"Praise God!" Stephen yelled back. "T'Nia, get those shields up!"
Her finger already on the command buttons, she pressed them quickly. The screen on her tactical display quickly showed a pair of rings surrounding an overhead represenation of the Warlord. Like turning off a switch, the rocking motion that had been jarring the crew stopped. "Shields up, Sir," she announced emotionlessly.
"Commander, I have six Dominion raiders coming up from the southern pole." Kenyon announced almost robotically. The events of the past several moments had left him numb.
Kirk looked over to his first officer. "We should have more company than this... unless we completely caught them off guard. Start regular tachyon bursts. It's time to start clearing our baffles, Mister Richards." The lack of ship movement left Stephen with the impression the worst was over. "Elaine, what're our final damage numbers?"
Lieutenant Davies removed her earpiece. "So far, I've got seven injuries... none of them serious. The doctor's patching them up now. I've also got some ship damage... two of the ablative plates covering the port nacell suffered a lot of damage. They're pretty much useless. Another couple of hits would have destroyed the drive. There was some minor power distribution damage from it, but the system has already re-routed to the backups."
Stephen pursed his lips. "Well, that's not so bad."
Elaine nodded. Considering how badly the ship had rocked, she had expected the damage to be worse. Perhaps they'd survive this after all.
"Whoa!" Kenyon yelled, causing the crew to look his direction save T'Nia, who was seeing something similar on her targeting console.
"What?" Stephen instinctively replied.
"I have multiple contacts decloaking in front of us, Sir," T'Nia stated. The forward viewscreen suddenly filled with no less than four large, gray and purple, bat-like vessels, who began instantly firing long, purple beams of polaron energy towards the Warlord.
"How are the shields holding up?" Stephen asked out loud.
T'Nia looked quickly. "Eighty-one percent and falling."
"Okay, T'Nia... you've been itching to use the auto-firing system. Now's the time. Paint your targets and let them have it when you have a solution." Stephen announced. "Hold back the cannons, though. That battleship has to be around here somewhere. Tyler, run the gauntlet."
Looking at her targeting panel, she began touching the screen where she identified an object to be targeted. Currently, she counted fourteen Dominion ships.
"Aye, aye, Sir!" Tyler screamed anxiously. He had been waiting for this... his chance to shine. Setting the course, he ignited the maneuvering thrusters to break orbit from the planet and headed straight for the collection of Dominion ships that had just become visible. With another pair of button presses, the rear thrusters fired full force, sending the Warlord forward.
Her targets designated, T'Nia pressed the 'Engage' button on her firing panel. The words 'Autofire engaged' blinked on her tactical display. What appeared on the viewscreen impressed even her and sent the bridge crew into cheers. A dazzling array of red lines and purple pinpoints exploded from the bottom center of the screen lighting up the space in front of them with explosions.
"I've got five more bandits coming in fast from Cardassia IV." Richards announced, still quite impressed with the display in front of him. Then, bringing him back to reality, a very large image appeared over the northern pole. His expression grew tense as the image sped closer to their position. "Well, there it is... battleship coming in high on our six."
Nervously, Kirk balled his fists. "Great", he thought, "they're coming in behind us. They must have been waiting for us to make a move." Standing up, he moved towards Tyler. "Bristol, push us through this line and turn us around. The cannons only fire forward."
"Damn, it's flanked by a pair of cruisers," Richards added. "They're firing!"
"That was significant," T'Nia commented. "Our primary shields are down to sixty-three percent."
"What have we done to them?" Stephen asked, hoping for good news.
Richards looked at his sensors. "I've got five raiders down, two cruisers destroyed and two more with damage." "The other bandits are moving into position behind us. The battleship has launched an entire wing of raiders! I count another dozen."
"That's a good strategy," Stephen remarked. "Our weapons are lighter there."
Richards announced, "The battleship's firing again!" more nervously this time.
Kirk gritted his teeth. "T'Nia, have you got a firing solution on that battleship?" His voice was agitated.
"Not yet, we have not yet completed our turn." she replied calmly. In her opinion, there was no logical need for him to raise his voice.
"Tyler?" Stephen asked angrily.
"The thing turns like a diridium wall stuck in mud, Sir," the young ensign cried out defensively.
Stephen shook his head, dashed to the navigation console, and pointed to the impulse engine controls. "Port impulse engine one eighth forward, starboard impulse engine one eighth reverse... come ON, Tyler... think! You're going to get us killed!"
Tyler pounded the console. He should have thought of that. Waving his hands over the engine controls, he touched one slide up and the other back. The great ship shook at the sudden change in momentum. The viewscreen blurred with the dizzying change of direction. When the screen image settled, it revealed a chaotic arrangement of enemy vessels attempting to break formation and move behind the Warlord. At the top of the screen, barely visible, was the belly of the giant battleship, which was firing again.
"T'Nia, FIRE!" Stephen yelled.
While the auto-firing program continued to target the smaller ships, T'Nia locked the giant battleship into the cannon's crosshairs. She pressed two buttons; one for each cannon. Dozens of small, green globes streaked from the bottom of the viewscreen towards the underside of the battleship. A protective bubble began to glow around it as the cannonfire impacted the battleship's shields. Quickly, the glowing began to fade as the weapons overwhelmed them, allowing one, then two, then four, then eight, then twelve bursts to pass and impact the vessel itself. Small, then larger explosions dotted the underside of the battleship as the Warlord continued moving forward underneath the giant, black ship. It violently listed to one side as the continuing damage caused its stabilizer engines to malfunction. Within moments, explosions rocked the top rear of the ship as green globes rocketed completely through.
"What's the status of the battleship?" Stephen asked, trying not to sound frantic.
Richards looked at his sensor display. "Sir, we got him. Its main engines are offline and its weapons are down. It's just drifting. Actually..." he looked again. "I don't think it ever got out of the gravity well of Cardassia. I think it's falling into a decaying orbit." He looked again and pressed several buttons. "Yeah... if they can't get some kind of power restored, they're gonna crash in about twelve minutes."
"Good," Stephen remarked flatly. "That's one less thing we have to worry about. Keep up with the tachyon bursts and get detailed sensor readings on that battleship. I want to know as much as possible if we ever have to go up against one again. Good shooting, T'Nia. What's our shield situation?" NOW, he thought, the worst was over.
She turned around, her expression serious. "Primary shields are down to thirty percent."
"How many bandits are still out there?" He asked hopefully. Perhaps, with the loss of their flagship, the rest would lose heart.
"I count twelve raiders and five cruisers," T'Nia replied, staring at her tactical console. "I also count six cardassian ships, but they haven't fired yet."
"Commander," Richards interrupted, turning around, "I'm counting twenty cardassian lifeforms on that battleship."
"Well, we really can't help that," Kirk admitted coldly, "They picked their side."
"Actually," Richards began slowly, "it looks like they're in prison cells."