"The Day The Music Died"

Vaebn (NPC)

RNI Operative

****

Ra'tleihfi

ch'Rihan

****

Branak stood at the bar, looking at his reflection in the large door to a fridge, gently plucking at the blood on his clothes, and the occasional brush of a hand through his hair. Though not a vain man, Branak always liked looking respectable. An old mentor had often repeated a mantra and it had stuck with him through thick and thin.

'Always look your best. You never know when an opportunity will occur'

Vaebn stood watching his old friend, a look of disbelief on his face. How could anyone be so concerned with their appearance when large numbers of Hydran soldiers were running amok on ch'Rihan, having recently killed everyone in the night club. He shook his head. "When will you ever learn, Branak?"

The businessman looked up and grinned. "Never, my old friend. Even as we stand amongst the dead bodies of my former employees and patrons, I am unable to turn away from it. Just like you. In times of trouble, we turn to what we know best. That IS why you are here, right Vaebn?"

Vaebn nodded. "I am in trouble and need your help."

"What happened?" Branak asked as he picked up an unbroken bottle of Rihannsu Ale. He quickly poured himself a glass and waved the bottle at Vaebn who nodded in response.

"I was deployed on a mission and upon return was arrested for 'treason'. A preposterous claim, one of which I am completely innocent." Vaebn replied as he drank the offered beverage. "They tortured me and I finally escaped to find Ra'tleihfi in flames as the Hydrans attacked."

"That sounds horrific." Branak said after a pause. "Here for supplies?"

Vaebn nodded.

"Come!" The grey haired Rihanna stated, before heading for the steps that would take him up to his office.

Vaebn placed the empty glass on the bar and followed his friend upstairs.

"It is regrettable that the situation is as dire as it is, so I hope what I have is of suitable use to you old friend." He pressed a couple of buttons on his computer and a panel opened up behind him, revealing an array of weapons, most of which were not readily accessible on ch'Rihan.

Eyeing up the weapons, Vaebn nodded eagerly. "There are one or two items I see that will come in handy." He replied.

Branak went to say something else, but a beep from his terminal drew his attention. "Two of them... Entering the building. And they are Rihanna." He stated simply after checking the feed.

Vaebn nodded and handed him one of the weapons from the now open panel.

Branak waved it off. "You know how I am with weapons."

Vaebn just nodded. He had known Branak for many years, dating back to their time together during military training. In fact, he had been one of the very few people he had told about his survival after the fire. "Be careful!"

"Always, Vaebn. Always."

Vaebn walked over the to the window and watched through the one way glass that made up one wall of his friend's office as Branak made his way over to the other flight of stairs and up to the antechamber. From his vantage point, he could see Branak stop and begin conversing with someone, though the wall blocked all but a couple of hands that were waving about erratically, no doubt trying to emphasize whatever the Rihanna was trying to say. Branak seemed to argue back and the hands lowered from view but for a moment before returning with a disruptor in hand.

Branak's hands flew up in surrender and after a few moments he could be seen to shake his head. Vaebn could do nothing as the hand holding the disruptor fired, sending it's deadly charge deep into Branak's chest, killing him instantly. He slammed his hand down on the table in anger. And then the two Rihana walked into view and Vaebn shivered. It was the two from the roadblock with the Deltan.

He had been so careful and yet they had somehow managed to follow him.

"Nor the Battle to the Strong"

OR

"Lament for Icarus, Act II, Scene 3"

Captain Juan Carlos Holmes

Commanding Officer, USS Icarus

Et. Al.

Hell was an unpleasant place, Juan Holmes had decided. This fine ship, this fine crew - they had weathered more battles than almost any other vessel in the fleet, and nothing could quite compare to the carnage that surrounded them now. Allia was having to use all of her skills just to keep the ship from crashing into any of the numerous pieces of rather large debris that littered the sky over ch'Rihan. Meanwhile, half the consoles on the bridge were smoking, the viewscreen was barely operable, Durden was screaming up at them through the commlink to Engineering, and the Captain himself was bleeding profusely from the forehead.

"Juan, portside torpedo launch reports blockage - that's both broadside tubes down," Commander Khoma reported from secondary tactical. At the XO's feet, two medics worked feverishly to stabalize the severely injured Lieutenant Therrien, who had been manning that console up until two minutes prior.

At primary, Gavyn Hughes struggled to remain standing while another Hydran salvo struck the ship. "We're also losing functionalty to the CIWS system - Hydran bombers are starting to get through our flak field."

Holmes nodded, fighting off the dizziness that such an action caused. He hgad long since lost track of the over-all battle - for the first time in his career - and was merely concerned with keeping his ship intact and crew alive. So far, he wasn't exactly doing a great job of it.

The direct links crackled to life, and a voice came over the intercom, "Bridge, CIC, we've just lost two more fighters, no beacons. Shadows Two and Three are ditching, and Commander Norax reports that her squadrons are now scattered."

"Tell all fighters to regroup abeam of the Valdore," Holmes replied, taking a look at the Tactical overlay showing where Icarus' fighters lay, "Give support to Donatra's main group. Lieutenant Londar, any word from our ground units?"

The blue-skinned comm officer didn't even look away from his console. "Nothing, Captain. Last word was a quick burst from Lieutenant ch'Nelitas saying that Captain Gaarval was down and that our Hazard Team had been separated from the Marine company. Nothing since, but..."

It was the last thing the poor Benzite ever said, as three burst-shots slammed into the Icarus' ventral plating, and the portside consoles blew. The two science officers, Kaufman and al-Rashek, got clear. Londar didn't. He went flying backwards, landed with a sickening crunch, and stopped moving. Lieutenant Commander Al-Rashek scrambled to his boss' still form to make sure she was alive; no one bothered with Londar - the pool of blue blood and the unnatural angle of his limbs made such a gesture meaningless.

Holmes tried hard not to vomit. The October First attacks hadn't been this bad - during that, he really hadn't had the time to notice what was happening. This time, it was simple for him to notice that a third of his crew was down, and he'd lost over a dozen fighters.

On the viewscreen, he watched as the Concorde and Hood swept past in perfect formation - a miracle in and of itself, under the circumstances - to defend the Miranda... and promptly be annihilated by over-whelming firepower. Just like that, not only had they lost another ship, but the central-control point for the fleet's fighter units vanished.

As the Concorde went up in a fireball, Tara Reynolds' face flashed in front of Holmes' field-of-vision. "Someone find me the ships that fired those shots. Helm plot intercept courses, one at a time."

The order was irrational as hell; such individualized vengeance didn't really make sense here, and the Icarus was a long way from those vessels, but no one thought to question him. It really wasn't worth it. They just followed his orders, and in moments, the ship was bearing down on a Hydran cruiser that wasn't really expecting an attack from that quarter. Its crew had little time to register this new threat before they ceased to register anything at all.

The scene replayed itself two more times, and as the raging Icarus swung around to bear on her fourth victim, a new level of pandemonium broke loose.

"Captain!"

Holmes was never sure who said it first, but no one really had time to give a real report. His ship was pointed directly at the Miranda when the Starbeast appeared out of warp, and he watched in horror as the larger starship went spinning wildly away. He lept to his feet, ignoring the desire his body had to immediately fall to the ground. "Intercept Miranda; prepare the tractor beam."

As Allia followed his order, 'Commander Elaithin looked at him in horror, voicing the thought that everyone else was having. "Captain, Miranda is twice our size! We do what you're thinking, and we'll be lucky not to be torn to pieces!"

The half-breed said nothing, but just responded with a hard state, and the Bajoran Operations Manager just turned back to her console, preparing the tractor beam for what she knew was suicide. Rational thought wasn't welcome on the bridge this day.

The Icarus plunged through the fray, heading for the out-of-control Miranda, and when she was within range, Holmes braced himself, hoping his crew would do the same - there was little time for warnings. "Activate tractor beam; engines full reverse!"

With the grace of a swan, Icarus swooped down upon the wounded behemoth of a starship, and activated her tractor beam to stop the uncontrolled spin that Miranda had entered.

The occupants of the Miranda probably never felt a thing. Lieutenant Commander Elaithin was right; the Icarus was no match for the laws of physics.

Throughout the ship, people were thrown, consoles exploded, hull opened to space, and general chaos reigned. The tractor beam blew completely, taking a good chunk of the surrounding hull with it. In the CIC, the entire communications team found themselves being thrown forward by the exploding status displays behind them. Most didn't survive. In Engineering, Jakob Durden watched helplessly as one of his assistants flew over the railing to her death at the bottom of the core many decks down, and several others fell all over the three-story chamber.

Of the nearly two-dozen people on the bridge, nearly a third were dead, and none were uninjured. Smoke was everywhere, obscuriung all vision. Only 'Commanders Elaithin and Allia remained seated at their posts, and both were bleeding copiously. For the first time ever, Commander Khoma was on the floor, trying to stand. Commander Hughes had been knocked unconcious, and Captain Holmes...

Ares Khoma coughed violently, trying to see through the smoke to where he had last seen his friend and Captain standing. All he could see now was the two women at the forward consoles. Everything was obscured, even the floor. Struggling to his feet and stumbling forward, he called out, "Report!"

Somewehre in the mist, he heard 'Commander Elaithin spouting numbers, many of which he couldn't really hear over the din. He struggled to get closer to her voice...

And promptly found himself once again spread ingloriously on the floor. He had tripped over something - or more likely, someone. Crawling through the smoke, he tried to get a glimpse of who it was.

He immediately recoiled in horror. Lying on the floor, unmoving, blood flowing freely from his body, was Captain Holmes.

A medic shoved him aside, ignoring her own injuries to tend to the dying Captain. Ares felt hands grabbing his shoulders and pulling him to his feet. He looked up into the eyes of 'Commander Knight. The younger man stared at him with fire, and the message was clear; he too had served this ship for a long time, but now was not the time. Ares took hold of himself and nodded, tentatively climbing the step to the Captain's chair.

He stared at it for one presious second, then turned and sat. "Helm, try to bring us alongside Typhon. Last I saw, she was still in fair shape, and we could use the help staying alive. Somebody see if you can't find a Defiant-class or something to watch our exposed flank. Mr. Knight, take tactical. Plot a solution for..."

"Commander?"

He looked over his shoulder to Knight. "Talk to me, Tom."

It was then that he noticed the Strategic Operations Officer had gone white. "Commander Norax is dead, Ares. We've lost a total of nineteen fighters out there..."

Elaithin's voice chimed in. "It gets worse, Commander. I'm getting word from Miranda." She turned, tears welling in her eyes. "Captain Summers is dead. The fleet is being ordered to retreat."

Ares felt cold terror grip his heart. Fleet? What fleet? What was left. His eyes fell on his old friend still lying on the forward deck, struggling to survive, like so many others on the ship. Khoma breathed deeply, and didn't respond. He knew all eyes were on him; he merely nodded.

Allia gave a terse, "Aye," and the Icarus used what she had left to enter warp, leaving the carnage behind. And still, her captain fought for his life; as long as he survived, so too would his ship.

"Napulan Romuparte"

Lieutenant Erastus Ampete

Assistant Chief of Science - USS Miranda

=====================================

A mental hospital, somewhere outside Ra'tleihfi, Romulus

=====================================

Era had taken to helping out wherever she could. She'd assisted in getting the computers online, at least partially, although communications were still down. She'd lent a hand distributing food to the refugees who'd taken up residence on the southern side of the building and had even volunteered to help the staff keep the place at least nominally clean.

Today she was going for a more sedate activity, talking with the patients. Tir'len had suggested that sometimes, all the patients needed to start healing was a ready ear.

Era circled the room once, looking for someone who didn't look like they'd start crying or yelling. It was tough, given where she was. At last, she picked a small table at which a Romulan man sat. "Hello. May I join you?"

"Sacre bleu madamoiselle!" The Romulan in a paper hat with one hand perpetually under the fold of his shirt blurted out. Forget the fact the tone of his skin was all wrong, or that he was on the wrong planet, and had pointed ears from the wrong species, but nonetheless this modern day reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte spoke in fluent French, even with a tell tale Corsican accent. Someone had definitely done their homework. "Did they not inform you it was improper to sneak upon a gentleman unannounced?"

Tir'len had three words of advice for situations like this: run with it. So Era did. "My deepest apologies, monsieur," she dredged up the French word from her time at the Academy. "I found your presence overwhelmed my recollection of etiquette."

He seemed to take that as a satisfactory explanation, and nodded his consent. "That is understandable my dear, many of the fairer sex have fallen in a similar fashion. By all means, allow me." He pulled a seat out for her, a futile gesture given the chairs were bolted to the floor, but gallant nevertheless. "Tell me, has news reached Paris of the Egyptian campaign?"

The gesture, however comical, was somehow charming in its own right.

"I believe it ended with remarkable success." Era tried to recall who he reminded her of. Someone she'd read about, at some point... "Your conquest of the Egyptians is assured."

In actual history, that was far from the truth. Napoleon's army was actually destroyed as a fighting force... even if Napoleon himself escaped to tell a different story. But who would admit to such a loss anyway? "Very good! With all the turmoil in France some good news is good to offer."

"If there is such trouble at home, why wage war so far away?" Some French ruler, Era had gotten that far. Louis? There were a lot of men named Louis in France. It was a safe bet. Not a few of them had even gone to war. Era wondered why this Romulan had selected such a distinctly Terran persona.

"It is not for a solder to decide where to wage war my dear, simply how to win it." The Romulan grinned more broadly. "When I finally return to France, I will present my report to King Louis himself."

The cogs of Era's mind turned. This wasn't Louis then. Some general.

Richelieu? No, he'd been a cardinal. Mazarin? No, not him either. Who else was a famous frenchman? "Napoleon?" she guessed hesitantly. Her mind flipped through her lecture notes on Terran history. Hadn't he come to power after Louis was killed?

"But of course mademoiselle... do not tell me the stories of my exploits have spread under a pretender's name?"

Era tried to keep her face straight. "No. Certainly not. I am sure your deeds will live on for generations, making you inf- famous."

"Quite rightly my dear, quite rightly." He stood up, offering the hand 'not'

tucked into the over-lap of his shirt. "Let us be portraited!"

"Just call me Josephine," she couldn't help but say as she stood and, gingerly, took his hand.

"Ahh Josephine, a truly marvelous name for a truly wondrous woman! So tell me Josephine, what news have you of France?"

Era again thumbed through her notes. "The provinces are restless, but is that not always the way with peasants and farmers?"

"Under the reigns of ineffective government that can not provide the needed sustenance or honor of a nation as grand as the French Empire should be."

"Uhmm... right." Era felt the conversation was about to run away with her and she dearly wanted off. Talking theories of government to a Romulan with a Napoleon dementia did not strike her as an appealing way to spend the afternoon. "I don't suppose you'll be going off on campaign anytime soon?"

"Of course my dear, an Army must be lead from the front!" The Romulan barked with such adamancy one could only be left thinking he sincerely believed in what he was saying. "I will not only defend France against her enemies, I will bring French culture to all of Europe.

You will see my dear, I will make you proud to be French again!"

"Well, when it's safe to be proud again, I'm sure you'll let me know."

Era gently withdrew her hand from his grasp. "But I believe our portrait is at last complete and I am sure you have battles to plan.

Surely no place for a woman."

"Not of your stature I'm afraid." He grabbed her shoulders, placing enthusiastic kisses on each cheek. "Godspeed to you my dear, and send word to his royal highness that all is well!"

Era nodded that she would and hurried away. "Poor man," she murmured to herself. "Thinks he's Napoleon and has his facts wrong."

"Ruminations"

Lieutenant Erastus Ampete

Assistant Chief of Science - USS Miranda

=====================================

A mental hospital, somewhere outside Ra'tleihfi, Romulus

=====================================

Era lay with her head on a blank computer terminal, muttering to herself.

"If this were the Miranda, I'd begin with Personal Log.. guess some habits are hard to break.

"I've reached some kind of truce with Tir'len. The fighting near here is still bad enough that I don't feel confident emerging for long, not without even a phaser at my side. Perhaps if I had Jaal's daring, or For'kel's training...

"I hope Jaal's okay. I'm sure he's worried about me, but wherever the Miranda is, I'm sure it's in enough trouble to keep him distracted. I just hope he comes through it all right.

"And Bery. Being pregnant with a war breaking out can't be good for the baby, nevermind the mother. At least For'kel's with her.

"I'm trying to keep my mind distracted. I spent the afternoon working on the hospital's computer system. If this were a hardware problem I'd be of no use, but it's more about retrieving the data now that some of the power has been restored. Even so, I'm no whiz with it and trying to read Romulan cold has left me with multiple headaches. Luckily, this system is an older one.

"Supplies are running low. The replicators don't have much power left to them, no matter how we try to hotwire them. Again, they're older models. A lot of their efficiency has died with the stress of years of uninterrupted use. They're mostly getting worn down by having to produce the basics - like water. A water pipe must have been hit my first night here. I can't really blame the Public Works Department for not rushing to the scene. This hospital likely gets left off a lot of maps.

"I'm trying to stay busy, to keep myself occupied with anything.

"Because there's too much to think about."

"Recovery"

Cmdr Jaal Jaxom

USS Miranda

Aello glanced over at Jaal. Aello was sure he'd told her things would be okay. She nodded numbly. "Things are stable," she reported, "but it's going to be a long time before they're anywhere near 'okay.'"

"Any sign that we're being followed?"

Aello shook her head, "Long range sensors are offline at the moment."

Jaal nodded tersely. He caught a glance of the inert form of Captain Summers out of the corner of his eye before moving to his next task.

Next he called Dawson over the comm. Before Jaal could ask the question, in typical 'miracle-worker' fashion, Jack answered, "I know what the priorities are Commander and we've already started the repairs. I'll update you as soon as there's progress."

Jaal let a small smile grace his lips. Dawson had been around the Miranda long enough to not need specific instructions. "I won't hold you up any longer then."

The Trill commander moved over to Dakota Harris' domain. "Contact the others ships in the fleet. Find out what our losses are and what kind of shape the rest of the ships are in. Also, I want to send a report to command. They need to know what happened."

A simple "Aye sir," was her reply.

He went over to the science consoles where Spaan was working to restore the ship's sensor capabilities. "Spa'an, did you get any detailed readings of the spacebeast?"

The Miranda's science officer responded with typical Vulcan aplomb, "The sensors were set to record everything. Whether or not those records survived the attack isn't known yet. The power fluctuations may have damaged some of the files."

Jaal nodded, "I want you to work with Tactical. I want to know what that thing is made of so we can come up with a plan to kill it. It's not gonna beat us again."

Finally, the turbolift doors swished open. A medical team emerged with an anti-grav gurney. The team quickly made their way to where Anjoli was waiting. Jaal paused to watch them move the lifeless body onto the gurney and power it up. Summer's body floated into the air supported by the device. Doctor D'Bari gracefully covered the body with a white sheet.

Jaal's stomach twisted inside. Captain Summers had been a good man and the Trill wished he'd the chance to get to know him better. He wondered how Aello was taking the loss. Summers and Aello had been close serving together on the Anchorage for many years. There was no time to check now. Jaal was confident in Erigone's professionalism under fire.

The long list of friends lost in the Dominion War scrolled past in Jaal's mind like the credits at the end of a movie. How he managed to survive still baffled him. Havras had obviously been the first strike in the Trill's mind. He suspected that incident was used to gauge the Federation's strength and willingness to fight. Now he supposed this was the enemies' next step. Instead of chancing that the Romulan Empire would side with the Federation defeat them now take them out of the equation. Who would be next if the combined forces of the Romulan Navy and Starfleet couldn't drive the Hydran forces back?

Jaal sighed sadly as he stepped up to the auxillary library station.

There was still one more thing to do before going on. "Computer, recognize Commander Jaxom, Jaal, access code …" His code was a complicated string of Trill numbers and greek letters ending with his family name.

"Commander Jaxom, Jaal, recognized," the computer replied emotionlessly.

"I am taking command of this vessel, USS Miranda, registry NCC seven, seven, zero zero zero, beta as per Starfleet regulation…" He spoke the rest almost automatically. He sounded as emotionless as the computer but his insides were tightening by the minute. Other things crept into the background of is mind.

Era and other friends were still on Romulus. Were they dead? Were they alive? Captured? There was no doubt in Jaal's mind they would get to go after them but there was a lot of work to be done before that could happen.

Jaal finished a supplementary log entry just in time to receive Dawson's first report from Main Engineering. "We've got life support stabilized on all decks. We'll have phasers back online in approximately four hours. Shields will take longer."

"You're doing great, thanks Jack. Bridge out."

The Miranda's recovery was going fine.

If only the same thing could be said of her captain.

"Meanwhile, Down In The Operations Center"

Ensign Janeen Jaxom

The fires had finally been put out and people were starting to repair the charred consoles and other equipment.

Someone had asked Janeen if anyone from engineering would be coming by to lend a hand. "I doubt it," she answered opening up an access panel only to burn her hand on the still warm metal, "Engineering has enough on their plate. This area is up to us." She sucked on her finger a bit then returned to pulling out roasted isolinear chips that would need to be replaced.

How she managed to end up the ranking officer in the Operations Center was still beyond her. The newly, field promoted woman had no time to worry about it either.

When she first joined Starfleet she knew the dangers. She'd heard enough of the stories her older brother and his ex-wife spoke of on many occasion. She knew there was always the possibility of injury and even death right around the corner. Space was a dangerous place even when the political climate was peaceful.

However, when she saw the Hydrans starbeast on the monitor Janeen felt she was looking death right in the eye.

It was stuff of nightmares.

Of course, there was no way to expect the thing to be fuzzy and cuddly.

No time to worry about it now though. Someone on the other side of the room had popped open a panel only to be greeted by flames licking violently outward at a new source of oxygen.

Their shout caught everyone's attention. Janeen and two others rushed over with portable fire extinguishers and quickly put out the small blaze.

"...Far from over"

--or, the battle from the CIC perspective

Lieutenant Th'Khiss K'aa, ACTO USS Miranda
Lietuenant jg Chris Daniels, Tactical Officer USS Miranda CIC staff

Command Information Center, Deck 7, USS Miranda

===============================================

[K'aa to the Captain! Emergency situation to port!], the Gorn's strong voice overpowered the klaxons even over the intercom. [The Concorde isss being outflanked by targersss Gamma Four through Ten!

Hydran targersss approaching on vector one-eight-nine to the Concorde's fore-port ssshielding - Fusssion Beamss are charging...]

The reptilian's report to the bridge was drowned out as almost every alarm in the CIC chimed to report the collapse of the Concorde's shields. Rather than quiet down, the klaxons only grew on pitch and volume.

"Critical strikes on the Hood's port-aft shield! She's got severe internals to engineering, decks seven through nine showing breaches!

Escape pods are away - they're evacuating!"

From the fleet control station, Chris was watching as his technicians deftly set the screens and holo-table to show the battle. It was starting to get ugly.

"K'aa!" He yelled over the din. He was miked up to the bridge so Shia and Summers could hear him as well, since he was overseeing the fire coverage for the entire fleet. "I need you to get the Thunderchild into position off of our portside aft and the Exeter into the Hood's location so we can close the coverage gap and blast this bastard!"

The reps from the individual ships were doing the best they could, but the comm lines were so jammed, it was better to send it out with higher approval.

"Two Squiddy cruisers coming in off the starboard side. Distance 3,000 clicks. Looks like they're making a run on the 'Zona!" Eianne, who was watching the holotable, noted to all paying attention.

"They're trying to flank us!"

"Missster Dumak - relay the information to Saber Sssquadron and requessst Major Kol's asssissstance." Th'Khiss K'aa had just relayed the strategic data to the CTO of the Thunderchild when the last pieve of news hit. The Arizona, Sao Paulo, Exeter and Thunderchild each were engaged in support for the Hood and Galaxy, while the Concorde had been supporting the Miranda before the Hydrans had put her down.

On the Federation fleet's other flank, the Texas, London, Thunderbird, Akira and Valiant were the anvil of the Hydran hammer.

Miranda's CIC droned with constant activity as the staff provided eachstarship's tactical department with enough information to act as a

fleet rather than just a gathering of warships. The efforts keeping

up with coordinating the fightercraft alone were herculean - there were hundreds of them, and dozens of different wings each with different trajectories. The large chamber was a hive of controlled activity until more tac data from the Miranda's port flank came in.

"The Hood is down. Repeat: the Hood is Down" Lieutenant LeBlanc's

voice tremored with emotion as she relayed the news aloud to the CIC, and her hands trembled as she transmitted the data to the fleet.

The clamor broke out uselessly as everyone began to banter. Caught up in the loss of one of their own, they forgot that they still were fighting the battle that the Hood had lost. Two of the representatives assigned to Chris' team from other ships were now doing something totally inane. Chris had a moment of silent reflection...had he really been in that many battles already that this didn't bother him? He never answered it.

"Hey, get yourselves together and find out what coverage arc is gone so we don't end up like them!" The command he found from somewhere startled the two JGs back to reality.

"Calm yourssselvesss, everyone. Calm." The Gorn's powerful, hissing voice rose above the nervous murmors. "We knew this wasss going to happen in a fassshion - anyone who thought thisss would be easssy ssshould be cleaning plasssma conduitsss. We're more than holding our own right now given what we face, and thisss CIC givesss the fleet an edge the Hydransss lack. Focusss!"

The ship shuddered and Chris turned his head away from a sparking panel, not before seeing the techician manning it get sprayed and go down screaming. Off to his right, Kelly Marcos had hit her head and was bleeding but still manned weapons control with Hammertly. Chris turned to the Gorn and gave a brief but lighthearted smirk. "Whoever thought we'd be the combat vets, eh?"

"Not thisss early in our careerssss, certainly" K'aa agreed in a hushed tone. "Miranda'sss reputation for being in the thick of thingsss isss certainly merited." He toggled the comm tot he bridge and started relaying data.

"More from the Fleet, Captain - the Sao Paulo hasss engaged target Delta Three to protect the Glaxaly'ssss port and inflicted heavy damage to the targer, but ssshe's being ssswarmed by fighersss.

Approaching usss on attach vector one-one-nine are two more destroyersss - targetsss Epsilon Three and Four - ETA until we are within Fusssion Beam range, one-hundred and thirty sssecondsss."

Aerk, over at the master holotable, shouted out to everyone within hearing distance. "Target of opportunity! Target Delta Two Six just presented herself for a max strike by us, the Sao Paolo, Thunderchild, and the Akira!"

"We just lost 4 Blackjacks!" Another voice cut in, referring to one of the Concorde's squadrons.

"Hydran fleet is trying to mass on our port quarter!"

Chris looked back at K'aa. "Looks like they're trying a steamroller.

Mass their forces and drive straight through the middle of ours."

The Gorn's yellow eyes flicked as their nictitating membranes brought moisture to their ocular surfaces. ~And we're already stretched too

thin~. "Hrrrrr... relay the info to the fleet - recommend to the

bridge the ussse of thansssphasssic torpedoes. I think it'sss beyond the time we ussssed them. Are they stttrike cruisssersss? Or are the Hydrans bringing the carriersss to the fore?"

Whilst they were looking at the data, they didn't expect Eianne to yell out. "Starbeast! Starbeast! It's headed straight for us!"

The resulting sound and earthquake style shake flung all but the seated around the CIC. Seconds later, when the room stopped spinning, alarms were blaring and bodies--and the resultant blood--were strewn about everywhere.

Aerk pulled himself to his feet, having managed to just slide into the wall next to him. "Everybody alright?!!?"

Coughs and sputters were heard as those who could managed to get themselves to their feet.

"Weapons are offline!" a lonely, scared voice called from a station.

Chris stood, having taken the brunt of the impact with his back and a few cuts around his body. He was one of the few officers back standing. There were still a lot of bodies down. "Everyone check each other for injuries! Aerk, make sure we still know what's going on!" Aerk nodded and worked quickly to get one of the holodisplays back online. "Where's K'aa?"

The reptilian was slowly emerging from a shattered workstation and display - a power conduit had ruptured and sent much of the terminal and the nearby wall as shrapnel. The Gorn had received the worst of it. Small pieces of metal and plastic jutted out of his right arm and leg, but he seemed to wave the injury off as he casually picked the debris from his face. "Man your stationsss! Thisss isssn't over yet!

Missster Shankarturvos - ssscan everything you can from the Ssstarbeasst! Composition! Mass! Form! I want to know what it had for breakfassst! Move!"

"Bridge! Targetsss Epsilon Three and Four nearing Fussion Beam range

- ETA isss currently twelve sssecondssss." K'aa did not like what he was seeing as the "Steamroller" had hit the fleet hard. The alien creature shrugged and thrashed, sending mayem and destruction amongst the Federation warships.

"Targetsss Gamma Four through Ten now changing courssse to intercept - Hellbore range in twenty-two sssecondsss."

****

"Weapons still offline, two targets closing to cannon range! They hit us and we're in for trouble!"

Chris looked at his readout. He turned to K'aa. "Captain's ordering

the retreat. All ships are pulling out." The busy CIC crew was

still unaware of the events that had transpired above them on the bridge.

"Hrrrrrsssss... relay the data and the command to the fleet", was the reptilian's quiet supply. The best of the Federation - admittedly, a small fleet but a significant one - was retreating like a targ having been beaten by its master. The feeling left a bitter, acrid taste in the Gorn's mouth. "Let'sss look after our people here - get sssickbay and tend to the injuriess. Get our repairsss in the queue with Engineering - they'll be damn busssy over the next few daysss. I'm going to the bridge - you're in charge, Chris. The data on the Ssstarbeassst - we need to look at it quickly."

Chris nodded. "We'll figure it out." K'aa turned and walked out of the CIC, leaving Chris once again to discover what had happened during a battle. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his right thumb and forefinger for a few seconds, allowing himself to take a personal moment. Jannen, Ezzie...were they alright? Did they just lose? Had he really just survived that pounding with just a few small cuts? That one he'd worry about later.

"Hammertly, start working with Engineering to get an estimate of when our weapons will be back online. Davoust, get on the horn with sickbay and get a medic down here to treat the wounded.

All you off ship controllers, start interfacing with your respective ships to start gathering data. If this is just a lull, lets make sure we're better prepared next time. Veini, get all our data packaged and sent out to Archives on priority so the rest of the fleet can just see what happened. And Sensor Control, once we've re-established scanning capability I want you keeping overwatch on the tactical situation over Romulus." He looked around. Lots of the crew had the same dejected look on their face. "Hey, if we had lost we'd be dead, people. They won round one, that's all. Now we need to make sure they don't stand a chance in round two. I need you all on your A-game, something tells me this is far from over..."

"The Rising Tide"

Captain Daren M'Kantu (Robert)

Lt. Commander Tarin Iniara (Kat)

Lt. Commander MacKenzie Todd (Kate)

Lieutenant Michael Jameson (Noam)

Lieutenant 8-Ball Hunter (Kylee)

Lieutenant Raven Darkstar (Joe)

Lieutenant Ella Grey (Mek)

Lieutenant Saul Bental (Oded)

Lieutenant Valieria zh'Theran(Pat)

Ensign Artim (Michael)

Ensign Lela Beral (Petr)

Ensign David Walker (Randy)

Ensign Bliss Hawkins (Scott)

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 1, Bridge

----------------------

Off to the left of the Galaxy and a few hundred thousand kilometers down, a Hydran ship flared as her reactor containment unit failed, making the cruiser into a small star that twinkled for a moment and then faded away.

If Daren had seen it under different circumstances, he might have thought it a distant star going nova - but these were not those circumstances.

"Bring us around to 154, Helm," he advised. "We're going in after the other side of that unit of Hydran carriers - with luck; we can catch them between us and Chris in the Miranda and cut them up."

"154" the Indian acknowledged gruffly. He keyed in the commands and the Galaxy sprung forth like an eagle taking flight, gaining altitude portside before swooping down starboard in a powerful ark through a fringe group of Hydran fighters who had peeled off of their formation attempting to clip the much larger target of opportunity, but the suddenness of the Galaxy's move left the Hydran fighters opportunity for little more then strafing fire - easily shaken off by the starfleet vessel's shields as it neared the Hydran carrier battle group.

"Ms. Todd," Daren continued as the Galaxy continued to move. "We need to break up that formation of Hydran light cruisers ahead or we'll be having some uninvited guests with us here on the Bridge after we collide. Do something about that, will you?"

"Already on it, Captain," MacKenzie Todd said, blowing her bangs off her forehead, wishing that the sweat bead rolling down her temple was as easy to deal with while her fingers flew over the panel in front of her.

Three thousand things were rolling over in her head at the same time.

She'd heard of ship's tactical officers who got into the mode and who didn't think of anything else but each step. Of course she was thinking that, but not exclusively. In the back of her mind was one thought in particular, one she would be embarrassed to admit to: so this is what it is like to be on the bridge of a starship in battle.

It was interesting and almost exactly what she'd anticipated; perhaps those holographic training programs were useful after all. Now if only she was a Hydran expert, then she might be able to offer some more anticipatory suggestions. Her knowledge had come into some vague use since she arrived, but really she'd been spending the bulk of her time studying Hydran tactics and methodologies as well as pouring over the destruction of the Galaes, something that really consisted of watching the same three minutes of footage over and over and over again.

"Helm, I'm sending a minor course correction; if we set this up correctly, we should be in the clear for the next minute or two at least while the cruisers figure out what happened."

"And then?"

"I'm working on it, Captain, just need one step at a time. I'll be there when we need it." She looked up, offering a small tight smile to the man in the middle of the bridge, all the while fighting to keep her balance as a barrage lit into their shields. Some tactical officers could surf with their ship through some of the ugliest battles imaginable without losing their balance once. MacKenzie was not one of those officers; she'd already been tossed into her panel a couple times, could feel the bruise forming across her hips. "Shields steady at 93%."

Things were a mess; a space fight was always like that. One had to be a hell of a tactician to understand what was going on, simply by looking at the consoles, viewscreen and holographic projections. It's something you'd learn at officer's school and study over and over again in order to get promoted. It seemed like Daren was doing a good job. Jameson might have done it differently, but then again, he always does things different, he had to be unique - it's wasn't his fault, it was just his 'special' point of view.

Michael wasn't worried about Ensign Lela Beral. Even though she was a new officer, she was chosen by 'Commander Iniara for the battle bridge post. She was a Trill, and might have had more experience than people would have thought. Her experience was perfect was this position, and both Tarin and Michael knew it.

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 8, Battle Bridge

----------------------

Meanwhile, Ensign Bliss Hawkins face was serene and focused. Her hands tapped her tactical controls like a concert pianist working through a concerto. She had spent years working towards the day when she would be in a spot like this-impossible odds with everything on the line, and she was loving every moment of it.

"Aft phaser batteries prepped for rapid fire....all secondary hull torpedo launchers reading green. Sir, we're loaded for bear, and it's hunting season."

"Excellent. Mister Artim, our prey, if you will," Iniara replied evenly.

"At once commander", Artim wasn't teribly used to running sensors in a battle situation, but he'd had more then his fair share of simulations. "Looks like we have quite a selection, cruisers, frigates, and a healthy number of fighters."

"Route data to the main viewer."

"Aye sir.", Answered Lela and tapped few commands on her console. On the main viewer appeared the whole scene.

Iniara stood, crossing her arms as she regarded the Battle Bridge's main viewscreen. Sensor data began to overlap the chaos that the ship's external cameras were relaying back to them. "Target Delta Two, Ms. Hawkins," she called out, picking a light cruiser which was doggedly following the Galaxy as she sailed through the fray. "Let the hunt begin."

"Target Delta Two, aye...."

Hawkin's enigmatic smile brightened briefly as her commands sent dazzling phaser bursts into the Hydran ship. Their shields held for several seconds, but the focused fire was too much. The bubble of protection collapsed, and the stacatto bursts sizzled the enemy craft.

A single torpedo landed amid ships, rupturing the ship's hull like a overripe melon into several sparking fragments.

With the cool in Hawkin's voice, she might have been discussing the morning breakfast menu rather than a battle of life and death. "Moving on to Target Epsilon Four....."

Hawkins's enigmatic smile brightened briefly as her commands sent dazzling phaser bursts into the Hydran ship. Their shields held for several seconds, but the focused fire was too much. The bubble of protection collapsed, and the staccato bursts sizzled the enemy craft.

A single torpedo landed amid ships, rupturing the ship's hull like a overripe melon into several sparking fragments.

With the cool in Hawkins's voice, she might have been discussing the morning breakfast menu rather than a battle of life and death. "Moving on to Target Epsilon Four....."

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 1, Bridge

----------------------

"Sir," Lieutenant zh'Theran said from the commutations station.

"Signal from the Concorde. They moved in to assist the Miranda.

They're in trouble, requesting backup."

Daren nodded. "Divert our fire to support the Concorde - let that Hydran cruiser go for..."

It was, however, too late. On the screen, everyone watched as the massive starcarrier started popping off escape pods like nothing else.

With a brilliant flash, she went up - as did the Hood, who'd also been assisting the Miranda.

Two things happened in quick succession: The Miranda's shields fell, so she deployed her armor...

And then the Hydran's Star Beast finally showed.

"Elohim!" Saul Bental called out. It was one thing to see the thing on a report or a second grade footage, and another to see it cover a considerable portion of the view screen.

"Signal from Miranda!" zh'Theran passed along. "All ships, attack the Star Beast. Attack Plan Delta!"

As ships began pouring out fire, the Hydran's large tentacles swiped their first target - and the Miranda went spinning out of control through the firefight...

"Caught In The Undertow"

Captain Daren M'Kantu (Robert)

Lt. Commander Tarin Iniara (Kat)

Lt. Commander MacKenzie Todd (Kate)

Lieutenant Michael Jameson (Noam)

Lieutenant 8-Ball Hunter (Kylee)

Lieutenant Raven Darkstar (Joe)

Lieutenant Ella Grey (Mek)

Lieutenant Saul Bental (Oded)

Lieutenant Valieria zh'Theran(Pat)

Ensign Artim (Michael)

Ensign Lela Beral (Petr)

Ensign David Walker (Randy)

Ensign Bliss Hawkins (Scott)

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 8, Battle Bridge

----------------------

["Signal from Miranda!"] the voice of Lt. zh'Theran crackled through the comm. ["All ships, attack the Star Beast. Attack Plan Delta!"]

Iniara tensed as she heard the two words that could change their lives. "Ms. Beral, how are the shields?"

"Shields still undamaged, sir."

"Hm. Divert all available power to the forward shields. Even if it means taking some from the aft shields," Iniara told the young Trill, just as she felt the ship begin to move and change course again under her feet. They were now heading straight for the Star Beast; if that thing took aim at Galaxy, the shields would be all that lay between them and a world of pain. "Hawkins, continue firing at will."

"Understood." After few moments, Lela is reporting: "Shield balance set sir. Forward shields at maximum, aft. at 50%"

"Altering tactics to compensate....." Hawkins, smoothly changing settings on her weapons panel. She touched one system panel she'd been keeping in reserve for just the right moment.

Iniara knew that weakening the aft shields could have dangerous

consequences-- there were several Hydran cruisers on their tail after

all-- but any damage dealt by the Star Beast would surely be much greater. She just hoped Ensign Hawkins was as good a shot as her file claimed she was.

A small swarm of Hydran corvettes darted in to take advantage of the relatively unguarded aft section of the Galaxy. A flash of glee in Hawkins' eyes was the only change as she brought up the tractor beam system.

A single torpedo landed amid the cluster of enemy craft, draining their weak shields. The corvettes were meant for close fighting on like-sized ships, not a Federation ship of the line. A focused stream on a single corvette crippled it, and Hawkins tractored it.

With cool efficiency, she used the tractored ship like a cudgel, slamming it into several of its sister ships until a single target erupted in blinding fire, consuming the small cluster of ships.

"Moving on to Target Gamma One...."

Artim saw the Star Beast show up on his sensors and his eyes went wide and his expression changed to one he hadn't had in many years. He couldn't remember being this awestruck and afraid since... well...

home. But he had a job to do and somehow he figured finding out how to kill that thing was going to be part of it.

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 1, Bridge

----------------------

As the Starbeast grew bigger and bigger on the viewscreen, a wealth of information began to pour into the relevant posts. Sitting by the Intel console, Saul Bental would have a field day if his life were not in immediate danger.

He glanced at the marker showing the ship's structural integrity. No time to bail out yet... but if the Galaxy gets too close to the starbeast; he might never have a window of opportunity.

Solution. Somewhere, in the wealth of information, hid the way to defeat this spaceborn juggernaut. Saul already made sure the data streamed toward the nearest UFP listening posts. But THEY could wait for another day, whereas he...

He turned around sharply as something drew his attention.

The Galaxy suddenly rolled like a drunken whore during a Marine division shore leave, her nose pitching up and he aft dipping down and circling to the left.

"Helm!" Daren snapped as he grabbed for a handhold and crewmen started to slide around the Bridge. "What in Allah's name was that?"

Darkstar, seated in the Navigation room growled as he watched the lights navigation board suddenly light up and go unresponsive. "System interference." the Indian announced. He activated a secondary system and the holographic emitters built in the navigation dome which had been relaying a real time image of the battle around him now overlaid that with coordinates and attack vectors. He knew what was coming and it would require roughly 40 seconds to accomplish.

It wasn't as if Daren hadn't suspected it was coming, but he reflected that it needn't have been at such a poor time. As his feet slid out from under him, and he lost his grip, Daren started spitting out orders all the way to the floor: "Darkstar; take us to manual. Todd, disengage the automated fire control and go manual. Iniara - you and your people do the same. Grey, find out what's doing that and make it stop!"

Over the comm, Daren could hear the mechanized voice of Ella as she yelled her reply.

A hand came down from nowhere and caught him, but Daren didn't look up to see who it was yet. "zh'Theran - warn the rest of the fleet.

They'll be next if they haven't already been hit. Hunter, scan and see if this is a broadcast effect - if it is, locate the source and tell someone to go kill them. Bental - keep your scanners going, concentrate on the starbeast."

"Will do." The calm response was surprisingly close to Daren's ear. He slanted his eyes, noting that the officer who halted his fall was Bental.

"Thank you," Daren said quietly as he struggled to his feet - and almost fell again when the Galaxy rolled again, her nose dipping as he aft flipped up and to the right. "Darkstar, how long to manual override?" he snapped out. "We're going to get killed like this."

"Done." Darkstar said loudly as he now took complete control of the navigation system "This may be...abrupt."

The Galaxy appeared to suddenly drop in place, nearly spinning completely on its azimuth angle before helm control once again blacked out for a few long seconds before coming online again. Darkstar furiously worked the controls intuitively using the crafts momentum to level out and move it out of the light cruisers immediate cross hairs.

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 8, Battle Bridge

----------------------

"Transfer all available po--" Iniara was cut off in mid-command as the Galaxy rolled, tossing her sideways like a limp doll. She grabbed at the tactical arch, found an awkward handhold, and then cried out as the momentum of her body pulled at the weakest points of her shoulder, threatening to dislocate it. Letting go before anything important could tear or break she tumbled to the deck.

["...fire control and go manual. Iniara - you and your people do the same. Grey, find out what's doing that and make it stop!"]

M'Kantu's voice snapped her back to attention. "Got it!" she called out, before turning to her own gunner.

"Hawkins, switch to manual and continue firing at anything that moves.

Walker, same thing...coordinate with Darkstar and Dobryin, keep this boat moving! Beral, take over primary sensors...and Artim, find out where the hell that signal is coming from!"

"Yes, sir," confirmed Lela registering her orders. Then she tapped something on her console to fulfill them.

"Continuing on manual......" Hawkins murmured. She didn't bother her commander with the information that she'd been on manual since the beginning of the battle. She'd read about possible system interference from the enemy in this fight, and the last thing she wanted to deal with was some slavering beast taking her toys away when she was having so much fun.

"Might I make a suggestion, Commander?" Hawkins piped up even as she launched a brace of torpedoes into an exposed belly of a Hydran cruiser.

"What do you have?" Iniara asked, turning towards the young woman.

"We need to get that Starbeast off the playing field. Think a tractored Hydran cruiser slingshot into it at, say.... full impulse.... might give it a belly ache?"

Since the person with a blue collar was probably going to have his opinion sought eventually, Artim decided to launch a preemptive strike, "Judging by what its doing now, I'm not sure it would even burp." Artim said somewhat sarcastically.

Hawkins flashed the fellow in the science uniform a toothy grin. She hadn't bothered to learn his name, and was glad she had trusted her instincts. Jerk. "Combat against unknown opponents always calls for improvisation mixed with tested tactics. Come up with alternatives.

I'm busy at the moment...." To punctuate her words, she used the tractored Hydran ship to sweep aside a wing of fighters making for the Miranda.

"Retreating and living to fight another day when we do know what might kill this thing might be an idea." Artim replied as he futility tried to come up with a better plan.

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 1, Bridge

----------------------

Whatever was done, it was clear this battle was an untenable prospect now. The Hydran starbeast was destroying ships left and right - and it didn't seem too particular as to whether or not it had to take out Hydran vessels in order to destroy Romulan ones.

Lieutenant zh'Theran's comm lit up twice over, and it took her just a moment to sort the signals out. "Captain!" she yelled.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" Daren replied without looking away from the tactical display.

"Signal from Miranda, and the Valdore. The retreat order is given, and confirmed. We're to light out to Point Delta, as fast as possible."

"I second that, Captain." Ella said over the open comm. "The ship isn't going to be able to withstand much more -"

"Who's toying with the shields?!" Saul's voice overcame Ella. While he wasn't supposed to monitor the Galaxy's shields, their status did appear on his little display. He sent a savage glare toward the center of the bridge. "Whoever diverted shield power to the front must balance it on all sides! The Hellbores penetrate the weakest section regardless of actual hit location!"

"-especially if we can't get the shields back to at least-" Ella's voice replied, more static and pops heard than actual words.

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 8, Battle Bridge

----------------------

Hawkins damned herself. The order to alter the shield power had been made right in front of her, and she'd been too focused on fire patterns to catch that plebe mistake. "She's right; equalize shield power on all sides of the Galaxy. The hellbores penetrate the weakest side, no matter the facing!"

The blood in her veins froze as Iniara realized that by focusing on nothing but the Star Beast, she *had* been forgetting something. The Hellbores.

As the ship started to straighten out under manual control, a pair of Hydran cruisers - one leaking a flaming spike of burning methane atmosphere into the void - slipped in from either side of the Galaxy and unloaded their full array of hellbores into the weakened aft shields.

The energy coruscated along the weaker shields like a deadly energy serpent, coiled itself - and struck in a series of impacts that further weakened, and then collapsed the port aft shield, allowing the last hellbore to discharge directly along - and into - the Galaxy's Secondary Hull, tearing open hull plating and cascading into the ship's systems.

"Do it!" Iniara shouted, striding across the deck towards Beral and the familiar Operations console. "Equalize the shields!"

After few moments, shield balance was set to default. "Shields equal, sir. But at 25% only."

Few moments later, the Galaxy shook herself wildly under a series of hits.

"Shields failed, sir." Reported Lela quite calmly, although great tension was to be read in her face.

"Sir, Lexington got serious hit, her starboard nacelle is going to explode, their warp core is getting overloaded quickly." Said Lela, this time very emotionally, her voice shaken. On the viewscreen appeared Nebula class ship, releasing plenty of escape pods. Moments later, Lexington turned into one large fireball. Lela stood paralyzed behind her console, staring on the viewscreen. Tears appeared in her eyes.

---------------------

USS Galaxy

Deck 1, Bridge

----------------------

"Pull us out here," Daren snapped. "All weapons provide covering fire for the rest of the fleet and rescue operations as long as possible!"

Long minutes ticked by as the Galaxy and her crew did her best to cover the withdrawal. What would have been unthinkable only days before was now fact.

Romulus had been conquered by the Hydrans.

Daren M'Kantu settled back into the command chair on his bridge as the fleet scattered along their preplanned routes - multiple exit vectors that all the ships would alter to reach Point Delta - the Phoenicius System. He didn't know the Romulan's losses, but on the Federation side, the starships Concorde, Hood and Lexington had been lost.

Thousands of Federation personnel had died, and thousands more had been abandoned on Romulus - there was simply no way to retrieve any of them. Their fate would be the same as the Romulan people's.

"We'll be back." Daren made his quiet promise to those men and women, though everyone on the bridge could hear him. "We *will* be back."

"The Little Guys" pt IV

-----------------

Major Corran Rex, CAG, USS Galaxy / Vanguard Leader

Major Rena Starburst, Rebel Leader, USS Miranda

Ensign Eve, USS Galaxy (Vanguard One IO)

Flight Officer Kalin zh'Annuria, Rogue Six, USS Miranda

Flight Officer Angelienia, Vanguard Eleven, USS Galaxy

Flight Officer Qrandrik Njendrin, Rogue Two, USS Miranda

Major Amuramia mel Thora, Rogue Leader, USS Miranda

Flight Officer Rex Hall, Rebel 5, USS Miranda

Flight Officer Jacob Striker, Renegade 11, USS Miranda

Pilot Gelkar, Renegade 12, USS Miranda

Pilot Vlatrinia, Rebel 6, USS Miranda

Lieutenant Martin 'Papa' Artu, Rogue Nine / Three Flight Leader, USS Miranda

Commander Norax Taldren, CAG, USS Icarus / Chimera Leader

Lieutenant Savant, Temporary Electronic Support, USS Galaxy

Captain DarkSky, Captain - USS Typhon

------------

Vanguard One

------------

["Holy Hell!"] someone cursed over the squawk as Corran watched the two Federation starships be destroyed.

"Tara." Corran whispered under his breath. Captain Tara Reynolds of the Concorde. An ex from a few years back, and a squadronmate from his days back with the Rogues before that.

And hopefully still among the living. He toggled the fleetwide fighters' comm channel. "All available fighters - proceed to the Concorde and Hood's last location. They got off escape pods. Protect those pods people, I don't want the Hydrans to claim a single POW!"

the Major ordered.

Without waiting to check on backup, he darted Vanguard One in to do just that. "Eve, look out for transponders. Let's let the SAR runabouts know where people are. Fight like this, those pods aren't going to last long."

"Aye Sir," Eve replied, adding escape pod transponder signatures to the high priority search protocols of the remaining Vanguard sensor systems. An interesting side effect of the intelligence packages installed was her ability to directly influence each fighter's standard sensors, as the Intel packages interfaced directly with the aforementioned system. A small bloom of pink appeared on her display and she routed it to major's HUD for easier tracking and identification, followed by a squirt to the nearest SAR Runabout. These boys were going to be working long and hard.

----------------

USS Typhon

Flight Deck

----------------

"SAR Teams SPIN UP!" Amongst the compliment of the carrier USS Typhon was a selection of runabouts. These weren't your average, everyday, ordinary runabouts, but designed and outfitted specifically for Search And Rescue. A full dozen of the craft, already prepped and ready for hot launch, began their well rehearsed maneuvers, taking up taxi positions. Within one minute, all were in the air.

-------------

Rebel One

-------------

Rena and her Rebels had actually been fairly close - and she shared Corran's concern for their old squadron-mate. Tara was a good pilot, and a good person, besides. "You heard the man, Rebels. Defense on the eggshells. Keep 'em from crackin."

Starburst deftly flew her Valkyrie II- Class Interceptor into the cloud of fighters gathering near the area where the Federation Carrier had blown - and it didn't take her long to find a Hydran taking potshots at escape pods like fish in a barrel.

She'd long since run out of microtorps - but damn if that was going to stop her.

"No you don't, you three-eyed ugly son of a bitch." Rena muttered under her breath, toggling her pulse phasers to weapons free. Without even waiting for a lock, she started strafing her fire across the Hydran fighter's hull.

She wasn't too proud to admit a very visceral satisfaction at seeing the bastard die, either.

-------------

Rogue Six

-------------

~Defend the escape pods? Right, if this bastard would just get the hell off of me!~ thought Kalin zh'Annuria with a frustrated growl.

Having grown tired

of being chased around, Kalin sent her Rogue into a tight, blistering corkscrew, screwing up the aim of the Hydran dogging her tail. As luminescent bolts of energy flew past her, barely missing her fighter, she suddenly ended the roll and dove, too fast for the Hydran to adjust his aim. She flipped her ship over and then stopped abruptly, turning her Rogue up on its rear to bring the Hydran craft into her targeting reticle. The Andorian couldn't keep a satisfied smirk off her usually passive face as her pulse phasers ripped the lizard's fighter apart, but the smile was quickly erased when she remembered the escape pods.

Kalin knew that trying to fly so precisely all the time didn't really work in such a confused melee as this, that it took time she couldn't afford to waste, but she couldn't force herself to change her style. Normally she had Cowboy around to cover her, and he flew all over the damn place; it was a wonder the crazy bastard had managed to live as long as he had, given his flashy and unpredictable methods. Her wingman got by on improvisation and flying by the seat of his pants, which was something Kalin couldn't do.

She didn't have any more time to dwell on the subject, however; those escape pods still needed defending. Bluejay flipped her Rogue over and threw her throttle as far forward as she could, feeling the starfighter shake as it rocketed after the other Rogues, Vanguards, and Sabers who had already started toward the cluster of defenseless pods floating in the melee.

"Rogue Squadron, this is Six," she said into the comm. "Do your best to form a defensive perimeter around the pods, let's keep the area as clear as possible for S-and-R."

~As if S-and-R will be able to get anywhere near them,~ she thought a moment later, looking around wildly. She knew that most of those poor people wouldn't be getting out of here alive. There were too many Hydrans in the way for that to happen.

Still, they had to try. And even if it got her killed, Kalin would do what she could for them. To be honest, the prospect of dying didn't particularly frighten her; at least Cowboy wouldn't be able to bother her anymore.

-------------

Rogue Two

-------------

The rapidly expanding swarm of escape pods would have been fascinating to Flight Officer "Squiddy" Njendrin, if he'd been able to sit back and properly appreciate it. To his eyes, which saw light in a very different way than most humanoids, the pods looked like brilliant purple oblongs trailing deep green-blue flames behind them as they floated by.

It reminded him of home, and of watching nightflame bugs streak through the sky. 'Minions of fire', his father had called them. Sure, the fist-sized purple bugs were active all the time in the perpetual twilight of his homeworld, but it was only at night--when it got truly, utterly dark-- that the nightflames would decorate the sky with their green-blue heat trails.

From the time he was a tiny eft, living his isolated youth on land, the nightflames had been his constant companion. Qrandrik knew that the last thing he would see in this life were the nightflames, doing their dance among the stars.

And now, they were calling him home.

Inhaling deeply, the massive amphibian pilot realized he was finally at peace. Straightening out the path of his Rogue Mark V, he waited until the computer registered several enemy weapons locks. They were closing in, he saw; it wouldn't be long now.

"Good." Qrandrik smiled to himself, then slammed his fighter into reverse. Screeching and tearing sounds filled his last moments as Hydran craft slammed into Rogue Two. Squiddy's fighter disintegrated around him in less than half a second, taking at least six or seven enemy craft out with it. The resultant explosion knocked away another half dozen Hydrans.

All around, the nightflames continued their dance.

-------------

Vanguard One

-------------

And then everything went to hell.

Without warning, the Hydran Star Beast arrived - and made its presence known.

Corran could only watch as the Miranda raised it's ablative armor - and was promptly knocked several hundred kilometers from its previous position

He winced. "That doesn't look pretty. Hope you've got those sensors running, Eve."

"I do," She said, more awed and humbled by the level of organic technological control the Hydrans displayed than by anything else.

"We'll need to try to get in a little closer. We have excellent telemetry-" The icon for yet another Vanguard winked off of the display and visually one could see it had been struck by one of the Starbeast's writing tentacles. "Never mind," she whispered. The details had already been fed through the stricken crafts systems, and hence out to the rest of the remaining fighters - and there weren't many.

-------------

Rogue One

-------------

Mia's blood went cold when her wingman's status light suddenly flashed red, and then to ice when the massive bulk of the Star Beast appeared directly in front of her.

Terrified, the Andorian let out a scream, instinctively jerking the control stick of her fighter down. The tiny craft skirted just under the Beast's massive underbelly, barely missing a writhing tentacle along the way.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Mia did a quick once-over of her fighter's status. Shields were gone, microtorps were gone, and power reserves were near zero. From here on out, she was pretty much useless.

Still, she wasn't completely useless. Diverting all remaining power to the phasers she came about once more. So what if this was likely to be her final run? She'd make it count.

"The Little Guys" pt V

-----------------

Major Corran Rex, CAG, USS Galaxy / Vanguard Leader

Major Rena Starburst, Rebel Leader, USS Miranda

Ensign Eve, USS Galaxy (Vanguard One IO)

Flight Officer Kalin zh'Annuria, Rogue Six, USS Miranda

Flight Officer Angelienia, Vanguard Eleven, USS Galaxy

Flight Officer Qrandrik Njendrin, Rogue Two, USS Miranda

Major Amuramia mel Thora, Rogue Leader, USS Miranda

Flight Officer Rex Hall, Rebel 5, USS Miranda

Flight Officer Jacob Striker, Renegade 11, USS Miranda

Pilot Gelkar, Renegade 12, USS Miranda

Pilot Vlatrinia, Rebel 6, USS Miranda

Lieutenant Martin 'Papa' Artu, Rogue Nine / Three Flight Leader, USS Miranda

Commander Norax Taldren, CAG, USS Icarus / Chimera Leader

Lieutenant Savant, Temporary Electronic Support, USS Galaxy

Cameo Apearance By:

Captain DarkSky, Captain - USS Typhon

And the USS Typhon

-------------

Vanguard One

-------------

The battle turned to a damn slaughter then - the fighters were all but forgotten - Federation, Romulan, and Hydran alike - as they simply tried to get the hell out of everyone else's way. He saw at least twelve Warbird promptly destroyed by the Starbeast with his own eyes, in only a matter of minutes. "Vanguard Leader to all Federation and Romulan Fighters. Clear to the edges of the engagement zone. If you stick around here, you're going to get swiped by that monstrosity."

Not a few minutes later, his instincts were confirmed. The retreat signal came - first from the Miranda, and then, bare seconds later, a second retreat order issued by Admiral Donatra aboard the Valdore. A quick look at the board confirmed that Colonel Voltansk hadn't survived the fight - and there was no signal from Colonel Mitchell's AWACS, which was on the planet.

And there was no time to look for him. Corran knew operation command of the fighters was now under his control. "Vanguard Leader to all fighters. I'm assuming command of the fighter wing. All warp-capable ships, retreat to point delta. Light out on your pre-assigned vectors, and keep an eye out for shadows. If you can't warp under your own power or you're bingo fuel - go to ground on Romulus or somewhere else in-system. That's an order. Repeat, all fighters, retreat to point delta."

It'd mean leaving some behind, Corran knew. He knew the Big Boys would be wrestling with the same decisions.

But they couldn't help anyone on Romulus if they all died at the hands of that Hydran monstrosity. And if they stayed... that was damn well what was going to happen.

-------------

Vanguard Eleven

-------------

Angelienia had never seen the ship or ships that had scraped the Hydran fighters off of her. One minute they'd been there, and the next they were gone in a barrage of phaser fire, as if they'd never been there at all.

After that, there'd been a confused flurry of targets to shoot at, targets shooting at her, collisions to avoid... and then the Starbeast had appeared and her mind had simply stopped - frozen in fear.

It was... too big. Too horrific. Things that size weren't meant to be... alive.

It took the rocking explosion of a nearby Romulan Warbird to snap her back to the here and now, to force her to jam her stick forward in response to Vanguard One's order to fall back. She flashed past a pair of Hydran fighters, ignoring the fusion beams that they sent dancing after her, and danced around another disabled Warbird, looping through the open central core of the ship to lose them for the moment she needed to go to warp.

As the fusion beams found her again, slicing at her failing shields and scoring the hull of her fighter, she went to warp, a constant stream of thought running through her head: "I believe in Victor.IbelieveinVictor.I believe...."

-------------

Saber Two

-------------

The Hydran was still on Taev's tail - the barrel roll, a number of Immelmen's, double loops with a twist, lag rolls - nothing worked, and it was constant effort alone that prevented the Ferengi from being perforated by gatling phaser fire. Worse was that the Hydran had a wingman, and Saber one was flying alone.

One trick had yet to be tried, and it was risky... something his former squadron would have appreciated. He slammed the thrust lever forward and homed in on a Hydran wing, currently returning back to it's carrier.

Humans eat a lot of protein derived from an animal called a "chicken"

- on the Galaxy, someone at any given time was eating some kind of chicken. Personally, Taev had no idea why "chicken" was used to describe a test of nerves. Maybe the chicken was a predatory animal.

The Hydran wing scrambled away from the incoming Federation fighter, and Taev launched every mini-missile left in his arsenal - then executed a quick Reverse Half Cuban Eight loop. The resulting chaos was perfect - the Ferengi managed another kill before activating his fighter's warp drive.

He had survived, but his day's balance sheet had a lit of red on it...

not all of it ink.

-------------

Rebels 5 & 6

-------------

"HOLY FRAK!!" Rex shouted as he watched the two ships get hit hard right before a rain of fire hit the Miranda herself again. Rex felt the blood in his veins boil as he watched alot of good people suddenly not exist anymore as he shifted his weapons to a hand's free position as he started firing on a number of other enemy fighters.

=^=Six to five, we just lost another rogue=^= came the voice of the Rex's wingman but before she could say anything else, the Hydran starbeast appeared. =^=BY THE LOBES OF ALL THAT IS GLITTERY!!!=^= she shrilled through the channel, forgetting that it was still keyed to Rex's comm.

"Well, makes you wonder if they're compensating for something." Rex growled as he swung his fighter towards where the rest of his squadron was. "Come on, Six. We got ourselves a bunch of eggs to protect." Rex growled again as he swung his fighter towards where the rest of his squadron was helping to cover the Typhon's SAR units while taking out a few hydran fighters along the way.

-------------

Renegades 11 & 12

-------------

"You've got to be frakking me" Jacob said, all traces of his usual professionalism gone as he beheld the hydran's "little friend". "How do you kill something that big and fugly?"

=^=I know not my friend, but Major Rex has taken command of the wing and is calling for us to make for the RZ. I follow your lead, Gryphon.=^= Gelkar said to which Jacob could only smile.

"This is Renegade Eleven to Renegade Lead, give me a checkback please Major." Jacob said, easily falling back into his old habits. "Do we jump or cover the SAR from Typhon?" while doding enemy fire and returning in kind.

The huge bulk of the USS Typhon, a small cloud of SAR Runabouts flitting about her, eased into the vicinity of the wreckage from the Hood and Concorde, her flight bay doors wide open and weapons blasting away any fighter who dared get too close. A voice crackled over an open line, broad ban transmission. "All Allied fighter craft, this is Captain DarkSky, USS Typhon. Disengage from SAR cover and jump out system as ordered. Any incapable of warp, my bays are open to you for the next minute. If you can't reach me by then, I advice you to go dirtside. Godd luck. DarkSky out."

-------------

USS Galaxy

-------------

Dogfights such as these were messy affairs. Humanoid synapses could barely keep up with the deadly whirl of composite and energy which made up the battle - all in all barely minutes had passed since the beginning of the fight. The last dying burst of the AWACS runabout had flickered out moments ago, leaving the fighters half blind. What was worse, the Hydrans were starting to get communications superiority - suppressive cochrane fields blanketed the area around the planet.

The star-beast's arrival heralded a power spike in Galaxy's lateral sensor and communication arrays, and just as the announcement to withdraw was made a new set of signals began to stream out from them.

New data began to filter into the fighters from the friendly platform, replacing the lost AWACS boat; it even plotted potential escape routes or trajectories to easily enter the planet's gravity well while avoiding the worst of the Hydran fire.

A voice came with the data stream, calm and confident - something that had earned Savant the nickname "Combat Receptionist". Communication lines solidified between all of the fighters as she spoke, a siren's call through the stormy black, "Galaxy has assumed electronics support position. I'll try to squelch the Hydran communication lines and sensor platforms for as long as I can, fighters. Get back to roost while you still can. Vanguard, we'll need a CAP while transiting out."

-------------

Rogue Six

-------------

Kalin wasn't even sure if what she was seeing was real. How the hell could the Hydrans have created such a monster? How could it survive in space? How could it do so much damage in so little time?

She moved to quickly acknowledge the stream of retreat orders coming through the comm, flipping her fighter over and moving into an escape vector. "Rogue Six to all Rogues, you heard them," she said. "Bug out if you can, or find a safe place to land if you can't. Luck be with you all."

Kalin had just finished laying in the course to retreat point delta when she heard a piercing, terrified scream through the comm. Wincing from the pain her eardrums now felt, she craned her head back and around, trying to see what was going on.

Her eyes widened as she saw a part of that monstrosity sweeping toward her, swiping at other fighters in the way and either batting them aside or utterly destroying them as casually as a person would squash a bug with his hand. Kalin shouted a swear that would have embarrassed even Cowboy and quickly engaged her warp drive, her fighter leaping away from the battle just before the star beast reached her.

-------------

Rogue One

-------------

Mia breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the orders from Miranda and Valdore, echoed only seconds later by Bluejay in Rogue Six. She quickly toggled over to the squadron's frequency.

"Rogue Leader to all Rogues. Retreat. Get your butts out of here. I repeat--"

The transmission was cut off in mid-stream. Flying without a wingman, Mia mel Thora had succumbed to her greatest weakness: failing to watch out for her own six as well as she did for everyone else. So she hadn't noticed the Hydran fighter taking aim behind her, and she hadn't registered weapons fire until it had been too late.

The resultant explosion tore a huge hole in the back of the Rogue, knocking its pilot unconscious. The craft spiraled out of control on a collision course with the planet. And seconds later, its hull began to take on a reddish glow as it entered ch'Rihan's outer atmosphere.

-------------

Rogue Nine

-------------

Martin Artu cursed loudly. To this day, he still didn't know what the hell he was doing in Rogue Squadron. He was a proverbial back-bencher. He had no business flying with the elite, much less having a position of authority - a position that now, inconveniently, left him in command of the squadron.

"Rogue Squadron, clear out. Meet on the other side, regroup in support of Miranda. No one lands until I give the word."

Fear gripped his heart as he took one last look at the sky around him, filled with wreckage and bodies. He was blinded by tears, and could only tap the controls, taking him away from the battle.

-------------

Chimera One

-------------

In front of what remained of Icarus' brave group, Norax Taldren heard the order. She and her other sixteen surviving pilots had regrouped abeam of the Valdore, and watched as the warbird leapt away from the burning atmosphere of its homeworld. Tapping her comm, she said, "Ok people, we're some of the last ones left. Time to go. I'll see you on the other side."

She watched as her people activated their warp drives, but she herself continued fighting. She would remain until Icarus had left, and probably even longer, to see those pilots landing on the Typhon safely away. She would leave when the larger carrier did.

Unfortunately, the Bajoran woman never got her wish. Before she had time to signal Icarus of her intentions, her proximity alarm began to scream, and her eyes widened in shock as she realized that she had come too close to the Starbeast.

There would be no memorial to Norax Taldren, no elaborate ceremony dedicated just to her as a hero. There would be only a name on a long list of names, friends who would spare her as much room in their already heavy hearts as they could, and a cloud of dust forever orbiting the world of ch'Rihan.

---------------

Scattering on their flight paths, the thousands of warp-capable Federation and Romulan starfighters lit out of the system in every conceivable direction. Some went to ground on ch'Rihan, some on ch'Havran. A few went to other in-system installations. But for the most part, those who had survived, did what they were ordered to do.

They ran.

"Parental Advice"

by J. Andrus Suder

****

Hall of State

Ra'tleihfi (Ki Baratan)

****

It was a cliche, of course, but Andrus wished that he had listened to his mother.

Not that J.T. Suder had been an exemplary role model of motherhood (his birthday presents were usually in the form of lock picks and state-of-the-art laser cutters, and - to his knowledge - the woman had never cooked a meal in her life) but J.T. *had* told Andy on more than one occasion not to be too greedy.

"Don't be too greedy, J ~," His mother had warned him. "It will just come back in the end and bite you on the ass."

As Andrus ran through the Hall of State, he really wished that he had listened to his mother. If he had listened, he wouldn't have thrown away his friendship with Tek for money. He never would have made his way to Romulus in an attempt to make amends.

And he wouldn't now be stuck in the middle of a war zone running for the IRV Praetor for all he was worth.

Then again, how was he to know that war would be coming to Romulus? No one had, if the Romulans that were fleeing with him - their fear and disbelief as thick as the invading troop of Hydrans that was storming the capitol- were any indication.

And how was Andy to know that the Captain of his original ticket home was a sadistic bastard disguised as a peace-loving Federation officer?

Oh, sure, M'Kantu looked like someone's grandfather, kind and compassionate, right up until the point when he totally screwed you over.

"We need you to use your connections, Mr. Suder." Andrus mimicked even as he ran. "It's a not an order, oh ho no, of course not, but it is a rather strong request."

Naturally, there had been a bit of a desire on his part to be able to gather up the hidden troops to save the day (saving Tek's homeworld would make them even and then some, Andy thought) but in the end it had been as effective as asking the Klingons to send aid to their enemies. At least he had been somewhat useful in convincing some of the senators that evacuation was the only option left, although Andy wished that they had come to a decision before the bad guys had arrived.

He rounded a corner, felt the phaser fire miss him by inches. Andy turned and fired his own weapon, yelling "asshole" even though the Betazoid wasn't sure who he was referring to, especially since it was damn near impossible for him to tell what gender his Hydran attacker was.

In either case, he missed but bought himself some more running time.

At least Tae'ben was safe, or as safe as one could be in the middle of a space battle anyway. He'd grown kind of fond of the kid's company and was glad that he had remained on the Galaxy, even though Andrus didn't think M'Kantu would have been *that* cruel. Andy had been able to blend in at Ki Baratan due to years of experience with lying his ass off, a borrowed senator's uniform, and a holographic emitter that changed his facial features, but the boy was all arms, legs, anger, and guilt. He wasn't at all sure that the Romulans wouldn't have stopped amidst all the running for their lives to execute Tae'ben on the spot for defecting.

Another phaser blast nearly missed his head but this time, rather than having to rely on his shooting skill, he was pulled away.

"Get behind me," The woman snapped at him before aiming her rifle.

Andrus watched as she shot two of them and then went to finish them off with a Klingon mek'leth.

Being human, her thoughts and emotions were directly on the surface and Andy found himself blinking as all the concern for her family and friends was channeled into a rage directed at the Hydrans before her.

Needless to say, they didn't last long.

"You okay?" She asked him afterwards as she kicked at their corpses looking for weapons or rations.

Andy tilted his head slightly, somewhat fascinated by the woman, something that didn't happen too often. It wasn't everyday, after all, that you saw a beautiful woman slaying aliens like there was no tomorrow and he couldn't help himself from searching a bit beyond the surface to see why.

Unfortunately, in that moment he had forgotten his father's best piece of advice.

"Men aren't meant to know a woman's mind, Son," Navas had told him once over a dinner that his mother hadn't cooked. "It's a cosmic rule of the universe. Even if you know, think you know, or somehow find out what they're thinking, in the end you're still wrong anyway. And they're still pissed at you."

Case in point, the woman before him had narrowed her eyes and Andy suddenly found himself back to the wall with an elbow about to embed itself into his trachea.

"Don't go where you aren't invited, Betazoid." She all but spat at him in Klingon.

Andy gaped for a minute and then realized that the emitter had probably been damaged during the many times that he had either fallen or been slammed into by terrified senators and their aides as they all ran to safety.

Her thoughts confirmed that M'Kantu had sent ahead about his presence on the planet so at least she didn't think he was the enemy. The Gods forbid!

Since there was no real word in the Klingon lexicon for sorry, Andy said that he had meant no disrespect.

The woman - 'Rel - grunted and then let go of him. "Let's get you to the Praetor ... Senator."

"To Boldly Go...On"

Lt. Cmdr. Brian Elessidil

Acting CO

USS Exeter

[OOC: Assume the important and relevant info from this was reported in to the MIranda and the rest of the fleet following Cliff's post "Recovery".]

"Acting Commanding Officer's log . . . in response to the order to retreat, the Exeter is en route to the rendez-vous point with the rest of the fleet following our encounter with the Hydrans. It would not be an overstatement to say the battle was in short, a disaster.

"The ship sustained significant damage during the exchange, but essential systems including most of life support, communications, navigation and propulsion are miraculously intact and operational. We have limited shields, sensors and weapons, which engineering teams -- such as we have -- are working on. There was hull damage on several decks, several of which were evacuated after life support went out there. We took heavy structural damage to the bridge, enough so that I've ordered all command and other essential bridge functions transferred to the much smaller, but relatively undamaged, battle bridge.

"Our most urgent problem is the loss of primary power relays ship-wide. The Hydran fighters who attacked us seemed to know exactly where to concentrate their fire to take out those systems, and since the battle we've been relying solely on the secondary relays. Chief Engineer Barrett says they'll hold for now, but we won't be able to make it through another fight until the primary relays are repaired or replaced.

"More significant than any damage to the ship or its systems however, is the damage to morale. Preliminary departmental reports indicate that we've lost nearly a third of the crew, which was already less than a full complement to begin with. Among the casualties were Captain Vogler and First Officer Marc Reardon; Ensign Minh Nguyen, the chief helmsman; Ensign Lennard Brockman, chief of tactical; and Lt.

Janet Farley, chief science officer. With so many dead and injured throughout the ship, I instructed Lt. Barrett to make restoring turbolift operation his department's first priority after ensuring that life support and other crucial systems were stable. The work of everyone aboard so far has been commendable, particularly Engineering and Medical. I have no doubt Captain Vogler would have been extremely proud.

"The captain's last orders immediately before her death were for us to retreat with the rest of the fleet and for me as the highest-ranking and most command experienced officer aboard, to assume command, a decision which I will do my utmost to ensure wasn't in vain. I've appointed Chief of Ops Lieutenant Brendan Mullen as Acting First Officer and Ensign Lydia Montgomery, chief of security, as second.

They will join me later in an address of the remaining crew in shuttle bay one."

[About an hour later.]

The Exeter's shuttle bay one, though smaller than those of the Miranda or the Galaxy, was still sufficiently large to hold the remaining crew. Arranged in orderly phalanxes across the deck, it wasn't hard to see that despite the show of military formality the recent losses weighed heavily on every face. Many of the relatively young crew showed injuries of their own, many were apparently still in shock at the unexpected turn of events, while most were simply in grief for the loss of fellow crewmates and a CO who despite her "spookiness" was well-respected. Had she lived to have more time with her crew, her status among them would undoubtedly have become "well-loved".

For his part, Brian Elessidil to a great extent shared the crew's feelings, along with more of his own, but it was time to address theirs first. So much needed to be done after leaving the scene of the battle that he hadn't had a moment to see a medic, as the various cuts and bruises on his hands and face from being tossed around with flying debris on the bridge suggested. He hadn't even had a chance to glance at a mirror, his hair still disheveled and pieces of dust and dirt still clinging to his uniform. But whether he looked -- or even felt -- the part, he was for all intents and purposes the captain, and even thought most of them had never met him, the crew seemed to accept it.

Calling them together for an address had been Brian's idea. Despite some resistance from Lt. Mullen on the grounds that they didn't have time for "that kind of stuff", Elessidil disagreed. It might have been different with a more seasoned crew, but the Betazoid counselor knew what was on people's minds and they were scared. He understood they needed a leader right now, someone to give them a little steadiness and certainty in what had turned out to be a chaotic and uncertain situation.

And he knew the objection on Mullen's part was primarily because *he* wasn't the one filling that role.

After instructing the assembly to be at ease, Brian cleared his throat so that he could speak as steadily and firmly as possible, then to the best that he could, looked to each and every individual as he spoke.

"What we have just experienced -- what we will continue to experience for the immediate future -- is perhaps one of the most difficult crises our careers in Starfleet will ever present: the loss of our fellow crewmates and our captain." The counselor chose to use "we"

and "our" instead of "you" and "your" on purpose. The crew needed to know from the start that he was now one of them, not some unfamiliar officer from some other ship here just to tell them what to do.

"For many here, this is your first assignment, one that began only days ago; one that no one could have anticipated would lead to something like this so quickly or so harshly. But we rarely get to choose the events that will occur in our lives; only how we respond.

This is where your training as officers and crew, indeed as men and women, is most vital, not simply to me or to the rest of this fleet, but to yourselves. Not merely the specific skills and areas of expertise you have been trained for, but the inner skills of courage, of discipline, and most of all, of strength. The first duty each of us has to perform before any other is to acknowledge our losses and continue on in spite of them. That isn't something that I or anyone else can order you to do. Each of you must do it for yourself.

"Some people believe that the present is the only things that matters.

This is not true. The past, with all its memories, its painful lessons and its tragedies, matters greatly. None of us can escape it.

None of us should expect ourselves or anyone else to simply forget about the people we've just lost. For better or for worse, our experiences will demand that we remember there is far more to life than what we can know or expect, and that our dreams can't be scripted. The present and the future are always downstream of the past, and like a great river, neither the flow nor the source can be stopped.

"Now we are in the present. Now we are faced with burdens and challenges to endure so that we can move forward. And move forward we must. The past teaches us that life is uncertain, but the present teaches us that life is not an illusion. Our knowledge must not give way to discouragement; our expectations must not give way to fear, or our dreams to hopelessness. The memory of those we have known in the past, the dependence of the people in our present, and the promise of what each of us will become in the future demands it.

"There will be -- there must be -- time to more formally honor those we've lost, and more time for us to feel our own grief. But for now, I ask all of us to pool our strength and our skill to attend to the situation at hand. We *are* Starfleet. We *are* the Federation. We will continue to boldly go forward. Dismissed."

"Hull Breach!" Part One

Lt. Ella Grey, Chief Engineer

Lt. Dhanishta Eshe, Assistant Chief of Engineering
Lt. (jg) Naranda Roswell, Engineer
Michael McDowell, Civilian Engineering Specialist
Tae'ben, General Engineer
Captain Qel – Klingon Bird of Prey T'kengra & officers

Turan Trelar, Quentite Ambassador and engineering trainee

& Other officers from the Hanger Bay

***Location USS Galaxy, Deck 36 main Engineering***

It wasn't long after Dhani opened a com link to the bridge and informed them that Engineering was as ready as they were ever going to be that all hell broke loose.

This was the situation that Dhanishta thrived in. There was no more waiting, no more wallowing in what could be, the what if's and but's were no longer an option to think about. All that mattered was what was now.

It was a relief, no matter how frightening the out come could be, that all she had to think about was reacting to what was happening.

The ship rocked again, Dhanishta steadied herself against the edge of the 'pool' table, her eyes were fixed on the readouts before her.

"Direct hit to our port side shields." she called out assimilating the information before her. "They are holding." she added above the din.

Over the open com she could hear the Captain barking orders at the bridge crew.

"What do you need Chief?" Dhani asked wondering if her voice would carry above the din in Engineering.

"About a thousand more ships on our side would be nice." Ella replied crisply.

Dhanishta smiled slightly at that before gripping the edges of the 'pool' table once more and grinding her teeth as another impact rocked the ship.

*** Meanwhile on Deck 5; Starboard Computer Core ***

Michael found himself looking for something to hold onto every time the ship was hit by enemy fire. But besides that he tried to just concentrate on what he was doing now, and that was replacing two dedicated subprocessors as fast as he could. The processors had

literally been cooked because they couldn't cope with several major spikes in the Electro Plasma flow that powered them.

A sudden shock of enormous proportions rocked the ship like it was some small toy. A console behind Michael blew up in a spray of sparks and at the same time he was half thrown out of his seat and his head made contact with the console before him. He let out muffled cry of pain and moved his hand towards the spot where it hurt most. For some good few seconds he felt nothing but pain and saw nothing else but twinkling little stars dancing before his eyes. Smoke began to fill the room.

In the corners of his eyes Michael could just see someone kneeling down beside a body.

"Oh no... Sheerer to Sickbay! Medical emergency in the Computer Core, Starboard side, Deck 5! ...Come on Jason! Stay with me! Don't you die on me!!"

***USS Galaxy, Deck 36; Main Engineering ***

The ship rocked more as a volley of fire from a Hydran Light Cruiser ripped through space and into the Galaxys hull.

Nara gripped tightly to the console and growled as it threw her gaze off her own readings and she had to pause tapping in commands to keep from falling. She would look back and enjoy the memory of this exciting adventure. But for now, it just annoyed the hell out of her, as she had to stop to grip a console as the poor ship was hit.

"We have multiple hull breaches!" Dhani shrieked. Her eyes flew across the consol, her fingertips following trying to contain the damage. "It's the port side hull." she informed the air, or so it seemed, as the engineers scurried about.

Another hit followed, sending Dhanishta flying across the floor. She cursed loudly, in Bolian this time, something she must have picked up from Jiiles; she would later contemplate his influence on her already colorful language.

Rubbing her smarting head she propped herself up on her elbows and looked about the once pristine deck. ~That last hit must have knocked out our fire suppression systems~ she moaned inwardly as she saw the flames licking their way across a consol not two meters from her.

Around her burst pies vented gas and steam into the room - filling up pretty quickly. Before she could blink her visibility was severely dampened.

Hauling herself up on to her feet Dhani grabbed a fire extinguisher and blasted the fire into submission.

"Everyone okay?" she called out, unable to see anything but a blur as shadows moved stiffly before her.

"No." Ella winced, holding a pressure against her forehead and the nice fat knot that was forming. That hadn't been just a blast impact, the ship had bounced up, down, and around like a bucking bronco!

****USS Galaxy, Deck 4; Flightdeck***

With all their babies out - fighter maintenance and the flight deck crew usually called the fighters *theirs*, an often heard saying was: "Sir, remember. It's our fighter, not yours. We only lend it to you to kick some alien asses." No pilot ever dares to contradict if the techies told him to bring his baby back in one piece.

With all those little guys out fighting, there was not much to do than watch the battle through the flight deck's transparent force field curtain, and occasionally have a glance at the flight schedule board. Traditionally there was no high tech involved in that table. A supervisor - usually a Vulcan, moved name signs from one side of the table to the other. If the supervisor's hand reached towards the board *without* one of the Valkyre fighters coming back in, it didn't mean anything good!

When the supervisor took a sign off the board, the enlisted crewman sitting next to Turan buried his face in his hands.

"What happened?" asked Turan.

The crewman looked up at the tall Quentite. A single tear was running down his cheek.

"Commander Kol ..." he answered "... he will not come back."

Turan close his eyes. Commander Kol's fighter was one of the Saber fighters he helped to rewire. There suddenly wash a rush of sorrow. Why? He never met the Klingon Commander before.

"Hull Breach!" Part Two

Lt. Ella Grey, Chief Engineer

Lt. Dhanishta Eshe, Assistant Chief of Engineering
Lt. (jg) Naranda Roswell, Engineer
Michael McDowell, Civilian Engineering Specialist
Tae'ben, General Engineer
Captain Qel – Klingon Bird of Prey T'kengra & officers

Turan Trelar, Quentite Ambassador and engineering trainee

& Other officers from the Hanger Bay

***USS Galaxy, Deck 36; Main Engineering***

["Helm!" Captain M'Kantu snapped over the open comm. "What in Allah's name was that?"]

The helm replied that is was some kind of interference with the systems.

"Confirmed, Sir." Tae'ben, the new Romulan engineer, told Ella. "Systems are, to use a human term, 'freaking out' all over the ship."

Ella quickly moved to another consol as the Captain's voice barked over the comm. for Engineering to find out what the problem was and make it stop.

Having felt another volley, Nara had bent her knees, still gripping the console, so when she lost her grip, she rolled backwards, hitting a wall. She was a bit sore, but not as banged up as she could have been had she tried to keep upright. She wasn't sure where she learned that. Maybe instinct?

She saw the plumes of smoke and looked around to see who was down and if any consoles worked.

Once she heard a familiar voice Dhani relaxed somewhat. Even though the Chief had said 'no' indicating that she wasn't okay, she was well enough to reply; that meant she was alive, and thus okay. For now this slightly flawed logic would do, Dhani decided as she returned to her station.

Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets; the Galaxy was beginning to take on a new from, that of Swiss cheese!

"Another hull breach, Deck 11, near the science department." Dhani's voice carried over the relative hush of Main Engineering; the last hit had really knocked the wind out of them all. She hoped it was just that, rather than the possibility that she was shouting to a room full of corpses. " Nara get up an emergency force field NOW!" she instructed.

Nara jumped to her feet and went to a console, a faint glow showing it was still working. Her fingers typed fast as she made commands to bring up what could be a life saver.

Waving the smog away was not going to help and it appeared that the ventilation system was knocked off line too. Unfortunately that wasn't a big priority right now.

["Signal from Miranda, and the Valdore"] The comm. announced. ["The retreat order is given, and confirmed. We're to light out to Point Delta, as fast as possible."]

Nara's eyes were intent on the screen as she overheard everything. The moments it took for the force field to form felt like an eternity.

"I second that, Captain." Ella said over the open comm. "The ship isn't going to be able to withstand much more -"

In the midst of the other conversations Nara called out, "Force field up!"

She was interrupted by both Saul from the bridge and the sound of the ship getting hit by another volley. No, not quite another volley, Ella thought a second before she saw her console overload.

Above the once mighty planet Romulas the pitch black skies were aflame with the raging battle. It consumed the darkness with its ferocity. From the planet surface one could see the phaser beams as they lanced through space, the overwhelming sparks like a sun going supernova, on a much smaller scale, as ships blew up; throwing their defunct crew into the vacuum of space.

The fight for Romulas would be recorded in history as yet another bloody war.

As the planets surface roared with death shrieks from soldiers, civilians and all those caught in-between, above the atmosphere, others died in the silence of space.

["Lost helm control! Going manual!"] a voice shouted over the com.

It was impossible to tell from the surface of the planet below who was winning the war for Romulas. But from the bridge of the Klingon Bird of Prey T'Kengra it was all too plain.

***Bridge of the Klingon Bird of Prey T'Kengra***

As the Federation, Romulan and Hydran ships alike fought to the death, the T'Kengra soared through the carnage, cloaked; unseen and unheard they took their cargo of Remmans to safety. But it was not without a heavy heart.

Before them they saw the defiled ships and the lifeless corpses of their allies. Captain Qel hung his head in mourning for his comrades, as he too still felt the ties of their alliance from the Dominion war, and now, the shame of witnessing them die for the lives of Romulan toDSaH!

The bridge of the T'Kengra hushed; all eyes stared intently at the screen as the Federation flag ship, USS Galaxy, came into view. Her hull already battered and broken, was taking yet another pounding from not one but two Hydran vessels. They came up along side the Galaxy, flanking her bleeding hull. And without a thought to the lives of the good people within, as is with war, they fired a crippling volley.

***USS Galaxy, Deck 4; Flightdeak***

Suddenly, the battle reached the Galaxy. The grand old lady was hit by the enemies "Hellbore" cannons. Even with the reinforced double shield the Galaxy's defense systems were not able to totally compensate the Hellbore's effect. The last hit seemed to be a full hit. The supervisor lost balance, stumbled and fell. Without showing any emotions he stood up and arranged the name signs still hanging on the 'out' side if his board. Not any other member of the flight deck crew managed to remain as calm as the supervisor did. Swearwords were to be heard in at least eight different Starfleet languages!

Suddenly, the flight deck grew silent - deadly silence. Almost every pair of eyes turned towards the force field curtain. They simply stood there unable to say a word or even move. Two Hydran attack fighters approached the Galaxy on synchronous flight patterns. The ships were already were close enough to read there group signs (if there were any!).

The supervisor was the first who found back his consciousness.

"Close the hangar bay doors. Prepare for imp ..."

***Bridge of the Kligon Bird of Prey T'Kengra***

Qel flinched, although he would later deny that he did, as the energy from the attack lanced across the Galaxys shields emanating a blue glow before it disintegrated with a shroud of lightening style electrical sparks, crisscrossing over her aft and bow leaving the former defenseless. The last of the hellbore array discharged directly into the Galaxy's Secondary Hull, the duranimun pealed back like an old Terran tin can. Fragments broke off and spiraled into space, missing the T'Kengra by inches, the back-draft affecting its course by only a point of a degree.

And then the Galaxy lit up once more looking like a Christmas tree on ecstasy as the electoral surge cascaded throughout her systems. Explosions swept like wild fire across the ships hull from its aft to its bow.

"NOOOOO!"

A terror stricken voice filled the bridge of the T'Kengra with its anguish and pain.

"That's… my sister, my sister…!"

A small struggle ensued within the bridge of the T'Kengra but the voice was soon silenced and its weeping officer forcefully removed.

"Hull Breach!" Part Three

Lt. Ella Grey, Chief Engineer

Lt. Dhanishta Eshe, Assistant Chief of Engineering
Lt. (jg) Naranda Roswell, Engineer
Michael McDowell, Civilian Engineering Specialist
Tae'ben, General Engineer
Captain Qel – Klingon Bird of Prey T'kengra & officers

Turan Trelar, Quentite Ambassador and engineering trainee

& Other officers from the Hanger Bay

***USS Galaxy, Deck 36; Main Engineering***

It all seemed to happen in an instant. Like that moment between sleep and awake where you dream, yet are still aware of your surroundings. It could have been a minute or an hour or just the blink of an eye. Time slows down and the voices around you drone till it mingles with all that background noise and nothing but the beat of your heart is coherent.

"We are taking heavy hits along our aft shields."

The Galaxy rocked slightly as the pounding to its already weakening shields continued.

"Attempting to compensate."

Another hit rumbled through the Galaxy, consoles flickered under the power drain. With the increasing smoke and now the strobe lighting effect anyone could say that Main Engineering was having a party!

"We are losing them!"

But alas they weren't. 'Anywhere else but here' was no longer an optional game to even muse over as the transporters were knocked off line. Once more the vibrations flowed through the deck plating, rattling everything that wasn't pinned down, and anything that was pinned down worked its way loose.

"Transferring power from all non essential systems now!"

Nara tapped at her console, wide, alert eyes scanning the information. The adrenaline rushing through her veins and sheer concentration on keeping the ship alive kept her from feeling any injury she would had gotten from her earlier tumble or the sparks she vaguely saw out of the corner of her eye from the neighboring console.

Collectively the bridge crew and all that were currently alive in Main Engineering held their breath; the seconds ticked by like hours.

"It's not working….oh my g…! Aft shields are down! SHIELDS ARE DOWN!"

Eyes widened in their sockets, faces turned shades of purple to blue as the aft port shields crumbled.

Silence for a moment.

Before the storm.

The ship didn't rock, nor did it bounce like the bucking bronco. It did more than that. It shook, shuddered, jolted, rocked, tumbled maybe? Vibrated so much that Dhani swore the floor itself was about to open up and swallow her whole.

***USS Galaxy, Deck 5; Starboard Computer Core ***

For those occupying the Starboard Computer Core it was like a bomb detonated right then and there. The shock wave was overwhelming. Consoles blowing up everywhere, death cries of men and woman around him, and debris flying all over the place.

Michael was tossed backward out of his chair and hit the wall a moment later. His head snapped back like a little twig, made contact with the wall, and fell back again. He was more unconscious than conscious when he noticed part of a bulkhead come crashing down. In a split second, using only his instinct, he moved out of the way before it rammed into the wall.

When things settled a bit he scanned for people in his vicinity. The first body was only half a meter away. Michael pulled himself up and got on his knees with the intention to crawl to whoever it was that was lying there, motionless. But he didn't get far. When he placed his left hand on the floor an unbearable pain shot through his arm and he fell down right on his face. At that very moment all his thoughts focused on where the pain came from and nothing else mattered.

***USS Galaxy, Deck 4; Flightdeck***

The Galaxy not only rocked from the enemy's hits, there was a series of explosions together with the whining and cracking of overstretched metal. The hangar's lights flickered and went dark – so did the fighter bay's LCARs. The light came back a few seconds later but the LCARs remained dark.

"Power failure ..." reported the supervisor "... we lost contact to computer core. Bridge isn't responding." Pointing towards the half closed hangar bay doors he ordered "go ... fix that before our returning fighters are dashed to pieces."

***USS Galaxy, Deck 36; Main engineering***

The ship felt like it was about to tear in half or just explode there and then. The sound of ripping mettle filled the halls of the Galaxy, the ship itself seemed to cry out in pain, the walls themselves moaning and groaning under the strain of trying against an unbelievable force to stay together.

Inside Engineering several support beams crashed to the deck below. One by one like a Mexican wave the consoles shorted, spitting out sparks, smoke and debris. Several fires erupted from the aforementioned consoles. The warp core flickered and dimmed. Above, a panel burst open, a plasma fire erupting from within. The railings on the upper level came loose, letting an engineer fall, perhaps to his death.

Nara jumped back as her console sparked itself. No thoughts of death filled her mind. She knew fear; it gripped her as she knew it gripped everyone. Her worst fear was for Saia. But she couldn't think of that now. She had no make sure no one else had to face the fear of death.

Recovering from yet another hit, or was that one multiple? Dhanishta really could tell any more. She swallowed hard, tasting the metallic tinge of her own blood. After a few moments of relative silence the noise around her thickened, breaking through her muffled hearing, she could hear people shrieking, or maybe that was Ella's mechanical voice pitching (?). Blinking several times she realized that her head was resting on the edge of the pool table, the rest of her body was slumped over it. ~Not the first time this thing has broken my fall~ she mused pealing herself off the glass, every muscle and bone in her body cracked with the exertion.

Hastily she began to wipe the blood smear from the screen with her sleeve. "Chief?" Dhani called out, her voice hoarse and husky, "The emergency force-fields aren't holding on deck 11." The consol before her eyes shifted in and out of focus, the Chiefs voice lost in the numbing silence of shell shock.

"Power failures throughout decks 9 to 14." she shouted, "The relays must have been knocked off line." she guessed. For all Dhani knew she was talking to the wall, she couldn't hear the sound of her own voice let alone anyone else's.

Smacking her comm. badge, "Eshe to McDowell."

["McDowell....here."] Michael's voice died away a bit when he clenched his teeth. He had been able to get up again and was now sitting on the floor holding his left arm with his right hand. In doing so he kept it from bleeding too badly.

"Meet me on deck nine. Power relays have failed we need to get them back up. We have people down there damit!" she added smacking her fist down.

Picking up her tool kit Dhani slung it on her shoulder and made for the door. Either the floor was moving round a lot or boy was she drunk! Clutching on to the wall for support Dhani pushed against the urge to just lie down. "Ella?" she called out once she had finally reached the door, but whatever she had to say was lost as her body swung round the open door and rolled out into the corridor as the ship rocked violently once more.

Nara was making her way to another console when the ship rocked again. Having nothing to grab, she fell and hit the wall roughly, not able to deny the sharp pain in her shoulder from hitting the wall. But it soon went away as she picked herself up.

"Graveyard Shift"

Lt. Katara Elarin, ACMO/Hazard Three (USS Miranda)

**************************************************************

The voice called through the doorway from the cockpit. "Ma'am, were coming up on the combat site. We'll have visual in five."

Katara, who was busy making her final checks with the men and going over the gear, made her way up front. She looked through the view screen at the empty space outside and whispered a prayer she'd heard once. "Ancients, space is so big and my ship is so small. Let us find our way back to the light from the darkness of the void." She composed herself and took a breath. "Okay, what have we got?"

The ensign spoke while trying to keep his eyes on the controls. "Looks like what we expected. We've already passed some light debris but that's probably just been ejected from larger explosions. Hold on…getting something big on the scanner…I'll punch it up. The screen flickered into life and displayed the remains of a hulk, what appeared to be one of the carriers from the second fleet.

Katara had never really seen destruction on such a mass scale; she couldn't help but find parallels with the ship and a dead body. How it looked so still, so quiet. Little different from how it would normally but with stillness that something living just couldn't emulate.

"Another," said the helmsman, "and another. Jesus…it's like a ship graveyard. What the hell could have done this?"

Katara patted the man on the shoulder. "That's what we're here to find out." She stepped back through.

"Alright everyone listen up. We're about ten minutes out of the drop-zone so pay attention to what I'm saying. We are going to split down into sabres and…" Katara saw a sea of blank faces. "Sabres are teams of four…then we're going to search the smaller ships methodically and efficiently. The reason for this is that tactical believe the larger vessel will have been hit first to destroy the formation and integrity of the fleet, therefore, anything that will have been recorded will likely be on the ships that were mopped up afterwards."

She let this sink in before continuing. "Once that's done we will reform and examine the larger hulks. I know you've all heard the rumours about this space behemoth that supposed to have come through here so if you seen anything that looks unusual or out of place get some evidence. I'm not thinking space slime but if you do see it, get it."

A few smiles, always good. "Now, we may encounter scavengers; Hydrans or otherwise. We can't place warp signatures but it would be fair to assume that raiding parties will have been dropped off to be picked up later by their base ships. This will be to avoid the suspicion of vessels in the area. Just because you can't see them does not mean they are not there, so tread carefully.

"One final thing…some of these vessels have very low structural integrity. Be careful, no loud noises and don't fire your weapons unless you absolutely have to. The slightest thing could trigger a ship quake and bury you all.

"Our fighter will cover us and provided early warning systems against incoming ships. We're isolated from the fleet and maintaining a comms blackout so don't go geeting heroic because we are alone out here. If you get the warning, go silent and let the ships up here deal with it.

Okay?"

"Right, five minutes to drop off. Everyone get suited up…move."

"Psalm 27"

Lieutenant Colonel For'kel Arvelion- SFMC

Ensign Faylin McAlister-Galaxy JAG/Security

Planetside

---------------------------------------------------------------------

She watched him from the corner for a little bit, he appeared restless, but needed much rest. Sighing heavily with exhaustion herself, Faylin padded over to his cot, willing to offer some light conversation that was intended on helping him relax.

"Hey Fork." Her tone was gentle, almost motherish as she sat deeply in the cot opposite of him.

Th