The Second Battle of Latari (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 31 Jul 2020 @ 1:59pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur
Edited on on 31 Jul 2020 @ 2:05pm

2,700 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System, Latari A III High Orbit
Timeline: MD 04, 2324 hrs

Previously, on Shockwave (Part 3)...

The data from the successful strike could hold the key to the engagement so Sofie was over it looking for something to indicate the cause of such a success when another signal came onto the Sensor field. "Another ship approaching." She called out "It's moving quickly, it'll be here in less than a minute."

"Tholian?" Asked the captain.

The Vulcan operation officer responded, "It's a Federation signal sir."

The signal was definitely a smaller Federation ship, but it took a moment for Sofie to correctly identify it. "It's Vincenzo one of Galileo's support craft." She may have sounded slightly bemused - she had hardly thought about that team in days, part of her had assumed they had been lost as well.

"Arrival in 20 seconds sir." Reported the Vulcan.

"So this support craft, it has some weapons right?" The captain wryly joked as the small shuttle faded onto the tactical display.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

In the nebulae-spotted cosmos surrounding the Latari system, Galileo's primary away team rapidly wooshed across the trinary star system at impulse on their way from one colony world to the other. Their sleek silver-winged shuttlecraft wobbled slightly from side to side as it approached the ongoing battle.

Phasers, photon torpedoes and tetryon disruptors continued to illuminate the darkness above Latari A III. A dart-shaped Tholian frigate - heavily damaged - slowly tumbled out of control away from the battle, its outer hull sizzling with visible energy failures. On the main battle line, USS Lagrange completed a 90-degree roll rotation to port then pulled into a slow yet tight evasive pattern. Three streaks of blue tetryon energy slammed into the Federation heavy cruiser's aft shield grid, preventing the Tholian weapons from striking the ship's exposed dorsal hull. The MacPherson-class supply vessel was robustly built upon the older Nebula-class blueprints but featured additional structural compartments designed for transport and ferry. In exchange for increased utility, the class of Starfleet vessel sacrificed maneuverability and impulse acceleration. The two remaining Tholian darts suddenly broke off from their attack run in tandem then began to maneuver around their target for another, more efficient strafe.


Waverider-class atmospheric shuttle Vincenzo

From the pilot’s seat, Tris watched intently at the tactical/flight display of the local space. The visual outside the front view port was amazing with all the phaser fire and explosions taking place, and the powerful impact spreading across the shields of the ships, but it was also very misleading. He knew if he went by just what he saw with his own eyes, he would probably bring the Vincenzo way too close to the action. Shizn knew he had to rely on the sensor data providing a more accurate picture of the battle they were flying through. He continued to make minor course correction to bring them in at the most opportune angle, that is staying out of the way of the big guns.

Shizn looked down at the tactical display once again and reported, “Sir, we are 10 seconds to arrival.”

Aria Rice took in what was going on before she opened her mouth. With no hesitation, excitement or fear in her voice, she started the sitrep. "Sir, we have a heavily damaged enemy frigate, looks like they have lost navigation. We have the USS Lagrange taking fire...and two enemy ships appear to be trying to going in for the kill..." she paused before she looked over at Blake. "They won't be able to out manoeuvre the attack and we have no indication of the strength of their shields, although it appears that they have their hull exposed."

"Then that's our goal," Blake nodded sharply to her before looking at her own display, scrolling through. "We're going to pull their fire and give the Lagrange a chance. Let's see if we can't cause some damage of our own while we're at it, show them we're serious. But whatever happens, we stay between the Lagrange and the enemy," she added, leaving no doubt in her voice. For her, it was simple...there were too many souls onboard that ship not to do everything in their power to protect it.

"Engines are holding commander. We have one Type IV phaser which I can bring online, but it is going to really impact our systems,” T'Lin remarked.

Tris clenched his teeth, knowing that pulling power to the weapons would seriously reduce their thrust and possibly mobility.

Marisa began to look for anything else they could power down to add more power to the engines.


The Second Battle of Latari

In space, USS Lagrange continued its evasion of the nimble Tholian pursuers but to limited effect. Smaller and more maneuverable, the darts turned tightly across the supply ship's flight path then pulled back toward the vessel's exposed dorsal hull.

Communications across the Starfleet tactical frequency started to become severe and panicked.

"..Aft shields at ten percent!"

"-olians are still turning..."

"Sickbay reports eleven dead, fifty injur--"

"...aptain, they're targeting the bridge!"

Sofie shuddered - the damage Kali had taken earlier in the battle had been significant but the sputtered communications from Lagrange indicated that if things didn't change soon the command ship was going to be in an even worse situation.

"Report from torpedo bay three," called out Lieutenant Pärt, "they're performing emergency repairs, but that launcher is down."

"Acknowledged," the captain nodded her mind focused entirely on the tactical display in front of her. "The shuttle seems to be headed to directly intercept the Tholians."

From Sofie's perspective looking over the sensor data this seemed like suicidal bravery from her shipmates. The Tholians had severely damaged two large Federation ships, what hope did Vincenzo have? What hope did Kali have? After what had happened to Trial... Don't think about it.

"Ensign Ullswater," the captain addressing her shook Sofie out of the momentary reverie, "Send the data we've gathered on the Tholian shield configuration to Vincenzo. Helm, their current course suggests they intend to put themselves between Lagrange and the Tholians," she indicated one of the two Tholian vessels on the tactical display, "so we move to intercept here. Pärt focus the next salvo on that target."

Several Aye's sounded out from across the bridge as the warship prepared for its next strike.

Kali gave chase in aggressive pursuit of Lagrange's two Tholian tormentors, her phasers leaping out like angry darts as the torpedoes loaded into their launchers in giddy anticipation of another deadly strike. Hurt, ferocious, and filled with anger she moved to protect her wounded sister.

The two Tholian frigates maneuvered through their final turn with coordinated precision while skillfully evading Lagrange's close-in point defense phasers. Both silicon ships rolled out from below the MacPherson-class, now facing and accelerating toward the ship's inverted dorsal hull. But before they could strike, a bright silver blur flashed in front of them and Galileo's tiny Waverider-class shuttle decelerated from impulse directly in their flight path.


Waverider-class shuttle Vincenzo

Inside Vincenzo's dark and red-strobed cockpit, the distinctive Starfleet computer's voice suddenly blared new alerts.

"WARNING - PROXIMITY ALERT, COLLISION IMMINENT."

“Klahz!* Hold on to something!” Shizn called out loudly as he transferred all power to port thrusters causing an awkward spiral, “Tholian ships are almost on top of us.”

The torque upon the shuttle caused the hull to ‘cry out’ as it groaned under the stress of the maneuver, spinning the Waverider out of the impact.

"Then they'd better stop, because we're not going anywhere," Blake shot back easily, her finger tapping against the edge of the screen as she watched just how close they were, her eyes narrowing, but she gave no order to pull back. "Any power we can spare right now, let's get it to the shields."

"Receiving information on Tholian shields and damage, Commander. Sending data to Lieutenant Sandoval. Putting what extra power we have into the forward shields. Phaser bank is online." The Vulcan science officer now turned more or less engineer worked to balance the still shaky circuitry. She doubted they would get much more than a single shot if even that. The shields might and that was a very iffy might take one direct hit from the Tholian frigate, certainly not two. While she did not care to die, she understood the duty, the needs of the many out weighed the good of the one.

Marisa used her legs to keep her braced while she analyzed the Tholian shield harmonics. "I think I have it," she announced to no one in particular. "Give me a minute...there may be a way to get a shot through the shields." One way or another, they'd have one chance, and she wanted to make it a good one. She carefully analyzed the data and made some modifications. "Here are the harmonics and cycling rate for the Tholian shields." She shared the information with Rice's station.

"On it," Rice said, moving to tune the phasers to the new frequency, fingers moving quickly. "Phasers set to new frequency, I have a targeting solution."

Blake didn't hesitate...it was the best chance they were going to get. Her features remained cool in the face of battle, but her hand gripped the arm of her chair with a renewed strength born from determination. "Fire!"


Latari A III, High Orbit

Above the ravaged colony site on Latari A III, the Nova-class science frigate USS Galileo escaped from the clutches of continental destruction and now navigated away from the bombarded planet. While the ship's crew tended to its wounded, the bridge officers re-established a course towards the Federation task group. Auxiliary and backup systems started to come online as main power was slowly restored to the shaken research vessel. The LCARS terminals for navigation, tactical, ops, and the remains of the science alcove illuminated, allowing for a long-overdue situation report.

"Main power is coming back, systems will be at full power shortly." Mimi reported as she began to allocate the power to the systems that were starved of it. With her one good hand she was slower but that had an advantage, if she tried to do things to quickly she could overload the system.

"Ten injured, two are critical and beamed away, commander," Warraquim gave a quick update before surveying the main screen looking at the scene that was ongoing with the battle.

Now that power was back up, Goldie restored tactical comms and ran a check to make sure they were working well. "Fleet comms are back online."

Jemima began to scan the planet, looking for any signs of the proto-Tholian creature. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find one or not, but she still felt a little sad when she saw none. "No signs of life on the planet. Nothing of the colony and none of the silicate creature."

At the bridge's auxiliary console, Lieutenant Diego ran his own scans to verify the science officer's findings. The Genesis Directive required no remaining trace elements or mistakes, and so he watched a hollow targeting reticle on his console methodically sweep across the planet's surface from grid to grid searching for biological and silicon signatures.

"Confirmed," Diego finally added. "No Tholian or bio-silicon trace particles detected... Target destroyed." His relief was palpable but only lasted a short moment before he shifted the tactical display back to orbit.

"Captain," the security officer reported with urgency, "the fleet's in trouble." Diego knew both the CO and XO had repeating tactical displays on their chairs' consoles which could see what he could, so he trained the starship's enhanced visual sensors toward the ongoing space battle between the Tholian frigates and Federation heavy cruisers.

On the main viewscreen, a live view of the engagement was now displayed and magnified. Two small, Tholian dart-shaped frigates could be seen harassing the Lagrange in tandem. They maneuvered in close and coordinated formation, evading close-in phaser fire before assaulting the command ship with cerulean tetryon disruptors and forcing it into an evasive roll. The Akira-class USS Kali was closing fast from astern to provide cover but it was questionable whether she would arrive in time.

A small flash suddenly appeared on the screen and a tiny vessel came into view dangerously close to both Lagrange and the Tholians. Diego's console blared and he looked down from the wall-sized viewscreen to his LCARS instruments.

"New contact," came the tactical report. "Bearing...three-zero-four." There was a pause when Diego creased his brow with surprise as the computer identified the new vessel. "It's a friendly! IFF codes read NCC-80010-A..Slash-One. Vincenzo."

"How well is the Vincenzo holding up?" Andreus Kohl asked, leaning forward from his perch on the edge of the command chair. He raised an index finger at the viewscreen. Waggling his finger, he gestured to the the tiny ship getting awfully close to the Tholian ships. To clarify, Kohl asked, "Systems status report!"

The tactical sensors scanned the Waverider-class shuttlecraft for detailed analysis of energy signatures and external damage. Diego shook his head and relayed the data as best he could interpret. "The outer hull is pretty beat up but her structural integrity field is holding. Reading slight fluctuations in the impulse reactor, but main power appears to be online. Five lifesigns detected."

Pivoting his gaze from one side of the bridge to another, Kohl asked sheepishly, "How are our own shields, engines, weapons?" He didn't want to hear the real answer. Scarlet Blake and the others were on that ship; Kohl couldn't just sit here and wait for Galileo be towed or massacred by the Tholians. But it wasn't going to be good news. Kohl did not want to hear the real answer to his question --so badly-- he practically sneered.

Luke read the display in from engineering, it wasn't the usual clean crisp report Kala Gorvel sent and his suspicions were confirmed when their own casualties came through "Engineering has taken heavy casualties though they report the warp core to be stabilised, they can give us shields and weapons." He continued to read the report from the ship's core "The ship's suffered microfractures on several decks." He looked to Kohl, "We're not great but we're still together and still in this."

"Sir, Tholians closing fast on Lagrange," added the security officer with concern. "The shuttle's directly in their flight path and holding position - they're on a collision course." Diego's eyes then widened when he observed the Waverider rotate its nose toward the incoming enemies and power up its defenses. "They're bringing their shields and weapons online. ...Captain, what are they doing?! They can't survive an engagement against those frigates." The lieutenant was now breathing heavily as he watched a suicidal action begin to play out before his very own eyes.

Allyndra could only watch helpless as she knew the chances where vanishingly small. "Is there anything we can do?" she said absently, not to anyone in general.

Strangely, Kohl took comfort in the Vincenzo's baffling and potentially-suicidal behaviour. If he still knew Blake, she was doing something brash and heroic. "Sylver," Kohl ordered, "Set an intercept course with the Vincenzo; get us within transporter range. Full impulse!" Truly, it was one of the first orders Kohl had given without the double-edged or grey morality of the Genesis Directive. Kohl was able to sit back in his seat, far less tense than he had been. This one -- this decision was easy.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

All Crew, USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Diego
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Kali

All Crew, USS Kali
[NPC Ullswater]

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