Star Trek Hunter
Episode 27: The Sword of Destiny
Scene 10: Weq 'ej qet
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27.10
Weq 'ej qet*
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The Prowler class ships and their JAG crews were on loan to Star Fleet Operations and placed under Admiral Chekov. These ships were divided into three operational groups – 40 of them were assigned to fleet protection and put under the direct command of Admiral Chekov. 14 were assigned to the 6th fleet under Rear Admiral Red. The remaining 16 were divided into two covert operation groups under the command of the two JAG captains with the most combat experience – Captain Sagittarius Hunter of the U.S.S. Prowler and Captain Kenneth Dolphin of the U.S.S. Hunter.
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Captain Dolphin had personally replicated signs and mounted them just above the viewscreen on the bridge of each of the ships under his command. These signs were simple – flat black with Admiral Chekov's commandment to the Hunter's task force in bold red letters:
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HIT AND RUN
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"Commander, I'm picking up a large navigational distortion." Navigator Auqa'rh'lth was in the U.S.S. Hunter's navigation/deflector control room, analyzing the raw feed from the navigation system.
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The Hunter's new half klingon/half orion navigator had quickly charmed all of the males serving on the U.S.S. Hunter (sparing only the captain and first officer) and had selected the recently promoted 2nd Lt. Geoffrey Horatio Alstars, who, like all her previous conquests, had quickly fallen prey to the green-skinned vixen's charms. She had enjoyed so much success with the men onboard that Dr. Jazz had taken to personally verifying her use of vanagraxaline to suppress her production of the powerfully psycho/sexually active pheromones that were, along with her green skin, her birthright as part orion.
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"Access the raw feed from the U.S.S. Tracker and the U.S.S. Birder and analyze," came Commander Napoleon Boles' voice from the bridge. "Is Geoff there with you?"
"I'm here, Commander," came the crisp Oxford accent of the Hunter's second oldest crew member.
"Stop staring at the pretty girl and start analyzing those feeds, Geoff," said Boles. "I swear she has turned you into a teenager. I have no idea what that girl sees in you…"
"It's so obvious," Auqa'rh'lth retorted. "Any girl knows just from looking at how tall he is and how big his hands are that he must have a really, really big…"
"That's enough, Navigator…" Boles warned…
"…brain…" Auqa'rh'lth concluded.
"Napoleon," said Alstars, "I don't like the look of this… It looks like there is a Martok class cruiser on the edge of this formation. We shouldn't be able to see it – it should have the new cloaking device. I'm also picking up what appear to be six of the old style battle cruisers that they have been using as supply ships…"
"Captain, have you been monitoring?" Boles asked.
"I'm in main engineering," came Captain Kenneth Dolphin's voice over the comm. "Geoff, get ready for show and tell, I'm coming to you."
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Only a few heartbeats later, Dolphin had scrambled up the forward ladder that went up from the main engineering floor, through deck 1 and onto deck 2. Both decks 1 and 2 were essentially catwalks from which the main engineering floor could be seen but that provided access to rooms around the exterior walls as well as the primary warp engine that projected up through the center of the decks.
After reviewing the readings for only a few heartbeats, Dolphin took a breath. "Hunter, get optimal firing solutions on the blip identified as a potential Martok. If that's really what is there, I want it out of our sky. We shoot while running, phasers only, full power. You have Star Fleet's analysis of the design's weak points. Prepare to transmit on my mark. Napoleon, put us into attack attitude."
"Captain, if I may?" said Alstars.
"Quickly, Lieutenant," Dolphin replied.
"Hunter, can you add a second target so that each of our ships hits a soft spot on one of those old battle cruisers? Two birds, one phaser strike. Just keep the phaser cannon on and drag it from the new cruiser to one of the old ones…"
"It can be done," Hunter replied. "Captain?"
"Do it. Napoleon, pass along the new orders to the other boats," said Dolphin.
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To a person viewing from outside the Hunter's Higgs-field camouflaged warp bubble (and those of the other 7 Star Fleet Prowler class ships) and outside the cloaking fields of the convoy of klingon ships, there was simply nothing to see. Empty space.
Phaser fire suddenly erupted out of nowhere and struck what at first appeared to be nothing. Then a series of explosions were revealed as the cloaking devices of several klingon ships failed. Two of the six old battle cruisers (now being used as supply ships) were destroyed. The other four were incapacitated and dead in space.
The more modern and much larger Martok class ship, while damaged, was able to raise its shields and give pursuit to the eight tiny Star Fleet ships, but these were only briefly visible and quickly vanished before the klingons could return fire.
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"We can't leave that Martok class cruiser out there," said Dolphin. "Geoff – get to phaser control and reprogram them for recursive fire."
2nd Lt. Alstars got up from his seat in navigation/deflector control and left the room. Captain Dolphin took his place. "Napoleon, communicate with the rest of the wing – we're going back. Tell the Birder and the Trapper to reset their phasers for recursive fire. All others need to keep their phasers in standard configuration for maximum power. They need to hold their fire until we take out that Martok's shields. While we're doing that, they need to wipe out those old cruisers. We come out of warp as close to them as we can. None of them can escape this time."
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The new Martok class cruiser was still visible with its shields up when the Hunter appeared directly in front of it. The weakened phaser shot straight through the klingon ship's shields as if they weren't even there, but the beam was so weak that it barely scorched the hull – until it intersected with the klingon cruiser's deflector dish, causing secondary explosions and taking the klingon ship's shields down.
The powerful klingon phaser cannon scored a direct hit on the U.S.S. Birder, knocking out main power and literally cutting the ship in half. The remainder of the Hunter's task force remained hidden behind the four old style klingon cruisers – too close to these antique ships for their antiquated disruptor cannon to be able to target the Star Fleet Prowler class ships that were pouring phasers into the soft points of these antique cruisers.
One by one, the four remaining old klingon cruisers exploded.
The U.S.S. Hunter and the U.S.S. Trapper kept moving, making hard targets for the Martok class cruiser's main cannon as first they, then the remaining task force ships pumped photon torpedoes into the now defenseless new cruiser until its weapons storage was hit.
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Only 3 out of the U.S.S. Birder's crew of 35 had survived. The Birder was so badly damaged that Captain Dolphin ordered it first plundered for spare parts and supplies, then the remainder towed and cast directly into the heart of a nearby star.
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*weq 'ej qet (thlingn Hol – Hit and Run)
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27.10
