Into the fray

Posted on Mon Nov 27th, 2017 @ 11:25am by Rear Admiral Tim Goddard & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Lieutenant Commander Alec Wescott & Lieutenant Odelle Lin & Lieutenant JG Scotty Kayne & Ensign Courtney Baxter

Mission: When the Sinful strike back
Location: The Frontier, System 365-7

Victory had done her part of the battle, she diverted the attention away from Cordale and his Ships so they could land, Cuprum and his Squadron were dead in the water and the Jennarri were launching a counter attack designed to split the Fleet into two.

Elijah had the Ship return to the bulk of the fighting and assist her Fleet in halting the Jennarri. "Damage report if you'll please Ensign."

"Decks 18, 19 and 20 have all been evacuated, we have sustained minor damage to the secondary hull." Baxter commented.

"Evasive manouvers Pattern Sierra four." Elijah said. "Find me a target Odelle, ideally something that is causing a problem for the Fleet."

"Pattern Sierra four confirmed" Scotty told him "Executing now."

"I've got a Jennari Cruiser that's holding our advance back just of the port side." Lin said. "Sending target coordinates now."

The Ship rocked from an impact. Elijah clutched at the arms of his chair, some days he thought that maybe Starfleet should invest in seat belts. "Scotty how quickly can you pull off a type six maneuver?"

"I'll need some extra power to the impulse engines, but it shouldn't take any longer than 20 seconds." Kayne said. "Kayne to engineering, I need a 70 percent increase in power to the impulse engines."

"Engineering here, we may blow out several EPS relays, but we should be able to bypass them and give you your power, lieutenant."

"Acknowledged, Kayne out. As soon as that power is transferred, I'll be able to pull it off, Captain."

"Alright, Tactical switch Phaser control to my Chair. Elijah said inputting his access code. "Once Helm executes the manouver I'll manually fire Phasers, Alec I'll need you to focus the Quantum Launchers yourself."

"Already on it boss!" Alec said, taking control of the Quantum Torpedoes from the console in the arm of the XO's chair.

"The Jenarri command ship is directing her attention to the fighter wings. The tactic seems to be working, but their own fighters are taking their toll. We have thirteen ships without power, four more with heavy damage, "Opps reported. "Sir, I don't think we can win this."

"Captain, I'm picking up some kind of distortion field nearby... If we can lure them close enough, it might be enough to weaken a few of their ships and cripple them." Lin replied.

"Worth a shot, alright make it so." Elijah said as he relayed orders to the Bridge Crew, all around them the lighting flickered and sparks flew. "Take us as close as you can to that distortion field, we'll do a fire and move tactic."

Alec nodded, taking the momentary lull from the battle to check on the things around him. The bridge had become a haze of smoke, and a few fires were raging, one very close to his chair. He stood quickly from his seat and grabbed one of the extinguishers. He swiftly put out the flames before looking around. "Get those fires out, quickly, while we're moving into position!" He ordered, chucking his extinguisher to the Tactical Officer. "Lets do this." He said, retaking his seat.

"Power transferred, ready to execute maneuver on your command, sir." Scotty said.

"Do it!" Elijah ordered.

"If this is to be the end of Victory then I plan to make sure I take that Command SHip with us." He said nodding to Alec.

"All or nothing boss, lets get this done!" He said, reloading the torpedoes, so he had a full salvo ready to go.

Victory was positioning herself to take a majority of the Jennarri fleet with them, the Starfleet Ships were holding their own for the moment but it wouldn't last long. The Sovereign Class Starship was moving at full impulse to the distortion zone.

"I count at least six Ships on our tail, they've broken away from the main battle." Baxter said as she monitored from Ops. "Looks like you pissed them off Captain."

"Lin how long until we reach the Distortion field?" He asked before firing phasers to harass the Ships.

"Approximately 5 minutes, sir." Lin replied.

"The... Sir, the distortion. It's a Ship!"

As they watched the ship resolved into a Federation starship.

"USS Cosmos," Ops provided. "One minute she wasn't there, and they she was. I am reading a massive Chroniton wake."

"Locking Phasers on the Cosmos." Elijah commented as he manually targeted. "USS Cosmos is residing in a Shipyard, that is not the Cosmos but an optical illusion designed to distract us."

"Power spike! She's firing forward... erm... Sorry, sir. I read her forward Torpedoe's firing, but... nothing came out..."

There was a sudden shift in the battle. The Jenarri's main battle ship lit up from the inside. Detonations simultaneously tore through the bridge, Engineering, Fuel storage, power batteries. There was a moment of stillness then the ship cracked and erupted like a hydrogen balloon.

The effect on the pursuing ships was instant. They broke of from the pursuit of the Victory to return to the crippled command ship, unable to find what had caused the devastation. Fighter craft, deprived of the command, now broke into smaller units, unable to coordinate on a target. The mid sized ships, struggled to respond. some stood still, others accelerated clear of the fight looking for a new vantage to understand what had just happened.

"We are being hailed by the Cosmos."

Elijah got up from his chair and stood looking at the view screen. “On Screen, but maintain a constant weapons lock on that Ship at the nearest sign of hostile intent towards us open fire....”

The screen resolved to the face of Gates. He was not wearing an admiral's uniform, but there was no mistaking the face or the tone of voice, "You are pointing your weapons in the wrong direction, Captain."

Elijah didn't respond to Gates he had Tactical maintain a weapons lock. "Maintain course."

"We need your ships to engage tractor beams on the larger of the vessels. If you can get them to remain stationary for 90 seconds we have a weapon the will eliminate them. But they will be less likely to stay put the more we remove."

A voice behind called out, "Phase Torpedo solution ready."

"Fire!" gates called.

Again the power spike and flash from the Cosmos' forward launchers. Again nothing appeared to come out. Again a Jenarri cruiser lit up from the inside and erupted.

With a look of surprise the Captain then turned to Ops. "Baxter, report?"

"No damage to the Victory, Sir, but the Jennarri Ship is dead in the water and our pursuers are breaking off and returning to the Main engagement." She commented.

"Alright, Gates, you've peaked my curiosity. What the bloody hell is going on?" Elijah asked.

"We debrief after the battle," Gates replied. "For now, get as many of your ships as can operate a half decent tractor beam to try and hold those ships still. We need them to maintain relevant position for 90 seconds for our weapon to be effective. Don't waste it on the little ships, and if they are fleeing battle let them go."

"Why should I trust you?" Elijah asked him. "Last time you nearly killed me and my crew."

"Because I want the Jenarri stopped even more than you," Gates barked. "Check with Goddard if you must, it was his idea, but every delay you takes costs people lives."

"This isn't over." Elijah commented as the Channel closed. "Alright bring us about and head towards the Fleet, recalibrate the tractor beam emitters."

"Aye, sir, changing course, recalibrating the emitters." Scotty relayed

"XO I want the message about the Tractor Beam relayed to every Ship in the fleet that can still operate one." He said motioning to Alec.

"Aye sir." Alec said, tapping a command into his arm console. "Victory to the fleet - orders from Admiral Gates - target enemy ships with tractor beams and hold them in position. Victory out." He said, closing the comm channel and awaiting acknowledgment.

"Lin I know you far too well." He said looking at his Science Officer. "Sift through the data on whatever happened to that Ship."

There was a nod from science as the team got to work.

"Bridge to Engineering, how is the Warp Core holding up?"

"Minor damage but it'll hold up Sir." The Engineer in Charge commented.

Victory began to examine the progress. "Find me a target and then engage Tractor Beam once they are in range." The Sovereign Class and the Galaxy Class that followed behind it were soon within range.

In the chaos of battle, there were Ships very much in the fight and Federation losses were surprisingly light. The Fleet regrouped and began to follow their orders and soon a sea of tractor beams began to lock smaller Jennarri Ships in place.

The tide was turning and the advantage went to the Federation.