The Siege of Ferenginar:
'End of the Beginning'
Following the success, though it could hardly be called that, things were quiet. Both our side and the Dominion were fortifying their positions, strengthening their fleets. We'd shown them that we could destroy their capitals with fair ease, and this caused them to pause.
Taking advantage of the lull in combat, Commander M'Rella took the Tavistock out to the Draylon system, an old spaceyard for Starfleet's wrecks. The plan was to run her through her paces, stretch her legs and test her weapons systems, see how she handled. Challenger went with her as an escort, with Rabin out on the edge of the system. Sadly, although I tried, I wasn't authorized to issue Tavistock a cloaking device.
Tavistock's shakedown went smoothly, though Utopia Planetia didn't give her a full load of quantum torpedoes, so we couldn't run those through a full testing phase. But for the most part, Tavistock was combat ready. Just as well, because on our arrival, we'd been called into a meeting with recently promoted Commodore Neraea and Captain Andrews of the Defiant…
"Captain Adams, Commander M'Rella. This is Captain Andrews of the Defiant. Starfleet Intelligence believes that a Dominion Invasion of the Ferengi homeworld is imminent. Now, the Ferengi have their own navy, but not any ships capable of fighting off a Dominion Invasion fleet. To that end, I'm dispatching Challenger, Tavistock, Defiant, Belfast, Rabin, Yamaguchi and the Valley Forge to bolster their forces. In 6 days, Starfleet are going to launch two new vessels, U.S.S. Concord and U.S.S. Enterprise. Concord will be assigned to us, while Enterprise will be stationed at Starbase 24. In 6 days, I will bring Concord and the rest of the fleet to reinforce your position, but you have got to give me those 6 days."
"Six days?" M'Rella comments, dryly. "We'll have to stock up on tea, then, won't we?"
"We'll hold the line, Commodore. You have my words." Adams states, glancing aside to M'Rella, almost disapprovingly. "Any word on who gets Enterprise or Concord?"
"This far, no further." K'Meiuu agrees. "We'll hold."
"Captain Andrews is getting centre seat of Concord and … Captain Kim has been given command of the Enterprise."
"Understood, Commodore. Six days. Don't be late. I wouldn't want you to miss the fun."
Standing from around the table, Adams and M'Rella move towards the transporter room, disappearing in a blue light to return to their vessels. Commodore Neraea glances out of the window towards the Challenger, a frown marring her face as the seven ships turn and almost immediately leap into warp.
Here, again, it's probably easier to show you through a simulation…
Appearing on the bridge of the Challenger, Adams immediately moves towards the centre seat on her bridge, relaxing into the familiar seat. "Red Alert. Helm, set course for Ferenginar, Maximum Warp. Alert the squadron to follow at maximum warp." Challenger leaps into warp, followed by the rest of the squadron.
"Communications, open a channel to the squadron."
"Channel open, Captain."
"All ships, this is Captain Adams. Our orders are clear. We are to assist the Ferengi Navy in securing their borders against the anticipated Dominion invasion. We have to hold this line for six days. In six days, Commodore Neraea will bring the remainder of the fleet and Starfleet's newest battlecruiser. Six days, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get to work."
Dropping out of warp, the seven-ship formation centres around Challenger as the group moves towards the large Marauder, leading the defense.
"Captain, I have Grand Nagus Rom, aboard the F.M.S Profit."
"Put him through."
On the view screen is the older, but still recognisable visage of Rom, the lovable brother of Quark, a frown on his face.
"Captain. I wish we could have met under better circumstances. As it is, I have 40 ships in system, and 17 more inbound, but you have to understand that Ferenginar doesn't have a military. These vessels have volunteered to defend their home, free of charge. They are not soldiers. I hope you will remember that."
"I will, Grand Nagus. In fact, I want your forces in close orbit of the planet. Starfleet will fight them as far away from the planet as possible. Just … be prepared. We may fall."
"Let us hope that you don't Captain. Profit, out."
With a soft, barely audible sigh, Adams straightens in her seat. "Helm, bring us to the edge of the system. Have the fleet spread out in a semi-circle, Challenger at the centre. I want a cruiser at either end of the circle as well. Yamaguchi to port, Valley Forge to starboard. Concentrate fire on enemy capitals. Relay to Defiant and Belfast to focus on enemy attack ships, Tavistock and Rabin to secure against rapid pushes and kamikaze strikes. Execute."
Meanwhile on Tavistock's bridge, M'Rella listens to the briefing, nodding in agreement unconsciously as she hears her part in the plan. "Aye sir. We'll make sure nothing gets past."
She turns to her bridge crew. "You heard the Captain. Is everything locked down?" At a confirmation from the security station, she straightens her uniform. "All hands, action stations. Gentlemen, the line is drawn."
Challenger moves into the centre of the formation, where the Dominion forces are expected to drop from warp, Defiant and Belfast to her flank, Tavistock and Rabin outside them, and Yamaguchi and Valley Forge closing the semi-circle, stretched out over a region around 100 kilometres long.
"... And now we wait…"
Tavistock waits in her assigned position, sensors at full gain. M'Rella takes a sip of her tea, then keys her comm. "Tavistock to Challenger… do you think I should offer any of the Ferengi defense forces who spot confirmed sneak or flank attackers free upgrades at the family yards? I know they'll be watching our backs anyway, but it might sharpen their senses a little if there's profit in it for them."
"Considering if any of us survive this, we'll all need upgrades and repairs? I think you might end up getting swamped with suspected sightings."
The Caitian nods. "True, we'd have to stipulate that it would have to be a confirmed sighting. Maybe if we tell them there's a 10% surcharge on all M'Rella parts and services if they report a false positive."
"That offer extend to Starfleet too?" A gruff Tellarite voice growls good-naturedly over the airwaves; Commander Tegh Clokh, on the Belfast. "Shon left this bucket of bolts seriously lacking in legs. We've got teeth but we're not much faster than stock."
"You won't need legs in this war, you'll need teeth. Stand fast, sensor contacts on extreme long range." Adams comments, before straightening as several flashes of light, 8 in all, reveal Jem'Hadar attack ships, which immediately open fire on Challenger, her shields flaring.
"Tactical, fire at will, phasers only."
"All hands, man the guns, hold the torpedoes." K'Meiuu orders. "Helm, keep us within our engagement box and engage attack pattern M'Rella One Niner, variant zulu. Do not give their gunners a predictable target. Primary power to weapons, secondary to engines, put anything left into the shields and bring the secondary core online. Leave the tertiary core on standby."
Within the confines of its 100km cubed engagement box, Tavistock surges forwards and swerves erratically, the gunners firing as and when they have targets, almost daring the Dominion to try and hit them. Spot the former Defiant helmsman…
"Mr. Harris." K'Meiuu comments, calmly, leaning slightly in the bleedthrough from the inertial dampeners. "Please do remember that the Prometheus-class is significantly heavier than the Defiant."
The bridge of the Challenger rocks slightly with the shield impacts multiple polaron strikes, but they hold. There's a soft whine of charging power, and then the saucer array lances out at the closest attack ship, punching through its shields and gutting the ship from bow to stern. Frowning on the bridge, Adams watches as the phasers continue pumping out into the black, scattering the attack ships. "Tactical overlay. Where is the rest of the enemy fleet?"
The combat on Challenger's viewscreen is replaced with the tactical overlay of the system, Starfleet vessels indicated by a blue chevron, the Ferengi ships indicated by a green circle, and the scattered enemy by red arrows. As Adams watches the overlay, several larger arrows appear, from the opposite vector, before quickly moving towards the Starfleet vessels. At the same time, the scattered attack ships straighten, and begin truly hammering the Starfleet ships, making quick darting runs in and out of the formation.
"It's a pincer… Tavistock, take Rabin, Belfast and Defiant and clear out those attack ships. All weapons use is authorized. Yamaguchi, Valley Forge, on Challenger. We're going to meet that pincer head on."
"Aye sir." Tavistock immediately moves to Challenger's place in the formation, spitting torpedoes from her aft tubes. K'Meiuu watches them go on her console, scowling into her tea. "What I wouldn't do for an MWWS or two…"
"Captain, they don't have any Jem'Hadar capitals. I'm picking up two Sarr'Theln's, 2 Chel'Gretts and 4 Keldon Class. It's the Allies. The attack ships must be all the Jem'Hadar were willing to commit."
"Careful, sir. Could be another trap." Tavistock comms to Challenger.
"Or the Jem'Hadar capitals have gone to a different battlefront. Doesn't matter. Let's focus on here."
"Aye sir. We'll keep these knaves off your back." M'Rella toasts with her tea. "Good hunting." She signs off with an untranslated Caitian growl - a traditional hunter's farewell. Roughly translated, it means 'Kill well, or die well, my friend'. Some of the sentiment is lost in translation...
Challenger soars over the top of Tavistock, quantum torpedoes already in the black towards the lead enemy Keldon, with the Excelsior-Class Valley Forge and Ambassador-Class Yamaguchi forming up on either flank of the larger Galaxy Class, photon torpedoes joining the quantum. Seconds later, the quantums strike the lead Keldon, punching through her shields and striking her hull, exploding across her plate and tearing chunks of the ship. Shortly after, the additional photon torpedoes burrow into the scars made the quantum and detonate, exploding within the ship, pillars of flame chasing crewmen down corridors and immolating them, before reaching the power core. In a brilliant flash of light, the lead Keldon goes up, debris striking the second flank Keldon, leaving her adrift.
On the bridge of Tavistock, Lt. Zet punches the air, studying his sensor display. "Captain, scratch two Keldon-class vessels. Captain Adams just educated them about this rather entertaining human - I bel-"
"Sir Isaac Newton, yes, the deadliest bastard in space." K'Meiuu cuts him off. "Vital information only, please. And don't jump around too much, we don't have any spares for that suit of yours." Unconsciously, she leans with the vessel as the inertial dampeners let some of the forces bleed through. "Helm, do try to maintain safe separation, if it's at all possible?"
Charging through the debris, shields flaring, Challenger continues her brutal education in proper ship maintenance and Newton's laws, latching a tractor beam onto the third Keldon and just dragging the ship into the fourth, firing a single photon torpedo into the collided hulls to detonate both, while her phasers lance out at the nearest Breen cruiser, setting the primary phaser to rapidly pulse the emitter, punching through the shields of the cruiser and peeling hull plating off the outer hull. Sadly, the Breen ships are much better maintained, and both cruisers open fire on Challenger, with each of the Sarr'Theln's picking on Yamaguchi and Valley Forge respectively.
"Computer!" Zet practically explodes from his seat. "Get me footage from the external camera, sector three-niner, enhance and store. Scratch another two Keldons sir."
"...another two?" A calm sip of her tea. "She really is rather good at this, isn't she? All hands, brace for impact."
The ship shudders under a barrage of fire from three of the six remaining Jem'hadar ships, raking across the port flank. Several shots slam into her armoured engineering hull, and K'Meiuu frowns.
"They scratched the paint." K'Meiuu growls. "I think it's time to show them we're annoyed. Bring the third core online, shunt the power to the shields and auxillary systems."
The Prometheus' warp nacelles glow brighter as the tertiary warp core is woken from its slumber. All across the ship, lights brighten momentarily before the excess power is routed to various systems. Her shields begin to recharge, and the communications array wakes up to full power.
"Mr. Zet, you are an information warfare expert, are you not? Ghost the sensors of the remaining attack ships. Aft weapons-"
From the aft tube on Challenger, three photon torpedoes fire, leaping through the black of space, grazing Tavistock's shields and pulverising the three Jem'Hadar attack ships, destroying one and causing the other two to spin off, with the other three moving to tear open Defiant.
"I had them!" K'Meiuu protests, throwing her mug of tea at the screen.
"Tavistock, Challenger. I trust you've seen that Defiant has just lost ventral shields. Do I need to return, or are you capable of looking after your squadron?"
"I see it, Belfast's moving in on them." K'Meiuu comments. After a moment, she makes a snap judgement. "And won't make it in time. Route tertiary warp power to the engines, disengage safeties. Mr. Zet, get to work please. Belfast, cover Rabin's six. Rabin, if you could take care of the two that Challenger cleared off me. Defiant, evasive and come about to one niner six mark two four."
The Heirarchy turns to his console, opening a pocket on his suit and rooting through a collection of iso-chips, each full of nasty things for him to transmit to the Jem'Hadar ships.
Tavistock's forward RCS array flares brightly as it turns towards the venerable Defiant, the smaller ship ducking and weaving as it vectors towards the big escort. The two ships pass about half kilometer apart, with a combined closing velocity that's an appreciable fraction of C. As soon as she's between Defiant and the attackers, Tavistock slews around to port, burning retros hard and letting fly with a full phaser broadside. The hull creaks in protest as the ship completes the 180-degree turn, spitting a full spread from her aft torpedoes before coming to a relatively gentle halt.
The three attack ships are crippled even before the torpedoes are launched. The torpedoes blow them open to space. Fragments bounce gently off Tavistock's newly-reinforced shields, which also protect the battered Defiant from the storm of lethal debris.
"Defiant is signalling us, sir." Lt. Commander Vol'moss, Tavistock's chief tactical officer reports. "Morse code… thanks for the assist… could do with a guard until we can bring shields up.
"Tavistock to Challenger… Defiant is reading as fairly beaten up. We've got the attackers taken care of, so unless we get further orders we're going to see what we can do to help Defiant. Rabin, report to Challenger for orders. Belfast, if you'd be a picket for us I'd be delighted"
With Tavistock taking command of her squadron, Challenger banks hard to port, RCS thrusters firing to flip the ship on it's side, relative, as a full phaser barrage tears into the port side of the weakened Breen Cruiser, punching through her shields and striking her primary life support, causing atmosphere to vent into space. The heavily wounded Che'Grett quickly peels off, leaping into warp, back towards Deep Space Nine. The two carriers each peel off their current targets and focus fire on the Challenger, her shields flaring as the larger war cruiser comes under concentrated fire. Even on Tavistock's sensors, despite the two to one difference, Challenger is holding her own. A modification to the tractor beam throws a several hundred tonne piece of Keldon debris towards one of the Sarr'Theln's, which causes the carrier to turn to port… directly into the other Sarr'Theln. Explosions along both ships give Challenger the time to bring her nose about and unleash a proximity spread of quantum torpedoes, rendering both ships adrift and venting drive plasma.
On her bridge, watching calmly while guarding the Defiant, K'Meiuu sips tea. "Almost feel sorry for the bastards."
"Tavistock, Challenger. We've had no contact with the Ferengi, and we certainly aren't out of range. Could be an issue with our comms, due to debris. Try and raise them, please."
"Copy that. Mr. Zet, take the main antenna to full gain, please. USS Tavistock to Ferengi defence forces, do you copy?"
Nothing but static answers Tavistock's call, despite the fact that they are still, quite obviously within range. However, while Tavistock continues to hail them, Challenger picks up a small Ferengi shuttle desperately trying to find it's way through the debris field. Transporting the occupant aboard, Challenger soon hails Tavistock.
"Commander M'Rella, take command of your squadron and hold this position. The Ferengi forces are engaged with 3 Dominion battlegroups, plus escorts. Concord should arrive in 16 hours. You have until then to get Defiant fighting fit. Challenger, out."
K'Meiuu sets down her tea and nods. "I can send you Rabin if you need her. Belfast and I can look after the Defiant."
With her orders transmitted, Challenger flares her impulse drive and just bludgeons the debris out of her path, travelling towards the planet, where the orange pulses of phasers and the purple lances of polaron can be seen through magnification.
"You are the commander of the Fast Attack Wing, Commander. Do as you think is best. Challenger, out."
Challenger quickly makes her way into the fray, picking a fight with the closest Dominion vessel - a heavy escort - while Yamaguchi and Valley Forge, without prompting, push through the formation to flank the F.M.S. Profit, working to keep the Grand Nagus' vessel clear. Shortly, Challenger has destroyed the Heavy Escort, and is currently dancing with a Jem'Hadar dreadnought and another Heavy Cruiser.
K'meiuu watches on the screens, engineering teams beaming over to help the Defiant's crew make repairs. She frowns. "Rabin, run a sweep of our vicinity, full sensors. Mr. Zet, what is the status of Challenger's shields and hull?"
Zet looks up. "Challenger's shields are at 79%, falling slowly, minimal hull damage. Yamaguchi and Valley Forge are assisting the Nagus."
K'Meiuu nods. "Rabin, if Challenger's hull drops below 85%, break off and assist her. Until then, watch our backs if you would. Belfast, maintain picket."
Challenger shakes as the heavy escort's core goes critical, her hull getting peppered by debris, striking her armoured flanks and gouging lines in the armour, before being jostled loose. The large cruiser comes about and breaks hard, rolling on her axis, phasers and torpedoes slamming into the underside of the dreadnought. The dreadnought returns fire, a brutal display of firepower that devastates Challenger's shields and punches through her hull, tearing out a chunk of Challenger's navigational deflector.
"This is Commander Jackson. Challenger's hull just pinged at 81 percent. We are breaking formation and moving to assist." The Akira class spins over the top of the Tavistock before zooming forward into the black. Soon enough, Rabin arrives on station, torpedoes firing relentlessly from her launches into the side of the dreadnought, buying time for Challenger to make it's way clear from underneath her and divert auxiliary power to the structural integrity field. Between the two, the Dreadnought is slowly whittled down. However, before her shields have even fallen, all three Dreadnoughts break engagement and warp out, leaving a dozen heavy escorts engaging 29 D'Kora Class and 2 Starfleet vessels.
K'Meiuu nods. "Affirmative, Rabin. Let her know you're coming." She agrees. "Vol'moss what's the status of the Defiant?"
From the tactical console, the Andorian shakes her head. "She's repairable… if we had a shipyard and several months. Might be smarter to just scrap her and use the parts to build a new ship."
"Agreed. Beam all the crew aboard, put them to use if they want, and tag the location in the database. Belfast, as soon as Tavistock's shields are up, it's time to go see if Adams has left anything for us."
Tavistock's transporters step up a gear, beaming everyone off the Defiant in three shifts. Her shields ignite, and, with Belfast on her wing, she burns towards the battle, arriving just as the combined task force finishes of the last attacker.
"Tavistock to Challenger. Defiant's going to need a major shipyard to fight again. All crew are safe."
"This is Commander Haroldson. Understood, I'll relay to the Captain. Current orders are - Stand by, Tavistock, incoming starships."
"We see them Challenger… I'm reading all friendly, but there are two registry codes that aren't in our databases."
"U.S.S. Challenger, this is Captain Kim of the Enterprise. I see the fight is over already? Commodore Neraea sends her compliments on a job well done. Sadly, she couldn't be here herself. I'll brief you in person later."
The reason Commodore Neraea hadn't met us aboard Ramillies was that while the Dominion were attacking Ferenginar, they were also attacking Denobula and Starbase 24. Starbase 24 quite handily defeated them, but Ramillies took a small group to hold off the Dominion. They'd succeeded, but Ramillies had been damaged. She was in drydock when Concord and Enterprise arrived, and Captain Kim elected to meet us in person.
We'd saved Ferenginar, but Defiant was going to be sent back to Earth for a major rebuild. She'd be replaced in our lines by the USS Vigilant. Commodore Neraea placed Commander M'Rella in formal command of the Fast Attack Wing, comprising Rabin, Vigiliant, Belfast, Tavistock and Spector-A. We'd dealt the Dominion a bloody nose, but they'd taken more of us then they'd lost.
We had to find a way to end this before we started sustaining numbers we couldn't maintain.
K'Meiuu's soft voice comments. "Even though it had cost us, though? The victory was much needed morale boost, especially after Lilsis."
