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When the Federation Alliance finally decided to go on the
offensive and successfully wrested the Chin’Toka system from the
hands of the Dominion after defeating the automated orbital weapons
platforms, Jem’Hadar Attack Ships and Cardassian Galor-class battle
cruisers based there, they began to reinforce the ground their troops
had captured.
One of the vessels that was left to patrol the system was the
Hunter . She had a quiet few months there patrolling the border and
having the occasional skirmish with a probing Jem’Hadar attack ship.
She was then rotated back to Deep Space 9 for refuelling, re-arming
and repairs. There she was once again part of the Federation’s Ninth
Fleet.
Just as Deep Space 9’s Chief of Operations, Chief Miles
O’Brien’s engineering teams had finalised their repairs and the ship
was outfitted with a full complement of Quantum torpedoes some
disturbing news came in from the front. The Dominion was moving to
retake the Chin’Toka system with a massive fleet which included their
new allies: the Breen.
The counteroffensive was spearheaded by the Breen forces who
broke through the Federation Alliance defences in two places. The
Ninth Fleet then departed from Deep Space 9 to reinforce the
beleaguered defenders. It was here that the crew of the USS Hunter
was to taste defeat for the first time.
The Federation Alliance was easily outnumbered by the
Dominion’s fleet in the Chin’Toka system by at least 3 to 1 but put
up a valiant fight in the belief in their ships and their recent
successes. That was until the Breen unveiled their secret weapon,
their energy dissipaters. 311 Federation Alliance ships, including
Captain Sisko’s vaunted USS Defiant, were incapacitated by the Breen
energy dissipaters, which drained every single system on the ship
dry, leaving them powerless and helpless. Their crews were forced to
abandon their ships to slowly limp back to Federation territory in
cramped escape pods. Their abandoned vessels were then destroyed at
the Dominion’s leisure.
The USS Hunter was luckier than most of the fleet in that she
survived the first attack run against the Dominion fleet. Two other
Defiant-class ships, the USS Victory and USS Cheyenne , as well as an
Akira-class vessel, the USS Hornet , in their attack wing were
destroyed on their first pass. The Defiants were destroyed by
Cardassian fire while the Akira was obliterated by being rammed by
Jem’Hadar attack ship. The Hunter had managed to defeat her pursuer,
a Cardassian Galor-class battle cruiser. She managed to defeat the
Cardassian ship by flying close to her superstructure on a strafing
run. The Hunter was too close to the Galor for her weapons to get a
lock on the diminutive Federation warship. The Hunter , meanwhile, was
nimble enough to evade the incoming fire while, at the same time,
firing several devastating Quantum torpedo volley’s which punched
through the Cardassian shields and destroyed the ship utterly. As she
emerged on the far side of the exploding Galor, the Hunter was
battered by two Jem’Hadar attack ships.
Her weakened shields could not absorb the full fury of the
firepower unleashed on her and she was very badly damaged. The
Captain, First Officer and two other junior officers were killed by
direct hit to bridge. Several others were hurt as consoles exploded
across the bridge. Lieutenant James Kelly, the Hunter’s Tactical
Officer, was then forced to assume command being the most senior
officer left alive on the bridge.
The young Bajoran helmsman, Ensign Jokana Preal, had managed to
use the enforced roll put on the ship by the combined Jem’Hadar
phaser assault to force the little warship into an extremely tight
turn that evaded their pursuers for a few moments, which gave the
bridge crew enough time to sort out the chain of command. That done
the Hunter re-entered the battle and succeeded in taking out two
Jem’Hadar ships with devastating fire from her pulse-phaser cannons
and a Breen warship with a spread of Quantum torpedoes. Unfortunately
with her own shields at 32% they sustained major damage to all major
systems as they were caught by the blast wave from the exploding
Breen vessel.
The blast that engulfed the Hunter drained the last of the
power from her shields and knocked her weapons off-line. Life support
dropped below minimum capability and the multiple alert klaxons
blaring throughout the ship did little to help the crew focus on
their jobs. And to make matters worse, a Cardassian Hideki-class
cruiser was closing on them. Its first volley of torpedoes battered
the little starship. Down in Engineering her crew were desperately
trying to get Warp power back on-line and all the while the ship was
being battered from all sides. The impulse engines were almost gone
leaving the ship with docking thrusters only. They were swiftly
running out of operational systems, options and time.
"If we're gonna go, why not take some spoonheads with us? Let's
ram the bastards!" someone shouted.
"That may not be necessary!" James said evenly. The calmness in
his voice not betraying the absolute fear he was feeling. His mind
was hinting to him that they did indeed have one more weapon, besides
the self-destruct, to use. James accessed his console and smiled
evilly when he got the results he hoped for. His conscious brain
finally caught on to the idea that was hanging at the edge of his
mind.
"Helm, set a ramming course for that cruiser. Best possible
speed!"
There was stunned silence on the bridge for a split second. It seemed
as though even the alert klaxons had suffered shock at the order.
"Aye sir," she said dejectedly. Ensign Jokana, who as a young
Bajoran had expected to have been killed by Cardassians years ago
during the Occupation of Bajor but had been lucky enough to have
avoided that fate, slowly input the appropriate commands. It looked
now though that she was destined to die at Cardassian hands.
At least I’ll have the satisfaction of taking some of the
Spoonheads with me, she thought morosely, as her finger hovered over
the thruster controls. She said a quick prayer to the Prophets to
watch over her family as she waited to punch the button that would
launch the ship on its suicidal course. She did not realise that her
prayer had been said aloud and had been heard by the entire bridge
crew, who were all praying the same thing to their own Gods.
"Course plotted and laid in, sir", she announced with defiance.
"Engage!"
Jabbing her finger into the controls she launched the ship on a
suicidal charge directly towards the on-rushing Cardassian warship as
fast as her thrusters could force her. Jim counted off the distance
in his mind. Just before the collision alarm sounded he gave his
orders.
"Helm, all engines full reverse!"
The Ensign was amazed to hear that order. She felt cheated of
her fate but complied with the order nonetheless. As soon as the
young Ensign started to punch her console, Jim entered commands on
the panel in the arm of his chair. As soon as he did, the computer
announced the decoupling sequence and began to give a five second
countdown. Then, with a thump and at the precise moment of zero
inertia, when the ship’s momentum began to change from forward to
reverse, the warhead was released. The warhead was the entire forward
section of the ship, which contained the navigational deflector and
the forward torpedo launchers. Since use of the warhead in this
manner is considered a last-ditch measure, depriving the ship of its
navigational deflector at that point should not cause a problem. In
the event that the ship survives an encounter in which it has to use
its warhead, it cannot safely go to warp speeds until the warhead is
replaced.
Jim was fully aware of this fact, now that his mind had finally
grasped the idea, as the warhead burst forward from its housing while
the remainder of the ship flew in reverse as fast as she could go.
The on-rushing Cardassian warship could do nothing to avoid the
rapidly approaching warhead. It’s already battered shields crumpled
and collapsed beneath the force of the impact and the exploding
warhead tore the Cardassian ship to pieces.
Ensign Jokana thanked the Prophets for their mercy and Jim
quietly gave them a little thank you too. After a quick stock take of
their ship's condition the consensus of the bridge crew was to
withdraw from the battlefield and hide somewhere until they could
contact a Starfleet ship for assistance in making it back to Deep
Space 9. They were in no shape to fight off a shuttlecraft never mind
a warship. Their limited sensors revealed nothing but hulks of
damaged and destroyed starships and hundreds of Dominion warships.
Jokana expertly piloted the badly wounded little starship into the
devastated hulk of what had once been the saucer section of a
magnificent Galaxy-class vessel but was now little more than scrap.
She had been decapitated by seemingly unending volleys of torpedoes.
The massive damage inflicted, once she had been hit by the Breen
energy dissipater, had caused her warp core to breach, destroying the
stardrive section, while also ripping open the saucer killing most of
the occupants instantly. The young Ensign had managed to find a large
enough gap inside the remnants of the saucer to hold the Hunter . Once
inside they powered down absolutely everything they could and began
the difficult job of repairing their battered little ship, all the
while hoping beyond hope that firstly they wouldn’t get detected by a
passing Dominion ship, secondly that they wouldn’t be killed by a
stray or lucky shot, and thirdly that when they had restored weapons,
shields and engines they would be able to contact a friendly ship to
help them home.
Their hiding place was buffeted several times by stray shots
and the energy wakes of passing vessels as the battle raged on around
them but they were not detected and the saucer held intact.
To Be Continued....
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