USS Alexia
Alexia Class Strike Carrier
NCC – 61667
Approaching Orais
It had taken a not inconsiderable amount of effort, but the combined resources of IKS Worf and USS Alexia – along with some help from their Kinshya passenger –had managed to track their enemy to their doorstep. And now the question had to be asked.
"What the fuck do we do now?" Rei asked openly.
Both ships had fought through a decent number of attacking Orion forces with almost no damage. But in front of the two allies was the vast majority of the Orion Space Navy. And Rei suddenly felt less confident.
"I can likely get past them under cloak, and get close enough to Corsair to get a team over. But that doesn't help us when we uncloak… or get discovered," Eyos commented.
"And we wouldn't be able to support you either. Maybe I should have taken Uncle Mark's offer and got on a battleship instead," Rei sighed back.
Kayla drowned out the noise and used all her senses to focus on the tactical console. Her mind worked faster than she even realized, trying desperately to make a workable plan. There were hundreds of targets in front of Worf and Alexia. If she had any hope of rescuing Rela, she had to get this right.
"Okay, I've got it," she suddenly said from her console.
"Got what?" Rei asked.
"A plan."
"Okay… I'm listening. What's your big plan about Kayla?"
"We're gonna have to be sneaky about this. We'll need to set our torpedoes on ballistic arcs. Our fighters will have to give us running coverage. And we've got to keep moving, no matter what. If we stop for even a second, we're dead and so is Rela."
Rei nodded. She could hear the confidence in Kayla's voice, even if a part of her didn't quite buy into the plan. There was no telling what might happen when the ship finally went into a fight.
"Okay, lets make this happen," ordered Rei.
─•~:~•─
"Dagger Lead to all call signs Dagger, confirm tac-map update."
It had been a while since Carson Jenkins had flown anything smaller than a Starship, let alone a Raven class tactical fighter. Somehow, it felt wrong not to be flying a craft that wasn't at least one hundred metres long.
"Dagger 1-9, copy."
"Dagger 2-7, copy."
"Dagger 3-3, copy".
"Dagger 4-2, confirmed."
"Dagger 5-5, tactical map updated."
One by one, all the remaining Dagger flights confirmed Jenkins update. Nine fighters would be taking God knew how many Orion fighters, not to mention their accompanying escorts, and the carrier herself. The squadron was outnumbered twenty-to-one. This fight would take a miracle to win.
"Dagger Lead to all call signs Dagger," Jenkins ordered over QC, "Lock wings in attack position. Spread out and fire at will. Good luck to you all, Gentlemen. I'll see you on the other side."
Jenkins reached up and hit his master arm panel. Despite LCARS making fly-by-wire as obsolete as vacuum tubes, every last combat pilot in Starfleet had insisted on physical toggles for their controls. No matter how many Engineers all said it was a stupid idea, Jenkins and his comrades would go over their heads and rip apart panels to get their toggles. Eventually the Yard Dogs stopped trying to fight it and simply built their fighters with physical control.
Three switches thrown forward armed the micro-photons, pulse phasers and spatial torpedoes. A dial to the left toggled the shields to full power. A lever set his impulse engines to full power. And finally – but most importantly – Jenkins tapped the pink bunny on his dash on the head for luck.
With everything set, Jenkins drove his throttle forward and raced into the blackness of space. The sensors quickly locked onto his first target; A Scorpion blissfully unaware of his presence.
"Buh-bye, asshole," Jenkins cursed under his breath. His thumb found its way to the "pickle" button, and a pair of orange micro-photon torpedoes screamed towards his target. The micro-photons slammed into the Scorpion's opaque cockpit and ripped the fighter apart in green flames.
Jenkins didn't take the time to celebrate. A second Scorpion flipped over the debris and chased after Jenkins, ripping green disruptor bolts all around his fighter.
He jerked the stick over and put his Raven into a flat spin, hoping to dodge the incoming fire. The shields were good, but they weren't that good, and he needed to preserve his power for as long as possible if he had a hope in hell of making it through this fight.
A green disruptor bolt passed inches over his cockpit. He knew it was probably just nerves, but Jenkins swore he felt the heat of the plasma through the transparent aluminium window. That was enough.
He pulled up on the stick and brought the Raven up and over in a perfectly executed scissors turn. With the enemy now in front of him, Jenkins cut loose with his pulse phasers and obliterated another enemy fighter with bright orange bolts. Beneath the fighter, the sensors auto-locked onto a Brigand class cruiser, Jenkins first real challenge today.
He pulled the stick back and started a sharp dive, pulling the stick to the right at the same time to begin another flat spin. The cruiser responded with anti-shipping missiles.
Jenkins jerked his finger to the secondary trigger, and dumped his entire magazine of spatial torpedoes towards the enemy. Jenkins' faster and smaller warheads quickly collided with the larger and slow Orion missiles, and the space around his fighter was light up brightly with explosions. Jamming the throttle fully forward, Jenkins raced in and laced the Brigand's hull with pulse phaser blasts.
The enemy shields withered under his attack, but not quite enough to confirm that Jenkins was actually hurting the cruiser. He was about to break off when Dagger 1-9 swooped in from port and laced his spatial torpedoes into the enemy engines. The green-tinted shields shattered apart in pieces, and the impulse engines of the Brigand exploded in bright light.
Jenkins tapped a switch in his helmet to open a QC call. "Nice shooting 1-9!"
But before 1-9 could respond, a stray torpedo caught the tail end of the Raven, and Jenkins' wingman exploded in equally bright light.
There wasn't time to mourn. Another wave of Scorpions chased in after Dagger flight. Jenkins' craft bobbed and weaved, throwing in a wild series of turns to avoid the enemy fire. He hit the pink bunny for a third time. He'd need all the luck he could muster to survive.
─•~:~•─
"The Starfleet fighters are taking losses, Captain. I think now would be the time."
Eyos leaned back in her command seat. One thing was true about her people. Even though she had killed Korvax in nearly cold blood, she had made an honourable challenge, and thus the crew was obligated to follow her commands as Captain of Worf. She found herself wondering what her father would think.
"I agree. Set attack course and prepare to drop cloak, at my command," she ordered confidently.
As the mighty battle cruiser drew himself forward and slowly towards his targets, Eyos let her mind wander back to father. He had died in honourable combat, buying time for Eyos to escape from the clutches of Volkol. From what Kurn had told her, Mor had built a great a house from his victories earned at Volkol's expense. She aimed to do the same today.
"Here we go. Drop cloak and fire at will!" she ordered, loudly.
Worf dropped his cloak and unleashed a furious burst of disruptor fire into a Brigand class cruiser chasing Alexia's fighters. The cruiser had no chance. Her shields were quickly blasted away, and the cruiser exploded in green light.
"Re-engage cloak and keep us moving. Come about to course 1-2-1, full impulse," Eyos ordered again.
She felt the subtle humming of Worf's systems as the cloak re-engaged, while at the same time feeling the surge of power as the helmsman brought the BC to full impulse, back in the direction he was originally moving in. Agility was the key to this stage of the fight. Worf had to keep the enemy off balance, while at the same time corralling the many cruisers and fighters into an appropriate position.
On the tactical display, Eyos watched a swarm of Brigands converge on the previous point and fire a massive volley of torpedoes and disruptors into empty space. It was all she could do not to laugh, watching the endless volley of weaponry hit absolutely nothing, while a pair of Ravens chased in from starboard and brought their pulse phasers to bear.
One Brigand slower than its fellows fell to the Ravens, blowing apart in a storm of debris and plasma.
"I thought you were Klingons, not a pack of scared Ferengi?! Come on, let's not let Starfleet show us up!" Eyos cheered. Kayla had suggested that friendly teasing might be successful in motivating her crew.
The suggestion seemed to work. The tactical officer dropped the cloak and quickly screamed a line of Klingon plasma torpedoes towards the enemy formation. Five torpedoes caught two targets, and more cruisers exploded in front of Worf.
The Helmsman and the Tactical station didn't wait for orders. Helmsman quickly cloaked and pulled the ship back, while Tactical vectored counter-battery fire towards the incoming anti-ship missiles. Worf was fighting well, so far.
Eyos gripped her chair. She wasn't sure that she believed in Sto'VoKor, but she hoped Father was smiling at her, wherever he was.
─•~:~•─
Tetro felt her temper rising. On the verge of a new future, her success was now in danger of being undone by a troublesome pest.
"So, it seems the Little Bird wishes to have her wings clipped," she said to no one in particular. The crew mostly tried to shy away from her gaze.
"And where the hell is Laycek?!" she shouted.
One brave Security Guard turned to face her. "His internal comms device is still showing offline, Miss. Shall I have a team sent to locate him?"
"Yes, please do. Then get me a vector on my Little Bird so I can blast her out of the stars, once and for all!" Tetro shouted back.
"I'm sorry Miss, I'm not detecting-" the Gunner started to say. He was cut off by a massive explosion that shook Corsair almost to her frames.
"What was that?!" Tetro shouted.
"Klingon plasma torpedo, Miss! Our shields absorbed the worst of the impact, but I'm having difficult establishing a target lock."
Tetro rose and shoved the gunner out of the way. Obviously, she would have to do everything herself. Taking over the console, she tied in lateral sensors to the targeting locks.
Klingon cloaking devices were effective tools, though they weren't nearly as effective as Romulan cloaks, as much as it pained Tetro to admit. With hard-won experience, she managed to trace the plasma discharge from Worf and quickly locked her missiles onto the target. Tetro slammed her hand on the trigger, and fifty Thalaron-tipped anti-ship missiles screamed across space, chasing after the invisible plasma trail.
But Tetro would again be frustrated. The nimble Raven fighters quickly broke off their pursuits and chased after the missiles, destroying all fifty with a concentrated phaser attack and creating a chain of explosions all around Corsair. She slammed her hand against the console and let the disruptor turrets belch red beams towards her enemies.
Two of the beams found targets and damaged the fighters, but they were able to limp away and continue to harass and irritate Tetro's squadron of cruisers. Her temper kept rising.
"Full power to sensors and engines. Find that Little Bird!"
─•~:~•─
Rei watched the main viewscreen closely. The Orions normally had a reputation for sneaky behavior, cutting loose like pirates and attacking swiftly and silently.
Today however, the Orions were out for blood. A score of cruisers went back and forth chasing after Worf, firing massive amounts of disruptor beams, torpedoes and missiles all across space as the nimble battle cruiser kept the enemy off balance.
"I think it's working, Skip. Those little bastards keep chasing our cousins all the way around the planet."
Skip. Shorthand for Skipper, a nickname for the Captain of a Starship. The way Logan had described his report to Rei indicated not only a level of comfort between the two friends, but an acceptance of her role as the master of Alexia.
"Good," she said confidently, "Means the Major's plan is working."
Rei rose and walked towards the screen. She didn't feel like sitting down for this.
"Alright, now it's our turn. Science, activate the decoy drones and start the subspace broadcast. Helm, prepare full impulse on pattern Rei-2 Alpha. Tactical, standby for torpedo barrage."
When everyone was ready, she decided to steal on last line from her mom. "Weather today fine but high waves. Take us in."
The drones were up first. Five dozen Marine HK drones and a scattering collection of Starfleet probes surged to life around Alexia. With a single tap from her science console, Kizuna set the drones to begin broadcasting an ultra powerful subspace transmission on every known frequency that would – with any luck – jam all possible communications for the enemy fleet. The science behind the transmission was lost on Rei, but she heard the song that would be carrying the transmission.
Maria Callas' version of Ava Maria began playing through the ship's speakers. The calming soprano tones of Maria's voice brought a sense of calmness to the tense bridge team. But outside the ship, space a sea of violence.
The swarm of Brigands, Bandit light cruisers and ships of dozens of other nations fly wildly around, firing at invisible enemies around their formation. Plasma beams, torpedoes, and missiles shot out from a hundred different directions, hitting nothing but cold space.
A question suddenly shot through Rei's mind, and she turned to look at Kayla. "What made you pick Ava Maria?"
Kayla, keeping her eyes on the console, answered back. "Mom's favourite. Final dance she had with Zelina. Permission to begin phase two, Skipper?"
"Granted."
Kayla hit a single switch on the tactical console and smiled.
Outside Alexia, an avalanche of destruction was about to fall on the Orion Space Navy. While the bulk of the enemy fleet had been distracted chasing the Ravens and Worf, Rei had carefully maneuvered the ship to deploy nearly her entire magazine of photon and quantum torpedoes into a rough horseshoe around the combat area.
Though the tactical crew was unhappy with the task, they had manually pushed nearly one hundred torpedoes – un-powered and with their detonators set to manual – out of the tubes and into open space. Using a tachyon field masked tractor beam, the ship moved the torpedoes into a carefully positioned deployment, designed by Kayla's enhanced senses for maximum damage.
Seconds later, the swarm of torpedoes surged to life and lit up space with orange and blue light. The Orions had no chance. Some tried to turn away, others filled space with phasers and disruptors, trying desperately to shoot down the enemy weaponry. None of it mattered. Federation torpedoes ripped their enemies apart with thunderous explosions, shaking the ship and overwhelming the view screen with bright light.
Logan reported after a long moment. "Captain, local space is showing all clear. Just us, Worf and Corsair."
Rei could barely believe it. With a single tap of Kayla's XO switch, 300 Orion ships had been removed from existence. The strength of the Orion Space Navy had been savagely cut down. And there was now nothing standing between Alexia and her captured Marine.
─•~:~•─