Chapter 21-Final Stand
Tau'ri Fleet, High Orbit above Alpha Prime
They did all they could, swarms of aschen ships feel to gauss cannons, missiles and plasma, but in the end there were just too many, it will all come to a conclusion here.
Surrounding the massive form of Ravensbright, were the remaining ships of the fleet, two Ha'taks, the MTB's Cerberus and Black Prince, four Colonial MTB's, the Endeavour, and what was left of the 8 squadrons of various fighters, filed the blackness of space high above the terrestrial planet of Alpha Prime. They were awaiting, far in the distance, the remaining aschen ships raced towards their position, in 4 minutes they would enter weapons range.
Ravensbright herself was ready for battle, all 4 turrets ready, the limited missile cells loaded with sparrow torpedoes, the nukes were even put on stand by as a last resort, the network of defensively satellites, while the pulse laser are useless in such a battle, the sparrows would be of great help against the enemy.
Endeavour
2 minutes to go, you could feel the anxiety in the bridge, the already heavily damaged cruiser was reduced to 55 effectiveness, its shields barely able to hold half strength, thankfully a full load of munitions were in both gauss cannons and missile cells, if they were going down, they were taking a whole lot of aschen with them.
"60 seconds sir."
"Sir General O'Neill's warning us that if it comes down to firing the nukes, he wants us and every ship out of the system immediately." Ensign Yates reported from the Comm. Station.
"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that then shall we?"
"40 Seconds, they should be in visual range now"
"On screen." The captain ordered, the forward bridge window revealed itself with the tactical viewer rising back into the roof. Against the darkness of space, dozens of sliver ships were clear.
"How many exactly?" Davis asked
"24, most pretty badly beaten from the attack by the strikers."
"15 seconds until extreme firing range."
"Alright then, prepare a full barrage of torpedo fire, saturation fire, once were in close enough range, let loose the gauss rounds."
"Aye sir, firing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Sparrows away!"
All forwards cells of the Prometheus Class, fired in unison, spitting out torpedoes towards the aschen forces, soon the other ships shot dozens, if not hundreds of torpedoes into the distance.
Aschen Dreadnought
The only ship to not have suffered the devastation of both battles, stood amongst the damaged, but still capable fleet, the double layer shielding protecting it prevented the full barrage of the strikers cutting into the hull like its smaller sister ships. Inside the ship stood Molum, gazing smugly towards the incoming assault 'pathetic' he thought, the primitive projectile weaponry at this range was useless, most missing by huge margins despite their 'tracking systems.'
"Amusing isn't it Gerol?" Molum asked the High Commander of the fleet next too him.
"You know we don't accept such emotions sir." Came the dry reply
"Ah yes, but all this futility," he actually smirked at the thought. "With earth just within our grasps, and the Tau'ri about to fall, it makes you ignore the teachings, and embrace the moment."
"You're thinking like a Romulan." Gerol said is disgust, "Do not ignore the teachings of Surak, they are what led our people to prosper, our greed and arrogance was our downfall, and if we do not stop the wasteful and senseless attack against the Tau'ri, or they will be our downfall as well!"
"Our downfall?" Molum actually chuckled "We are on the verge of causing their extinction, we win this battle and our people will be avenged, they could not possibly be a threat if they're all dead."
Gerol face twisted with anger, "You think that's their homeworld? Where are the cities, you should see their lights clearly at night." He let go of the anger, remembering the training every aschen went through, taking the calm persona once again, "No Molum, this isn't earth."
The amused face of Molum took a turn to complete shock "What?"
Tau'ri Station, Ravensbright
"Their still moving forward sir, the strikers attack didn't work as effective as we thought." Major Franco commented to the General, as they both watched the still active holographic map of both fleets in orbit of Alpha Prime
O'Neill looked long and hard at the numerous blue and red dots battle it out, the blue we're being pushed back slowly "We can still hold out, order all forces to fall back towards Ravensbright, anyone that's unable to fight are to leave the area now, this is the final stand." He ordered, never taking his eyes off the screen.
Franco nodded in acknowledgement, "Aye sir, sending the orders now."
Aschen Dreadnought
Molum was in shock, he could barely manage a sentence, "Say that again shipman."
"The population of this word is barely in the thousands, the other inhabited world having approximately five hundred thousand inhabitants." The bridge officer informed the commander.
Molum finally took it in, slowly saying "They told me earth had 6 billion people….."
"Then isn't it obvious Molum?" Gerol questioned his superior, "That this isn't earth?"
"Yes…..but we must continue the attack, we are already committed!" he said with renewed resolve despite being completely wrong about the attack.
"What, and let even more of our people die, our ships be destroyed, and the Tau'ri have the satisfaction of victory?" Gerol closed his eyes and sighed, "No Molum, we must stop this now, the Tau'ri are not our primary concern, the Romulans are now growing stronger, our offenses will be turned within mere months, we don't have the resources to hold the war for long and continue to expect winning!"
The Supreme Commander snarled, "I've suffered your pathetic attempts to force us to leave this battle for too long Gerol, too usurp my authority, too the point of complete disobeying of my orders, this is clearly treasonous, Guards!" the twin armed aschen behind him moved forward, "Take the High Commander to the brig."
The loyal body guards of Molum moved to take the commander, who looked slightly shocked, but resigned none the less, both body guards forced the high commander off down the hall. Molum smiled, 'one nuisance out of the way.' And turned to face the retreating fleet of Tau'ri ships, 'and one more to go.'
Ravensbright
"Enemy fleet entering range, 15 seconds."
"Shields at max combat effectiveness."
"Weapons ready, defensive satellites ready."
"Prepare all turrets to open fire, remember our main priority is to get rid of the big bastard, so if you can do as much damage to it as possible." O'Neill ordered to the command stations officers, manning each station.
"Their in range of the main gun sir." The weapons officer informed.
"Open fire."
Aschen Dreadnought
"We're entering maximum range of the station, commander."
"Order the fleet to cut a path through the Tau'ri fleet, we'll take care of the station." The supreme commander ordered.
"Acknowledged sir, Degerus's are acknowledging and…SIR LOOK!" the communications officer blurted out while pointing on the viewer, the Tau'ri station unleashed a full 16 of those railgun blasts in no more then 3 seconds of firing, obliterating a trio of frigates with ease.
Molum's eyes widened at the assault, 'that was just one turret on the stations apex, initial scans pointed it to be unarmed'. "Scatter the fleet, move us in, we can take the punishment."
"Yes commander."
RSS Endeavour
"Ravensbright has opened fire sir, orders?" Commander Wellings asked.
"Move us in, use its assault as a cover, the aschen will be too busy trying to counter it." Davis ordered.
"Moving in, don't expect this thing to make any half decent turns though, the engines we're shot to pieces in the last assault, " Ensign Veers said from the Conn. As he lead the cruiser gently into the maelstrom of gauss and pulse fire, the Endeavour's own weapons giving all they could, singling gauss and missile fire on craft not taken in the target locks of Ravensbright weapon array. Little did they realize, in their urge to thin the enemy numbers, Molum had noticed the small ship, he considered it personally responsible for this entire battle, and as such, his ship soon turned to engage, ready to strike.
Ravensbright
O'Neill turned to the ops officer, slightly smirking at the level of power the main gauss turret was showing, "What's the status on the aschen fleet?"
"Well you just saw the main gun in action, its cutting though the shields as if they weren't there." The young captain informed him.
"Rate of fire must be faster then he rate of regeneration." O'Neill pondered to no one in particular, not noticing some of the shocked stares he was receiving by…well everyone. Turning he finally saw, looking innocent he said "What? You work with Carter for 7 years and you'll learn these things too."
The ops officer grinned slightly at the statement, turning to his console again, the blood rushed from his face, "Sir Endeavour's got heavy inbound!"
O'Neill turned from his amused sarcastic image to one of seriousness, looking to the ops stations reading, "What exactly."
"The Dreadnought."
RSS Endeavour
"Get us out of here! All possible speed!" Davis ordered, as the ship was rocked by firepower that not even the aschen battleships could match, dozens of pulse blasts ripped into the weakened shields, the missiles the cruiser fired back we're blown apart by the continuous fire of ionized energy.
"Shields down! We can't take much more of this!" Wellings informed, as the ship jolted massively, crew we're thrown clear from their station, explosions and fires ripped throughout the ship, reports of one of the sub-light engines being completely ripped off took the cake.
"Prepare hyperspace jump, anywhere!" Davis screamed over the constant sound of explosions. Watching as Veers yelled out but no words came, the ship was been ripped apart, and only with the forming of a glowing vortex could he possibly feel relieved. The ship barely moved forward to its salvation before it was blasted so hard that the ship span out, anyone not secure was thrown into the walls of the bridge, internal dampeners active or not. For no more then 15 seconds, the ship halted, thanks to the maneuvering thrusters, one of the few systems still active.
Davis slowly and painfully got up from the bridges far wall, he winced at the sharp sense of pain working its way up his arm, 'must be broken, hurts too much to be sprained.' Supporting himself on his undamaged right arm, he slowly walked over to the Conn. Station, the smoke filled bridge, the occasional spark went off, but that was the only sound. The attack had stopped, at least temporarily. Finally reaching the Conn station, he looked down at the non-moving figure of Ensign Veers on the floor, he wasn't breathing, and his neck was clearly snapped, Davis shook his head, 'he was a good man', but not having the time to mourn, he starred out the window, and saw the motionless feature of the aschen dreadnought filling the view, they we're waiting to finish the job. Davis knew he only had one choice, putting himself in the Conn stations chair, he did a quick scan on available engines, hyperdrive was completely down, with sublight at 26. 'It's going to have to do.' Giving one final look out to the massive form in front on what remained of his ship, he knew Molum was watching, making this victory as satisfying as possible, he wouldn't give him that option. Pumping as much power into the remaining engine, the cruiser started moving.
Aschen Dreadnought
The enhanced visual scans showed the lone officer glare out of the Endeavour's window, seemingly maneuver the ship for one last desperate attack, its severely weakened engine activated, slowly pushing the small cruiser forward. 'Pathetic'.
"Eliminate that pest, all weapons."
"Yes commander."
RSS Endeavour.
Davis could see the weapons charging, the faint blue sparkle of light appeared on locations all over the dreadnought, 'I'm not going to make it.' He thought, as the specks of light grew brighter and brighter, as they bolted towards him, growing larger and larger, time slowed down for him as all he could do was watch his own death come towards him, the last thing he saw was a brilliant blue flash.