Offspring of the Gods.

 (Prometheus is the son of Iapetus, son of Uranus & Gaia. Achilles is the son of the Human Peleus and the Neriad Thetis, daughter of Oceanus, son of Uranus & Gaia ) Thus Achilles is the grand-nephew of Prometheus!! ;)

"Captain's Personal Log: Stardate....." Jureth, seated on the Alsea's main bridge,  paused and realized he had no idea what the current stardate was. With everything going on he'd simply lost track of time.   

"Computer what is the current stardate?"

"Stardate 88716.9" came the precise reply

"Right.." the Alsea's CO replied before beginning again

"Captain's Personal Log: Stardate 88716.9. This is the first log entry I have made since my crewmates and I have embarked on this...rogue operation. I make this log entry as an account of everything that has transpired since our departure from Starbase Lotus and as an official record that cannot be altered by anyone seeking to destroy the truth of what is really happening to Lotus Fleet. We have been betrayed from within, by a person or persons bent on sending the Federation to war with Lotus Fleet as the catalyst for the fire. To prevent that outcome my compatriots and I have commandeered the Alsea, taken her beyond the galactic barrier and engaged in cooperation with a species identifying themselves as the Iconians to avert a catastrophe of galactic proportions. For the record, the Iconians have been peaceful, willing to communicate, and cooperate. They have not fired on us, or threatened us or the Federation in any way. They do not want war, nor will I start one orders be damned. The Horizon has arrived and Kheren and Syntron have boarded her in hopes of conveying to Captain Redding the truth of our situation, I await word from them and hope that it brings good news. We cannot fight three planet killers and the Horizon...even if I wanted to."

Jureth sighed heavily "Computer end log...encrypt log file under authorization Oseno Bravo Julie Six One." 

"Log file encrypted."

Jureth tapped commands into the command chair console adding his log to a compilation of sensor data, other communication logs, the evidence of sabotage they had found on the ship. He then locked it away behind walls of encryption and his own personal authorization code. The computer would transmit the file to his mother at Deep Space Nine, along with decryption instructions,  the second the Alsea returned to Federation space. The Bajoran was not paranoid, he saw the writing on the wall. If the Alsea were forced back to Federation space someone could very well try to alter the sensor logs or comm logs to hide the truth. He wasn't about to let it happen if he could avoid it. With that done he turned his attention to the other two Starfleet officers on the mission unmuting the perpetually open comm channel.

"Commander Sorripto, Commander Rogers, how are we holding up out there?" 

Rogers tapped his comm badge in order to reply to Captain Jureth as he walked the hallway back to the battle bridge of the Achilles. He had positioned the ship at fifteen hundred meters ahead of the three Alsea vectors, acheiveing a point of the spear formation.

"Going great here Captain! I have the point. Gravimetric sensors have picked up something, ... well, ... something very large at bearing zero-one-two, mark 3."

"Going great? That makes one of us." Sorripto thought.

While not common for Cardassians Sorripto had a few beads of sweat forming on his scaled face. Between controlling multiple ship sections, run diagnostics and update sensor information he was literally doing four things at once, each required his undivided attention.

"All good here" Sorripto responded.

David entered the second armored bridge and sat in the command seat in its center. A quick few presses on the controls of the arm rests brought the room to life and David studied the main viewer while continuing to speak to the others.

"Estimate three point two parsecs to approximate edge of anomaly. Sending telemetry now," David finished as he pressed the appropriate icon to send the data stream to the other ships.

With the updated Data Sorripto began to reconfigure sensor and tactical controls. Things might get hectic, but he was going to be ready.

On all four ships, sensors started registering intense level of energies. All shipboard computers articulated the exact same data.

''Warning; approaching area of general dampening field. Volume, one cubic parsec. Warp propulsion and long range sensors and communications will go offline at the instant of penetration and while in the field. Power drain will be constant within the field. Estimated contact, fifty-three point forty-seven seconds, present speed.''

Rogers responded immediately to the computer's warning: "Computer! All stop!"

The Achille's came to a stop within eight length's of her six hundred twelve meters, attesting to her raw power contained in her single impulse system. As the computer relayed the standard all stop attained response, David spoke on the open channel.

'Do we wait for the Horizon Captain?"

"Computer, all stop." the Bajoran ordered before responding to Rogers' question "We need their firepower Commander. We wait for them, until we cannot."

Sorripto navigated the tactical and engineering sections into a holding pattern form a defensive outer front leaving the center point open for the saucer section.

The Alsea's sleek, triangular main section slowed to a stop maintaining plenty of distance from the massive behemoth to which she followed. Jureth sat back in the command. He wondered exactly what the Iconians were doing or where they even were for that matter. There had been no communication from the enigmatic aliens since the Starfleet officers had updated them on the change in plans. 

As computer databanks stated and current events showed, these planet-devouring robots were programmed to ignore small objects and power sources like starships beyond a certain radius. Their only target at the moment was the galaxy itself. But judging by their minute angling, their projected course beyond the galactic barrier was calculated and given on the main viewer; one was going for the heart of Federation Space; another straight for the Klingon Empire; the third headed directly toward the Romulan Star Empire.

“You said we wait until we can wait no longer.” Sorripto noted.

“With these things headed in every direction of the quadrant, when do know the point of no return?”

As he asked outloud, the computer displayed on the tactical overlay where the three monsters would be too far apart to tackle in one single operation. It was just about the other side of the galactic barrier, beyond the Vega system where a huge robotic factory of dilithium ore processing had been located since the mid 23rd century, on the 4th planet, a class M world.

"We're going to have to divide and conquer," Jureth replied looking the Alsea's tactical display. "We know how Kirk brought down his planet killer...he fed it a starship. We cannot feed them every ship under our command. We are very likely going to have a fight on our hands when we return to Federation space because whomever is manipulating Starfleet and the Federation is not just going to let us come riding home. So, we will need at least one battle capable vessel. I wonder though..." Jureth trailed off as he pondered..

"The Iconians were able to open a portal on our bridge and bring us instantaneously to their ship. I wonder if they could do the same for a starship. If they can, we would be able to attack all three machines en masse." 

David had been running research on the planet killers while the other's had discussed tactics and had come to some small conclusions; which he now interjected into the conversation.

"Gentlemen, history records that the first doomsday machine was destroyed ... or rather rendered inert, by releasing the overloaded impulse engine of the Constitution class ship Constellation inside the machine."

Rogers enabled his findings onto the screens of the other ships as he talked.

"The release of that explosion was estimated by the Enterprise science officer as 97.835 Megatons. Our current quantum torpedo's equate to 134.7 Megatons."

Rogers gave the other's a second to grasp the math, then continued.

"As we are now years ahead of the first encounter, we just need to get a few quantum torpedoes into the maws of those things, right?"

The deep voice of Kheren answered over the comm.

''Hence why the Achilles will be the hammer and us the anvil. With the Phallanx torpedo system you have, you can straff one with a full volley without having to face it directly and move out of the line of fire speedily, while we distract it by firing on it's flanks and rear. Then we rinse and repeat. That should do the trick. Are we all in agreement, gentlebeings? If anyone has a better plan, now is the time.''

“Even with the right firepower, that still only leaves us with one shot each.” Sorripto added.

“All analysis has led to us logically conclude these are stronger than the machine faced by the Enterprise in the past. I have calibrated the targeting sensors to be precise to the size of fingernail at maximum firing range. However that margin for error grows when we are using a broadside from a moving target.”

Gesturing towards the helm Sorripto continued.

“I can get us close enough, but if we fail to take these things out fast enough, we could run out payload well before we run out of targets.”

"In that case," Jureth replied "I suggest we don't miss. We have to stop these things here and now, we have nowhere to fall back to and no more allies to call upon." 

The eerily echoing voice of the Iconians reverberated through all their comm channels.

''We can provide... distraction to the machines.''

"A distraction should clear us the path we need." Sorripto said. ''I hope our new friends can deliver as promised."

Jureth answered the Iconians directly.

"Any help you can provide is welcome. We cannot allow the machines to continue forward. If you are ready, we will set an intercept course." 

The eerie voice showed no emotion.

''We are ready to proceed.''

In a mostly symbolic gesture since no one could see him, walked down and stood in front of the Alsea's command chair. He looked around the empty bridge, at each station normally occupied by his trusted officers, and hoped that this moment wouldn't be the final time he would stand in command of his beloved vessel. If it was though, he would do so knowing it was for the right reason. The others knew it too and they didn't need reminding, but perhaps it was his the well known emotion of his species that made Jureth feel the need to say something to his compatriots and was reminded of something he'd read once...

"All commands, this is Captain Oseno, the human Sun Tzu wrote let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. Whoever is behind this undoubtedly knows we are out here, but they cannot know what we plan and now is our time to move. We will hit our targets and we will not, we cannot, fail. All ships, plot course to intercept of the first target, and engage."