[Galaxy] 2161.10.02 - MER/CHA DL - Finney/Spearling - "BoC -- Combined Forces"

[Anna H.]

//  Vicinity of Cheron  \\
 
 
[CHA]
 
<snip>
"Chris ... contact Captain Finney on the Meridian," Sasha said."
<end snip>
 
[Meridian]
 
Baxter said, "Sir, Challenger hailing us."
 
Rog nodded, "Put Capt. Spearling through Baxter."
 
[CHA]
 
Sasha looked up at the screen.  "Captain Finney," she said, and then turned her head to bark out an order.  "Mr. St. John, continue evasive maneuvers.  Vic ... make every shot count."
 
Vic replied, "Aye captain." He let another volley of torpedoes go.
 
She turned back to the screen.  "I'm considering pulling the Mir, Shenandoah, and Columbia off and have them exclusively target the smaller enemy vessels.  The Denobulan and Tellarite ships, too.  Keep those smaller ships off our backs so that we and the Vulcans and Andorians can concentrate on the Birds of Prey and the battle cruisers.  What do you think?" She wasn't /worried/, not yet, but the battle was shifting and she didn't want to let that happen.
 
=+  Rog said, "I quite agree Sasha. We just had one of those smaller vessels attempt a kamikaze maneuver on us. Fortunately, my helmsman got out of the way in time."  +=
 
"Glad to hear it.  All right then, we'll pass the word along and --" Sasha was interrupted by PO Cinda Zhang, from where she was helping Ens T'Lara at the SCI console.  
 
"Captain! Incoming vessels at bearing ... 224 mark 91!"
 
"On screen!" Sasha shouted.  The noise on the bridge was intrusive, what with Vic working the Romulans over with ship's phased cannons and torpedoes, and the medical team arriving to check out the downed Engineer.
 
On the main viewscreen -- which the Chris divided in two in order to show the ongoing battle on one side, and the incoming ships on the other -- the image of Cheron showed starkly on one side.  Sweeping around the planet on an intercept course were numerous Romulan Birds of Prey.  Sasha's fists clenched.  "How many?" she said.
 
"Ten, Captain," Cinda replied, her voice weak.
 
Ten more Birds of Prey? Oh, hell.  "Rog ... are you seeing this?" 
 
=+  Rog replied, "Yes and I wish I didn't." Turning to his AO, he said, "Jonas, we have ten BOPS on an intercept course. Let them get half way and let them have it." Turning back to Sasha, he said, "Well, does this change your plans Sasha?"  +=
 
The ships had gotten close enough now to where they could be displayed on the main battle half.  Chris put Rog Finney's face back up on the other side.  "Yes ..." Sasha said.  The plan would have been a good one.  Rog was being diplomatic to allow her to see it herself.  "We can't divide up like that ... not anymore."
 
Rog nodded.
 
"Alex!" Sasha shouted at the Helmsman, poor guy.  "Put us on intercept, shoot down the middle of them and let's cut that group in half.  They don't get to stay in formation like that!" An intact formation of 10 BoP's would tear them apart!
 
"Aye Captain!" The nimble helmsman slapped in his course and engaged it.  The Challenger tore forward, shooting around the Larash and a Vulcan Suurok-class vessel, then plunged straight toward the group of Romulans.  
 
"Vic, let them have it!" Sasha yelled!
 
Vic began blasting them with both the phase cannon and torpedoes. They just had to break them up.
 
[MER]
 
Rog said, "Andre, once we break them up, we'll take the left half. Jonas, pound those Rommie bastards. We have to stop them."
 
[CHA]
 
"Full power to hull plating and weapons ... I don't even want to see a glowstick in the unoccupied sections!" Sasha watched as they swung back and forth on the way to the Romulan formation.  
 
"Engineering's got everything we have!" replied Cara Nelson-Samad from the Ops area.
 
"We are in range of their weapons," came T'Lara's calm voice from SCI.
 
Disruptor fire began lancing out from the Romulan ships, targeting the Challenger and the Meridian.  "Full power to forward hull plating!" Sasha said, wincing as a glancing blow hit the starboard side of the dish.  Vic blasted a hole straight down the center of the formation, firing the phased cannons and liberally using torpedoes.  The group split, and Sasha had Alex turn the Challenger to the right and down so that they came back up underneath the right side of the split formation.  "Fire all phased cannons!" she shouted.
 
The Challenger bucked and shook as she took hits from the five Romulan vessels.  ~ I ... think we better get out of here .... ~ Sasha thought, ~ they're going to pound us to pieces! ~  
 
Vic was glad they'd split them, but it just didn't seem to be enough. He continued to fire.
 
=+  Rog said, "Sasha, we have to back off. They'll tear us apart!" He almost fell out of his chair as the saucer was hit.  +=
 
Suddenly a voice came over the COMMs system.  Calm, soft and fluid, almost dream-like.  <+>  "You neglected to invite us," it said.  "We decided to join in anyway."  <+>
 
"Captain! Incoming vessels ... four of them ... bearing 171 mark 22!" Knowing what the Captain would want, the view on the main screen shifted to show them.  
 
"What ... what and who is that?" Sasha said, hanging on tight as the ship was pounded by the Romulans disruptors.  The incoming vessels looked like nothing else so much as flying glaciers ... ice-blue slabs of metal, bristling with gun ports and other, less identifiable towers and spires.
 
<+>  "This is Rakul!" shouted the Captain of the Andorian vessel, Menzobarranzan.  "I cannot believe it! It is the Aenar!"  <+>
 
"WHAT?!" Sasha shouted.  The ships zipped in, fast and sleek in spite of their appearance.  
 
<+>  "Is Captain Archer with you? We would like to visit with him again.  Fire."  The dreamy voice added, sounding like it was an after-thought.  <+>  There was nothing dreamy about the beams of searing light that erupted from the long spires that stuck out from the leading edge of the ships.  All of them fired at once, the beams lanced out and joined in front of their formation, and the joined beam speared into one of the Birds of Prey, slicing through its shields and tracing a long scar of damage along its port side.
 
<+> "Very nicely done, Ehnieh.  Do that again, please."  The beam weapon lanced out again, shearing off a piece of that BoP they'd hit before.
 
"Coalition vessels! Re-form the battle group!" Sasha felt renewed energy fill her body as the Aenar vessels tore into the Birds of Prey.  Then two of the Romulan battle cruisers rushed up and poured disruptor fire into the Aenar formation, forcing them to split.  Sasha noted that the beam weapons were much weaker when on their own, but they still were fast and fearless -- providing a needed burst of power to the Coaltion forces.
 
=+  Rog said, "Andre, hard to port. We'll reform with the other coalition ships." He looked to see if his sisters ship, the Defiant, was still in existence. It was. He said, "Sasha, what are those ships? Did I hear they were Aenar?" He'd heard of, though never met, the Andorian subspecies or whatever they were.  +=
 
"That's the rumor! I've never met them but I'd suppose Rakul would know, eh?" Sasha grinned into the viewer at Rog.  The Coalition re-formed for a moment, all the ships that hadn't had to retreat to the nebula because they were too damaged to continue.  
 
=============================================================================
The Fleet now stood as follows:
 
Star Fleet - Meridian, Challenger, Shenandoah, Defiant.  Mir and Columbia retreated to the nebula.
Vulcans - Whispering Death and two others.  Three other Suurok-class cruisers had taken a beating and had to retreat, one was abandoned.
Andorians - Only the Menzobarranzan was still in play, two destroyed, two in the nebula.
Aenar - four ships on the field
Tellarites - Flaxlatrox Cha and one other in play, one destroyed, one in the nebula
Denobulans -  Sharash, Rantaroo still in the battle, one severely damaged, abandoned
Mixed group of smaller fighters - 7
 
Enemy:
 
14 Birds of Prey still in fighting shape.
6 Battle cruisers.
9 fighters
All other vessels destroyed, no prisoners, no survivors
=====================================================================
 
<+>  Sasha continued on the battle channel.  "We're still out-numbered, but I still think we can do this, everyone! Let's get the Birds of Prey and battle cruisers out of action! Remember, all we have to do is hurt them enough to be out of the mix, and they'll -- I hate to say it but it's true -- they'll finish off the job themselves!"  <+>
 
Vic replied, "Captain, maybe we can conserve torpedoes by hitting one of their ships hard enough, that it accidentally hits the one next to it. With twenty enemy vessels to face, we have to conserve torpedoes the best we can."
 
"Good idea, Vic, let's put that into play.  Alex, find two of them that are snuggled in good and close and make it so."  She watched as Alex scanned the battlefield, then she spoke on the battle channel again.
 
<+>  "They've been targeting the Vulcan and Andorian vessels -- they're the most dangerous to the Romulans.  I suppose they think they can take them out and then pick off the rest of us at their leisure.  Stick close to the big ships, everyone ... keep them safe and firing!"  <+>  
 
<+>  "ENOUGH TALKING!  LET'S GRIND THESE FUCKERS INTO MUSH!" The raucous voice of Captain Horzt, Tellarite CO, rang loudly out of the speakers.  <+>
 
<+>  "It may not be the most logical way to put it, but I agree."  That had to be T'Pren.  <+>
 
"Chris, put me through to Rog alone, please."  Sasha's voice sounded shakey, but it wasn't nerves, it was because the Challenger was vibrating like a tuning fork from the pounding it was getting.
 
=+  "Rog ... they think we're the weak link here.  If we have to, we'll show them just how wrong they are.  Agreed?" She leveled a steely look into his eyes, knowing that he knew what she was talking about.
 
The battle raged on.  Out-numbered and far from home, the Coalition forces continued their desperate effort to protect their homeworlds.
 
 
Captain Sasha Spearling
Commanding Officer
FCL-04 Challenger
-------------------------------------
Captain Roger Finney
Commanding Officer
FCL-03 Meridian
-------------------------------------
PCs borrowed with respect, and
NPCs and aliens apb ... us! 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.firstera.net/pipermail/galaxy-firstera.net/attachments/20111002/a86d94a6/attachment-0002.htm>