on her position
Adrift, its engines mangled, sparking wrecks leaking drive plasma in the ship's wake, the -Vanguard- awaited her execution. The enemy swung leisurely toward her, bringing both his powerful PPD and Plasma Torpedo banks on target. The orange beam streamed out from the PPD emitter, intersecting with the stricken Intrepid. The first of five yellow plasma waves dutifully followed the carrier beam down on their target. A loud CRUNCH echoed throughout the Cruiser as it was shaken violently, a large fracture with molten edges forming in what remained of her outer hull and armor. A second CRUNCH, this one louder than the first was heard, forcing the breech wider still, opening more compartments to space. Chunks of ruptured hull plate and splintered bulkheads now trailed from the Intrepid, joining a growing swarm of lifeboats. The third and fourth plasma waves hit, causing the ship to creak and groan from the stresses as her SIF labored to hold the mangled wreckage together. The fifth wave struck with a pair of plasma torps, finally burrowing through the dyeing Intrepid's inner hull to find her AM storage tanks. The resulting explosion claimed what was left of the Imperial Cruiser, vaporizing a good portion of her secondary and primary hulls, sending the remaining primary hull pin wheeling foreword trailing debris and flames. The nacelle pylons and scorched and broken warp nacelles blew aft from the boil of light that marked the -ISS Vanguard's- funeral pyre.
But she and her lost consorts had bought the time that Cavit so desperately needed. -Voyager- flashed from normal space and into the subspace domain that held the subspace corridor network just as an avalanche of PPD fire crisscrossed its vacated location.
The angry, swirling reddish orange tube like vortex of a subspace corridor formed around -Voyager- and she brought her warp engines to full power. The ISC knew how to use subspace corridors, for they had been using them for over 100 years longer than the Empire. And there the come Cavit thought. A trio of ISC Battlecruisers popped into the corridor, but because of the lead granted to him by the Battlegroups sacrifice, they could only gain on him slowly. Their warp drives were more powerful than his, enabling them to slowly make up the distance and engage him, but they would have to close to phaser range. ISC plasma torpedoes didn't have warp sustainer engines and PPD's, by all Imperial science had been able to figure out about them, shouldn't work in subspace corridors.