Despite the situation, Dan Hsiao found that he was enjoying himself.
He hated himself a little for that, hated that Boomers were being killed while he felt like a giddy twelve-year old joyriding in his parents' car, but he couldn't help it. Sending Endeavour into a twisting spin through the chaotic Boomer convoy, he kept his eyes on the NAV sensor feed, ignoring the explosions that clouded it -- explosions that, if he let himself think about it, were innocent men and women and children being consumed by fire and vacuum. Twice, he nearly clipped Boomer transports as they unexpectedly altered their headings, and once he very nearly rammed into a slow-moving fuel transport, but Endeavour emerged on the other side of the convoy unscathed and Dan was forced to admit something to himself that he would never tell anyone.
This was fun.
"Six-two mark one-eight-nine," Captain Tucker ordered and Dan reacted without thought, his touch steady but light. One of the Romulan ships abruptly loomed into view and, from his TAC board, Commander Eisler unleashed a withering salvo of fire at it. Explosions bracketed the bird of prey and it darted back into the relative safety of the panicked convoy. "Stay on his tail, Dan," Tucker instructed, and Hsiao fought a completely improper grin.
"Target Beta appears to be breaking for the station," Commander T'Pol announced calmly as Dan banked Endeavour around another lumbering transport. Almost immediately, he was forced to send the ship into a stomach-lurching dive as two rickety-looking cargo ships loomed into view. Endeavour's engines howled with protest and the inertial dampeners struggled to compensate as he demanded more maneuverability. Three more insane maneuvers later, they were once more on the Romulan's tail and Hsiao was desperately trying to keep from giggling.
Even as Commander Eisler was triggering a burst of fire at the bird of prey, the Romulan ship was loosing a salvo of torpedoes at the convoy. Fire exploded from one of the larger Boomer ships as the warheads slammed into it and, in the seconds before it flew apart, Dan recognized it as the fuel transport that he had narrowly missed earlier. Huge chunks of burning durasteel were sent spinning into other ships, smashing against the hulls with crushing force. Two Boomer craft were vaporized instantly, and a third was sent tumbling into a cluster of other ships, causing an immediate domino effect. Ships never designed to conduct evasive maneuvers dove and climbed and twisted away from the flying debris. Some made it. Most did not.
Great gouts of flame exploded from many of the crippled vessels as the onboard oxygen ignited and fragile warp nacelles were sent spinning into the void. For a fraction of second, Hsiao thought that he could see bodies tumbling from the ships as they collided with one another. Many - far, far too many - were children.
Suddenly it wasn't fun anymore.
"Shift fire," Tucker said as a second Romulan shift darted out of cover, its disruptor cannons slicing into unprotected transports. Phase cannon fire lashed out from Endeavour, briefly illuminating the Romulan's shields. A trio of photonic torpedoes leapt from the Starfleet vessel and raced through the darkness; two exploded across the Romulan's shield and sent the bird of prey tumbling. The third...
The third torpedo smacked into a Boomer ship.
"Scheisse," Commander Eisler muttered as the transport vanished in a burst of atomic fire, and one did not need to know German to recognize his meaning.
"How long until they reach the threshold?" the captain asked, his tone bleak but measured. Until the Boomer ships reached the outer edge of the nebula's distortions, going to warp remained almost certainly fatal. Six ships had already tried to do so and their exploding nacelles had destroyed them instantly.
"Seventeen point three six minutes," came T'Pol's measured response, and Dan frowned. He'd lost track of how many Boomers had been destroyed so far.
Initially, Captain Tucker had wanted to concentrate fire on a single ship until it was destroyed, but the Romulan hit-and-fade tactic proved to be difficult to combat. The moment that Endeavour appeared to focus on a single bird of prey, that ship would pull away and go evasive, attempting to draw the Starfleet vessel away from the relatively slow-moving convoy; in that moment, the other two ships would conduct brutal strafing runs on the rest of the Boomers. Even the presence of several armed Boomer transports and the Orion gunboat were proving to be of negligible aid; of the twenty-six combat-capable ships that Captain Mayweather had put at Endeavour's disposal, fewer than ten were still functional.
"That's too damned long," Tucker muttered as Hsiao sent Endeavour into another steep nose dive. "Recalculate the safety zone," he instructed and Dan could almost imagine the Vulcan raising her eyebrow in response.
The murmur coming from the COM station had become background noise and Hsiao risked a single glance in that direction. Her headset on, Devereux's face was tight with frustration as she pleaded with the Boomers.
"Negative," she was saying, her voice soothing despite the expression on her face, "do not break formation. Maintain your present heading and course."
The third bird of prey - target Epsilon - lunged briefly into view, hotly pursued by Captain Mayweather's ship and the Bad Omen. Hayes had adopted the role of shepherd for the Horizon once Captain Tucker gave Mayweather's "combat-capable" ships the green light to engage; they made an unlikely team, the sleek gunboat that was all curves and smooth lines and the J-Class transport that was all sharp corners and right angles.
"Captain," T'Pol suddenly spoke, her voice as full of excitement as any Vulcan's could be, "the seventh bird of prey has sent an encrypted message to target Beta."
"A command ship," Tucker breathed. Hsiao could almost feel the sudden shift in atmosphere on the bridge and he was already adjusting their trajectory. "Can you verify?"
"No." The Vulcan's pause was fractional but telling. "Scans do indicate that it is more heavily shielded and I have no other explanation for its refusal to engage."
"Agreed, sir," Lieutenant Commander Eisler added without being asked.
"Right," the captain muttered. "Tactical, get a weapons lock on that ship," Tucker abruptly ordered. "Helm, come to one-eight-two mark four-nine, best speed." He paused. "Let's go kill a command ship."
Endeavour's engines growled as Dan altered their course.