09-27-2026, 08:36 PM
"We are like Horatius at the Pons Sublicius, I'm proud to have served with you, Captain. Godspeed."
Jenny's lip curled up in a small smirk; it was a fairly apt description, except that they were guarding more than a bridge. She could also draw comparisons to Thermopylae, Rorke's Drift, Wizna, or even Bastogne, none of those historical events truly matched the occurrences unfolding before them; those had been about defending a place, about ensuring the enemy did not accumulate more territory from which to launch further attacks. This was closer to the naval battles of Old Earth, where the reasons for battle themselves were as fluid and varied as the oceans the battles were fought on, but the concept of national honour was ingrained into every single man or woman involved in those conflicts. Would Jenny go down in history as a Captain who pitted her command against impossible odds like Grenville and the Revenge at Flores, Roope of the Glowworm, or Watters and Red Squad of the Valiant? Or would she cause so much trouble for the Cardassians that they withdrew like the Japanese off Samar?
"It's been fun. But I bet you a million credits we live to see me court martialed for this."
The ship rocked slightly as T'Lari delivered the Yeager's entire complement of Quantum Torpedoes, or pretty close to it, as the Hutet triggered the minefield. The larger ship's forward shields collapsed and small spurts of flame could be seen bursting from her bow armour, followed by a string of extra Torpedoes from seemingly out of nowhere. Jenny's head snapped to the sensor display, two large ships had just dropped from Warp on an attack bearing - the Sovereign-class Inaeiu, and the Ross-class Aquila. The added firepower was something of a mixed blessing, as zh'Ollan was a recent promotee to Flag Rank and had little experience outside of single-ship combat, and, without even considering that her new Captain was a doctor not a strategist, the Aquila's weapons hadn't been used in combat since she'd been temporarily assigned as her Commanding Officer.
The Hutet was first to address the appearance of the two capital ships, spitting forth a stream of heavy torpedoes that ravaged the Inaeiu. Jenny didn't even need the reports coming from the sensor crews to tell her that the following explosion left no survivors - it looked as though her torpedo magazine had gone up moments before her warp core lost containment, and nothing survived that much matter and antimatter mixing at the same time.
Then the Zephyr, the battered old Steamrunner assigned to the former Copernicus crew, entered the fray with a stream of torpedoes and a micro-jump that appeared to bend and warp the ship's spaceframe as it decelerated almost on top of the Yeager. With the Hidekis now distracted by the Zephyr's sudden appearance, and the Keldons moving to block the Aquila from getting a bearing on the Hutet, it seemed that the balance had been tipped ever so slightly back towards it being a fair fight.
Plus who didn't love dying with friends?
Of course, with zh'Ollan now free-floating particles, the problem of command came into play. Technically that fell to the Captain with tactical superiority, as it had at the Battle of Sector 001, but Picard and the Enterprise had been on the most advanced ship in the fleet at the time, and had had combat experience against the Borg. Well-equipped as she was, the Aquila's crew lacked combat experience, and despite being a competent Captain, Brooks wasn't trained to direct a multi-ship engagement.
"Flint, put me through to the Aquila and the Zephyr."
She waited a moment until the communication went live, hoping against hope that the Cardassians weren't already jamming short-range communications.
"This is Captain Braggins of the Yeager, I'm taking command of the engagement. Aquila, engage the Battlecruisers marked Contact 2 and 3. Zephyr, engage the Escorts. Do not engage the Dreadnought, do not engage the Dreadnought."
It wasn't the most brilliant strategy, nor did it follow any standard doctrine, but the last time Starfleet had fought anything that big and won, it had been a Borg Cube. The Cube required ships to swarm it and attack from every angle, as it carried relatively few weapons for a ship of its size; against the Hutet, which had weapons coverage for 270 degress on all three axes, such an attack was a suicidal prospect unless you were lucky enough to get directly behind it.
With the message sent, Jenny shuffled in her chair to get herself comfortable for the coming minutes.
"Reroute all discretionary power to engines and weapons. Flint, get us close to the Os'rusa, but keep them between us and the Dreadnought. T'Lari, I want full phasers on her sensors when we reach optimal range; she can't shoot what she can't see."
As the ship pitched to manoeuvre into attack position, Jenny looked over at the science station where Qi had just taken his place. Though she had not initially responded to his comment about the probe, she had mentally filed it away for later use, but now she needed him working on something else.
"Arwen, I know you've got experience in cryptography from your time on the Geronimo. How difficult would it be to break in to the Cardassian computer systems?"
Jenny's lip curled up in a small smirk; it was a fairly apt description, except that they were guarding more than a bridge. She could also draw comparisons to Thermopylae, Rorke's Drift, Wizna, or even Bastogne, none of those historical events truly matched the occurrences unfolding before them; those had been about defending a place, about ensuring the enemy did not accumulate more territory from which to launch further attacks. This was closer to the naval battles of Old Earth, where the reasons for battle themselves were as fluid and varied as the oceans the battles were fought on, but the concept of national honour was ingrained into every single man or woman involved in those conflicts. Would Jenny go down in history as a Captain who pitted her command against impossible odds like Grenville and the Revenge at Flores, Roope of the Glowworm, or Watters and Red Squad of the Valiant? Or would she cause so much trouble for the Cardassians that they withdrew like the Japanese off Samar?
"It's been fun. But I bet you a million credits we live to see me court martialed for this."
The ship rocked slightly as T'Lari delivered the Yeager's entire complement of Quantum Torpedoes, or pretty close to it, as the Hutet triggered the minefield. The larger ship's forward shields collapsed and small spurts of flame could be seen bursting from her bow armour, followed by a string of extra Torpedoes from seemingly out of nowhere. Jenny's head snapped to the sensor display, two large ships had just dropped from Warp on an attack bearing - the Sovereign-class Inaeiu, and the Ross-class Aquila. The added firepower was something of a mixed blessing, as zh'Ollan was a recent promotee to Flag Rank and had little experience outside of single-ship combat, and, without even considering that her new Captain was a doctor not a strategist, the Aquila's weapons hadn't been used in combat since she'd been temporarily assigned as her Commanding Officer.
The Hutet was first to address the appearance of the two capital ships, spitting forth a stream of heavy torpedoes that ravaged the Inaeiu. Jenny didn't even need the reports coming from the sensor crews to tell her that the following explosion left no survivors - it looked as though her torpedo magazine had gone up moments before her warp core lost containment, and nothing survived that much matter and antimatter mixing at the same time.
Then the Zephyr, the battered old Steamrunner assigned to the former Copernicus crew, entered the fray with a stream of torpedoes and a micro-jump that appeared to bend and warp the ship's spaceframe as it decelerated almost on top of the Yeager. With the Hidekis now distracted by the Zephyr's sudden appearance, and the Keldons moving to block the Aquila from getting a bearing on the Hutet, it seemed that the balance had been tipped ever so slightly back towards it being a fair fight.
Plus who didn't love dying with friends?
Of course, with zh'Ollan now free-floating particles, the problem of command came into play. Technically that fell to the Captain with tactical superiority, as it had at the Battle of Sector 001, but Picard and the Enterprise had been on the most advanced ship in the fleet at the time, and had had combat experience against the Borg. Well-equipped as she was, the Aquila's crew lacked combat experience, and despite being a competent Captain, Brooks wasn't trained to direct a multi-ship engagement.
"Flint, put me through to the Aquila and the Zephyr."
She waited a moment until the communication went live, hoping against hope that the Cardassians weren't already jamming short-range communications.
"This is Captain Braggins of the Yeager, I'm taking command of the engagement. Aquila, engage the Battlecruisers marked Contact 2 and 3. Zephyr, engage the Escorts. Do not engage the Dreadnought, do not engage the Dreadnought."
It wasn't the most brilliant strategy, nor did it follow any standard doctrine, but the last time Starfleet had fought anything that big and won, it had been a Borg Cube. The Cube required ships to swarm it and attack from every angle, as it carried relatively few weapons for a ship of its size; against the Hutet, which had weapons coverage for 270 degress on all three axes, such an attack was a suicidal prospect unless you were lucky enough to get directly behind it.
With the message sent, Jenny shuffled in her chair to get herself comfortable for the coming minutes.
"Reroute all discretionary power to engines and weapons. Flint, get us close to the Os'rusa, but keep them between us and the Dreadnought. T'Lari, I want full phasers on her sensors when we reach optimal range; she can't shoot what she can't see."
As the ship pitched to manoeuvre into attack position, Jenny looked over at the science station where Qi had just taken his place. Though she had not initially responded to his comment about the probe, she had mentally filed it away for later use, but now she needed him working on something else.
"Arwen, I know you've got experience in cryptography from your time on the Geronimo. How difficult would it be to break in to the Cardassian computer systems?"