Another pounding hit the shields of the Odyssey as the Klingons continued with the fight. Turning to port on its axis, the massive Federation class poured fire from its phasers scoring multiple hits.

“For a group that likes to use old ship designs, I’ll give the Hunters of D’Ghor one thing for being smart to upgrade their shields.” Cambil muttered with annoyance.

“Shields at ninety-three percent.” reported Jen from ops. “They may have upgraded their shields, but their disruptors are having a tough time against ours.”

“Let’s keep it that way.” McCallister remarked with conviction. “What’s their shields like?”

Cline looked down at his tactical readouts and then answered his captain. “The Bird of Prey’s shields are at seventy-percent while the attack cruiser is at eighty-six percent. Most of their damage came from when we ignited the radiogenic particles.”

Further shuddering went across the Odyssey’s bridge as the Klingons carried on.

Holding to the arms of his chair tightly, McCallister wanted to finish this fight sooner rather than later. “Tell me there’s something about either one of those ships that we can use to our advantage?” He asked aloud to everyone on the bridge.

“Nothing on sensors is giving us any clues.” His wife remarked from the science station. Reyas had her eyes all over the sensor readings that were focussed on their attacks.

“We may not have anything on sensors but I have noticed something.” Hunsen answered as he turned in his chair away from the engineering station.

The Odyssey shook harder this time as the Klingons started to concentrate their fire on one section. A few minor explosions erupted around on the bridge as the ship took more damage.

Jen shouted at the top of his voice, “Shields at sixty-four percent!”

“Both Klingon ships fired a volley of torpedoes at our starboard shields.” Cline announced.

“Evasive manoeuvres T’Rani!” Cambil ordered the Vulcan pilot. “Punch our speeds up to full impulse!”

As the Vulcan carried out her orders and rocked the ship into a full spin away from the Klingons, Captain McCallister looked back to his chief engineer. “Come on Tremt, share what you noticed.”

The Betazoid engineer was quick to divulge his observations. “The Bird of Prey is an old d-twelve and we all know what to do with that.”

Confused by what he was suggesting, Counsellor Duncan looked over to his friend. “For those of us who are not technical minded or aren’t Betazoid, can you please explain.”

McCallister realised what his engineer was saying. “You don’t need to be technical to know what Tremt is saying Max.” He answered his third officer. “You need to know your Starfleet history. The Enterprise-D fought a d-twelve before its destruction in twenty-three-seventy-one. They defeated it as d-twelves have defected plasma coils in their cloak. The Enterprise used a low-level ionic pulse, it resetted the coil and triggered the cloaking device. A single torpedo against their primary reactor was enough to take them out.”

“That was almost thirty years ago, do you really think it’s going to work again?” Duncan questioned with reservation as the ship shuddered further.

“It’s worth a shot.” McCallister replied and gave Hunsen the order to get the pulse ready.

Quickly tapping away at his console, the engineer made the modifications to the main deflector and spun around to announce he was ready.

“Let’s do it,” McCallister ordered. “Cline, target all weapons on the Bird of Prey.”

The pulse was activated and the Bird of Prey started to cloak while back on the bridge McCallister gave the order to fire.

“Hit them with everything we’ve got!” He ordered.

Golden lances of energy followed by bright cobalt blue bursts flew from the Odyssey and directly against the smaller Klingon ship as it appeared to battle with its cloaking device. The pressure from the Federation fire was too much for it and within moments explosions erupted across the Bird of Prey as its port wing was torn off. Spinning out of control like the remains of a house stuck in a tornado, the Bird of Prey eventually lost its fight of survival and blew apart in a spectacular fashion.

Grinning with pride at their minor victory, McCallister was not going to forget they had one more ship to take on. “Bring us about and target the remaining ship. All weapons fire at will!”

The battle between the two ships continued to race until the Vor’cha appeared to increase in its speed, heading directly for Odyssey.

“Captain they’re on a collision course for us!” T’Rani announced, alarmed at the direction the battle was taking.

“Full rotation to port!” McCallister commanded. “Fire all weapons, target their engines!”

McCallister’s hope to stop them in their tracks while avoiding what they were about to do wasn’t quick enough as the Klingon ship rammed into the starboard side of the Odyssey at full speed. The damage sustained to the Federation ship was extensive as its shields were already weakened from the spread of torpedoes it had taken earlier. The Klingon ship was wiped out after its kamikaze run was completed. Multiple hull breaches soon appeared as plasma fires ignited across the starboard side of the Odyssey’s hull. The saucer section and stardrive section took heavy damage. Still rolling from its previous course, the Odyssey span further from the momentum that came from the Klingons ramming them.

On the bridge, which was now filled with smoke, fire and fallen bulkheads and smashed consoles, Captain McCallister attempted to push himself off from the deck plating. The moment the Klingons had smashed into them he had been launched from his seat. Not being able to find the energy, he rolled on his back and opened his eyes to see his counsellor standing over him.

“Sir, can you hear me?” Duncan asked.

McCallister’s eyes rolled backwards as he lost consciousness.

“Damn it.” Duncan said as he did his best to treat the captain. “I need help over here. The captain is out.”

“He’s not the only one Max.” Lenjir announced from where he was trying to help Commander Cambil to her feet. The Bajoran first officer was looking dazy and out of it.

“Where’s Commander Reyas?” Duncan shouted out. Instantly he knew he had to establish a chain of command while he held onto the captain’s head.

“Over here!” Reyas shouted from her position. She was stuck under a fallen beam and was doing her best to stay with them. “What’s happened to James?”

“He’s alive ma’am, but it looks like has a concussion!” Duncan said as he placed his medical tricorder down. Grabbing the nearest medkit, Duncan had already started to use the limited knowledge he had. “Ma’am, can you move?”

Reyas shook her head. “No, my legs are stuck underneath this.” She paused. “I don’t think I can feel them either Max.”

“Damn it.” The counsellor cursed one more time.

T’Rani who had just got off from the floor with help from Jen, realised what was happening and headed over with the joined Trill to help the science officer. “We need a plasma torch to cut this bulkhead apart or the commander may receive further injuries.”

Agreeing with her assessment, Jen went to the side and pulled out the nearest engineering locker a few tools, one being a plasma torch. Knowing she had the steadiest hands out of the two of them, he threw it over to her. “Here you go T’Rani.”

Doing her best to remain calm, Reyas smiled at the two officers trying to help her. Taking in a few deep breaths, she called over to Duncan who was being assisted by the captain’s yeoman. “Max, you need to take command.”

Shooting a glance over at her, Duncan quickly threw that idea back. “Ma’am you’re next in line after the captain and Commander Cambil.”

“I don’t think I’m in a fit shape to assume command.” She said between taking more breaths. “I need you to do this Commander Duncan, that’s an order.”

Looking at his friend Court, who was helping him with McCallister, the enlisted officer gave him a nod of support. Like a light bulb being switched on, Duncan did as he was told. “Yes ma’am.” He took a breath and took command. Noticing their chief engineer was available, he too was helping with those who were injured. “Tremt, can we transport our injured down to sickbay?”

Getting up from where he was, the engineer rushed back to his chair at the engineering station. Looking over his left shoulder, Hunsen announced the good news. “They are. Shall I beam them out now?”

“Do it.” Duncan ordered as he tapped his combadge. “Bridge to sickbay, standby to receive injuries, including the captain and Commanders Cambil and Reyas.”

“Acknowledged.” came the response from Doctor Slyvexs over the intercom. “Bridge, you need to know we are almost swamped with injuries down here. I need more power to bring the entire holographic medical team online.”

“Standby doctor.” Duncan said as he looked over to Hunsen, who appeared to be working on the doctor’s request.

“Transferring what’s left of emergency power to the holographic systems now.” The engineer said. “Try that now doctor.”

“That’s great, they’ve just come online.” The Denobulan medic reported.

Hunsen activated the site-to-site transporter and beamed everyone off the bridge who needed medical attention.

“Patients received, I’ll keep you posted. Sickbay out.” Slyvexs said before closing the channel.

Standing up straight, Duncan realised he now needed to find out what state the ship was in. “Damage report Tremt.” He asked as he walked over to where the engineer was sitting.

Everyone else, besides Court, returned to the stations to assess what their situation was. Court followed Duncan, being the acting captain meant that he needed to be close by.

Hunsen pushed away fallen debris from the console, attempting to get a full picture. “Multiple hull breaches along the starboard side of the ship but force fields are in place and seem to be holding for now. Main power is down. We’ve lost environmental control on decks seven to eighteen. We only have thrusters, impulse engines are offline and my engineers are trying to stabilise the warp core. Life support is barely working. Shields are down to seventeen percent and we don’t have long range sensors.” Hunsen tapped one more button on his console. “I’m dispatching holographic repair teams to critical areas but I need to get down to engineering to assess the whole situation.”

Duncan nodded in agreement, “Okay, let me know if anything else comes up.”

“Will do.” Hunsen said as he got out of his chair and headed towards the port side turbolift doors.

Turning around to face the rest of the bridge crew, Duncan could see they were all waiting for him to give out further orders. “T’Rani, stabilise the ship with thrusters.” Duncan commanded as he walked back to the middle of the bridge. “Lukiz, have we got communication ability with Haydorian?”

The ops manager looked at his console and nodded. “We do sir.”

“Then send out a distress call to the colony and make a request for aid at once.” Duncan ordered, he then looked to Court. “Tobi, begin preparations to evacuate the ship of the civilian population and then get me a full casualty report.”

The enlisted officer looked at his friend, looking a bit dubious at his first task. “Do you think abandoning the ship is wise sir?”

“Godforbid that Tremt is unable to stabilise the core, I don’t want us to be unprepared. Get it done Tobi.” Duncan said in a stronger tone.

Not hesitating to argue with his friend anymore, Court did as he was told and went off to begin his work.

Speaking up from the tactical station, the Tiburon chief security and tactical officer offered further information. “Commander, with barely any operational shields and the whole weapons array is offline we are a sitting target.”

“I know Cline, but right now we don’t have many options available to us.” Duncan reported.

“Can’t we at least launch the Aquarius to take point?” Lenjir requested.

“No.” Duncan replied. “We may need it along with our runabouts and shuttles to evacuate the ship, but have it prepped and ready just in case. Have your security teams issue out handheld weapons to every one too. I don’t want the Hunters of D’Ghor returning and attempting to take this ship from us.”

“Aye sir.” Lenjir went back to his station and got on with his orders.

As someone passed him a handheld phaser, the counsellor checked its power cells before placing it on his hip. He then looked around and realised he couldn’t stop if they were going to get out of this predicament alive.