Sacrifice for the Mission

Upon losing a few of their fighters, the Spectre's squadron backed off of the remaining Bird of Prey just in case the Ghawran decided to continue its assault.

"They're shooting at each other now!" one of the pilots exclaimed with joy, pushing aside the death of his squad mates for the time being. Starfleet officers were trained to be detached when a job needed to be done and delay their emotional responses until an appropriate time. The pilots were especially adept at this, and received extra training in the tradition of ancient Earth Air Forces. Pilots had to maintain exceptional reflexes at all times when in the air and strong emotions could mean the difference between life and death when in the air... or in this case, in space.

"Now if we can just get them to continue that, we won't have a problem," another added.

The squad leader attempted to corral them back on mission. "Alright, cut the speculation. We still have a mission to perform... and we're not doing good enough," he added as he detected another round of Ion pulses form the remaining two Birds of Prey.

He then ordered the fighters to pursue the remaining two, leaving their old target's fate to the actions of the Ghawran.

The Bird of Prey did not wait around, however, and actually went ahead of the fighters toward its fellow ships. The Captain figured he'd have more chance with them then facing on the Ghawran alone, and its trajectory would at least make Ja'rod think it was obeying orders.

The lead Klingon Captain had the same thought, however, seeing Ja'rod decimate his fellow Klingons. He would not stand for it anymore and ordered the other two to follow him. They all formed up and headed for the fighters.

"Keep 'em busy," the lead pilot ordered, knowing the Spectre would arrive soon to finish them off. By the time the ship arrived, the fighters had disabled one ship's engines and weapons and lowered the shields on a second by half.

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Quickly punching keys, David loaded what data he thought necessary and transferred it to the captain's ready room terminal. Rising from his chair, he strode purposefully up around the ramp to the hall and swiftly along it to the ready room. Summer's was just taking his accustomed chair as David entered, so without pause he activated the center holographic display on the table.

As the tactical map of the immediate region coalesced into view, it showed the 'third' quadrant of the Azimuth Horizon anomaly and the relative positions, in green and red icons, of the Lotus, Spectre and her fighters along with the red Klingon ships current locations; updated in real time. Standing across from captain Summers, David took a breath and in a loud, agitated voice, spoke his mind. He ignored the colorful holographic display completely.

"Sir, you know I would never object to you in front of the crew. But we cannot just abandon the Lotus!"

Summers sighed as the Commander spoke. "I know Commander and thank you for that, I understand where you are coming from but we still have a mission to perform and I do believe most of her ablative armor is up so the Klingons will have a very hard time getting to her and her crew, right now there is not much we can do for them, and I do not wish to leave those Birds of Prey kill off the rest of our fighters and continue messing with the Horizon, it is unfortunate that we left the Lotus but she will be fine until we return to her. Right now we need to take of those remaining Birds before we can get back to the Lotus and I would like to do that as quickly as possible, suggestions?"

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With a reluctant nod, David accepted Summers' statement but, with a smirk, added an addendum of his own.

"If I may suggest sir, could we at least leave the Klingons a parting gift? Let's say, a full spread from the aft tubes?"

Turning his attention back to the holographic display, David continued with his synopsis.

"It is well known sir that birds of prey are weakest on their ventral hull, farther aft of the joint section of the engineering hull and neck. I suggest we come up underneath them. I would suggest all available power to forward weapons and a full spread. That, coupled with the remaining fighter arsenal on the same point should punch through their shields and then hull with relative speed."

Daniel thought about Rogers' thoughts on the situation carefully trying to find any holes or things he did not agree with and could not find anything, "Very well make it so, launch the rear torpedoes immediately and coordinate with the fighters on our new game plan so we can get back to the Lotus immediately and assist them"

David nodded an affirmation and, grinning, turned and left the room. Striding swiftly onto the bridge he ordered the spread fired from the aft tubes at the dreadnaught harassing the Lotus, giving particular instructions that the pulse fire tubes give a fast double launch. He wanted their 'gift' to be impressive. Taking the center chair back, David sat and studied the tactical display still showing on the forward viewer for a second, then called to comms.

"Open channel to the fighter squadrons."

A moment passed then a quick chirp emanated throughout the bridge, signifying an open connection with the Spectre's remaining fighters. Taking a quick breath, Rogers outlined the attack plan on the three remaining birds.

"Squadrons! Follow our lead and prepare to target these co-ordinates in sequence. Attack pattern epsilon delta."

While he spoke, David punched icons on the arm rest that sent targeting highlights to the fighters, pinpointing a specific area on the ventral hull of the port bird of prey, aft of the engineering hull where it joined the neck of the Klingon ship. Once he finished, Rogers caught the helmsman's attention.

"Helm, full impulse. Bearing three one zero, mark three three nine. Bring us up under them."

As the Spectre leaped forward under increased thrust, two torpedo's shot aft from her tubes, quickly followed by another pair. All four sped swiftly above and past the Lotus, speeding toward the large dreadnaught. The Klingon warship was beaming landing parties aboard the stricken Lotus fleet flagship and her shields were down. The first pair of missiles punched through the leading edge of her port warp nacelle and erupted with a spectacular explosion that blew off the front twenty meters of the nacelle.

The second pair of torpedo's collided seconds later on the port side four decks below the Klingon bridge. Because of an abnormal glitch in the pulse launch of the second of these pair, they were seconds apart. The first torpedo detonated on contact and cratered a huge hole into the hull of the dreadnaught beside her navigation deflector and destroyed the Klingon port fire control room. Immediately afterward the second, and last parting gift from the Spectre swept through the plasma cloud of the first eruption and smashed on through another bulkhead. But there was no explosion. The pass through the plasma debris had interrupted the firing sequence of the warhead.

A klingon warrior picked herself up off of the floor of the corridor where she had been thrown when the torpedo had smashed part way through the wall nearby. A shrill whistle and a gathering wind denoted escaping atmosphere around the puncture. She stared mutely at the short snout of the unexploded ordinance sticking almost a full foot into the hallway. The faint whine of the trigger mechanism within the torpedo bespoke of it's interrupted detonation. Slowly, the Klingon female began to back away from the slightly smoking weapon.

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Summers walked back out onto the bridge as an Ensign at tactical reported that a torpedo had penetrated the hull of the colossal Klingon ship but not detonated. "Is there any way to manually detonate from the Spectre?"

"Yes Captain but not from the distance we are at now, we might be able to do so on our return to help the Lotus"

"Very well Ensign make that a priority for yourself on our return to do so" Daniel said as he walked towards his seat and took the center chair as Rogers moved to the seat next to him.

"Aye Captain"

"Commander have the squadrons been notified of our new plan of attack?"

"Yes Sir, they have. I used attack pattern epsilon delta."

Tapping a couple of icons on his arm rest control panel, Rogers brought up the planned attack on the tactical display on the main viewer. The Spectre would sweep in under the left-most bird of prey and unleash a volley of combined phaser and torpedo fire, followed immediately by the fighters behind her with their weapons. Once completed, the Akira class ship would loop over the center enemy using phasers to keep it at bay, and dive under the starboard bird to repeat the epsilon delta attack on it, then swing back in an immelman type loop to attack the remaining center bird of prey.

"Hopefully Captain, we can accomplish a quick triple here and get back to the flag ship ASAP."

"Let us hope so Commander, Commander O'Conner report how are things in engineering?"

The chirp of a com-badge activating preceded the voice of Michael O'Conner who replied, "I'm routing all auxiliary power into the structural integrity field and our shields are slowly recovering. My team has repaired any remaining sabotage damage. I need five minutes and then we're good to help with those Birds if necessary."

Just then, an explosion could be detected and seen through their viewer bursting out of one side of the hull of the Ghawran as the remaining unexploded torpedo was detonated. "Sir, it appears that some shots fired from the Lotus impacted the unexploded torpedo," reported Lieutenant Tritter. "They're effectively disabled."

"Very good," replied Captain Summers. "Helm, in five minutes set a course towards those Birds of Prey, full impulse."

After the alloted time, the course was set and they were ready to go as their fighters continued the assault planned out by Rogers. However, the expected need did not occur as was passed on by the navigation officer. "Sir, the Lotus is already ahead of us. It looks like they repaired their damaged engines and are on course to assist with the Birds of Prey."

The helmsman excitedly announced when one of the two remaining Birds were destroyed, and with a bit of disappointment added, "The other one has cloaked, Sir."

"Very well, let them run," replied Summers. "Helm, plot a course in the containment loop pattern given to us by Fleet Command. Maximum Warp."

He tapped his com-badge. "Engineering, adjust the warp core to allow the subspace rifts to form at maximum warp," said Summers to O'Conner.

"Yes, Sir, we need command authorization to remove the lockouts."

"Right. Computer, remove the Engineering lockouts for post-warp-five protection. Authorization: Summers-three-delta-five-two."

"Commander," he said finally, turning to Rogers. "See if you can formulate a plan to avoid any unwanted visitors as we commence this containment loop. We're already behind schedule, and the mission requires it is completed without any more interruptions."

"Aye, Sir" responded Rogers and he moved to Tactical to formulate a plan.

"Lieutenant Tritter, what is the status of the DYCEP?" he asked.

"No damage, Sir, and as it hasn't been used yet, it has full reserve power," responded Tritter.

"OK, I want you to program a procedure to drop out of warp and deploy the DYCEP. Trigger it on the detection of any hostile ship... heck ANY ship that doesn't have a Federation-encrypted signature within the vicinity. Maybe then they'll just pass us by. While we're at warp, we should be hidden by the effects of the Anomaly until they're right on top of us," assured Rogers.

Tritter nodded and went to work on the modifications.

Moments later, O'Conner reported in. "Sir, the modifications to the warp core are complete."

"Good work Commander," Summers said as he moved back to his chair and took a seat. "Warp one. Engage."

The helmsman acknowledged and the swung the mass of the Akira-class ship around before they burst into warp toward the fiery sphere ahead of them. He plotted in an orbital course that would take them up and over the side of the Anomaly facing the portion of space where Klingon and Romulan realms collided. Going slightly above and below the Anomaly, the Spectre had the special orders and distinction of sealing any loose tendrils that were not following the warp paths that ships generally took parallel to the galactic plane.

"Take us slowly to warp nine-point-eight and hold there," ordered Summers. They would be able to maintain that speed for twelve hours before needing to stop and stabilize the structural integrity field.

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That time came around twice in the next day where they needed to pull out of warp for several hours. The first one was uneventful. They were still too far from the Starbase and too close to the Anomaly to report in, so with the efficient repairs of the Engineering team of Mister O'Conner complete, the ship was underway again in mere hours.

The second time, they dropped out of warp and heard the automated distress signal coming from the ring of shuttles around the Anomaly.

"USS Spectre, this is Starbase 10. If you can hear this, please broadcast your response through the emergency distress channel."

Summers, said "Open a channel," and nodded to Rogers who carried out this modification. "Starbase 10, this is Captain Summers. Good to hear your voice, I hope everything is alright."

"Everything's fine, Captain," came the voice of Fleet Captain Samji. "We just needed to utilize the distress signal for the shuttles to automatically rebroadcast it."

"Understood. Fleet Captain, we have our part of the containment almost complete. Orders?"

"What is their position?" Samji asked, turning to his science officer who was conferring with their new Engineer.

"Quite near the Alsea, Sir," he responded.

"Well, that's a bit of luck. You may want to check in with the Alsea, Captain. They are investigating the loss of two of our shuttles. Afterward, stand by for the final stage of the Operation."

"Aye, Sir," Summers replied and closed communications.