[Galaxy] 16 May, 2159 :: ESS Aurora & the Fleet :: Cmdr Knight & Lt Day :: "The Net"

[Rachelle M.]

// Bridge, ESS Aurora //



"They're targeting us..." Science reported.

"We're..." The Comms. officer began.

"Not now." Knight snapped. The rest of the fleet wasn't his problem. He
could see off in the distance on the view-screen the plight of his fellow
Starfleet officers, but there was little that he or the Aurora could do to
help. Their actions wouldn't change the tide of the battle.

"Keep us steady helm." Knight's voice was calm again, disconnected. The Bird
of Prey was like them, a destroyer; it would have limited munitions. It
seemed a waste to dodge shots that hadn't been fired yet. "Don't evade until
they commit."

"Aye Captain," Lt Sunny Day said, concentrating on her sensor readings and
keeping an eye on open avenues of evasive action when the time came.

The Chief Helmsman on the ESS Aurora was very familiar with the ship. Lt
Sunny Day had been piloting the Sol-class destroyer from the time she was
commissioned. The ship and her helmsman knew each other well enough to share
autopilot and Sunny liked it that way. She had no desire to move from
Aurora, and so far, the Fleet had managed to ignore any opportunity to part
the two.

When Day sat in the familiar seat at the helm console, it was like docking
clamps secured the ship to the pilot and vice versa. Sunny could feel the
deep space wind peel off the front edge of the saucer and curl around the
nacelles as the ship slipped through space, sleek and silent.

The Comms officer spoke up, "Sir, we have a break in the Rommie code. From
Meridian. I'm feeding it into the system. We'll know their plans."

"I think they are playing with us, Sir," Science complained.

The Comms officer continued. "No, the Rommie's are telling them to hold
their heavy weapons to use on the NX's. The Klingons are arguing, but
switching to phase weapons instead of torpedoes. We are still a target."

"Their target is locked and fir...

Before the Science officer could finish, Lt Day had turned the Aurora on her
port side and head down. The slice from the Bird of Prey slipped between the
starboard nacelle and the ship's body. The Armoury officer on the bridge was
sharp on the mark and his torpedo careened into the underside of the wing of
the bird, destroying a sensor array and at least one phase fire port on the
leading edge of the wing. Aurora shuddered with the stress, but recovered
quickly as though simply shaking the dust from her wings.

"Glancing fire. Starboard saucer plating recovering."

A phase cannon blast from the underside of Aurora ripped into an already
damaged Bird of Prey moving too slowly across the space beneath her.

"Direct hit, their shielding is down. Here comes Seawolf on our six. She's
got 'em, she's got 'em." The Science officer roared.

Amaratsu swam into view between Aurora and a dark Bird that had a torpedo
aimed at Constitution. Fire shot from the emitters on Amaratsu and the
torpedo exploded before ever threatening the big NX.

"Incoming aft port dors ...." The Aurora's intertial dampeners stayed some
of the concussion, but the entire bridge crew, the entire ship, quaked as a
the hull polarization fought to distribute the shock of the torpedo. The
Comm officer began to sound off damage reports, "Fire on E deck. Supression
systems operative. Plasma relays offline connecting on E deck.  Loosing
pressure on Cargobay One. Emergency Crews on it. Relays coming online.
Officer down on E deck. Medic team responding. Incoming incoming."

"Got it, got it," cried the Armoury officer. Helmsman Day threw the ship
into a tight barrel roll for half a twist then swung upward. Alarms sounded
and an emergency generated computer announcement relayed automatic damage
control activations.

Amaratsu curved over the top of Aurora and took out 3 Klingon torpedos bound
for Meridian.

"Got cha, will follow through at your 3 and cover," Day confirmed with the
Amaratsu.

"I'm ready with cover, Sunny," Armoury assured her.

The two sol-class ships wove an elegant net around Meridian as she recovered
from a hit, both making judicious and effective use of phase fire to
eliminate a torrent of torpedoes launched from various Klingon ships.

They were not the only smaller fleet ships pairing up, breaking off,
rejoining in triplets, curling and laying fire to cover the NX ships.
Tactical officers aboard Endeavor, on the outskirts of the battlefield, were
skillfully anticipating the fire of both Klingon and Romulan weapons as a
result of the intercepted Romulan transmission codes, and relaying orders to
the rest of the fleet.

Those orders were urgent, immediate, but required a certain subtlety to
avoid the appearance of obvious pre-knowledge of weapons fire. The resulting
choreography of helm, tactical and weapons on the smaller ships were
effectively clearing the surrounding space of significant threat to the
larger ships. With their significant firepower, Meridian, Constitution,
Freedom and Challenger were working their way through the enemy fleet,
including the predicted appearance of Romulans decloaking.

~~
Cmdr Anthony Knight
Acting Capt of ESS Aurora

&

Lt Sunny Day
Chief Helm Officer
ESS Aurora


-- 
RM

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in
the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
-Calvin & Hobbes
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