Chapter Four:

The Battle of Lilsis III:

'Charge of the Light Brigade'

"Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward." K'meiuu's soft voice is heard, heavy with the pain of lost friends. "All in the valley of Death, rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!' he said:" There's a weary note to her voice as M'Rella finishes, and for the first time, she sounds old. "Into the valley of Death… [b]we[/b] rode, the six hundred."

Goddamn Lilsis III. The problem with Lilsis was twofold: One, there were inordinate amounts of tekasite in the system, both on the planets and in orbit on the asteroids orbiting between the planets, and the heavy defense systems that Starfleet had installed to ensure that no-one could harness the tekasite and use it to create an explosive device. In 2373, the Dominion tried to destroy the Bajoran Star. As a result, Starfleet deployed orbital defense systems - an idea taken from the First Dominion War - but they hadn't been calibrated or activated yet. It was why the klingons wanted to attack the planet, before the Dominion could harvest the tekasite or activate the defenses. What no-one knew at the time was that they'd already been activated. A changeling made its way about Starbase 24 and ordered the activation. Of course, we didn't know this, so we made our plans to attack: The Klingon's would approach under cloak, destroy the defense turrets, while Starfleet would handle the ship to ship engagement. Neither of us were really trusting of the other - A year ago, we were at war, after all. Challenger, flanked by Tavistock, Belfast and the Fast Attack Wing would be the first wave, with Ramillies, Yamaguchi, Valley Forge, Majestic-A and Excalibur would be the second wave.

Instead of telling you the battle, I thought I'd show you it. I've had a simulation made, from my perspective, so you can get a bird's eye view, as it were…

The simulation opens with Captain Adams sat in the centre raised seat aboard the Challenger, her First Officer to her right. Crew are at their stations, occasionally calling out reports or shifting from one station to the next. The lights aligned vertically on the walls flash and pulse red as the view screen shows the whirling flash of warp speed.

The Ensign manning the helm console turns, just a quarter, before reporting 'Arrival in 15 seconds, Captain.' With those words, the bridge crew seems to straighten, and in the case of the Captain, she does: Back straight, shoulders squared. The viewscreen flashes white as the ship transitions to sublight speeds, and the shields almost immediately flare into life, clinging to the hull of the Challenger as the first level of protection. Around the large Galaxy Class appears two Defiant Class vessels, immediately disappearing again as they cloak, before two Akira Class cruisers crash-transition to sublight, taking up flank positions on Challenger.

'All engines, ahead flank. Get us past the asteroid field and get me a tactical-'

Over the ship-to-ship, a voice sounds, cultured and British. Tavistock. "Tavistock to Challenger, I just got swept over by a target painter… I don't think it saw us… say that again, Mr. Zet? Oh shit! Challenger, abort! The defenses are live, I say again, the turrets are armed and live, abort!"

On the bridge of the Challenger, Adams stands, her eyes wide. 'Live? How can they be… Get me Captain K'Tang, we are leaving!' The Bolian manning Challenger's tactical console answers, fear in his voice. 'Captain… the Klingon's are beginning their attack…' On screen, a force of 18 Klingon vessels - K'Vort, B'Rel, K'Tinga Class vessels, led by a K'Tinga Class refit - appear from nothing, swarming and running at the armed defense installations. In a hail of heavy blue phaser fire, the lead vessel, the refit K'Tinga, is torn apart, hull plating peeling from the vessel, the thin neck buckling and snapping, fires erupting from the two halves before exploding in a brilliant white light. The remaining Klingon vessels continue their assault, but are rapidly hemorrhaging ships. On the bridge of the Challenger, Captain Adams orders the viewscreen returned to the tactical display. 'All engines, ahead flank. Target the defense installations, order the Klingons to retreat, inform Ramillies to abandon the second wave and hold position. Transfer auxiliary power to shields and structural integrity. Load quantum torpedoes, maximum yield. Stand by phasers.' There's a soft whine and a growl from the Galaxy Class as they accelerate towards .25c, the Ensign on the helm rapidly tapping his console as he puts the ship through banks, pitches and rolls to avoid the asteroids. The Spector and the Rabin have no such issues, and have already cleared asteroid field, photon torpedoes spitting out at an obscene rate of fire, rigged from proximity detonation in an attempt to jam or block the defense installations targeting systems - to little effect. Tavistock and Belfast decloak, and begin rapid attack runs on the nearest station.

[/b]As the simulation plays, M'Rella's voice is heard again. "Forward, the Light Brigade!" It's half battlecry, half ragged anguish. As she continues to recite the ancient poem, fire briefly returns to her voice. "Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew... Someone had blundered. Ours not to make reply! Ours not to reason why! Ours but to [b]do[/b] and die…" There's a long pause, and the last words of the verse are almost whispered. "Into the valley of Death we rode, the six hundred."[b]

As the simulation continues, it's obvious to the viewer that the Alliance lost this before it even began, but Challenger is still progressing towards the line of battle, quantum torpedoes firing from her launchers as soon as they can be loaded, her massive saucer arrays lancing out orange death at the nearest available targets. The Bolian at the tactical station tries to alert Tavistock, but it's too late: As the Defiant Class cloaks to begin another run, six turrets latch onto her course and fire a stream of blue and orange phaser pulses, which can be seen visibly striking the undefended Tavistock. Hull plating is ripped from her small frame and her shape ripples back into view, smoke, steam and plasma pouring from her frame. With a solid target, the still firing six turrets lock onto Tavistock herself and begin rapid continued fire, punching through her nacelle and her impulse engine, tearing her deflector apart and leaving the little ship a burning, immobile wreck, spinning wildly as the stabilizers are unable to deal with the strain of a single impulse engine. With Tavistock no longer a threat, the turrets move to track what currently is: 4.5 million tonnes of Galaxy Class, burning towards them at full impulse. Two of the turrets closest to Tavistock explode as Challenger expresses her displeasure, while Adams hails Tavistock.

'Commander, don't bother moving to escape pods. Have your people gather together and we'll beam you straight off. Tactical, keep our nose to them, drop aft shields.'

"Tavistock to Challenger… copy that." The feline's voice is heavy as she strains against the lateral G-force bleeding through the slowly-fading inertial dampeners. "Eject the core and use the last of our power to at least slow this damn spin!"

[/b]" Cannon to right of us. Cannon to left of us, Cannon in front of us." Again K'Meiuu's voice begins to fill with passion. "Volleyed and thundered! Stormed at with shot and shell! Boldly we rode, and well! Into the jaws of Death… Into the mouth of hell…" Again, her voice is a whisper. "We rode, the six hundred."[b]

Before Tavistock's crew can answer M'Rella's orders, they are brought to a sudden, jarring stop as the Challenger grabs them in a tractor beam. One of the few consoles still working, Tavistock's sensor array pings rapidly, announcing the arrival of another ship.

All this is still audible over the open com link as the wrinkled Heirarchy at Tavistock's science console calls out. "Sir! We've got another ship on sensors… it's the Ramiles, she just performed a controlled collapse of her warp bubble about 30 kilometers away… if I were in a fit state to do so, I would compliment their piloting-"

"Thank you, Mr. Zet, that will be all." K'Meiuu's tone isn't exactly sharp, but there's still a slight edge to it.

'Ramilies to Challenger. Finish up with Tavistock and order Spector and Rabin to begin shepherding the Klingons out of the battle sector. Our orders have changed. Load quantum torpedoes, target the planet, coordinates to follow.'

K'Meiuu is the last one off her ship, only allowing herself to be beamed off once all of her crew are aboard Challenger. With her uniform torn and singed, along with large patches of bare fur where surface cuts have been treated, she steps onto Challenger's bridge. "Where do you need me, Captain?" Her voice sounds rough, as if she's been shouting too much, or breathed in a lot of something noxious.

Challenger's aft shields are brought to full strength and the Galaxy Class moves to form up on its cousin, both Galaxy and Sovereign Class unleashing three quantum torpedoes, impacting the power core on the planet and destroying the microwave power transmitter. The defense stations pause for almost 30 seconds, before they begin firing again, but with greatly reduced power. Adams glances to the Caitian, before motioning to the seat to her left, and the helm console. 'Take your pick, Commander. Ramillies, might I recommend we turn around and burn deuterium. Spector and Rabin have just left the system, and we've got all of Tavistock's crew, including her dead. There's nothing here for us, and we can't take and hold the system with two ships.'

"Aye sir." K'Meiuu thinks a moment. Not many of her piloting skills will transfer well to the larger ship, and her reflexes are still wired for the smaller Tavistock, so she takes the left seat, dividing the console's displays into several sections - secondary tactical, security status, engineering, sensors and so forth. "Science, please confirm the readings I'm getting…" She glances over at the Trill standing at the console to the right of the bridge.

At the Trill's nod, she grimaces. "Sir, there's more bad news. We've got a large Dominion fleet coming around from the dark side of the planet… I'm reading multiple large signatures and too many smaller ships to get an accurate count… at a guess I'd say we have a full battlegroup vectoring in on us in a Newtonian slingshot."

[/b]K'Meiuu's voice is quiet, but fierce. "Flashed all our phasers bare, flashed as they burned in air! Phasering the guns there! Charging an army, while all the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke, right through the line we broke; Jem'Hadar and Dominion, reeled from the phaser stroke." Her next words sound pained, quiet and sombre. "Shattered and sundered… Then we rode back, but not…" A long pause. "Not the six hundred."[b]

'Commander, how long until that battlegroup arrives?' Adams wonders, her voice calm, controlled, even in the face of almost certain death. Ramillies has already begun her turn to port, to burn towards the asteroid field and warp out, but Challenger turns to point her nose towards the incoming Dominion vessels.

"Six minutes at current speed, sir." K'Meiuu's voice is also calm. She could be reading out sports scores. "Eight if they choose to slow down to get through the debris field."

'Excellent. Captain to all hands, evacuate non-combatants to the saucer section, stand by separation. Number One, you'll lead the Saucer back to Starbase 117. Commander M'Rella, how are you at targetting solutions at long range?' Adams calmly asks, even as the red pulsing lights are joined by blue highlights, and personnel begin moving towards the turbolifts, including Adams and M'Rella.

"How long-range are we talking about, and with what, exactly?" K'Meiuu raises an eyebrow slightly as she steps into the turbolift and adopts an 'at ease' posture.

'Deck 10, Battle Bridge. As part of her refit, Challenger has been equipped with a pair of high yield tricobalt warheads. I need to know if you can get them to detonate within the group of incoming Jem'Hadar vessels. At the very least, I want to take out at least one enemy capital. Can you do it?' Adams turns to face M'Rella, and there's the look of someone who is completely and utterly at ease with herself, shoulders and stance relaxed.

"Hm." K'Meiuu thinks a moment. "Not familiar with them myself, but if you can get me the speed and maneuvering ability of those tricobalts, it's vacuum ballistics… I can give it a bloody good go, sir."

'You'll have them by the time we arrive on the battle bridge.' Adams steps from the turbolift, and her entire being exudes confidence. She is completely of the belief that her crew - And M'Rella is now part of that - can do what Adams wants them to do. There's a gentle thump as the pair step onto the Battle Bridge as the saucer pulls away, banking hard and accelerating to meet up with Ramillies. 'Helm, plot an intercept course for the centre of the incoming formation, auxiliary power to to forward shields, stand by to shunt power to starboard and aft shields on my order. Commander M'Rella, the tactical station is yours.'

K'Meiuu nods as she sits down, glancing at the other tactical officer. "Keep them off us, please, I'm going to be doing some complicated maths and I won't have time to do much actual shooting until the warheads are away. Give me… thirty seconds."

As she speaks, the Caitian brings up some complex formulas on her screen, and can be heard muttering to herself as she enters in the data.

'Tactical, attack pattern Adams-Zulu-Six. Helm, hold this position. Commander M'Rella, as soon as those warheads are away, I need us out of here, so kindly don't waste too much time. I don't think Captain Neraea is going to be happy with me as it is…'

"Going as quick as I can."

As M'rella begins her calculations, the short phaser strip on the neck of the Challenger, normally hidden by the saucer, opens fire in a point defence mode, swatting Jem'Hadar fighters out of the black as polaron bursts splash against the Galaxy Class vessel's shields. As the enemy formation enters maximum weapons range, polaron beams lance from the two battle cruisers at the centre of the formation, the majority missing the now much smaller and lighter Challenger, though some do certainly hit, the reinforced shields absorbing the majority of the weapons fire. The forward torpedo launcher spits out glowing balls of white and red death, quantum and photon torpedoes leaping into the black to proximity detonate in a wall between the enemy fleet and the Challenger.

[/b]"Cannon to right of us." K'Meiuu's voice holds passion, a hint of defiance at the odds. "Cannon to left of us. Cannon behind us! Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell. While ship, and hero fell.. We that had fought so well, came through the jaws of Death… Back from the mouth of hell… " K'Meiuu's voice becomes quiet, and sombre. "All that was left of us... left of the six hundred."[b]

"...carry the two across, add the square root of the gravitational field and… got it!" The Caitian nods. "Captain, you may fire at will, the torpedoes are armed and delay fuses are set."

'How kind of you, Commander, to give me permission on my own ship. Helm, bring us about, course 180 Mk 00, send targeting data to aft gunnery and fire once we have completed our slew to port. Engineering, begin shunting auxiliary to starboard and aft shields. Helm, full military thrust.'

The Galaxy Class slews hard to the left, RCS thrusters firing at maximum thrust as the impulse engine flares brilliantly, accelerating the vessel to .2c. The aft tube spits out two glowing orbs, oscillating between white and blue, on a course directly for the twin enemy capitals. In a rather brilliant explosion, the tricobalts detonate, decimating one of the enemy capitals and crippling the other. As Challenger reunites with her saucer and Ramillies, there's a garbled message on the comm, before a large explosion in the middle of the debris field. Challenger moves off to investigate, discovering the remains of the USS Spector, a large asteroid chunk speared through the bridge module. Following a cursory scan and beam up of the few survivors, Challenger moves off. With careful maneuvering, Challenger clears the Asteroid field, before reconnecting with the saucer section and warping out of the system, back to Starbase 117. Long range probes conducting a battle damage assessment the next day reveal that Tavistock's hulk is on a slowly declining orbit, and is expected to impact Lilsis III within the next 5 decades. Challenger's gambit with the two tricobalts paid off, as there are two burning hulks, one heavily exposed to space, the other slowly making emergency repairs to the outer hull. In a briefing with Captain Neraea, Adams can be seen in the simulation describing it as a pyrrhic victory, for although they destroyed an enemy Capital, they lost two Starfleet ships and 12 Klingon vessels, with almost six hundred Starfleet deaths alone - A rate of attrition they cannot afford to maintain.

"When can their glory fade?" K'Meiuu's voice is quiet, hoarse and sombre as she remembers those who didn't make it, "Oh the wild charge they made! All the world wondered!" A quiet, icy passion enters her voice. "Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade… the noble six hundred!"

That is the battle of Lilsis III. The pure, unaltered version, not the version that's taught in the Academy as a 'brilliant tactical ploy to destroy an enemy battle group.' It was desperate, on my behalf. And M'Rella lost her ship. Although, there was something that I forgot to mention…

"Commander M'Rella. Starfleet Command have decided to reinforce us, finally. Around 200 vessels are going to be arriving throughout the next month, including a fresh of the assembly line Prometheus Class. Now, she hasn't been named yet, but I … took the liberty of making my suggestion, and Starfleet agreed. When she arrives, you are ordered and required to assume of U.S.S. Tavistock, NCC-92314-A, for duty as her Commanding Officer. Tavistock will not have a multi-vector mode, instead using the additional warp cores to power weapons and shields. There's some other modifications that have been made to her. I'll send you the full list, but Starfleet are referring to her as a Hestia Class. In much the same way that Challenger and the Venture are being referred to as the Challenger Class. Enough of a change made to the original frame to warrant a subclass."

"Not as nimble as what I was used to." K'Meiuu chuckles. "But agile enough, once we'd given her a workover. Larger crew, too. It took me forever to learn everyone's more heavily armed."