Collapse (Part 3)

ORIGINAL WRITING This page was originally published elsewhere as part of a joint sim or fleet effort. It has been duplicated here for posterity.

Characters:	Commodore Zachary O’Connell
Location:	New Bajor
Author:	Greenfelt22
Template:Post

“Evasive Maneuvers!” Zachary shouted, seeing one of the mighty Jem’Hadar battleships break up before his eyes.

The O’Carroll dove to starboard, narrowly missing a burning warp nacelle coming their way. Nearly twenty minutes had passed since the first shot was fired. All sides saw casualties. The Jem’Hadar had lost nearly a third of their assault force. A few fighters had been lost as well. The Consortium, however, was losing ships left and right. Just a few moments ago, the Ronin-class USS Invincible, aptly named, just suffered a core breach at the hands of the 325th Black Knights Squadron. The explosion took out a couple Karemma vessels in the process, turning the odds significantly into Starfleet’s favor.

Unless there was a miracle, the Consortium was slated to lose this battle.

The deck shuddered as the ship took another torpedo hit.

“Shields at thirty percent!” called out Lieutenant Wul at tactical. “Minor damage reported.”

“Return fire!” Zachary shouted, seeing the Consortium-controlled USS Antares dive in front of them and unless a volley of phaser lances. The room shook again, sparks flying from multiple consoles and overhead conduits.

“Engineering to bridge!” shouted a voice from the comm systems. “We’re losing primary systems. Switching what I can to secondaries, but you’re not going to have full strength.”

“Give me everything you can, Jill!” Zachary shouted back. “We’re not done--.”

“Commodore!” shouted the Zaldan at Ops, interrupting the flag officer’s orders. “Sensors are picking up activity at the Idran system!” He looked up to face the Commodore who just leaped out of his chair to run over to see the sensor readings for himself. “A dozen ships at least have emerged from the wormhole. They’ve run over the Consortium forces and they’re on their way here!”

Zachary grinned and laughed. “Open a channel to all ships, even the Consortium.” Waiting long enough for the nod, he continued. “This is Commodore Zachary O’Connell. Starfleet reinforcements are inbound from the Alpha Quadrant. Cease your fire and surrender now.”

The Commodore gave a motion to the Ops chief to cut the transmission. The firing did stop, but the remainder of the Consortium forces started to turn their tails towards the Starfleet Task Force. “Focus all fire on the Antares and the Ticonderoga,” he instructed Tactical. “They can’t be allowed to leave.”

Just as phaser lances shot out from the O’Carroll, followed by fire from the Dominion ships, the Antares exploded. The Ticonderoga, however, succumbed to the phaser fire, losing power to the endings and sputtering to a halt. The Karemma ships warped away.

Cheers erupted on the bridge, and Zachary found himself smiling. He wanted to rejoice, but he knew that this day had only just begun. “Status report,” he asked Commander Kane, the Task Force’s Chief Strategic Operations Officer.

“Aside from the Freedom and Brandenburg and the handful of Jem’Hadar?” Gwendolyn asked. “We lost quite a bit.”

“The Task Group assigned to take Deep Space 11?” the Commodore clarified.

“We’ve heard from the Black Hawk’s boarding parties. They’ve retaken the base, but Terlexa escaped. Of the Task Group, only the Cochrane made it.”

Zachary looked towards the viewscreen where Deep Space 11 floated in the distance. He could see derelict ships floating around it, not to mention burning coming from the starbase. This was unfortunate, greatly unfortunate. The Black Hawk, Callisto and so many others were gone, taken down in their prime. “Survivors?”

“The Cochrane and Deep Space 11 are collecting from the wreckage and escape pods. There’s more than they can handle. New Bajor’s in worse shape, sir. We’re in contact now with the planet’s government. There are still Consortium cells on the planet, and they’re out to do as much damage as possible.”

He nodded. “Signal the Vorta. Let’s get Jem’Hadar troops on the ground. Have the Freedom and the Brandenburg assist with recovery.”

Zachary returned to his chair and sighed. He needed to get on the ground as well, but he would have to stay on this ship until help arrived. There was a lot to coordinate.

He dictated a quick message to send to the reinforcements and to Starbase Unity. Starfleet was again in control of New Bajor and the Gamma Quadrant. Zachary, however, felt that it would be days before they knew what the true cost was.

This wasn’t over. Not yet.

Return to the Consortium Crisis

Accreditation

This post was originally written by Greenfelt22 for Bravo Fleet and posted on the Bravo Fleet forums. Use of Bravo Fleet's Collapse (Part 3) is permitted under the Creative Commons 4.0 License and has been modified to suit the story and purposes of the USS Black Hawk Star Trek Role-Playing Simulation.