At Trip's command, Endeavour unleashed hell.
Hollow booms rumbled through the NC-06 as four Remora torpedoes roared from the launch tubes, breaking into multiple warheads almost instantly. The space around the Starfleet ship was alive with explosions as the warheads screamed toward their targets. The five remaining decoy ballutes were torn apart almost instantly as fully half of the explosive payload slammed into the decoys' duranium composite hulls. Most of the remaining warheads circled for long moments, seeking targets and ultimately self-destructing as their fuel supplies dwindled.
Most, but not all.
Two warheads angled sharply away from Endeavour, detonating with fierce flashes as they slammed into what seemed to be an invisible barrier. A third Remora shuddered inexplicably as it maneuvered in the same direction, a clear indication that it had been targeted by a Romulan point-defense system.
"Target," T'Pol abruptly announced. Her hands were flying across the Science board as she directed all of Endeavour's sensors toward the holographically cloaked bird of prey. Through their bond, Trip knew roughly what she was doing, but the science and equations that flickered through her consciousness were so far beyond his comprehension that he didn't even try to understand them. Her efforts, however, had an immediate effect. As the main viewscreen focused on the seemingly empty space, a sudden pulse of light from Endeavour's deflector array bathed the area with golden illumination.
Almost instantly, the Romulan bird of prey's holographic cloak failed.
"Fire!" Trip snapped, even though he realized it was unnecessary. Endeavour's phase cannons were already responding, sending lethal streams of burning energy across the silent void to slam into the Romulan's hull. Geysers of molten metal sprayed out from the bird of prey as the white-hot energy melted polarized hull plating. A second salvo punched into the warship's superstructure and sliced into the engineering section, venting debris and atmosphere into the hard vacuum. The bird of prey shuddered as its engines failed, and it began to slowly spin.
"Cease fire," Tucker ordered quickly as another phase cannon burst carved a jagged scar across the Romulan ship, this time cutting into one of the nacelles. "STAB teams stand by to deploy." A wave of relief washed through Trip as he realized that it was finally over. "Hoshi, hail the Romulan ship. Let's see if-"
"Incoming transmission," Sato interrupted. "Audio only." At Trip's nod, she pressed a button on her board; a chime sounded, indicating that the communications link was now active. The sound of T'Pol's fingers inputting commands into her station seemed remarkably loud, but Tucker pushed the thought away.
"Shaoi dan, Endeavour." The voice that spoke was male and sounded pained. An odd accent flavored his speech as he continued. "This was a ... well fought battle and I salute you as the victor," the Romulan stated before his words dissolved into a paroxysm of coughing.
"Romulan warship," Trip said confidently. "Stand down and prepare to be boarded."
"That I cannot do, Endeavour." Once more, coughing prevented the speaker from continuing. "I regret that I have but one additional duty to perform," the voice stated moments later. "You should get clear of us."
"Captain," T'Pol said suddenly, her voice pitched low so it wouldn't be picked up by the communication line. "I am detecting an energy surge in the Romulan warp core."
"Hard about," Trip demanded. "Get us out of here." Mayweather was already obeying as Tucker gave the viewscreen another look. He frowned at the incongruity of the Romulan's actions; tactically, it would have made more sense to draw Endeavour closer before activating any sort of auto-destruct. By warning the Starfleet ship away, the Romulan commander was instead ensuring that Endeavour would ultimately face and likely kill more of his species in the future.
It made no sense.
With a ferocious flash of light, the bird of prey violently self-destructed, vanishing in a ball of flame that ripped the hull apart and atomized metal. Endeavour shook as the shockwave of the warp core breach slammed into the retreating Starfleet ship. Alarms began shrieking their warning cries, but Master Chief Mackenzie silenced them without comment.
"Starboard nacelle is damaged and venting plasma," the COB announced. "Damage control parties on it." Trip glowered at that: Endeavour could reach warp speed with only one nacelle, but doing so was dangerous. Ships had been lost to core breaches while trying to maintain superluminal velocities with such an uneven warp field.
"Captain." Hoshi's face was scrunched up in an expression of concern as she spoke up, and she was cupping the earpiece in an attempt to focus on something. "Just before it exploded," she said ominously, "the Romulan ship sent out a comm-pulse."
"Can you track it?" Trip asked, including T'Pol in the question. Before the Vulcan could reply, Hoshi drew in a sharp breath.
"Reports of multiple detonations on Mars," the communications officer announced grimly.
"Set a course for Earth, maximum impulse," Tucker ordered. By his calculations, it would take over seventeen long minutes to reach their destination at impulse; even if both nacelles were fully functional, Endeavour's current location made warp speeds even riskier. Only a fool or a desperate fool would try to break the light barrier this close to the system's gravity well. Trip shot a quick glance toward T'Pol, noting that she was discreetly watching him, concern lurking in her eyes. She had clearly caught the panicked memory of how he had felt when he had learned that Lizzie was gone, and the horrifying thought that it was happening again pounded through his mind.
He didn't even try to force a smile.
As Endeavour hurtled forward at just under one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers a second, Trip found himself leaning forward in his command chair, steepling his fingers in order to keep himself from tapping the armrests. It was only after a few moments that he realized how much he looked like he was praying. He did not change his posture, though. He was praying, after all.
Hoshi looked in his direction, a question on her face as she gestured to the comm board, and he nodded in response. She activated the bridge speakers, and instantly, Jonathan Archer's voice filled the air.
"-on my authorization," the admiral was saying, his tone bleak. "Planetary defenses are now active. No IFF codes will be recognized as valid. If any ship enters Earth's outer atmosphere, it will be fired upon."
"Contact," T'Pol declared suddenly, drawing Trip's attention. He silently chastised himself for becoming so focused on what the admiral was saying that he had briefly lost track of what was happening on the bridge. "Bearing: zero five two mark three zero four. It is now approaching Earth's upper atmosphere at maximum impulse." Without being asked, she activated the main viewscreen.
The shattered wreck of a Boomer ship dominated the image, and Trip winced with the realization that it had likely been destroyed by the defense grid once the IFF codes were taken offline. Planetary defense systems were already firing at the incoming ordnance, filling the void with lethal streams of excited plasma. Displaying amazing maneuverability, the fission bomb went evasive as it raced toward its destination. Trip felt his breath catch as the outer casing on the weapon fell away abruptly.
With a flare of igniting rocket motors, the twelve warheads launched.
One was torn apart by the planetary defense systems almost instantly, and three more quickly followed suit. Three Daedalus-class cruisers lumbered forward from the orbital drydocks, coordinating their firepower to create a more effective spread of fire; together, they blasted apart another one of the deadly warheads. The Vulcan ambassadorial ship – the Ni'Var – raced into the killing zone, absorbing heavy damage from the indiscriminate fire of the orbital cannons as it fired its own particle beams; one of the warheads was instantly vaporized, and a second was so badly damaged that it was a sitting duck for the orbital cannons. Incredibly, a rickety-looking Boomer cargo ship dove headlong into the midst of the crossfire, taking brutal phase cannon fire shots to its superstructure before colliding with one of the maneuvering warheads. Both vanished in a flash of atomic fire.
That left four.
One of the surviving warheads slammed into an orbital cannon, exploding with a ferocious burst of fire that completely atomized the target and sent a massive shockwave into many of the other weapons. A second warhead streaked toward the largest of the comm-sats currently in orbit, detonating hundreds of meters away from its target. The shockwave from the violent explosion smashed into the satellite and sent it spinning toward the planet below. Somehow evading the concentrated firepower directed against them, the two remaining warheads fell into the atmosphere of humanity's birthplace.
Seconds later, Trip could see the detonations as they struck Earth.