Chapter 19 - Weighed in the Balance.
Prescott's Star, Subspace Corridor Loci Kappa, Battlestation Tolstoy
Brevet Commodore Vivian DaGaule sat in the command chair in the center of Tolstoy's Ops deck. While she didn't mind her promotion, it had made her persona non gratta amongst her former friends. They disliked the fact that she had been chosen for brevet promotion instead of them, and she just couldn't find it in herself to blame them for their feelings. If the positions were reversed, she knew she would be just as angry and sullen with whoever else had received the unexpected promotion. Still, it was a lonely existence in spite of the perks being a Battlestation CO.
"Commodore? I have indications of an emergence locus on my scanners."
"How big?"
"It's looking like about equivalent mass to a cruiser squadron, but we aren't expecting any cruiser squadrons today, let alone from Deep Delta Quad Corridor loci." The scanner tech replied with a slight frown.
"Hmmm. Better bump it up to Sector HQ for the Skippers perusal. And put the loci battlestations on yellow alert. This is likely nothing, but it's best to be prepared."
"Aye sir." The crew of the massive battlestation scurried about to execute her orders. The lone melodic chime of yellow alert pulsed through the communication system of the Tolstoy and wall alert lights shifted from deep blue to amber.
"Emergence in three. two. one."
The Imperial warship dropped out of the swirling crimson vortex of the corridor as it terminated its run at the outskirts of Prescott's Star star system. Her IFF was immediately queried and authenticated, but it was a frantic burst transmission to the defending Battlestation's computer systems that temporarily stayed the massive weapons systems from automatically targeting and blowing the follow on Vaadwaur ships from space.
"This is Captain Cavit of the Imperial Star Ship Voyager, ignore the alien vessels behind us, they are friends. I request an immediate connection to the System CO!"
"Hold on Captain, just who are the aliens behind."
"There is no TIME you fool!!! I need a com channel NOW!! They're right behind us!" Cavit interrupted desperately.
The com tech turned to look to Vivian for guidance. She had heard the entire exchange as it was put on the main viewer. There was just something in the Captain's voice that told her he wasn't lying.
"Put him through Ensign."
ISS Voyager
Voyager's main viewer was filled with a slightly frowning visage of an Imperial Captain. No, check that, Cavit thought, a Brevet Admiral from the rank pips on his collar, even though his uniform was that of a starship commander. Cavit spared a split second to mull over this strange turn of events before he started to give his warning.
"Admiral, there is a fleet following us, and they'll be here in a few minutes. They are made up of primarily Interstellar Concordium vessels with a few Dominion ships along as well. They have enough firepower to do severe damage to this system."
"Upload all your data to Starbase 2000 CIC immediately." The Admiral snapped as a dawning realization of just how serious the situation was hit him with Cavit's final words. "I assume the frigates that followed you here are friendly?" Cavit had time to nod before the Admiral continued on. "Coordinate their integration to Imperial standard com channels and IFF settings. We'll sort out just who they are afterward. For now, I need them. I am placing you and your friends under the direct control of Loci Kappa Defense Command. Vanguard out."
"Once this is all over, I hope we're still around to find out just why a Captain is in charge of a Sector." Tom said from his station. Before Scott could respond, Harry called out for his attention
"Captain, we are being hailed by Loci Kappa Defense Command, they are supplying us with course directions and they're tying us into their Command Datalink Net."
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Bridge
So it was now that all of Ulysses plans would be put to the test. His changes to the status quo would be weighed in the balance, their mettle tested in the crucible of battle. He had matured much in the last few months, grown into the burden of command that he had stumbled into unawares if he could shoulder its weight. He was now sure of himself, sure that he could lead his people as competently as any other commander in the fleet. What he wasn't sure of was if his leadership had reforged Starbase 2000's defenders into a proper weapon of war. Like an untested sword, the weapon looked sturdy, but would it last in combat?
Ready or not, war was coming to Prescott's Star. There would be casualties, Ulysses steeled himself to that bitter pill for there were always casualties, even in a one sided battle. The question was, would any of the defenders be alive to care.
"Order a sector wide Alert. Bring all operational ships and static defenses to red alert. Send all data on our enemy from Voyager's database to Starfleet Command and all Sector Fleet Bases." Ulysses rattled off in rapid fire command mode.
"Skipper, Loci Kappa reports an incoming emergence locus. A big one." Percy Davenport said
"Form up the fleet. Prepare to micro jump to staging area Frank on my command."
"Sir, a new ship has dropped out of Loci Delta! She's a scout, Nova Class, and she's squealing something about a massive fleet coming down the corridor behind her." Sarah Wendell interrupted from her station.
Ulysses eyes went round behind the concealing shroud of the Flag Bridge's holo display. Then they narrowed in speculation. "Com, get me a figure as to just when that other fleet is going to arrive."
"The scout, Tarantula is saying they are about ten minutes behind her, and they have close to 1000 ships."
All the pieces fell into place in Ulysses mind. Oh it was a classic ploy, move forces to attack one enemy while another snuck around behind you to hit your rear areas. And what commander couldn't do less than attack the massive force that would be entering Loci Kappa in mere seconds now. And once he was engaging them, the second strike would crash in behind him. Caught between two fires, his command would be in a very precarious position to defeat both at once. But by blessed chance he know knew about the other attack force. Now what to do about them.
"Order Bat Cru Div 6653 and 8217 to proceed with their escorts to staging area Frank and bolster Loci Kappa Defense Forces. Have the rest of the fleet remain here but have them launch a EW decoy to staging area Frank. Make them think we have sent all the mobile forces there save the reserve squadrons. Then I want every ship to go into stealth mode and the stations to bring on as much ECM as they muster. Order all units to engage with plan Zapata Five."
"Hostile emergence at Loci Kappa!" Davenport said. "Loci Kappa Defense Command reports they have engaged the enemy." As he spoke, Ulysses saw the enemy fleet emerge from the Corridor Terminus on his holo display. It was not as high a detail as it normally would be, due in part to the ungodly amount of ECM being put out in the local space around Lilith. But it was also due to the degraded Datalink Net thanks to the ISC's own EW efforts. Still, the resolution was enough to know just how hard a time the Loci defenses were going to have. There were an awful lot of angry crimson contacts on the holodisplay.
"Sir, Kappa Defense is requesting reinforcements."
"No." Ulysses winced inside as he issued the denial, knowing full well what that order was going to cost.
"But sir, if they aren't reinforced they can't."
"Damn it, don't you think I know that?" Ulysses growled tersely. He gestured to the distant Loci Delta on his holodisplay. "But I can't send them the ships. For now, at least, Kappa Defense is on their own."
Loci Kappa, Prescott's Star
The massive fleet of ISC vessels dropped into real space. They were to be the anvil of the carefully coordinated attack. Unity agents in place in the system had given word that the systems new CO had been shaking things up, but realistically, how much could one man do in this dumping ground for worthless officers? Not much High Command had decided, and so the increasingly concerned dispatches from Unity operatives were largely ignored. The forces allocated to the assault force were unaltered, with two thirds of them beginning their largely diversionary but quite real assault on the nearby defenses.
Plasma crisscrossed with phaser as the deadly beautiful lattice work of energy began to light the night. While the defenders were outnumbered by a considerable margin, they were mainly Battlestations. The massive, heavily shielded and armored hides were specifically designed to absorb the best efforts of an enemy fleet while remaining combat effective. And they were several times again the size of even the largest enemy vessel. Carefully choreographed fire lanced into the ISC ships selected for destruction. Phaser lance fire was backed up by standard heavy phaser array strikes and enough quantums to turn space white. The dumbbell shaped Imperial Battlestations coordinated their strikes with each other and their defensive fleets. The ships of Bat Cru Div 6653 and 8217 came as a nasty surprise. Largely ignored as inferior targets as the ISC fleet set about reducing the battlestations, they were able to fall into weapons range relatively unscathed. It was then that the newly refitted Excelsior class Battlecruisers struck their first blow. It had taken some pretty creative engineering to shoehorn a Phaser Lance into an Excelsior class Hull but the yard dogs, once sufficiently motivated, pulled off a minor miracle in proving that it could be done. The Battle Cruiser Division's fire converged on their assigned targets, and their massed tongues of flame burned them from space.
Death stalked the space around the corridor locus, dispatched upon computer prioritized targets with a machines dispassion for the loss of life their destruction incurred. Hundreds of ISC vessels were burned from space within minutes, but that left over a thousand that continued to press home their numerical superiority. The smaller vessels pressed home their superior maneuverability and speed over their Imperial fellows. But the cake walk against substandard opponents that was expected never occurred. Instead of being an ill trained enemy with equipment in poor repair, the initial assault waves were rudely surprised by the precise weapons fire and squadron discipline the Imperials were exhibiting. It was nearly every bit as tight as their own, and in spite of their superior numbers, in the swirling fur ball that rapidly developed around the battlestations, the superior individual weight of fire that the finely linked battle stations and their defensive fleet could put out began to have a telling effect. The Bat'leth like Interstellar Concordium vessels maneuvered with reckless speed, diving in and out of the battle as Imperial battlestations hammered them with weapons fire. Unimaginable energies were thrown through space, depleting shields, paring away armor with high energy knives, punching massive, glowing wounds that penetrated deep into hulls. Here and there, Vaadwaur ships sent out their highly useful flux waves, staggering multi million ton vessels like they were so much balsa wood for a vital few moments. Engines knocked temporarily off line, the massive warships spun out of control, becoming easy meat for the titanic battlestations and their Phaser Lance armed escorts.
The Imperial Battlestation Tolstoy great mass shuddered anew as yet another wave of energetic plasma struck it through a downed shield. "Outer hull breach in deck 53 through 59, sectors 3442 through 3601. Inner hull still at full integrity and outer hull breaches have been sealed with emergency forcefields. Blast doors adjacent to damaged sections have been activated and the affected compartments have been evacuated of all nonessential personnel." An Ensign called out a fresh damage report to Brevet Commodore Vivian DaGaule.
"Phasers 42 through 47 are down. Lances 12 through 19 are destroyed. Quantum tubes 30 through 43 and Heavy tubes 36 through 39 are gone. Shields compromised across multiple arcs portside and armor failing in sectors 13 Alpha through 41 Gamma. Regeneration ineffective Sir! There's just too much weapons fire coming in to fast." Another piece of bad news was fed to her. Yet even as the enemy savaged her command, her own weapons and those of her consorts flashed back defiance. Massed Lance fire snapped out and washed over a Superdreadnought. The ship was easily a match for even a Bastion, but she had been crippled in an earlier strike and she was the only one of her class present in the enemy fleet. Precisely choreographed fire, brought on target thanks to the stations datalink, caused all of the stations' surviving weapons systems that bore on the target to fire as one. The enemy leviathan finally died in a star bright boil as its engines and weapons magazines finally let go in a cataclysmic boil of eye tearing light.
On her holodisplay, Vivian saw a gaggle of furiously maneuvering upgraded Excelsiors streak after an enemy Battleship. The vessel was already crippled, but even so it still set a deadly stream of plasma waves from its capital weaponry to one of Tolstoy sister stations. The beam was severed suddenly as the massed fire from the Excelsior wing cut the ISC ship in two, her entire front third disappearing in a plume of plasma and debris leaving behind a broken and drifting hulk that shed escape pods like tears. To her right, the Sovereign class Sojourner, her port warp nacelle a shattered, plasma leaking stump and with a large, glowing molten wound marring her ventral saucer, screamed down on a ISC Frigate wing. Even in her wounded state, all of her weapons spat death. Her twin Phaser Lances sent solid shafts of amber red light outward, piercing their targets clean through, then cutting them lengthwise as they continued on their course. Both died in terrible, short lived suns as their cores breached within instants of each other. A barrage of quantums and standard phasers scored hits on the others, eventually punching through their light defenses and turning them into so much vaporized scrap. Then the Sojourner died as a massive barrage of plasma torpedoes struck her hull. The heavy armor resisted as best it could, but space itself was blotted out by the dense barrage. The ship splintered into three main chunks, carried along the same basic trajectory thanks to simple physics. With the full weight of the fleet, the defenses might have been able to rout the enemy, but even as a fresh attack went out from Vivian's command, the first of her multi hundred million ton sister stations died in a brilliant fireball. The tears that wetted Vivian's eyes were not only thanks to the hideous brightness of its death.
Prescott's Star, Subspace Corridor Loci Kappa, Battlestation Tolstoy
Brevet Commodore Vivian DaGaule sat in the command chair in the center of Tolstoy's Ops deck. While she didn't mind her promotion, it had made her persona non gratta amongst her former friends. They disliked the fact that she had been chosen for brevet promotion instead of them, and she just couldn't find it in herself to blame them for their feelings. If the positions were reversed, she knew she would be just as angry and sullen with whoever else had received the unexpected promotion. Still, it was a lonely existence in spite of the perks being a Battlestation CO.
"Commodore? I have indications of an emergence locus on my scanners."
"How big?"
"It's looking like about equivalent mass to a cruiser squadron, but we aren't expecting any cruiser squadrons today, let alone from Deep Delta Quad Corridor loci." The scanner tech replied with a slight frown.
"Hmmm. Better bump it up to Sector HQ for the Skippers perusal. And put the loci battlestations on yellow alert. This is likely nothing, but it's best to be prepared."
"Aye sir." The crew of the massive battlestation scurried about to execute her orders. The lone melodic chime of yellow alert pulsed through the communication system of the Tolstoy and wall alert lights shifted from deep blue to amber.
"Emergence in three. two. one."
The Imperial warship dropped out of the swirling crimson vortex of the corridor as it terminated its run at the outskirts of Prescott's Star star system. Her IFF was immediately queried and authenticated, but it was a frantic burst transmission to the defending Battlestation's computer systems that temporarily stayed the massive weapons systems from automatically targeting and blowing the follow on Vaadwaur ships from space.
"This is Captain Cavit of the Imperial Star Ship Voyager, ignore the alien vessels behind us, they are friends. I request an immediate connection to the System CO!"
"Hold on Captain, just who are the aliens behind."
"There is no TIME you fool!!! I need a com channel NOW!! They're right behind us!" Cavit interrupted desperately.
The com tech turned to look to Vivian for guidance. She had heard the entire exchange as it was put on the main viewer. There was just something in the Captain's voice that told her he wasn't lying.
"Put him through Ensign."
ISS Voyager
Voyager's main viewer was filled with a slightly frowning visage of an Imperial Captain. No, check that, Cavit thought, a Brevet Admiral from the rank pips on his collar, even though his uniform was that of a starship commander. Cavit spared a split second to mull over this strange turn of events before he started to give his warning.
"Admiral, there is a fleet following us, and they'll be here in a few minutes. They are made up of primarily Interstellar Concordium vessels with a few Dominion ships along as well. They have enough firepower to do severe damage to this system."
"Upload all your data to Starbase 2000 CIC immediately." The Admiral snapped as a dawning realization of just how serious the situation was hit him with Cavit's final words. "I assume the frigates that followed you here are friendly?" Cavit had time to nod before the Admiral continued on. "Coordinate their integration to Imperial standard com channels and IFF settings. We'll sort out just who they are afterward. For now, I need them. I am placing you and your friends under the direct control of Loci Kappa Defense Command. Vanguard out."
"Once this is all over, I hope we're still around to find out just why a Captain is in charge of a Sector." Tom said from his station. Before Scott could respond, Harry called out for his attention
"Captain, we are being hailed by Loci Kappa Defense Command, they are supplying us with course directions and they're tying us into their Command Datalink Net."
ISS Valley Forge, Flag Bridge
So it was now that all of Ulysses plans would be put to the test. His changes to the status quo would be weighed in the balance, their mettle tested in the crucible of battle. He had matured much in the last few months, grown into the burden of command that he had stumbled into unawares if he could shoulder its weight. He was now sure of himself, sure that he could lead his people as competently as any other commander in the fleet. What he wasn't sure of was if his leadership had reforged Starbase 2000's defenders into a proper weapon of war. Like an untested sword, the weapon looked sturdy, but would it last in combat?
Ready or not, war was coming to Prescott's Star. There would be casualties, Ulysses steeled himself to that bitter pill for there were always casualties, even in a one sided battle. The question was, would any of the defenders be alive to care.
"Order a sector wide Alert. Bring all operational ships and static defenses to red alert. Send all data on our enemy from Voyager's database to Starfleet Command and all Sector Fleet Bases." Ulysses rattled off in rapid fire command mode.
"Skipper, Loci Kappa reports an incoming emergence locus. A big one." Percy Davenport said
"Form up the fleet. Prepare to micro jump to staging area Frank on my command."
"Sir, a new ship has dropped out of Loci Delta! She's a scout, Nova Class, and she's squealing something about a massive fleet coming down the corridor behind her." Sarah Wendell interrupted from her station.
Ulysses eyes went round behind the concealing shroud of the Flag Bridge's holo display. Then they narrowed in speculation. "Com, get me a figure as to just when that other fleet is going to arrive."
"The scout, Tarantula is saying they are about ten minutes behind her, and they have close to 1000 ships."
All the pieces fell into place in Ulysses mind. Oh it was a classic ploy, move forces to attack one enemy while another snuck around behind you to hit your rear areas. And what commander couldn't do less than attack the massive force that would be entering Loci Kappa in mere seconds now. And once he was engaging them, the second strike would crash in behind him. Caught between two fires, his command would be in a very precarious position to defeat both at once. But by blessed chance he know knew about the other attack force. Now what to do about them.
"Order Bat Cru Div 6653 and 8217 to proceed with their escorts to staging area Frank and bolster Loci Kappa Defense Forces. Have the rest of the fleet remain here but have them launch a EW decoy to staging area Frank. Make them think we have sent all the mobile forces there save the reserve squadrons. Then I want every ship to go into stealth mode and the stations to bring on as much ECM as they muster. Order all units to engage with plan Zapata Five."
"Hostile emergence at Loci Kappa!" Davenport said. "Loci Kappa Defense Command reports they have engaged the enemy." As he spoke, Ulysses saw the enemy fleet emerge from the Corridor Terminus on his holo display. It was not as high a detail as it normally would be, due in part to the ungodly amount of ECM being put out in the local space around Lilith. But it was also due to the degraded Datalink Net thanks to the ISC's own EW efforts. Still, the resolution was enough to know just how hard a time the Loci defenses were going to have. There were an awful lot of angry crimson contacts on the holodisplay.
"Sir, Kappa Defense is requesting reinforcements."
"No." Ulysses winced inside as he issued the denial, knowing full well what that order was going to cost.
"But sir, if they aren't reinforced they can't."
"Damn it, don't you think I know that?" Ulysses growled tersely. He gestured to the distant Loci Delta on his holodisplay. "But I can't send them the ships. For now, at least, Kappa Defense is on their own."
Loci Kappa, Prescott's Star
The massive fleet of ISC vessels dropped into real space. They were to be the anvil of the carefully coordinated attack. Unity agents in place in the system had given word that the systems new CO had been shaking things up, but realistically, how much could one man do in this dumping ground for worthless officers? Not much High Command had decided, and so the increasingly concerned dispatches from Unity operatives were largely ignored. The forces allocated to the assault force were unaltered, with two thirds of them beginning their largely diversionary but quite real assault on the nearby defenses.
Plasma crisscrossed with phaser as the deadly beautiful lattice work of energy began to light the night. While the defenders were outnumbered by a considerable margin, they were mainly Battlestations. The massive, heavily shielded and armored hides were specifically designed to absorb the best efforts of an enemy fleet while remaining combat effective. And they were several times again the size of even the largest enemy vessel. Carefully choreographed fire lanced into the ISC ships selected for destruction. Phaser lance fire was backed up by standard heavy phaser array strikes and enough quantums to turn space white. The dumbbell shaped Imperial Battlestations coordinated their strikes with each other and their defensive fleets. The ships of Bat Cru Div 6653 and 8217 came as a nasty surprise. Largely ignored as inferior targets as the ISC fleet set about reducing the battlestations, they were able to fall into weapons range relatively unscathed. It was then that the newly refitted Excelsior class Battlecruisers struck their first blow. It had taken some pretty creative engineering to shoehorn a Phaser Lance into an Excelsior class Hull but the yard dogs, once sufficiently motivated, pulled off a minor miracle in proving that it could be done. The Battle Cruiser Division's fire converged on their assigned targets, and their massed tongues of flame burned them from space.
Death stalked the space around the corridor locus, dispatched upon computer prioritized targets with a machines dispassion for the loss of life their destruction incurred. Hundreds of ISC vessels were burned from space within minutes, but that left over a thousand that continued to press home their numerical superiority. The smaller vessels pressed home their superior maneuverability and speed over their Imperial fellows. But the cake walk against substandard opponents that was expected never occurred. Instead of being an ill trained enemy with equipment in poor repair, the initial assault waves were rudely surprised by the precise weapons fire and squadron discipline the Imperials were exhibiting. It was nearly every bit as tight as their own, and in spite of their superior numbers, in the swirling fur ball that rapidly developed around the battlestations, the superior individual weight of fire that the finely linked battle stations and their defensive fleet could put out began to have a telling effect. The Bat'leth like Interstellar Concordium vessels maneuvered with reckless speed, diving in and out of the battle as Imperial battlestations hammered them with weapons fire. Unimaginable energies were thrown through space, depleting shields, paring away armor with high energy knives, punching massive, glowing wounds that penetrated deep into hulls. Here and there, Vaadwaur ships sent out their highly useful flux waves, staggering multi million ton vessels like they were so much balsa wood for a vital few moments. Engines knocked temporarily off line, the massive warships spun out of control, becoming easy meat for the titanic battlestations and their Phaser Lance armed escorts.
The Imperial Battlestation Tolstoy great mass shuddered anew as yet another wave of energetic plasma struck it through a downed shield. "Outer hull breach in deck 53 through 59, sectors 3442 through 3601. Inner hull still at full integrity and outer hull breaches have been sealed with emergency forcefields. Blast doors adjacent to damaged sections have been activated and the affected compartments have been evacuated of all nonessential personnel." An Ensign called out a fresh damage report to Brevet Commodore Vivian DaGaule.
"Phasers 42 through 47 are down. Lances 12 through 19 are destroyed. Quantum tubes 30 through 43 and Heavy tubes 36 through 39 are gone. Shields compromised across multiple arcs portside and armor failing in sectors 13 Alpha through 41 Gamma. Regeneration ineffective Sir! There's just too much weapons fire coming in to fast." Another piece of bad news was fed to her. Yet even as the enemy savaged her command, her own weapons and those of her consorts flashed back defiance. Massed Lance fire snapped out and washed over a Superdreadnought. The ship was easily a match for even a Bastion, but she had been crippled in an earlier strike and she was the only one of her class present in the enemy fleet. Precisely choreographed fire, brought on target thanks to the stations datalink, caused all of the stations' surviving weapons systems that bore on the target to fire as one. The enemy leviathan finally died in a star bright boil as its engines and weapons magazines finally let go in a cataclysmic boil of eye tearing light.
On her holodisplay, Vivian saw a gaggle of furiously maneuvering upgraded Excelsiors streak after an enemy Battleship. The vessel was already crippled, but even so it still set a deadly stream of plasma waves from its capital weaponry to one of Tolstoy sister stations. The beam was severed suddenly as the massed fire from the Excelsior wing cut the ISC ship in two, her entire front third disappearing in a plume of plasma and debris leaving behind a broken and drifting hulk that shed escape pods like tears. To her right, the Sovereign class Sojourner, her port warp nacelle a shattered, plasma leaking stump and with a large, glowing molten wound marring her ventral saucer, screamed down on a ISC Frigate wing. Even in her wounded state, all of her weapons spat death. Her twin Phaser Lances sent solid shafts of amber red light outward, piercing their targets clean through, then cutting them lengthwise as they continued on their course. Both died in terrible, short lived suns as their cores breached within instants of each other. A barrage of quantums and standard phasers scored hits on the others, eventually punching through their light defenses and turning them into so much vaporized scrap. Then the Sojourner died as a massive barrage of plasma torpedoes struck her hull. The heavy armor resisted as best it could, but space itself was blotted out by the dense barrage. The ship splintered into three main chunks, carried along the same basic trajectory thanks to simple physics. With the full weight of the fleet, the defenses might have been able to rout the enemy, but even as a fresh attack went out from Vivian's command, the first of her multi hundred million ton sister stations died in a brilliant fireball. The tears that wetted Vivian's eyes were not only thanks to the hideous brightness of its death.