USS Daystrom Beta Mission

[Monroe]

"The Daystorm's bridge was destroyed!" Came the call over the communication band the battle fleet was using. Munro turned to look at a fellow secuirty trooper but otherwise didn't show any emotion at the apparent loss of his co-workers.

"This is Commadore Ford." A voice came over the cargo bays housing the different land soldiers. "Thirty seconds until transport. Good luck."

Munro looked back at the counter in the walker of his total landing force, the losses of some of the other ships had brought it down to 73%. Not very good. Outside the walker the soldiers were doing their final checks on their armor, which Munro had fought very hard to provide for them, and phaser rifles.



The Galaxy Class starship hovered over the landing site which had its vegetation burnt away from the debris of the Impervious' death. The Dakota phaser firing occationally at targets moving on the ground until the entire assault team from the Dakota and Ravencrest had landed on the surface. About a company of men on the Alie were stuck there due to the ship's heavy damage as it held off a few Bird of Preys from approaching the landing site which the Galaxy class starship hovered above.

As Ford ordered the Starfleet personel, over seven thousand strong, towards the mountain fortress used by the Brotherhood long range phaser fire began to fire towards Munro and his men. Munro's walker targeting computer got a lock of where one of the missiles was fired from and he returned the payback with interest launching a photon torpedo. The blue missile sailed towards the bunker and detonated. A flash of light illuminated the battle field as the section of the mountain vaporized silencing much of the incoming fire.

Lumbering forward on four ungainly legs the few walkers under Ford's command intercepted as many mortors and missiles as they could but some still struck home. Detonating in the midsts of red shirts fire balls enveloped inexperienced Starfleet personel from under company commanders and othermissiles sprung upwards shortly after impact shooting shrapnel that cut across the sea of men cutting off arms and legs and ripping open chests sending young men and women to cry in agony as their life blood was splattered over their friend's.

Munro's personal three hundred faired some of the best using cover and move tactics to move from one rock to the other was they made their way towards the mountain. Munro's walker got a target lock on a fighter making for a bombing run on the men and fired off another torpedo which slammed into its cockpit causing the small vessel to explode outwards in a shower of fire and debris which mostly missed the sea of Starfleet personel.


Several thousand kilometers above them the Alie finally sucumbed to its horrindous wounds after destroying a Bird of Prey in an epic duel a Galor shot blasted through the last of its armor detonating torpedo stores deep inside the ship to cause a secondary explosion that ripped the Defiant class starship apart.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

M'Real headed towards the planned landing zone, not wanting to disappoint Mikey when she saw something odd in her sensor display. "Donut, is something wrong with the sensor array?"

"How should I know? I have no idea what normal is for this thing. We should've tested it more. Your diognostic says it's okay. Why?"

"I think we're being followed by a cloaked...", M'Real was interupted mid-sentance as the Shadow Fox was hit by disrupter pulses. "Return fire!" Donut returned fire, damaging the attacking Bird-of-Prey forcing it to veer away.

"Good work, Donut," said M'Real. She punched the thruster controls only to have nothing happen. "Grif, where's my thrusters?"

"One of those blasts got past our sheilds and we've lost thrusters and primary plasma controls. I can't find anything physically wrong with them though."

M'Real rolled her eyes, "Hang on, I'll fix it." She got up, ignoring Donut's objection to her leaving the controls alone, but without thrusters she couldn't do much piloting them out of the freefall anyway. She opened Port side junction box 3C and found a damaged isolinear chip. She pulled an identicle chip from the internal sensor net and used it to replace the damaged chip.

Grif's amazed voice came over the comm. "Thrusters and Plasma control are back on-line!"

M'Real hit the breaking thrusters and brought the Shadow Fox down in a controlled landing. Donut groaned as he asked, "are we there yet?"

Over the comm. lines one of the pilots assigned to protecting her complimented M'Real's impressive freefall manuvour that allowed her to dodge the enemy cannon fire. "Ya, I meant to do that," said M'Real under her breath. She sighed, having to rush the Shadow Fox meant that some systems were too centralized for her taste. The situation she just barely avoided was exactly why she hated centralizing systems. "Alright, platoon, deploy, deploy! Hit it, hit it, hit it! Deploy those transport enhancers! If you don't move you're useless to this unit!"

M'Real began looking for targets of opprotunity flying overhead. A few minutes later Grif came in with the latest report. "Um, the fleet is getting their butts kicked and the Daystrom...the bridge was destroyed."

M'Real bit her lip. "Hold it together. The battle bridge is still there right? We won't fail our mission you got it! Even if the Daystrom is destroyed we're going win this battle you got it!" She blasted a passing fighter out of the sky. Was she too angry over Mikey's possible and even probably death? No, she decided. He was a good friend and there were other crewman on board the Daystrom that could've died that she was probably angry about too...right?

[Teaos]

The two massive D'Kora class veered away from the main body the the Federation fleet after delivering their ambush.

The USS Roberts was adrift with one of her nacelles blown clean off and her weapons pod disabled. Unable to return fire and hardly able to move she was using the few thrusters available to get into position in the main body of the fleet and get weapons back online.

Seeing a chance to effect a break out and revenge their fallen comrades the O'Ryan, Horseshoe and Southern Cross broke away from the main body of the strike group and plowed into the underside of the retreating ambush. Quantums and pulse canons tore into the lower shields of the group sending one of the Breen Frigates in the group up in a fire ball and another dead in space.

Looping back down to join their group least they become targets for the main body of the Brotherhoods fleet they took up defensive positions around the stricken craft.

[Mikey]

Mikey let everyone file into the auxiliary bridge ahead of him. He paused a moment, realizing his situation when he noticed that there was only one seat vacant for him - the captain's chair. He braced himself behind it, not deigning to actually sit.

The ship continued to rock from a few stray disrupter blasts as the strike group reformed. "What now, W'trisk?" he thought. There was an Andorian in charge of this warship now; the pinkskins could fight like hell out of necessity, but for Mikey it was a matter of racial and familial pride.

The idea came to him clearly while considering the basic problem of dealing with a larger foe. "Signal our fighter groups," Mikey told Grr'lek, "and let them know we're OK."

"Aye, sir. Battle group is reporting ready."

Mikey flashed a tense look at the Caitian as his antennae lay flat against his head. "Tell them to follow our lead - and NOTHING ELSE. Ge'haan! Close with the enemy at 3/4 impulse-"

The Cardassian checked the distance to the Brotherhood formation, thinking he had underestimated. "3/4, sir? Really?"

"No guts, no glory, Darel," answered Mikey wryly. "Once we've closed, I don't want us farther than 500 meters from an enemy ship at any time."

"500 me-" Darel's rejoinder was cut short by Mikey's glare. "Aye, sir," he finished with a sidelong glance.

"Hewer - ready phasers for immediate targets, torpedoes for intermediate and distant targets at all quarters," Mikey continued. "It's going to be pretty thick, so watch for friendlies when you send the QT's." At Hewer's bemused look Mikey asked, "Have I ever steered you wrong?"

"You've never steered us at all," said Hewer with a grin.

The Brotherhood fleet moved to bring its numbers to bear on the advancing Federation strike group. To the fleet's surprise, the Starfleet vessels continued to close until their hulls were almost touching Brotherhood vessels. As the Federation group opened fire, tearing through shields and hulls at point-blank range, the unengaged Brotherhood ships found themselves unable to fire without hitting one or more of their own vessels. The Daystrom herself took the head sections off a pair of B'rel-class cruisers with her type-XII phasers as the Brotherhood fleet began to fall into chaos.

[Sonic Glitch]

"Sir, the remaining force members have arranged themselves in an arrowhead formatian and they seem to be closing on the platforms for CQB."
"Can we assist?"
"Not likely sir."
"Alright, call the brain trust together. T'lavvik, Ligget, I need you."
The Vulcan called from the darkness, "One minute captain and I should have internal lighting." The bridge lights flared briefely then went out again, and fewer of the emercency lampst returned.
"Commander, 2 things, 1. I thought you meant you'd have internal lighting back and 2. Don't call me captain, I'm not the captain."
"You are senior officer in charge, thus you are the captain."
"Right...we'll argue later. What kind of shape are we in?"
"Auxillary power should be restored in about 10min, battery levels are holding steady."
"And they're not shooting at us!" piped in Pearson from somewhere in the darkness.
"Thats right..good point, now why aren't they shooting at us?" mused commander Lewis.
"The platforms appear to only be targeting ships with active power sources."
"Ok...that seems to make sense..if you're worried about being out-gunned, you don't waste time trying to pulverize all your enemies, you only disable those that are a direct threat to you. Ok...how do we use this?" There was silence in the darkness, "Anyone...anyone? Bueller?....Bueller?"
"*ahem* we uh..we could float torpedoes set to proximity detonation toward the platforms, or we could float shuttlecraft loaded with antimatter towards them?" piped up an ensign in the dark.
"Ah they'd never get passed the shields" replied Ligget
"Wait a minute Phil...that's not a bad idea if we can get the shields down...do we have a visual of the platform? An ideas been nagging at me." T'lavvik pulled up an image of a platform recorded before power was lost, it showed two flashing running-lights. "T'lavvik, those are running lights yes?"
'Yes commander."
"Alright...the fact that we can see them demonstrates that the shields let light through yes?"
"..Yes.."
"And light is just EM Radiation on a specific frequency yes?"
"..Yes.."
"So it would follow that other types of EM Radiation will get through the shields?"
"It seems logical.."*eyebrow raise*
"Alright..what interferes with sensors over planetry poles and in certain nebula clouds?"
"Ionization."
"Right..now, you've read about the history of Earths late 20th early 21st century conflicts, what did a nuclear explosion in the upper atmosphere cause?"
"Ionization"
"Right...how so?"
A glimmer of recognition entered T'lavviks eyes, "Electromagnetic pulse."
"Exactly! Is it possible to use the deflector dish to send a massive surge of EM Energy at the platforms to short them out?"
"It should be..."
"Alright, T'lavvik, you and Ligget prep the dish, keep us under batteries. Use auxillary power. Pearson, you've got nothing to do, see about configuring the torpedoes for proximity detonation and drift. Take Ensign Ralston with you."
In five minutes the plan was ready. "The dish is charged commander." reported T'lavvik from engineering, the torpedoes were standing by.
"Very good, orient the dish toward those three damaged platforms."
"Aye sir."
"Fire"
The only visible sign was a flicker on the platform. The lights flickered then went out.
"Sir, sensors show the platforms are "dead"" reported Ligget from the science station.
"Good, send the torpedoes out." The torpedoes drifted toward their target. They detonated close in and fatally damged the platforms.
"Yes!", a cheer went up from the bridge.
"T'lavvik, good work, now get my engines. Pearson, inform the rest of the squadron of our succes, prepare to brings us back to the battle."
"Aye sir..." there was a pause, "Sir, the Oak has been destroyed and the Dirge is counting down to a core breach. And sir, the Shoshone's suffered severe damage to their starboard nacelle."
Commander Lewis accepted this news quietly, "Paul...get us back there."

[Monroe]

Ahead of Munro's crawler a Dolphin crewmember with a force field wrapped around to contain the water so important to the aquatic creature's life was struct by shrapnel that pierced the protective barrier of the force field and caused the Dolphin's skin to rupture and shoot pieces of the mammel over the viewscreen of the walker.

"Whoever cleared a Dolphin was security duties was a moron." Munro commented as the vehicle lumbered forward.

The Galaxy class ship above them belched fire from numberous impacts but the Admiral stayed steadfast to the troops on the ground giving them much needed air support. Friendly fighters including M'Real's raced over head to help blast gun implacements and enemy fighters from the sky.

"We've reached the access tunnel." A voice cracked over the com system.

"On my way." Munro told the soldiers and opened the side door of the walker and leapt to the ground below him. Rolling to a standing position he ran towards the rock cropping. Behind him his walker locked onto an enemy fighter and fired another photon torpedo. As the fiery scrap metal landed in the distance Munro arrived at the door.

The battlefield engineers were slicing through the thick armored door with a plasma torch belching atomic fire into the bulkhead that kept them seperated. Once the door's locking mechanisms had been cut a Vulcan stepped foward placing a device in the newly created hole and activating it via remote. A ring inflated outwards forcing the bulkhead doors open and locking in place.

The newly exposed defenders opened fire behind the boxes and crates they had hastily assembled. The Federation troops under Munro's strict training took cover with a few others while a few were struck standing fully erect on the battle field. Munro switched the setting of his phaser and aimed at the storage boxes and fired.

The metal casings peeled back under the force of the phaser exposing the defenders in the open and allowing the Federation troops to cut them down. "Good work Sir." One of the ensigns said as they entered the enemy building, "Who would have thought of destroying their cover."

Munro sighed audiably then tapped his combadge, "Munro to Commadore Ford, I am pleased to report that we have gained access to the Brotherhood compound. Request reinforcements."

"Reinforcements denied. You'll have to do with what you have. Begin clearing the structure of enemy troops." Ford's voice came back void of emotion.

"Yes sir, Munro out." The Breed tapped his badge again to turn it off. "You heard the Commadore, begin sweeping." The starfleet personel nodded and began to move out deeper into the structure.

In the sky above the Dakota and the near dead Ravencrest tried to cover the troops as best they could but their defenses were beginning to fail.

[Thorin]

After the small fleet had charged the defenders, the previously busy D'Kora vessels turned about and headed back towards the main action, where the Daystrom was using her phasers to rip through the smaller Bird of Preys.

"Commander - the D'Koras are on an intercept course - two hundred thousand kilometres and closing," reported Grr'lek, "Photon torpedos incoming!"

Darel quickly rotated the ship, making sure the enemy vessels missed the failed dorsal shields, and they hit the underside of the ship as the auxillary bridge gently rocked, before it violently shook under a stray barrage of disrupter blasts which hit the unprotected hull where the main bridge had previously been.

"Deck one through four losing structural integrity," said Hewer, "Ventral shields down to thirty four percent."

"Evacuate those decks, reroute emergency power and compensate," replied Mikey.

The D'Koras came about for another pass on the Daystrom as Darel continued to the best of his ability to evade the enemy's blind and desperate firing. They fired again, and the ventral shields took the impact - just, and the ship was forced into a spiral from the explosions, before thruster control was regained.

"Mr Hewer!" yelled Mikey as he quickly scrambled up from the floor.

Jon understood immediately. The Daystrom, still in a slight spin, eventually got one of the massive D'Koras in her sights, directly ahead. The ship was built as a torpedo boat, and now would be the test. The forward facing tubes, all ten of them, glowed suddenly as, each in turn, quantum torpedo after quantum torpedo were shot straight ahead, and the previously undamaged D'Kora was hit by a barrage of firepower that severely reduced the Akira's torpedo complement. Forty torpedos, one after the other, all took noticable effect on the enemy vessel, and the final few in the stream punctured through the shields and hit the hull. A final message from the D'Kora was let loose before the ship exploded in a magnificent shower of sparks and debris.

"Commander - subspace warhead incoming!"

Before the order had even been given, the flak torpedo was away and on a course to the rip. It exploded right before the rip, but it failed. The rip continued straight on towards the Daystrom, towards the nearest anti-matter source.

[Reliant121]

"Come hard starboard, all thrusters! Fire all dorsal phasers at thae formation at 25 mark 004!" Mikey cried ordered, trying to collect the ship in the chaos. the USS Southern cross dived underneath the ventral surface, ducking away from a pair of Hideki class attack ships. Hewer directed a few stray phaser shots at the Hideki's splitting their shields open like nutshells.

"Thanks, Captain. Now its our turn," The captain of the Southern cross called over the comms. The Defiant class ship span about and unleashed a torrent of pulse phaser bursts at the ships gathering to the rear of the Daystrome, blasting away at the motley assortment of ships. A Galor class ship took the brunt of the fire. The forward disrupter array shattered open, spewing nadion particles like a trail. A small quartet of phaser blasts slammed into the port plain, blasting it clean away from the hull.

"Nice of them. Now, quantum torpedoes, lock on to that formation of Vorcha's. Standby to fire on my mark. Helm, erratic manoeuvres, Try and avoid their fire!"

"Aye sir!" Both Hewer and Darel replied. Darel sent the ship into a pattern of sharp dives and twists, on some occasions scraping the shields of other ships around.

"Southern Cross, Kursk, Horse shoe and Maginot are forming up on our flank. Looks like we ride together, captain!" Hewer reported.

"Well...I think 'Charge' would be appropriate! Execute manoeuvre, fire at will!"

The formation drove forward, unleashing a maelstrome of phaser and torpedo fire at the formation of capital ships. The Daystrome led the charge, firing everything she had at the group. The Defiant class ships let fly with the pulse phaser cannons, ripping into the lead attack Vor'cha. The group finally collected itself and returned fire, blasting away at the weakest ship of the federation group: the Maginot. The shields held steadfast for a while, but eventually they collapsed. A Disrupter blast tore open the starboard nacelle, spreading warp plasma in a trail behind her.

But the Maginot had one last trick up her sleeve. Power was diverted to the impulse engines, and the ship shot forward, streaking like a spear toward the closest Vor'cha. The Vor'cha attempted to stop the Steamrunner, but it was to no avail. The stricken ship plowed into the engineering area of the Vor'cha, collapsing the containment on the core and wrenching the ship apart.

[Mikey]

"45 seconds to impact," said Grr'lek far too casually.

"Options, Ms. Sternson?" asked Mikey, glancing at the science officer.

"How many spare warp cores do you have?" replied Amy with a rueful smile.

"Actually..." said Mikey thoughtfully. He touched his comm badge and barked, "Carson! Fire up three type-9's, maximum core output. Standby to launch at the subspace tear, two seconds apart."

"Aye, sir, full reactor power," came the puzzled reply.

Turning, Mikey said, "Mr. Hewer - we can expect the shields to take a real beating. In case they go down, have force fields ready at all corridor junctions and fire teams at all deck access points. In case any of our Brotherhood friends lose shields, be ready to blast them into scrap. Mr. Ge'haan," Mikey continued, facing the helm, "ready us for the shockwave and prepare for evasive maneuvers." Punching a button on the arm of the captain's chair, Mikey addressed the crew. "All hands, this is Commander W'trisk. General quarters - brace for impact and 'ware boarders." Closing the intercom and contacting the shuttle bay, he finished, "Now, Mr. Carson!"

There was a brief pause before Carson's voice came back, "Shuttle one away... two away... three away." Darel adjusted the ship's attitude to present as little surface area as possible to the expected explosion while everyone else watched the viewscreen. The first shuttle finally contacted the fire of the subspace tear and went up in a normal, non-subspace explosion. The second simply disappeared. Grr'lek growled softly and Darel muttered a Cardassian expletive as the third shuttle hit the boundary of the subspace tear and simply kept going.

Suddenly the shuttle transformed into a blinding point of light and then went dark, swallowing the tear in space. A normal starscape appeared where the roiling cloud of murky light had been. The cheers of the bridge crew were cut short as the shockwave from the sealing of the subspace rupture tossed the Daystrom like a ketch in rough seas.

[Tsukiyumi]

The violent shaking of the bridge blurred Thompson's vision as he clung to the console. Another barrage of disruptor pulses lit up the forward shields; a few blasted through, tearing into the forward saucer. The ship lurched fiercely as the debris slammed into the front of the bridge.

" Main power is back on-line, Captain!" Devi sounded surprised, but Thompson knew; San'dral had done it. He didn't want to think how she'd done it, but he knew they still had a chance thanks to her.

" The Adams is 'shuffling' in front to give us cover, sir!" O'Carroll grated, his voice a raspy shout. Thompson was surprised the boy was still conscious: after the platforms' concentrated fire tore off the starboard nacelle, the resulting power surge had blown out a main conduit overhead. The blood running down O'Carroll's face from his mangled right eye had stained the gray shoulder of his uniform a dark crimson, but he stayed at his post, refusing to head to sickbay even after Thompson's direct order.

He'll be up for a Christopher Pike Medal for Valor if we make it out of here, Thompson thought.

The massive Nebula-class USS Adams swung into position ahead, absorbing the onslaught of the remaining platforms. Their heavy armor had proven a match for the task force's firepower, and Thompson was sure he'd led all of them to their deaths.

" Incoming priority message from the Katana, sir! Text only!" Devi sent it to his console without waiting for acknowledgement, and as Thompson read it, a smile began to spread across his face. He glanced over at Sanskot, and noticed a similar look on his face.

" Sokath, his eyes open." He smirked ferociously.

It is quite an epiphany, Thompson thought, as Sanskot sent the plan on to the other ships in the task force.

" Devi, ready the deflector dish to emit a focused electromagnetic pulse; target all platforms in our field of fire." He heard her going to work before he finished his sentence, and knew she'd be up for commendation after this battle as well.

" We're ready, Captain. Task force reports ready." She was quite capable, and quite beautiful, even with her face smudged and her hair wildly standing about her head. She looked like an avenging goddess.

" Take 'em out!" He shouted, and the five ships in the group simultaneously unleashed a massive invisible wave of radiation. The platforms went down at once, their lethal cannons silenced, and shields lowered.

Thompson wasted no time; he was known for swift action, and proved it once again. " All ships, fire at will!" he screamed, as the Shoshone blazed out of the formation, all phasers firing, trailing warp plasma from her shattered nacelle pylon. The Adams unleashed its tremendous firepower on a nearby platform; its weapons pod spewed a stream of torpedoes, and its main phaser array sheared off two pylons before the platform exploded under the devastating assault. The Adams' shields flared as she plowed through the debris, engaging another target nearly at once.

The Brawly, Adieu, and Abbot sliced one of the platforms to pieces with convergent phaser strikes as they flew past, and the Shoshone herself managed another kill before coming about.

Thompson turned his attention to the fleet; the Brotherhood's mélange of outdated vessels had looked weak on the intel PADDs, but they'd inflicted serious casualties on the Federation force. As they watched, the Nebula-class USS Roberts came under fire again, a D'Kora Marauder blasting off the weapons pod before turning its weapons on the Daystrom.

" Damage report!" Thompson barked, checking the status of the remaining vessels in his task force as he listened.

" Overall shield strength at 12%, rear phaser banks destroyed, and hull integrity approaching critical, sir. We have hull breaches on all decks but eleven and three; one of the shuttle bays is open to space, the power grid is fluctuating, and we've taken heavy casualties, sir. At least a hundred dead, about two hundred more wounded And, we seem to have misplaced a nacelle, sir..."

O'Carroll managed a smile at that one, " I got that one, Devi." He croaked, craning his head to focus his remaining eye on her.

" Weapon status, Lorcan?" Thompson smirked at the impressively resilient young man.

" Phaser banks at 23% power, and we have all of seventeen quantum torpedoes remaining, sir." He paused, grimacing in pain for a moment, " We are going after the fleet, right, sir?"

" Damn straight, Lieutenant. Divert power to forward shields, and ready all weapons. Order the Adams to lead the charge, and tell the Brawly to stay behind and finish off the remaining platforms. Sanskot, I'd like you to personally get the casualties and unneeded crew to escape pods at once," he paused as one of the disabled platforms exploded, " What's the status of the Katana?"

" She just blew up a platform using unguided torpedoes as drift mines, sir. She's heavily damaged; running on auxiliary power only." Devi reported with a smile at their resourcefulness.

" Order the Brawly to tow her clear of the asteroid field after they finish mopping up the platforms, then come in firing at any targets of opportunity." As she sent the order, and Sanskot rushed to the turbolift, Thompson watched the battle ahead; these petty pirates had proven to be a formidable force, and a lot of good people were dead. He had no intention of leaving before the job was done.

As the Adams swooped past, firing phasers at a Galor-class that had wandered too far from the scattering Brotherhood fleet, another Galor detonated a subspace weapon near the Defiant-class Southern Cross. The colossal subspace tear wavered in space for a moment, and then moved with lightning speed - straight back at the Galor that launched it. The ship was torn apart in an instant, the huge explosion sealing the rift.

O'Carroll laughed out loud, " I guess that's why those thing were banned in the first place, eh, Captain?"

" They sure as hell won't be in my arsenal any time soon Take us in, Lorcan."

Battered, and stricken as she was, the Shoshone raced toward the battle with the remnant of Thompson's task force surrounding her; ready to continue to the last.

[Monroe]

Munro motioned with his left hand for the security personel to follow. They had reached a T intersection of hallways. One hallway going forward with another opening up on his right. Pointing to a crewman in a red shirt he signaled for him to run across the opening.

The ensign took of drawing the fire of two Romulans who managed to miss the Federation soldier as the man dived in the nick of time. This gave away their positions for Munro to round the corner and open fire knocking both the Romulans flat on their backs holes burned through their chests. "Nice job. You lived." Munro said offering a rare compliment. "Now go see what's in the doorway at the end of the hallway those Romulans were protecting." Pointing to two other Federation troops he motioned for them to follow the unlucky ensign.

Stepping out of the line of fire at a casual pace Munro waited for the ensigns to open the door. "Ammunition dump!" One of them yelled back after making sure it was secure.

"Scan the room for traps then load up men. If you lost your weapon or want a better one grab it." Munro ordered and continued along his mission. Keeping his weapon at 'eye' level he reached the end of the long hallway and turned left. Stairs led up to the next level. All crewmen behind him following suit and spreading out in a delta formation.

"Too quiet sir." A crew member whispered. The young Human then began to scan ahead, "I'm detecting a power surge!" He yelled.

The crewmen quick enough and lucky enough to have personel force fields provided clicked them on as they dove to the ground. A compartment on a stair step opened up and a small explosive device about the size of a gernade detonated. The force of the explosion pushed ahead hundreds of tiny ball bearings at high velocities forward. The metal balls made contact with the soft unreinforced fabric of a Starfleet uniform, piercing it with ease then the skin, then the muscle, then the bone, then the organs and out the other side.

Seven crewmen disappeared in a cloud of red midst. Bone fragments were carried along by the sheer number of deadly orbs which richosheded around the turn of the hallway and into the mass of Federation men and women around the bend. Piercing through the first five ranks of troops cutting through biological mass with ease only a few who had turned on their personel force fields were protected.

Covered in blood Munro slowly got to his feet his forcefield having been overwhelmed by the destructive blast only his hardened suit saved him from certain death. Looking down he saw two dead crewmen who had their shields on but still took fatal hits. The rest of the people with him were a pudding. Screams of the wounded around the corner could be heard.

Munro walked across the greasy, chunky, bloody hallway to look at the devestation on the other side. "Vulcan." He said pointing to a one armed Vulcan struggling to stand. "Message the Dakota and inform them to order reinforcemetns taken from anywhere they can provide them. And ask them to send shuttles down to collect the wounded." Munro mentally sighed wishing that the trap hadnt' been sprung until after they disabled the interfence that prevented transporters inside the facility.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

M'Real took off in the Shadow Fox to respond to the rescue signal from Monroe's team landing as close as she could to the point of the signal's origin, and leaving Donut in charge she took a set of transport enhancers and personally carried them to Monroe's position. M'Real was in such a rush she almost missed a not so dead Romulan. If her hearing hadn't caught the sound of him cocking his weapon, she wouldn't have launched her bracelet's collapsible sword, hitting him in the center of his forehead, a wound that was fatal to most humanoids. She pulled the weapon from the Romulan's skull, and continued on her way.

Coming up on the carnage M'Real caught herself staring at it. "What the hell happened?"

"projectile grenade," said a one-armed Vulcan, who M'Real could tell used to have a second arm minutes earlier.

"M'Real? Sir! What are you doing here sir?" asked a surprised Monroe.

"The Shadow Fox was redeployed for ground troop deployment by Mikey," M'Real explained as she set up the enhancers, "When your call came through I figured the spare pattern enhancers would let you beam out the wounded and beam in reinforcements." The first group of wounded beamed out and was replaced by uninjured troops beaming in. M'Real noticed the impact damage to Munroe's suit, "are you injured Lieutenant?"

"It's nothing sir. My forcefield took the brunt of the attack, and the suit is resistant to projectile weapons," said Munroe.

M'Real nodded, "I'll trust you to know your own limitations. But don't be a hero Munroe. You're no good to anyone as a corpse."

"Understood sir. Will you be joining us?"

M'Real shook her head, "I'll stay here to cover the enhancers until we have sufficient reinforcements, then I'll continue air support in the Fox. Good Luck Munroe."

"I don't believe in luck sir, but I understand the sentiments behind it."

"Well, get on with it Munroe. Oh and be careful, you missed one earlier," M'Real said indicating the green blood on her sword.

[Teaos]

On the Bridge of the surviving D'Kora class Narg sat in command or the remaining Brotherhood fleet.

"Sir the Federation fleet has disposed of the last of the defence platforms and are reforming into a single fleet. We have been unable to dislodge them from their landing zone on the planet due to their fighter cover" A heavily scared Bolian rasped out.

"Re form our lines, keep the remaining asteroid guns between us and the Federation fleet, keep the Federation fleet contained with supspace weapons fire, don't let them reform and attack" Narg ordered as he started re organizing his remaining fleet in a defencive position.

"Sir we are getting reports in from the surface, the Federation ground forces have breached the compound and are working their way in" One of the many crew members said over the noise of the many crew members trying to organize the fleet.

"Can we spare any ships to assault their landing ground?" The Bolian asked.

"We have three capital ships remaining along with several frigates and several small crafts" One of the crew shouted back from her station.

"What defence does the landing zone have?" Narg asked the of the crew members standing at a computer station.

"Their flag ship is holding its position above the landing zone along with another of their damaged frigates and several fighter wings, it seems as if the land army has set up several phaser emplacements on the surface" A Klingon snarled back at him obviously wishing to be engaging the enemy fleet.

"Send one of the Galors and a fighter wings" Narg snarled out as he watched multiple subspace weapons detonate around the Federation fleet they couldn't lose, he wouldn't let them.

[Mikey]

"Commander! The Shoshone reports ODP's are down, strike group three is moving to assist the Dakota," Grr'lek called.

"Our status?" Mikey asked.

Hewer answered, "Shields are at 38% and coming back slowly. Array #2 is offline, but all torpedo tubes are functional."

Mikey walked over to the nervous-looking young ensign manning the engineering station and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Listen. I need you to take care of some things. Get our shields back up. That takes priority over the phaser array, over system repairs, everything. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," replied the young man, sounding unsure.

"Just get to work instead of taking time to worry. You wouldn't have that uniform if you couldn't do the job." Turning, he asked, "What's the Brotherhood fleet's situation?"

Grr'lek answered, "Severely depleted. Remaining ships are falling back to engage strike group one."

Hewer added, "Several ships in our immediate vicinity were affected by the blast, with shields down or very low."

"Shields up to 46% and increasing," chimed in the young engineering officer.

"Ge'haan!" Mikey called, "set a course to support the Dakota. Leave us just outside optimal disruptor range, where we can stand off and pound 'em with our torpedoes. Grr'lek - tell the group to form up and be ready to close on any weak points we can create with our volleys. Hewer - get ready; we're going through those ships, not around them."

[Monroe]

The Ravencrest swooped in for another assault its phaser relay destroying two more enemy fighters before taking a direct hit in its unshielded engineering deck from the Galor craft. "Sir that last disruptor hit did it!" The Engineering officer onboard the bridge told the Captain.

"Is Lieutiant Munro's transporter link still active?" The Captain asked as the ship shook violently again.

"Yes sir, we're in transporter range."

"Begin beaming all nonessential personel down to the planet. Helm set a collision course for the Galor." The Captain ordered.

"Sir?"

"We've done all we can do, we must provide protection for our troops on the ground and the Dakota. Ramming speed!" The Captain ordered.

As the crew was beamed to the surface the battered saber class and its vertan crew which had survived longer than all the rest of the Dakota's defenders turned towards the Galor and pushed forward at maximum speed. Roughly 4/5ths the crew made it off before the damaged Federation craft slammed into the Galor midsection causing a warpcore breach that incenerated both vessels, the shock wave scattering the fighter escort knocking many of the Brotherhood fighters into the planet surface below.



"Sir, the Ravencrest is destroyed." A trooper next to Munro said quietly as he got the message on his datapad.

"They did their part we must do ours. Our scanners point that the command center for the entire brotherhood fleet is behind these doors. We get in we shut down their shield and end this." Munro told the trooper. "Bring up detonators." Munro and the others pulled back taking up firing positions as two ensigns placed charges on the door frame. Soon as they had cleared the blast radius Munro ordered the door brought down.

Shape charges detonated sending the door falling backwards into the command center. Phaser fire immediately shot outwards. Two federation crew members were hit, Munro noted they weren't his trained ones as they were standing straight up. "All in!" Munro charged wishing he had been given permission to bring flashbangs along. The Federation troops charged through the small narrow passageway many of them cut down as they ran for the nearest cover, the control pannels inside.

Munro swung the butt of his phaser rifle into the nearest alien sennding him sprawling backwards before bringing his rifle up to shoot another one in the forehead sending the man collapsing.

As the Federation fanned out into the multileveled command center a huge holographic map of the battle field in the center of the room showed the remaining force that had come to save the center become engaged by the Galaxy Class starship. The technicions of the Brotherhood put up a brave defense but were cut down by the sheer numbers of Federation crew. Those with working personel shields were constantly lit up by incoming phaser fire. Those without shields weren't as lucky as the Brotherhood employed technologies such as gernades. Munro gave a mental wince as a small cylinder was thrown into the narrow doorway blasting shrapnel into the unarmored Federation troops.

Poking his head up from the console he had taken cover behind he fired off two quick hits which nailed the thrower of the device. Running up the stairs to the top level he knelt at the top to use the floor itself as cover and opened fire at the aliens and humans shooting at the Federation troops charging in. Behind Munro more Federation security personel charged upwardsa few of them shot down by return fire they quickly rounded the top section of the command center taking out the brotherhood that got into their way.

Once the last phaser shots had ceased Munro stood slowly and looked over the carnage. Federation and Brotherhood lay dead beside each other but the hard fought race to the summit of the mountain had been won! "Deactivate the shield, inform the Dakota we have taken control of the Brotherhood base!" Munro ordered.

A trooper ran over to the communication array pulling a dead Cardasian off the communication board he sent the message over the cheering noise of the surviving Federation personel.