Splashing his face with pure cold water, Captain James Preston McCallister looked at his reflection in the mirror and pulled the towel off its holding bar to dab his face. The door chime to his ready room went off. “Come.” He responded as he placed the towel back into its original place.

Turning around, the captain was pleased to see his acting first officer stepping through the doorway. “Sir,” Commander Max Duncan said passing a PADD over to his superior, “The fleet is in position.”

Taking the PADD after entering the main area of his ready room, McCallister took a quick glimpse over its contents. “And T’Rani is sure she is happy to command the Aquarius?”

“She assures me she is able to fulfil her duties, even with the death of her husband.” Duncan confirmed with a single nod. “She needs to feel useful sir and nothing will stand in her way. The runabouts are all launched too.”

“Good.” McCallister remarked as he gently dropped the PADD onto his desk, “Let’s hope our numbers make a dif-”

The captain didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by the intercom going off. “Bridge to Captain McCallister.” The voice belonged to Lieutenant Commander Jen, who Duncan had left in charge while he delivered the report.

“Go ahead.” McCallister replied after tapping his combadge.

“We’ve just detected the arrival of the D’Ghor fleet. Multiple bogeys sir, a number of smaller crafts are being launched towards the colony as well.”  

McCallister looked at Duncan and the two men instantly left the confines of the captain’s ready room and made their way onto the bridge.

Making his way over to his chair in the centre, while Duncan took the one to his right, the captain spoke up. “Commander Jen, put Starfleet frequency two-one-three-eight on audio.”

The Trill operations officer complied with an “Aye, sir” as he sat back down in his own chair and quickly tapped away at the controls at the ops station.

Being already at red alert, the ship was ready for the upcoming action, so hearing the joint channel they would use to remain in touch with another may be a distraction later, but right now McCallister felt like he needed to hear everything.

“Fighter squadrons one and seven break into sections and engage. All other squadrons form up around the Ni’Var. ” The cool, calm and collected voice of Captain S’Tella could be heard over the bridge speakers. The Vulcan captain of the USS Ni’Var was redeploying her forces to engage the range of smaller Klingon ships that were being detected dotted in and around the system.

Following S’Tella’s voice was Captain Zack Marshall-Bennet. The task force commander was stern and the his tone shared his conviction that they would hold the line against the D’Ghor. “Discovery to Endeavour. Standby to engage at grid A-seventy-two. Shackleton and Tereshkova, fall back to mobile position one. Units assume positions and fire at will. ” 

The hairs on the back of Captain McCallister’s neck raised as contact was made with the Klingon force. The Hunters of D’Ghor were now coming into their weapon’s range.

“Sir, they’ve locked weapons on us.” announced Lieutenant Commander Lenjir from the tactical station behind him. The Tiburon security and tactical chief sounded almost alarmed.

“All auxiliary power to forward shields.” McCallister commanded before looking down at the helm at Lieutenant Senju Efen. The Bajoran assistant flight control officer was already making his final adjustments, preparing for the captain’s orders to engage. “Lieutenant Senju, attack pattern Delta.”

“Aye, sir.” The young Bajoran man said as he pushed the Odyssey’s engines to three quarters and began raising the ship’s profile.

McCallister cleared his throat before handing out more commands. “Mister Lenjir, quantum torpedoes. Full spread.”

“Target locked!”

“Fire!”

The Odyssey’s forward turret came to life as it fired a full spread towards one of the battlecruisers. Brilliant white and cobalt blue, the impressive weapons flew across space within a blink of an eye and smacked at the side of the old K’t’inga. The pressure was too much for the Klingon’s defences as after the first five torpedoes the sixth, seventh and eighth torpedoes ripped through its shields causing its port nacelle to fly off. Another spread of torpedoes, this time photon torpedoes from the Nobel smacked on the underbelly of the battlecruisers. It’s reactor was hit and within seconds the ship exploded into a million pieces.

“Second target locked.” Lenjir announced.

“Fire!” McCallister said.

This time the Odyssey’s powerful phaser arrays came to life as they smacked multiple direct hits onto two B’rel-class birds of prey. One couldn’t deal with the heavy fire while the second had its forward section sliced off.

A Vor’cha then decloaked…

USS Discovery

“I’ll give the Hunters of D’Ghor one thing,” Tarendiz stated through gritted teeth. “They know how to keep us on our toes.”

“Stay with them, lieutenant.” Bennet commanded his Risian pilot, holding onto his arms as the Discovery continued to shake from the multiple hits it was taking. “Michael, do you have them?”

Shaking his head in frustration, Lieutenant Commander Michael Johnson shook his head. “I’m unable to get a proper lock on this K’Vort sir. They’re running their impulse engines and thrusters on high.”

An explosion erupted behind them at one of the mission ops stations, the one designated for damage control. The crewmember there fell back with a scream as their body thumped on to the deck plating. Without issuing any order, Bennet’s first officer raced from his chair to see to the downed crewmember. After ordering for him to be beamed to sickbay, Rider took over at the damaged station with haste. “We’ve got two birds of preys coming aft of us, bearing one three six mark four.” He announced. “They fired a volley of torpedoes and have taken aft shields down to seventy-two percent.”

“Evasive action, pattern Delta.” Bennet ordered. “Continue to keep us close to the array though.”

The Discovery flew on its axis spinning backwards as it avoided the pair of smaller ships before finding it behind them. Looping the loop helped as within seconds they were able to destroy both ships.

“Well done.” Bennet said as the Klingon ships exploded in front of them.

“But I lost the K’Vort ship we were after.” Tarendiz admitted.

Bennet smirked at her remark. “I wouldn’t be too worried about it. There are plenty more to choose from.”

“There certainly is sir! A Vor’cha has just decloaked off the side of the Odyssey.” Johnson announced.

USS Triton

“Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Holographic program.” Captain Rio Canção ordered as her first officer landed on the deck plating with a thud. Rushing to her side, the El-Aurian had already picked up a medical kit on her way to Commander Jennifer Coulson.

Fizzing into life, one of Triton’s EMHs appeared and spoke its usual greeting protocol. “Please state the nature of the medical-” pausing the hologram, which resembled the Mark I EMH from thirty years ago, shrugged his shoulders before continuing. “Don’t bother.” He said as he made his way over to where the captain was. Taking over the treatment of the commander, the EMH allowed the captain to resume her orders.

“Status?” She asked her Caitian tactical officer.

Lieutenant M’riraar looked down at her console. “That bird of prey was destroyed quickly, but our shields are down to forty seven percent.” There was another beep at her console and the Caitian looked at the readings. “Ma’am, a Vor’cha has just decloaked besides the Odyssey.”

“Get a weapon’s lock and fire at will M’riraar.” Canção commanded as she sat herself back down in her chair.

USS Nobel – Stardrive section

On the battle bridge of the Nobel, Captain Thrain felt calm amid the terrible storm around him. Keeping one eye on the readouts of the status of the Nobel’s saucer section and another on their tactical situation, the Andorian was keen to keep the Klingons away from the array. Their four runabouts were staying close to the saucer section, keeping the Klingons away from them, while the stardrive focussed on defending the array. His first officer, Commander Jezgo, was definitely fulfilling her duties. The Saurian woman knew how to keep anyone on their toes.

Lieutenant Xer Rofull, the gruff Tellarite at tactical, quickly announced the readings at his station. “Sir, Klingon two ships approaching, bearing zero five nine mark zero three one. They’re heading for the array.”

“Then let’s not keep them waiting, Mister Rofull. Fire at will!” Thrain commanded.

The forward torpedo launcher from the Nobel came to life as photon torpedo after another flew at their targets, splitting into six and smashing into their forward shields. Barrage of phaser fire followed and more torpedoes. The small bird of prey that took most of the attack exploded into flames while the other continued with its assault.

“I want that Klingon ship destroyed, now!” Thrain commanded.

“We’ve got more problems, sir. More ships are decloaking and one of them is a Vor’cha and it’s targeting the Odyssey.” shared Rofull.

USS Aquarius 

Not giving it one second to think of, Lieutenant Commander T’Rani adjusted the controls of the Aquarius to head straight for the newcomer. Even though she was commanding the smaller escort ship, she felt she had to be at the helm during this pivotal battle. It was the logical choice. Pushing the ship’s engines to maximum she ordered for them to change target and to fire their pulse phaser cannons at the Vor’cha that was endangering their mothership. She would not allow them to compromise the Odyssey ever again.

USS Odyssey

“Full rotation to port,” ordered Commander Duncan the moment the warning was given. “Fire all ventral phasers!”

Spinning to its left side, the Odyssey escaped the clutches of the attack cruiser as it opened fire but it too was hit from multiple angles. The Starfleet armada quickly turned their attention to the newcomer. Not giving it a chance to properly defend itself, the Vor’cha was scorned from all angles and eventually several torpedoes from the Triton took out its starboard nacelle causing the ship to drift away from the battle.

“I don’t want to see anything of that ship left.” McCallister ordered his tactical officer. “Fire aft torpedoes!”

Lenjir compiled as he fired a full spread of quantum torpedoes from the Odyssey’s rear turret. The eight torpedoes rammed into the already damaged section of the dirty green enemy vessel, causing it to be destroyed within seconds.

“Status on the array?” Duncan asked the young Hekaran male that sat at the science station. He was sitting in for Commander Reyas and the deputy science officer, who was with T’Rani on the Aquarius.

Ensign Ranal looked over to the counsellor-turned-first officer. “It’s shields are holding at ninety-three percent and the orbital platforms are doing their job. We’ve not lost a single one.”

“Let’s hope it remains that way!” Jen remarked.

“And what about the other ships?” McCallister wondered aloud. “Endeavour, Shackleton, Tereshkova?”

Duncan looked down at his console. “All of them are engaging targets across the system.”

“Keep an eye on them, the moment we need to send help we will separate the chevron and stardrive section.” McCallister stated as the ship rocked again from more weapons fire and it engaged the next Klingon target.

Before McCallister could hand out another order, Senior Chief Petty Officer Court spoke up from the chair to his left. “Captain, we’ve got an incoming message from Andoria. The Imperial Guard are sending ships to Haydorian. Sixteen starships, led by the Vol’Rala. They’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

The news of reinforcements was a welcome one as McCallister smirked. “The timing couldn’t be better. This is our chance to punch back. All weapons continuously fire at will!”

Odyssey, along with every other Starfleet ship formed up together to engage and remove the threat of the Hunters of D’Ghor from the Haydorian system for the last time.