//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Battle over Laurentia // Story: Star Trek Online: Sacrifice - Part I // by Admiral Wyatt Stone //------------------------------// "I'm going to enjoy breaking you!" Risk. You have to take risks to succeed in your goal, whether it'd be putting many lives at stake or taking the chance of losing everything you know and love, we all have to play those cards at some point. To save the Wasteland, I had to put my life (and in many cases my friends' lives) on the line in order to win against our enemies. In some cases, it led to them and I almost dying.... and for one of us, he did. Even though I felt guilty for failing one of my friends, I pushed on, and eventually I would put my future with Homage and all of my friends aside to ensure they would have a future worth living in. Taking risks can hurt you, but how can you face the fire if you're scared of a little pain? -------- The enemy fleet was still, waiting for the first move to be made. All of us were staring at the screen, pupils the size of pinpricks as Twilight broke the silence, tapping her combadge and speaking to it. "Harmony to Stratus, we need reinforcements! There are barely any ships out in this part of the sector!" Na'Zev replied sternly. "You're in luck, Harmony, we've got our own garrison at the ready!" I could hear him tap a button on his command chair as he spoke again. "Stratus to Sebrova, send in the cavalry!" "Aye." Another voice said as another flash appeared on the screen. It was another Federation ship, it had a saucer section that was attached to two pairs of pylons, two nacelles carried by them, a Shepard class. Another two appeared out of warp, the first one had four nacelles connected together by an arc above the saucer, a Nimitz class. I could see the name and registry on the side of the ship's lower port nacelle: "U.S.S. Ticonderoga, NCC-1650". The other was a large vessel, it had two connected rings for a saucer along with a triangular secondary hull, two overextended nacelles protruding from the pylons. A Crossfield class ship. Several more vessels warped into the sector, some ships were the same, others were of different classes. Chronos, Paladin, Sagittarius, and many more. As the last one arrived, we now had almost 50 ships, more than enough to buy the base time to evacuate. Na'Zev spoke quickly, interrupting the ship-molesting my eyes were so focused on doing. "You all have to evacuate, some of my ships will assist you in beaming survivors off of the starbase." I took another look at the viewscreen, squinting my eyes as I saw a familiar ship, the same one that was in front of Starbase 1 in the footage I saw at the briefing. "The Lukara." I said aloud, my crewmates confused at my words. "The Lukara?" Pinkie Pie asked me quizzically. "J'ula's flagship." I said. "It has a weapon that uses mycelium tech. If she fires that weapon at the base, there won't be an evacuation to take care of. "Unless we can board her and disable the device before it can fire." I announced my plan as Twilight tapped her combadge. "Harmony to Stratus, do you think you could take the Lukara's shields down for a boarding party?" She asked as the Stratus' captain gave his answer. "I believe we can, make it quick though, we will only have a few minutes until it's charged!" "Make it quick is my motto!" I said as the battle began on the viewscreen, the two fleets exchanging blue and green weapons fire as the ships flew around each other. "...Maybe." I said as I saw the immediate carnage. One of the Chronos class ships had taken a large hit from the Lukara, the ships shields failing quickly. "All of you, to the bridge," Twilight said as she turned to me. "Littlepip, Flash, you come with me to the transporter room!" "Yes Ma'am!" The rest of Twilight's friends said as I followed the princess, Flash Sentry behind me as we raced to the transporter room. As I ran, I picked up a visor I picked up back at New Khitomer with my magic, putting it in front of my eyes. I spoke to the microphone as I gave my command. "Show me a view from the Stratus' bridge!" The visor obeyed as it displayed a view of the bridge from above Na'Zev, the Lukara ahead of the ship. Two shield draining beams, one from the Stratus and another from a ship I couldn't see, hit the Lukara's shields, which flickered as they began to fail. I brought my focus back to the group as we reached the transporter room, one officer operating the console. Twilight ordered, "We're heading onto the enemy flagship, wait for my signal." The officer nodded as he stood at the ready, me and my companions stepping onto the transporter pads. I looked back to my visor, the Lukara's shields flickered for a few more seconds before they flashed away. We were clear. I turned to Twilight as I said, "Their shields are down, now's our chance!" "Now." The officer took action at her words as he tapped the console a few times, before the three of us were surrounded in a energy field of blue, the sight of the Harmony disappearing as we arrived at a new place... |||||| The field of blue dissipated as we arrived in the weapon control room of the Lukara, several Klingons seeing us and pulling out their weapons. The purple alicorn wasted no time in deploying a shield around us as the disruptors hit it, failing to hurt us. "Find the weapon, quickly!" Twilight said as I took off the visor and looked around, the room had two lines going between three consoles, two of them operated the grapplers that would deploy the torpedoes before they were fired at their target. The center one, however, was for the special weapon J'ula used. It was a slightly modified console that had wires which were used to hook up the mycelium to the power banks around the center space between the torpedo launchers, the console would allow them to change the power output of the weapon. The rest of the room had a faint rust color on the walls and ceiling, with slivers of gold on the bulky cylindrical sections behind the torpedo tractor lines. I pulled out Little Macintosh for the first time in ten years, reloading some replicated bullets from New Khitomer as I counted my targets, five warriors, three of them at each of the consoles. I watched as Twilight shot her shield outward, knocking the Mo'Kai servants back. I went into the nirvana of SATS and shot three of them, the forth being shot by Twilight's unique disruptor pistol and the fifth being struck down by flash and his royal guard staff. We were clear for the moment, now I just needed to overload the device and they wouldn't be using it anytime soon. "Flash, cover us." Twilight said to the guard. "Gotcha." He replied as he took a spot near the room's door, deploying a combat drone to assist him. I could hear more Klingons heading our way as I raced over to the center console, taking a look at it's buttons as I figured out how to mess with it. "The lessons from the Tactical class will pay off." I thought to myself as I tapped several buttons. I heard a low beep as it denied me access to the command I tried to enter. I turned to Twilight. "I'll need a minute to hack it! J'ula's got security locks on it!" "Do it, hurry!" The princess replied as more Klingons entered the room, Twilight placing a shield around me before they could hit me. The princess and the guard fought off the attackers as I took the console apart, checking it's computer core and starting my hacking attempt. Another transporter field appeared as three more Starfleet officers appeared on my left side, firing their weapons at the Klingons. "We thought you could use some help." The familiar pegasus' voice said as she rolled and crouched behind the left torpedo console. "Snowdrop! I owe you a Sparkle Cola after this!" I responded with a grin as I got through the security locks, inserting the computer core into the console before putting it's cover door back on. "Just like the terminals in the Wasteland." I muttered with a grin. I stood up as I tapped several buttons to the console, the power banks roaring louder as they started to overload. "You taken care of that weapon yet?!" Twilight asked as she vaporized on of the Klingons. "We're ready to go now!" I said as I tapped my combadge and spoke. "Littlepip to Harmony, six to transport!" My friends and I we're surrounded by blue fields of energy, the Stratus' party following a second later. Before she was beamed out, one of the Klingons got a lucky shot and hit Snowdrop in her right shoulder, letting out a yelp of pain as I gasped in shock. "Snowdrop!" was all I could say before my sight blurred, the blue field dominating my vision once again. |||||| My vision cleared as we were back in the Harmony's transporter room, Snowdrop's team arriving alongside us. The young mare fell to her haunches as she clutched her shoulder, hissing in pain. Twilight was quick to tap her combadge as she ordered, "Sparkle to sickbay, medical team to Transporter Room 2!" I trotted over to my friend as one of her officers scanned her with a tricorder, the little device beeping softly and rapidly as it did it's work. As soon as it stopped the Andorian officer said, "She's taken a bad shot, but it's nothing sickbay can't fix." I breathed a sigh of relief as Snowdrop spoke to me. "Don't worry about me, Littlepip, go with your friends to the bridge." I nodded as I got up and went with Twilight and Flash out the door and into the hallway that led to the bridge, one of the Stratus' crewmen called out to me. "We'll stay with Commander Snowdrop until the medical team arrives." Twilight nodded before continuing onward to the bridge, I put on my visor as I ordered it to display the Stratus' bridge again. The Lukara had its shields up again, and was firing a wave of disruptor fire at the Stratus. About eight seconds passed before the front pylon of the ship exploded, breaking off of the Lukara's hull. I let out a "YES!" and laughed at my victory against the flagship of J'ula, the ship now breaking away from the battle, dragging its broken hull along in a tractor beam. "We did it guys!" I said as we reached the turbolift, the doors shutting the moment we were inside. "Did it work?" Twilight asked as I nodded in response. "I overloaded the power banks linked to the weapon, they can't get us now!" I said as I took a look at my Pipleg and tapped it, I wondered if I could hear J'ula's reaction to her prized weapon being destroyed. Surprisingly, I found the ships communication frequency. I activated it and placed in my old earbloom as I listened. "My lady, our weapon has been sabotaged, we can't fire it!" "It seems that Starfleet's new agent is more witty than I expected. No matter, if we cannot take their starbase, then we shall burn it off of the face of the galaxy! Call our new assets, and destroy the starbase!" "New assets?" I muttered fearfully as my laughing ceased, a beep from my combadge alerted me of another hail. I took the earbloom out of my ear and tapped the small device on my chest. "What's wrong?" "It seems we've underestimated J'ula," Na'Zev said through the badge. "We're getting more signatures on sensors, they outnumber us!" "What?!" I said as I pulled my visor back down and looked at the Stratus' bridge, several wormholes opened around the Klingon fleet and ships exited from them one by one. I had never seen these ships before, one of them had a triangular shape, with a small dome underneath its hull. It dwarfed every other ship around it! Another ship was of a totally different design. It had red armor and several guns on its hull, two engine-like pylons sticking out the sides. There were at least 7 of these ships coming out of the portal. The last type of ship was something I didn't expect to see ever again after my time in the Wasteland. It was an Enclave Thunderhead! How did J'ula get one of those things to fly in space?! Could they actually be space capable? I would've been stuck staring into my visor at the strange new arrivals had Na'Zev not spoke to me again through my combadge. "We must evacuate the starbase! We can't hold off this many ships!" "We'll beam everyone we can off of the station! We'll be at the bridge in about-" The turbolifts doors opened as we saw the bridge, Twilight's friends at their stations. "...Now." The princess finished with a surprised expression. "The Sebrova and Ticonderoga will assist in evacuation procedures!" The male voice I heard earlier said as Na'Zev responded. "Thank you, Captain, Stratus out." As the badge shut off we raced to the center of the bridge, Twilight and Flash taking their seats near Spike as I stood alongside them. "Get everyone you can off of that station! Take us out of here!" Twilight ordered as the ship shook seconds later, detaching from the docking clamps as the ship broke off from the starbase's lower section. On the viewscreen, I saw the new ships aiming their cannons at us, the barrels on them glowing a sinister red before firing, hitting the Harmony and the starbase. The ship shook violently, some of the officers falling off their feet as the ship's shields were damaged. "Shields at 60%!" Rarity yelled as the ship sped away from the station. "We can't take that many hits again!" "How many-" Twilight stopped as Pinkie Pie's console beeped, the pink mare tapping the console as she spoke. "We're being hailed." She said as the screen showed an officer on the screen, his hair a mess as he spoke up. "We've gotten all non-essential personnel off the station, now go and get away from this place!" Twilight argued. "But what about the rest of you?" "There's no time! You have your orders, go and leave before they-" He was cut off as one of the weapons hit the station, the room exploding before the screen went to static. "Get us out of here! Maximum speed!" Twilight said as the ship jerked to the right, going at full impulse as the other ships followed. "We'll cover you!" Na'Zev said through my combadge. "Sebrova moving to escort Harmony!" The Sebrova's captain said as all of our ships flew alongside the princess' flagship. "Get me the aft viewer!" Twilight said as the screen changed to show the Laurentian outpost, it was being torn apart by the beams from the small cruisers, the Thunderhead was slicing away the dome of the starbase very slowly. The attack lasted a few moments longer until the starbase exploded, a shockwave pushing away the enemy ships. The princess stood and turned to Rarity as she said, "Get me a report on our evac count." Rarity nodded as she went to a nearby console, checking the ship for the amount of people we rescued. I sat on my haunches, looking at the viewscreen. We couldn't save the starbase, but we managed to get the civilian personnel off before it was destroyed. Though the thing that locked my brain into focus was the fleet at the battle, what were those ships? And why would J'ula use them to commit acts of terrorism throughout the timestream? I let myself be lost in thought as the Harmony and its escorts went to warp, Whatever J'ula was up to, I was sure I was biting off more than I could chew.