In the year 2281, The Klingons have brought the Romulans into the fight against the Federation. Combining deep strikes with savage border skirmishes, the Klingon/Romulan Coalition pushed three thousand parsecs into Federation space. The Federation had been gravely wounded...but a wounded animal is the most dangerous.
One of the most vital campaigns to be undertaken by the Coalition was the siege of Starbase 15. If the Federation could secure that base, it would have the ability to push the border back. If the Coalition could capture or destroy it, it might seal the Federation's fate. With that in mind, Captain Kapact, aboard the repaired IKV Durango accompanies a Romulan warship, the RIS Praex on a mission to take Starbase 15 once and for all...
Kapact looked around him at the bridge of the Durango. The ship had been nearly destroyed the last time it approached Starbase 15. Now it was set to return. Of course, they were not alone this time. The Romulan allies had sent the RIS Praex to aid in taking the station if possible. Between the two ships, they had eighty boarding parties at their disposal. And while Kapact would be happier to have only Klingons on the station, he would be satisfied if they could at least rid it of humans.
"Signal coming in from the Praex." The comm officer seemed to have trouble with the Romulan word.
"On screen." Kapact watched as the Romulan appeared on the screen. They all looked virtually the same to him. They did at least have honour, these Rhihansu Romulans. But what happened when power shifted on Romulus, as it had from time to time? That was a question for another day. "NuqneH?" What do you want?
The Romulan seemed to look down his nose briefly. "Captain, there are six ships on course for the starbase. Sensor signatures suggest two troop transports with two destroyer escorts each."
"We were told to expect this. Maintain cloak and prepare to come about. You engage the destroyers while we destroy the transports." Kapact knew that it would annoy the Romulans to be ordered around like that, but if he didn't do it to them, they would do it to him.
"Acceptable." The Romulan did seem annoyed. But at least he wasn't arguing.
"Target the troop transports." Kapact said to his helmsman. "Set a course that brings us away from the escorts. Prepare to decloak and fire all weapons." The Durango slipped away from the sensor shadow of the Praex.
They were boxy, uninspiring craft. The two standard Federation white and blue warp nacelles, and modular hulls designed to carry a hundred troops each. Kapact thought of the forty boarding parties of six warriors each, and was happy that he had avoided the infantry service. Better to die on the bridge, where you saw your enemy than to spend half of your career packed in a tin can.
"Approaching firing range." M'rel stood behind the tactical officer. "The Praex has engaged the escorts."
Kapact walked to the tactical station. He saw the shadow of the Praex as it decloaked and fired three plasma torpedoes into the aft shield of an Akula Class Destroyer. Then the Praex reengaged its cloak. "Target the closest freighter. Decloak and fire."
The Durango decloaked and loosed a spread of four photon torpedoes on the lumbering transport. Shields flared briefly, and disruptors tore the transport apart. Kapact felt a vague disquiet at the decloak/fire/recloak strategy. It was sound, and it usually worked. But it was sneaky. More befitting of a Romulan than a Klingon. But it was also the best way to destroy the freighter convoy before it reached Starbase 15.
The Durango recloaked, and moved quickly to overtake the other freighter. "Status of the Praex."
"They have destroyed the first escort. The other three have converged on them."
"Stand by to engage the escorts. Plot course and prepare to execute." Kapact thought that he didn't like having Romulans for allies. They were not to be trusted, and only helped you when it was to their advantage. "Are we in range of the second transport?"
"HIja." Yes. M'rel had sensed Kapact's mood, and he was determined to destroy the helpless transport quickly. "Weapons recharged."
"Destroy it." Kapact normally felt gratified to watch the enemies of the Empire die, but these were unarmed ships, and they had no chance to defend themselves. Disruptors flashed, and photon torpedoes belched. The transport's shields collapsed, and its hull blew apart.
"Recloak and execute course," The Durango cloaked yet again, and warped to where the Praex was engaging the Federation destroyers.
"Captain!" M'rel sounded worried. "There are several mines in the combat area."
"Tactical view on main viewer. Overhead." The view on the main screen jumped to show an overhead view of the area. Kapact could see the cloaked shadow of the Praex. It was visible to them because the Romulans provided them with the frequency of their cloaking shield. But in order for the Federation craft to find them, the Starfleet captains were laying mines and dropping transporter bombs in an attempt to 'flash' the invisible Romulan Heavy Cruiser.
There were two destroyers dancing around the combat area in overlapping circles, trying to find the Praex. The third must have been destroyed. Kapact saw from the tactical display that one of the ships had lost its port shielding. The other had full shields. "Target the damaged ship. Take us in to target its port side. Prepare to decloak and fire."
The Durango moved quietly through the maze of dodging ships and mines. It was just settling on an approach to the destroyer when proximity alarms went off. "Transporter bomb!" M'rel shouted.
"Emergency stop!" Kapact jumped from his seat and was thrown back into it as the ship lurched to a stop in an attempt to evade the mine that had been transported into their path. But they hadn't stopped in time. An explosion erupted against the Durango's unshielded forward hull.
"Shields!" Kapact shouted the order, but the tactical officer had already brought the ship out of cloak and up to battle readiness. "Damage control." The weapons indicators on the tactical view showed that they were still armed, and still combat capable. He silently thanked the engineer that had thought to add quadruple armour to Klingon forward hulls to protect reckless Klingon captains. "Fire all weapons. Helm, set evasive course away."
The Durango's weapons flashed, and the destroyer was pushed back. It had not expected to catch the Klingon ship quite so close by, and it suddenly had to adapt tactics to fighting two ships. Then the Durango started to turn on its axis.
"Captain, there are now five mines in our path."
"Maximum defensive tractors." Kapact watched as the series of mines became visible on the overhead display. "Parallel course with the Praex."
"Captain, our tractors will detonate the mines. We won't be protected from the explosions."
"No, but we might not run into all of them if we start pushing through a corridor." He turned from the worried M'rel to the tactical officer. "Lock all aft weapons on to the destroyer."
The Durango began to push through a series of mines, grabbing each mine one by one. To Kapact's relief, the resulting explosions were far enough away, and/or deflected by the tractor beam to limit damage to firmed up forward shields. As the Durango finally moved away from the cluster of mines, the Praex reappeared. It was behind the damaged destroyer, loosing a volley of plasma torpedoes and disappearing. The destroyer shuddered, and phasers flashed where the Praex had been. Then it turned to fire a wide spread of torpedoes.
"Full impulse! Take us in and fire all weapons." Kapact sat forward in his chair. "Keep an eye on the second destroyer. We don't want to be outflanked."
"The second destroyer is coming about, but it is also searching for the Praex." That was M'rel, standing behind the tactical officer.
"Fire as we come into range." The Durango closed on the destroyer. When it was back in range, it decloaked. Disruptors and photons flashed in an alpha strike to bring down the destroyer's aft shield. "High energy turn! 80 degrees." Kapact grabbed hold of the arms of his chair. He felt the power building up under him. That was the warp power being diverted to thrusters and the structural integrity field. Then the Durango whipped around 80 degrees. When Kapact saw on the tactical viewer that they had settled on their heading, he slapped at the alpha strike button. Two powerful defensive phasers lanced out and hit the unshielded destroyer. "Cloak and disengage!" The Durango cloaked and moved quickly away as the destroyer turned again to try to engage its tormentors. That was when the Praex reappeared one more time and loosed three more plasma torpedoes at the destroyer's unshielded hull. The destroyer buckled, and the dorsal warp nacelle strut cracked under the strain. Then the ventral nacelle shattered into a thousand fine particles of duranium, and an explosion tore through the saucer section.
"Target the last destroyer." Kapact said to the tactical officer. He watched on the tactical display a targeting bracket appeared around the surviving destroyer. "Intercept."
The Durango and the Praex converged on the destroyer and both decloaked. This time there was no attempt to fire and cloak. They came from opposite angles and pummelled the outnumbered starship. Shields flared brightly under the combined assault of disruptors and photon torpedoes. Then the destroyer's shields winked out, and its hull buckled quickly. Then the Durango and the Praex left the shattered hulk drifting as they cloaked and set course for starbase 15.
Both ships entered the fringes of the Donatu sector. That was where Kapact had caught and destroyed a Federation convoy. And it was the location of Starbase 15.
This time Kapact didn't have to worry about a Federation task force at Starbase 15. The Klingons had allocated six War Destroyer Class Birds of Prey to blockading the isolated starbase. They certainly weren't enough to destroy the starbase, but they provided a reasonable deterrent to any ships approaching it. That was why the Federation had tried to break through using four Akulas to escort two troop transports. They had to relieve the starbase or lose it to attrition.
Kapact stood as the Durango reached the outer edge of the Klingon line around the starbase. "Signal the Praex to hold at the outer marker. Then contact the lead War Destroyer."
A moment later, the Durango's viewscreen came to life. A young arrogant looking Klingon appeared. "IKV Death's Head. Captain Korthos. NuqneH."
"Captain, I am under orders from General Chang. I have, between my ship and the RIS Praex, the third marine division standing by to beam to Starbase 15. You are ordered by General Chang to assist me in bringing down the starbase's shields."
Korthos didn't acknowledge immediately. He looked at someone off screen, and spoke quietly. Then he turned back to Kapact. "Stand by Durango. Order your Romulan escort to follow you in."
"HIja." Kapact answered carefully. HIja was a very formal yes, where as luq was a slightly more subservient 'okay, I'll do what you say.' It was a petty consideration, more appropriate for diplomatic circles than combat operations, but Korthos was a petty warship commander, and Kapact had to make it clear that he was in command of the situation.
Korthos sneered at the viewscreen, and that was when Kapact noticed that there were subject race creatures on the bridge. He even saw a Vulcan at the science station. Kapact had vowed to never have subject races on the bridge. He even resisted having them on the ship. One day that policy would blow up in their faces, he thought. Slaves always revolt eventually. "Order your ships to assume Kutluch formation. You will destroy the defence platforms so the Durango and the Praex can proceed to the starbase."
Korthos laughed openly. "Two ships, against a starbase? You'll be destroyed."
"Once you have destroyed the defences, form up with us and target the starbase's shield generator. You have your orders. Execute!" Kapact cut the communications himself. "Contact the Praex." Seconds later, the Romulan appeared on the viewscreen. "Captain, the Birds of Prey will engage and destroy the defence platforms. Cover our aft quarter and prepare to move in." When the Romulan had dryly acknowledged the command, Kapact ordered the channel closed and the tactical display on the main viewer. The five birds of prey were indeed moving to envelop the starbase. They quickly set to attacking the orbiting defence platforms. "Follow us in." Kapact muttered. So far on this mission he had dealt with arrogant Romulans and a kuve-keeping petty Klingon. He would be happy when the starbase was in their hands and he was moving on to the next mission and the next target.
"Captain, the starbase is targeting the War Destroyers." M'rel did not sound displeased. "They haven't detected us yet."
"Attack speed. All weapons pre-heat. Stand by power to all combat systems. Advise the Praex that we are going in." The Durango passed quickly through the starbase's defence perimeter. If they had not been cloaked, then the defensive batteries would have opened up on them. Indeed, if the automated orbital platforms not been occupied with the War Destroyers, they might have detected the Klingon Heavy Cruiser with its Romulan counterpart. But they would have to decloak soon. Mass detectors on the starbase would pick them up quickly. "Target main sensor arrays." The tactical view of the starbase tightened to show a star-shaped red targeting reticle on the starbase's ventral hull. That was the main sensor array. "Get us in position..." Kapact's stomach lurched just slightly as the ship shifted on thrusters to bring the weapons into arc to fire on the sensor array.
"Captain." It was M'rel. "We will be detected in seconds."
Kapact stood to regard his friend and first officer. "Stand by."
"Captain-."
Kapact looked back at the screen, where the starbase was looming close and very dangerous. He glanced back to M'rel, who watched Kapact and the screen. Just as he saw his friend open his mouth, Kapact raised his right hand. "Now!"
The Durango decloaked just as collision alerts started to sound. Disruptors and photon torpedoes flashed in sequence. At the same time, the Praex appeared just above and behind them. Plasma torpedoes flew in from overhead and slammed into the starbase's shields. Between the two of them, they brought the base's shield facing down to 25 percent.
"Shields still up." M'rel muttered.
"Continuous fire. More torpedoes. Disruptors maintain fire." Kapact had hoped that they would bring down the shields in the first volley. That was the main reason they had brought the Romulans along. Plasma torpedoes should have been able to bring down the shields. Even for long enough to beam the marines over. A flash of red suddenly burst through the glow of shields and the flash of disruptors. It was a load of photon torpedoes from the starbase. At the same time, phasers from at least four different banks on the starbase reached out to slam into them. There was an explosion behind him. Kapact turned to see the sensor station engulfed in sparks and electrical fire. "Damage control." They didn't have time to stop or retreat. "Maintain fire!" He felt the ship rock forward just slightly, and he sought out the tactical display. The Praex was still there. The starbase must have detonated a plasma torpedo. But the Praex was still firing. Somehow they had found the power to fire seven torpedoes off without stopping to rearm. It would not be pleasant in the Romulan weapon room. Kapact had spent one battle in a Romulan weapon room, and he knew that even at a normal firing rate a plasma torpedo was damnably hot. It would be an inferno over there right now. As he thought of this, he was suddenly surprised to see a disruptor bolt slam into the hull of the starbase. When had the shield dropped? No matter. "Cargo transporter! Energize!"
"Transporter activity from the Praex." M'rel reported. "They're beaming the marines over."
Kapact grunted with satisfaction. The Romulan commander had at least been on the ball. He hadn't waited to be told to energize transporters. That was when the starbase fired a spread of photon torpedoes at the Durango, and an assault phaser at the Praex. Both ships rocked, and Kapact was thrown from his command chair. When he picked himself up off of the deck, he looked back at M’rel. “Are they away?”
“Yes. And our shields are back up.”
“Get us away from the starbase.” Kapact couldn’t sit now. He felt the ship surge under him, and he stood, leaning against a support pylon as the Durango moved away from the station. “Maximum impulse!”
The Durango moved quickly now as the starbase continued to fire at it and the Praex
As the Durango pulled away from the furiously firing starbase, Korthos contacted Kapact. "Your assault was short-lived. What will you conquer next, son of Ab'Qaf?"
"Don't acknowledge his signal" Kapact told M'rel. "Order all ships to pull out of range of the starbase and wait for the marines to contact us."
Korthos and his War Destroyers had been swarming the defence platforms. Now they converged on the Praex as it pulled away from the starbase.
"Captain." M'rel was listening intently through an earphone pickup at the comm station. "Reports coming in from the marines. The humans put up little fight. They must have been-." Suddenly the deck fell out from under them all, and the Durango was tossed end over end through space.
Kapact had to crawl to the tactical station as the ship slowly righted itself. "The starbase?"
Then he saw for himself, as M'rel confirmed it. "Self-destructed. Cowards."
That was the third Klingon marine division. 480 warriors dead. Kapact stared at the expanding dust and plasma cloud that had been Starbase 15. "Advise the High Command. And contact the Praex." The Romulan Commander was on the viewscreen in seconds. "Praex, we are leaving the area. Our orders are to return to command base at the completion of the mission."
The Romulan didn't seem moved at all by the deaths of 480 Klingons. "Acknowledged. Praex out." The angular face vanished, and the Praex cloaked and vanished into warp.
Kapact stared at the empty starfield before them. The plasma cloud had dissipated. It was all over. A low rumble began in the back of his throat, almost of its own accord. Slowly it grew into a howl that was echoed throughout the ship. Kapact imagined that he could even hear the death howl travel through space from the War Destroyers, and even the bits of debris that had been his fellows who died on the starbase. Soon his throat was dry, and his eyes were red, and he could howl no more. Words croaked out of his mouth. "Set course for Torlek base."....
The destruction of Starbase 15 was a serious blow to the Federation. At the same time, Romulan forces engaged in a major offensive, creating a second front for the Federation when they could hardly sustain the one they had. Within six months, the Klingon/Romulan coalition, combined with poor leadership from a politicised Federation Council led to the inevitable. Negotiations for what was referred to as an "honourable peace."
Kapact felt dwarfed on the B-10V Super Heavy Carrier QeylIs MIndu'. Not only by the size of the massive ship, but by the company he was in. General Chang was the most familiar face. It was his ship, as far as the mission went. Accompanying him was the Klingon Ambassador Kaleen, and the Romulan Praetor Maxillus. The QeylIs MIndu' was being escorted through Federation space, on the 'diplomatic' mission by the Vulcan Star Cruiser Shikar. It wasn't so much a white flag that they flew under, as everyone involved knew that things were hardly peaceful. But the Vulcans had helped to force the issue through to pull the parties back from what would be a bloody fight for Earth. The Klingons had settled for a 'demilitarisation' of the Federation's outer provinces 2000 parsecs from Earth. And the Federation agreed to leave the territory to its coalition 'peacekeepers'.
When the two massive ships arrived in Earth orbit, Kapact was invited by Chang to accompany them to the formal ceremonies. Kapact had, in Chang's words, 'played a significant enough part in the fight that had brought them this far' that he deserved to be there to see the treaty signing.
The Federation Council Chairman Buckner was a small man, by Kapact's estimation. Heavy set, with hanging jowls and eyebrows that ended in feathery tufts of hair on either side of his head. In fact Buckner stood a few inches taller than General Chang, but Chang always commanded attention in a room by the force of his personality. Buckner just seemed small and nervous like a qaHHom.
All of the diplomats and parties involved were in a round auditorium in San Francisco. Kapact was noting the smell of salt in the sea air, and the distasteful look on the face of the ancient Vulcan Ambassador when the whine of Federation transporters suddenly turned every head.
Hours later, as the QeylIs MIndu' was escorted back through Federation space by the Shikar, the ancient Vulcan face held the same look of disapproval. "I have worked with humans for 167 years." At Kapact's wide-eyed look, Ambassador Soval crinkled his nose in distaste. "I am 230 years old. And for 167 of those years, I have been subject to human emotions and human impetuousness in the face of logic. This is nothing new."
Chang regarded the Vulcan, confined to a mobile life-support machine. He found it admirable that a mind could drive a machine that kept a frail body moving as if it could no more stop diplomatic work than a Klingon could stop making war. "Ambassador, my friend Kaleen is dead. The humans have backed out of an honourable agreement with us, and used a transporter to assassinate their own Council Chairman. It may not be new, but it is an escalation. A step away from honourable peace...and a step towards conquest."
Soval seemed to age just a bit at that moment. "I am almost certain of that, General."
For Kapact, he could only see the startled face of the frightened Council Chairman as the transporter took him and deliberately disassembled him...the phaser beams that had erupted from recessed alcoves in the walls. He also remembered the salty sea air of San Francisco.
"What are you thinking, Captain?" It was Soval. He sounded tired.
Kapact looked from Soval to Chang. "I'm thinking...I'll be back there someday."
Monday, July 23, 2007
Episode 4 Captain Kapact: Klingon Invasion of the Federation
In the year 2279, the Klingon Empire saw the Federation begin to aid the Kzinti. This development, along with the lack of Organian interference in galactic affairs convinced the Empire to take the offensive. In the days and weeks before the outbreak of hostilities, Captain Kapact, of the KD7W Heavy Command Cruiser IKV Durango was part of a heavy Klingon presence along the border...
Kapact peered through the darkness on the viewscreen. They were close to the neutral zone. Close enough to scan for Federation ships on the other side.
"Sir!" M'rel's voice was excited and eager for combat. "Positive contact, course 292 mark 14. Federation warp signature!"
The Council had begun to allow border patrol ships to enter the neutral zone to try to provoke and test Starfleet resolve. "Take us into the neutral zone. Normal emissions. Alert status." Kapact felt his pulse rate increasing. The river of blood rushed through his veins.
The Durango turned and slipped into the neutral zone, towards the Federation starship. Thirty minutes later, they were close enough to identify the contact. "Positive identification. Constitution Class. USS Hood."
Kapact felt the excitement welling up inside him. The thought of spilling Federation blood. "Stand by." Then he turned to the communications officer. "Coded burst transmission to Torlek base on Agilon Prime. Federation battlecruiser spotted near neutral zone. Request permission to engage." He waited while the burst transmission was sent. Then he would have to wait for the returned burst transmission.
Without warning, the viewscreen came to life. If this was the reply, it was in violation of the secure communications protocols for this sector. The Hood would hear it as clearly as they did. The Klingon trefoil appeared, marking this as a transmission not from Torlek base but from Qo'noS. It was important. "Attention all warriors." Chang. General Chang. "This is a glorious day. As we speak, the Federation is being advised that we are withdrawing from the illegally imposed Organian Peace Treaty. A state of war now exists between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. Congratulations, warriors. Destroy your enemies without mercy." Chang seemed to be staring directly into Kapact's eyes. "Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay. The worst is death, and death will have its day." Chang's image vanished from the viewscreen, te be replaced by the Klingon trefoil. When Kapact ordered the channel closed, the trefoil was replaced by a starfield wherein the USS Hood lay in wait.
"Shipwide." When the comm officer signalled ready, Kapact searched quickly for words that might inspire as Chang had inspired him. Then he realized that it was a simple matter. "Sons and daughters of Kahless, we are at war with the humans." He ordered the signal closed. Then he spoke to the tactical officer. "Cloak. Maximum ECM. Helm, intercept course." Then he turned to the security officer. "All boarding parties to transporters. Anti-intruder systems ready for autofunction." That last command would set the Durango's anti-intruder security systems to continually scan for non klingon forms and assault them with a number of systems, including bulkhead mounted phasers, poisonous theragen gas, and forcefields. The IKV Durango approached the USS Hood at maximum impulse.
At 20,000 kellicams, Kapact could see the Hood taking shape. "Ready all systems. Damage control, ready all teams. Shuttlebay, prepare for combat operations." He turned to the science officer. "Constant scan of enemy systems. Copy all readings to tactical station. Tactical view on screen." The view changed to the tactical view, from just above and behind the Durango, and always keeping the USS Hood on screen. It also showed comparative shield strengths and hull integrity, in addition to status of enemy systems. This freed Kapact from having to ask the tactical officer for critical information during the battle.
"Ten thousands kellicams. Oblique approach. Enemy port shield targeted."
"Attack speed.. Tractor beam, lock on. Stand by to fire." Kapact had learned to wait until he could see the bridge lights of his enemy before he decloaked. That shocked his opponent into momentary panic and inaction. The Durango slipped closer. And closer still. The tactical display now showed individual weapons charges on the Hood. Shield strengths appeared. Hull integrity. When they passed seventy-five hundred kellicams, the Hood's bridge lights came into focus. Kapact had raised one hand in anticipation. Now he dropped it. "Decloak. Tractor engage. Staggered weapons fire."
The Durango decloaked, and tractors immediately locked on the Hood. At the same time, Phasers fired, followed by disruptors, as missiles launched. As the missiles angled towards the Hood's shield, the Durango's shuttlebay opened, allowing a shuttle to launch.
Phasers splashed off of the starboard shield, and disruptors weakened it further. The first volley of missiles brought the shield down. Then the scatterpack shuttle from the Durango launched its missiles.
Normally at this point, the Hood could have launched a countermeasure shuttle that would match the starship's sensor signature. But the Durango's tractor beam prevented shuttle launch. So the Klingon shuttle's missiles zeroed in on the enemy port shield. Tractor beams from the Hood flashed just in time, grabbing the Durango's missiles. The Durango was moving past the Hood, pulling it along with the tractor beam.
The tactical display showed the Hood being rotated away from the Durango's relatively weak aft shield. "Continue to rotate tractor geometry until we are broadside to them. Shuttlebay prepare suicide shuttle." This was just the beginning. A battle with a constitution class was a difficult, lengthy process.
"Captain, Hood is powering up tractor beam. Field strength three."
That was a medium setting, designed to repel most enemy tractor settings. In this case, it would work. "Wait until they are powered up. Then release tractor, and transport two antimatter mines into their projected course." He turned to the navigator. "Prepare high energy turn. Leave us on a pursuit heading."
The tractor beam was suddenly gone, and the Hood began to move away. When it's aft quarter was facing the Durango, phasers flashed. The Durango rocked. “Shields weakening!" The tactical officer's warning was confirmed by the schematic on the viewscreen.
"Firm up shields. Standby for high energy turn." Kapact waited until the Hood had started to move away. "Engage HET." The energy flowed from the warp reactor into a thruster capacitor that would give a temporary boost to the inertial dampers and allow a few seconds of overload power into the thrusters. This quickly rotated the ship on its axis. It was an exceptionally useful manoeuvre, but placed a great strain on the ship's hull. It was seldom used more than once in a single encounter. But now the Durango was directly behind the Hood. "Charge port disruptors to overload. Starboard to normal." Within minutes the weapons were charged. "Staggered fire. Target impulse engines." The familiar pattern of staggered weapons fire effectively weakened the Hood's aft shield. "Port disruptors!" Kapact watched as the overloaded disruptors struck out at the fleeing starship. The aft shields went down. "Boarding parties! Wa', Cha, wej! Transport!" Three groups of boarding parties beamed over to the starship. Each was beamed directly to the enemy engineering deck with a single target. The impulse deck.
Long minutes later, Kapact heard a single word from the comm line. "Qapla'!"
"Secondary target." Kapact knew that the boarding parties would fight on from one target to the next. But protocol demanded that they announce the initial success, just as he had to congratulate them by assigning them the next target.
The Hood, lost of its impulse drive by three thermal grenades, ground to a halt. The second wave of missiles launched from the Durango and slammed into the Hood's saucer section. Debris scattered, and the Hood suddenly whipped around to face the Durango. It had its own HET manoeuvre, and it was an act of desperation. Phasers fired, followed by a flurry of missiles.
The Durango rocked, and defensive tractors reached out for the missiles. This was when an enemy was the most dangerous. When it was hurt and frightened. Kapact slapped at the alpha strike button, and phasers and disruptors flashed to rock the stricken Hood. A glance showed that the overloaded port disruptors were almost charged. Then the Hood managed another surprise. Three shuttles left the ship's hanger bay in quick succession. "Scan shuttles!"
The science officer ran a quick scan. "Antimatter. Suicide shuttles!"
"Emergency reverse!" The Durango would be in serious trouble if more than one hit them. "Target shuttles. Fire!" The Durango lunged backwards as the Federation suicide shuttles bore down on it. One shuttle was caught in disruptor fire, and it blew up spectacularly. The others accelerated as the onboard computers locked on to the Durango. A defensive tractor grabbed another. The third crashed into the Durango's forward shield. Some of the explosive energy bled through shield, and the science station went up in sparks as sensor circuits were overloaded.
"Full stop. Damage control to forward sensors. Charge weapons. Target Enemy bridge." The Durango stopped, and it gathered strength. When the damaged circuits were patched together and weapons were charged, Kapact ordered the ship forward.
"Take us over the saucer section. Rotate the Y axis. Turn us over." The ship turned over so that it was now flying upside down relative to the Hood.
"Enemy ship attempting to retreat." The tactical officer was right. The Hood was turning slowly and trying to move away on thrusters.
"Close. Increase aspect to target. I want to point us at the bridge." The Durango angled itself so that it was on a collision course with the bridge of the Hood. Kapact noted that both disruptors were fully charged, as were the phasers and the missile launcher. The tactical display showed them closing to five kellicams. "Launch missiles." Kapact saw the missiles launch, and waited to see them crash into the Hood's dorsal shield. "Staggered weapons fire." Phasers fired, bringing down the weakened shield. Then both disruptors fired, tearing rough gashes into the hull. Sparks flew from the bridge dome. Then Kapact ordered the finishing touch. "Shuttle bay, launch suicide shuttles." Two shuttles launched from the Durango and quickly acquired their target. They crashed into the bridge one after the other. Explosions danced across the ruptured hull of the saucer section. Then a huge explosion ripped it apart as the Durango moved away.
"Qapla'!" Kapact stood and turned to salute the bridge crew. "We have fired the first shot. Shed the first blood." He raised a fist triumphantly. "Death to the Federation! Death to the humans!"
"Captain!" It was the tactical officer. "There is a signal at extreme range." He studied his board for a second. "Federation starship." He looked up at Kapact. "USS Ghostlight."
"Cloak!" Kapact sat quickly. "What is their status?"
"They are at extreme scanner range. Probe launch detected."
"Evasive manoeuvres! Hard to port, maximum impulse!" The Ghostlight's probe could 'flash' detect the Durango, even cloaked, if it was within five kellicams. "Range from probe's flightpath."
"Ten kellicams. It is directed at the wreckage of the Hood." The crew was silent, willing the ship to be silent and invisible. "Eight kellicams. Seven. Six. Five point five kellicams. Five point two five. Five point five. Six. The probe is moving away from us."
Kapact watched as the glow of the probe passed into the scattering debris field that had been the USS Hood.
"Target enemy ship." This would put vital tactical data on the main screen. The Ghostlight must have responded to a distress call from the Hood. Kapact knew that they had won a glorious victory, and could go home heroes. He also knew that the Ghostlight fielded at least six fighters. As many as twelve. And those fighters could shred his ship while the larger ship sat out of range and out of harms way. But any Klingon warrior could win a decisive victory and then retreat to safety. "DaHjaj'be." Not today. "Set course for the Ghostlight. All remaining boarding parties target shuttlebays. Maximize ECM."
The Durango moved ahead, and its officers began to study the best way of destroying the Federation carrier.
The tactical screen showed twenty thousand kellicams. "Captain, the Ghostlight is scanning the area. It may detect us."
"Understood. Increase to attack speed." Kapact sat calmly as the Durango increased speed. "All weapons target shield generator."
When they were at ten thousand kellicams, the Ghostlight seemed to spring into action. Sensor scans swept the area, as fighters emerged from the ship's massive hanger bays.
On the Durango, the tactical officer saw the difference in the Ghostlight's profile. "We are detected!"
"Decloak! Alert status!" Kapact knew that the war cry of 'alert status' would set every warrior's blood flowing just a little faster. Most of them had been with him on the Klaw. They had witnessed the death of Admiral Morek, and the destruction of the Hydran homeworld. They knew that Kapact would show them glory.
The Durango came to life, decloaking, and sweeping the area with powerful and disruptive sensor beams. Those sensor beams found the Ghostlight and locked on. They also showed the groups of fighters heading in at full impulse. There were twelve, as Kapact had thought. "Maximum defensive tractors and point defense phasers." It would be foolish to ignore the threat of the fighters. Many a Klingon captain had died to learn that lesson. But at the same time, he could not ignore the mothership. So he needed a way to combat the fighters at the same time other resources took on the Ghostlight. "Angle us away from the fighters. I want them to follow us away from the ship."
The Durango started to move away from the fighters, trying to appear to be running. The gambit worked, to a degree. The fighters moved after the battlecruiser. But the Federation ship followed. "Now comes the tricky part." Kapact stood and walked over to the helm officer. "Drop speed...carefully! Just enough to bring the fighters into tractor range."
Kapact knew that the fighters were closing. The ship rocked, and the tactical officer sounded worried. "Phaser fire on aft shield. Photon torpedo launch from the Ghostlight. Impact in three seconds." Kapact noted on the tactical screen an ECM 'shift' of 1. That meant that the Durango was receiving one more point of electronic countermeasure (ECM) protection than the Ghostlight was putting out in counter-countermeasures. That wouldn't completely protect the Durango, but it would minimize the damage from the enemy torpedo. As Kapact digested this tiresome but vital bit of data, the torpedo struck. The Durango rocked from the impact.
"Approaching tractor range." They all watched the tiny blips on the screen that represented the fighters. Then they were suddenly held in place. The Durango's tractors had grabbed them.
"Maximum speed!" Kapact couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. "Rotate tractor geometry. Prepare transporter bomb. Take us out of range of the Ghostlight's weapons."
The Durango sped away from the pursuing starship. Once it had passed out of range, Kapact took a moment to assess the tactical situation. "How many fighters do we have?"
"Six fighters caught in tractor beam. The others are in pursuit. Estimate weapons range in one minute."
"Slow to one quarter impulse. Energize transporter bombs to coincide with tractored fighters. As soon as the fighters detonate the mines, set course away from the other fighters and take us in a wide arc so that we can intercept the mothership."
It was a lot to digest, but it was becoming Kapact's trademark. Adapting and adjusting his battle strategy faster than his opponent could. And making the unusual the usual. Kapact seldom repeated a winning tactic. That made him almost impossible to predict and plan against.
The fighters were spun around, finding themselves dragged into a materializing spacemine. A series of three mines appeared in their path, as a safeguard. But the first mine was enough to destroy the fragile, trapped fighters.
"Take us away!" The Durango arced away from the onrushing fighters, as well as another pair of photon torpedoes from the Ghostlight. "Evasive manoeuvres." The ship dodged at what seemed to be the last second in order to avoid the photon torpedoes. "Make it a wide arc. I want to come around at the Ghostlight from it's starboard side." The Durango headed away from the pursuing ship on a course that seemed to be a retreat. In fact it was bringing the Klingon ship around to very gradually point it the Ghostlight's vulnerable starboard side. It's starboard shield was strong, but it had few weapons to port and starboard.
The range indicator on the tactical screen showed that they were twenty thousand kellicams from the Ghostlight. Weapons were in range, but they would need to be closer to do real damage. No more than ten thousand kellicams. Five to give real killing power to the disruptors.
As they approached the ship, Kapact noted that the ship didn't look much different than any other Federation starship. It's warp nacelles were wider, and there was a large hanger bay at the aft quarter of the saucer. But otherwise it was just like any other. "Staggered fire. Point defense active against the fighters."
The Durango came in towards the starboard side of the ship, and as it closed to seven thousand kellicams, missiles fired. Phasers flashed past them, and disruptors flashed immediately thereafter. The Ghostlight's shields flared, and missiles brought them down. At the same time, the Federation fighters passed over the Durango, phasers firing as they came to bear. But the Durango answered that assault with defensive phaser fire that shredded one fighter and sent the other five reeling away. Then the Durango was clear of its enemies and heading away.
The Ghostlight was slow to turn, but the fighters were turning and upon the Durango in minutes. "Maintain defensive fire." Kapact calmly ordered. "Defensive tractors as the fighters come into range." Sure enough, as the Ghostlight was just starting to come back to them, the Durango had five fighters in it's grip and was peppering them with phaser fire. The fighters answered with phaser fire of their own, but they lasted only seconds By the time the Ghostlight caught up with them, the fighters were all gone.
"Set intercept course. Attack speed." Kapact would expect a wounded enemy to try to withdraw long enough to recover and rearm. So he did just the opposite. He attacked. "Target shield generator. Prepare cargo transporters."
The Durango straightened itself as it lunged at the charging Ghostlight. Weapons recharged, and Klingon marines stood on massive transporter pads. They held betleHmey at the ready, with explosive charges strapped to their uniforms. And they all heard as Kapact's voice came over the speakers. "Standby to transport. Target the shield generator and warp core."
On the bridge, Kapact watched the range display on the tactical screen. When it hit seven thousand kellicams, he hit the alpha strike button. The Durango's weapons flashed. Missiles launched, and phasers and disruptors flashed simultaneously. This brought the shields down just as the Durango was within five thousand kellicams of the Ghostlight. That was the minimum transporter range.
"Energize!" Kapact waited until he saw the away team status lights all change. Then he made sure the transporter officer was doing his duty and bringing the shields back up, "Helm, hard about! 180 degrees!" Otherwise the Ghostlight would have a rare chance to fire through the Durango's momentarily dropped shield.
As it was, the Ghostlight was lumbering about to engage the Durango, as the Klingon ship swung about to show the Federation ship a raised and firmed shield facing. By the time the Ghostlight could fire, it's weapons were pointed at the Durango's raised and firm port shield.
The Ghostlight was now gathering speed. It knew that the Durango was trying to finish the battle quickly. Its only hope was to do the same thing. Photon torpedoes belched from the starship's forward emitter. Kapact noted the ECM shift had wavered. Now it was even. But there was little time to affect that. "Evasive!" That should give them a slight advantage. Then he felt as if someone had slapped him on the back.
"One torpedo detonated against our aft shield." The report from the tactical officer was better than it might have been. ECM had beaten the other torpedo, and the antimatter explosion had been completely absorbed by the aft shield.
"Damage control to aft shield." Better to firm up that weakest of shield facings before it fell and created hull and system damage. "Drop mine. Prep suicide shuttle."
A mine dropped out of the Durango's shielded aft port, and the Ghostlight swung hard to port to evade it. Then a suicide shuttle launched from the Durango and followed it to port. The Ghostlight then activated point defense, and the suicide shuttle was harmlessly shredded. As it turned to come back to a pursuit course, the Durango had transported it's remaining three transporter mines in a series along the arc of the Ghostlight's path. Three explosions battered through the ship's forward shield and tore a gaping hole in the front of the saucer.
That was when the marines on board the Ghostlight reported to Kapact. "Shield generator down. Explosives on the warp core will go in thirty seconds."
"Stand by to energize." Kapact turned to the helm officer. "Take us in." A tap at the comm panel raised the transporter chief. "Lower the shields to retrieve all boarding parties. Then raise them again."
The Durango hovered briefly over the wallowing Ghostlight. As soon as the boarding parties were retrieved, Kapact ordered the ship away at maximum warp. It was almost a hundred thousand kellicams away when the Ghostlight's warp core blew.
It wasn't long before the Durango was finally back home in the Agilon system. Kapact ordered the ship at full impulse for a quick passage through the system. He ordered the comm officer to open a signal to the base. "Torlek base, this is Captain Kapact with a great victory to report."
"Stand by Kapact." The voice from Torlek base sounded nervous. Then the screen crackled, and the Klingon trefoil reappeared. Another pronouncement from Qo'noS. Kapact looked forward to seeing Chang again. But it wasn't Chang. "Captain Kapact, this is Chief of Staff Gorkon."
Gorkon! Gorkon was rumoured to be next in line to lead the council. "Yes, sir."
"Captain, we have detected a Federation convoy skirting the border in your sector. We believe they may be trying to aid resurgent Hydrans. You have the only ship close enough to stop them. Proceed without delay to the Donatu system where you should intercept the convoy. Do not fail." Gorkon's face vanished from the screen.
Kapact looked at his crew. Any other might protest that they had done enough to earn a rest, but the crew of the Durango knew only one form of rest. Glorious combat. "Set course for the Donatu system. Maximum warp." Kapact waited as the helm officer set the course. "Execute!" The Durango leapt into warp.
The Donatu system was a Klingon's no-man's land. It had been the site of a battle with the Federation that had ended not in defeat and death for the Klingons, but in something worse.
The Klingons had been defeated but not destroyed. They had been allowed to retreat. That more than anything else set the tone for the hatred every good klingon felt for the Federation. The humans had shown the utmost lack of respect for the Klingon warriors and their beliefs. But they had ever since John Archer had dishonoured Klaang and the council so many years ago. But never again. They would wipe them out once and for all.
The Durango emerged from warp under cloak. So as the Federation convoy that consisted of five frigates and four freighters, the Durango fell in line right behind them.
On the bridge, Kapact looked at the line of ships on the tactical display. The frigates were interspersed throughout the group of freighters. "Set course for the lead frigate. Prepare five shuttles with gravitic mines and prepare to launch the first one." Kapact knew that there was little chance they could destroy the convoy in an even fight. And while the prospect of dying a glorious death trying appealed to Kapact, he knew that the Empire would not benefit from that glorious death. And here he had a chance to deal a death blow to the Hydrans and the Federation simultaneously.
The Durango sailed alongside the Federation convoy until it drew even with the first frigate. "Stand by." Kapact saw them drawing closer to the lead ship on the tactical map. Suddenly five frigates seemed like a hundred, and the convoy a deathtrap. As the Durango drew even with the first ship, he took a breath. The battle would have to be over before he let that breath out. "Decloak." he whispered.
The Durango decloaked as it passed directly over the lead frigate. A gravitic mine was ejected, and the Durango dropped back to the next ship. Another mine was dropped, and the Durango moved again. Again it passed over a ship, and again, a mine was laid. Then it needed a quick thrust back to the convoy's flank. Another frigate intercepted, and another gravitic mine. Finally the fifth frigate moved away, and the Durango moved in pursuit. Kapact pushed ordered the ship to full impulse, and the Durango passed over the frigate. A gravitic mine was ejected from the battlecruiser, and it attached itself to the frigate.
By the time Kapact let out his breath, there were four explosions within the convoy. The mines had been targeted to explode directly adjacent to each frigate's warp core. Even through shields, the tremendous explosive tore through the relatively weak frigate hulls and destroy the ships. Then the fifth blew just a short distance from the Durango. The Klingon ship rocked, and the aft shield was brought down, but it survived.
"Set course for the freighters." Now they could relax and enjoy the hunt. "Target the lead freighter. Three-quarter impulse." The Durango moved in quickly as the freighters began to move apart. Phaser fire flashed, but posed no serious threat to the Durango's shields.
When they were ten thousand kellicams from the lead freighter, the tactical officer spoke up unexpectedly. "Transporter activity on the target craft!"
Kapact slapped at the alpha strike button, and phaser fire and disruptor bolts hit the unshielded hull of the freighter. Missiles struck seconds after the shield came back up. The freighter rocked, and sparks flew across the hull, but it maintained course. "Prepare staggered firing. Fire as we come to bear."
The Durango lurched forward to catch the lead freighter. Kapact noted that the missile launcher was reloaded. "Fire missiles." Missiles launched at the freighter, followed by a flash of phasers. Before the Durango's disruptors could fire, however, a tractor beam suddenly appeared from the freighter, catching the Klingon ship. It began to draw the battlecruiser in when there was a flash of white, like an exploding sun.
The Durango was flung backwards as shields winked out, and sparks danced across its hull. An explosion took out the forward sensor dome, and the Durango reeled sideways.
It had been at almost point blank range from the lead freighter's self-destruction. The bridge was dark. Kapact awoke to find himself on the deck. The viewscreen was dark. "Computer. Emergency power to sensors."
A harsh male voice answered. "Sensors not functional."
"Emergency lights." The bridge was bathed in red light. Kapact turned to see the science officer slumped over the bridge railing. The tactical officer was dead. He had been monitoring the sensors when the explosion had knocked down their forward shield and destroyed the sensor bulb. His body had exploded with the deadly force unleashed on it.
Kapact looked around his darkened bridge. "M'rel. M'rel, old friend. Do you live?"
A tired voice croaked suddenly. "Kapact. The freighter-."
"Self destructed. M'rel, our sensors are gone. Take a shuttle out. You must assess our damage, and provide a data stream so we can find and finish these petaQ."
M'rel acknowledged the order quietly and left the bridge. That was M'rel. Quiet and dependable,
It was an agonizingly long ten minutes later when the viewscreen crackled to life. The Durango was visible. M'rel's voice came out of the speakers. "I am sending a video signal through the comm line. As you can see, the sensor package has been destroyed. Emergency forcefields snapped into place to protect hull integrity, but the ship is seriously damaged. This cannot be repaired in the field." M'rel was also a master of the understatement. The sensor bulb was gone. A great hole had been torn in the hull. "The port nacelle is venting plasma."
"The convoy, M'rel. Where is the convoy?"
"Sensors show it is still on course. Assuming we cannot reach warp, it will take twenty minutes to reach it."
"Acknowledged. Calculate course setting for intercept, and feed it into the transmission. Then escort us in. They will not escape."
"Understood." M'rel cut the audio transmission, but continued the video feed.
Twenty minutes later, the blinded Durango, with its shuttlecraft eye approached the three ship convoy. At ten thousand kellicams, Kapact ordered a scatterpack shuttle launched at the lead freighter. Then, using M'rel's shuttle to provide sensor data, Kapact, ordered a full missile strike. As the missiles from the Durango approached the fleeing ship, Kapact ordered M'rel to make an attack run at extreme phaser range. That would divert whatever point defense the freighter might have had so that the missiles could go in unopposed. The plan worked, but M'rel had to fight with the shuttles controls to evade the phaser fire from the freighter. Missiles finally slammed into the freighter, and it blew apart. "Qapla'." Kapact gave M'rel a quick verbal salute and then continued. "Target next freighter."
The Durango fell in behind the shuttle and followed it as it approached the next freighter in line. "I am targeting the freighter. Staggered weapons fire." M'rel knew how to use weapons effectively.
"Excellent. Stand by to guide my weapons as well." Kapact watched as the shuttle fired its weapons at the freighter. Then he fired the Durango's weapons. Missiles first, followed by phasers, then disruptors. The freighter's shields went down just as the missiles crashed into the hull. The second freighter blew up as M'rel's shuttle angled away.
"Captain, we are approaching a Federation starbase!"
"Ghuy'Cha!" Kapact swore. "Return to the ship. We may have to let the last freighter get through, but we cannot take on the starbase."
"Captain, I have a plan..." M'rel explained his idea to Kapact, and Kapact felt it was risky, but would be an appropriate way of dealing with the last freighter.
The Durango followed the shuttle on its intercept course with the last freighter. As he watched the freighter grow closer in the video feed from the shuttle, he sent a distress signal to the nearest Klingon outpost. It was not a call for help, but an alert to the Federation starbase. Then he alerted M'rel in the nearby shuttle. "Ready."
The shuttle closed with the freighter, as the starbase began to open fire at extreme range. The shuttle opened fire, and the Durango followed it as it had the last time. But this time it didn't destroy the freighter. The shuttle used a repair beam to cut into the freighter's hull. Then M'rel set a self-destruct sequence with a five minute timer. That would bring it in to range of the starbase and just maybe do some damage. At the very least it might distract the starbase while the Durango limped away. "Energizing!" M'rel used the shuttle's emergency transporter to beam himself to the Durango.
The freighter continued on course for the starbase, finally exploding at the outer marker. It did little damage to the base's shields, but did finish the convoy and instill a sense of fear into the base commander and his Hydran allies.
The Durango returned to Klingon space, using M'rel in another shuttle to guide it safely to a repair base.
The Durango played a major role in the initial assault on Federation interests. At the same time, Starbase 15 was surrounded by a Klingon task force that laid siege to it. A key Kzinti starbase was destroyed, tripling the length of travel between the Kzinti and Federation capitols. And a Klingon ambassador crossed through Federation space to confer with the Romulans.
By the end of the year, the Federation situation was grave, and the Klingons had convinced the Romulans to attack...
Kapact peered through the darkness on the viewscreen. They were close to the neutral zone. Close enough to scan for Federation ships on the other side.
"Sir!" M'rel's voice was excited and eager for combat. "Positive contact, course 292 mark 14. Federation warp signature!"
The Council had begun to allow border patrol ships to enter the neutral zone to try to provoke and test Starfleet resolve. "Take us into the neutral zone. Normal emissions. Alert status." Kapact felt his pulse rate increasing. The river of blood rushed through his veins.
The Durango turned and slipped into the neutral zone, towards the Federation starship. Thirty minutes later, they were close enough to identify the contact. "Positive identification. Constitution Class. USS Hood."
Kapact felt the excitement welling up inside him. The thought of spilling Federation blood. "Stand by." Then he turned to the communications officer. "Coded burst transmission to Torlek base on Agilon Prime. Federation battlecruiser spotted near neutral zone. Request permission to engage." He waited while the burst transmission was sent. Then he would have to wait for the returned burst transmission.
Without warning, the viewscreen came to life. If this was the reply, it was in violation of the secure communications protocols for this sector. The Hood would hear it as clearly as they did. The Klingon trefoil appeared, marking this as a transmission not from Torlek base but from Qo'noS. It was important. "Attention all warriors." Chang. General Chang. "This is a glorious day. As we speak, the Federation is being advised that we are withdrawing from the illegally imposed Organian Peace Treaty. A state of war now exists between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. Congratulations, warriors. Destroy your enemies without mercy." Chang seemed to be staring directly into Kapact's eyes. "Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay. The worst is death, and death will have its day." Chang's image vanished from the viewscreen, te be replaced by the Klingon trefoil. When Kapact ordered the channel closed, the trefoil was replaced by a starfield wherein the USS Hood lay in wait.
"Shipwide." When the comm officer signalled ready, Kapact searched quickly for words that might inspire as Chang had inspired him. Then he realized that it was a simple matter. "Sons and daughters of Kahless, we are at war with the humans." He ordered the signal closed. Then he spoke to the tactical officer. "Cloak. Maximum ECM. Helm, intercept course." Then he turned to the security officer. "All boarding parties to transporters. Anti-intruder systems ready for autofunction." That last command would set the Durango's anti-intruder security systems to continually scan for non klingon forms and assault them with a number of systems, including bulkhead mounted phasers, poisonous theragen gas, and forcefields. The IKV Durango approached the USS Hood at maximum impulse.
At 20,000 kellicams, Kapact could see the Hood taking shape. "Ready all systems. Damage control, ready all teams. Shuttlebay, prepare for combat operations." He turned to the science officer. "Constant scan of enemy systems. Copy all readings to tactical station. Tactical view on screen." The view changed to the tactical view, from just above and behind the Durango, and always keeping the USS Hood on screen. It also showed comparative shield strengths and hull integrity, in addition to status of enemy systems. This freed Kapact from having to ask the tactical officer for critical information during the battle.
"Ten thousands kellicams. Oblique approach. Enemy port shield targeted."
"Attack speed.. Tractor beam, lock on. Stand by to fire." Kapact had learned to wait until he could see the bridge lights of his enemy before he decloaked. That shocked his opponent into momentary panic and inaction. The Durango slipped closer. And closer still. The tactical display now showed individual weapons charges on the Hood. Shield strengths appeared. Hull integrity. When they passed seventy-five hundred kellicams, the Hood's bridge lights came into focus. Kapact had raised one hand in anticipation. Now he dropped it. "Decloak. Tractor engage. Staggered weapons fire."
The Durango decloaked, and tractors immediately locked on the Hood. At the same time, Phasers fired, followed by disruptors, as missiles launched. As the missiles angled towards the Hood's shield, the Durango's shuttlebay opened, allowing a shuttle to launch.
Phasers splashed off of the starboard shield, and disruptors weakened it further. The first volley of missiles brought the shield down. Then the scatterpack shuttle from the Durango launched its missiles.
Normally at this point, the Hood could have launched a countermeasure shuttle that would match the starship's sensor signature. But the Durango's tractor beam prevented shuttle launch. So the Klingon shuttle's missiles zeroed in on the enemy port shield. Tractor beams from the Hood flashed just in time, grabbing the Durango's missiles. The Durango was moving past the Hood, pulling it along with the tractor beam.
The tactical display showed the Hood being rotated away from the Durango's relatively weak aft shield. "Continue to rotate tractor geometry until we are broadside to them. Shuttlebay prepare suicide shuttle." This was just the beginning. A battle with a constitution class was a difficult, lengthy process.
"Captain, Hood is powering up tractor beam. Field strength three."
That was a medium setting, designed to repel most enemy tractor settings. In this case, it would work. "Wait until they are powered up. Then release tractor, and transport two antimatter mines into their projected course." He turned to the navigator. "Prepare high energy turn. Leave us on a pursuit heading."
The tractor beam was suddenly gone, and the Hood began to move away. When it's aft quarter was facing the Durango, phasers flashed. The Durango rocked. “Shields weakening!" The tactical officer's warning was confirmed by the schematic on the viewscreen.
"Firm up shields. Standby for high energy turn." Kapact waited until the Hood had started to move away. "Engage HET." The energy flowed from the warp reactor into a thruster capacitor that would give a temporary boost to the inertial dampers and allow a few seconds of overload power into the thrusters. This quickly rotated the ship on its axis. It was an exceptionally useful manoeuvre, but placed a great strain on the ship's hull. It was seldom used more than once in a single encounter. But now the Durango was directly behind the Hood. "Charge port disruptors to overload. Starboard to normal." Within minutes the weapons were charged. "Staggered fire. Target impulse engines." The familiar pattern of staggered weapons fire effectively weakened the Hood's aft shield. "Port disruptors!" Kapact watched as the overloaded disruptors struck out at the fleeing starship. The aft shields went down. "Boarding parties! Wa', Cha, wej! Transport!" Three groups of boarding parties beamed over to the starship. Each was beamed directly to the enemy engineering deck with a single target. The impulse deck.
Long minutes later, Kapact heard a single word from the comm line. "Qapla'!"
"Secondary target." Kapact knew that the boarding parties would fight on from one target to the next. But protocol demanded that they announce the initial success, just as he had to congratulate them by assigning them the next target.
The Hood, lost of its impulse drive by three thermal grenades, ground to a halt. The second wave of missiles launched from the Durango and slammed into the Hood's saucer section. Debris scattered, and the Hood suddenly whipped around to face the Durango. It had its own HET manoeuvre, and it was an act of desperation. Phasers fired, followed by a flurry of missiles.
The Durango rocked, and defensive tractors reached out for the missiles. This was when an enemy was the most dangerous. When it was hurt and frightened. Kapact slapped at the alpha strike button, and phasers and disruptors flashed to rock the stricken Hood. A glance showed that the overloaded port disruptors were almost charged. Then the Hood managed another surprise. Three shuttles left the ship's hanger bay in quick succession. "Scan shuttles!"
The science officer ran a quick scan. "Antimatter. Suicide shuttles!"
"Emergency reverse!" The Durango would be in serious trouble if more than one hit them. "Target shuttles. Fire!" The Durango lunged backwards as the Federation suicide shuttles bore down on it. One shuttle was caught in disruptor fire, and it blew up spectacularly. The others accelerated as the onboard computers locked on to the Durango. A defensive tractor grabbed another. The third crashed into the Durango's forward shield. Some of the explosive energy bled through shield, and the science station went up in sparks as sensor circuits were overloaded.
"Full stop. Damage control to forward sensors. Charge weapons. Target Enemy bridge." The Durango stopped, and it gathered strength. When the damaged circuits were patched together and weapons were charged, Kapact ordered the ship forward.
"Take us over the saucer section. Rotate the Y axis. Turn us over." The ship turned over so that it was now flying upside down relative to the Hood.
"Enemy ship attempting to retreat." The tactical officer was right. The Hood was turning slowly and trying to move away on thrusters.
"Close. Increase aspect to target. I want to point us at the bridge." The Durango angled itself so that it was on a collision course with the bridge of the Hood. Kapact noted that both disruptors were fully charged, as were the phasers and the missile launcher. The tactical display showed them closing to five kellicams. "Launch missiles." Kapact saw the missiles launch, and waited to see them crash into the Hood's dorsal shield. "Staggered weapons fire." Phasers fired, bringing down the weakened shield. Then both disruptors fired, tearing rough gashes into the hull. Sparks flew from the bridge dome. Then Kapact ordered the finishing touch. "Shuttle bay, launch suicide shuttles." Two shuttles launched from the Durango and quickly acquired their target. They crashed into the bridge one after the other. Explosions danced across the ruptured hull of the saucer section. Then a huge explosion ripped it apart as the Durango moved away.
"Qapla'!" Kapact stood and turned to salute the bridge crew. "We have fired the first shot. Shed the first blood." He raised a fist triumphantly. "Death to the Federation! Death to the humans!"
"Captain!" It was the tactical officer. "There is a signal at extreme range." He studied his board for a second. "Federation starship." He looked up at Kapact. "USS Ghostlight."
"Cloak!" Kapact sat quickly. "What is their status?"
"They are at extreme scanner range. Probe launch detected."
"Evasive manoeuvres! Hard to port, maximum impulse!" The Ghostlight's probe could 'flash' detect the Durango, even cloaked, if it was within five kellicams. "Range from probe's flightpath."
"Ten kellicams. It is directed at the wreckage of the Hood." The crew was silent, willing the ship to be silent and invisible. "Eight kellicams. Seven. Six. Five point five kellicams. Five point two five. Five point five. Six. The probe is moving away from us."
Kapact watched as the glow of the probe passed into the scattering debris field that had been the USS Hood.
"Target enemy ship." This would put vital tactical data on the main screen. The Ghostlight must have responded to a distress call from the Hood. Kapact knew that they had won a glorious victory, and could go home heroes. He also knew that the Ghostlight fielded at least six fighters. As many as twelve. And those fighters could shred his ship while the larger ship sat out of range and out of harms way. But any Klingon warrior could win a decisive victory and then retreat to safety. "DaHjaj'be." Not today. "Set course for the Ghostlight. All remaining boarding parties target shuttlebays. Maximize ECM."
The Durango moved ahead, and its officers began to study the best way of destroying the Federation carrier.
The tactical screen showed twenty thousand kellicams. "Captain, the Ghostlight is scanning the area. It may detect us."
"Understood. Increase to attack speed." Kapact sat calmly as the Durango increased speed. "All weapons target shield generator."
When they were at ten thousand kellicams, the Ghostlight seemed to spring into action. Sensor scans swept the area, as fighters emerged from the ship's massive hanger bays.
On the Durango, the tactical officer saw the difference in the Ghostlight's profile. "We are detected!"
"Decloak! Alert status!" Kapact knew that the war cry of 'alert status' would set every warrior's blood flowing just a little faster. Most of them had been with him on the Klaw. They had witnessed the death of Admiral Morek, and the destruction of the Hydran homeworld. They knew that Kapact would show them glory.
The Durango came to life, decloaking, and sweeping the area with powerful and disruptive sensor beams. Those sensor beams found the Ghostlight and locked on. They also showed the groups of fighters heading in at full impulse. There were twelve, as Kapact had thought. "Maximum defensive tractors and point defense phasers." It would be foolish to ignore the threat of the fighters. Many a Klingon captain had died to learn that lesson. But at the same time, he could not ignore the mothership. So he needed a way to combat the fighters at the same time other resources took on the Ghostlight. "Angle us away from the fighters. I want them to follow us away from the ship."
The Durango started to move away from the fighters, trying to appear to be running. The gambit worked, to a degree. The fighters moved after the battlecruiser. But the Federation ship followed. "Now comes the tricky part." Kapact stood and walked over to the helm officer. "Drop speed...carefully! Just enough to bring the fighters into tractor range."
Kapact knew that the fighters were closing. The ship rocked, and the tactical officer sounded worried. "Phaser fire on aft shield. Photon torpedo launch from the Ghostlight. Impact in three seconds." Kapact noted on the tactical screen an ECM 'shift' of 1. That meant that the Durango was receiving one more point of electronic countermeasure (ECM) protection than the Ghostlight was putting out in counter-countermeasures. That wouldn't completely protect the Durango, but it would minimize the damage from the enemy torpedo. As Kapact digested this tiresome but vital bit of data, the torpedo struck. The Durango rocked from the impact.
"Approaching tractor range." They all watched the tiny blips on the screen that represented the fighters. Then they were suddenly held in place. The Durango's tractors had grabbed them.
"Maximum speed!" Kapact couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. "Rotate tractor geometry. Prepare transporter bomb. Take us out of range of the Ghostlight's weapons."
The Durango sped away from the pursuing starship. Once it had passed out of range, Kapact took a moment to assess the tactical situation. "How many fighters do we have?"
"Six fighters caught in tractor beam. The others are in pursuit. Estimate weapons range in one minute."
"Slow to one quarter impulse. Energize transporter bombs to coincide with tractored fighters. As soon as the fighters detonate the mines, set course away from the other fighters and take us in a wide arc so that we can intercept the mothership."
It was a lot to digest, but it was becoming Kapact's trademark. Adapting and adjusting his battle strategy faster than his opponent could. And making the unusual the usual. Kapact seldom repeated a winning tactic. That made him almost impossible to predict and plan against.
The fighters were spun around, finding themselves dragged into a materializing spacemine. A series of three mines appeared in their path, as a safeguard. But the first mine was enough to destroy the fragile, trapped fighters.
"Take us away!" The Durango arced away from the onrushing fighters, as well as another pair of photon torpedoes from the Ghostlight. "Evasive manoeuvres." The ship dodged at what seemed to be the last second in order to avoid the photon torpedoes. "Make it a wide arc. I want to come around at the Ghostlight from it's starboard side." The Durango headed away from the pursuing ship on a course that seemed to be a retreat. In fact it was bringing the Klingon ship around to very gradually point it the Ghostlight's vulnerable starboard side. It's starboard shield was strong, but it had few weapons to port and starboard.
The range indicator on the tactical screen showed that they were twenty thousand kellicams from the Ghostlight. Weapons were in range, but they would need to be closer to do real damage. No more than ten thousand kellicams. Five to give real killing power to the disruptors.
As they approached the ship, Kapact noted that the ship didn't look much different than any other Federation starship. It's warp nacelles were wider, and there was a large hanger bay at the aft quarter of the saucer. But otherwise it was just like any other. "Staggered fire. Point defense active against the fighters."
The Durango came in towards the starboard side of the ship, and as it closed to seven thousand kellicams, missiles fired. Phasers flashed past them, and disruptors flashed immediately thereafter. The Ghostlight's shields flared, and missiles brought them down. At the same time, the Federation fighters passed over the Durango, phasers firing as they came to bear. But the Durango answered that assault with defensive phaser fire that shredded one fighter and sent the other five reeling away. Then the Durango was clear of its enemies and heading away.
The Ghostlight was slow to turn, but the fighters were turning and upon the Durango in minutes. "Maintain defensive fire." Kapact calmly ordered. "Defensive tractors as the fighters come into range." Sure enough, as the Ghostlight was just starting to come back to them, the Durango had five fighters in it's grip and was peppering them with phaser fire. The fighters answered with phaser fire of their own, but they lasted only seconds By the time the Ghostlight caught up with them, the fighters were all gone.
"Set intercept course. Attack speed." Kapact would expect a wounded enemy to try to withdraw long enough to recover and rearm. So he did just the opposite. He attacked. "Target shield generator. Prepare cargo transporters."
The Durango straightened itself as it lunged at the charging Ghostlight. Weapons recharged, and Klingon marines stood on massive transporter pads. They held betleHmey at the ready, with explosive charges strapped to their uniforms. And they all heard as Kapact's voice came over the speakers. "Standby to transport. Target the shield generator and warp core."
On the bridge, Kapact watched the range display on the tactical screen. When it hit seven thousand kellicams, he hit the alpha strike button. The Durango's weapons flashed. Missiles launched, and phasers and disruptors flashed simultaneously. This brought the shields down just as the Durango was within five thousand kellicams of the Ghostlight. That was the minimum transporter range.
"Energize!" Kapact waited until he saw the away team status lights all change. Then he made sure the transporter officer was doing his duty and bringing the shields back up, "Helm, hard about! 180 degrees!" Otherwise the Ghostlight would have a rare chance to fire through the Durango's momentarily dropped shield.
As it was, the Ghostlight was lumbering about to engage the Durango, as the Klingon ship swung about to show the Federation ship a raised and firmed shield facing. By the time the Ghostlight could fire, it's weapons were pointed at the Durango's raised and firm port shield.
The Ghostlight was now gathering speed. It knew that the Durango was trying to finish the battle quickly. Its only hope was to do the same thing. Photon torpedoes belched from the starship's forward emitter. Kapact noted the ECM shift had wavered. Now it was even. But there was little time to affect that. "Evasive!" That should give them a slight advantage. Then he felt as if someone had slapped him on the back.
"One torpedo detonated against our aft shield." The report from the tactical officer was better than it might have been. ECM had beaten the other torpedo, and the antimatter explosion had been completely absorbed by the aft shield.
"Damage control to aft shield." Better to firm up that weakest of shield facings before it fell and created hull and system damage. "Drop mine. Prep suicide shuttle."
A mine dropped out of the Durango's shielded aft port, and the Ghostlight swung hard to port to evade it. Then a suicide shuttle launched from the Durango and followed it to port. The Ghostlight then activated point defense, and the suicide shuttle was harmlessly shredded. As it turned to come back to a pursuit course, the Durango had transported it's remaining three transporter mines in a series along the arc of the Ghostlight's path. Three explosions battered through the ship's forward shield and tore a gaping hole in the front of the saucer.
That was when the marines on board the Ghostlight reported to Kapact. "Shield generator down. Explosives on the warp core will go in thirty seconds."
"Stand by to energize." Kapact turned to the helm officer. "Take us in." A tap at the comm panel raised the transporter chief. "Lower the shields to retrieve all boarding parties. Then raise them again."
The Durango hovered briefly over the wallowing Ghostlight. As soon as the boarding parties were retrieved, Kapact ordered the ship away at maximum warp. It was almost a hundred thousand kellicams away when the Ghostlight's warp core blew.
It wasn't long before the Durango was finally back home in the Agilon system. Kapact ordered the ship at full impulse for a quick passage through the system. He ordered the comm officer to open a signal to the base. "Torlek base, this is Captain Kapact with a great victory to report."
"Stand by Kapact." The voice from Torlek base sounded nervous. Then the screen crackled, and the Klingon trefoil reappeared. Another pronouncement from Qo'noS. Kapact looked forward to seeing Chang again. But it wasn't Chang. "Captain Kapact, this is Chief of Staff Gorkon."
Gorkon! Gorkon was rumoured to be next in line to lead the council. "Yes, sir."
"Captain, we have detected a Federation convoy skirting the border in your sector. We believe they may be trying to aid resurgent Hydrans. You have the only ship close enough to stop them. Proceed without delay to the Donatu system where you should intercept the convoy. Do not fail." Gorkon's face vanished from the screen.
Kapact looked at his crew. Any other might protest that they had done enough to earn a rest, but the crew of the Durango knew only one form of rest. Glorious combat. "Set course for the Donatu system. Maximum warp." Kapact waited as the helm officer set the course. "Execute!" The Durango leapt into warp.
The Donatu system was a Klingon's no-man's land. It had been the site of a battle with the Federation that had ended not in defeat and death for the Klingons, but in something worse.
The Klingons had been defeated but not destroyed. They had been allowed to retreat. That more than anything else set the tone for the hatred every good klingon felt for the Federation. The humans had shown the utmost lack of respect for the Klingon warriors and their beliefs. But they had ever since John Archer had dishonoured Klaang and the council so many years ago. But never again. They would wipe them out once and for all.
The Durango emerged from warp under cloak. So as the Federation convoy that consisted of five frigates and four freighters, the Durango fell in line right behind them.
On the bridge, Kapact looked at the line of ships on the tactical display. The frigates were interspersed throughout the group of freighters. "Set course for the lead frigate. Prepare five shuttles with gravitic mines and prepare to launch the first one." Kapact knew that there was little chance they could destroy the convoy in an even fight. And while the prospect of dying a glorious death trying appealed to Kapact, he knew that the Empire would not benefit from that glorious death. And here he had a chance to deal a death blow to the Hydrans and the Federation simultaneously.
The Durango sailed alongside the Federation convoy until it drew even with the first frigate. "Stand by." Kapact saw them drawing closer to the lead ship on the tactical map. Suddenly five frigates seemed like a hundred, and the convoy a deathtrap. As the Durango drew even with the first ship, he took a breath. The battle would have to be over before he let that breath out. "Decloak." he whispered.
The Durango decloaked as it passed directly over the lead frigate. A gravitic mine was ejected, and the Durango dropped back to the next ship. Another mine was dropped, and the Durango moved again. Again it passed over a ship, and again, a mine was laid. Then it needed a quick thrust back to the convoy's flank. Another frigate intercepted, and another gravitic mine. Finally the fifth frigate moved away, and the Durango moved in pursuit. Kapact pushed ordered the ship to full impulse, and the Durango passed over the frigate. A gravitic mine was ejected from the battlecruiser, and it attached itself to the frigate.
By the time Kapact let out his breath, there were four explosions within the convoy. The mines had been targeted to explode directly adjacent to each frigate's warp core. Even through shields, the tremendous explosive tore through the relatively weak frigate hulls and destroy the ships. Then the fifth blew just a short distance from the Durango. The Klingon ship rocked, and the aft shield was brought down, but it survived.
"Set course for the freighters." Now they could relax and enjoy the hunt. "Target the lead freighter. Three-quarter impulse." The Durango moved in quickly as the freighters began to move apart. Phaser fire flashed, but posed no serious threat to the Durango's shields.
When they were ten thousand kellicams from the lead freighter, the tactical officer spoke up unexpectedly. "Transporter activity on the target craft!"
Kapact slapped at the alpha strike button, and phaser fire and disruptor bolts hit the unshielded hull of the freighter. Missiles struck seconds after the shield came back up. The freighter rocked, and sparks flew across the hull, but it maintained course. "Prepare staggered firing. Fire as we come to bear."
The Durango lurched forward to catch the lead freighter. Kapact noted that the missile launcher was reloaded. "Fire missiles." Missiles launched at the freighter, followed by a flash of phasers. Before the Durango's disruptors could fire, however, a tractor beam suddenly appeared from the freighter, catching the Klingon ship. It began to draw the battlecruiser in when there was a flash of white, like an exploding sun.
The Durango was flung backwards as shields winked out, and sparks danced across its hull. An explosion took out the forward sensor dome, and the Durango reeled sideways.
It had been at almost point blank range from the lead freighter's self-destruction. The bridge was dark. Kapact awoke to find himself on the deck. The viewscreen was dark. "Computer. Emergency power to sensors."
A harsh male voice answered. "Sensors not functional."
"Emergency lights." The bridge was bathed in red light. Kapact turned to see the science officer slumped over the bridge railing. The tactical officer was dead. He had been monitoring the sensors when the explosion had knocked down their forward shield and destroyed the sensor bulb. His body had exploded with the deadly force unleashed on it.
Kapact looked around his darkened bridge. "M'rel. M'rel, old friend. Do you live?"
A tired voice croaked suddenly. "Kapact. The freighter-."
"Self destructed. M'rel, our sensors are gone. Take a shuttle out. You must assess our damage, and provide a data stream so we can find and finish these petaQ."
M'rel acknowledged the order quietly and left the bridge. That was M'rel. Quiet and dependable,
It was an agonizingly long ten minutes later when the viewscreen crackled to life. The Durango was visible. M'rel's voice came out of the speakers. "I am sending a video signal through the comm line. As you can see, the sensor package has been destroyed. Emergency forcefields snapped into place to protect hull integrity, but the ship is seriously damaged. This cannot be repaired in the field." M'rel was also a master of the understatement. The sensor bulb was gone. A great hole had been torn in the hull. "The port nacelle is venting plasma."
"The convoy, M'rel. Where is the convoy?"
"Sensors show it is still on course. Assuming we cannot reach warp, it will take twenty minutes to reach it."
"Acknowledged. Calculate course setting for intercept, and feed it into the transmission. Then escort us in. They will not escape."
"Understood." M'rel cut the audio transmission, but continued the video feed.
Twenty minutes later, the blinded Durango, with its shuttlecraft eye approached the three ship convoy. At ten thousand kellicams, Kapact ordered a scatterpack shuttle launched at the lead freighter. Then, using M'rel's shuttle to provide sensor data, Kapact, ordered a full missile strike. As the missiles from the Durango approached the fleeing ship, Kapact ordered M'rel to make an attack run at extreme phaser range. That would divert whatever point defense the freighter might have had so that the missiles could go in unopposed. The plan worked, but M'rel had to fight with the shuttles controls to evade the phaser fire from the freighter. Missiles finally slammed into the freighter, and it blew apart. "Qapla'." Kapact gave M'rel a quick verbal salute and then continued. "Target next freighter."
The Durango fell in behind the shuttle and followed it as it approached the next freighter in line. "I am targeting the freighter. Staggered weapons fire." M'rel knew how to use weapons effectively.
"Excellent. Stand by to guide my weapons as well." Kapact watched as the shuttle fired its weapons at the freighter. Then he fired the Durango's weapons. Missiles first, followed by phasers, then disruptors. The freighter's shields went down just as the missiles crashed into the hull. The second freighter blew up as M'rel's shuttle angled away.
"Captain, we are approaching a Federation starbase!"
"Ghuy'Cha!" Kapact swore. "Return to the ship. We may have to let the last freighter get through, but we cannot take on the starbase."
"Captain, I have a plan..." M'rel explained his idea to Kapact, and Kapact felt it was risky, but would be an appropriate way of dealing with the last freighter.
The Durango followed the shuttle on its intercept course with the last freighter. As he watched the freighter grow closer in the video feed from the shuttle, he sent a distress signal to the nearest Klingon outpost. It was not a call for help, but an alert to the Federation starbase. Then he alerted M'rel in the nearby shuttle. "Ready."
The shuttle closed with the freighter, as the starbase began to open fire at extreme range. The shuttle opened fire, and the Durango followed it as it had the last time. But this time it didn't destroy the freighter. The shuttle used a repair beam to cut into the freighter's hull. Then M'rel set a self-destruct sequence with a five minute timer. That would bring it in to range of the starbase and just maybe do some damage. At the very least it might distract the starbase while the Durango limped away. "Energizing!" M'rel used the shuttle's emergency transporter to beam himself to the Durango.
The freighter continued on course for the starbase, finally exploding at the outer marker. It did little damage to the base's shields, but did finish the convoy and instill a sense of fear into the base commander and his Hydran allies.
The Durango returned to Klingon space, using M'rel in another shuttle to guide it safely to a repair base.
The Durango played a major role in the initial assault on Federation interests. At the same time, Starbase 15 was surrounded by a Klingon task force that laid siege to it. A key Kzinti starbase was destroyed, tripling the length of travel between the Kzinti and Federation capitols. And a Klingon ambassador crossed through Federation space to confer with the Romulans.
By the end of the year, the Federation situation was grave, and the Klingons had convinced the Romulans to attack...
Episode 3 Captain Kapact: The Fall of the Hydrans
In the year 2278...With the Kzinti threat effectively eliminated, the Klingons and Lyrans finally turn their attention to the Hydrans...
"Pity the warrior who slays all his foes." These words, from the legendary poem, "The Fall of Kang", swirled in Kapact's mind. For twelve years he had been fighting Kzinti and Hydrans. Now the Kzinti were all but destroyed, and they were set to annihilate the Hydrans. Where would they turn next? The Federation was a growing threat, but that only made for growing promise of glory and honor. Kapact's thoughts were interrupted by the buzz of an incoming communication on the fleet channel. It was Fleet Admiral Morek on the Anarchist. "Attention all warriors! The Qor’du assault fleet will rendezvous with the M'Char assault fleet at the B'rel system. Our Lyran allies will meet us at the Hydran border, where we will push through their support facilities and onto their homeworld. There will be no stopping until they are destroyed and their planet laid waste. Qap'chu!" The channel was cut.
Then, almost immediately, contact was re-established. But this was directed solely at the Klaw. "Yes, Fleet Admiral." Kapact sat straight up and looked into the face of a warrior who had been his mentor for many years now.
"Captain Kapact. Since you gained command two years ago, you have served with distinction along the border. Many Hydran convoys and outposts have fallen before you, and their warships are far fewer in number. You have proven yourself to me, and to the Empire. But this will be your first major engagement as Captain. Remember your family, and remember those who came before you. Do them honour. Do not fail."
Kapact's chest swelled with pride. "Fleet Admiral Morek, I consider you to be maqochneS. Honoured friend and comrade in arms. I will remember those who came before me, and I will honor those who have fought at my side and taught me the way of the warrior. Victory will be ours. Qap'chu." Great success!
"Qap'chu, son of Ab'Qaf, and maqochneS. Glory to you, and your house. Morek out."
The Qor’du assault fleet was approaching the B'rel system. It slowed briefly to allow the M'Char fleet to join it, then it proceeded to the Hydran border.
The Klaw was one of twelve battlecruisers in the combined fleet. Serving as flagships were two B10K class battleships, the IKV Anarchist {Fleet Admiral Morek's new flagship}, and the IKV Devastator, commanded by Admiral tIhoy. Rounding out the Klingon forces were ten destroyers. As they passed the border, eight Lyran heavy cruisers moved without communication to join the fleet.
Two Hydran battlecruisers appeared from behind a dust cloud as the fleet came into range of the first border outpost. The Devastator adjusted course to engage the lead Hydran battlecruiser as the Anarchist went after the other. With each battleship firing ten disruptor banks each, the battlecruisers didn't even have time to fire back. They were destroyed in seconds.
Kapact was already following the line of battlecruisers to take on the outpost. It was built into an asteroid, and Kapact noted that the dozens of converging disruptor bolts tore away as much asteroid as they did Hydran outpost. It was over in seconds. Admiral Morek's coded signal brought the fleet back under cloak and into formation.
The fleet proceeded to push without incident through Hydran space, wiping out what resistance was offered, and taking out a dozen resupply outposts. This was the Hydran frontier, and it had been a Klingon target for most of the war. It wasn't until they began the push into their inner territory that true resistance was encountered.
Admiral Morek was the first to report it. "Attention fleet. Hydran Prime Starbase ahead. Heavy cruisers, proceed with Lyran escort to soften defences. Destroyers, act as point defense and conduct close run and withdrawal raids at the starbase. Qapla'."
Kapact leaned forward in his seat and called up a tactical display. "Contact the nearest Lyran heavy cruiser."
A felinoid creature appeared on the screen. "This is Captain Tchaw of the Fang."
"Captain, we are ordered to assault the starbase together. Are you ready?" Kapact always felt uncomfortable working with aliens. To him, there were no non-klingons he could consider as equals.
"Yesss. Vector 127. Follow us in." The Lyran cut the channel, and his ship headed for the starbase.
"Helm, match course and speed." Kapact hid his irritation behind a fierce exterior. The Klaw sped after the Fang.
They approached the starbase, flying between dodging and firing destroyers. Kapact looked at the smaller ships fondly. It had not been too long since he had been in one of them. "Fang, I'll follow you in." At the same time, he loosed a volley of missiles at the starbase.
The Fang swept in behind the Klaw's missiles. When it was seconds from impact, a field of yellow energy sprang to life around the Lyran ship. The Expanding Sphere Generator. This was an energy barrier that would collide with and explode against anything that came into its path.
The missiles crashed into the starbase's shields, and they flared. The Fang took that opportunity to crash it's ESG field into the base. Shields flared and winked out, and a series of small explosions danced across a small section of the starbase's hull. Both ships pulled away quickly, but fusion beams from the starbase caught the Fang on its aft shield, and it staggered. Meanwhile, the Klaw continued in a slow arc through the maze of destroyers and battlecruisers as its weapons charged and its shields reenergized.
Kapact was getting ready to contact the Fang when proximity alarms suddenly went off. At first he thought his navigator was loosing the ability to manoeuvre in a crowded battle, but then he saw what was wrong. A Hydran battleship had come from around the starbase and was pushing through the swarm of smaller Klingon and Lyran ships. As the Klaw moved to avoid the behemoth, Kapact saw the Anarchist and the Devastator come in behind the Hydran battleship. "Maintain distance from that battleship. It will tear us to pieces." He was right. The fusion cannons coming from that would destroy them in seconds.
The Klaw moved about as the three battleships moved away from the starbase. Kapact saw that the Lyran ESG fields were bringing the starbase's shields down, and Klingon ships were coming in behind them. There were few destroyers to be seen, and Kapact didn't know how many were cloaked, or how many were circling around to rearm and make another pass. "Switch to tactical view." Now everything on the screen was identified by the computer, and they had a view of their own ship from slightly above and behind. He looked for the Fang, but it was not on the screen. "Where is the Fang?"
The tactical officer scanned for a moment. "The Fang is destroyed."
"They were capable warriors." That was all the time Kapact gave to them. After all, they weren't Klingons. "Set course for the starbase." Three battlecruisers had been lost so far to the many fusion cannons that covered the surface of the starbase. It was time to end this.
Kapact saw that the Anarchist was also coming in. Presumably the Devastator was handling the Hydran battleship. "Klaw, follow me in. I am going to put a hole in this thing." That was Morek, seeing to it that the fusion cannon claimed no more Klingon lives.
"HIja." Yes. Kapact wasted no words now. He brought the Klaw alongside the Anarchist, and allowed it to pull slightly ahead.
Four Lyran heavy cruisers were just ahead of the Anarchist, and they each activated ESG fields at maximum strength. That would bring down even starbase shields.
There was an explosion, and the starbase's shields winked out. Phasers shot from the starbase, hitting one Lyran and sending it crashing into another. At the same time, the Anarchist opened up on the starbase at point blank range. Then Kapact saw something that truly frightened him. An energy field shot from the starbase and engulfed the Anarchist.
It found the battleship's weakened forward shield and crashed through it. The shield fell, and the Anarchist stopped dead in space. That was the first time a Klingon had seen the rumoured new weapon. The hellbore cannon.
Kapact almost jumped out of his seat. "Take us in between the Anarchist and the starbase! Protect it!" But fusion beams and gatling phasers opened up on the Klaw as it tried to get in closer. Kapact was almost thrown from his seat.
"Forward shield failing!" His officers sounded desperate. "Hull breach!"
"Maintain course!" Kapact saw the Anarchist taking even more fire from the starbase. The hellbore fired again, and explosions danced across the hull of the Anarchist. "Damage control, repair hull breach. More power to forward shield."
"Transporter activity on the starbase." That was from tactical.
Kapact was almost dumbfounded. He slapped at the alpha strike button, and phasers and disruptors flashed, followed by a volley of six missiles. But the starbase had shields back up before the missiles could hit. At the same time, fighters swept in from behind the Klaw and opened fire.
"Evasive! Launch shuttles to defend us. All weapons target the starbase." Kapact watched as fusion cannons reached out for them. The Klaw rocked again.
"Transporter activity on the starbase again."
Kapact automatically slapped at the alpha strike button. This time no weapons fired. "Time to weapons charge."
"Thirty seconds."
"Fire as soon as they charge." Then he turned to the science officer. "Scan the Anarchist. Are there boarding parties?"
The science officer was huddled over the hood-like viewer. Then he turned to Kapact. "Sir, the Anarchist has lost environmental controls. Methane is being pumped throughout the ship."
"Scan for Klingon lifesigns and beam them aboard. Hail Fleet Admiral Morek."
It only took seconds for the science officer to scan. "No Klingon lifesigns. They're all dead."
Kapact's face went ashen. "Cancel hail command." Then he turned to the tactical officer. "Target the Anarchist. Inform all ships that it has been captured and is to be considered an enemy ship." Kapact looked at the battered ship on the screen, and saw the face of his mentor. "Qapla'." To the navigator, he muttered, "Take us in. Point blank range." The Anarchist had been beaten badly before it was captured. It wouldn't be difficult to destroy.
Suddenly things went from bad to worse. The Anarchist somehow found the power to move. It pulled away from the starbase and the Klaw, and set a collision course for the Devastator.
"Don't let it get away." Kapact was determined that his friend would not be further dishonoured.
"Sir! Reading warp field generation from the Anarchist! It's going to warp!"
"What? What course setting?"
"Unknown. It is-," The Anarchist leapt into warp, and crashed into the approaching Devastator. There was a tremendous explosion, and both ships vanished in an explosion that engulfed a large part of the fleet.
Kapact was shaken. But if he allowed himself to grieve for his friend, then they would all die. He also knew that someone would have to take command of the fleet. "All ships, lock onto starbase. Move to optimum firing range and prepare for coordinated staggered firing."
Out of twenty-four klingon ships and ten Lyran ships that had assaulted the starbase, six battlecruisers and two Birds of Prey remained. There were no Lyran ships to be seen.
Kapact watched as the fleet moved together, and closed on the starbase. "All ships, prepare to fire." On the tactical view, he saw the ships arrayed against the station. One shield facing was weaker than the rest. That was the point to concentrate fire. "Fire!" Every ship opened up with disruptors first, bringing down the weakened shield. Then phasers flashed as missiles launched. Phasers tore into the hull, and the missiles crashed through the innards of the starbase.
The Klaw's science officer looked away from his display. "Captain, the starbase has a warp core breach in progress."
"Excellent." Kapact activated the fleet commline. "All ships, move away from the starbase and assume formation. Engage cloak and set course for the Hydran homeworld." For the time being, Kapact had taken command of the fleet. After a string of acknowledgements, the fleet cloaked and moved into formation. Then they leapt into warp.
The fleet came out of warp within 20,000 kellicams of the homeworld. Four planetary defense batteries sprang into action, firing gattling phasers at the destroyers as soon as they decloaked.
"Destroyers, eliminate the defense batteries." They moved out as one, striking one battery after another. Moments later, they returned to formation without a casualty. As Kapact watched this on the tactical monitor, he waited for some reaction from the planet. Surely they would launch some sort of defense.
No matter. "Battlecruisers, assume position over major planetary cities. Destroyers, prepare for atmospheric entry." Kapact paused as he considered his words. Sentimentality had no place in a Klingon fleet, but they must understand, as should the Hydrans who were about to die. He turned to the comm officer. "Put me on fleet wide. And transmit to the planet." When the comm officer signalled he was ready, Kapact spoke again. "The combined Klingon Qor’du and M'Char assault fleets now fight for the honor of Fleet Admiral Morek and Admiral tIhoy. To our enemies, we say it is foolish to threaten our sovereignty. But it is a hundred times more foolish and dangerous to take our honor. You now pay the ultimate price for both."
"Signal from the surface. They signal their-."
"Ignore them." Kapact interrupted him. "All ships, open fire."
Every ship opened fire simultaneously. Planetary shields fell quickly as phasers and disruptors hit it from every direction. Then missiles were launched at the major cities.
At Kapact's signal, shuttles from every ship launched. Scatterpack shuttles launched scores of missiles at the surface, as antimatter packed suicide shuttles exploded in the atmosphere and into factory complexes. "I want every missile unloaded on the planet. Fire phasers and disruptors until the generators burn out." Kapact's voice on the fleet commline was the voice of Klingon vengeance.
The firing continued for almost an hour. There was no resistance. Then ships started to report weapons generators burning out. When his own chief engineer reported the same thing, Kapact finally caught his breath. "Is there any life on the planet?"
"Sir," the science officer answered quietly, "the atmosphere has been burned away."
"Comm signal from the planet." The communications officer was surprised. "No. Six small ships rising from the surface. Civilian ships. They are requesting communications."
"Put it on."
The voice was small and frightened. "Klingons. Do not fire. We are helpless. Children. Do not fire."
Kapact looked at the ships rising. Indeed they were civilian ships. "This is Captain Kapact. We will allow you to live. But if ever a Klingon looks upon you again, you are dead. Leave, and never come back." He closed the channel without waiting for a reply. "Put me on fleet wide." The comm officer nodded to him. "Warriors, now we can honor our fallen comrades." The crew of the Klaw, along with the crews of every other ship in the fleet began with a low rumble in their throat. The rumble grew louder, until it was an ear-shattering howl. A warning to the dead that Klingon warriors were on their way. Then the fleet cloaked and moved in perfect formation through what had once been Hydran space....
The few surviving Hydrans retreated to what was known as the old colonies. Having vanquished their Hydran foes, the Klingons now would now turn their attention in other directions.
"Pity the warrior who slays all his foes." These words, from the legendary poem, "The Fall of Kang", swirled in Kapact's mind. For twelve years he had been fighting Kzinti and Hydrans. Now the Kzinti were all but destroyed, and they were set to annihilate the Hydrans. Where would they turn next? The Federation was a growing threat, but that only made for growing promise of glory and honor. Kapact's thoughts were interrupted by the buzz of an incoming communication on the fleet channel. It was Fleet Admiral Morek on the Anarchist. "Attention all warriors! The Qor’du assault fleet will rendezvous with the M'Char assault fleet at the B'rel system. Our Lyran allies will meet us at the Hydran border, where we will push through their support facilities and onto their homeworld. There will be no stopping until they are destroyed and their planet laid waste. Qap'chu!" The channel was cut.
Then, almost immediately, contact was re-established. But this was directed solely at the Klaw. "Yes, Fleet Admiral." Kapact sat straight up and looked into the face of a warrior who had been his mentor for many years now.
"Captain Kapact. Since you gained command two years ago, you have served with distinction along the border. Many Hydran convoys and outposts have fallen before you, and their warships are far fewer in number. You have proven yourself to me, and to the Empire. But this will be your first major engagement as Captain. Remember your family, and remember those who came before you. Do them honour. Do not fail."
Kapact's chest swelled with pride. "Fleet Admiral Morek, I consider you to be maqochneS. Honoured friend and comrade in arms. I will remember those who came before me, and I will honor those who have fought at my side and taught me the way of the warrior. Victory will be ours. Qap'chu." Great success!
"Qap'chu, son of Ab'Qaf, and maqochneS. Glory to you, and your house. Morek out."
The Qor’du assault fleet was approaching the B'rel system. It slowed briefly to allow the M'Char fleet to join it, then it proceeded to the Hydran border.
The Klaw was one of twelve battlecruisers in the combined fleet. Serving as flagships were two B10K class battleships, the IKV Anarchist {Fleet Admiral Morek's new flagship}, and the IKV Devastator, commanded by Admiral tIhoy. Rounding out the Klingon forces were ten destroyers. As they passed the border, eight Lyran heavy cruisers moved without communication to join the fleet.
Two Hydran battlecruisers appeared from behind a dust cloud as the fleet came into range of the first border outpost. The Devastator adjusted course to engage the lead Hydran battlecruiser as the Anarchist went after the other. With each battleship firing ten disruptor banks each, the battlecruisers didn't even have time to fire back. They were destroyed in seconds.
Kapact was already following the line of battlecruisers to take on the outpost. It was built into an asteroid, and Kapact noted that the dozens of converging disruptor bolts tore away as much asteroid as they did Hydran outpost. It was over in seconds. Admiral Morek's coded signal brought the fleet back under cloak and into formation.
The fleet proceeded to push without incident through Hydran space, wiping out what resistance was offered, and taking out a dozen resupply outposts. This was the Hydran frontier, and it had been a Klingon target for most of the war. It wasn't until they began the push into their inner territory that true resistance was encountered.
Admiral Morek was the first to report it. "Attention fleet. Hydran Prime Starbase ahead. Heavy cruisers, proceed with Lyran escort to soften defences. Destroyers, act as point defense and conduct close run and withdrawal raids at the starbase. Qapla'."
Kapact leaned forward in his seat and called up a tactical display. "Contact the nearest Lyran heavy cruiser."
A felinoid creature appeared on the screen. "This is Captain Tchaw of the Fang."
"Captain, we are ordered to assault the starbase together. Are you ready?" Kapact always felt uncomfortable working with aliens. To him, there were no non-klingons he could consider as equals.
"Yesss. Vector 127. Follow us in." The Lyran cut the channel, and his ship headed for the starbase.
"Helm, match course and speed." Kapact hid his irritation behind a fierce exterior. The Klaw sped after the Fang.
They approached the starbase, flying between dodging and firing destroyers. Kapact looked at the smaller ships fondly. It had not been too long since he had been in one of them. "Fang, I'll follow you in." At the same time, he loosed a volley of missiles at the starbase.
The Fang swept in behind the Klaw's missiles. When it was seconds from impact, a field of yellow energy sprang to life around the Lyran ship. The Expanding Sphere Generator. This was an energy barrier that would collide with and explode against anything that came into its path.
The missiles crashed into the starbase's shields, and they flared. The Fang took that opportunity to crash it's ESG field into the base. Shields flared and winked out, and a series of small explosions danced across a small section of the starbase's hull. Both ships pulled away quickly, but fusion beams from the starbase caught the Fang on its aft shield, and it staggered. Meanwhile, the Klaw continued in a slow arc through the maze of destroyers and battlecruisers as its weapons charged and its shields reenergized.
Kapact was getting ready to contact the Fang when proximity alarms suddenly went off. At first he thought his navigator was loosing the ability to manoeuvre in a crowded battle, but then he saw what was wrong. A Hydran battleship had come from around the starbase and was pushing through the swarm of smaller Klingon and Lyran ships. As the Klaw moved to avoid the behemoth, Kapact saw the Anarchist and the Devastator come in behind the Hydran battleship. "Maintain distance from that battleship. It will tear us to pieces." He was right. The fusion cannons coming from that would destroy them in seconds.
The Klaw moved about as the three battleships moved away from the starbase. Kapact saw that the Lyran ESG fields were bringing the starbase's shields down, and Klingon ships were coming in behind them. There were few destroyers to be seen, and Kapact didn't know how many were cloaked, or how many were circling around to rearm and make another pass. "Switch to tactical view." Now everything on the screen was identified by the computer, and they had a view of their own ship from slightly above and behind. He looked for the Fang, but it was not on the screen. "Where is the Fang?"
The tactical officer scanned for a moment. "The Fang is destroyed."
"They were capable warriors." That was all the time Kapact gave to them. After all, they weren't Klingons. "Set course for the starbase." Three battlecruisers had been lost so far to the many fusion cannons that covered the surface of the starbase. It was time to end this.
Kapact saw that the Anarchist was also coming in. Presumably the Devastator was handling the Hydran battleship. "Klaw, follow me in. I am going to put a hole in this thing." That was Morek, seeing to it that the fusion cannon claimed no more Klingon lives.
"HIja." Yes. Kapact wasted no words now. He brought the Klaw alongside the Anarchist, and allowed it to pull slightly ahead.
Four Lyran heavy cruisers were just ahead of the Anarchist, and they each activated ESG fields at maximum strength. That would bring down even starbase shields.
There was an explosion, and the starbase's shields winked out. Phasers shot from the starbase, hitting one Lyran and sending it crashing into another. At the same time, the Anarchist opened up on the starbase at point blank range. Then Kapact saw something that truly frightened him. An energy field shot from the starbase and engulfed the Anarchist.
It found the battleship's weakened forward shield and crashed through it. The shield fell, and the Anarchist stopped dead in space. That was the first time a Klingon had seen the rumoured new weapon. The hellbore cannon.
Kapact almost jumped out of his seat. "Take us in between the Anarchist and the starbase! Protect it!" But fusion beams and gatling phasers opened up on the Klaw as it tried to get in closer. Kapact was almost thrown from his seat.
"Forward shield failing!" His officers sounded desperate. "Hull breach!"
"Maintain course!" Kapact saw the Anarchist taking even more fire from the starbase. The hellbore fired again, and explosions danced across the hull of the Anarchist. "Damage control, repair hull breach. More power to forward shield."
"Transporter activity on the starbase." That was from tactical.
Kapact was almost dumbfounded. He slapped at the alpha strike button, and phasers and disruptors flashed, followed by a volley of six missiles. But the starbase had shields back up before the missiles could hit. At the same time, fighters swept in from behind the Klaw and opened fire.
"Evasive! Launch shuttles to defend us. All weapons target the starbase." Kapact watched as fusion cannons reached out for them. The Klaw rocked again.
"Transporter activity on the starbase again."
Kapact automatically slapped at the alpha strike button. This time no weapons fired. "Time to weapons charge."
"Thirty seconds."
"Fire as soon as they charge." Then he turned to the science officer. "Scan the Anarchist. Are there boarding parties?"
The science officer was huddled over the hood-like viewer. Then he turned to Kapact. "Sir, the Anarchist has lost environmental controls. Methane is being pumped throughout the ship."
"Scan for Klingon lifesigns and beam them aboard. Hail Fleet Admiral Morek."
It only took seconds for the science officer to scan. "No Klingon lifesigns. They're all dead."
Kapact's face went ashen. "Cancel hail command." Then he turned to the tactical officer. "Target the Anarchist. Inform all ships that it has been captured and is to be considered an enemy ship." Kapact looked at the battered ship on the screen, and saw the face of his mentor. "Qapla'." To the navigator, he muttered, "Take us in. Point blank range." The Anarchist had been beaten badly before it was captured. It wouldn't be difficult to destroy.
Suddenly things went from bad to worse. The Anarchist somehow found the power to move. It pulled away from the starbase and the Klaw, and set a collision course for the Devastator.
"Don't let it get away." Kapact was determined that his friend would not be further dishonoured.
"Sir! Reading warp field generation from the Anarchist! It's going to warp!"
"What? What course setting?"
"Unknown. It is-," The Anarchist leapt into warp, and crashed into the approaching Devastator. There was a tremendous explosion, and both ships vanished in an explosion that engulfed a large part of the fleet.
Kapact was shaken. But if he allowed himself to grieve for his friend, then they would all die. He also knew that someone would have to take command of the fleet. "All ships, lock onto starbase. Move to optimum firing range and prepare for coordinated staggered firing."
Out of twenty-four klingon ships and ten Lyran ships that had assaulted the starbase, six battlecruisers and two Birds of Prey remained. There were no Lyran ships to be seen.
Kapact watched as the fleet moved together, and closed on the starbase. "All ships, prepare to fire." On the tactical view, he saw the ships arrayed against the station. One shield facing was weaker than the rest. That was the point to concentrate fire. "Fire!" Every ship opened up with disruptors first, bringing down the weakened shield. Then phasers flashed as missiles launched. Phasers tore into the hull, and the missiles crashed through the innards of the starbase.
The Klaw's science officer looked away from his display. "Captain, the starbase has a warp core breach in progress."
"Excellent." Kapact activated the fleet commline. "All ships, move away from the starbase and assume formation. Engage cloak and set course for the Hydran homeworld." For the time being, Kapact had taken command of the fleet. After a string of acknowledgements, the fleet cloaked and moved into formation. Then they leapt into warp.
The fleet came out of warp within 20,000 kellicams of the homeworld. Four planetary defense batteries sprang into action, firing gattling phasers at the destroyers as soon as they decloaked.
"Destroyers, eliminate the defense batteries." They moved out as one, striking one battery after another. Moments later, they returned to formation without a casualty. As Kapact watched this on the tactical monitor, he waited for some reaction from the planet. Surely they would launch some sort of defense.
No matter. "Battlecruisers, assume position over major planetary cities. Destroyers, prepare for atmospheric entry." Kapact paused as he considered his words. Sentimentality had no place in a Klingon fleet, but they must understand, as should the Hydrans who were about to die. He turned to the comm officer. "Put me on fleet wide. And transmit to the planet." When the comm officer signalled he was ready, Kapact spoke again. "The combined Klingon Qor’du and M'Char assault fleets now fight for the honor of Fleet Admiral Morek and Admiral tIhoy. To our enemies, we say it is foolish to threaten our sovereignty. But it is a hundred times more foolish and dangerous to take our honor. You now pay the ultimate price for both."
"Signal from the surface. They signal their-."
"Ignore them." Kapact interrupted him. "All ships, open fire."
Every ship opened fire simultaneously. Planetary shields fell quickly as phasers and disruptors hit it from every direction. Then missiles were launched at the major cities.
At Kapact's signal, shuttles from every ship launched. Scatterpack shuttles launched scores of missiles at the surface, as antimatter packed suicide shuttles exploded in the atmosphere and into factory complexes. "I want every missile unloaded on the planet. Fire phasers and disruptors until the generators burn out." Kapact's voice on the fleet commline was the voice of Klingon vengeance.
The firing continued for almost an hour. There was no resistance. Then ships started to report weapons generators burning out. When his own chief engineer reported the same thing, Kapact finally caught his breath. "Is there any life on the planet?"
"Sir," the science officer answered quietly, "the atmosphere has been burned away."
"Comm signal from the planet." The communications officer was surprised. "No. Six small ships rising from the surface. Civilian ships. They are requesting communications."
"Put it on."
The voice was small and frightened. "Klingons. Do not fire. We are helpless. Children. Do not fire."
Kapact looked at the ships rising. Indeed they were civilian ships. "This is Captain Kapact. We will allow you to live. But if ever a Klingon looks upon you again, you are dead. Leave, and never come back." He closed the channel without waiting for a reply. "Put me on fleet wide." The comm officer nodded to him. "Warriors, now we can honor our fallen comrades." The crew of the Klaw, along with the crews of every other ship in the fleet began with a low rumble in their throat. The rumble grew louder, until it was an ear-shattering howl. A warning to the dead that Klingon warriors were on their way. Then the fleet cloaked and moved in perfect formation through what had once been Hydran space....
The few surviving Hydrans retreated to what was known as the old colonies. Having vanquished their Hydran foes, the Klingons now would now turn their attention in other directions.
Episode 2 Lieutenant Commander Kapact: Assault on the Kzinti/The Two Front War
In the year 2276, Klingon and Lyran forces are poised to destroy the weakened Hydrans before attacking the Kzinti. Then a fierce battle with Kzinti forces leaves the Lyran Emperor's son dead. The enraged Lyran Emperor convinces reluctant klingon allies to attack the increasingly strong Kzinti first.
The Klingon Qor'du Assault Fleet is on the front line of border attacks. Within that fleet, Lt Commander Kapact serves as Executive Officer aboard the IKV Iw'tuq.
"Do what you want, kill who you want, but don't anger the white God." LaHoy was the warrior who spoke for everyone else. When he wasn't complaining about the highly born albino captain Du'Qu, LaHoy was grumbling about having to kill cats rather than Hydrans.
Nobody answered. The off duty crew just wanted to eat their rank, stale gagh and drink their small ration of bloodwine before going to sleep. For executive officer Lt Commander Kapact, it was a struggle to balance loyalty to his captain with loyalty to his crew. And the fact is that LaHoy was correct. Du'Qu was a drunken, cruel captain, and they should be fighting Hydrans instead of Kzinti. But the High Council had chosen to attack the Kzinti first, so that was that. "Silence! Your only concern is how you obey my orders. A Klingon does not question every command that is put before him!" It was good for the crew to be able to voice their feelings, but discipline had to be maintained.
LaHoy noted that Kapact had not disagreed with him. He took that as agreement, and went back to his meal.
Two days later, as the Iw'tuq moved closer to the Kzinti border, Kapact sat through a boring command shift and thought about the captain. Du'Qu was powerful, to be sure. His family held a seat on the council. It was even rumoured that his father might be in line to replace Lorak some day. But he was also a drunken, cruel warrior. Hardly a day went by when the captain didn't come up to the bridge and challenge some hapless raw recruit to personal combat. And every time he would eye Kapact, as if he wanted Kapact to object. An alarm interrupted Kapact's thoughts. A small ship had come into the Iw'tuq's range. That was the starboard flank of the Qor'du fleet's area. "Battle alert. All hands to battlestations. Weapons preheat. Captain to the bridge." Kapact didn't think for a second that Du'Qu would actually appear, but the call had to be made.
The small blip turned out to be a Kzinti frigate. Quick work for the KD5K War Destroyer, but Kapact wanted all hands ready. One frigate could be accompanied by heavy cruisers. "Engage cloak. Intercept course, maximum speed. Port disruptors to overload. Ready point defence."
The frigate was moving away from the Iw'tuq. It may have projected the Destroyer's course. "Alter course. Accelerate and approach from the opposite side."
Now the Iw'tuq was approaching from the same angle that the frigate was on course for. Kapact looked back to the tactical officer. The young officer anticipated Kapact's orders and scanned the enemy ship. "Range to target 30,000 kellicams. Enemy vessel has activated ECM pod. Strength four."
"Prepare to decloak. Attack mode at 10,000 kellicams. ECCM at strength 5. Target sensors." That would disable the enemy countermeasures. Kapact tapped the comlink for the auxiliary tactical station. "Maximum point defence. Prepare for drone attack." Then he turned back to the tactical officer. "Range to target?"
"20,000 kellicams. Seventeen. Fourteen."
Kapact was going to give the frigate a quick death. "Prepare all drone racks. Single fire mode." That would launch the missiles individually to avoid any transporter bombs.
"Eleven thousand kellicams. Ten-."
"Decloak! Launch missiles. Starboard disruptor fire. Phasers fire." The staggered firing commands were designed to weaken the shields, then break through hull, then cause internal damage. "Hard about! Pursuit course!"
The Iw'tuq snapped around just as the frigate was launching a volley of missiles.
That was what one had to fear from the Kzinti. Missiles. "Maximum ECM. Fire port disruptors as they reach full charge."
The tactical officer was doing many things at once. "Incoming missiles. Point defence firing." There was silence on the bridge as they waited for the report. "All defensive phasers exhausted. One missile remaining. Defensive tractor engaging." The ship's tractor grabbed the last missile and held it as the missile exhausted its fuel harmlessly.
The Iw'tuq fell in behind the frigate. Kapact's eyes tried to pick out what damage had been done to the enemy craft. Then he turned to his tactical officer. "Damage to the frigate."
"Port shields down. Minimal emissions from sensors. Our missiles are closing on it. Firing port disruptors," The disruptors flashed, hitting the frigate's aft shield. "Starboard disruptors recharged."
"Fire starboard disruptors." Kapact had hoped to take the frigate out quickly, but it was becoming a chase.
The frigate knew that it couldn't win outright, and it was running. Part of that strategy was to drop mines in the destroyer's path. Kapact saw it before the tactical officer reported it. "Mine!"
"Emergency speed!" The Iw'tuq shot ahead in an attempt to avoid the mine. The idea was to pass the mine before it was armed, which would happen as soon as it was four kellicams from the frigate. "Distance from mine to target."
"Three kellicams. We are passing over the mine."
"Mine alert! All hands secure stations. Stand by for detonation!" The Iw'tuq passed the mine as it detonated. The entire ship seemed to shake from the concussion.
"Aft shield down. Tractored enemy missile has run out of fuel." It was a mix of good and bad news.
"Release the missile. Overtake the frigate and standby all weapons. Reduce the port disruptor charge to standard." The Iw'tuq leapt forward and was holding position at point blank range from the frigate. "Fire disruptors. Then phasers. Then missile spread."
Both disruptor banks flashed, and the frigate's aft shield winked out. Then phasers tore into the hull. Finally missiles launched. Their relative speed slowly surpassed the Iw'tuq's speed, and they slammed into the already damaged hull of the frigate. This was the moment that Kapact lived for. "Maximum shields. Take us through the explosion." The frigate blew apart, and the Iw'tuq passed triumphantly through the debris field.
"Stand down from battle alert. Assume fleet formation." Kapact sat back in the command chair, and pretended for a moment that there wasn't a drunken tyrant below decks.
The Iw'tuq maintained its part in the formation for a week before any more Kzinti were encountered. Then there was a fleet of six heavy cruisers, and the hundreds of combined missiles that came with them. The Iw'tuq fell in behind the battlecruiser Anarchist to draw missile fire while the rest of the Qor’du assault fleet took out one cruiser after another. In this way, the fleet diminished the Kzinti defensive fleet while suffering few casualties.
The start of the second week brought the big prize. A series of six Kzinti border outposts. These would have given the Kzinti fleet logistical support for carrying strikes deep within the Empire.
It was also one of the rare occasions that found the captain of the Iw'tuq on the bridge. Du'Qu stank of bloodwine, but he was still aware enough to register the line of outposts arrayed on the tactical display. "Cloak. Attack pattern Soch'wa. Engage."
The Iw'tuq cloaked, and left the fleet formation. Had it not been for communications silence protocols, The Anarchist would undoubtedly have contacted them. As it was, the Iw'tuq was allowed to approach the first outpost. "Standby all weapons." The ship was heading straight for the outpost, with no thought given to the ship's relatively weak forward shielding and hull. "Attack!"
The Iw'tuq was still at 20,000 kellicams when it was ordered decloaked.
Phasers and disruptors flashed simultaneously with the alpha strike command, while missiles launched and headed for the outpost. Then the Anarchist altered course to join the attack. Missiles launched from the larger ship to join the swarm already headed for the Kzinti outpost.
The Iw'tuq had, by this time, recharged its weapons and was just coming into optimum firing range. "Fire!" Phasers and disruptors flashed again, and the outpost was overcome by the weapons. It exploded as the Iw'tuq passed by it. Du'Qu raised his arm in triumph and turned to Kapact. "That is how you win a battle. Not with probes, but with tenacity and qajunpaQ." He rose and started to walk to the turbolift. Then he turned, and regarded Kapact. His words were slurred, and he seemed to be speaking half to himself. "I will be below. Try not to disgrace us while I am gone." Then he disappeared.
Kapact rose without a word and retook the Captains chair. He knew the crew was watching him...perhaps waiting for him to kill Du'Qu. But Kapact had no time for petty squabbles. "Cloak, and assume fleet formation. Prepare to destroy the next outpost." The Iw'tuq vanished behind its cloaking screen and fell into formation behind the Anarchist. A moment later, the fleet made the brief warp jump to reach the next outpost.
A red light flashing on the arm of the captain's chair was the fleet signal to assume attack formation. "Attack formation. Charge weapons. Oblique approach." The Iw'tuq fell in aft and starboard of the Anarchist.
When it reached 10,000 kellicams, the fleet decloaked and loosed a huge swarm of missiles. Then disruptors fired. Phasers were fired seconds later. This left shields down, and hull weakened by the time the missiles crashed into their target. The outpost went down without firing a shot.
"MajQa'." Kapact raised his fist in praise of his crew. Then he was all business. "Cloak. Resume fleet formation and prepare for warp." The Iw'tuq fell back into formation and got ready for the next assault.
Three more outposts fell in the same fashion, and the Qor’du assault fleet moved en masse to the last outpost along this section of the border. When they emerged from warp in close proximity to it, the fleet lined up in standard attack formations of three ships each when there was a massive subspace disruption. The Iw'tuq's science officer looked up from his sensors and turned to Kapact. "Subspace disruption. Probable warp signatures."
The subspace disruption revealed itself to be a fleet of seven Kzinti missile cruisers. They aligned themselves together and headed for the lead ships of the Klingon fleet. A storm of missiles appeared,
Kapact had his orders immediately. It was Admiral Morek on the Anarchist. "Destroyers. Engage missiles."
"Take us in. Maximum point defense." The Iw'tuq and its fellow destroyers would have to move in and around the missiles, lending ECM support to the larger ships, and devoting all phasers to point defense.
The Iw'tuq entered the field of missiles, and point defences started firing while the battlecruisers tried to engage the Kzinti cruisers. "Target lead missiles!" Kapact knew that it would have to be a quick fight, or the destroyers would be cut to pieces. Phasers were activated by the point defense computer, and all the crew could do was manoeuvre the craft and watch. Fortunately, the four destroyers were able to wipe out the first volley of missiles with no losses. "Set course for the cruisers!" Kapact took the initiative and brought the Iw'tuq into close proximity to the nearest Kzinti cruiser. "Target sensors and missile launchers. Staggered fire." The bird of prey swarmed the larger cruiser, staying as close as possible so that the enemy could not bring its main weapons to bear. That would also occupy the Kzinti point defense so that the Anarchist's missiles had a better chance of hitting.
Phaser fire from the Kzinti slammed into the Iw'tuq, and Kapact had to quickly dodge a shower of sparks from the tactical station. "Tractor beam!" Missiles had just launched from the Kzinti and darted around to target the Iw'tuq. Tractors lanced out to grab the missiles. "Point phasers." Kapact was ordering defensive phasers to target the tractored missiles so that tractors could be freed up and recharged.
As the tractored missiles blew, the Anarchist suddenly loomed above them and hit the Kzinti cruiser with overloaded disruptors. The Kzinti's shields flared, and went out. When Kapact saw that, he slapped at the alpha strike button. Phasers, disruptors, and missiles slammed into the unshielded Kzinti from both Klingon ships, and it blew apart. But their problems weren't over. "Plasma leak!" That was from the second officer, Kopol. The Iw'tuq had been hit, and a warp nacelle was venting.
"Damage control!" They were in trouble, but the ship could be nursed back to sufficient strength to finish the battle. "Take us away from the enemy fleet. Emergency repairs."
The Iw'tuq was forced to cloak and withdraw, putting the Klingon fleet between it and the Kzinti while it effected emergency repairs. Better to withdraw and then return. As the ship came to a stop, Kapact was forced to watch the fleet engage the remaining Kzinti cruisers. It was the hardest lesson to learn for Kapact. Sometimes you had to step back and repair.
As luck would have it, the fleet engagement was coming to a victorious end just as the engineer reported that they were battleworthy. Kapact stifled a swear, and glared at the screen. "Signal the Anarchist and assume formation." The comm officer sent a coded 'ready' signal to the fleet leader, and they moved to rejoin the fleet.
When they were in position, the signal went out for the fleet to decloak and attack. That was when Du'Qu chose to appear. He strode onto the brdige and struck Kapact with the back of his hand. Looking down as Kapact picked himself up off of the deck, the captain spoke with a clear voice. "You don't belong in command." Then he turned back to the tactical officer. "Decloak! Fire all weapons!" The Iw'tuq decloaked and all weapons were loosed at once. Missiles flashed away from the ship as phasers and disruptors fired. They brought down the outpost's shields, and the missiles were closing on the hull when Kzinti point defense phasers activated. The first wave of missiles was destroyed, and shuttles were launched from the outpost. The Iw'tuq received a signal to engage the shuttles, and Du'Qu turned his glare to Kapact, "Take a scatterpack out and put a hole in that outpost before it raises shields."
"Hija." Kapact left the bridge as serious misgivings brewed in his head.
He stormed into the small shuttlebay and moved to the scatterpack without a word. In seconds, he was launching.
The small, unshielded shuttle moved away from the Iw'tuq and made its way around the Klingon flank and set course for the outpost's downed shield. Kapact had to bet that the outpost wouldn't notice his small shuttle until it was in firing range.
He was just coming into firing range when three Kzinti shuttles changed course to intercept him. It would only be seconds now before the outpost opened up with point defense phasers that would shred the tiny shuttle. As he slipped into range, Kapact fired the shuttle’s missiles. Then he threw the shuttle into a steep dive. The missiles slammed into the outpost's unshielded hull, and the outpost was gone.
Kapact had to run now. It was a rare thing for a scatterpack shuttle to return to its bay intact. As he angled toward the fleet, the three Kzinti shuttles were joined by two more that had been going after the Anarchist.
Phaser fire was all around him as Kapact dodged and weaved. Then he felt the shuttle buck under him. He had been hit. Speed began to drop away, and he started to lose hope. Five Kzinti shuttles were circling him now. Missiles launched, and Kapact knew it was over.
Then the impossible happened. The Iw'tuq was there, on top of them, and firing every weapon it had at the Kzinti shuttles and their missiles. They vanished before they could hit the shuttle, and Kapact breathed a sigh of relief. He opened communications to the ship. "Kapact to Iw'tuq. Thrusters and impulse drive offline. Request tow into shuttlebay."
The rough voice of Du'Qu answered quickly. "Negative!" There was a pause, and then disruptors flashed at the shuttle. It rocked, and Kapact prepared to die. He knew then that he should have killed Du'Qu when he had the chance. Unfortunately he wouldn't have the opportunity to learn from his mistake. Kapact thought of his father, and all of his descendants. The Ab'Qaf line was closing. Kapact had no son to carry it forward.
Kapact was waiting for the end to come when he was saved again. Tractor beams reached out from the Anarchist, and the comm panel crackled again. It was Admiral Morek. "Stand by to energize."
"Admiral, I request you beam me to the Iw'tuq. Captain Du'Qu is a traitor. I claim the rite of vengeance."
"As you wish, son of Ab'Qaf." Kapact swelled with pride and righteous anger.
The transporter beam took him, and he found himself on the bridge of the Iw'tuq. Du'Qu was still in the bridge, but he seemed to be concerned with nothing but his bottle of bloodwine. Kapact spun the captain's chair around and roared at Du'Qu. "Traitor! Drunken petaQ! I claim the rite of vengeance!" Then he grabbed the bottle of bloodwine from Du'Qu's hands and slammed it against the captain's head.
Du'Qu found himself on the deck, and blubbered angrily. He seemed to have lost the power of speech when challenged suddenly by someone he wanted dead. He grabbed for his dk'tagh and got to his feet.
Kapact knew that drunk or not, Du'Qu was a savage and dangerous opponent. He cared nothing for honor and would do anything to win. So Kapact made the only move he had. he ran at Du'Qu, and wrapped his arms around the startled Klingon. Du'Qu tried to bring his dk'tagh up in time to stop Kapact, but Kapact had his hands pinned to his sides. He grabbed Du'Qu's dk'tagh, and brought both knives in at the same time. He felt the life exhale from Du'Qu, and dropped him to the deck. Then Kapact looked at the silent bridge crew, daring them to object or raise a challenge. "Know this. Anyone who bows to a traitor is a traitor himself." He didn't know how much the bridge crew had protested Du'Qu's treachory, but he needed their loyalty. "There are no more traitors on this ship. Suyaj'a'?" Understood? He was telling them that they were all starting over. They all had a chance to show him loyalty.
They responded by raising their fists in the air. "Qapla'!"
Kapact sat down finally. In command. "Contact the Anarchist."
"Aye sir." Suddenly the comm channels were overridden by a command transmission.
General Chang's face appeared on the viewscreen. "Attention all ships in the Dorala sector. Move at once to intercept Hydran fleet on course for Agilon. Engage at maximum warp!"
Chang's transmission ended, and Admiral Morek followed it up with orders for the Qor'Du assault fleet. "All ships, cloak and set course 15 mark 45. Maximum warp. Engage!"
Kapact turned back to his helm officer. "Set that course and engage." Then he turned to his new first officer Kopol. "Remove that carcass from the bridge."
Once the fleet had gone to warp, every captain was provided with a coded briefing. Seven hours ago, a listening post on the outskirts of the Tiburon system had detected a Hydran fleet consisting of forty ships moving at maximum warp on a course that would take it to the border colony of Agilon. It seemed to be trying to reach the Federation neutral zone. The Hydran fleet, which was probably intended to solicit Federation aid, had to be destroyed before it reached the neutral zone.
Furthermore, no Klingon vessel would be permitted to chase their prey into the neutral zone. That could bring the Federation into the war, and that would represent a third front that the Empire could ill afford.
By the time that the Qor’du assault fleet had reached sensor range of the Hydran Expeditionary fleet, six other assault fleets were closing. Admiral Morek, on the Anarchist, had ordered all destroyers to assume the forward position so that they could take on the lead elements of the Hydran fleet, which would presumably consist of smaller, faster moving craft.
Kapact was leaning forward in his seat, waiting for the smaller ships to come into range when he received a coded signal on the fleet comm line. The Hydran ships had to be brought out of warp immediately.
Two Birds of Prey suddenly broke formation and closed on a battleship at the center of the enemy fleet. As every ship captain watched, the Birds of Prey collided at warp speed with the battleship.
Kapact stood, and had to catch his breath. The explosion had completely wiped out the two Birds of Prey, as well as the battleship. But it had also created a subspace distortion large enough to disrupt every warp field in the area. The Hydrans were forced out of warp, along with the swarm of Klingon ships.
Kapact silently saluted the brave crews now on their way to StoVoKor. The death howl would have to come later. "Lock on to the lead ships. Intercept!" The Iw'tuq shot ahead and targeted the lead Hydran ship. It was a Destroyer. Disruptors flashed, getting the first shot and making the enemy ship turn around to face the Bird of Prey.
Four more Hydran destroyers circled around to engage the Iw'tuq. Fortunately for Kapact, the other Klingon destroyers and frigates came in just after them and opened fire. As the Iw'tuq accelerated to avoid the Hydran fusion cannon, it dropped a mine out of an aft port. The mine armed just in time to hit the Hydran's aft shield. Disruptor fire from the trailing Birds of Prey flashed at that moment, tearing into the purple hull of the Hydran.
"Emergency stop!" Inertial dampers whined in protest as the Iw'tuq used emergency power to apply reverse thrust. The ship hung in space for a moment while computer systems and crew struggled to recover. Kapact was the first to regain his senses, and he slapped at the alpha strike button even as other Birds of Prey struggled to avoid a collision. Phasers and disruptors flashed, and missiles followed, blowing the Hydran destroyer apart.
There were still five Hydran ships ahead, and Kapact counted six Birds of Prey leaping ahead of the Iw'tuq. "Attack speed! Target at will and pursue."
The battle raged on, with Hydran fusion cannons hitting the more manoeuvrable Birds of Prey as disruptors fired and recharged and fired again. Eventually it came down to three Hydrans facing two remaining Birds of Prey. "Contact the other ship." When his comm officer reported the channel open, Kapact spoke quickly to the other Captain. "Attention Ba'Ha. Concentrate your fire on the lead ship. We'll take them out together, one by one." Both Birds of Prey closed on the lead Hydran. Two sets of disruptors quickly brought its shields down, and then phasers and missiles finished the job. "Now take the next!" The two ships repeated the tactic, bringing down the enemy shields in short order. But just before their missiles could destroy it, two fighters launched. They targeted the Iw'tuq. Kapact ordered a tactical view on the main screen that would keep the Iw'tuq and the fighter group in view at all times. "Maximum point defense." Phasers fired, but the fighters opened up with fusion cannons, bring down the Iw'tuq's weakened aft shield.
"Hull damage. Impulse engines."
Kapact heard the warning, but wasn't concerned with who had made it. "Damage control to impulse. Seal hull breach." The fighters could take them out of the fight, and he assumed that the other Bird of Prey, the Ba'Ha, had been forced to chase the remaining Hydran destroyer.
"Tractor beams, lock onto fighter group! Decrease speed to free up power to weapons." Kapact felt the ship slow, and he also felt the drag on the ship from the fighters. The Iw'tuq suddenly shuddered. The fighters were in a death struggle now, and they were more than able to shred the Iw'tuq's damaged aft hull. All of this was apparent on the tactical display on the screen. "Rotate tractor geometry. Protect the aft hull." The Hydran ship was forced to rotate around the Bird of Prey until it was faced with the forward weapons and shield. Kapact slapped at the alpha strike button, and the fighters were quickly destroyed. "Return to normal view." The image on the viewscreen changed just in time for them to see the Ba'Ha limp away from the remnants of the Hydran destroyer. That was the last of the forward element of the Hydran Expeditionary fleet. And well enough. Sensors showed that they were approaching the edge of the neutral zone. "Come about. Set course to escort the Ba'Ha back to the fleet." Kapact watched the view shift as they gradually swung around in a lazy arc. "Iw'tuq to Anarchist. Status of enemy fleet."
Admiral Morek's voice came over the speaker. He sounded worried. "Kapact, one heavy cruiser slipped through. It is up to you and the Ba'Ha."
"Luq." I will. Kapact gazed into the darkness, waiting for the light of the enemy ship to appear. It appeared, out of the blue. Fusion cannons flashed, catching the struggling Ba'Ha and destroying it. "Tractors! Catch that ship!" Kapact knew he had to slow it down or it would pass over him without even stopping to engage him. The Iw'tuq lurched ahead and was upon the huge Hydran ship in seconds. Then they were all yanked out of their seats as the tractor took hold. "Full reverse!"
The helm officer was dumbfounded. "She'll break apart!"
Kapact jumped out of his seat and had his dk'tagh in his hand in a second. "Full reverse! Now!" A tortured sound came from the bowels of the ship, and they started to slow. "Fire missiles!"
"Missiles stores empty." The tactical officer sounded frustrated and angry.
"Fire all other weapons. Prepare all remaining shuttles. And find a way to increase impulse power." Kapact knew they had only seconds before they were pulled into the neutral zone, and a war with the Federation.
The Iw'tuq's weapons flashed, and the Hydran's aft shields flared. But they held. It began to drop mines, and the Iw'tuq's aft shield flared. It had just been repaired. "Drop forward shields! Life support to minimal." Kapact was deactivating every system he could afford to. Anything to add power to the impulse engines and slow that cruiser. Finally, they slowed. "Time to neutral zone at this speed."
A voice answered. "Two minutes."
"Is our relative speed slow enough for the shuttles to catch the cruiser?" The same voice answered yes. "Launch all shuttles!"
Two unmanned shuttles, loaded with antimatter launched from the Iw'tuq and headed around for the cruiser. At the same time, Kapact had one more surprise in store for the fleeing Hydran cruiser. "Emergency reverse. All power to impulse power and tractors." One shuttle went in, with the other directly behind it. They both slammed into the Hydran ship as the Iw'tuq's phasers and disruptors peppered away at the enemy shield. The Hydran was forced to come around in a circle as the the suicide shuttles exploded against its purple hull.
The Iw'tuq shook off the burden of the huge ship and turned away from the neutral zone just in time to avoid it. "Bring us back to standard power allocation. Set course for the fleet."
The Hydran Expeditionary Fleet was destroyed, and at the same time, Klingon fleets managed to push the Kzinti back to their homeworld. With the Kzinti threat all but eliminated, it was finally time to finish the Hydrans...
The Klingon Qor'du Assault Fleet is on the front line of border attacks. Within that fleet, Lt Commander Kapact serves as Executive Officer aboard the IKV Iw'tuq.
"Do what you want, kill who you want, but don't anger the white God." LaHoy was the warrior who spoke for everyone else. When he wasn't complaining about the highly born albino captain Du'Qu, LaHoy was grumbling about having to kill cats rather than Hydrans.
Nobody answered. The off duty crew just wanted to eat their rank, stale gagh and drink their small ration of bloodwine before going to sleep. For executive officer Lt Commander Kapact, it was a struggle to balance loyalty to his captain with loyalty to his crew. And the fact is that LaHoy was correct. Du'Qu was a drunken, cruel captain, and they should be fighting Hydrans instead of Kzinti. But the High Council had chosen to attack the Kzinti first, so that was that. "Silence! Your only concern is how you obey my orders. A Klingon does not question every command that is put before him!" It was good for the crew to be able to voice their feelings, but discipline had to be maintained.
LaHoy noted that Kapact had not disagreed with him. He took that as agreement, and went back to his meal.
Two days later, as the Iw'tuq moved closer to the Kzinti border, Kapact sat through a boring command shift and thought about the captain. Du'Qu was powerful, to be sure. His family held a seat on the council. It was even rumoured that his father might be in line to replace Lorak some day. But he was also a drunken, cruel warrior. Hardly a day went by when the captain didn't come up to the bridge and challenge some hapless raw recruit to personal combat. And every time he would eye Kapact, as if he wanted Kapact to object. An alarm interrupted Kapact's thoughts. A small ship had come into the Iw'tuq's range. That was the starboard flank of the Qor'du fleet's area. "Battle alert. All hands to battlestations. Weapons preheat. Captain to the bridge." Kapact didn't think for a second that Du'Qu would actually appear, but the call had to be made.
The small blip turned out to be a Kzinti frigate. Quick work for the KD5K War Destroyer, but Kapact wanted all hands ready. One frigate could be accompanied by heavy cruisers. "Engage cloak. Intercept course, maximum speed. Port disruptors to overload. Ready point defence."
The frigate was moving away from the Iw'tuq. It may have projected the Destroyer's course. "Alter course. Accelerate and approach from the opposite side."
Now the Iw'tuq was approaching from the same angle that the frigate was on course for. Kapact looked back to the tactical officer. The young officer anticipated Kapact's orders and scanned the enemy ship. "Range to target 30,000 kellicams. Enemy vessel has activated ECM pod. Strength four."
"Prepare to decloak. Attack mode at 10,000 kellicams. ECCM at strength 5. Target sensors." That would disable the enemy countermeasures. Kapact tapped the comlink for the auxiliary tactical station. "Maximum point defence. Prepare for drone attack." Then he turned back to the tactical officer. "Range to target?"
"20,000 kellicams. Seventeen. Fourteen."
Kapact was going to give the frigate a quick death. "Prepare all drone racks. Single fire mode." That would launch the missiles individually to avoid any transporter bombs.
"Eleven thousand kellicams. Ten-."
"Decloak! Launch missiles. Starboard disruptor fire. Phasers fire." The staggered firing commands were designed to weaken the shields, then break through hull, then cause internal damage. "Hard about! Pursuit course!"
The Iw'tuq snapped around just as the frigate was launching a volley of missiles.
That was what one had to fear from the Kzinti. Missiles. "Maximum ECM. Fire port disruptors as they reach full charge."
The tactical officer was doing many things at once. "Incoming missiles. Point defence firing." There was silence on the bridge as they waited for the report. "All defensive phasers exhausted. One missile remaining. Defensive tractor engaging." The ship's tractor grabbed the last missile and held it as the missile exhausted its fuel harmlessly.
The Iw'tuq fell in behind the frigate. Kapact's eyes tried to pick out what damage had been done to the enemy craft. Then he turned to his tactical officer. "Damage to the frigate."
"Port shields down. Minimal emissions from sensors. Our missiles are closing on it. Firing port disruptors," The disruptors flashed, hitting the frigate's aft shield. "Starboard disruptors recharged."
"Fire starboard disruptors." Kapact had hoped to take the frigate out quickly, but it was becoming a chase.
The frigate knew that it couldn't win outright, and it was running. Part of that strategy was to drop mines in the destroyer's path. Kapact saw it before the tactical officer reported it. "Mine!"
"Emergency speed!" The Iw'tuq shot ahead in an attempt to avoid the mine. The idea was to pass the mine before it was armed, which would happen as soon as it was four kellicams from the frigate. "Distance from mine to target."
"Three kellicams. We are passing over the mine."
"Mine alert! All hands secure stations. Stand by for detonation!" The Iw'tuq passed the mine as it detonated. The entire ship seemed to shake from the concussion.
"Aft shield down. Tractored enemy missile has run out of fuel." It was a mix of good and bad news.
"Release the missile. Overtake the frigate and standby all weapons. Reduce the port disruptor charge to standard." The Iw'tuq leapt forward and was holding position at point blank range from the frigate. "Fire disruptors. Then phasers. Then missile spread."
Both disruptor banks flashed, and the frigate's aft shield winked out. Then phasers tore into the hull. Finally missiles launched. Their relative speed slowly surpassed the Iw'tuq's speed, and they slammed into the already damaged hull of the frigate. This was the moment that Kapact lived for. "Maximum shields. Take us through the explosion." The frigate blew apart, and the Iw'tuq passed triumphantly through the debris field.
"Stand down from battle alert. Assume fleet formation." Kapact sat back in the command chair, and pretended for a moment that there wasn't a drunken tyrant below decks.
The Iw'tuq maintained its part in the formation for a week before any more Kzinti were encountered. Then there was a fleet of six heavy cruisers, and the hundreds of combined missiles that came with them. The Iw'tuq fell in behind the battlecruiser Anarchist to draw missile fire while the rest of the Qor’du assault fleet took out one cruiser after another. In this way, the fleet diminished the Kzinti defensive fleet while suffering few casualties.
The start of the second week brought the big prize. A series of six Kzinti border outposts. These would have given the Kzinti fleet logistical support for carrying strikes deep within the Empire.
It was also one of the rare occasions that found the captain of the Iw'tuq on the bridge. Du'Qu stank of bloodwine, but he was still aware enough to register the line of outposts arrayed on the tactical display. "Cloak. Attack pattern Soch'wa. Engage."
The Iw'tuq cloaked, and left the fleet formation. Had it not been for communications silence protocols, The Anarchist would undoubtedly have contacted them. As it was, the Iw'tuq was allowed to approach the first outpost. "Standby all weapons." The ship was heading straight for the outpost, with no thought given to the ship's relatively weak forward shielding and hull. "Attack!"
The Iw'tuq was still at 20,000 kellicams when it was ordered decloaked.
Phasers and disruptors flashed simultaneously with the alpha strike command, while missiles launched and headed for the outpost. Then the Anarchist altered course to join the attack. Missiles launched from the larger ship to join the swarm already headed for the Kzinti outpost.
The Iw'tuq had, by this time, recharged its weapons and was just coming into optimum firing range. "Fire!" Phasers and disruptors flashed again, and the outpost was overcome by the weapons. It exploded as the Iw'tuq passed by it. Du'Qu raised his arm in triumph and turned to Kapact. "That is how you win a battle. Not with probes, but with tenacity and qajunpaQ." He rose and started to walk to the turbolift. Then he turned, and regarded Kapact. His words were slurred, and he seemed to be speaking half to himself. "I will be below. Try not to disgrace us while I am gone." Then he disappeared.
Kapact rose without a word and retook the Captains chair. He knew the crew was watching him...perhaps waiting for him to kill Du'Qu. But Kapact had no time for petty squabbles. "Cloak, and assume fleet formation. Prepare to destroy the next outpost." The Iw'tuq vanished behind its cloaking screen and fell into formation behind the Anarchist. A moment later, the fleet made the brief warp jump to reach the next outpost.
A red light flashing on the arm of the captain's chair was the fleet signal to assume attack formation. "Attack formation. Charge weapons. Oblique approach." The Iw'tuq fell in aft and starboard of the Anarchist.
When it reached 10,000 kellicams, the fleet decloaked and loosed a huge swarm of missiles. Then disruptors fired. Phasers were fired seconds later. This left shields down, and hull weakened by the time the missiles crashed into their target. The outpost went down without firing a shot.
"MajQa'." Kapact raised his fist in praise of his crew. Then he was all business. "Cloak. Resume fleet formation and prepare for warp." The Iw'tuq fell back into formation and got ready for the next assault.
Three more outposts fell in the same fashion, and the Qor’du assault fleet moved en masse to the last outpost along this section of the border. When they emerged from warp in close proximity to it, the fleet lined up in standard attack formations of three ships each when there was a massive subspace disruption. The Iw'tuq's science officer looked up from his sensors and turned to Kapact. "Subspace disruption. Probable warp signatures."
The subspace disruption revealed itself to be a fleet of seven Kzinti missile cruisers. They aligned themselves together and headed for the lead ships of the Klingon fleet. A storm of missiles appeared,
Kapact had his orders immediately. It was Admiral Morek on the Anarchist. "Destroyers. Engage missiles."
"Take us in. Maximum point defense." The Iw'tuq and its fellow destroyers would have to move in and around the missiles, lending ECM support to the larger ships, and devoting all phasers to point defense.
The Iw'tuq entered the field of missiles, and point defences started firing while the battlecruisers tried to engage the Kzinti cruisers. "Target lead missiles!" Kapact knew that it would have to be a quick fight, or the destroyers would be cut to pieces. Phasers were activated by the point defense computer, and all the crew could do was manoeuvre the craft and watch. Fortunately, the four destroyers were able to wipe out the first volley of missiles with no losses. "Set course for the cruisers!" Kapact took the initiative and brought the Iw'tuq into close proximity to the nearest Kzinti cruiser. "Target sensors and missile launchers. Staggered fire." The bird of prey swarmed the larger cruiser, staying as close as possible so that the enemy could not bring its main weapons to bear. That would also occupy the Kzinti point defense so that the Anarchist's missiles had a better chance of hitting.
Phaser fire from the Kzinti slammed into the Iw'tuq, and Kapact had to quickly dodge a shower of sparks from the tactical station. "Tractor beam!" Missiles had just launched from the Kzinti and darted around to target the Iw'tuq. Tractors lanced out to grab the missiles. "Point phasers." Kapact was ordering defensive phasers to target the tractored missiles so that tractors could be freed up and recharged.
As the tractored missiles blew, the Anarchist suddenly loomed above them and hit the Kzinti cruiser with overloaded disruptors. The Kzinti's shields flared, and went out. When Kapact saw that, he slapped at the alpha strike button. Phasers, disruptors, and missiles slammed into the unshielded Kzinti from both Klingon ships, and it blew apart. But their problems weren't over. "Plasma leak!" That was from the second officer, Kopol. The Iw'tuq had been hit, and a warp nacelle was venting.
"Damage control!" They were in trouble, but the ship could be nursed back to sufficient strength to finish the battle. "Take us away from the enemy fleet. Emergency repairs."
The Iw'tuq was forced to cloak and withdraw, putting the Klingon fleet between it and the Kzinti while it effected emergency repairs. Better to withdraw and then return. As the ship came to a stop, Kapact was forced to watch the fleet engage the remaining Kzinti cruisers. It was the hardest lesson to learn for Kapact. Sometimes you had to step back and repair.
As luck would have it, the fleet engagement was coming to a victorious end just as the engineer reported that they were battleworthy. Kapact stifled a swear, and glared at the screen. "Signal the Anarchist and assume formation." The comm officer sent a coded 'ready' signal to the fleet leader, and they moved to rejoin the fleet.
When they were in position, the signal went out for the fleet to decloak and attack. That was when Du'Qu chose to appear. He strode onto the brdige and struck Kapact with the back of his hand. Looking down as Kapact picked himself up off of the deck, the captain spoke with a clear voice. "You don't belong in command." Then he turned back to the tactical officer. "Decloak! Fire all weapons!" The Iw'tuq decloaked and all weapons were loosed at once. Missiles flashed away from the ship as phasers and disruptors fired. They brought down the outpost's shields, and the missiles were closing on the hull when Kzinti point defense phasers activated. The first wave of missiles was destroyed, and shuttles were launched from the outpost. The Iw'tuq received a signal to engage the shuttles, and Du'Qu turned his glare to Kapact, "Take a scatterpack out and put a hole in that outpost before it raises shields."
"Hija." Kapact left the bridge as serious misgivings brewed in his head.
He stormed into the small shuttlebay and moved to the scatterpack without a word. In seconds, he was launching.
The small, unshielded shuttle moved away from the Iw'tuq and made its way around the Klingon flank and set course for the outpost's downed shield. Kapact had to bet that the outpost wouldn't notice his small shuttle until it was in firing range.
He was just coming into firing range when three Kzinti shuttles changed course to intercept him. It would only be seconds now before the outpost opened up with point defense phasers that would shred the tiny shuttle. As he slipped into range, Kapact fired the shuttle’s missiles. Then he threw the shuttle into a steep dive. The missiles slammed into the outpost's unshielded hull, and the outpost was gone.
Kapact had to run now. It was a rare thing for a scatterpack shuttle to return to its bay intact. As he angled toward the fleet, the three Kzinti shuttles were joined by two more that had been going after the Anarchist.
Phaser fire was all around him as Kapact dodged and weaved. Then he felt the shuttle buck under him. He had been hit. Speed began to drop away, and he started to lose hope. Five Kzinti shuttles were circling him now. Missiles launched, and Kapact knew it was over.
Then the impossible happened. The Iw'tuq was there, on top of them, and firing every weapon it had at the Kzinti shuttles and their missiles. They vanished before they could hit the shuttle, and Kapact breathed a sigh of relief. He opened communications to the ship. "Kapact to Iw'tuq. Thrusters and impulse drive offline. Request tow into shuttlebay."
The rough voice of Du'Qu answered quickly. "Negative!" There was a pause, and then disruptors flashed at the shuttle. It rocked, and Kapact prepared to die. He knew then that he should have killed Du'Qu when he had the chance. Unfortunately he wouldn't have the opportunity to learn from his mistake. Kapact thought of his father, and all of his descendants. The Ab'Qaf line was closing. Kapact had no son to carry it forward.
Kapact was waiting for the end to come when he was saved again. Tractor beams reached out from the Anarchist, and the comm panel crackled again. It was Admiral Morek. "Stand by to energize."
"Admiral, I request you beam me to the Iw'tuq. Captain Du'Qu is a traitor. I claim the rite of vengeance."
"As you wish, son of Ab'Qaf." Kapact swelled with pride and righteous anger.
The transporter beam took him, and he found himself on the bridge of the Iw'tuq. Du'Qu was still in the bridge, but he seemed to be concerned with nothing but his bottle of bloodwine. Kapact spun the captain's chair around and roared at Du'Qu. "Traitor! Drunken petaQ! I claim the rite of vengeance!" Then he grabbed the bottle of bloodwine from Du'Qu's hands and slammed it against the captain's head.
Du'Qu found himself on the deck, and blubbered angrily. He seemed to have lost the power of speech when challenged suddenly by someone he wanted dead. He grabbed for his dk'tagh and got to his feet.
Kapact knew that drunk or not, Du'Qu was a savage and dangerous opponent. He cared nothing for honor and would do anything to win. So Kapact made the only move he had. he ran at Du'Qu, and wrapped his arms around the startled Klingon. Du'Qu tried to bring his dk'tagh up in time to stop Kapact, but Kapact had his hands pinned to his sides. He grabbed Du'Qu's dk'tagh, and brought both knives in at the same time. He felt the life exhale from Du'Qu, and dropped him to the deck. Then Kapact looked at the silent bridge crew, daring them to object or raise a challenge. "Know this. Anyone who bows to a traitor is a traitor himself." He didn't know how much the bridge crew had protested Du'Qu's treachory, but he needed their loyalty. "There are no more traitors on this ship. Suyaj'a'?" Understood? He was telling them that they were all starting over. They all had a chance to show him loyalty.
They responded by raising their fists in the air. "Qapla'!"
Kapact sat down finally. In command. "Contact the Anarchist."
"Aye sir." Suddenly the comm channels were overridden by a command transmission.
General Chang's face appeared on the viewscreen. "Attention all ships in the Dorala sector. Move at once to intercept Hydran fleet on course for Agilon. Engage at maximum warp!"
Chang's transmission ended, and Admiral Morek followed it up with orders for the Qor'Du assault fleet. "All ships, cloak and set course 15 mark 45. Maximum warp. Engage!"
Kapact turned back to his helm officer. "Set that course and engage." Then he turned to his new first officer Kopol. "Remove that carcass from the bridge."
Once the fleet had gone to warp, every captain was provided with a coded briefing. Seven hours ago, a listening post on the outskirts of the Tiburon system had detected a Hydran fleet consisting of forty ships moving at maximum warp on a course that would take it to the border colony of Agilon. It seemed to be trying to reach the Federation neutral zone. The Hydran fleet, which was probably intended to solicit Federation aid, had to be destroyed before it reached the neutral zone.
Furthermore, no Klingon vessel would be permitted to chase their prey into the neutral zone. That could bring the Federation into the war, and that would represent a third front that the Empire could ill afford.
By the time that the Qor’du assault fleet had reached sensor range of the Hydran Expeditionary fleet, six other assault fleets were closing. Admiral Morek, on the Anarchist, had ordered all destroyers to assume the forward position so that they could take on the lead elements of the Hydran fleet, which would presumably consist of smaller, faster moving craft.
Kapact was leaning forward in his seat, waiting for the smaller ships to come into range when he received a coded signal on the fleet comm line. The Hydran ships had to be brought out of warp immediately.
Two Birds of Prey suddenly broke formation and closed on a battleship at the center of the enemy fleet. As every ship captain watched, the Birds of Prey collided at warp speed with the battleship.
Kapact stood, and had to catch his breath. The explosion had completely wiped out the two Birds of Prey, as well as the battleship. But it had also created a subspace distortion large enough to disrupt every warp field in the area. The Hydrans were forced out of warp, along with the swarm of Klingon ships.
Kapact silently saluted the brave crews now on their way to StoVoKor. The death howl would have to come later. "Lock on to the lead ships. Intercept!" The Iw'tuq shot ahead and targeted the lead Hydran ship. It was a Destroyer. Disruptors flashed, getting the first shot and making the enemy ship turn around to face the Bird of Prey.
Four more Hydran destroyers circled around to engage the Iw'tuq. Fortunately for Kapact, the other Klingon destroyers and frigates came in just after them and opened fire. As the Iw'tuq accelerated to avoid the Hydran fusion cannon, it dropped a mine out of an aft port. The mine armed just in time to hit the Hydran's aft shield. Disruptor fire from the trailing Birds of Prey flashed at that moment, tearing into the purple hull of the Hydran.
"Emergency stop!" Inertial dampers whined in protest as the Iw'tuq used emergency power to apply reverse thrust. The ship hung in space for a moment while computer systems and crew struggled to recover. Kapact was the first to regain his senses, and he slapped at the alpha strike button even as other Birds of Prey struggled to avoid a collision. Phasers and disruptors flashed, and missiles followed, blowing the Hydran destroyer apart.
There were still five Hydran ships ahead, and Kapact counted six Birds of Prey leaping ahead of the Iw'tuq. "Attack speed! Target at will and pursue."
The battle raged on, with Hydran fusion cannons hitting the more manoeuvrable Birds of Prey as disruptors fired and recharged and fired again. Eventually it came down to three Hydrans facing two remaining Birds of Prey. "Contact the other ship." When his comm officer reported the channel open, Kapact spoke quickly to the other Captain. "Attention Ba'Ha. Concentrate your fire on the lead ship. We'll take them out together, one by one." Both Birds of Prey closed on the lead Hydran. Two sets of disruptors quickly brought its shields down, and then phasers and missiles finished the job. "Now take the next!" The two ships repeated the tactic, bringing down the enemy shields in short order. But just before their missiles could destroy it, two fighters launched. They targeted the Iw'tuq. Kapact ordered a tactical view on the main screen that would keep the Iw'tuq and the fighter group in view at all times. "Maximum point defense." Phasers fired, but the fighters opened up with fusion cannons, bring down the Iw'tuq's weakened aft shield.
"Hull damage. Impulse engines."
Kapact heard the warning, but wasn't concerned with who had made it. "Damage control to impulse. Seal hull breach." The fighters could take them out of the fight, and he assumed that the other Bird of Prey, the Ba'Ha, had been forced to chase the remaining Hydran destroyer.
"Tractor beams, lock onto fighter group! Decrease speed to free up power to weapons." Kapact felt the ship slow, and he also felt the drag on the ship from the fighters. The Iw'tuq suddenly shuddered. The fighters were in a death struggle now, and they were more than able to shred the Iw'tuq's damaged aft hull. All of this was apparent on the tactical display on the screen. "Rotate tractor geometry. Protect the aft hull." The Hydran ship was forced to rotate around the Bird of Prey until it was faced with the forward weapons and shield. Kapact slapped at the alpha strike button, and the fighters were quickly destroyed. "Return to normal view." The image on the viewscreen changed just in time for them to see the Ba'Ha limp away from the remnants of the Hydran destroyer. That was the last of the forward element of the Hydran Expeditionary fleet. And well enough. Sensors showed that they were approaching the edge of the neutral zone. "Come about. Set course to escort the Ba'Ha back to the fleet." Kapact watched the view shift as they gradually swung around in a lazy arc. "Iw'tuq to Anarchist. Status of enemy fleet."
Admiral Morek's voice came over the speaker. He sounded worried. "Kapact, one heavy cruiser slipped through. It is up to you and the Ba'Ha."
"Luq." I will. Kapact gazed into the darkness, waiting for the light of the enemy ship to appear. It appeared, out of the blue. Fusion cannons flashed, catching the struggling Ba'Ha and destroying it. "Tractors! Catch that ship!" Kapact knew he had to slow it down or it would pass over him without even stopping to engage him. The Iw'tuq lurched ahead and was upon the huge Hydran ship in seconds. Then they were all yanked out of their seats as the tractor took hold. "Full reverse!"
The helm officer was dumbfounded. "She'll break apart!"
Kapact jumped out of his seat and had his dk'tagh in his hand in a second. "Full reverse! Now!" A tortured sound came from the bowels of the ship, and they started to slow. "Fire missiles!"
"Missiles stores empty." The tactical officer sounded frustrated and angry.
"Fire all other weapons. Prepare all remaining shuttles. And find a way to increase impulse power." Kapact knew they had only seconds before they were pulled into the neutral zone, and a war with the Federation.
The Iw'tuq's weapons flashed, and the Hydran's aft shields flared. But they held. It began to drop mines, and the Iw'tuq's aft shield flared. It had just been repaired. "Drop forward shields! Life support to minimal." Kapact was deactivating every system he could afford to. Anything to add power to the impulse engines and slow that cruiser. Finally, they slowed. "Time to neutral zone at this speed."
A voice answered. "Two minutes."
"Is our relative speed slow enough for the shuttles to catch the cruiser?" The same voice answered yes. "Launch all shuttles!"
Two unmanned shuttles, loaded with antimatter launched from the Iw'tuq and headed around for the cruiser. At the same time, Kapact had one more surprise in store for the fleeing Hydran cruiser. "Emergency reverse. All power to impulse power and tractors." One shuttle went in, with the other directly behind it. They both slammed into the Hydran ship as the Iw'tuq's phasers and disruptors peppered away at the enemy shield. The Hydran was forced to come around in a circle as the the suicide shuttles exploded against its purple hull.
The Iw'tuq shook off the burden of the huge ship and turned away from the neutral zone just in time to avoid it. "Bring us back to standard power allocation. Set course for the fleet."
The Hydran Expeditionary Fleet was destroyed, and at the same time, Klingon fleets managed to push the Kzinti back to their homeworld. With the Kzinti threat all but eliminated, it was finally time to finish the Hydrans...
Episode 1 Lieutenant Kapact: The Four Powers War
The Year 2274
"You are small for a Klingon, but you might do for the girls to practice on! Or to feed my targh when we get home."
Kapact had had enough of Q'tok's taunting. The fact was, Q'tok was a smallish balding Klingon with bugged eyes and a smooth forehead. It was most likely, Kapact reasoned, that it was the smooth forehead that was behind this eternal taunting. Q'tok rightly knew that he would have to fight for everything he got in life. Even in the galley of a Klingon Bird of Prey.
"I may be small for a Klingon," Kapact knew he was going to send the older warrior into a rage now, "but at least I don't look like a human."
A chorus of laughs preceded Q'tok's attack. Kapact found a plate of gagh flung at him, followed by a string of curses. The old adage 'Act, and you may eat dinner; fail to act and you may be dinner' was never more apparent to Kapact. Q'tok was known to bite his enemies. Kapact had learned more in this cruise, his first deep space cruise, than he had in years learning from his father. For one thing, everything was a weapon. Including the freshly killed pipius claw that Kapact had been trying to eat. He grabbed a handful of the spiked delicacy and threw himself at Q'tok.
Kapact rammed his forehead into the short Klingon's bulging belly, and had the presence of mind to shove the pipius claw into Q'tok's face. He twisted the claws viciously, tearing into Q'tok's flesh.
Q'tok screamed with rage. "You whelp! I am going to serve you to the prisoners!" Q'tok had blood in his eyes and all over his face. He couldn't have seen anything but hatred.
Kapact lifted himself up from the deck and watched as Q'tok tried to scramble to his feet. Now he was truly dangerous. He was wounded and angry. The only way to diffuse the situation was to allow Q'tok to withdraw before someone was dead. A brawl in the galley was one thing, but the Captain would be angry if his tactical officer was killed on the eve of battle with the hated Hydrans. And noone wanted to see the Captain angry.
Kapact pulled a handful of the pipius claw from Q'tok's face and ate it. Then he purposely turned his back to the tactical officer and walked away. That said that Kapact wasn't worried about a reprisal. It also said he was finished with Q'tok.
Unfortunately, Q'tok wasn't finished with Kapact. Kapact sensed the Klingon lunging at him, and was prepared. Q'tok was too angry to even use a weapon, and that saved Kapact's life. Q'tok was trying to headbutt him the same way that he had hit Q'tok. Kapact reached back and grabbed the balding head with one hand and quickly yanked the last patch of hair out with the other. "Now you look even more like one of them." Kapact rammed an elbow into Q'tok's red face and prepared to finish him. The Captain would have to be angry now. This was a fight to the death. Then a blaring klaxon stopped the fight. That was the fleet wide alert. Kapact forgot about the beaten and bloodied Q'tok and made his way to his battle station.
Kapact's battle station on the K-F5B Destroyer IKV MI'pong was the auxiliary tactical station. That was a dark hole in the belly of the ship, away from the rest of the crew. From there he monitored the tactical situation, learned from his superior, and was prepared to take over the fight should the bridge tactical station be destroyed.
Kapact had spent years in a worse situation before making it to auxiliary tactical. He used to man the disruptor station of a Qo'noS planetary defense frigate. That station was hot and it reeked of ozone and blood and fear. Those same ships had fought the Romulan sleeper ships hundreds of years ago. They were poorly shielded and as many Klingons died from radiation as died from Romulans.
But that was the past. Now Kapact was waiting for the Hydrans, and their fusion beams and swarming fighters. The MI'pong was part of the Qultuq assault fleet, one of six fleets fighting on the Klingon/Hydran border while the Lyrans attacked the Kzinti lines.
In the auxiliary tactical station, Kapact had no port to look through, but he did have a viewscreen of sorts. It was actually a tactical display. It showed the six ships of their fleet arrayed in groups of three, each consisting of a D7 Battlecruiser and two destroyers. They had come to a stop on the edge of the Lembatta cluster, which was the halfway point between the Korinor and Ventax systems. That was the patrol route of the Qultuq Assault Fleet as it made its way along the border.
Long range phasers lanced out at them. At this range, they did little damage, but the Hydrans always wanted to get the first shot in. Kapact could do nothing but sit and watch. The computer finally identified the opposing ships as eight Heavy Cruisers. They were closing quickly. Any minute now they would-. And there they were. Each closing heavy cruiser launched three clusters of small fighters. The computer assigned each a designation number. This was actually the only time Kapact could join the battle. He had to activate the AMD {Anti Missile point Defense} from here so that the Hydran countermeasures wouldn't lock on to the main tactical emitters.
Kapact activated the point defense as the fighters came into range. Then he heard and felt the MI'pong launching a volley of missiles at the closing heavy cruisers. They were blue points on his display that streaked away from the ship. It was a strange exercise, Kapact thought. Noone expected the missiles to do much damage, but as they came into range, the missiles would occupy the enemy AMD while Klingon shuttles launched.
There was an explosion, as the fighters began to pepper away at the destroyer's shielding. Klingon ships tended to have weaker aft shields, a testament to the distaste Klingons had for running from even a losing battle.
White light engulfed Kapact. It was the fusion beam. He didn't think that Hydran fighters were equipped with fusion beams. His tactical display showed one of the Hydran heavy cruisers looming in close. The entire ship seemed to shake, and list to one side. The fighters would be looking to take out the point defence. Gattling phasers struck again and again, and the MI'pong slowed. Alarm klaxons blared, and Kapact knew that the ship was in serious trouble. Sometimes the Hydrans would all close to point blank range and concentrate their fire on one ship. That was their fate. The fighters made another pass, and they hit the auxiliary tactical station. There was an explosion, and Kapact saw stars. Then he saw nothing.
He awoke to find himself crawling through the belly of the ship. He expected to smell methane as the Hydrans tried to take the MI'pong intact. That was the real threat. There were stories of what happened to Klingons taken back to a Hydran prison world that did not bear repeating. Not even to frighten children or raw recruits.
Kapact stopped, trying to listen for the rumble of the warp core. That was still there, faintly, but Kapact could not hear the sound of the impulse engine. They were dead in space.
Kapact found himself having to pull apart hatches that should open automatically. That only happened when auxiliary power went out. They would be operating on battery power now. Kapact could only hope that he would be allowed to die with honour. Victory was impossible.
He crawled on and on, encountering no crewmates. The dead that should be littering these access tunnels were not there. He thought for a moment that he had been knocked out while the ship had been disabled. That would be a grave dishonour.
He finally broke through to the main access tunnel leading to the bridge. Steam blew from pipes all around him, and Kapact knew that some of it would be radioactive. But he was irresistibly drawn to the bridge. The answers would be found there.
Thirty minutes later, he shoved aside the last of the fallen and smoking panels blocking his way. He put his hands between the two pieces of hatchway, and pulled.
With a groan, the hatch opened, and Kapact was greeted with one of the worst sites of his career.
The viewscreen was still barely functioning, showing a looming Hydran heavy cruiser. Just behind the cruiser, a Bird of Prey spun out of control. Its bridge section was gone, and plasma leaked from gutted warp nacelles.
Kapact finally tore his eyes from the horrific scene to examine the bridge. The Captain was dead, sprawled across his chair and decapitated by an explosion. Explosions had apparently overcome the bridge and every officer very quickly. They had all died at their posts.
Kapact was approaching the captain's chair to contact the fleet when a voice rose above the crackling of burning equipment. "Boy...boy...get off the bridge." It was Q’tok.
Kapact crawled over the debris-filled bridge to the tactical station. "Q'tok, we need to contact the fleet. We need to fight back."
Q’tok’s eyes were almost closed. Blood flowed freely from a gaping wound to his head. "Get off the bridge, boy. I'm going to self-destruct."
"Self-destruct? Are there no weapons remaining?" Kapact was prepared to die in battle, but to self-destruct with no possibility of damaging the enemy was foolish and cowardly.
Q’tok laughed until he broke into a coughing spasm that spewed blood in Kapact's face. "We have probes remaining. Everything else was destroyed."
"Arm the probe with an antimatter bottle." Kapact was a strong believer in the last desperate act against a superior opponent.
Q’tok laughed again. "That only works on the simulator. Not in real life. Forget about glory. Forget about defying the odds. You can only hope that you see StoVoKor."
Kapact leaned forward, and without thinking about it, snatched at Q’tok’s dk'tagh. He plunged it through the dying Klingon's side and twisted to bring a quick death. There was not even a gurgle as Q’tok died.
Then Kapact crawled to the science station. Shoving the burnt out husk of the science officer onto the deck, Kapact took the station and brought up the probe control panel. The stock of probes was full. Kapact prepped an antimatter probe and waited for it to load in the launcher. A ping announced that it was ready.
Then Kapact made his way to the helm station. The console was completely destroyed, so Kapact had to reach through the wreckage to find the thruster control wire. When he finally picked it out, he shoved it into an exposed power coupling. The ship lurched forward. Once he was convinced that they were on a collision course with the heavy cruiser, he lunged at the science station and slapped at the probe launch control. That overloaded the science station, and an explosion threw Kapact away from the console. But as he was tossed to the deck, he saw the antimatter explode against the Hydran's hull....
He looked up, expecting to see the ship blowing apart around him. There was no thought of gulping at air to try to survive for a few seconds in the vacuum of space. He was going to die, and he hoped to see his father in StoVoKor.
He was greeted by the grim face of Chang. Chang, who had led the Defence Forces against the Federation for years. Had Chang died? Was he finally to meet his hero in the Black Fleet?
"Wake up, you whelp." Chang was not dead. Neither was Kapact. "You think you can lie in that bed forever, when there is a war to be fought?"
Chang could not keep the pride, or the mirth out of voice.
Kapact tried to speak, but could only croak out a greeting.
Now Chang laughed. "Rest up, Lieutenant Commander." Lieutenant Commander? Chang must be mistaken. But Chang was still talking. "The Qultuq Assault fleet finished off the Hydrans, and the Ventax system has been taken...all while you slept."
"General..."
Chang had started to walk away. He stopped quickly, and whipped around to look at Kapact. "You did it. You destroyed that ship, somehow. You're a young upstart, and I'll be watching you closely."
"You are small for a Klingon, but you might do for the girls to practice on! Or to feed my targh when we get home."
Kapact had had enough of Q'tok's taunting. The fact was, Q'tok was a smallish balding Klingon with bugged eyes and a smooth forehead. It was most likely, Kapact reasoned, that it was the smooth forehead that was behind this eternal taunting. Q'tok rightly knew that he would have to fight for everything he got in life. Even in the galley of a Klingon Bird of Prey.
"I may be small for a Klingon," Kapact knew he was going to send the older warrior into a rage now, "but at least I don't look like a human."
A chorus of laughs preceded Q'tok's attack. Kapact found a plate of gagh flung at him, followed by a string of curses. The old adage 'Act, and you may eat dinner; fail to act and you may be dinner' was never more apparent to Kapact. Q'tok was known to bite his enemies. Kapact had learned more in this cruise, his first deep space cruise, than he had in years learning from his father. For one thing, everything was a weapon. Including the freshly killed pipius claw that Kapact had been trying to eat. He grabbed a handful of the spiked delicacy and threw himself at Q'tok.
Kapact rammed his forehead into the short Klingon's bulging belly, and had the presence of mind to shove the pipius claw into Q'tok's face. He twisted the claws viciously, tearing into Q'tok's flesh.
Q'tok screamed with rage. "You whelp! I am going to serve you to the prisoners!" Q'tok had blood in his eyes and all over his face. He couldn't have seen anything but hatred.
Kapact lifted himself up from the deck and watched as Q'tok tried to scramble to his feet. Now he was truly dangerous. He was wounded and angry. The only way to diffuse the situation was to allow Q'tok to withdraw before someone was dead. A brawl in the galley was one thing, but the Captain would be angry if his tactical officer was killed on the eve of battle with the hated Hydrans. And noone wanted to see the Captain angry.
Kapact pulled a handful of the pipius claw from Q'tok's face and ate it. Then he purposely turned his back to the tactical officer and walked away. That said that Kapact wasn't worried about a reprisal. It also said he was finished with Q'tok.
Unfortunately, Q'tok wasn't finished with Kapact. Kapact sensed the Klingon lunging at him, and was prepared. Q'tok was too angry to even use a weapon, and that saved Kapact's life. Q'tok was trying to headbutt him the same way that he had hit Q'tok. Kapact reached back and grabbed the balding head with one hand and quickly yanked the last patch of hair out with the other. "Now you look even more like one of them." Kapact rammed an elbow into Q'tok's red face and prepared to finish him. The Captain would have to be angry now. This was a fight to the death. Then a blaring klaxon stopped the fight. That was the fleet wide alert. Kapact forgot about the beaten and bloodied Q'tok and made his way to his battle station.
Kapact's battle station on the K-F5B Destroyer IKV MI'pong was the auxiliary tactical station. That was a dark hole in the belly of the ship, away from the rest of the crew. From there he monitored the tactical situation, learned from his superior, and was prepared to take over the fight should the bridge tactical station be destroyed.
Kapact had spent years in a worse situation before making it to auxiliary tactical. He used to man the disruptor station of a Qo'noS planetary defense frigate. That station was hot and it reeked of ozone and blood and fear. Those same ships had fought the Romulan sleeper ships hundreds of years ago. They were poorly shielded and as many Klingons died from radiation as died from Romulans.
But that was the past. Now Kapact was waiting for the Hydrans, and their fusion beams and swarming fighters. The MI'pong was part of the Qultuq assault fleet, one of six fleets fighting on the Klingon/Hydran border while the Lyrans attacked the Kzinti lines.
In the auxiliary tactical station, Kapact had no port to look through, but he did have a viewscreen of sorts. It was actually a tactical display. It showed the six ships of their fleet arrayed in groups of three, each consisting of a D7 Battlecruiser and two destroyers. They had come to a stop on the edge of the Lembatta cluster, which was the halfway point between the Korinor and Ventax systems. That was the patrol route of the Qultuq Assault Fleet as it made its way along the border.
Long range phasers lanced out at them. At this range, they did little damage, but the Hydrans always wanted to get the first shot in. Kapact could do nothing but sit and watch. The computer finally identified the opposing ships as eight Heavy Cruisers. They were closing quickly. Any minute now they would-. And there they were. Each closing heavy cruiser launched three clusters of small fighters. The computer assigned each a designation number. This was actually the only time Kapact could join the battle. He had to activate the AMD {Anti Missile point Defense} from here so that the Hydran countermeasures wouldn't lock on to the main tactical emitters.
Kapact activated the point defense as the fighters came into range. Then he heard and felt the MI'pong launching a volley of missiles at the closing heavy cruisers. They were blue points on his display that streaked away from the ship. It was a strange exercise, Kapact thought. Noone expected the missiles to do much damage, but as they came into range, the missiles would occupy the enemy AMD while Klingon shuttles launched.
There was an explosion, as the fighters began to pepper away at the destroyer's shielding. Klingon ships tended to have weaker aft shields, a testament to the distaste Klingons had for running from even a losing battle.
White light engulfed Kapact. It was the fusion beam. He didn't think that Hydran fighters were equipped with fusion beams. His tactical display showed one of the Hydran heavy cruisers looming in close. The entire ship seemed to shake, and list to one side. The fighters would be looking to take out the point defence. Gattling phasers struck again and again, and the MI'pong slowed. Alarm klaxons blared, and Kapact knew that the ship was in serious trouble. Sometimes the Hydrans would all close to point blank range and concentrate their fire on one ship. That was their fate. The fighters made another pass, and they hit the auxiliary tactical station. There was an explosion, and Kapact saw stars. Then he saw nothing.
He awoke to find himself crawling through the belly of the ship. He expected to smell methane as the Hydrans tried to take the MI'pong intact. That was the real threat. There were stories of what happened to Klingons taken back to a Hydran prison world that did not bear repeating. Not even to frighten children or raw recruits.
Kapact stopped, trying to listen for the rumble of the warp core. That was still there, faintly, but Kapact could not hear the sound of the impulse engine. They were dead in space.
Kapact found himself having to pull apart hatches that should open automatically. That only happened when auxiliary power went out. They would be operating on battery power now. Kapact could only hope that he would be allowed to die with honour. Victory was impossible.
He crawled on and on, encountering no crewmates. The dead that should be littering these access tunnels were not there. He thought for a moment that he had been knocked out while the ship had been disabled. That would be a grave dishonour.
He finally broke through to the main access tunnel leading to the bridge. Steam blew from pipes all around him, and Kapact knew that some of it would be radioactive. But he was irresistibly drawn to the bridge. The answers would be found there.
Thirty minutes later, he shoved aside the last of the fallen and smoking panels blocking his way. He put his hands between the two pieces of hatchway, and pulled.
With a groan, the hatch opened, and Kapact was greeted with one of the worst sites of his career.
The viewscreen was still barely functioning, showing a looming Hydran heavy cruiser. Just behind the cruiser, a Bird of Prey spun out of control. Its bridge section was gone, and plasma leaked from gutted warp nacelles.
Kapact finally tore his eyes from the horrific scene to examine the bridge. The Captain was dead, sprawled across his chair and decapitated by an explosion. Explosions had apparently overcome the bridge and every officer very quickly. They had all died at their posts.
Kapact was approaching the captain's chair to contact the fleet when a voice rose above the crackling of burning equipment. "Boy...boy...get off the bridge." It was Q’tok.
Kapact crawled over the debris-filled bridge to the tactical station. "Q'tok, we need to contact the fleet. We need to fight back."
Q’tok’s eyes were almost closed. Blood flowed freely from a gaping wound to his head. "Get off the bridge, boy. I'm going to self-destruct."
"Self-destruct? Are there no weapons remaining?" Kapact was prepared to die in battle, but to self-destruct with no possibility of damaging the enemy was foolish and cowardly.
Q’tok laughed until he broke into a coughing spasm that spewed blood in Kapact's face. "We have probes remaining. Everything else was destroyed."
"Arm the probe with an antimatter bottle." Kapact was a strong believer in the last desperate act against a superior opponent.
Q’tok laughed again. "That only works on the simulator. Not in real life. Forget about glory. Forget about defying the odds. You can only hope that you see StoVoKor."
Kapact leaned forward, and without thinking about it, snatched at Q’tok’s dk'tagh. He plunged it through the dying Klingon's side and twisted to bring a quick death. There was not even a gurgle as Q’tok died.
Then Kapact crawled to the science station. Shoving the burnt out husk of the science officer onto the deck, Kapact took the station and brought up the probe control panel. The stock of probes was full. Kapact prepped an antimatter probe and waited for it to load in the launcher. A ping announced that it was ready.
Then Kapact made his way to the helm station. The console was completely destroyed, so Kapact had to reach through the wreckage to find the thruster control wire. When he finally picked it out, he shoved it into an exposed power coupling. The ship lurched forward. Once he was convinced that they were on a collision course with the heavy cruiser, he lunged at the science station and slapped at the probe launch control. That overloaded the science station, and an explosion threw Kapact away from the console. But as he was tossed to the deck, he saw the antimatter explode against the Hydran's hull....
He looked up, expecting to see the ship blowing apart around him. There was no thought of gulping at air to try to survive for a few seconds in the vacuum of space. He was going to die, and he hoped to see his father in StoVoKor.
He was greeted by the grim face of Chang. Chang, who had led the Defence Forces against the Federation for years. Had Chang died? Was he finally to meet his hero in the Black Fleet?
"Wake up, you whelp." Chang was not dead. Neither was Kapact. "You think you can lie in that bed forever, when there is a war to be fought?"
Chang could not keep the pride, or the mirth out of voice.
Kapact tried to speak, but could only croak out a greeting.
Now Chang laughed. "Rest up, Lieutenant Commander." Lieutenant Commander? Chang must be mistaken. But Chang was still talking. "The Qultuq Assault fleet finished off the Hydrans, and the Ventax system has been taken...all while you slept."
"General..."
Chang had started to walk away. He stopped quickly, and whipped around to look at Kapact. "You did it. You destroyed that ship, somehow. You're a young upstart, and I'll be watching you closely."
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