S2E9 Overlord

[Lek]

The fight had begun in earnest, as the Challenger raced toward the targets. The boarding team deposited, the Challenger had turned to come to the aid of the other two ships of the task group, weapons glowing hot with energy as she approached. Information came in at what seemed to be a snail's pace - the ships were identified and Dylan nodded to the petty officer who suggested the targeting of the Zhukov. "Target their cruiser, all weapons batteries to salvo fire," he ordered. Salvo fire was a direction to the gun crews to all fire simultaneously at a single target - if they were lucky, the sheer force of the assault could cripple a ship.

Moments later the Challenger joined the fray, sailing between the stricken Revere and the Zhukov. It had not been pretty. No ship was holding much back as the rebel gunners correctly identified the Challenger as the Command and Control ship, and as the biggest threat. A salvo of torpedo fire impacted the shields, as the Challenger returned the favor. A call from Engineering came in.

Dylan shook his head as he replied. I can't do that Mr. Lek. I need those shields now, divert power from life support if you have to. Bridge out, he said as another round of phaser fire hit the ship.  Explosions rocked the battered ship, and the acrid taste of smoke filled the air as the Challenger and her two escort ships were pummeled by firepower from three superior warships, the burnt-orange of phaser fire strafing across and down patchy shield grids and ablative armor, melting away hull plating on both ships as they passed by each other, slowly passing at quarter-impulse by each other like broadside barrages of olden sailing ships. The ships streaked smoke, plasma, atmosphere, and flame behind them as these dreadnoughts of the stars traded haymakers, and the squeal of metal and blaring of alarm klaxons filled the ships. Automated internal transporters had evacuated the main bridge when it had been rocked by torpedo barrages, and now the ship was commanded from the Battle Bridge buried deep within the core of the ship. Damage control teams all across both ships were working feverishly to keep the weapons and defensive batteries alive. And yet, both ships were pulling their punches just so slightly. Neither ship's medical wards had been targeted, as medical crews worked to save those they could and ease those they could not.

[Engineering]

Lek coughed as the acrid smell of overloading circuits began to exceed the ability of the life support system to clear. Hearing the expected impossible orders from the captain and knowing the power from life support wouldn't be enough, Lek knew there was only way to meet those orders and he shouted to the engineering staff.

"Breather masks now!"

Before he pulled his own mask on, he called out to Gianetti.

"Bring the secondary core online! I will balance the primary flow, you have the secondary! Put every ounce of power you can generate into shields!"

As the two engineers worked feverishly to keep the power flow from shorting out the plasma conduits and ODN lines, on the sensors of the ships under Layton's control registered the shields of the Challenger not only fully regenerate, but double in strength. Once he felt the ship wouldn't implode, Lek tapped his commbadge.

"Whatever you are going to do sir, you have ten minutes to do it. I cannot hold this power level for longer without a warp core breach!"

Lek returned to regulating the power flow and hoped the captain would believe him because he wasn't exaggerating or indulging in 'engineering' math. The two cores had the capacity to stay online for longer, but the power relay system could not handle the overload for longer.

"Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, please let the captain figure this out in time." He murmured as he watched the ten minute timer count inexorably downward.

[Mondo'li Nari]

USS Challenger - Bridge

The ship shuddered, its rocking motion threatening to knock the tall Hupyrian off of his feet.  He used one hand to brace himself against the bulkhead while the fingers of the other hand stabbed at the tactical console with frenzies of motion.  The Captain's request for Salvo fire called for massive weapon strikes to be dealt in unison, to overwhelm enemy defenses.  The Challenger hammered the Zhukov like an angry storm-god, raining down all the fury of the heavens with each horrific blow.

The Zhukov trembled and cracked under the Challenger's ire.  She suffered as any older vessel might when confronted with state-of-the-art weapons systems.  Her return fire became weaker and weaker as the Challenger continued to rock her.  Soon, her shields were down.  Her hull was leaking plasma and atmosphere from a dozen places.  The Zhukov's weapons systems began to falter and fail.  She was a crippled lion, her teeth and claws housed in broken arms and shattered jaws.

And yet, there was more in the old lion than met the eye.

"Boarding pods, Sir, penetrating the Main Shuttlebay.   Recommend evacuating our shuttlebay of all ship's personnel and remote-detonating one of our workbees.  The blast won't be powerful enough to do serious damage to the bay itself, but should be more than enough to shatter the bodies of the boarders as they set out on their boarding action."

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Engineering]

"Whatever you are going to do sir, you have ten minutes to do it. I cannot hold this power level for longer without a warp core breach!"

Battle Bridge

Lizzie heard Lek's call and gave a nod as it matched what she was seeing from the engineering readout.

"I agree Captain. The Challenger can't take much more of this. We need to take them down hard and fast!"

USS Challenger - Bridge

"Boarding pods, Sir, penetrating the Main Shuttlebay.   Recommend evacuating our shuttlebay of all ship's personnel and remote-detonating one of our workbees.  The blast won't be powerful enough to do serious damage to the bay itself, but should be more than enough to shatter the bodies of the boarders as they set out on their boarding action."

Lizzie had a better idea. As soon as Mondo had reported the threat and without waiting for an order, she immediately sealed the main shuttlebay. Looking at the readouts, she confirmed that there were no ship personnel there as almost all were assisting with the boarding action. Her next action was to use her medical override to drop the shuttlebay containment field. This caused substantial negative pressure that forced anything not locked down, including several pieces of equipment, to be blown out into space.

"Taken care of Mr Nari." She said in a clear, emotionless tone. "We got lucky as there was none of our crew in the shuttlebays at the time. Once all the hostiles are confirmed gone, I will seal the shuttlebays up to make it harder next time."

As she spoke she monitored the decompression cycle and saw that all the boarders, in addition to several of their craft, were floating in space. She then sealed the bays up, but did not restore the atmosphere. She then locked down the exits and overrode the local controls to prevent override. They had too many issues facing them without someone trying to sneak on board.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Enemy Starbase]

[Boarding Party]

The hiss of gas was heard as a small, whispy substance began to flood the compartment - standard anti-intruder protocols.

Lahr had just closed the comm when he heard the all too familiar hiss of a gas being released.  Hmph, took the station a lot longer to initiate the protocol than he'd have thought.  Lahr gave out two shrill whistles - then signaled those that were looking towards him now to don their gas masks.  He signaled using hand gestures rather than speaking to avoid inhaling any more of the gas.  Because this had been a planned boarding everyone of the Boarding Team had been issued, not the small portable rebreathers - those were for unplanned gassing's and attacks, but actual gas masks.

The benefit to having a gas mask compared to a rebreathers... was the ability to speak without compromising yourself.

Then because it was possible some of his team had been affected somewhat by the gas prior to his hearing the hiss, Lahr ordered his team to take an epinephrine hypospray shot to ensure they remained awake and alert.  Jengas, the team's main medic had just finished putting on his own mask and was in the process of assisting Helga with hers.  Lahr was amazed the woman was still conscious.

"Epinephrine Hypo is in center pocket - set it to 0.5 ml." the Efrosian medic's voice was muffled because of the mask.

"Stull." Lahr assigned the task to Jengas' partner.  Stull acknowledged the order and applied the hypo first to himself and then to Lahr, before moving on the the rest of the team one at a time.

"Enemy contact!" zh'Tianihr interrupted. Her words were followed by immediately phaser fire.

At just about that same time Lahr received a message over his ear-bud.  It was the reactor team calling for support.  The Andorian grimaced.  Some times he really hated his job.  This was one of those times.

Lahr pressed on the earbud to reply back "Boarding team Five Charlie - orders acknowledged. Leaving behind two under fire, repeat two under fire in corridor 352-17a to maintain secure position,".

He then tapped Burke and Gnarld who were guarding their backs and indicated that they were now on point. "Back to the access hatch.  The team is going down a level to assist the reactor team.  zh'Tianihr, M'lenda, you'll have to hold them off  on your own."  Phaser fire struck the edge of the corner which the women were using as cover and a rain of debris fell around them.  Lahr frowned, it seemed the enemy had decided stun wasn't good enough anymore.

Still, despite this revelation his words were met with a chorus of "yes sir" except for Jengas.. who looked up at Lahr  through his mask and shook his head. "She's not stable, sir.  I leave now.  She could die."

"Today's just as good a day to die as any other." Helga commented weakly, hands pushing at Jengas to get him to leave her.

Lahr snorted.  "Not when I'm leading." he groused back, then looked to Jengas.  "You got 3 minutes.  Stabilize her. It doesn't have to be pretty, just keep her alive, then double time it to catch up with us. If anyone asks you were unconscious when I gave the order to leave."

Jengas nodded in relief "Yes sir, unconscious." then he turned back to continue working on the worst of Helga's wounds.

Lahr and the other four set off back to the access hatch.  The last thing Lahr heard from Helga before he got out of earshot was "Ha, I knew he was soft on me!"

[Malik Grippen]

[USS Challenger, Battle Bridge - Helm]

The boarding pods had been ruthlessly dealt with by the executive officer, had Malik time to think on anything other than his job, he'd have thought her move to be callous and unbefitting of a Starfleet officer. But this was war and war was grim. The Zhukov was almost done, another strafing run ought to finish her off. Grippen brought the re-shielded Challenger around in a swooping turn to enable their forward torpedo launchers and phaser banks to get on target, and for Mr Nari to unleash hell.

The Challenger still handed beautifully, despite the damage she had sustained, a testament to Starfleet engineering. The bow slowly swung round and the ailing Zhukov came into the forward firing arc. Malik said a silent prayer to those aboard her, who were about to meet the cold vacuum of the infinite abyss.

[Declan Vincent]

[Engineering]

Lek coughed as the acrid smell of overloading circuits began to exceed the ability of the life support system to clear. Hearing the expected impossible orders from the captain and knowing the power from life support wouldn't be enough, Lek knew there was only way to meet those orders and he shouted to the engineering staff.

"Breather masks now!"

Before he pulled his own mask on, he called out to Gianetti.

"Bring the secondary core online! I will balance the primary flow, you have the secondary! Put every ounce of power you can generate into shields!"

As the two engineers worked feverishly to keep the power flow from shorting out the plasma conduits and ODN lines, on the sensors of the ships under Layton's control registered the shields of the Challenger not only fully regenerate, but double in strength. Once he felt the ship wouldn't implode, Lek tapped his commbadge.

"Whatever you are going to do sir, you have ten minutes to do it. I cannot hold this power level for longer without a warp core breach!"

Lek returned to regulating the power flow and hoped the captain would believe him because he wasn't exaggerating or indulging in 'engineering' math. The two cores had the capacity to stay online for longer, but the power relay system could not handle the overload for longer.

"Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, please let the captain figure this out in time." He murmured as he watched the ten minute timer count inexorably downward.

[Engineering]

After spending the past few months -out of sector- on Starbase 495, Declan was again feeling deck plating under his feet. He had only rendezvous with the Challenger at DS9, just barely, since his ride to the station was less than spectacular when it came to keeping a schedule. Had he been late, for his newest assignment, he wasn't sure a dozen Vulcans spouting logic in his defense would have achieved the desired affect.

He had little time to acclimate to this Trailblazer class cruiser when his new boss ordered the Engineering staff to check and/or repair plasma conduits throughout the ship. That had kept him fairly busy and a chance to rub elbows with the other engineers. Oddly, none gave him any advice concerning Chief Engineer Lek. Since the Chief was a Ferengi, he could only make rather stereotypical assumptions of what to expect. He was sure that it would be sooner than later that he would eventually come face to face with the Lieutenant and see what kind of leadership style he was in for while aboard.

Leyton's rebellion was whispers and rumors on DS9 and Declan was in such a rush that anything more concrete was not possible. As the fleet engaged the enemy, that rebellion became front and center. He still didn't have time to contemplate the geopolitical manifesto of this latest rogue admiral since the ship was taking on damage and his comrades, the entire Engineering Department as it would seem, was dealing with an assortment of dire concerns. As some were sent to deal with a couple of hull breaches, he was shanghaied by Gianetti to monitor the second warp core. Maybe what saved Declan, the Engine Room's resident newb, was that he was to old to be a wet behind the ears trainee that Gianetti be forced to nursemaid during what was very clearly a combat do or die situation.

Declan watched the monitors, ready to adjust any of the settings and prayed the core, the ship and everyone on board made it through it all .

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Enemy Starbase - Corridor 352-17]

As Burke and Skarggarg led the way back, Lahr heard over his ear-bud another team, Freeman's, also confirming their assistance and could see ahead of them at the far end of the corridor him gathering together those not needed to defend the corridor's position.

The response back from the reactor team over his ear-bud was to 'hurry.' "We're pinned down just outside the reactor room.  Check the station schematics to see if flanking them is at all possible."

Lahr turned to Stull knowing the Vulcan had an almost eidetic memory.  "You looked over the station schematics for this and the lower levels right?"

Stull nodded. "Yes. I did"

"Good.  I need an alternative route down and into that reactor room.  Alpha-Five is pinned just outside it and we're not gonna accomplish our goal unless we clear that room.  Gimme what you got... ventilation, sub-floors... whatever. Hell get me to a back wall and we can blast our way through.  He knew the last was far-fetched and more than a little dangerous given the fusion reactor just on the other side of the wall that he'd casually commented on blowing open.

There was no facial reaction from the Vulcan at his request or his suggestions - the man just seemed to pause, thinking.

"There is a sub-floor though I believe it was not considered because of how tight the space is. Over 3/4 quarters of our personnel would not fit... also that section is where the spent reactor material is stored until it can be recycled.  Local radiation levels would be dangerous for an prolonged period of time."

'Just great',  Lahr silently groused.  "Would any of our team or Freeman's team fit?"  Stull looked ahead to the approaching boarding team.

"It's possible that you and Crewman Laida Nishki, could fit." the Vulcan stated after a moment.

Lahr grimaced at what the Vulcan was really saying - that Lahr had the physique and flexibility of a female Orion without the obvious endowments.  Life was so not fair to him.  Hell, even zh'Tianihr was buffer than he... which was why she didn't look twice at him as a possible mate.

He was surprised that Stull hadn't suggested M'lenda.  He would have thought the Caitian would be perfect in a tight spot but maybe the Vulcan had only considered those not already tasked with a duty.

"Alright describe to me the route and where we need to come out to get behind them...then you lead the rest of our team down to assist."  As he said this he waved Freeman over as the other petty officer and his team arrived at the accessway.  Together they came up with a plan. 

[Mondo'li Nari]

USS Challenger - Bridge

Mondo's fellow Petty Officer at the helm was doing a brilliant job directing the ship into ideal firing arcs.  It made Mondo's job at tactical much easier.  Continuing the volley fire method, he concentrated a blast from both saucer arrays at the Zhukov, slicing deeply into her impulse drive.  There was a bright flash as the drive detonated, shredding much of the Zhukov's saucer and sending shrapnel into both of her nacelles.  The bright blue light faded away as the ship lost all but emergency battery power.

The Zhukov was out of the fight, and most likely would never fly for the rebel Admiral again.

It was a much-needed moment of triumph.  Elsewhere, things were hard-going for the task force.

Mondo had taken out the last of the asteroid-mounted defense installations with the secondary phaser banks, so the constant peppering of micro-torps had finally come to an end.  But the USS Revere was a barely-flying wreck of a ship, still getting nibbled by fighters.  Her saucer was pitted, burnt, and crackling with energy leaking from her EPS network.

Meanwhile, the Stalwart was still trading blows with the imposing USS Legacy.  She was giving as good as she got, but she had only a fraction of the mass of the larger ship.  Every blow she took damaged a larger proportion of her frame than the blows she delivered upon her adversary.   Although she still pounded away with her pulse-cannons, she was a bruised, scarred, burning thing.

"Sir.  The Zhukov is finished.  I now recommend the Revere be ordered to retreat.  She's not worth anything in this fight any more, and those fighters are about to finish her.  Recommend engaging the fighters to cover her escape."

He said nothing for the USS Stalwart.  With the Revere mostly crippled, there were only two ships left.  Though the Stalwart might also be told to withdraw in an ideal world, there was nothing about the current engagement which was ideal.  The Defiant class ship would have to endure a while longer.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Enemy Starbase - Jeffries tube 352-3-17]

Freeman's medic gave Lahr and Crewman Nishki a shot of hyronalin to help combat the radiation levels they were likely to encounter.  Then the teams entered the assess hatch... they climbed down and soon heard the sound of phaser fire from the deck they were approaching... At reaching Deck 353, Burke and Skarggarg who were in the lead exited the access way to join the phaser fray, Stull who was next in line stopped to lift a floor panel inside the jefferies tube and shone his the light at the side of his phaser rifle down into a narrow subfloor in which ran several pipes...the space between the shaft floor and the pipes above couldn't be more than maybe 50 cm - he'd be lucky if it was that.  This was where he and Nishki split off.

Lahr's antennae drooped around his mask, but he nodded.  He carefully slid in the narrow area, arms and head first, holding tight to his gas mask as his entry into the narrow subfloor risked scraping it off against the piping.  Lahr then belly crawled back enough to reach a hand up through the opening for his rifle - handed to him by Stull before setting off again at a very tight crawl down along the path Stull had described to him. Because there were no lights in this section, Lahr had the flashlight of his rifle on and pointed along the route he was crawling.  He paused about 3 meters ahead and waited for the Orion Crewman, Nishki, to also slide in.  Soon the pair were moving again along the subfloor towards the reactor room with Lahr in the lead.

It was 50 m  along this shaft then turn right at the intersection followed by another 30m... that should get them into the reactor room. The last 30m was the most dangerous because that was the section in which the spent wastage material was pumped to and stored before proper radioactive disposal. Normal access routes avoided that section and were shielded against the radiation but their route had them crawling right past it.

Neither spoke.  Lahr could occasionally hear explosions and the muffled sound of phaser fire filtering down through the deck plating above.  And more than once his antennae brushed against pipes and came away feeling soiled. Ugh.. the subfloors were obviously not regularly maintained. Or maybe it was just this one.

After a few minutes of crawling Lahr reached the intersection and called in his progress over the ear-bud, maybe the extra bodies had made the difference and they wouldn't be needed to continue any further.

ch'Verret to Freeman. We've reached the intersection. Give me good news.  Tell me I don't have to do this - that you broke through and are just mopping up the last of Leyton's cronies.

You wish. Sorry my friend.  You're our best hope.  Pretty sad, huh?

It was sad alright.  Lahr glanced down the tunnel behind him as he turned the corner and could see that Nishki's hair and forehead were smudged with dust and sludge from the pipes.  He had signaled for Nishki to hold back and wait for his all clear signal.

Lahr figured it might take some time for him to get into a position where he was able to unseal the floor panel from the opposite side.  There was no need for both of them to be sucking up rads during all that time.

He then continued forward, crawling on his belly.  It was only 30 m but felt endless... like the illusion of the never ending hallway.  With the equipment he had with him and in hand, he had no way of knowing how much radiation was in that section but he imagined the walls his arms and legs brush against were warm to the touch, more so than they had been.  His skin prickled, overly sensitive.

Finally subtle markings on the tunnel wall that he'd been glancing at all along, now matched what Stull had said to look for.  This was it... he was under the reactor room.  He wriggled himself around onto his back and felt, more than looked, for a difference in the shaft sheeting above him.  There it was!  The faint outline of the floor panel above him.

From above it would be a simple thing to unscrew the 4 bolts holding the panel in place but from underneath... Lahr would have to weaken the metal of all four bolts in close enough to the same time, using his phaser, then use sheer strength to pop them while they were weak.

Yeah, this would be tricky.  Because his phaser rifle was much too large to maneuver around in the tunnel Lahr squeezed a hand back down along his body and pulled his phaser from his holster and drew it up along his chest to hold almost in front of his face - more down by his neck area. Then by the ambient light of his flashlight shining down the subfloor ahead, Lahr adjusted the phaser setting to a level that was capable of melting metal and aimed the phaser as best he could towards where he judged the bolts would be - using the access panel he'd entered as a basis.  He knew he also had to be careful of avoiding the pipes... cause one of them potentially carried radioactive waste.  Yeah, this was so not fun.

Lahr let out a slow breath, sent up a prayer to the Guardian and then took his first phaser shot hoping this wouldn't take long.

[Dylan Torngate]

[Engineering]

"Whatever you are going to do sir, you have ten minutes to do it. I cannot hold this power level for longer without a warp core breach!"

[Battle Bridge]

Dylan heard the Ferengi engineer's voice, though through the sounds of combat, hissing of ruptured conduits, and general static on the line it was not the most pleasant of sounds. As the Challenger had dished out her volleys of fire, concentrating on the enemy, many of the same tactics had been used on her. Impacts and energy surges had blown out at least one console, as a small fire flickered beneath a panel elsewhere, sending smoke into the air which the air recyclers struggled to remove as it was coming in. Burnt isolinear circuitry wasn't exactly the best for one's health.

Understood, Chief. Keep us up-=/\= he said, as the channel cut out when another volley of fire hit the Challenger straight in her neck.

USS Challenger - Bridge

The ship shuddered, its rocking motion threatening to knock the tall Hupyrian off of his feet.  He used one hand to brace himself against the bulkhead while the fingers of the other hand stabbed at the tactical console with frenzies of motion.  The Captain's request for Salvo fire called for massive weapon strikes to be dealt in unison, to overwhelm enemy defenses.  The Challenger hammered the Zhukov like an angry storm-god, raining down all the fury of the heavens with each horrific blow.

The Zhukov trembled and cracked under the Challenger's ire.  She suffered as any older vessel might when confronted with state-of-the-art weapons systems.  Her return fire became weaker and weaker as the Challenger continued to rock her.  Soon, her shields were down.  Her hull was leaking plasma and atmosphere from a dozen places.  The Zhukov's weapons systems began to falter and fail.  She was a crippled lion, her teeth and claws housed in broken arms and shattered jaws.

And yet, there was more in the old lion than met the eye.

"Boarding pods, Sir, penetrating the Main Shuttlebay.   Recommend evacuating our shuttlebay of all ship's personnel and remote-detonating one of our workbees.  The blast won't be powerful enough to do serious damage to the bay itself, but should be more than enough to shatter the bodies of the boarders as they set out on their boarding action."

Dylan picked himself up off the floor when the last volley had hit. The Challenger was a heavy cruiser - while not as large as the dreadnoughts of some species, her type was designed to more than hold her own in combat, and she was showing that power. Her powerful weapons array was lancing through space, striking out at the enemy in coordinated salvos of deadly light. Dylan turned to Tactical. "Continue firing, all batteries. If it moves, slag it!" he said, as the displays shook and static overcame one of them. The ship was taking the beating, and dishing it out all the same. She was a solidly built ship.

Eventually, the Zhukov began to falter and then fail - She had received upgrades from Leyton and his cronies, but it wasn't enough. The Challenger was a disaster to underestimate - and underestimate it they had. Unfortunately, they had also landed and secured the shuttlebay as a beachhead for their assault on the interior of the Challenger. Dylan nodded and hit the PA system. All Hands, repel boarders! Up and Forward to the port-side, Down and Backwards to the Starboard!=/\= he said, instructing clear paths on how to reach stations. Less clutter in the corridors.

Dylan nodded to the man. "Blow it, if you need vent it," he said. They were the enemy, it was time for them to die.

Battle Bridge
"Taken care of Mr Nari." She said in a clear, emotionless tone. "We got lucky as there was none of our crew in the shuttlebays at the time. Once all the hostiles are confirmed gone, I will seal the shuttlebays up to make it harder next time."

As she spoke she monitored the decompression cycle and saw that all the boarders, in addition to several of their craft, were floating in space. She then sealed the bays up, but did not restore the atmosphere. She then locked down the exits and overrode the local controls to prevent override. They had too many issues facing them without someone trying to sneak on board.

Dylan didn't react much when the Doctor vented the shuttlebay. No word of affirmation or of condemnation. Sure, it was a cold thing to do but so was war. War was hell and they were the enemy. He'd done worse things in his life - this was the price of playing.

USS Challenger - Bridge

Mondo's fellow Petty Officer at the helm was doing a brilliant job directing the ship into ideal firing arcs.  It made Mondo's job at tactical much easier.  Continuing the volley fire method, he concentrated a blast from both saucer arrays at the Zhukov, slicing deeply into her impulse drive.  There was a bright flash as the drive detonated, shredding much of the Zhukov's saucer and sending shrapnel into both of her nacelles.  The bright blue light faded away as the ship lost all but emergency battery power.

The Zhukov was out of the fight, and most likely would never fly for the rebel Admiral again.

It was a much-needed moment of triumph.  Elsewhere, things were hard-going for the task force.

Mondo had taken out the last of the asteroid-mounted defense installations with the secondary phaser banks, so the constant peppering of micro-torps had finally come to an end.  But the USS Revere was a barely-flying wreck of a ship, still getting nibbled by fighters.  Her saucer was pitted, burnt, and crackling with energy leaking from her EPS network.

Meanwhile, the Stalwart was still trading blows with the imposing USS Legacy.  She was giving as good as she got, but she had only a fraction of the mass of the larger ship.  Every blow she took damaged a larger proportion of her frame than the blows she delivered upon her adversary.   Although she still pounded away with her pulse-cannons, she was a bruised, scarred, burning thing.

"Sir.  The Zhukov is finished.  I now recommend the Revere be ordered to retreat.  She's not worth anything in this fight any more, and those fighters are about to finish her.  Recommend engaging the fighters to cover her escape."

He said nothing for the USS Stalwart.  With the Revere mostly crippled, there were only two ships left.  Though the Stalwart might also be told to withdraw in an ideal world, there was nothing about the current engagement which was ideal.  The Defiant class ship would have to endure a while longer.

Dylan nodded as his tactical crewman gave his suggestions - Dylan valued these suggestions, but he also knew that the final decision lay with him. The man had a point though.

He turned to the Operations console. "Order the Revere to retreat, we'll cover her. Helm, make your course one one three mark five. All ahead, flank speed. Put us between the fighters and the Revere, let's cover her retreat," he said, knowing full well at that speed and bearing that it was likely they would literally ram several of the fighters. Either they would move or the Challenger would ram them - and the Challenger had the mass advantage. In battle, you use all your advantages."

He then turned back to Operations. "Has the Zhukov signalled her surrender yet?" he asked, still moving on to the next thing. "Tactical, quantum torpedoes full spread, set for long range dispersion. Let's see if we can shake things up a little."

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Battle Bridge]

Dylan heard the Ferengi engineer's voice, though through the sounds of combat, hissing of ruptured conduits, and general static on the line it was not the most pleasant of sounds. As the Challenger had dished out her volleys of fire, concentrating on the enemy, many of the same tactics had been used on her. Impacts and energy surges had blown out at least one console, as a small fire flickered beneath a panel elsewhere, sending smoke into the air which the air recyclers struggled to remove as it was coming in. Burnt isolinear circuitry wasn't exactly the best for one's health.

Understood, Chief. Keep us up-=/\= he said, as the channel cut out when another volley of fire hit the Challenger straight in her neck.

Dylan picked himself up off the floor when the last volley had hit. The Challenger was a heavy cruiser - while not as large as the dreadnoughts of some species, her type was designed to more than hold her own in combat, and she was showing that power. Her powerful weapons array was lancing through space, striking out at the enemy in coordinated salvos of deadly light. Dylan turned to Tactical. "Continue firing, all batteries. If it moves, slag it!" he said, as the displays shook and static overcame one of them. The ship was taking the beating, and dishing it out all the same. She was a solidly built ship.

Eventually, the Zhukov began to falter and then fail - She had received upgrades from Leyton and his cronies, but it wasn't enough. The Challenger was a disaster to underestimate - and underestimate it they had. Unfortunately, they had also landed and secured the shuttlebay as a beachhead for their assault on the interior of the Challenger. Dylan nodded and hit the PA system. All Hands, repel boarders! Up and Forward to the port-side, Down and Backwards to the Starboard!=/\= he said, instructing clear paths on how to reach stations. Less clutter in the corridors.

Dylan nodded to the man. "Blow it, if you need vent it," he said. They were the enemy, it was time for them to die.

Dylan didn't react much when the Doctor vented the shuttlebay. No word of affirmation or of condemnation. Sure, it was a cold thing to do but so was war. War was hell and they were the enemy. He'd done worse things in his life - this was the price of playing.

Dylan nodded as his tactical crewman gave his suggestions - Dylan valued these suggestions, but he also knew that the final decision lay with him. The man had a point though.

He turned to the Operations console. "Order the Revere to retreat, we'll cover her. Helm, make your course one one three mark five. All ahead, flank speed. Put us between the fighters and the Revere, let's cover her retreat," he said, knowing full well at that speed and bearing that it was likely they would literally ram several of the fighters. Either they would move or the Challenger would ram them - and the Challenger had the mass advantage. In battle, you use all your advantages."

He then turned back to Operations. "Has the Zhukov signalled her surrender yet?" he asked, still moving on to the next thing. "Tactical, quantum torpedoes full spread, set for long range dispersion. Let's see if we can shake things up a little."

Battle Bridge

At the last explosion, the duty Ops officer was blown off their feet. Lizzie immediately went over to them, pulling out her tricorder. She was pleased to discover that, while they were unconscious, they were not otherwise hurt. They had a bump to the head, but without speaking to them, she could not confirm concussion. Placing the officer in the recovery position, she took over at Ops. She immediately followed up with Dylan's orders.

"The Revere is retreating Captain." She reported. "No signal from the Zhukov yet, but their weapons systems are all offline and their shields, propulsion and life support are all fluctuating and losing power. If we hit them now, it will take them out of the fight." She added.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Enemy Starbase - subfloor under fusion reactor room on Deck 353]

Lahr's first shot was off the mark by about 5 cm. The beam of phaser fire clipped the edge of a pipe above him and Lahr saw the metal of the pipe heat to a orange-red before he was able to react and cease the beam.  "Roozh!" he cursed.

Lowering the intensity of the beam - considering the close proximity he should have done so to start with - Lahr readjusted his aim and fired again.  This time he hit his target - the top left corner just beside  where the flooring plate sat, which should be where the access plate was screwed into the decking frame. He held the beam there for a second and then pushed up lightly on the corner.  It held firm.

He re-aimed and fired again, this time holding the beam for two seconds. The metal corner glowed  orange by the end of the 2 seconds and when Lahr pressed he was able to move it.  Lahr turned his attention onto the next corner - top right - while signalling Nishki forward towards him by covering and uncovering his flashlight.

She responded back by flashing her own light, before it began bobbing somewhat chaotically around the tunnel as she began crawling her way forward.  Lahr hadn't been able to see it before when he was belly-crawling but now on his back he could see her rifle flashlight's illumination much better.

He aimed and fired at the spot for the second screw.  However the area didn't glow orange at the two second phaser shot and wouldn't budge when he tested it. So he tried again for another two seconds. Bad move.  The area not only glowed orange after under a second, it went molten red.  He released the phaser's trigger but the damage was done and there was no way he could move out of the way of the molten metal as it dripped in seeming slo-mo down from the area to land on his right shoulder.  He hissed in pain biting back the louder utterance he wanted to make.

Okay... Lahr made a mental note that follow-up shots would have to be for a shorter duration.  Wincing he readjusted his aim for the bottom right corner and held the phaser for just under a full three seconds.  The plating glowed the happy orange he was going for without becoming completely molten.   Only one more to go.  He could see Nishki only a few meters down past his feet.

He paused to call to Freeman via his ear-bud, awkwardly reaching up past his gas mask to press the encrypted comm unit at his ear.

"We're in position. Just about to move in... we need their attention on you folks.. rather than them ducking your phaser fire and seeing us pop up behind them... try drawing their attention loudly for a minute would ya?"

"Sure thing, I'll just ask them to join in a sing-along." Freeman joked back. "We're ready to move... on your signal"

Lahr let the comm close and then targeted the last corner - bottom left ... 3 seconds and it glowed orange.  Lahr then tried pushing up on the plating.. it lifted from the bottom but the metal at the top corners had cooled back to strength in the time it took to get the others done.

He bit back a curse and re-targeted the first corner - top left.  Did a brief single 1 second shot and saw it glow instantly orange... almost going molten.. then Lahr did a quick and dirty aim for the second screw again for only one second.  This shot partially clipped a pipe but the one second burst while turning the second corner molten once more... it didn't do more than have the pipe glow orange.

Lahr reached up past the slo-mo drip of metal to press against the access plate and was rewarded with it releasing even as the molten metal dripped along his bicep.  He grit his teeth against the pain and lifted the plate til it was completely free of the hatch.

That's when he heard the blaring of music coming from the hallway area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiBLgEx6svA

Seriously?  He'd thought Freeman had been kidding when he commented about the sing-along.  But the noise was a good cover and Lahr took advantage of it as he tried to slide the plate along the reactor room floor in time to the loud beat... until it was completely free of the hole.

Now came the fun part, wriggling his way out.  Lahr wiggled his way down a bit so that his head was just at the hole and reached up for the pipes to help sit him up being careful to not snag his phaser rifle, at his back, on the pipes or the access way hole. It was a tight fit but Lahr managed to peek his head out of the hole.   Just in front of him was the reactor. Behind him was a wall of engineering consoles that controlled said reactor.  Past the reactor Lahr could just make out shadows moving - the enemy.  Perfect! He had cover - to make his exit.

[Mondo'li Nari]

USS Challenger - Bridge

Mondo had somewhat feared that his recommendations might have overstepped bounds, given his low rank.  The series of events that found him manning this tactical station in the midst of a major combat operation had resulted in his interaction with senior officers far, far above him.  Fortunately, the ongoing combat necessities kept him from dwelling on the matter.

Though... thinking of battle as being 'fortunate' seemed decidedly callous.

"Aye, Captain, he replied as his free hand danced on the console.  He continued to steady himself with his left hand, else he'd have long since been tossed to the deck.  "Quantum torpedoes prepped for maximum spread, full volley ready for launch.  I have the enemy fighter squadrons targeted.  This should definitely blunt their pursuit."

Indeed, it would likely take out half of them, so tidy were their formations as they made haste in perfect unison to swerve out of the way of the Challenger.

Then Vaughan suggested they fire on the Zhukov, and Mondo wondered if he had misidentified the desired target.   His eyes widened in alarm at the carnage which might ensue.

"Sir... if we hit the Zhukov again in their condition..." he let his words trail off, the implications clear.  Hundreds of lives hung on the Captain's decision.  Lives of Starfleet officers and crew who might be no more guilty of their transgressions than the Captain himself, when he'd reportedly briefly been within Leyton's clutches.

[Jehamy Jex]

[USS Challenger - Battle Bridge]

Jehamy Jex wiped the sweat off his brow, mixing soot and salt into the face-paint of combat. The symbiont writhed both in discomfort and discontent - if it had the capacity to feel emotions akin to hominoids, it would be feeling rage. As it was, it ensured that the host kept his composure, and his survival assured.

Jehamy struggled, along with every other Department, to keep the ship - and her crew - in one piece.  Is was to that end that the Science Officer broke out his more esoteric tricks, now that the battle was becoming one of attrition...and entropy.

Keeping the shields in any meaningful manner was becoming more and more difficult, such were the diminishing shield generators. Jex recalled a manner of increasing field integrity, albeit only useable for a finite time - constant usable would fail due to residual particulation - the Trill sent an urgent request to Operations and Tactical to re-modulate the Challenger's shields to emit a beta-tachyon pulse, and then project a series of antiproton beams into the shield bubble. The resulting enhancement would replenish the shields by a factor of ten; unfortunately, it would only be useful for 5 minutes, and then needing an hour until it could be used once more; the originator of the process neglected to provide a means with which to maintain it without this rest, and therefore only made sense in a dire situation - like now.

Jehamy's next plan to survive was to use the secondary navigational deflector to emit a duonetic field - this would result in whatever ship was in its arc to momentarily lose all functions - from tactical systems to environmental support; duonetic emissions were found to be an antithesis of 24th Century technology; it remained to be seen if Leyton's ships had been protected, but intelligence reports of this field were limited. While the field itself would only be useful while the navigational deflector was trained upon a target (requiring the fine skills of the Flight Control Officer) the time it would take for a starship to reboot from the duonetic assault might be enough to turn tides. Jex sent this request to both tactical and Flight Control for both their review and use.

With that done, Jehamy searched the ancient, but devious, mind of his symbiont for other aces for sleeves.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Enemy Starbase - fusion reactor room on Deck 353]

Exiting the subfloor took a little bit more effort than sliding in head first had required.  Wriggling his arms up one at a time through the floor access Lahr then had to literally lift himself up out of the hole by just his arms.  His legs were useless at this angle until he flopped himself over the ledge  and then he was able get his feet under him and give himself a push out as he rolled to the side so that he was fully hidden behind the reactor unit.

Lahr then removed the phaser rifle, slung across his back, and crouched at the edge of the reactor peering towards the main section of the room where a handful of engineers and a pair of security were holding the Reactor Team at bay.  Challengers' boarders had to be extra cautious because of the fusion reactor and were unable to use standard methods of breaching - like concussion grenades.  The station's own gas protocol meant that the smoke grenades would be pretty much useless for forcing out Leyton's men.

Lahr kept watch while the agile Orion, Nishki, slid her way out of the subfloor next.  She readied her own weapon then nodded to Lahr.  Lahr tapped his ear-bud.  "It's go time.  See you in a few."

Lahr gave Nishki the handsignal to move forward.  They needed to get into a better position if they hoped to take out entire group in just a couple of shots... also he didn't want to risk someone being trigger happy and firing at them past the reactor.  Moving further into the main room would give them a better wide-angle stun spread at more effective range.  They just needed to be able to approach quickly without being seen.

Lahr lead the way around the reactor.  The Freeman's odd choice of musical distraction came to an end and in the sudden silence, the tap tap tap of their approach sounded loudly.  Crap!

Lahr gave a single low whistle, which would have alerted his own team of his order to crouch and fire... even as the rooms occupants turned towards the sound of the running footsteps and whistle. but Nishki wasn't a member of Lahr's team and had no clue what his whistle had meant.  She glanced back towards Lahr as the Andorian dropped to a knee bracing himself and fired a wide-angle phaser shot towards the group at the entrance to the reactor room who were taking aim towards them.

Nishki was quick on the uptake and also dropped to a low crouch - making a smaller target of herself as she fired off a shot towards the pair of security.

Lahr was up and moving again even as several bodies were beginning to surcome to the stun.  But they weren't in the clear - he knew they were at the far end of the weapons range where it was least effective.  And sure enough even as he ran, dodging to the left, a full intensity phaser shot lanced out towards where he'd been moment before.  Like the security in the Deck above they weren't pulling their punches.  The starbase security phasers were set to kill, unlike Lahr's.

Because of the mild stun, the starbase security - who were more accustomed to being struck by phasers and the engineers - were sluggish but still conscious.  Lahr dropped again to his knees and took aim at a closer range this time.  He had a clear shot and fired on the last two standing even as one of the sluggish security set his sights on him.  Lahr's shot was quicker and struck the two.

One dropped instantly, the other however was about to fire on Lahr.   A shot flew over Lahr's shoulder towards the last security and the third shot dropped him.  Yes!!

Lahr stood and did a quick assessment of the room. The reactor room was cleared of all of Leyton's men, and Freeman and his team were moving in to secure the area and shut down the reactor. This reactor fed the shield generators, with it down the Federation-loyal ships could retake the station not just by sending in yet more personnel but by beaming out Leyton's Commanders straight to the ship's brig.

His team followed in after looking a little worse for wear.  Evidently, the security here hadn't been content to just hide away behind their reactor - no, they'd tried clearing out the 'invaders' with concussion grenades and shrapnel grenades.  There were quite a few wounded.

Lahr stood off to the side letting the reactor team with it's engineering component, work on the reactor, while he fought down a sense of nausea. He hoped it was just him coming down off of a bit of an adrenaline-rush.  He closed his eyes against a building headache.  A few minutes later, a loud clunk heralded the success of the engineering team at the reactor shut-down.

A slap to his shoulder startled him and he looked over to see Freeman's wide-smile.  "You did it!  How you feeling?"

Lahr nodded slowly.  "Have a bit of a headache.  Someone thought it would be smart to assault my fine senses with a cacophony of horrid noise." he answered in a joking tone.

"You wanted a distraction."  Freeman said as he shrugged. "It's called 'Rap'."

"Yeah, it's crap alright." Lahr rejoined sagely.

"Funny." Freeman remarked then handed Lahr a comm badge.  Lahr looked at it questioningly.

"It's for you - to call the ship and let them know the starbase shields are down for good. You've earned a bit of recognition."  Freeman commented.

"I'll pass." Lahr said passing back the comm, the pushed himself off the wall.  "Where's the officer in charge? I want to be able to take my team back up to assist in holding that hallway."

Freeman's expression turned serious.  "We're it -  for this part of the insertion anyways.  We need to call in for our next orders. Sure I can't convince you to call in your big success?"

Lahr scoffed. "Bite me."

Freeman snorted and tapped the comm - Lahr noticing for the first time the blood smear on its surface. "Freeman to Challenger.  ch'Verret has something to report." Freeman blurted and then handed a gape-mouthed Lahr the comm before backing away laughing.

Lahr glared at Freeman and mouthed 'you are so dead' before clearing his throat before speaking towards the comm in his hand. "ch'Verret here. Reporting Objective Charlie a success.  Starbase shields are down. Casualties for insertion were higher than anticipated as Leyton's forces are using lethal measures. Requesting further orders. Over."