The Second Battle of Latari (Part 2 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 @ 2:03pm

2,684 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System, Latari A III High Orbit
Timeline: MD 04, 2327 hrs

Previously, on The Second Battle of Latari (Part 1)...

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.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The Second Battle of Latari

On Galileo's first officer's command, the Waverider shuttle Vincenzo brought its single Type IV phaser array to full power. The curved strip of integrated phaser emitters quickly glowed bright orange at each tip then pulsed inward and converged at the center before discharging a full firing sequence upon the lead Tholian vessel.

The modified phaser beam slammed into the silicon ship's forward shields with bright illumination then punctured the defense grid and destroyed the frigate's forward weapons array with a violent explosion. The sustained phaser beam continued to penetrate into the Tholian hull before ceasing firing, leaving the enemy ship now listing out of control. Internal eruptions breached the dart's outer hull and spewed several Tholians into space, their crystalline carapaces violently twitching before shattering into pieces from the near-absolute zero temperature of the vacuum.

Aria kept her eyes on what she was doing, focusing on it. "Target destroyed," she called out, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Adrenaline had pushed everything to this moment, to the screen, the battle...it was like some advanced game of tag. Except each target was countless of lives and the lives of Starfleet personnel were at stake.

The Tholian ship debris started to rotate slowly away from its original course with several pieces missing Vincenzo by mere meters. But trailing behind the first frigate was another Tholian warship, which now swiftly maneuvered around its fallen companion and focused its weapons on the Waverider.

Tris wanted to cheer, but there was no time. Looking with concentration at the sensor & tactical display in front of him, Shizn announced, “This is not good. Massive debris cloud is all about us.” There truly was too much scrap and spinning bits of hull almost upon them. There was no way around it, and this wasn’t going to be pretty. Tris quickly calculated the area to fly through to get the least amount of damage. Speaking louder, “Hang onto something,” again, the Andorian thought.

Shizn caused the Waverider to drop in the Z axis, then banking to port, yet thrustering the aft further to port, this put the Vincenzo at the optimal angle. Impulse engines were brought to full, causing the shuttle to crash into the debris field. The shield were being pulverized by all the small bits. The Waverider was then barrel rolled to the right up and over a large chunk of Tholian hull. “Yes!” Shizn exclaimed and angled the shuttle to starboard and through the rest of the debris.

"Sirs, that did it, circuitry to the phaser bank has failed. We are loosing circuitry again. Attempting to keep forward shield and engines." T'Lin gave her report in that typical Vulcan fashion. Very little emotion tinging what was the shuttles basically dying breath.

"We are being targeted!" Aria's voice was firm, to cut over any noise. "They've got a lock on us and are charging weapons." The words weren't hopeless, but matter of fact as she watched the readings she was getting. Her heart seemed to have slowed down with it as well.

Tris clenched his jaw, realizing he had been holding his breath. He was sure that his face probably looked twice as blue as normal. He was so frustrated. He had no more thruster response, so he wasn’t going to be able to dodge about anymore as before. All he could do was turn the shuttle, so that the strongest shield was toward the attacker. He was turning ventral side toward the approaching enemy, but it was slow.

Scarlet glanced to the readouts, seeing the painstaking turn Tris was attempting, and the efforts to balance systems and power around them. She also knew it wouldn't be enough. They'd taken one of the enemy ships out, and bought the others time that could help save lives. There was nothing they could do...but they'd done their duty. "Keep it up, Shizn. Everything to shields...now we have their attention, let's make sure we keep it just a little longer."

T'Lin worked like she was playing one of those Earth piano concertos as her fingers danced across the panel trying to balance failing circuitry, failing engines, and trying to keep shields up. It kept her mind busy without thought to what was to come. She knew the probability of a heavily damaged sub-light shuttle against a still fully functioning starship and surviving the encounter was close to a mathematically calculated zero.

Shizn was becoming more and more frustrated at the lack of response from the shuttle. “Shax upon you!!” Tris was referring to the approaching Tholian warship. Then comically he said to himself, “Well, this isn’t how I intended on going.”

As a desperate maneuver, Marisa pulled all power to the engines to help get them to safety, knowing it was futile. Her first thought was of the science scans and samples she had with her. The second was of Luke.

Aria looked at the readings in front of her, adrenaline making everything seem to slow down. She glanced up, her eyes going to Blake. She thought briefly, although with how time felt for her it felt like a low time, about what was being left behind. And then she couldn't, a weak smile coming to her. No last words could express what she felt about her friends, the people she considered family. Her eyes went from Blake to the others and then back at her work. And she thought of her father.

Taking in a long, deep breath, Blake closed her eyes for just a brief moment, focused entirely on the air filling her body and the smooth arms of the chair she was holding, letting it ground her. The noise dimmed and chaos faded, and as she let the long, slow breath out between slightly parted lips, her eyes and features were calm but resolute as she issued the final order. "Hold the line."


USS Kali

Kali was shaking somewhat, Sofie could feel it, the damage sustained earlier must have affected the impulse drive and as the ship swooped in for another attack on the Tholian enemy the wear was beginning to show. Sofie was also shaking, reaching some sort of resonance with the ship that was carrying her - both of them keenly aware that Kali's battered shell was the only thing keeping the ensign from certain oblivion.

"Torpedoes ready to fire." She heard from one corner and "Shields have failed in sections C and F." from another. Somewhere else she heard a cheer at the report of "Vincenzo's taken one of them out!" It was all rolling over her now - as if there was a thick layer of ice between herself and the world. She kept trying to snap back into focus, break out of that prison, but the terror kept dragging her back in. It had been there since they had first arrived in Latari and slowly but surely it has enveloped her totally. So much had happened over the last few days, so much...

"Ullswater," the captain called out, she was still standing among the tactical displays suspended at the front of the bridge, drinking in every available morsel of data that might factor into her decisions. Standing there among her crew she truly looked like a warrior. She repeated herself louder and more clearly "Ensign Ullswater."

The ensign blinked once and coughed "Captain?"

"Are you alright Ensign?" The Tellarite asked softly. Was she? Sofie wasn't generally sure but at this point it seemed the answer was probably not. She couldn't shake off the dread, the feeling of doom. How many people would lose their lives today? How many had already gone down with Trial? How could you not think about it?

"Fine sir." She exhaled deeply. Keep your head above water. Sirens continued to wail, the consoles bleeping and the poor ship groaned. Sofie could hear it all in the long moment it took the captain before she responded.

"That last strike, how much damage." The tone of concern was gone and the implicit message was clear - whether or not the Tellaraite captain believed Sofie's protestation was unimportant now. This was a battle, there was a job to do, there was no time for being alright. Any moment not spent on task now was an increase in the possibility of massive numbers of deaths.

Sofie pulled up the sensor readings, the captain's authority getting her hands moving and her mind emboldened by the purpose. "Looks like minimal damage to the propulsion or weapons systems. Several of the torpedoes were near misses."

"We're getting sloppy." For the first time the captain sounded truly frustrated. "Tactical?"

"Targeting sensors may have been damaged more than we thought." Lieutenant Pärt answered "Switch to manual I suppose."

"Do it. I've got more faith in you than a set of damaged sensors Lieutenant."

"Captain, the remaining Tholian ship is turning towards Vincenzo, it will not survive." The Vulcan operations officer reported, his emotionless tone of voice sounding remarkably out of place with the gravity of the news he brought.

"Time?" The captain's voice jabbed out.

"Seconds."

"Lower shields," the captain reacted instantaneously her face and demeanour taking on desperate characteristics. "Lock onto her crew, beam them in. We get them out now!"

In space, the remaining Tholian frigate maneuvered around its fallen bretheren's debris and brought its weapons to bear against Vincenzo in a primal act of revenge. The forward tip of the dart-shaped vessel illuminated then fired its primary tetryon disruptor. A concentrated cerulean beam of subatomic and subspace particles struck the Waverider directly on her nose, impacting then collapsing the shuttle's shields. The disruptor beam tore through the support craft's nose cone and disintegrated it, then was followed by a second beam which seared through the cockpit from above and ruptured out beneath the ventral hull.

Crippled and catastrophically damaged, shuttlecraft Vincenzo pitched violently out of control from the force of the impacts and began to break apart. What remained of the crew cabin and aft compartments exploded out into space as the wing manifolds crumbled from hull overstress. The impulse reactor containment systems went critical within milliseconds causing the fusion reaction to collapse in on itself.

The Waverider shuttlecraft exploded in a small shockwave which incinerated its remains and flashed blindingly in space before slowly fading from existence. Where the Starfleet away team and its critical findings once were, now only remained a fine cloud of particle dust.


USS Galileo

"Yes Sir, intercept course with the Vincenzo set, speed full impulse," Sylver announced even as he got the ship moving. He looked at their position, his brain calling up the maximum range of the transporter. He got them within range, but with everything going on it was going to be a tough ride. And he prayed they were going to get there in time.

At the bridge's tactical station, Diego tracked the helm's course as their vessel closed on the shuttle for emergency transport. But there wasn't enough time. Still not close enough to the battle space, the security officer desperately tried for a long-range transporter lock while Galileo accelerated towards the battle front.

"...There's too much interference and debris, I can't get a lock!" the lieutenant frantically exclaimed. "The Tholians are firing!"

On the main viewscreen, the Nova-class' crew suddenly witnessed the savage assault against their away team's Waverider-class support craft. Two blue Tholian disruptor beams impacted the shuttle and penetrated its hull, tearing it to pieces and shredding the crew compartments. Primary and secondary explosions rippled from within the shuttle before it burst into a luminescent explosion with a small shockwave.

There was a long silence, then Jemima began to look for any survivors. "Scans show no lifesigns, sir."

"Oh my God.." Diego whispered with shaky breaths. The XO and her team were gone. Destroyed by the Tholians.

Allyndra stood stunned as she watched almost dropping her scanner. She knew that the shuttle when she spotted it had basically no chance and she could figure that Commander Blake was trying to give the Lagrange a fighting chance but to see the outcome it hurt in every heart she had. One always hoped, but the reality was laid out like a merchant with a flawed Trellium silk bolt.

Goldie had been silently cheering for the Waverider and her crew. Didn't everyone cheer for the underdog? They'd returned when everyone thought them dead and had even helped take out an enemy ship. But they were supposed to win, not to be destroyed like this. She stared at the console, hoping to see something, hoping to get a message that they were safe, but there was nothing.

Jemima had seen plenty of tragedy since joining the Galileo, but this felt...personal. She'd worked with people on that shuttle. Sandoval was--had been--on there. She couldn't believe that, just like that, the little ship was gone. She stared down, not seeing the data on her console for the tears she could not hold back.

Sylver's lips parted as he looked up, his eyes wide for a moment. His jaw clenched with the wave of...grief. Disappointment. Pride of their sacrifice. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in years and he sucked in a quick breath to stop the tears threatening.

Luke looked at the viewscreen his jaw muscles tensing, his eyes wide. There was nothing but anger and fear running through his head but it was softened as Marisa's face swam through his mind, closing his eyes tightly to dispel the image. "Do it again, the computer is wrong, interference from the debris or the explosion, just rescan now and find me those life signs!" His voice faltered, as Marisa's face had surfaced now so did Scarlet's and then Lily's, the now orphaned daughter, this wasn't the time to be getting emotion.

"I have checked the system Sir, they are not there." Mimi called out after managing to pull herself away from the grim sight of the exploding Waverider.

Luke felt like he was suspended over a large canyon, and suddenly dropped so he was free falling. The ever stead fast stumbled, as if his very heart couldn't take what Mimi was telling him. “No" was the word that left his lips, shaky and broken, worst was he wasn't sure who he felt the loss of more and for that he hated himself.

Sitting silently in his chair, Andreus Kohl spared a quick look in Luke's direction. There was a desperation in his sapphire eyes and his mouth hung open slack-jawed, as if he had a question he needed to ask. Returning his gaze to the viewscreen, Kohl set his jaw, but he couldn't hide his hopelessness. His shoulders had slumped and the light in his eyes had dimmed. Kohl stared at the screen, but he couldn't process any of what he was seeing anymore.

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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