((USS Culver City, Bridge))

As the minutes ticked down towards go time, the bridge of the Culver City carried an undercurrent of electricity.  As LCDR K’lev looked around, he could see that the rest of his team – with the exception of Chief Bong, nothing truly rattled that man – were nervous, but also eager to get moving after weeks of mostly-quiet patrolling.  He sat in his command chair, periodically glancing at the screen on his armrest display as a discreet clock counted down, trying to hide his own nerves; it likely wouldn’t do for him to pace anxiously or some such.

As the timer ticked down to 5 minutes, K’lev activated intercom channels to engineering, the cargo bay, and sickbay, then spoke to both his bridge crew and those listening in.  “Okay everyone, it’s about that time; sound off if your section’s ready to go. Ophelia?”

Lotharys nodded.  “Sensors online, and eyes peeled!”

“Ari?”

“What’s the heading?” Phillips asked by way of an answer.

“Tyrisa?”

“Weapons and shields are good,” sh’Livo said, a tinge of anxiety on her face.

“Chief?”

“All crew are at stations, sir,” Bong replied.

“Pelix?”

The chief engineer’s voice came over the intercom.  “Engines are set, and we’ve got full power available,” he said.

“Tiza?”

“Cargo bays are cleared as they can be, resources distributed, and a backup triage is set up in shuttlebay 1 if Hilava needs it,” came the quartermaster’s answer over the bridge speaker.

“Hilava and Teles?”

“We’re as ready as we can be,” Hilava said, answering for both.  “Teles is in the shuttlebay, checking out the backup triage, but he told me it looks good, too.”

K’lev nodded once more.  “Thank you all,” he said, then closed the intercom.  His eyes then shifted to Bong.  “Chief, got one more thing for you; it may sound weird, but I need you to trust me on this one.  I need you to notify anyone in a non-essential section to evac now.  Give them a couple of minutes to get out, then sound decompression alarms in those sections for thirty seconds; after that, seal those sections, pump out their atmosphere and secure their life support and gravity systems, then reroute that power to shields and the structural integrity field.”

“Not strange at all sir. Prudent damage and casualty mitigation strategy sir…orders sent.” He said after typing in the commands at his console.

With all possibilities he could think of covered, and the crew and sections all standing by, K’lev sent a pre-drafted text message to Farragut.  It read, simply: ‘Culver City is ready to go’.

At 1055h, as planned the 3 runabouts all made a hard right hand turn and began streaking towards the Culver City. The Blythe began creeping forward at 1/8th impulse, and the game was a foot.

The probes the CC had deployed and the movements of the runabouts were successful in baiting 3 meshweavers away from the Tholian station’s defensive screen.

Culver City began to move, accelerating to full impulse and falling in with the runabouts as the meshweavers came in at them.  The formation of three Tholian ships came in straight at the larger California-class vessel, causing Phillips to swerve to starboard to avoid a collision.  The three runabouts then split and began to engage the meshweavers in individual dogfights, while Culver City herself bore around to provide fire support to the smaller Starfleet ships.  She could not fire often, for fear of hitting a jinking runabout, but contributed a phaser blast or torpedo when a window of opportunity opened.  Likewise, she also did not take but a scant pair of hits during this time; the runabouts were doing an excellent job keeping the meshweavers away from her.

The furrball of runabouts and meshweavers danced about for several seconds before a meshweaver veered away from its target and created a two on one against the unlucky Spallumcheen. A pair of tetryon beams and a lucky torpedo hit spelled the end for the old runabout and its 3 young crew members. The vessel erupted in a orange fireball which sent both of its little nacelles spinning away in random directions. The quicker and more capable runabout from the Farragut would partially even the score a few seconds later firing several phaser salvos and a micro photon torpedo into the engine of one of the meshweavers, momentarily disabling it. The other 2 remaining meshweavers then began to focus on it.

With one of the runabouts now destroyed and another damaged, on the bridge of the Culver City K’lev looked to Bong.  “Tell the remaining runabouts to get back; let’s not lose another if we can avoid it.”  He then turned to sh’Livo at tactical.  “Your turn now, Tyrisa; you got this.”

“Issuing the recall order to the runabouts now sir.” Bong he said it crisply. Internally Bong was pissed at himself, they should have pulled the runabouts back right away when the meshweavers charged, but the runabouts were to act on their own recognizance up until the CC issued the recall order. So the self doubt would have to wait.

With her firing lines now clear, it was time for Culver City to do her part.  Phillips did their best to keep the ship moving, but the meshweavers held a definite maneuverability advantage over the larger starship, and kept swarming in from various angles instead of coming in together from one direction.  At first, sh’Livo attempted to keep all of them under fire, but K’lev had other thoughts.  “Let’s focus on one at a time, Tyrisa,” he said.  “We keep picking on them all at once, we won’t do much to any of them.”  He turned to Phillips at the helm.  “Get us in behind one of the meshweavers as best you can, Ari.”

USS Salvation, Bridge

No one ever said that dogfights were their favorite things, But Lieutenant Jols would never disparage them, either.  The lanky Bolian heeded the calm words of his captain and the Salvation flared into action.

Their job wasn’t to fight. Nor to flee, but to dance between the skirmishers  until they were ready to strike. Skirting the edges of Federation territory, the Salvation’s engines flared, weaving between two Tholian fighters as her shields glowed.  Dropping down to half impulse, just before a photo torpedo from an ally(an errant unguided micro torp from one of the Farraguts fighters) impacted against the side of the hull, it was back to full again as the Salvation streamed through the ionic explosion with contrails of orange highlighting their impulse drive.

Evasive maneuvers dipped the Salvation down, skirting in the underbelly of two Tholian fights and then up again, skimming just close enough to take a pot shot at the ship that was harassing the Farragut. Captain Dal wished they could linger and provide more support, but he knew their role was to strike – and strike they would.

The Salvation kept moving forward, pushing top speed to get to the target. The sooner the Salvation could complete the task, the sooner they could disengage. Speed would save lives.

So speed it was.

Blythe, Bridge

Wong was watching the battlemap on his holodisplay. The Farragut, its fighters, and the Salvation looked alright. The runabouts and the CC were merged with the 3 meshweavers, and then he saw one of the transponders from one of the runabouts wink out. It was now 3 on 3 on the right, and 2 of the Starfleet vessels with runabouts that were less then a match for the newer model meshweavers they were tangled with.

“Helm, set course for the Culver City‘s location full impulse, punch it.” Wong said.

“Ingram, send a signal to the Flagship, inform them we are moving to support the right wing.” Tyler added.