Teaming up with Voyager, as planned, Challenger was chasing down a Romulan Bird-of-Prey above the red skies of Mars. Barely touching the atmosphere, both vessels scored multiple hits as the ship attempted to flee from them. 

“Stay with him, Alex,” Burton commanded as he gripped tightly to the arms of his chair, “Rachele, hold back on torpedoes; fire forward pulse phase cannons.”

Working in tandem, both Commander Rodham and Lieutenant Cortez had trained for this moment over the past few weeks, ever since Burton raised the alarm about the Romulans planning to attack Earth. Now their hard work was paying off. Several shots from the NX-class ship were enough to take out the enemy’s aft shields, and then a barrage of fire from Voyager resulted in them destroying their port nacelle. The green wing exploded, and then the chain reaction of detonations followed suit. Finally, their target was gone after one massive eruption. 

“Tanisha, tell Captain Braddox the honour is all hers in picking another target,” Burton told his communications officer. 

“Aye, sir,” Avery replied as she relayed the message.

“Cooper, what’s it looking like out there?” Burton asked his chief science officer. 

Walker’s main priority was keeping Burton updated with the status of their fleet and the battle at hand. “Several Starfleet ships are damaged, but the Romulans have lost a lot of fighters and six vessels. Mainly their Birds-of-Prey. Our forces are having a tough time dealing with drones.

“Are they operating them remotely?” Burton asked next.

Shaking his head, Walker stated that these were manned. “Apparently, the whooping we gave them at the Bassen Rift has forced them to change their tactics slightly; however, I’m not detecting many life signs on each vessel. Ten at best. They must be relying on the automated systems still.”

“They’re highly manoeuvrable, though; I can only imagine how much power is being put into their inertial dampeners,” Rodham stated as he tipped the ship into a slight spin to port. 

“Good guess, Alex,” Walker confirmed the pilot’s suspicion. “My scans show that most power is being channelled into engines and inertial dampeners.”

Cortez looked up briefly from her station to ask the one question the captain was thinking too. “What about weapons and shields?”

“Weapons are at standard power levels, but their defensive systems aren’t as strong as they could be,” Walker answered. “I’d imagine it’s down to the fact power is being used for other systems to support their crews.”

“So they’re sacrificing everything else to ensure they can hit us hard and fast,” Cortez stated. “Sir, if we can slow them down, they’re ripe for the picking.”

“Agreed, lieutenant, but how do we slow them down?” Burton asked his crew.

Sandoval then spoke up. “Gas,” She said.

Burton looked over at his officer-of-the-watch, “Come again, Rosa?” He asked.

“Gas, sir,” She repeated, “that might not be what the Romulans call it, but on their ships and ours, we all have a plasma exhaust for our impulse engines.”

“Yeah, and?” Burton wanted more clarity from her. He knew she had a past in engineering and flying, so he hoped she had an idea.

“When Discovery captured that Romulan drone while in the Barrens, one of the things we did was analyse their systems, including their engines. Their engines are similar to ours, so if we can restrict their gas flow, it should cause system malfunctions,” Sandoval explained. “The fact they are shunting so much into their engines means that they would already have a build-up of EM residue. We need to push that level over the top so it’s  enough for the residue to clog up their exhausts. The backflow would then affect other systems.”

The ship shook from the outside fire just as Rodham questioned the commander. “Great, so how do we stop them from purging their manifolds and keeping their exhausts clean?” 

“We increase the EM residue,” Sandoval suggested. “If we fire some powerful EM pulses in their direction, it should overload their exhausts. The effect wouldn’t be immediate, but it would eventually do the trick within minutes.”

“How do we protect our ships, though?” Burton asked.

“Close the exhausts off momentarily and redirect their energy into other systems. Have everyone shunt the power into other systems like hull plating.” Sandoval answered. 

Knowing that Sandoval’s idea was risky, Burton considered it for a second as the ship rocked again from more enemy fire. Looking back at her, where she sat at the engineering station, he nodded and gave the plan his blessing before having Avery send an encoded message to the rest of the fleet.

“If we do this, sir, then we should regroup the fleet,” Cortez advised. 

Burton agreed with that idea too. “Inform the fleet to fall back to,” He looked down at his pop-up console in the chair’s arm, “to Deimos; we’ll activate the pulses there.”

Day 21, Month of Sharveen

Imperial Battle Cruiser ChR R’Keth 

Walking out of her private office and onto the command deck of the R’Keth, Admiral Kameetha glided across the deck, plating as she took the centre chair and looked around the busy room. Taking command of the R’Keth had been an accomplishment in itself; the ship was brand new and was the prototype of her class. The praetor had not yet liked the idea of sending what would be designated, at some point, the flagship of the Romulan Star Navy into battle. However, Kameetha had been able to convince him otherwise. Her orders had been simple. Attack the Hevams’ home system and cause as much damage as possible without losing too many ships. So far, she had been pleased with their results.

“Commander Sirrel,” she said as she looked over to her adjutant, “When you spoke with Fleet  Captain Burton, did I hear a tone of excitement in your voice? As in, you were enjoying teasing him that this would be his last battle?”

Sirrel, who was only a decade younger than she was, turned away from the main screen that showed them how well the battle was going. He smiled wryly at his superior. “Only slightly admiral,”

Kameetha smirked at the response. She looked over at the main screen and was pleased to see that, at the moment, a bulk of her forces could keep the Hevams fleet bottled up around that ghastly fourth planet that looked like their ancestors’ former homeworld. The sensors picked up something after making a beeping noise. The enemy fleet was moving towards the outer satellite of the fourth planet.

“What are they doing?” Sirrel questioned aloud, looking for answers from those around him.

A lone centurion nearby answered him. “Sir, the enemy fleet is regrouping above one of the moons.”

“Yes, I can see that, but why?” Sirrel spat back. 

Had they forced the Hevams to retreat so early? Kameetha was impressed but knew they had to strike now before they lost their advantage. “Tell our ships to pursue them; I want that fleet destroyed, now!”

“As you wish, admiral,” Sirrel said with a slight bow of his head before issuing the orders for their fighters and drone ships to pursue first. Everyone else was to follow behind. 

Challenger NX-03

“Captain, the fleet is in position,” announced Walker from the science station. 

“The deflector is charged and ready,” Sandoval shared.

Tapping his intercom button, Burton called engineering, “Bridge to engineer, Sakura, status?”

“Plasma exhausts are closed down, sir, and the excess energy has been redirected to the hull plating; we’re ready.”

“Tanisha, inform the fleet to fire their pulse when the drones are within range,” Burton commanded.

Avery nodded again as she relayed the message.

Almost seconds passed before the Earth ships stood together, almost in a formation that looked like a massive wall protecting the Martian moon behind them, and then they fired their pulses. 

Multiply energy bursts went in all directions against the Romulan drones. Pulses hit all of them, but nothing happened to them initially.

“Burton to the fleet,” Spoke the fleet captain in an open channel to his forces, “break formation and engage targets!”

Immediately both sides clashed as their weapons poured out against one another. Crimson red pulses from the Earth side while green energy beams left the Romulan ships. 

Challenger’s bridge rocked hard as the ship was hit from multiple angles, while it returned the favour from its phase cannons against its enemy ships.

“Rosa, anything yet?” Burton asked, hoping that their tactic would work.

“Nothing, yet,” She said as she monitored the outcome of their attack while sparks blew above their heads. 

Then within a few more seconds, several of the drones started to explode or slow down from system failures. Burton rose from his chair, witnessing what was happening on Challenger’s main screen with the enemy ships. “All ships, open fire!”

Within seconds what was left of the drone fleet was smashed into pieces as the Starfleet ships fired everything they had to take them out. 

Poseidon NP-03

Captain Paulsen had tapped a button on her chair and closed the channel. “You heard the captain; let’s do this! Take us in Number One, attack pattern alpha-one!”

Poseidon teamed up with the Intrepid as they went forward to engage the Romulan flotilla.

The first few seconds of the fight went exceptionally well for the two Starfleet ships. Coordinating their attacks together, they were able to take out eight Romulan drone ships along with half a dozen fighters.

The deck plating beneath his teeth was shuddering like crazy. Commander Oliver Campbell felt like he was more on a rollercoaster ride as he kept his hands moving at almost warp speed to keep the ship from taking too many hits while it delivered its salvos from its phase cannons. Though the Romulan ships had lost power to their engines and some other systems, most still had their teeth. 

“Keep her steady.” Lieutenant Commander Pearson remarked from the tactical station towards the pilot and first officer.

Smiling to himself, Katrina had always moaned at him for not being able to keep the ship still so she could get a decent weapon’s lock. “Come on, Kat, keep up!” He said and turned quickly to give the chief armoury officer a grin.

“Status of the Intrepid?” Paulsen asked as she gripped her chair tightly.

“They’re still with us,” Campbell reported as he glanced down at his sensor readouts. The smaller ship wasn’t taking as much damage as they were.

“Keep firing; let’s get rid of as many of these drones as possible,” Paulsen commanded.

“I’m trying!” Pearson said as she concentrated on her firing patterns.

Imperial Battle Cruiser ChR R’Keth 

Shocked to see her ships being ripped apart like that, Kameetha couldn’t believe it. What had the Hevams done to them? Those EM-pulses shouldn’t have affected their systems as they had. 

She was enraged, annoyed and infuriated. The admiral knew what she was going to do next. “Sirrel, I think it’s time we launched our payload.” She said sinisterly.

Nodding in agreement, he issued the orders and a moment later, several missiles were launched from the belly of the R’Keth.

“Let’s see if they can save their homeworld from those,” Kameetha said as she relaxed into the grand chair to watch the scene unfold before her.

Snowdon Mountain Complex, Snowdonia National Park, Wales, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Earth

Starring at various screens with her arms crossed, President Littlejohn had felt like she had been holding her breath for what seemed an eternity. Starring at one of the monitors that showed Starfleet ships moving towards a squadron of Romulan drones, Lydia deeply regretted not being up there with the countless brave men and women serving to defend their homeworld.

“Lydia,” spoke her Vice President in a low tone.

Turning her head to look over her shoulders, Lydia’s gloomy mood was lifted slightly at seeing Elisabeth Reynolds standing next to her with a mug of coffee in her hands. “Bess, you must have read my mind.”

Reynolds smiled as she passed the warm mug over to the Commander-in-Chief before she sipped on the other cup she was holding. “We’re not going to be leaving this bunker anytime soon, so we’ll need all the caffeine they’ve stored down here.”

Smiling further at the light-hearted comment, Littlejohn tasted the beverage before she gazed back at the screen.

“It’s funny,” Reynolds said between sips, “when we ran a few years ago – I never once imagined we would be witnesses to this.”

Nodding in agreement, Littlejohn remained focused on the screens. “When it was passed through Parliament and the Senate about our manned deep space exploration programme, I never thought we would have an empire trying to destroy us so early on.”

“Were we wrong to explore the stars? Should we have listened to the Vulcans more?” Reynolds asked.

Littlejohn looked back at her VP, “Absolutely not.” She shook her head slightly and answered in hush tones so no one else heard.

Reynolds smirked slightly, and both women looked back at the screen. Littlejohn was happy that Reynolds had been able to make it to this bunker. There were several like it dotted around Earth for government officials to use to ensure the continuation of government if something terrible went wrong. Reynolds, only a few years younger than her, had short blonde hair bobbed under her chin and dark blue eyes. Before being the Vice President of the UEC, she had held the office of Prime Minister of Mars. Many believed that Littlejohn had asked her to join the ticket to ensure the Mars vote went in her favour, which would provide support from many of the other colonies in the Sol system. Reynolds’ past had a mixture of military and political elements too. After attending university, she served a few years in the Martian National Guard before being asked to teach as a political science and ethics teacher at McKay University, Mars. She was later asked to run as a senator for Mars, which she successfully won. After a few years in the UEC Senate, she moved back to Mars and joined the Parliament of the Confederated Martian Colonies. Her party won an election, and she was made the Prime Minister. After six years as the PM, she joined the Littlejohn ticket as the VP candidate. She was a valuable member of the administration.

One of the screens read ‘Tactical Cartography’ and had a bird’s eye view of the asteroid belt, Mars, Earth and Luna colonies with the two fleets fighting it. A beep came from it before new readings appeared from the Romulan lines.

“What’s that?” Littlejohn wondered aloud.

Reynolds looked further as Vice Admiral Black and Secretary Campbell joined them. Black quickly answered the president’s question. “Madam President, that’s another wing of Romulan fighters launching.”

“They’re persistent with their assault, aren’t they?” Campbell rhetorically asked. She looked to Littlejohn, “Lydia, isn’t it time we activated the defence grids and began fighting back more?”

Littlejohn sighed heavily. She had avoided activating the defence grids in fear of an allied craft being hit by it. Admiral Black had strongly advised not bringing the multiple orbital manned stations online yet. Several stations were equipped with pulse phase cannons and photonic torpedo launchers—each crewed by two Starfleet officers. Along with the space-based defence network, the verteron arrays were installed planet-side on Earth, Mars and Luna. And if all of that failed, Earth’s old missile silos from the third world war had been upgraded and re-stocked.

“Let’s do it,” Littlejohn said as she watched the Romulans unleashing smaller sub-light ships for a few more seconds.

General Casey stepped forward to a nearby console and started tapping directives into it. He brought up the activation system. “Madam President, it requires authorisation from yourself followed by confirmation from either the Vice President or the Defence Secretary alongside the Joint Chief of Staff.”

“I’ve got Fleet Admiral Hathaway back up.” Reported Vice Admiral Black, who had gone to another console and had established a video link with the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief and recently appointed Joint Chief of Staff.

“Madam President, are you sure you wish to bring our defence network online now?”  Hathaway asked immediately. “Our fleet has just crushed the drone contingent of the enemy fleet.”

“I know, Moira, but we can’t let this go on any further,” Littlejohn replied as she approached the station that Casey had been working on. Pulling out of the pocket on the inside of her suit jacket, she took out the small piece of plastic card that had her clearance codes on them. She pressed her left hand against the hand scanner, and the computer beeped, awaiting her response to provide the activation codes. “Confirm, Sierra-Tango-One-Nine-Six-Six.” She said as she read from the small card in her hand.

As Defence Secretary Vanderbilt had yet to arrive, Vice President Reynolds pulled out her card with her clearance codes. She approached the station and pressed her hand against the other scanner. After it beeped, she read from her card. “Confirm, Bravo-Foxtrot-two-zero-zero-three.”

“Confirmation codes accepted,” replied Hathaway. “The defence network will be active momentarily. I’ll signal the fleet to be aware, ma’am.” 

“Thank you, admiral,” Littlejohn replied. She looked at Reynolds and gave her a single look that just read: I goddamn hope I was right.

Challenger NX-03

“Sir, the Endeavour is heavily damaged; they’ve got multiple hull breaches!” Walker announced from science above the commotion of them still fighting the Romulans. 

“Signal, Voyager, to break off and protect their flank as they retreat,” Burton commanded as more explosions erupted behind him, and the bridge was filled with more smoke. 

 “Captain, the Romulans are launching nuclear warheads towards Earth. I’m detecting multiple bogeys!” Rodham reported from the helm.

Burton didn’t have time to reply as Avery spoke up immediately after Rodham. “Sir, incoming message from Starfleet Command. The President has activated the defence grid. Orbital platforms are coming online to assist and the verteron arrays.”

“Damn,” Burton cursed under his breath at the latest developments. “Acknowledge the message from Command, then inform all ships to break formation and engage everyone one of those warheads. They are not to reach Earth, whatever the cost!” 

“Sir, if we engage the warheads too close, we could lose ships,” Cortez warned. 

“Just do it,” Burton barked as the ship was hit again. 

Imperial Battle Cruiser ChR R’Keth 

Admiral Kameetha grinned like a joyful saavik as she watched the Hevams fleet become embroiled in her plan to decimate their homeworlds. Looking at the two planets before her on the main screen, she could see some resemblance to ch’Rihan and ch’Havran. However, the large red planet in the Hevam system span on its axis, while ch’Havran always faced the home-suns of Eisn and Ket-cheleb B. ch’Havran was also littered with akhoii’rhaaer which the Remans mined so well for the good of the Empire.

Sat in her chair on the command deck of the R’Keth, leaning to the left side, Kameetha stopped grinning and looked over to her adjutant. “Commander Sirrel, I believe we’ve done all we can here. Order our fleet back to Romulan space once, but inform our fighters to ram as many enemy ships as possible.”

“Yes, admiral!” Sirrel replied and gave out the commands to follow the admiral’s orders at once.

Challenger NX-03

Pushing the ship into a nose spin and performing a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn, Commander Rodham could feel himself almost flying out of his seat as he drove the Challenger beyond her limits. The battle with the Romulans intensified as he tried to dodge each fighter and every shockwave from the warheads they were taking out. However, the status display to his left told him the ship was sustaining heavy damage. 

“Captain, the Romulans aren’t making this easy for us,” Rodham declared from the helm, “request permission to try something unorthodox to get us out of this jam.”

“Permission granted, commander,” Burton ordered.

“Then buckle up, everyone!” Rodham ordered as he pressed the button to activate everyone’s seatbelts on the bridge. 

Within a few seconds, everyone’s harnesses flipped over their shoulders and then buckled them into their seats. Once Rodham heard multiple clicks that people were secure, Rodham told everyone to hang on as he pushed the engines further than ever before. The ship was starting to rumble at his actions, but it was working. He was avoiding some of the damage they were previously sustaining. 

“How many more warheads do we need to take out?” Burton asked, as his grip around his chair got tighter and tighter as the ship manoeuvred more at high speeds.

“Six,” Walker announced while holding onto the safety bars in front of him. 

 The ship then shuddered hard on one side, and a massive explosion ripped through the consoles in the aft section of the bridge. The entire situation room was up in flames as more smoke filled the bridge. 

“Report!” Burton bellowed at the top of his voice, even though he could barely see a thing.

“Six Romulan fighters rammed us, sir,” Walker announced. 

“Helm control is sluggish,” Rodham shared. “I’m trying to take evasive action.”

“Rachele, do we still have weapons?” Burton asked, turning to look at where his armoury officer should be. Seeing that she wasn’t at her station, the captain then realised where she was. He took off his seatbelt and ran to the deck plating where Cortez lay. She was unconscious but was breathing. Calling over Harris, who was supporting a cut along his forehead, Burton asked his yeoman if he could carry Cortez down to sickbay. Nodding profusely, Harris picked up the armoury officer and made his way to the lift. 

Burton took over at the armoury station. It appeared offline, so he thumped it hard and was pleased to see it come back online. Noticing that several more fighters were heading for them, Burton tried to get a  lock with the phase cannons but couldn’t get the targeting scanners to work. “Damn it,” He cursed. Burton was about to tell everyone to brace themselves for more kamikaze attacks, but the proximity alarm went off, and a smile crept across his face as the fighters were dealt with swiftly. 

“Sir, it’s the Enterprise!” announced Rodham. 

A round of cheers erupted around the bridge with the flagship’s arrival.

“Captain, we’re getting a message from Enterprise,” spoke Avery, “Commodore Archer is requesting your permission to assume command of the fleet.”

“Permission granted,” Burton said after a slight chuckle. 

“Sir, you’re not going to believe it, but the commodore has brought some allies with him,” Walker said as he turned the main screen to show the joint task force Enterprise was leading. One of them was the Jarok, and the other was the Avenkerev.

“Incoming call from the Jarok; it’s Commander T’Plau,” Avery said with a smile.   

“Onscreen,” Burton said as he rose from the tactical station and gestured for Sandoval to take over for him. Flickering to show the clean bridge of the Jarok with its skipper sitting gracefully in the centre, almost like a queen on her throne, the familiar face of Commander T’Plau was a welcome scene. 

“Fleet Captain Burton, I am sorry we were delayed getting to you. Can we be of assistance?” T’Plau asked her former commanding officer.

“You’re here now, T’Plau; that’s all that matters,” Burton said as he stood behind Rodham and caught his breath. “Help to clean up the garbage the Romulans have created for us.”

“Very well, Jarok out.” The Vulcan woman closed the channel. 

“Sir, the bulk of the Romulan armada is retreating, but they’re leaving their fighters behind,” Walker reported. “However, the last of the warheads have been destroyed.”

“Then let’s finish what we’ve started and secure the system,” Burton ordered as he smoothed out his jumpsuit and sat back in his chair.