July 24th, 003 SDE, 1635 hours:
Countryman shifted on his feet, as he watched the Toral shuttle come in for landing. He still had a fair number of questions, and the other captain had promised to answer them.
It certainly seemed like it would be quite the story and he had to say he didn’t appreciate being shot at for no apparent reason. Thankfully they weren’t going to have to wait long. The alien shuttle settled onto the deck plate, as a pair of wings folded in. Swing wings were a dated concept, at one point in time they’d been phased out entirely, only to make a comeback decades later with the rise of space carriers. Variable geometry wings brought with them a number of advantages, they just weren’t well liked by engineers due to all the issues that came with them. They added complexity to a machine, which meant higher costs to maintain and repair.
The main purpose they had in modern design was for stowage after landing. Wings were especially common in dual-purpose craft. Any space fighter or shuttle designed for atmospheric flight had them, but they were also used in combat fighters. The high surface area was good for radiating waste heat in battle while also providing a convenient space for hard point mountings.
He noted how smoothly the wings folded in, and then a ramp dropped down, as the pumps refilled the hanger. A couple of minutes passed before the hatch opened. Allowing three figures to step out and walk down the ramp to the deck. Countryman watched them for a moment before signaling the guards.
He joined the aliens on the deck a minute later. The guards had swept in first for a final weapons check, not that the sensors had detected any. Countryman smiled, “Welcome aboard, Captain. I trust you have some answers for me, as I don’t appreciate being shot at.”
The alien woman looked a little sheepish, “Yes, sorry about that. I’d hoped for a less... violent first contact with your people. I’ve heard some things about your people. You’ve made quite the name for yourselves in just a few months. Prior to Cantra we hadn’t heard anything about your race, now it's becoming one of the most talked about in the quadrant.”
“Really? It feels like going there was a mistake. I’d hoped to smooth things with the Valorians, but it seems that was never going to happen. If anything they are becoming more warlike than before.”
She shifted, “Yes we’ve heard the reports. The recent rise of the Minara clan within the Confederation has been a major concern for a number of powers. The Valorian fleet is more or less a joke, underfunded and ill-equipped, but we’ve already heard reports of that changing.”
“Oh I can confirm that, I’ve fought more than enough of them in this part of the galaxy. This area is swarming with Valorian fleets. Pretty much any system of value has at least a full battlegroup of Valorian warships in it. From what I’ve been able to gather, the current clan is working to expand their influence across their entire border.”
“Concerning if true.”
“Anyway you still haven’t told me what was up with your warship.”
“Right,” she replied, her shoulders drooping a bit, “An embarrassment for our navy, that’s what. The Simple Devastation was ordered to report to the reserve fleet. She’s old, launched almost fifty years ago, which means she’s at the end of her lifespan. Barring a war, the ship would likely be retired in a few years. Instead of reporting, she crossed into Valorian space and made her way here. Although I am curious what you are doing in Valorian space.”
“Passing through, our original route would have taken us around, but we were forced to cross this sector instead. Not that it matters much with all the Valorian activity in this region of late. We’ll run into them either way.”
“It’s that bad? I’d heard the Valorian were pushing ships along their borders and the surrounding areas but nothing that bad.”
“Yes, well it’s something for you to consider. Now, on the other subject do you have any idea why your battleship went rogue and what it’s doing out here?”
“Presumably? Trying to start a war. It’s the only thing that makes sense, but I’m not sure what he was thinking. We don’t need a war, not now.”
“A war you say? With the Valorians I presume.”
“Well naturally, there have been voices calling for war with them for years now and that faction has been getting louder recently. There is also some concern with the Minara faction rising to power within the Valorian Confederation. I suspect and plan to confirm that our errant captain saw fit to provoke a war earlier rather than later.”
“I see, and you don’t approve.”
“I don’t think we are ready, not yet. I’ve seen the projections, while Valorian ships aren’t very good at slugging matches, they’ve always been faster. Combine that with their strong shields, and their rapid-fire long-range pulse cannons, and you have a fleet well suited to skirmisher tactics. If we could pin them down, we could win a battle easily, but the Valorians are wealthy. A war would mean an increase in their military funding, it wouldn’t be hard for them to replace losses. Any war would have to be quick and decisive, a drawn-out one would not end in our favor.
“I don’t envy you then,” replied Countryman as they left the hanger. The subject soon transitioned to other things.
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July 25, 003 SDE; 0730 hours:
Reidia watched her screens, they had tracked the Toral through hyperspace to this out of the way system. Whatever they were doing out here, she didn’t know but she figured she’d find out soon enough. They would be coming out of warp any second now.
A second later the stars shifted back to a more normal starscape, not at all like the distorted streaks you would see at warp speed. As things resolved, the usual post warp reports and activity came up.
“Contacts sir,” her sensor officer frowned, “Menace and Toral vessels just past weapons range.”
She blinked and stood up. The officer put the visual on the main viewer, even as the first question was voiced. “Confirm that report.”
“Confirmed, one menace battle carrier, two menace destroyers, a dozen menace fighters on patrol, one Toral Imperator class battleship and a Toral Marathon class cruiser all on sensors. Interestingly, the Imperator has taken heavy damage, she’s lost shields, weapons and propulsion, and reading disabled. The Marathon has sustained minimal damage. Both menace destroyers have sustained moderate damage, I’m reading multiple hull breaches.” The officer paused, blinked and then with widened eyes reported, “The menace flag has sustained damage, I’m reading two hull breaches...”
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Reidia moved closer, “Someone got through that armor!!? How?”
The officer shrugged, no idea. Reidia turned to the visual and then saw something else. One of the menace destroyers was in fact under the menace flag, secured in place by docking arms. While drones flew over her hull, robotic arms worked on the battle damage. The scene reminded her of the kind of work she’d see at a shipyard. Intellectually she’d known the menace had some ability to repair their ships in the field, but this was the first time she’d actually seen the process first hand.
A battle-damaged section of plating was being pulled up by a robotic arm, while a drone surveyed the section, firing a laser at several spots. She wasn’t sure what it was doing with the laser, until a moment later when a robotic arm moved back into view. The arm quickly scraped out some old material before proceeding to work on the exposed internal section. They were rebuilding the underlying area beneath the plate. Similar work was being done elsewhere.
It only took her a moment to realize that this was an opportunity. If the menace were repairing damage, it gave her an opening, but it was obvious they had been seen. The alien flag was already launching fighters and the other destroyer was now moving to engage. She turned to her crew with new orders. Yet she couldn’t help wishing, she’d had more ships with her. As it was, she only had a few frigates for escort. Her mind recalled her last skirmish, and she knew they’d have to be careful of Menace torpedoes. A full volley from one of their destroyers proved sufficient to cripple her ship.
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The Toral captain watched her viewports as the previously peaceful system had turned to battle. As she watched the refuge destroyer Umikaze was now dueling the much larger Valorian Dreadnought Bountiful Treasure. A part of her was tempted to help, but she’d been requested to stay out of the unfolding battle.
Instead she figured she would take notes, while her crew got ready to take the Devastation under tow.
The refuge flag had launched fighters but was notably turning while still docked to the Coto. She’d seen the ship move fairly quickly before, but her rate of acceleration was notably slower now. More in line with a ship of her mass, actually. Of course, it would make sense for her to be unable to make full use of her engines while conducting repairs to another vessel.
Suddenly her forward tubes lit up, as they spat a massive volley of warheads at the Valorian dreadnought. Barely half a second later, the Coto fired her own payload. While the Umikaze increased speed, closing the gap. The destroyer entered into gun range, just as the Valorian ship opened up with her own weapons.
As for her escorts, they accelerated moving to interpose themselves between the torpedoes and the dreadnought. Valorian plasma rounds raked the destroyer Umikaze with minimal effect, and then the refuge vessel returned fire. Her beam arrays fired, but her target wasn’t the Dreadnought, but the escorts.
The shields flared, taking the first barrage, and the second from the destroyer. As it sailed past the escorts at high speed. Then she fired her aft torpedoes as she passed, which slammed into one of the frigates at high speed. The warship broke apart under the fire, just as the large volley of torpedoes sailed into the range of the Valorian pulse cannons.
The Valorians opened up with a concentrated barrage, attempting to take out warheads before they could reach the dreadnought. She was impressed with the alien warheads as they absorbed or evaded multiple hits, while still managing to close at a rapid clip. Regardless, more than a few exploded, yet there were so many it hardly seemed to make a dent.
Before the Umikaze could come about for another pass, the barrage slammed into the dreadnought at high speed even as the ship actively attempted to evade. A good hundred sailed past regardless, but the rest of the rounds slammed into the shields with explosive results.
When the dust cleared, the dreadnought was still there, her armored hull ruptured in multiple places. The ship fired: heavy plasma rounds sailing out and striking the Umikaze. Her plating ruptured under the barrage, but it wasn’t enough to knock her out. She targeted a second frigate, her beams slicing through the shields this time.
The captain watched the ship’s shields sputter and break under the barrage. Then the unarmored hull simply melted as the particle beam sliced effortlessly through the hull.
Both remaining frigates broke formation, and the destroyer gave chase. Closing the distance on one of them, proving to be the faster ship in the process. Her forward tubes glowed before spitting death at the third frigate. The ship detonated in a massive fireball a moment later, leaving the dreadnought down three out of her four escorts, as she moved to intercept the Refuge flag, which was now moving away at one-quarter of the speed of light and accelerating.
The Enterprise fired another volley of torps, this time from her aft tubes, as the Umikaze closed on the final still fleeing escort. She half expected to see the ship make the jump to warp, but that wasn’t really an option as the Enterprise was projecting an active jamming field.
A nifty device that would prevent a stable warp field from forming in its radius but also making it impossible for her own ship to jump to hyperspace. Evidently her captain was confident in this fight and didn’t plan to let the Valorians retreat.
Seconds later, the Umikaze was in range to fire on the retreating frigate. Her beam array lit up and fired a focused energy pulse into the rear shields of the frigate. They flared brightly, but seemed to hold. At least for a bit, as the distances shrunk the destroyer started firing her cannons as well, which began to drain the shields. Finally they started to buckle, allowing several rounds to breach the hull. One of which found the valorian reactor and the ship exploded. Leaving the dreadnought without escort as she contended with a volley of torps, while being swarmed by Refuge fighter craft.
The small agile vessels were certainly doing damage and even more happened as the warhead found their marks. It seemed her help really wasn’t required.
Then the dreadnought entered the gun range of the Enterprise, her slower speed preventing her from actually getting out of range, but it had bought enough time. As the Coto was released just seconds after the first shots were exchanged, and the docking arms retreated back into the hull of the Enterprise. A process that took several precious seconds, yet miraculously they didn’t take a single hit.
Seconds later, the Umikaze suddenly seemed to teleport into range. A micro-jump? Impressive if so, especially given the active jamming. That thing affected everyone after all.
The destroyer opened up on the dreadnought with a massive volley of torpedoes at close range, her beam arrays and cannon firing as well. As she swept over the hull, several lightning blasts discharged into the Valorian shields as well.
A moment later, the Coto was firing her own heavy volley of rounds into the destroyer, as the Enterprise closed. Resulting in what could only be described as a fierce gun duel at close range. One the dreadnought tried to break from, while sending punishing levels of fire at the Enterprise, scoring several hits.
By the end of it, the Enterprise had six new hull breachs, the Coto twelve new ones after just being fixed and the Umikaze had sustained fourteen. As for the dreadnought, she was a shattered wreck, over two hundred hull breaches, main power was out and she was venting atmosphere but the hull was still intact.
The captain watched the Enterprise fire two final shots into the dreadnought before jumping to warp. A second later, the two destroyers followed. One of her crewmen spoke up, “I’m reading massive power fluctuations on that dreadnought if her reactor isn’t stabilized soon...”
The man trailed off, but she got the message. That ship was about to blow. Something her own crew seemed aware of, as they were launching escape pods. The humane thing would be to help, but instead, she ordered, “Lock tractor beams on the Devastation, spool up drives one and two, and prepare for immediate hyperspace jump.”
“Aye sir”
Seconds later, they were in hyperspace and heading back to their own territory. The captain did pick up the valorian distress call that followed a few minutes after they jumped out.