Drums of War (Part 10)

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:	USS O’Carroll
Date:	August 2388
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“Report!” Zachary demanded, seeing the fireball on the viewscreen that was formerly the Maketu.

The Zaldan at Ops, Lieutenant Relva, took a moment to confirm before reporting. “The Maketu is down. No power, life support failing.” He was about to report the few escape pods that were launching, but they could clearly see it on the screen. “Their warp field is losing containment.”

Zachary, who had taken a moment to lower his head and mourn for DuCard and his crew, suddenly looked up, a flash of an evil thought running in his mind. “How long?” he asked.

“Sir?” the lieutenant replied, not exactly sure what the Commodore was asking.

“How long until she goes critical?” Zach asked, rising from his chair and walking over to the Ops station to look for himself.

“Less than three minutes,” the Zaldan confirmed.

=/\= “Commodore!” =/\= came the voice of the ship’s Chief Engineer and Zachary’s wife over the open comm channel. If anyone knew what the man was thinking, it would be Jillian. =/\= “Don’t you dare! If that ship goes while you’re trying something bold, it’ll be the end of us all.” =/\=

“If we don’t,” Zachary fired back, “the Consortium will finish us all anyway.” It was more than true. The Consortium had continued to carve up the remaining Starfleet ships. Less than five remained to stand against the last nine Consortium ships. And as long as the Brazil and Tiananmen stood, Unity didn’t have a prayer.

Starfleet needed a miracle.

Hell, Starfleet needed the Dominion.

Zach mentally sighed, not exactly thrilled that the day had come where he’d have to cherish that thought.

Bracing himself after another phaser hit, he looked over at the tactical plot on the viewer, taking note of what assets remained in his control. “Signal the Odyssey. Have them assume formation with us. We’re going all in for the Tianamen. Helm, swing us wide for another pass. Make sure our return flight path will bring us near the Maketu.”

Not waiting for his command to be confirmed, Zachary approached Lieutenant Wul at Tactical and ordered, “Take Lieutenant Relva and head for Auxiliary Control. If something happens, you keep us on course. Either the Tiananmen goes, or we do.”

The Betazoid Tactical Chief could sense the Commodore’s determination and knew that protesting was futile, especially in a time of conflict. He nodded. “It’s been a pleasure, sir.”

Zachary nodded to both men as they departed the bridge and the relief Tactical officer assumed the vacant position. “Jill,” he said, gently. “You still--”

=/\= “Still here, Zach.” =/\= Her tone was as hollow as his. =/\= “The tractor beam is ready. Damage Control teams are on standby to tend to the bridge.” =/\=

=/\= “As am I and the Medical Staff,” =/\= came the voice of the ship’s doctor. The newest addition to the crew, the Tellarite doctor hadn’t the chance to find a good debate partner among the crew. Should the O’Carroll not make it, he would regret going down without a final volley of words.

“I’m sure they won’t be needed, Doctor,” Zachary responded, knowing the Tellarite’s nature. “Haven’t you learned by now that this is the USS O’Carroll? Luck isn’t just our business, it’s in our lifeblood.”

=/\= “My sickbay would strongly disagree, Commodore!” =/\= Zach smiled at the Doctor’s attitude. =/\= “Get this over with so that the wounded will stop coming!” =/\=

The Commodore nodded and returned to his seat. “Load all forward launchers. Give the forward shields everything we’ve got. I don’t care about our backside. Just keep us from blowing up. Signal the Odyssey’s cobrahead to fly ahead of us, Attack Pattern Kappa Five.”

The helmsman, now in charge of the communications in the absence of an operations chief, responded in his typical Vulcan manner. “The Odyssey acknowledges.”

“On my mark,” Zachary said, watching the O’Carroll finish its maneuver to get into position for what could be its final action, and the stardrive of the Galaxy-Class Odyssey get into position in front of them.

Zachary took a deep breath as he returned to his chair. For a moment, time stood still. The phaser lances that shot past the O’Carroll brilliantly lit up the screen. Right in front of them, in the distance was their target. The Excalibur-Class Tiananmen. The flagship of the Consortium fleet. It was time to end its reign.

“Mark.”

The O’Carroll followed the Odyssey at full impulse. Both ships started firing immediately. The Odyssey’s cobrahead relentlessly fired its dorsal bank, the only one able to strike the mighty Tiananmen from long range. From the base of its throat launched quantum after quantum. The O’Carroll covered as its tractor snagged the fiery hulk of the Maketu. Her phasers were inadequate against the mighty Consortium ship, but her six forward torpedo launchers could not be silenced as it unleashed a barrage of quantum torpedoes.

As expected, the Tiananmen didn’t stay silent. Its phaser arrays went into rapid fire mode, giving the two attackers everything it had. But her Captain knew something was wrong. The Odyssey was perfectly positioned to protect the O’Carroll and it’s cargo, so it received the bulk of the turning flagship’s retorts. In a matter of seconds, the cobra head was separated from the deflector. Both pieces spun away from the other as uncontrollable flames consumed the interior of the ship.

The Odyssey’s lower-most hull and nacelles swung to obstruct the O’Carroll’s path, who had now turned upside down, treating the underbelly of the ship as it were the top. Two well placed torpedoes by the O’Carroll took out what remained of the deflector and sent what was left careening out of control -- and out of the Akira-Class ship’s path. By now, the ship and her cargo were dangerously close to the port side of the Tiananmen. The O’Carroll was well outside of the Consortium ship’s torpedo arcs, but the mighty ship gave the smaller one the biggest beating it could with her phasers.

Within seconds, the O’Carroll’s shields buckled and fell. Phaser beams began to scar the ship’s hull. One blast took out the doors of the flight deck, decompressing it instantly. Another blast cut away a pylon to the weapons pod. A third lance took out the saucer’s starboard running lights and caused a massive explosion that took out two sections.

It was not enough to stop the O’Carroll. Soon, she passed underneath the pitted hull of the Tiananmen, as if she were closely inspecting how well the torpedo barrage had performed. She did, however, immediately release her tractor beam and tried to arc away before the impact. The mighty Tiananmen instantly was engulfed in a brilliant ball of light as its engineering hull was vaporized. Fire rippled up through its decks. The port nacelle, overwhelmed by the debris and shrapnel, surrendered its containment, sending a mighty shockwave into the small amount of space around it.

On the bridge of the O’Carroll, Zachary was thrown from his chair when the shockwave impacted the valiant Akira. He flew into the holographic viewscreen and bounced off of the wall behind it. The bridge suddenly lost power, and Zachary lost consciousness. His final thought as he saw fires break out on the bridge was that he hoped, for the sake of Starbase Unity, the Dominion would make it in time. With the Tiananmen gone, Unity finally had a chance.

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Accreditation

This post was originally written by Greenfelt22 for Bravo Fleet and posted on the Bravo Fleet forums. Use of Bravo Fleet's Drums of War (Part 10) 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.