“Now Hear This, All Captains report to Farpoint Station for battle.”

It had been repeating for about 5 minutes over the station’s speakers.  Sky was in a meeting with other Phoenix captains when it came in.  Both of them immediately contacted their crews and had them prepare for departure.  Sky was only a few moments behind them.

All around the station, the various ships of the 514’s remaining forces were disengaging from dock and angling towards Farpoint for battle.  Just outside the windows, Sky saw a pair of Springfield Class ships flicker with the pseudomotion of warp.  Even the runabouts were getting in on the action, as they lifted off from their docking pads and joined the fleet.  Sky swore he saw a tugcraft attempting to join in as well.

Arriving at the Marduk, Sky ran into Desiree. “Stow that bag Ex, we’re launching immediately.”

She nodded and stepped in after him, closing the airlock door and prepping for disengagement from the station.  Continuing on to the bridge, Antylion and Olivet were already at their stations there, having heard the announcement.

“I assumed we’d be joining in Captain?” Antylion smirked.

“Like I’d have it any other way.  Looks like most of the fleet has launched, we’ll be running a bit behind, but hopefully we can get some good work done.”

“Captain, we’re still connected to the repair bay’s cargo pod, are we bringing it along with?” Desiree queried, and upon receiving a nod from Sky, turned towards the console in front of her, modifying the warp field to better include the pod.

“Set course for Farpoint Station.” 

“Course set sir”

“Punch it”

Tina had been packing her things into the Marduk’s only Ambassadorial Suite, which apparently was usually used as extra storage, since it took one of the crewmembers, she’s not sure who yet, a few minutes to relocate the stuff to another room.

Suddenly, the ship lurched, causing her to drop the robe she was holding.  “Now what are they up to up there? We’re not supposed to leave for New Romulus until tomorrow.” Determined to see what tomfoolery Sky was up to, she left her room and headed towards the bridge.

“Ok sir, we are en route to Farpoint.”

“Thank you Desiree.  Now, we all know the combat capabilities of this vessel, I want each of you to workshop an Idea so we’ll be useful there.  You have until 5 minutes before arrival to present one to me.  In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on navigation.”

“””Yes Sir”””

Just then, the door to the bridge opened and Tina walked on.  “What is going on here? Why are we at warp?”

Sky grimaced, then swiveled around to face her.  “Going to be completely honest here, I totally forgot you would already be on board.”

“You Forgo-”

“ANYWAYS, the Marduk has been called into battle, so until further notice, you’ll be in the Ambassadorial suite, since it’s the most reinforced room on the ship.  Can’t have our diplomat being hurt, can we? Fenris, take attaché Sanchez to her room please.”

Tina was not having it, but Fenris was able to get her into her room before resuming his combat idea, which involved a repeat of Antylion’s feat from the last fight.

“Ok, anyone got a good plan? I know we’re still about 30 minutes from arrival, but I’m willing to hear your plans.”

Desiree was the first to bring attention to herself. “Sir, my plan is for us to act as a boarding team, and attempt to take over a small Jem’Hadar vessel to use.”

“Ok, love the idea, but how do we pilot both the Marduk and this hypothetical Jem’Hadar vessel with only the six of us?”

“I hadn’t thought that far yet, sir.”

“Ok, keep workshopping that one.”

Up next was James Olivet, who almost reluctantly laid out his plan.  “We have that cargo pod of repair supplies, we could use the different materials inside as physical projectiles to distract, confuse, and maybe damage a Jem’Hadar fighter.”

“That’s intriguing, work out the details and come back to me on that one.”

Antylion looked a little too eager for his idea. “We could put me back out on the hull with a rifle, firing at the enemy ships again.”

“No, the rifle was too low power to do any damage.  What else you got?”

He looked a little crestfallen, but indicated he didn’t have anything else yet.  Fenris, however interjected, “What if we were to replicate a larger weapon for him to be manning out there?”

“Ok, now the idea has some merit, see just what you can build that won’t drain power too much from the engines.  Doctor, you’re up.”

“We could rescue life-pods from damaged vessels.”

“Nice and simple, I’ll keep that one on the back burner for now.  Here’s what my Idea was, we use the repair materials we have aboard to fix up damaged ships mid fight.”

Everyone agreed this was a nice gesture, but impossibly impractical in active combat.

Farpoint was pure chaos.  The Marduk dropped from warp right in-between a Jem’Hadar fighter and a Tugcraft pulling the saucer section of a Cheyenne class as it fired its phasers.  Just a little ways behind them were the two Sprinfield Class ships, chasing and firing upon the same Fighter.  Farther in the distance, a trio of Jem-Hadar fighters were engaging a pair of Sabre Class ships.

Right out the gate, the Marduk had three plans running.  Out on the hull was Antylion in a exosuit, with the Henshin device on mode-3 attatched to his arm.  Attatched to the hull in front of him was the H7-X Phaser repeater, tied directly to the Workerbee’s charging port.  In the back, Olivet was working on the attached repair pod, prepping the Tritanium plates with beacons and setting the door on a hair-trigger.  Meanwhile, Desiree was suited up with a rifle, prepping to go full EVA with the plates, in an attempt to use them as a distraction so she could close in on the Jem’Hadar fighter.

“Man I really hope these plans work.” Sky muttered under his breath.

“I agree, you are all either genius or crazy.” Tina quipped.

Sky jumped, “How the heck are you on the bridge?!?  Didn’t I have you confined to quarters for your own safety?”

“One, you didn’t have the doors locked. Two, like heck I’m going to sit out a battle in my quarters with no reference for what’s happening!”

The Tugcraft took a hit, its warp core going critical, leaving the now-drifting Cheyenne Saucer to try and get by with just thrusters.  Nearby, the first Springfield class, the USS Iskandar’s left nacelle dimmed and lost power.  The Marduk swung around, and the pod bay doors opened.  If one looked closely, the slightest shimmer of metal was visible.

Aboard the Jem’Hadar fighter, the Vorta in charge was targeting the drifting Cheyenne Saucer when he noticed a new ship warping in.  The USS Sisko’s Revenge (Akira Class) appeared on sensors, and the Vorta immediately redirected all fire to the new vessel.

“Sky to Olivet.  Really?”

“What? It’s meant to catch their attention.  Besides, it worked, didn’t it?”  There were at least a dozen of these transponders, and for them to work effectively, they had to have different names.  Hopefully it wouldn’t get down to the ‘USS Alexander Beckett’, as that would be the last one in the line.

It didn’t take long for the Vorta to be suspicious of the Akira class that took no hits and fired no weapons.  Eventually they managed to hit something and the Akira class just disappeared.  With that out of the way, weapons fire resumed on the beleaguered Cheyenne saucer.  Only a few hits later, and the saucer detonated, sending shrapnel in all directions.

The other Starfleet ships targeting them from the rear were next on the chopping block, before a small, heretofore unimportant Starfleet ship raced across the firing arc, tanking several hits meant for one of the larger ships.  Smaller weapons fire dotted across the hull of the Jem’Hadar Fighter, leaving next to no damage behind.

Just after the pass of the smaller vessel, two more Starfleet Vessels appeared from nowhere, the USS Failure to Comply and the USS Resistance is Futile, both Saber class ships.

Olivet watched as the two transponders activated and the small phaser rifles he’d attatched at the last moment fired, missing completely but giving the illusion of a real ship more credit.  The Fighter wasted no time in firing multiple torpedoes at the pair of ‘ships’ before one connected, making a rather impressive explosion. The second ‘ship’ was sent careening through space, still indicating that the USS Failure to Comply was active.

Captain Stan Mitchell, of the USS Journey’s End, a Springfield class ship, watched as the USS Marduk continued to enact the weirdest combat plan he’d ever seen work.  With the Starfleet in-jokes appearing as ships for a moment before his own ship’s sensors were able to notice the difference, he wasn’t sure whether to applaud or laugh at the ridiculousness of this fight.

The Marduk arced around again, coming up on the Jem’Hadar fighter’s rear, and dropping another item, this time not one with a transponder.  A relatively decent sized explosion occurred, knocking the fighter’s aim off just in time to miss the USS Failure to Comply, again. 

Antylion was having the best day of his life.  Usually you only get to fire weapons this big in a holodeck.  He forever has bragging rights at Whiskey whiskers, the bar he frequented on Luna Colony.  He had to let the weapon rest every few moments, as it could only take sustained fire for about 45 seconds before needing a 15 second cooldown.  However, it appeared that the Jem’Hadar fighter paid him no mind, as he continued to rack up hits without ever coming under fire himself.  When Sky blocked that torpedo for the Journey’s End, he got shaken up a bit, but that wasn’t an on purpose shot.

Desiree had given up on the boarding plan, and was now helping Olivet vary the packages being dropped off.  “I was not aware we had the materials on board for a homemade Photon Torpedo.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say torpedo, Photon Bomb might be more accurate, it didn’t have propulsion.  Besides, it’s relatively easy to stage a small antimatter explosion.  Stopping it is the real trick.”  Olivet heaved the next Transponder out the open doorway “Here goes the USS Good Day To Die”

“Klingons.  Really?”

“I ran out of ideas, ok? I had like ten minutes to come up with these.”

The USS Good Day to Die lived up to its name, with the Vorta one-shotting it without a thought.  “I’m starting to see the pattern, Focus fire on the USS Journey’s End.”

Sky’s flight combat training was seeing its full use today, Tina, however, didn’t seem to appreciate the intricacies of the feat.  After more than a few complaints from her end, he started quipping back at her.

“I’m sorry but could you try to block those shots?”

“Do you think they teach how to get hit as a course in Starfleet Academy?! NO! they teach how not to get hit.  Reversing those instincts is harder than it looks!”

The Marduk shook more violently than before.  “Antylion, see if you can’t shoot down those incoming torpedoes.”  Only static answered him, “Antylion?  Cruger, can you hear me?”

Outside, next to a burnt out turret, stood the charred remains of Antylion Cruger’s boots, still attached to the ship via magnetic seal.

Moments Before

The Jem’Hadar Fighter launched a furious volley at the USS Journey’s End, and the Marduk raced to intercept.  Antylion was firing at full burst, trying to destroy at least one torpedo.  However, as the torpedoes got closer and closer, Antylion realized they were going to miss one torpedo by a mere few feet.  He tried firing, only to realize his gun had overheated beyond even regular use.  Realizing what he had to do, he detatched the magnetic overboots, and jumped, punching the final torpedo in a last act of desperation. “Goodbye, friends.”

With the last, desperate attack from the Jem’hadar figher blocked, the Journeys End and her sister ship finally destroyed the formidable vessel.  The Marduk came to a stop, engines overheating.

“Captain Mitchell, this is Captain Sky.  Our engines are shot and we’re out of tricks.  I think you’ll be on your own for the rest of this fight.”

“Captain Sky, this is Captain Fitzgerald of the USS Invalidentityname.  We’ve got no engines either, but our thrusters should let us reach you.  We should be able to team up and hold the fort until the end of the battle.”

“Much appreciated Invalidentityname, Journey’s End, go ahead and continue the fight for all of us.”