*Bird of Prey*
Inside the cargo hold of the disabled bird of prey, Spitfire and her team scattered around their ships readying themselves for what would be the fight of their lives. Spitfire had gathered intel from the Hydra’s scans showing there was only about a dozen Klingons aboard the vessel after sustaining damage from the bombing run. However, from their brief encounters with the Klingons Spitfire was taking no chances. This was their ship and they would have the advantage over Spitfire and her team.
Sparing no expense for this Spitfire brought every able-bodied commando she had left. Now she had over thirty commandos on the enemy vessel and hoped their overwhelming numbers would suffice. Klingons were a hardy bunch and she had no delusions of this. This was going to get messy and fast. Signaling her team to split into three one team remained behind as Spitfire and the other team pushed into the ship. The tench of the Klingons was overwhelming their noses to the point some of the ponies were gagging or on the verge of passing out.
“Perhaps we should have worn a hazmat suit,” one commando said wide-eyed.
Spitfire snorted. “Don’t mind the smell, just stay focused. The Klingons will be on us soon. Team two move ahead we’ll follow close behind. Be ready.”
The group designated team two moved forward from the cargo bay and into the bird of prey. The lights were dim giving off the feeling of a moonlit night inside the ship. The narrow halls made maneuvering hard, but the smaller sized ponies were able to fit easily two at a time in these narrow halls. Already Spitfire was painting a picture in her mind about what she suspected of these Klingons. They seemed to be a warrior race hands down, simple, and to the point. Their ships were a clear indication of this too.
Simple walls without paint other than the writing on the walls, possibly to indicate where they were. There were no carpets, no different materials for the floors, the lights were minimal possibly to conserve power, and the ships armor and shields were built to take a beating. Even the future jem’hadar fighter had to take a few shots at the ship to disable it. Granted they wanted to capture the ship not destroy it so they were holding back. According to the reports from Scope and Silica the fighter could have destroyed the bird of prey easily if the bombs were set to their maximum yield. However, if it wasn’t for that fighter the fight would have been prolonged and very costly.
The Hydra would have even been through its paces. If anything worked.
Spitfire frowned thinking about the poor state their ship was in after they left. She scanned the hallways listening as her team's armored hooves echoed loudly across the halls. No doubt they would be detected instantly if any Klingons were around. As they worked down a hall they ended up at a turbolift. Spitfire opened the doors after a bit of effort and signaled a group to enter. A unicorn and three pegasi mares entered and took the lift up one deck. The signaled Spitfire that the ship only had four decks. They were clear for the moment. The next few minutes the commandos went up the lift until they were all on the second deck. According to the Hydra’s scans, the bridge was on this deck. Their plan was to take the bridge and capture the ship. As they gathered up the ponies rushed through the deck storming room after room even coming up on the galley at one point. The smell of Klingon food was nauseating for them. Spitfire was sure of one thing if the smell was the thing that killed them first the Klingons would.
As the scoured the galley a lone Klingon warrior was there. From the unpreparedness, he had when they stormed him and overpowered him with several disruptor shots to his chest it was clear they didn’t know the ponies were on the ship. Spitfire was sure that the weapon discharge would be the dead giveaway they were aboard now. Sure enough shortly after the alarms on the Klingon vessel blared loudly.
“We lost the element of surprise!” Spitfire yelled.
“No ma’am! I’m right here!”
Spitfire gave a flat glare as she slowly turned her head around to face a light cream colored pegasus behind her with a bright yellow cotton styled mane smiled back at her. Spitfire cocked an energy cell in her weapon and readied her weapon in her hooves and hovered just off the ground. “Everyone! Move forward!
With her order given the ponies stormed towards a narrow hall where a group of Klingons were bunkered up and ready for them.
The first pony in took a green energy bolt to her face. She let out a gurgled scream as the bolt tore into her helmet and she fell over limply. The rest of the ponies hid behind the large strut frames that lined the hallways using them as cover and returned fire. There was an intense exchange of fire between the ponies and the Klingons in the ship.
“Zelenka, Iron, form up!”
From the back two unicorns hooped over their friends and stood in the middle of the hallway. Their horns lit up with magic as they created a magic shield that was used as a barricade for the other MAREs Commandos to hide behind. The beauty of this spell was that while not powerful, it did allow energy to flow out, but not in. This effectively made the ponies safe from energy fire, and they could shoot back without exposing themselves.
“Zelenka and Iron, move up! We’ll cover your flanks!”
The two unicorn mares nodded and slowly began to walk forward. The two armored commandos absorbed every bolt of energy the Klingons shot at them. The Klingons were shocked by the advancing ponies. Their disruptors were of no use and they were about to be overrun. One Klingon threw his disruptor to the side and drew his mek’leth and charged the ponies down the hall. He was easily mowed down by the narrow volley of returned disruptor fire from the ponies before he got more than five steps in. He fell back onto the floor, his mek’leth clanking at his side and the pony commandos walked right over him continuing unhindered. The bridge was within sight and they would take it no matter the cost.
Captain Sal Mogh snarled punching his fists into his command chair on the bridge of his ship. The alarms sounded as one of his officers alerted him of intruders in their cargo bay. A Klingon a the security station told his captain that there were well over thrity invaders abord the ship. Mogh growled drawing his disruptor from its holster and taking his his bat’leth in hand. He ordered the remainder of his crew to prepare themselves when they received a transmission.
The communication officer on activated his panel, keeping his disruptor rifle ready in case the intruders got through. The sound of Duras’s angry voice spoke over the muffled sounds of the fighting beyond the doors of the bridge.
“Captain Mohg. You allowed those pathetic creatures to get aboard your vessel?” Duras mocked him.
Mogh growled smashing his bat’leth on his chair cleaving it through several inches.
“You dare, Duras!? You dare mock me as my ship is invaded and my crew dies?!” Mogh snarled at Duras. “Once I’ve defeated these intruders I will show you who the real Klingons are! Unlike you, I still have a sense of honor and loyalty to the Empire and not to myself!”
As if the universe was testing his resolve the doors to the bridge began to glow white hot. The center of the doors began to spark like a cutter was sawing through the alloys. The Klingon’s prepared for battle keeping their bat’leths in hand because of the close proximity they’d have to the intruders. Duras chuckled as he watched. The battle went well outside for the Klingons but Mogh was about to lose his ship which was unacceptable.
The doors exploded in a bright flash of white temporarily blinding the Klingons. Some of them took cover as their eyesight recovered just as the MAREs Commandos stormed the bridge like a tidal wave. The first pony got a bat’leth blade to her chest followed by a dagger to her back. The Klingon chuckled at his victory but well over thirty deadly disruptor bolts sent him to the afterlife.
Then there was chaos.
The Klingons attempted to stop the ponies from flooding through the doors but weren’t able when they realized the ponies were using some sort of shields. Their weapons useless the Klingons went to hand to hand with their bat’leths charging the ponies but were all lifted into the air glowing brightly and smashed against the bulkheads knocking them out. Captain Sal Mogh snarled and charged one of the ponies, a yellow pegasus mare with an orange fire mane. The pegasus stood her ground and faced Mogh. Mogh swung his mek’leth for the pony who ducked and rolled to the side. She drew her rifle up to fire at him, but Mogh was too quick. He spun around cutting upward with his mek’leth and cut the rifle in two.
Spitfire growled and flared her wings. With a mighty thrust of power behind her wings the mare tackled Mogh full force and sent them both into the wall across the ship bridge. Mogh grunted dropping his mek’leth, but he didn’t stop after being disarmed. Mogh simply grabbed Spitfire by the scruff of her neck and lifted her into the air and smashed her face into the wall behind him. Spitfire yelped as her head made contact with the wall. Dazed she struggled to get to her hooves as Mogh got his mek’leth and prepared to decapitate her. Spitfire wipes a small trail of blood from her forehead and turned her head to see Mogh’s feet beside her. She looked up to see him readying his blade to strike. Instinct and years of training and experience kicked in and Spitfire flapped her wings to launch herself backward and that made Mogh’s mek’leth miss by an inch at best.
Spitfire reached behind her left wing a drew out a stun baton and whipped it to the side sending a burst of electricity surging through it. Mogh grinned as the remaining ponies gathered around the bridge to watch, having dispatched the remaining Klingons with sheer overwhelming forces.
Spitfire circled around Mogh intent on knocking him senseless. Charging forward she jabbed at Mogh with the baton, but her attack was met with a kick to the face. The kick sent her flying back to the floor. Spitfire’s armor softens Mogh’s blow but only so much. It was enough for her to recover quickly and take a defensive posture against Mogh as he brought his blade down on Spitfire. Moghs strength was great and it forced Spitfire back as she used her own wings to support herself and her baton to hold back the blade.
The struggle continued for a few seconds as the commandos circled around them and readied to shoot Mogh from all sides. Spitfire grunted. “No! He’s mine!”
With that said the MAREs Commandos lowered their weapons. Several broke away to scoured the ship while a few remained behind to watch Spitfire fight Mogh. They cheered for their pegasus leader and booed Mogh, but that didn't’ dissuade Mogh’s Klingon spirit.
Outside the ship, Private Scope and Major Silica were waiting for orders when the Hydra was hit by a stray torpedo. The primary systems were badly damaged, and being under repair many systems were exposed, and that caused significant damage to the ship. Effectively the Hydra was out of the battle now.
Silica swore under her breath seeing the ship hit and Scope became worried about Pansy. He hoped to the stars she was alright. Not wanting to wait for any longer Scope turned in his chair to face Silica.
“Major, we have to take the ship and help the Enterprise.”
“Why should we do that, Private?” Silica asked.
“Well, if we don’t do something the Enterprise will be destroyed at this rate, and then the Hydra will be completely unprotected. Together I think we can take the two remaining Klingon vessels and save the ship,” Scope explained.
“And what are we gonna do? We’re almost out of bombs and torpedos. We won’t have any support so what then?”
Scope turned back to his station and pulled up small tactical display for the Klingon bird of prey. He then zoomed in towards the main body near the top rear portion of the ship and pointed to where a large orange blip pulsed.
“Here,” He said pointing to the blip. “The ship's main plasma junction is here.”
“How do you know that?” silica asked scrutinizingly so.
“I ran some scans when we passed over the ship. Cool thing, these Jem’hadar sensors are the best thing I’ve ever seen!”
“Ugh, you sound like a techno-nerd. . .” Silica grumbled. “Nevertheless let’s make quick work of that bird of prey. The Enterprise is getting whipped.”
Scope nodded and took over weapons while Silica brought the Jem’hadar fighter into a hard turn. The large craft flew towards the two birds of prey circling around the Enterprise. The two green Klingon vessels took turns hitting the Enterprise and then veering off to allow the other a chance to attack. The two-pronged hit and run tactics seemed to be working.
Just as they began to approach Duras’s bird of prey broke off and started heading towards the disabled bird of prey. The giant green ship flew past Scope and Silica ignoring them completely. It didn’t take long before Scope realized where the ship was going.
“Silica, we need to turn around! They’re heading for the disabled bird of prey!”
“We are NOT on a first name basis, beefstick!” Silica snapped at him but turned to chase the bird of prey.
Duras’s ship suddenly opened fire on the disabled bird of prey with all of its disruptors. Several fiery explosions appeared as the green bolts hit the ship in no particular pattern. However, the damage was extensive almost immediately. Having taken damage already the bird of prey was in bad condition. Silica flew straight for Duras’s ship and Scope released a torpedo volley hitting the bird of prey significantly damaging its shields.
“Direct hit!” Scope said. “They took heavy damage to their aft shields. Can you bring us in for another pass, Sil-” Silica glares at him making him shrink. “-I mean, Major.”
Silica nodded and went back to focusing on the controls while Private Scope went back to loading their last torpedos and bombs while grumbling to himself.
“Major pain in my ass,” He said under his breath.
*Hydra Bridge*
Captain Trixie was tapping her hooves on the ground impatiently as the next phase of the repairs to their ship were underway. The battle was going sideways and she hated not being able to do anything. Octavia was sitting next to her Captain. Her grey ear twitched every time Trixie’s hooves tapped the metal floors each adding to a growing irritation inside of her. Finally, after almost half an hour she finally stomped her own hoof down straddling Trixie and everyone else on the bridge.
“Captain, perhaps we could stop that tapping?”
“Ugh, I can’t help it! While we’re sitting here reading our ship our allies and commands are out there fighting! I hate sitting on the sidelines like this!” Trixie complained.
Octavia nodded and patted the mare on the back gently.
“I understand Captain, but we can’t do anything right now. The station took our weapons offline so the last repairs could be done,” Commander Octavia said softly to her with a smile. “Don’t worry. In a few minutes, the ship will be complete and we can go to help our allies. Until then we wait.”
Trixie sighed and adjusted herself in her seat. She glared at the view screen watching as Duras’s ship began to attack it the disabled ally. Meanwhile, the Enterprise was fighting off the last bird of prey while the jem’hadar fighter made an attack run on Duras’s ship. Trixie sighed wishing them all luck as she waited for the repairs to be complete.
*Mogh’s Ship*
Spitfire was winning her fight against Mogh. Her smaller size and nimble flying made her almost impossible for the massive Klingon to strike, once she figured out his fighting style. It was a clumsy fighting style but Mogh was adapting quickly to her changing style. Yet her wings provided much of the needed advantages Spitfire needed to gain the upper hand against Mogh.
Their fight had reached its apex when the ship was stuck by disruptor fire. Mogh and Spitfire nearly fell over as one of the ponies ran to the nearby console and looked it over.
“What’s going on?” Spitfire asked.
The pony looked over the console. It wasn’t telling her anything useful, but Mogh shoved her aside and started to work the station. The view screen came on showing Duras in his command chair on his ship.
“Duras you worthless backstabbing-”
“Don’t mince words with me Mogh. You allowed your ship to be taken by these, creatures and your crew massacred. You are lucky I waited this long, to begin with. However, I shall return to the homeworld and tell the High Council how I was unable to save you from this terrifying threat.” Duras said grinning at Mogh.
Mogh narrowed his eyes and let out a deep gurgling growl at Duras as the screen went blank and Duras continued his attack. Mogh chose to ignore the ponies as he scrambled to his weapons station and tried to fight back, but it was hopeless. Alone his ship would never survive an attack from Duras’s ship. However, they weren’t alone.
The Jem’hadar fighter made one last attack run on the bird of prey before veering off. Duras gave chase leaving Mogh’s ship alone for the time being. Spitfire opened her communicator to Major Silica.
“Major Silica, report.”
“Major, we’ve exhausted our compliment of photon torpedos and bombs. Our primary weapons are still down from when we captured the vessel. We’re heading back to the ship!”
“Good work. We’re preparing a backup plan right now. Tell the Captain we’ll be in contact.”
“Roger that, Major Silica out.”
Closing her comm. Spitfire waved her hoof overhead signaling the rest of her commandos to circle around. Surrounding her with a few keeping an eye on Mogh, Spitfire thought about what the next best course of action would be.
“Alright everyone, we need to get this ship moving. Let. Lilly, go to engineering and see what you can do,” Spitfire said to a light yellow pegasus mare. “Take team two with you. Go. Lt. Iron, take team four and secure our ships and standby. The rest of you take a station.”
“No! You will not take my vessel!”
Mogh’s outburst had finally pushed Spitfire to the edge. She pulled out her disruptor and replaced the power cell with another one and aimed at Mogh. Before he could respond a blue sonic wave hit the Klingon. Mogh shook as if hit by a powerful shock that lasted three seconds before he fell to the ground knocked out. Spitfire looked over her disruptor amazed by its effectiveness as if she didn’t believe it would work.
“Guess I own Lt. Scratch an apology,” She muttered holstering the disruptor.
Spitfire took the command chair and perched herself on it. Since it was made for a larger humanoid she was really small compared to it, but it was fine for now. She only wished they could be removed the stench of the Klingons from the ship so it didn’t smell so bad. Alas, there was no such way and the threat of impending doom made her quickly forget the smell.
“What’s our status?”
One of the commando mares shrugged. Another shook her head, but one of them had a hopeful look.
“Major, I think this is the helm. I think the impulse engines are still offline.”
Spitfire gave a quick nod and activated her Comm.
“Major Spitfire to team two, how're the repairs going?” She asked urgently as the ship shook from another attack from Duras.
“This is Lt. Lilly, Major we have significant damage we can’t repair the impulse engines in time! We have to evacuate!”
“We need this ship Lieutenant!”
“I’m sorry major, but that’s not possible anymore- THOOM!”
“Damn it,” Spitfire muttered. “Alright, I’m calling it. Everyone get back to the ships! We’re abandoning the plan to take the bird of prey!”
The order was given and sent to the personal comms. Of the teams. Everyone made a mad dash for the hangar bay as the ship shook from the continued attack from Duras. The fighters and bombers ready for team four. The commandos entered their ships and after blowing open the hangar doors they flew out from the bird of prey as Duras made another attack run on the bird of prey. Enterprise had begun to run interference as the Equestrian fighters and bombers made their way back to the Hydra which was still docked with the repair station. Spitfire in her personal fighter sighed in relief. They lost a few ponies along the way, but the majority survived and that was a good thing. They already lost too many from the start of this venture since they left for Jancis 12.
Just as the squadron was making its way towards the hangar bay of the Hydra, the repair station's arms began to retract from the Hydra freeing it. The large metal rings around it expanded to allow the ship free passage through, and the Hydra flew free from its ringed prison. Spitfire watched in awe as the Hydra dashed towards the Enterprise and flew alongside it while shooting all its weapons at the second bird of prey that chased them.
The commandos all cheered as the bird of prey broke off pursuit and regrouped with its sister ship. Both birds of prey turned to face off against the Hydra and the Enterprise. All four ships came to a stop and a silent showdown began. The fighters and bombers of MAREs returned to the Hydra while both sides made a plan on what to do. One thing was for sure, the next few minutes were going to be intense.