Flashes of Fire - Hermes: Into the Fire

Posted on Tue Mar 10th, 2020 @ 3:55am by Captain Astrid "Alex" Yamaguchi & Commander Yuri Denisov & Commander William Hague & Commander Victoria "Vicki" Cameron & Commander Sasha Behl & Lieutenant Commander Candace DeCoste & Lieutenant Commander Michael Jankowski & Lieutenant Commander James De Poix & Major Matthew "Monkman" Gideon & Lieutenant Commander Don Henson & Commodore Korelii MacRae & Command Master Chief Petty Officer Laurel Takashima & Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mitchell & Lieutenant Colonel Michael Pallara & Colonel Miranda 'Coop' Cooper

Mission: Mission 79: Sound Trumpets! Let Our bloody Colors Wave
Location: Various Locations - Zol'Maz System
Timeline: 1810Hrs - April 15th, 2392

"McKnight to Coop?" The Halanan female inquired as she activated the com system.

"Coop here." Flight Commodore Miranda 'Coop' Cooper's voice came back. "Whats up skipper." she inquired, she and the last few birds were presently getting set to launch as Coop was the kind who preferred to launch last rather than first as she wished to make sure everyone else launched properly.

"What's your status?" McKnight inquired, she wanted to make sure that all was ready for the battle that was imminent.

Coop checked her displays as she double-checked that her guys and her drones are ready to rumble. "Yessir, we're ready down here. All my pilots are out and the drones are operational... We're ready for anything." came the response from the other woman. 'Except dying.' Coop left that comment unsaid but she knew that McKnight had the same thought in her own mind too.

McKnight signed. "Well. Asides from an old Egyptian blessing... I can't think of anything to add... Good Luck Coop..." she paused. "McKnight out." and with that, she tapped the display once, closing the channel.

Flight Commodore Miranda Cooper sat in the cockpit of her starfighter while a gentle smile graced her lips, the canopy was raised as one of the deck crew turned to her. "An old Egyptian blessing?" he clearly didn't know what that meant.

Cooper breathed in before she responded. "May God.. go between you.. and harm... in all the empty places ... you must walk..." as she felt a sudden surge of emotion.

The young man regarded her. "Poetic.." he paused. "Right. Let's get you set up."

'Coop' nodded her head. "Yep.." as Coop thought of her children, faces she might never see again as she cleared her throat while pushing the thought and emotions away. "Right... Let's kill them," she growled softly. "Tower, this is Coop. request clearance for launch.." she inquired via the com system as she closed the canopy and quickly double-checked her starfighter, making sure that she was indeed ready in all aspects. A quick look at her displays indicated that she was.

"Clearance granted." came the response. "Launch when ready." and with that Coop goosed the thrusters as she flew her bird gently out of the hangar bay to join up with her troops, a small army of starfighters now waited for her personal command.

Flight Commander Michael Pallara watched in silence. He was the Flight Deck Commander for the USS Hermes and her crew, this was a man who took his work seriously but not so seriously that he could be heartless about it. "Fly well Coop," he said softly under his breath. "Send those Klingon bastards to hell.."

Meanwhile on the bridge of the USS Hermes. Korelli McKnight narrowed her eyes as she regarded the tactical display before her. Lieutenant Commander James De Poix who was the Chief Tactical Actions Officer raised an eyebrow. "Skipper. I'm reading over eight thousand starfighters coming right at us."

"Stand by for defensive fire," McKnight commented. "Direct Coop to take those fighters on..." she paused. "Ready missile batteries. Fire as soon as they are within range, don't wait for my orders." McKnight added a moment later.

"Skipper.. they outnumber us three to our one," Denison commented quietly.

McKnight nodded her head in agreement. "I know... Hopefully, we can cull that down some.." she commented quietly in response while De Poix smiled. "Enemy fighters within range... opening fire now." as he went to work, emptying hundreds of warheads into the battlespace before they speed with glee into the Klingon horde, dozens of them exploding early thanks to countermeasures and weapons fire but dozens more slammed into Klingon ships and exploded, showing others around them with debris.

Coop lead all of her warbirds into battle as she engaged from the front, she was not a very subtle woman but those who knew her, knew this about her as the Federation horde opened fire except the Klingons began to break apart as the Federation forces shot them to pieces while the fight developed into hundreds of small dogfights and furballs with Federation personnel and drones along with Klingon warriors dying together, locked in battle.

Coop snapped her starfighter to the left as a warhead shot past her before it detonated, it sensed it had no chance of hitting her so it detonated instead. "Crap.." she let out her emotions all in one word as she snapped back to the right before chopping her throttles, the Klingon chasing her couldn't compensate fast enough before Coop blew his ass out of the skies. She took a moment to look around as her threat indicator told her in no uncertain terms that someone wanted intimate relations with her.

Coop frowned "My husband would object... He's right to do so." she commented while she turned her starfighter to meet the incoming threat before she fired off a spread of four missiles, two of which impacted and then shattered the first Klingon, the other two missed but as fortune would have it, the battle recordings and footage would later tell her that she had an extra kill because the two errant warheads smashed into a Klingon bomber, demolishing it.

Coop meanwhile opened up with her phasers from max range before a missile smashed into the Klingon fighter that was molesting her, the explosion drained the Klingon's shields as Coop's phasers finished the job. Coop breathed out and then back in again. "Thanks... whoever that was."

"No worries lead." came the response.

Coop took another moment to look around as she watched the hundreds of small dogfights end with the inevitable conclusion of one side of the other getting shot down, the Federation had ways to recover downed pilots, Coop knew but it didn't stop her from wondering what they could have done better.

Meanwhile on the bridge of the USS Hermes. Captain Korelli McKnight regarded the battle with a similar dispassionate view that her CAG had, the numbers of red targets had diminished but they still had far more than what her own forces had at their disposal. "Status of the overall battle.?" McKnight inquired.

"The battle is going well. We're cleaning out their starfighter support, nothing too serious. Thanks to our new carriers and our new weapons tech." Commander Sasha Behl smiled, her dulcet tones contrasted sharply with the red lights all over the bridge as the lights flashed red, indicating the ships present alert status.

Command Master Chief Petty Officer Laurel Takashima, turned her head. "Skipper.. the Klingons are recalling their ships, they wish to regroup."

"Did they broadcast that over an open channel?" Captain Astrid Yamaguchi, inquired. She had a rather puzzled look on her face. "That's a rather odd play for them." the good looking female added a moment later.

"Yes," Takashima responded bluntly before she took a moment to push her gray hair out of her face while reminding herself that she needed a haircut for the umpteenth time this week. "Why do you say that?" the Asian woman inquired.

Yamaguchi shook her head. "Either they fucked up and we're about to capitalize on it or they think we're about to screw up and they are baiting a trap."

McKnight regarded her Chief of Intelligence with a look, what she was saying made sense. "Either way, they did screw up."

Yamaguchi regarded the skipper. "Yes. They did.."

Denison smiled as he tapped the display before him. "Coop, try and kill as many of those fighters as you can before they regroup."

The tactical display revealed the naked fury of the battle raging around them. "Shields are at 60%". reported Commander Sasha Bhel, as if she was reporting something from one of the novels she had replicated and was reading to everyone.

The Engineering officer present reacted quickly. "Diverting auxiliary power to the shield grid."

Behl smiled. "Thanks... Shields now back to eighty percent," she reported.

Denison turned. "James... There is a battleship at heading one one two, mark six..."

"I have him.." De Poix responded, a confident grin on his face as he proceeded to empty every missile tube on the Hermes, the space around the carrier exploded into a fireworks show as several hundred warheads sped through space, many of them being swatted down by Klingon fighters and some sped into other Klingon ships, exploding against shields of some and armor of others, however, two-thirds of the warheads launched smashed into the battleship which began to break apart under the furious assault from the Hermes.

As the fires from dozens of warheads spent themselves inside the hull of the battleship, the various Klingons present continued to regroup, with thousands of warheads being sent after them from starfighters and starships of the Federation that half-heartedly chased them across the battlespace as many feared a trap.

McKnight watched the battlespace on the main viewscreen. "Astrid... You think this could be a trap?"

Yamaguchi tapped the displays as she requested a long-range sensor scan, but all she spotted was small tachyon distortions. "Yes. I'm seeing small tachyon distortions but a lot of them... dozens of not hundreds.." While Yamaguchi spoke, another thousand or so Klingon ships appeared from behind the cloaks they relied upon before they opened fire. The Federation forces responded with their own fire.

Several hundred thousand warheads passed between each other as the Federation starfighters were put on the backfoot, swatting down the warheads coming for their capital ships as they closed on each other before the battlespace around the ships assembled exploded with raw rage and fury.