Fan Fiction/Memorial Day Defensive 2013/Elements 4thFleet Space Battle
Story Notes: Written by Members of the MFS Liberty, MFS Determined, MFS Exporation. Each crew working on their own parts and together to edit it into a coherent whole. We hope you enjoy!.
Operation: Stop Gap
Units involved: MFS Liberty, MFS Determined, MFS Exporation, and other random Maquis Naval Elements.
After the CO left to deal with the planet the XO of the Maquis Ship Liberty Lt. Commander Korel Tan went to work. It was chaos out there, the Maquis fleet was well ordered but included an odd assortment of vessels as they'd been sent here with the sole idea that they were combat ready and nearby. The Mis-mash Maquis fleet struggled against the Breen Warships to keep them at bay.
On the bridge of the Liberty, Lieutenant Commander Korel Tan stood between the command chair and the pilot's console, watching the action on the forward viewscreen. "Keep us in this position, Pilot. Tactical, be ready to provide covering fire if and when needed."
At the aft end of the bridge, an officer spoke up then, "We are picking up signals from the Breen ships, Sir. It looks like they have begun attempts to jam fleet communications as expected. We are, so far, able to stay ahead of their efforts." Xiannah nodded, “Aye Sir, evasive maneuvers...” The Liberty whipped around the field staying to the edges. She was a modified Nova Class. So while she had more combat ability then the usual Nova's she was still a small vessel but one able to dance in complicated corkscrews and others patterns. This was due in no small part to the work the engineering Department Chief Kim Olson and her Deputy Major Kelon Saruk. A human and Bajoran respectively. They had worked hard to increase the efficiency of the internal dampeners and flight controls to give Marine Captain Xiannah the ability to show off her amazing piloting skills.
And she used everyone of those skills as she dodged disruptor fire and photon torpedoes. Her mind constantly working in 3 dimensions as she tried to be where the weapons weren't. Dodging debris and other vessels, her fingers dancing on her controls like a master pianist at the piano. “It's getting heavy!” She yelled at the XO as fire intensified and the ship shook. The ship wasn't just whipping about the field trying not to be hit, it was attempting something else. The Ops Chief, ops being given over to another officer at this time, was closeted in corner of engineering with her top communications people and a few engineers including Major Seruk. The big Caitian, Lt. Commander M'Rao was bent over a console. Her group was divided into two types one group was trying to protect Maquis communications from interference or hacking. They bent over consoles with tactical headsets that connected them with the rest of the fleet. “Increase in the wavefront nadion singularity in section 431 detecting communications interference...” One said as another replied, “Working to counteract with reciprocating asymmetrical variance algorithm...increasing power levels to biometric feedback loop contained system....” And on it went back and forth. The Liberty working with others to shield Maquis communications.
Others worked to interfere with the Breen, hacking was, for the most part too difficult in the limited time they had so they did what they could do, muddy the waters. “We mussst increasse the vertonx fluxxxx disstortion...” Said M'Rao. It would make ship to ship communications more difficult to read. But the Breen were not stupid every time the Liberty got ahead, the Breen would counter so then the Liberty and others would counter that. It went back and forth but had its intended result. Breen communications were either blocked outright from time to time or heavily interferenced.
Elsewhere on the ship Olson the Liberty's CEO worked to keep all systems running as well as possible as long as possible for she knew once they got into the thick of it, systems would go offline. “We need vital spare parts at the staging areas, go, go, go!” She yelled to a team of damage control specialists. And so it went in engineering.
Back on the Bridge.
A tactical officer looked at his console, “Sir!” He called worried, “Command Vessel under attack!” "Comms," Korel shouted as he whirled toward the appropriate station. "Open a channel--" but he cut himself off as he heard the voice fo the Exploration's CO coming in. “MFS Exploration is being pinned by two Breen Warships...” He continued, the MFS Exploration was the ship of Force Captain Josh Laury who as the Maquis Chief of Operations was senior and in overall command. "Pilot," Korel turned back to xiannah. "Get us in there to provide covering fire!" Xiannah at helm nodded, “Aye Sir moving to assist...note MFS Determined is also moving in they are coordinating. Korel nodded, keeping his gaze on the viewscreen. "Ops, send notice down to the shuttlebay. Get our fighters out there with orders to fly C.A.P. (Combat Air Patrol) around the Exploration and Determined.” Only so they only have a few being a small ship but every little bit helped especially when they were such highly trained pilots. Xiannah had picked her best for this and they were off.
Out in space, the phased energy beams from both seemed to criss-cross space like some deadly variation of a connect the dots puzzle. Where the beams impacted the shields of the various ships, the shields flared and weakened momentarily before returning to full strength.
On the MFS Determined the ship shook and buckled as the modified Olympia's engines strained to do what the helmsman was asking of it. This had been a hospital ship but was modified and now served as a ship of the line. There was controlled chaos as everyone ran around focusing on their duties. The Tact officer yelled, “Second Breen Vessel attempting to pincher Command Vessel!” “Move us inbetween!, lay in covering fire coordinate..” Then the Determined was struck by a particularly heavy shot and a console exploded and the helmsman struggled to keep the ship maneuvering, and the Duty Officer, a Vulcan, activated a site to site after examining the XO who was bleeding and unconscious. “Have you analyze the angles of fire?” He asked Tactical, “Aye Sir. Forwarding to helm but its going to hard to be where they aren't..” She reported as her attention was locked on her console, the ship bucking as she tried to coordinate fire with the Exploration and Liberty. By focusing they were able to hit hard but it required constant adjustments.... On the Exploration Force Captain Laury was focused on the overall battle, looking at a 3-D map of the area. He moved ships around and coordinated intel because of his calm presence the mish-mash of a Maquis fleet that had been thrown together to defend against this threat that they were used to best effect. Others ships were coming in from all over, even a few ships from nearby Allies of the Maquis, their own command nets tying into Laury's. His XO focused on keeping the refitted Constitution class was blasting with everything it had including quantum torpedos, his Tact officer focused on his own duties. “Engines damaged efficiency at 76%..” Called engineering, “Coms are going in and out, working to assist Liberty in pushing through interference.” Said coms. And on it went, “Keep ships in teams of three, standard balancing act..” Ordered Luary. By balancing act he meant the practice of putting light, fast ships with heavier, slower ships. Old ships with new, etc. If one ship had squadrons of fighters it supported those without and so on. The three ships coordinated their fire and where damaged. Their engines slowed, their rate of fire slowed but they kept it up. Their teamwork keeping the two Breen from finishing them off. The Breen too were taking damage. Aided by the comm hub on the Exploration and Liberty that kept interfering with their coms. They couldn't block but they kept tossing out interference. “Coordinate all fire on the leading vessel, lets end this.” Commanded Laury and other ships followed suit. Everything was laid out and for a few seconds the dark of space was a bright as a sun as three ships risked the wrath of one Breen vessel to focus on the other, “Shields failed!” crowed the Determined's Tac officer and no words were needed as the three kept up fire the resultant explosion was brighter still and burned retinas but also damaged their fellow ship that risked coming in too close to try to end the Exploration whose shields had gone down to 23%. “Shields Down!” yelled the Explorations Tac officer, Laury and his XO were of one mind and very much wanted to order boarders to take the vessel but they didn't have time as they spoke more ships were entering space, “No rest for the weary..” Was his reply and so they blasted they ship as well but not before it further damaged the Explorations shields and engines. In the end however it was worth it. The Liberty and Determined kept close to the Exploration as all their engineering teams struggled to keep the ships from blowing up as death and energy rained all over, debris floating about giving fighter ships a chance and some debris being caught in the planets energy well. Reports from the planet were promising as more and more of the ground troops were routing the Breen with the help of colony survivors. Now if they could just keep them at bay, there was a report of more Maquis ships on the way. With grim purpose all three ships settled down to their task, live for their people while they made the Breen die for theirs...
“Sir! Reinforcements!” yelled Laurys Tactical Officer. “Ours or theirs?” Asked the harried Flag Officer acting as 4th Fleets Commander. “Ours, 6th and 9th Fleets. They want to know if you have any instructions.” At that Luary grinned evilly, “Send them a map with an arrow, this way to enemy...”.
With a smile o f his own he did so and the Wrath of the Maquis fell upon the Breen Fleet. Luary's makeshift 4th Fleet had destroyed 8 of the 22 invading ships while trying to keep the rest from coordinating too effectively. Now that wasn't a problem as the other Fleets linked with the 4th to drop he hammer on everything that moved. Only a Senior SSD officer saved a few of the ships for boarding for intel otherwise nothing was going to walk away from that overwhelming firepower. This took sometime men and women drinking coffee at their posts refusing to leave while there was still something to be done. Their dedication was unparalleled as they focused all that energy on making the Breen pay for their transgressions.