Chapter 25
Paradise on the Brink
Sol System
August 19, 2377
4pm
Starfleet Command had picked up the massive fleet of ships heading towards Earth hours ago, and were readying a defense near Mars. Klingon and Romulan forces were there as well, but Admiral Kathryn Janeway could tell that it would barely be enough. She was on board her old vessel, Voyager, now commanded by her former pilot, Tom Paris. His wife, B'Lanna Paris, was still chief engineer, and Janeway felt right at home on the bridge.
However, any thoughts of homecoming were short-lived when she saw what warped out in front of them. "My God, what is that thing?"
The Comet Empire's cityship came into view and began to attack the fleet, along with the various Drakh vessels and the remainder of the Comet Empire fleet. Two Galaxy-class ships, Phoenix and Nautilus, headed straight for the massive vessel, only to be destroyed by a swarm of missiles fired from the cityship.
General Dire Ganitz smiled as he saw the vessels impale themselves on his fleet. "These pathetic Starfleet ships don't stand a chance. Earth will be ours soon, at this rate.," he commented from the bridge aboard the cityship to his leader, Emperor Zordar.
"Let us not be overconfident, General. Remember what happened last time we were here, and remember it well. This time, they don't have anyone to come to their aid at the last moment."
Invidia and Gul Dukat were not on board, heading the fleet that was going to attack the Earth that had been denied Zordar. "Those Cardassian renegade ships will come in handy when we take back what was rightfully ours. Once we rid this universe of the pestilence that is Earth, we go back to our own and destroy the other one!" It was then that an explosion rocked them and forced them to tumble to the ground.
"What was that," Zordar roared as he got to his feet as dignified as he could, given the circumstances.
A military flunky scrambled over to a display, and reported, "Sir, three ships have appeared out of nowhere and are attacking us at point blank range! And sir, one of them is the Yamato!"
"Yamato! Damn them! Prepare the nukes! We'll keep them busy by forcing them to chase down our Earthbound missiles"
The center ring of the massive cityship began to spin, and soon, missile after missile were launched into the general direction of Earth, and away from the main opposing force.
Captain Ashcroft aboard the Wildstar frantically signaled to his counterpart on board the Freedom. "Hudson, they've launched nukes towards Earth. Are you in position?"
"Affirmative. Jumping now.," replied Hudson, and Freedom, along with Liberty and Excalibur, jumped into normal space and set themselves in the path of the nukes.
Major Ivanova, commanding from the Liberty, ordered fighters to launch. "Set defense grids to wide angle dispersion fire! Take out those missiles any way we can!"
The three ships began to fire into the oncoming wave of missiles, and bursts of orange light began to sparkle along the rapidly approaching line. Starfuries and Thunderbolts came out of their launch bays and headed out to flank the missiles and take them out there.
The ten Defiant-class ships from Wildstar and Hercules came alongside three dozen Whitestars, and laid waste to the rest of the missiles. To Zordar's disgust, they began to make their way closer to his massive fortress.
"Fire the cannons," he roared, and the ring splitting the city proper from the bottom side of the ship began to revolve again, this time firing massive burst of energy at the oncoming fleet. Wildstar swung around and sent a broadside of phaser fire and a volley of quantum torpedoes towards the ring, and managed to take out several segments of the ring.
Ashcroft linked into the fleet and commanded, "Concentrate your firepower on the ring. Let the Whitestars and the Defiants take out the smaller ships."
Montgomery spotted a signal on her console, and spoke to the captain, "Sir, Yamato has arrived and has opened fire on the other side of the ship. They request we send fighters armed with quantum torpedoes to the underside and try and attack the core. He wants to take out the main reactor on that vessel."
"Montgomery, you lead an away team in one runabout and select the crewmembers for the others. Coordinate with the Freedom and Liberty and have their fighters give you cover fire."
"Yes sir," said Montgomery, who quickly headed to the local transport tube and entered the car, making her way to the shuttlebay.
Zordar saw what they were doing, and tried to get the main shuttle doors on the cityship to close, but a well-coordinated attack by the Whitestars prevented the aperture from closing. "Great work, Whitestars! Now, Dash, prepare to open up with the main guns to give the infiltration squad cover fire!"
Dash Jordan replied, "Aye, sir! Main guns, aim for target 160 by 84. Prepare to fire...fire!"
All five main guns on board the ship opened up simultaneously, and blew a path for the runabouts and fighters to enter the cityship. Black Tigers and Cosmo Zeros joined Starfuries and Thunderbolts as escorts for the infiltrators.
Montgomery studied the plans to the cityship, sent by Yamato's Sandor, and found the core. "Prepare to beam warheads to these coordinates, then arm them once we confirm that they have beamed into the correct places."
Lieutenant Phen Thul nodded his head, saying, "Warheads ready for beam out, sir!"
At Montgomery's command, the transporter beamed the warheads deep inside the interior of the ship. "Confirmed, Lieutenant Commander! We have warheads inside, as well as force field generators in place to protect them!"
Montgomery linked into the force accompanying her, "All ships, break and retreat! Repeat, all ships, break and retreat! Fuse is lit!"
The ships fled out of the inside of the ship, with Starfuries and Thunderbolts flying backwards to keep the Comet Empire's fighters from following them out. Once they were outside of the ship, Montgomery began to set off the warheads. "All ships, get away from the cityship! Best speed!"
The underside of the ship suddenly blew out, sending chunks of rock away from the massive vessel. Many of the Comet Empire's fleet were caught up in the debris raining around them and were wiped out!
"Launch the dreadnaught, Ganitz. We planned for this, and now we'll make them pay!"
The top of the cityship, with it's familiar skyscrapers and other features of massive metropolises, began to crumble. To prevent a premature celebration, Derek Wildstar reminded the fleet of what was up Zordar's sleeve. "He's bringing out his dreadnaught. Prepare to flank around and attack the underside of his ship. He cannot be allowed to bring out the ship's planetary bombardment cannon!"
As the cityship was disintegrating, Wildstar was expecting the dreadnaught to rise above the city, but was caught off guard when Zordar's warship plowed through the middle of the collapsing structure and blew through the ships in front of him, ramming several Whitestars in the process.
"He's making a suicide run towards Earth! Estimated time to intercept is thirty minutes," Nova Forrester called out. Wildstar made a quick calculation, then commanded part of the fleet to swing around both sides of the ship, while his forces would try and overtake the dreadnaught, using the wave motion gun to take out the ship.
Ashcroft was giving out orders for his side's flanking maneuver when Litinova called out from her console, "Captain! Twelve Borg ships coming out of warp! They are on an intercept course with Earth, and will be there within seconds."
"Damn! Is there anything we can do," yelled Ashcroft.
"No sir! By the time we got there, they would have had plenty of chance to fire onto the surface!"
Ashcroft looked at the Borg vessels as they approached the Earth from the other side of where they were conducting the battle. He expected to see them stop in orbit and launch torpedoes at the Earth, but his jaw dropped as he watched them fly by the planet and head for them.
"Sir, they are heading towards the dreadnaught! Orders," asked Litinova.
Before he could give any, he watched in shock as the Borg cubes began to fire upon the dreadnaught. Six of them went underneath Zordar's ship and began to fire at the bombardment cannon being lowered.
Zordar, alarmed by this new development, didn't hesitate on what he did next. "Retract the cannon and prepare to warp. We'll get them another day! Warp!"
The massive ship's cannon was wheeled back inside, and the ship glowed as its warp field was generated. Within seconds, it was gone.
"Tracking systems, find where that ship may have gone," called out Hudson.
Bistilic, her tactical officer on duty, ran the check, then informed her captain, "Captain, computer tracks them as heading towards sector 58 by 122 by 68."
Hudson hailed the fleet, "Hudson here. Any idea about who these guys are?"
Picard came on the line and said, "Stay at general quarters, Captain. These are Borg, and they are a threat to us."
A voice joined into the conversation, "They are no longer a threat, because we have neutralized them."
Picard asked the voice, "Who are you?"
The voice replied, "My name is Elric, and we have much to discuss!"