Operation St-George

Posted on 03/19/2022 @ 9:36pm by Captain Kheren & Captain Syntron & Captain Oseno Jureth & Captain Neil Redding & Commander David Rogers & Lt. Commander Sorripto
Edited on on 04/23/2022 @ 4:54pm

Mission: Men Of Good Conscience
Location: Intergalactic void
Timeline: 88698.3

 Captain's log

Stardate: 88698.3

 

As of this stardate, I am temporarily taking command of the Horizon.

The Horizon will be the spearpoint of a taskforce comprised of the three assault sections of the USS Alsea under the command of Captain Jureth, Captain Syntron and Lieutenant-Commander Sorripto. Our objective; provide flanking distraction against each of the planet-killer robots en route to the densest populated areas of our galaxy. The Iconian ship which alerted us of this threat has offered to play bait with it's advanced energy absorption technology against the antiproton beam. This should allow the USS Achilles under Commander Rogers to straff each machine in turn with it's phallanx torpedo array.

The urgency of the situation precludes reviving Captain Neal Redding and his crew. Waiting for them to recover from stasis and prepare for the situation can not happen before the situation becomes fatally irreversible.

Furthermore, his crew is insufficient for full combat action and mostly made of hastily recruited inexperienced officers. I estimate it safer for them and our mission to place them in readiness for evacuation back to Federation Space in case of failure.

I will be assisted by the AI starfleet officer assigned to this vessel. I will be under the overall command of Captain Jureth Oseno of the USS Alsea, who's active service status is not under any doubt.

There is also no doubt that, if we fail here, billions of lives across two quadrants will be imperiled. That can not be allowed to happen.

 

Kheren's antennae curved differently, in the peculiar manner of an Andorian smirk. He spoke to the computer again.

 

Personal additive to the log;

Neal my friend, I'm sorry to keep you on ice, literally, through all this. Although I just found out my commission is still fully active despite my resignation, this is your ship now. I hope you will forgive me for taking her from you like this. But wether Starfleet Command does or not, I know you will understand.

 

His callused finger closed the log as he raised all four oculars to the tactical display on the main viewer. The pyramid of his capital ship and the three parts of the powerful Prometheus class warship was closely followed by the Iconian massive egg-shaped vessel and the shark-shaped form of the devastating Achilles class siege destroyer. In front of them all, the triangle formation of the monstrous doomsday machines angled at the Great Galactic Barrier.

''Ensign; projected attack trajectory of the fleet, please.''

''Aye, Captain; projecting.''

The strange looking female standing behind him did not move at all as she answered. Yet, on the display, lines and data appeared, showing only the Iconian ship continuing at full impulse straight towards the space monsters. At the same time and at warp 1, the Horizon and the Alsea made a short parabolic course around one side of the robot attack group while the Achilles did the same from the top down to flyby the front of the first designated target.

If all went well, Rogers would complete the parabola by rise in front of it again if failing to disable it; or if successful, before the next target to straff it in turn, while the attack force would again distract that target while the Iconian would also force it to spend it's destructive weapon on them before the torpedo run.

Plans rarely survive contact with the enemy

A human warrior had once said something like that. but Kheren kept the thought to himself as he opened a channel to all ships from his command chair.

''Gentlemen; here is the projected plan of attack. Anyone has something to say before we commit ourselves, it is now or never.''

From within the gamma vector, Syntron judiciously studied the details of attack trajectory projected on display. It was a bold plan filled with promise as well as the potential for failure. As they had faced on previous missions, the odds were once again not in their favor. Yet here they were, a relatively small task force, approaching three enormously dangerous devices en route to devastate and devour everything in their path.

He averted his keen eyes to the console and readjusted long-range sensors before engaging the com.    

“It was noted in ancient text regarding terrestrial wars that a battle may consist of only two methods of attack, the direct and the indirect. Yet these two in combination can yield a myriad of maneuvers, analogous to how five primary colors can be combined in different percentages to produces a multitude of hues. We will not be engaging adversaries on a terrestrial world, nor will we be creating spectrums of color unless it could somehow be tactfully beneficial in our quest. However, as planned, we will be applying precise strategies of direct and indirect attacks that may help offset the looming lethality of these devices enough for us to eventually render them inert. The key for our success as we are aware, will be to maneuver and implement our attacks with precise coordination, without careless errors in judgement or implementation. This includes being prepared to adjust swiftly should the adversaries react in ways and methods we may not have anticipated. A temporary retreat by one of our ships is far better than to risk having it be disabled or destroyed. The loss of any ship and its commander tips the outcome even further in favor of our adversaries. We must continuously steer the outcome further towards our triumph to ensure the survival of our galaxy and the inhabitants within.”

"Right," Jureth replied from the Alsea's main bridge. "So we should all do our best not to get shot by the massive antiproton beam." 

The Bajoran captain was attempting to bring some levity to the situation, but quickly realized on Rogers and Sorripto would appreciate his attempt at humor. He wasn't sure even they would find it funny, but they'd all been so focused on avoiding capture, arrest and death that Oseno figured it was worth a shot. 

Kheren was the first one to respond in kind. His years as a duellist on Andoria had taught him the importance of relaxing before a dire engagement.

''They're planet killers, Captain; hungry for raw material to fuel themselves, so they will go for the fattest target first. Oh wait, that would be me!'"

The eerie voice of the Iconians cut in.

''Our role has been established; we will provide incentive for the machines to fire at us.''

Natural straight men, the Andorian thought with a curving of his antennae.

"Oh good" Sorripto responded sarcastically.

"Our goal is to use our pieces of one ship as a target for a thing which can destroy planets. I see no flaws in this plan at all."

Adjusting the sleeves of his uniform Sorripto adjusted himself and smiled.

"Starfleet is going to owe us all kinds of favors if we survive this. I think a few statues around the gardens of the academy are in order."

"Moving, along" Jureth continued after a moment "the Achilles is our secret weapon. Only she has the ability to effectively eliminate the machines and something whoever is behind this almost certainly hadn't planned on. Captain Syntron is correct though in that if any of the machines focus on any one ship for too long we will risk losing that vessel. So, move quickly, and rotate your attack patterns."

Rogers, now seated on the Achilles' battle bridge far aft of the main bridge, studied the parabolic course's projected on his tactical screen. He had to admit, this three-pronged feint, with his ships' attack laid out on the first target, looked good. Of course the Achille's only had a plot up to the targeted planet killer. After that, it was strategic deployment and looking for targets.

David had complete faith in the strength of his ship. 

'Maybe not as much in its brains though,' David thought abstractly. 'Regardless, the die is cast. Let them fall where they may.'

As planned, The Horizon swerved to one of the planet-killers on one side of the deadly trio, the one farthest back from the others. The three sections of the Alsea maneuvered to the other  the other side of the same titanic robot.

Aloud to the group, Rogers voiced a possible epitaph.

"When you go home tell them of us and say 'for your tomorrow, we gave our today.' "

Shifting in his chair a bit David commenced with his task.

"Computer, raise shields. Full impulse now! Attack pattern Omicron five!"

The Achilles suddenly swerved up from behind the Iconian ship and arced past her, diving toward the front of the first behemoth. A swift roll brought her dorsal side to face the approaching machine. Max power pushed her single impulse drive, prompting a computer warning, but Rogers ignored it. He wanted speed and more speed in order to get a maximum solution at his intended impact target; the throat of the doomsday leviathan that was three times his size.

When the iconian ship suddenly appeared in front of the monstrous maw, it's powerful omega particle signature acted like honey to a hungry bear. The blinding white light of it's huge antiproton beam lashed out straight at it.

There was another blinding flash of light. When their viewers managed to compensate and their eyes stopped watering, there was no sign of the huge intruder vessel.

Hope you cloaked and not evaporated, friends, Kheren wished silently before confirming the Achilles position and vector then shouting to Tessa.

''Ensign, reinforce aft shields. Attack pattern Kirk Epsilon. Fire on my command!''

At five hundred meters above the forward lip of the machine Rogers punched a launch icon on his chairs arm and the phalanx micro-torpedo launchers forward of him sent a reverberation down the spine of the ship and into his bridge, the slight vibration only barely felt in his chair. The eight small diversionary torpedo's spread downward to strike along the top of the machine, explosions rippling along their spine against the neutronium armor. As expected, they did no damage but, it seemed to get the things attention, as the massive ship began to turn to port and slow slightly.

David expected something, but not a turn. Quickly tapping his helm control, David adjusted his course to compensate and, catching the turn above the very lip of the killer, David threw the Achilles into a end-over flip, bringing his forward launchers to bear. With rapid succession he fired all four main tubes into the top space of the gaping space momentarily before him.

David had a quick glimpse into the cavernous maw of the beast. A circular well of conical shape, receding back and back farther, and back more into a blindingly yellow-white furnace of ... something, deep inside the heart of the beast. And then it was gone.

The Achilles completed its flip and dove down under the planet killer and swerved away on the opposite side from the Iconian ship. David didn't even see if his main armament had any effect as he regained orientation and set course for the second ship in the line, coaxing a bit more power into the impulse engine as his phalanx and forward launchers reloaded. Rogers recalled something he had heard quoted at history classes back at the academy and threw a challenge back to his compatriots, just for the sake of it.

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"

Sorripto smirked slightly as he brought the beta section around to coordinate with others. Sorripto was always one to make the most any situation, but for the first time since the gravity of the situation truly set in he was enjoying himself.

Both the Horizon and the three sections of the Alsea moved in unison. On the speakers, Jureth and Kheren's voices were an eerie echo of one another:

''Phasers, fire!''

The huge capital ship for his part had nothing less than starbase caliber phasers; each powerful enough to almost snuff out most starship's shields in a single volley.

They didn't even scratch the impenetrable hull made of the very substance of a collapsed star.

But they did manage the intended purpose; the gigantic monster was turning towards the Lotus Fleet flagship; and away from the Achilles.

And then, a colossal discharge of energy from deep with the target giant robot surged out of it's gaping maw. It shook the shields of both the flagship and all three of the command ship's attack modules. The immense tubular form of the doomsday machine glowed with raw power; then it went dark, silent, inert, carried by what was left of its own momentum.

Kheren pumped the air with his callused fist in a very human gesture.

''Nice harpooning, Commander Rogers! One down, two to go!''

He sobered quickly. On the screen, the two remaining doomsday machines were veering towards them, maws ablaze; one targeting the Alsea triad, the other straight at the Horizon.

''Evasive!''

It was barely enough to avoid a full blast; but it still amost overwhelmed the inertial dampeners and the bridge went dark before emergency lights came on. 

''Give us some distance Tessa! Damage report!''

The voice of the holographic officer was calm and professional. It made her words all the more chilling.

''Minor damage to outer hull, starboard and aft. But shields are down to forty-seven percent. Another blast like this...''

Eyes on the incoming space monsters and the Achilles giving them a wide berth before coming for it's next run, the Andorian stood up from his seat.

''Alsea; you guys all right?''

The Vulcan continuously focused phaser fire on the outer conical hull of their first target as he swerved the nimble gamma vector in an unpredictable trajectory away from attack. With its hull constructed of solid neutronium, his phaser attack on the enormous device was merely a distractive nuisance designed to keep the Horizon and Achilles as protected as possible while they employed more devastating attacks.

Studying the tactical maneuvers of his counterparts, a brow of relief was raised when they effectively nullified the first of three massive weapons of destruction. Syntron detected the changing velocity of the two remaining devices and swiftly veered the vector away from the paths of the immense discharge of energy emitting from their voracious maws microseconds before they struck his fragile vessel. He then changed course of the vector to a shifting pattern of evasive maneuvers until he was far out of range. He heard the inquiry of the Andorian through the com.

“Syntron acknowledging. Sustained no damage from the attack. I recommend that we try to separate the remaining two devices from each other. I will veer towards the maw on the left and strike it with a barrage of phasers in an attempt to pull it away from its companion. We will need a similar strike simultaneously on the right side.”

“On it” Sorripto responded.

Sorripto brought the beta section to the opposite side of Snytron.

“Let him have it.”

Using the increased firepower of the tactical section Sorripto unloaded a full barrage of phasers and torpedoes on the device to coincide with the attack on its opposite side. Both colossal war machines veered towards their respective new threat, maws already glowing like novae about to explode. But then, a glow appeared right between them and the Horizon.

It took but a fraction of a second for Tessa to detect, identify and analyse the situation; and start reacting to it with alarm.

''Captain Kheren! An energy surge, directly forward; the Iconian vessel Sir!''

''Status, Ensign.''

''Fifty-three percent of absorption panels vaporized. thirty-three percent of outer hull breached. Power output fluctuating... the next blast will destroy them!''

Kheren's callused fist almost cracked the command chair's arm as he struck the ship to ship comm button.

''Iconian vessel; retreat! You've done enough! ''

The eerie multivoice of the Iconians reverberated through the speakers of all the Starfleeet ships like a sigh.

''Not... yet. Galactic life... must be... preserved... at all cost. Atonement... must be made... at all cost.''

Plasma and debris trailing behind like the tail of a melting comet, the egg-shaped starship moved slowly but steadily towards the giant engines of destruction. They sensed it's massive energy leaks closing in and turned back again towards it. Kheren could not detach his four oculars from the screen as he spoke sternly to the holographic AI woman.

''Lock all transporters on the Iconians! Beam them out of there!''

''Sir, sensors are unable to recognize their lifesigns pattern. Nothing to lock on to!''

The Andorian shot up to his feet, antennae darting towards the screen as if he was about to jump through it.

''Move us closer! Extend shields! All available power!''

The Horizon responded almost instantly, it's powerful impulse engines shooting the colossal capital ship like an arrow towards the alien vessel. But then, before it could even get in transporter range, several beams of green light struck her weakened shields. The onrushing capital ship suddenly bounced out of it's intended trajectory, thrown several hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. Most lights spurted out from the Horizon and it started drifting far behind the two monstrous behemoths.

The Achilles was already moving into position to intercept a second machine. The Alsea's three modules were peppering again both of them with powerful flanking fire that, once again, took them away from the Iconian ship.

Just as it exploded.

It was strangely almost as if looking at a supernova blast in reverse. Everything, spacetime itself, seemed to implode into a bottomless void. And then, on all ships, all sensors reported the same thing.

The two doomsday machines, otherwise seemingly undamaged even this close to the blast, abruptly droped out of warp velocity. It almost looked as if they were coming down to a mere crawl within the intergalactic void. Long range comm, sensors and warp velocity died instantly for the ships as well, and for over two hundred trillions of kilometers all around them all.

In a a spherical area of one lightmonth across, subspace has been... dissolved by the omega molecule that had powered the Iconian vessel.

Syntron watched in controlled awe at the spectacle that suddenly transpired before his Vulcan eyes. He immediately ceased firing then rushed to engage sensors. There was literally nothing to detect around him, as if a void had suddenly enveloped their small fleet. The Iconians were vanquished in what appeared to be a self-sacrificing move to eliminate the imminent threat of the two remaining malevolent doomsday devices, who also seemed to vanish. He tried engaging communications a few moments later.

“Syntron to fleet. Please confirm status.”

Sorripto worked quickly to reconfigure targeting sensors for short range anomalous detection. He had worked so many engineers through the same modifications the Cardassian could do it with speed and precision matched only by a machine. In a few moments the sensors were ready, but his alterations were for naught. There was literally nothing there.

"Confirming on sensors..."

Sorripto paused for a moment as he attempted to make sense of the readings.

"Everything is gone. It is like a hole in spacetime. I am afraid there is not much to read because there is literally nothing there. Nothing at all. No space, no subspace, nothing. For approximate seven hundred and seventy-seven million kilometers all of space is gone."

The Achille's, in a preemptory maneuver intentioned to repeat Rogers' attack on his first target, suddenly lost her trajectory and spun off from the now inertia less doomsday weapons. David reacted quickly as the ship's computer blared within the battle bridge.

'Warning! Matter/Anti-matter reaction assembly offline. Shields offline. Inertial dampeners at thirty-one percent. Subspace communications offline.'

David, surmising immediately what had happened, barked orders.

"Divert twenty percent power from structural integrity field to inertial dampers!"

Quickly diverting the main screen from tactical to a master systems display of the Achilles, Rogers studied the schematics of the ships' power distribution to ascertain if anything else was deserving of immediate attention. With the enemy inert, David dismissed the shields problem for now and focused on the M/ARA problem. With a quick and studious glance over the display

Rogers began re-routing or repairing the diverse problems within the electro-plasma distribution network. As he worked he answered the Vulcan query.

"Rogers to fleet; Systems damage manageable. Subspaces comms offline. Can any of you reach the Horizon?"

At that moment, systems reasserted themselves; most of them. Although short range communication and impulse drive were nominal, as well as life support, short range scans and all tactical systems, there was no subspace communication or scans available. Matter-antimatter power, although at full capacity, could not produce a warp bubble at all. Short range sensors and computer analysis provided the answer.

Subspace had been utterly destroyed in a large spherical area near the edge of the galaxy.

Nav computers calculated that at best speed available, at sustained emergency impulse, it would take them about twelve days to escape it.

And so, it was also for the two planet-killers, now registering clearly on all tactical displays, both angling towards the largest power output in the area: the motionless flagship of Lotus Fleet.

With the tactical display slowly reconstituting a blurry projection of the region of space within range, the eyes of the Vulcan witnessed an unexpected sight: the two doomsday devices were not vanquished by the implosion caused by the omega molecule’s destruction. Instead, they were slowly maneuvering towards the inert flagship, containing Captain Kheren and the remaining skeleton crew, who were still in hibernation.

Immediately, Syntron engaged full impulse power towards the most threating conical shaped weapon and reinitiated a maximum assault of phaser fire upon its outer shell. It reacted to the attack by sluggishly veering off its projected path toward the Horizon as it attempted to aim its maw directly toward the gamma vector. He steered the vector in a position that would lure it away even further from the flagship.

Eventually, Syntron could see the mesmerizing sight of energy sparking like a trapped star inside its maw centering toward his position. Cognizant of the death grip of its tractor beam should it move close enough within range, he engaged reverse thrust and backed the vessel further away as he began to see an energy build-up within the menacing machine.

Having given a quick survey of his ship, David re-instated his tactical display, in time to see the obviously functional remaining pair of weapons veering toward the Horizon. And the subsequent attack by the gamma slice of the Alsea. Seeing the distraction pulling the first machine off of Kheren's direction, Rogers swung his equally massive ship around and headed toward the second menace. It was time to see if this Achille's lived up to it's namesake.

Holding fire, David brought his ship abaft of the behemoth between the two engines of destruction. Pulling quickly alongside the tail of the two-kilometer-long vessel, and before any sensors from the menace could try to pinpoint him, Rogers turned directly toward the mid tail section, about one third along the hull and David threw the helm over to head directly at the enemy.

"Computer, divert all available power to ramming deflector!"

Three seconds later the Achilles' massive weight, transmitted through the unique deflector on her bow, slammed into the planer killer and the tail began to move away from its companion. Its cavernous maw pivoted likewise toward the other machine and as intended, off the trajectory of the Horizon. Rogers took a vice-like grip on his chair's arms as he mentally urged the planet killer to keep pivoting in its flight.

And so it did; just enough to face it's sibling already angling towards the Horizon, so that suddenly the two doomsday machines faced each other; just as the one Rogers had pushed askew was firing it's awesome antiproton beam at the Horizon.

Instead, it now struck squarely the other incoming planet-killer down it's throat.

There was a massive discharge of disintegrating atoms from inside the approaching third giant robot, like some huge dragon breath that struck the shoved monster machine, the Achilles' shields, and the Horizon's armor plating. The still inert flagship, farthest and partially covered, just glowed a bit from the discharge, loosing layers of plating like flakes of paint. The Achilles energy screens glowed and shook as the brunt of the discharge struck the disoriented giant robot lying between the siege destroyer and the other robot, without even scratching it's pure solid neutronium covering.

But its sibling was now utterly dead.

Syntron veered the gamma vector into a parallel position near the inert conical monstrosity and swiftly ran a series of scans. The enormous levels of neutrinos were no longer registering. He immediately changed course and targeted the third and only remaining threat. A volley of phaser fire peppered the outer rim of its maw as he swerved his vessel to avoid getting too close to the hostile opening.

The machine began responding as if being stung by an annoying parasite.

“The remaining hornet’s nest has been kicked,” Syntron stoically announced into the com, attempting to insert an old Terran idiom to illustrate their precarious situation.

"Is this not the part of the story where the hornets kill the kicker?" Sorripto asked sarcastically. "Remember what I said boys. I want big statues of us in the walking plaza of Starfleet Academy".

With those words still ringing over comms Sorripto brought the beta vector to a perpendicular course with Syntron. Positioning the full force of the tactical section Sorripto opened fire with a full barrage of phasers and torpedoes. If it only acted annoyed at first, the planet killer certainly knew the vectors were there now.

Meanwhile the Achilles drifted behind the inert shell of the second machine. Rogers sat, a little awestruck, that his ramming had produced the result it had. 'Pure luck it fired when it did,' Rogers thought silently, as a few warnings were announced into the battle bridge by the utterly informal computer.

David looked at the various screens around him. They portrayed much of the same information the impartial computer blithely announced. The engineering console, a few feet to his left, sparked intermittently. To its right the second engineering station was a blank screen. Small tendrils of acrid smoke floated out of its seams at the top of the control panel.

Across from them on the starboard wall, the science console shone with a dull glow. It had not been powered up during the confrontation, as David had thought it useless in the battle. Forward of that the comm station also wisped a few crackling sparks, closely followed by small wisps of smoke.

"Well," David said with a chuckle. "It could have been worse!"

'Warning! Life support failing!''

 On all ships, speakers, there was a crackle of static and then the resonance of a deep basso voice.

''You boys have been busy.''

On all screens, the Horizon was flaring back to life.

''Tessa, status report.''

Although her holographic image had turned translucent, she still operated all stations as multiple ghostly avatars of her occupied them, each in turn responding with her own unique voice.

''We are on emergency power, but impulse power will be fully back online in forty-three seconds. Life support nominal. Shields regenerating, full capacity in five point three minutes. Navigation and tactical systems coming back online. Sensors and communications at short range capability only due to subspace void. Warp capability unavailable under such conditions but matter/antimatter power can be restored in thirty minutes.''

The Andorian climbed back in the central chair, letting time for his antennae to adjust from the tumble he experienced. Not in service anymore, he was not wearing a uniform, let alone the personal inertial dampeners his crew routinely wore since the first days of his command of the USS Artemis, a lifetime ago it seemed. But at least the ship was in fairly good shape, all things considered.

''Status of the Iconian ship?''

''Destroyed, Sir. they sacrificed themselves to create this area without subspace to slow down the planet killers. They have given us two more weeks.''

Kheren grunted.

''I am not granting them two more minutes if I can help it. Status of Alsea and Achilles.''

''All Alsea modules are nominal and engaged with the last robot. Damage registering but they still are tactically operational. Achilles...''

The AI gasped.

''Sir... the Achilles...   she is adrift in space, impulse offline, structural integrity field at five percent, shields offline... life support failing!''

''Move us into transporter range Tessa! Lock on Half-Romulan, Half-Human lifesigns and extend our shields as soon as they can activate, even if at one percent capacity!''

The huge capital ship responded swiftly enough, but Tessa's voice still registered alarm.

''ETA two point two minutes. Captain: our transporters are offline! Repairs needed but we have no damage control crew to do so!''

''You can Tessa; through the shipwide hologrid.''

''At current power levels, I can only materialize solidly enough to handle tools if I leave the bridge to concentrate all holopower there. But, Captain, you would be alone to man all systems!''

''I do not need all of them, Tessa. Give me nav and tac control on the front console. Now go! We need those transporters!''

As soon as the feminine ghosts whisked out, Kheren jumped to the central console and stood behind it to swiftly jump from one to the other as needed. Fortunately, the designers of the Lotus class capital ship followed the old, venerated Constitution class idea of joining navigation and tactical together in front of the command dais, instead of the more modern arrangement of tactical alone behind the captain's chair. With no time to reconfigure all controls on one console, that proved a blessing for what he intended to do.

He opened a channel to the other ships.

''Horizon to task force; coming back to play. ETA one point five minutes, mark. This time, I will be the bait and cover the Achilles while you keep up your good work. Commander Rogers, unless you revive that shark of yours, I am going to beam you out of there before you run out of air and heat. That gives you... seven minutes. Please copy gentlebeings.''

Sorripto ran a quick scan of the tactical capabilities of the three vectors. Their armaments were running low, but not yet depleted. It only took the Cardassian a few seconds to do the math.

"I hope you can decide in less than seven minutes my friend, because we do not have seven minutes of full firepower left".

Upon hearing the Andorian’s message, Syntron momentarily deviated the course of the gamma vector away from the remaining mechanism of destruction and toward the flagship. Arriving within proximity, he ran scans of the embattled vessel then immediately open a channel.

“Captain Kheren, the Horizon is in no condition to bear the brunt of a full-scale attack from that doomsday mechanism. You will put yourself and the crew in stasis at risk of annihilation.”

"The survivor in me would love to get out of this one alive, but sacrificing the lives of a crew in stasis is not how I plan to do it." Sorripto interjected. "Any chance one of us can be the target?"

“Perhaps you and I should switch from peripheral attacks to becoming the main pair of moving targets for this remaining mechanism. Lieutenant Sorripto,” Syntron offered, as he veered the gamma vector away from the Horizon and back on course towards the remaining adversary.

He checked his bank of phasers and there was still an adequate amount of energy remaining, at least for the time being.

“We alternate crossing the maw of this apparatus in unpredictable patterns while aiming weapons fire as deep as possible inside of it. If we avoid the tractor beams and the energy discharges, we could at least distract this menace long enough to allow the Achilles and Horizon to move out of its range and implement repairs. We are certainly nimbler and currently in better condition than either of those ships.”

Sorripto checked the energy reserves of his phasers and counted the torpedoes left in the tactical vector. He figured Syntron had done the same and, based on his plan, his vector was just as low.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Sorripto responded.

Kheren's voice assumed a tone of command that contrasted sharply with the levity of his words.

''Gentlebeings; never underestimate the turtle.''

From the nav station, he leaned sideways and stretched his arm until he reached the center of the tactical console and activated a very glaring set of controls. There was a strange clanking sound reverberating throughout the ship, seemingly coming from the outside.

In a instant, a thick crustacean-like shell of greyish metal covered the entire hull of the immense flagship.

''Armor deployed. Horizon engaging... mark''

At that moment, the maw of the last cosmic monster glowed like an upcoming nova. A blinding white beam of pure antiproton shot out to engulf the USS Achilles.

But it never found it's target.

At that very moment, the powerful impulse drive of the Horizon threw her right in it's path. And with the same maneuver he had used to escape from Starbase Lotus with a section of the Alsea, the Andorian captain turned the colossal capital ship  on it's Z axis, exposing the entire ventral part of the saucer section like a huge shield in front of the damaged siege destroyer.

From the large grey cloud of vaporized armor hull plating emerged the Horizon. It's covering, capable of withstanding even the full power of several Borg cubes at point-blank range, already finished reforming.

As the flagship turned sharply to come back again between the planet-killer and the Achilles, Kheren's voice remained calm but firm over the speakers. Yet, there was definite urgency in it.

''The Horizon can wisthand four more blasts like this before our replicator raw materials are depleted. And while armored, we can't beam Rogers back. I would like you gentlebeings to distract it long enough... or slay this dragon with all due haste, please.''

"Slay a dragon?" Sorripto responded."I always enjoyed that part of the holodeck programs".