USS Salvation – Bridge

Punch above her weight class. It was the first thing anyone said when talking about the weapons of the Rhode Island Class, and the USS Salvation was about to show everyone exactly why they said that.

“K’Lim, get ready with everything we have. Target the shield generators and power core of the station. In that order.” Dal’s soft voice cut through the red-light saturated tension of the bridge.

The half-Klingon weapons officer gave a single nod. She would never admit how much she enjoyed moments like this, but they always sang to her warrior soul. The station was a sitting duck, with the ducklings (or fanged ducklings) all pulled into a skirmish. “Yes, Sir.”

Defensive fire was already up, spitting beams of death that Jols had to avoid. To make the final push the Salvation punched impulse to clear the field and then took a half second surged to warp, dropping out within kissing distance of the station. Too close to effectively target with the defensive batteries, so close that everyone was prepared to run after they fired, lest they get caught in a backlash that would tear the Salvation apart.

“Fire!” the word was soft but commanding.

The Salvation glowed with holy fury. Torpedoes hit the shield generators from point blank range, rocking the Savlation with the aftershocks. Jols countered, rolling the Salvation hard to port, skimming the outside of the station as the station’s shields guttered, giving K’Lim the opportunity to lance in blast after blast of phaser fire like a surgeon with a laser scalpel.

Ibanez snapped his head up. “Power failures on Station decks twelve through thirty seven! Shields at 14%”

“One more pass.” Captain Dal was taking a calculated gamble that they could get one more round of concentrated phaser fire. “Mr. Jols, bring us hard to starboard and do another upward pass.”

Another calculated gamble. The station had more defensive batteries on the topside, but the quickly approaching Tholian fighters had far more targeting ability if they flew under the station, and the station would provide them cover by flying over.

The Salvations shields crackled and whined as one of the defensive batteries caught them in the saucer section.  “Shields holding at 64%”

“Let’s get this done quickly.” Both Dal’s antennae curled forward.

No one complained.

The Salvation cut the corners tightly, feeling the crackle, the pull of the station as K’Lim focused another barrage of torpedoes. And before their eyes, they saw the station’s shields gutter and fail. One perfect opportunity. K’Lim didn’t need to be told twice.

Filling the opening with lancets of orange phaser fire, they could see the green discharge of plasma and the bright well as the power center started to collapse. Power surged in the station and then failed.

The Salvation’s shields crackled and sparked. There was no time to admire their handiwork as the Tholians were upon them.  Pressing maximum impulse, the little ship rose from the ion cloud, spitting cover fire in return, before punching engines back to behind the lines of their allies.

In the background the station glowed with orange fire before it suddenly erupted in a massive blue explosion and corresponding shockwave. One of the Salvations phaser beams had penetrated through the station and impacted the Singularity Generator near the heart of the station. And it was still active, as a Tholian light cruiser had just entered the wormhole mere seconds before the operation kicked off.

Though no sounds are audible in space, the fast moving flat circular blue shockwave caused a massive reverberating sound inside all of the vessels it made contact with, sounding like a massive “Boioioioioing”.

The explosion was also filled with highly charged graviton particles that caused power generating system to be knocked out or heavily damaged, though the effect lessened the further a ship was from where the blast emanated from. The 2 Tholian Capital ships that were the closest to the station when it was destroyed were heavily damaged and had their warp core and main power knocked offline. 4 of Farraguts fighters and about a half dozen Tholian fighters were also caught by the effects of the shockwave and had their power knocked out. The Salvation and Farragut themselves were spared the worst of the effects and were only subjected to the loud noise, and a quick sharp shove due to the energetic particles rocking rocking their shields.

The meshweaver that the Blythe was pursuing from the engagement on the right was intercepted and destroyed by 2 of the Farragut’s still operational fighters and some well timed phaser beams Ingram unleashed.

The blue shockwave from the now atomized station then sliced past them, and in an instant, things got very quiet on the bridge of the Blythe and the battlefield in general.

“That shockwave was from the station sir, its gone…and the 2 Tholian ships near it appear to be adrift and powerless Sir.” Ingram reported.

Wong scanned his battle display and saw that 4 of the Farragut’s fighters also seemed to be adrift and powerless. “Helm set course 314 mark 4. Lets go help recover some of the flagships fighters.”

USS Farragut, Main Bridge

The blue flare of the station’s destruction faded from the viewscreen, leaving behind only the faint, ghostly shimmer of energized debris. For a moment, no one spoke.

“Status reports are coming in,” Kincaid said quietly. “Four of our fighters lost power, but recovery operations are beginning. Minimal casualties for us but we’ve yet to receive reports from the other ships.”

Ayres nodded, his eyes fixed on the blank stretch of space where the Tholian station had been. “Well, fuck. What comes next.” he repeated softly, a question phrased as a statement.

No-one answered him. The silence stretched until Aloran, sitting to Ayres’ right, spoke up. His voice was measured. “Signal our ships: mission accomplished. We are to return to the rally point at Rhontaka Two and begin recovery. Inform Starfleet Command that the situation has been contained but the final outcome is still to be determined.”

Ayres turned slightly, studying his first officer. “Contained,” he said. “That’s one way to put it.”

“The Tholian research has been neutralised. Their forces on border have been…contained. The Sheliak have withdrawn. By every operational metric, the mission was successful.”

“But?”

Aloran’s eyes shifted to the stars on the viewer. “But success does not always equate to peace. There will be questions. About the wormhole, about who fired first, about which side of the border what actions occurred.”

Ayres gave a low sigh, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. “Something about diplomacy and carrying a big stick?”

“Indeed,” Aloran replied. “We have won the battle. And I believe that probability is on our side that we have not started a war.”

The captain glanced back toward the tactical display. The icons of their ships were slowly converging on the rendezvous point. “Send it, commander,” he said finally. “The codeword.”

Aloran gave a single nod. “Understood.”

He turned toward the comms station, his voice steady. “To all Starfleet vessels, this is Commander Aloran aboard Farragut. Mission accomplished. KOZLOV. I say again, Kozlov. Secure from battle stations and begin recovery operations.” The mission accomplished codeword word was specifically chosen. It struck a chord with everything Starfleet officer aboard every ship. Indeed, in the finest traditions of the service, the little flotilla had avenged their fallen comrades.

The words echoed through the ship and across subspace.

When the channel closed, the bridge fell quiet once more. The hum of the systems returned, the steady rhythm of a ship exhaling after tension.

“Michael,” Aloran asked softly, his voice a murmur to avoid the bridge crew listening in, “Does one ever become comfortable with the silence that follows battle?”

Ayres thought for a long moment. Then he glanced toward Aloran.

“No,” Ayres said finally.

The Admirals Epilogue

Grishak, the Tholian leader thought he still had 2 days before the station crossed the border and had planned to try and send ships through to his beachhead in Sheliak space until the last minute. It wasn’t that the Tholians hadn’t updated their maps because they didn’t know they should. Their command hadnt updated them, because not updating had been an avantage for them, granting them a few dozen square light years of extra space when applied to the whole border. It would prove to be a pivotal error that would cost him the station, the research, his now decimated fleet stuck behind enemy lines, and indeed, his life.

In the final skirmish between the Sheliak, who were making their last gasp push to the station, Grishak had taken his Flagship with the bulk of his forces to fend off the Sheliak. He had only left 7 ships to defend the station making for easy pickings on the lightly shielded station.

Grashak would live just long enough to hear that the station had been destroyed. The Sheliak had noticed he and his Flagship had sallied forth to meet them and the Sheliak focused their attacks on his large cruiser. A few seconds after learning his ‘ace in the hole’ was space dust his vessel was destroyed by a Sheliak ship that intentionally rammed his Flagship.

The Starfleet vessels, following their plan, quickly recovered their downed fighters and withdrew back to their rally point at the L4 lagrange point behind the gas giant Rhontaka 2 roughly 7 AUs away. As they did so, they did pick up signs of what would turn out to be a formation of Tholian ships entering the system from their side of the border.