//------------------------------// // Chapter IX: Dangerous Plans/The Assault // Story: Star Trek Online: Into The Multiverse // by Admiral Wyatt Stone //------------------------------// The briefing had grabbed almost all of the fleet's attention as they explained the weapon's capabilities, almost an hour had passed since the attack on the sphere as the plans were being made, by now the Imperials would most likely be bringing their weapon in in less than an hour. There was no time for anything else other than the plan, saving Equestria was Priority One at the moment. Kapor was explaining several weak points to the weapon from the chip's now decoded data, hopefully, they'd find a hole in the weapon's configuration. "Thanks to their stolen Iconian technology, the superweapon's main beam is capable of either striking at several starships with weaker beams or charging every bit of it's energy and focusing it on one target. It's shields are strong enough to withstand our entire fleet both from here and Equestria combined, however, they've configured them to drain at least half of it's power in order to make a shot strong enough to obliterate a planet." The group gasped in worry as they heard the statistics of this devastating weapon of the Terrans', with that power, the Federation home sector and it's allies could fall within months, perhaps weeks, at least, that'd be the case unless they all took action immediately. The group sat and thought of any valuable measures they could take, until Twilight spoke up. "What's the idea, your Highness?" She stood silently before she looked to Princess Celestia and Luna with a worried look. "Celestia, this plan of mine will require you, your sister, Cadence, and each of my old friends' assistance, but you may not like it." Despite the warning, the alicorn asked, "Let's hear it." She gulped a little before explaining. "The Sacramento, like many Alliance ships, has the ability to conduct a shield drain with it's deflector dish, if we can hold off long enough for the weapon to charge, thus lowering the shield's power, I believe we may be able to strengthen the drain with our magic, and hopefully, break down their wall of defense." Everyone grew worried upon the end of her plans, Rarity was the first to argue. "Twilight, you may be an alicorn, but you don't have enough magic to make a blast of that strength, you could hurt yourself trying, or even die!" The group grew frowns as they looked at her, then back to Celestia. The princess hesitated and stood silent for a moment, then responded, "Everyone, I know that we all fight battles, from safe, innocent punching to violent, gruesome, and horrendous genocide, and the latter is what will happen if we don't play the hard way, and if the mission demands the loss of me, my sister, and Cadence's lives in order to save my people," She looked to them, both of them nodding to her before she continued. "then the risk will be worth it." Twilight smiled, but frowned again as she turned to Wyatt, who frowned slightly. "We all must make sacrifices, even the most devastating ones, but every single soul in this room is fighting for our friends, the Harmony we all share, so much is what we're fighting for right now, and whatever cost it may be, the losses of leaders, our entire fleet even, we must agree that one thing is vital over all of us: the Empire must not use that weapon, and kill billions of innocent lives, until Equestria is safe, all of our lives are expendable until then." He paused for a moment before asking, "Any objections?" The room looked to each other, and after a full check on everyone, the group nodded. Bon Bon then stood and spoke up, her five friends standing with her. "You're ship and crew won't hold together without someone at the helm, mind if I save your seat for you?" Twilight smiled and nodded to her. Moondancer then answered to Twilight's near suicidal plan. "Better for us to go out rather than our world before any of us, Twilight, if it'll keep our home safe, I'll be right at your side to the end." "We're with you all the way too, Twi!" Minuette said aloud as she, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts joined in with her. "Same on our part, darling." Rarity answered as she and the gang stood together. "Dangerous or not, we're in this too!" The Cutie Mark Crusaders said together to the group, as crazy as it may have seemed, Applejack didn't object to her little sister's reply, nor did Rarity or Rainbow. Wyatt's crewmates then looked to him and answered. "No objections, sir." Wyatt then smiled as he tapped on the comms panel and announced, "All hands, Battle Stations." Tapping it off again, he looked to the large group in front of him before finishing. "Thank you all for your help on this, good luck to us all." Everyone cheered as they then exited the room and raced to the bridge to ready the crew for the assault. Upon stepping onto the bridge and entering his chair moments later, Wyatt then tapped his comms panel again. "Chestnut to Equestria, do you copy?" Bon Bon then answered through the comms. "Bon Bon here, the ship's ready to head out sir, I've also saved you the liberty of giving roll call on the fleet, they're all ready to go, just give the word." While impressed by her actions, he had no time to compliment at the moment. He looked to T'vrell and ordered, "Activate the gateway, once it's open and stable, take us in." She nodded and tapped a button on her console, on the viewscreen a blue flash appeared before morphing into an anomaly big enough to take the whole fleet in at once. Before he gave the word, he tapped his comms again. "Stone to Gate control, call ESD if any trouble arises, other than that, be safe out here. Stone out." He then looked to Elisa to his right. "Engage." With the Sacramento in the lead, the fleet slowly made their way into the portal, rapid flashes happening with each ship passing through, until all starships had now disappeared into the portal, racing against time to save their newest allies. "Captain's log, Stardate: 8533.7, we're heading into the jaws of Death itself, the superweapon is most likely nearing the Equestrian homeworld as I make this log entry, and until the weapon is destroyed and the Terran fleet is worn off from our new allies, the storm will pour over us long before the dawn arrives, and we must be ready for it, because if we fail, there'll be no second chances...." ~Equis System, 10 minutes after departure...~ The Terran weapon looked to be the size of a nightmare on the viewscreen of the star cruiser Paris, a large spear-like shape with additional spikes holding the main firing orb looked intimidating coming closer and closer very slowly. Despite being at a far distance, it was scary enough to imagine what this weapon could do to the flourishing planet below them. They couldn't let this weapon get past their line of defense, no matter what the cost. Looking at the weapon, it seemed as if it's two aft arms were carrying some kind of Herald warship, from his eyes, it looked to be a Vonph class battleship held as the command section of the ship. He then asked for a scan. "Ensign, how much power does that thing have?" The officer performed the scan, but looked back at the captain with a worried look on his face. "It seems to have more power than all of our ships could have, the shields are pretty much impenetrable for the moment, but if I'm reading right, the shield power is decreasing as the orb gets more power to it." He looked at it again before his tactical officer to his right alerted him. "Sir, Imperial warships coming at us fast!" Looking back, he saw over a dozen warships coming at the fleet at full speed. He then ordered the officer with, "All ships, hold off the fleet as best as you can, don't let that thing get past us at all costs!" ................ On the dark-lit bridge of the I.S.S. Sacramento, Captain Stone, now having some bandages placed on his injuries, watched as his counterpart's allies kept his forces from getting through, the Alliance ships were taking more of a beating than the Terran warships, it brought a smile to his face over the fact that he'd finally reveal his toy's power. He looked to his tactical officer on his left and asked, "How long until the weapon is charged?" "The weapon will fire in approximately two and a half minutes, sir." The officer responded, the now overconfident captain turning back to the screen as he smirked. "How does it feel to be on the losing side for once, old friend?" He said to himself before his helm officer looked to him in worry and spoke. "Sir, A portal is opening near us, our scans pick up Alliance starships coming out!" He growled in annoyance as he looked to the viewscreen. A larger armada of ships, the U.S.S. Sacramento and Equestria taking charge, flew fast out of the vortex as they closed in on their target. The Defense group turned and closed in with the attacking fleet as they picked up their presence, leaving the weapon to charge up. On the bridge of the Sacramento, Wyatt turned to his comms panel and reminded his allies, "Remember, the Sacramento is to be given cover until the shield drain is fired, then focus your fire on the weapon!" He said as Bon Bon replied to him. "Don't worry about that, we've got that on our minds at the moment!" She said before another voice played through the chatter. Understood, today, the Empire will know the fury of the Romulan Alliance!" The subcommander said before a wave of Mirror Romulan and Klingon warships decloaked and opened fire on both the weapon and the Imperial fleet, tearing the scouts and destroyers apart with ease while making big scratches on the larger battleships. The Sacramento kept going forward, the impact of torpedoes and phaser fire was making the ride a bit shaky, but the ship was holding together. "Twilight, are you all ready?" He asked quickly as he tapped on his panel again. "Yeah, just get a little closer and we've got it." She answered before Zarva turned to him. "Sir, the weapon will fire in one and a half minutes!" He looked to the weapon and noticed it's energy orb glowing brighter with each second, he then asked, "How close are we?" "Just 10 more seconds sir!" She answered before Twilight alerted the Admiral. "We're ready Wyatt, just give the word." She spoke through the comms as they neared the weapon. A moment passed before Zarva's console beeped. "We're in range, Sir!" "The word's given, Twilight!" He yelled into the comms panel of the Deflector relay bay. "Now!" She ordered. Facing their horns down, all eight of them fired as much magic into the relays as they could muster. The deflector dish fired a long, and bigger than usual rainbow colored beam towards the weapon, the shield bubble now visible and fluctuating. Bon Bon noticed the beam and turned to Dr. Hooves. "Doc, I think another hand can be lent in this, fire our shield drain!" He did so and the viewscreen now showed two energy beams impacting on the forward shield's surface, a moment passed until the front shield flashed once more, showing that it was down. Bon Bon then turned to her panel. "All ships, fire everything you've got at the main cannon, don't let it fire!" Upon her words, every ship near them fired wave after wave of torpedoes and several barrages of phasers at the orb, the orb flashed with every hit before it made a large, blue colored explosion, the shockwave being so strong to the point of pushing the ships away from it a good distance, the bridge shaking as they were shoved across the sea of space. "Damage report." Bon Bon asked. "Minor damage to shields, our hull is a little shaken, but we'll last, no casualties reported, Bon Bon." Lyra answered to her. On the bridge of the Sacramento, the Admiral was asking for the weapon's status. "How much damage has the weapon taken?" "Their main gun's down, and it seems that their shield generator has been damaged as well." Wyatt smiled at this, now they had no way of hurting the planet below, but they still couldn't let it escape, they'd be back another day to try it out. A yellow orb of light formed on the bridge, then flashed away to reveal Princess Twilight and her group near the Admiral's seat. Before he could ask, Celestia answered his question. "Thanks to our friend out there, I had enough magic left to bring us back here." He smiled as he replied. "I'll be sure to let Bon Bon know your thanks." He said. Down in engineering, the situation wasn't exactly the same, the deflector, despite the assistance from magic, had caused a power rupture at one of the power coils near the warp core. Lon went over to fix it as he muttered, "Dammit, I figured something would go wrong." He moved over to the coil as another officer came to assist, asking, "What do you think caused it?" "That crazy idea of Twilight's did, the coil was overcharged with it as it flowed and now it's dam-" The coil ruptured with energy, striking at the core's plasma coolant. While the cut on the tank wasn't able to kill anyone, that was the least of their concerns compared to what was happening to the core. "Coolant leak! We have a coolant leak everyone, get out now! Evacuate!" He then tapped on the comms panel near the slowly closing door before yelling, "Bridge, new problem on our hands, we're four minutes from a warp core breach, I can't do anything!" The door closed as he rolled under it, then running for the turbolift. On the bridge, Wyatt felt worried, but then thought of an idea for the stardrive section. "Zarva, get everyone into the escape pods and the Aquarius and evacuate the ship, We're going to separate the saucer section." Minuette then asked him, "Mind if we help get people to the Aquarius?" He nodded before they looked to Celestia. "Good luck." She said as she used her little amount of now recharged magic to teleport them to the Aquarius. "Everyone, strap yourselves in." He warned as the four princesses sat in the reserve seats and held on to the aft console behind Wyatt and Mioiil. At the Aquarius, Moondancer, Minuette, and the others were gathering all that they could, shouting for all of them to get inside. "Come on! Get as many as you can, cram the ship up if you have to!!" About two minutes passed before there was no one else in sight. They then went in and strapped themselves into the officer seats as they prepared to separate. "Don't worry on how I fly this ship everyone, it'll be bumpy either way. Hang on!" The ship slowly detached from the aft section of the Stardrive section of the Sacramento, opening it's pylons up as it went to escort the escape pods, the last of them zooming towards the surface as the Aquarius flew alongside them. In one of the Jefferies tubes, Lon was climbing out with the rest of the crew, Wyatt's voice then sounded from the intercom. "The core is going to blow Lon, we have a minute left!" "He flipped a switch several times before the doors shut and he responded. "That's it bridge, we're ready." "One minute 'til we blow up." Elisa warned. "Begin separation sequence, full speed ahead once we disconnect." Wyatt ordered. "The core's going critical." The saucer slowly disconnected from the large secondary hull, the force fields under the saucer's once connected doors deactivated as the ship slowly boosted away from the hull as energy bolts and plasma from it's now damaged nacelles leaked out. "Separation successful." Lon said. "Heading towards the weapon, sir." Said Elisa. "The core's breaching!" Lon warned as he closed the bridge ceiling windows above. "Everyone, brace yourselves!" Wyatt alerted. A small explosion occurred on the top section of the stardrive, before a second one obliterated it, the shockwave blasting the ship forward and almost shaking the crew off their feet. "Emergency power to engines and weapons!" Wyatt ordered to Kapor. "Aye, Captain!" He replied. As the ship sped towards the weapon's bridge, explosions began to appear on the main hull of the weapon, Wyatt then looked to the command section and ordered, "Brace our forward neutronium hull, we're going at ramming speed!" Elisa nodded as they approached the Vonph command section, firing everything they had left. "I've braced our forward hull with shield power as well, we might make it out alive on this one!" She alerted as they came closer. "Everyone, hold on to your flanks!!!" Wyatt warned. Using power from engine batteries, the ship went at full impulse into the command section, thanks to their weapons, the command section split in half upon ramming, but the saucer was damaged in the process, badly. When the bridge was hit, the back console and a nearby one in the front exploded as the ship shook violently, sending everyone out of their seats and hitting the floor. The ship drifted fast away from the weapon as it emitted a small explosion, then a second larger one was it's end as the weapon flew into many large and small pieces, the bright explosion not ceasing for several minutes as well as several close by ships being destroyed by the larger pieces, leaving a quiet field of darkened space trash and debris in it's wake.....