The Battle of Starbase 234 - Part 11 - Overwhelming Numbers
Posted on Fri Feb 6th, 2026 @ 10:57pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2' & Ensign Len Kagamine 'Twin 1' & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Nezuko & Lieutenant JG Pryana Z'Kan
2,066 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
The Return
Location: Various Locations
Timeline: February 27, 2397
The Ark Royal swung around, its phasers firing. It was holding the line, taking on two Herald cruisers. The ship was starting to show signs of battle, scorching on the hull, a flickering nacelle and the occasional shot getting through their shields.
[Starfighters]
"Snowflake to all pilots. Cover the Ark Royal. Lets take some heat off them!" Fubuki ordered to her starfighers. She was essentially commanding a small fleet at this point, and they could easily win this with numbers.
"Copy, Snowflake," Vyse replied. "Twin 1, Twin 2, on me. Let's draw some fire."
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
"Captain, transmitting our current position and shield status to allied vessels," Lieutenant Yuvek reported, his hands moving across the helm controls. "Ready to coordinate attack patterns with the Ark Royal, Broadsword, and Graf Zeppelin on tactical's mark."
His display showed the Ark Royal taking heavy fire from two Herald cruisers, the carrier's shields flickering under sustained assault. Snowflake's voice came through the comm ordering fighters to provide cover.
"We can maneuver to support the Ark Royal's starboard flank," Lieutenant Yuvek called out Tactical. "Can we concentrate fire on one of those cruisers, maybe we can pull them off the Ark Royal and give their shields time to regenerate." he said quickly before turning to call out to Nezuko at OPS.
"OPS, can we establish a direct tactical data-link with the other Armitage-class vessels? If we can synchronize our attack patterns in real-time, we can coordinate firing solutions more effectively." He suggested.
Nezuko nodded and sought to establish such a data-link. Her console spoke for her. "Working. Give time. Link must be line-of-sight and encrypted. Cannot allow enemy to hack it. Link severance better alternative to link interception." She pinged the other ships and set everything up on her end for a maximum-security exchange.
"Concentrating fire on the nearest Herald Cruiser." Pryana said as her fingers flew over the controls. "May the Soul Eaters devour their souls."
Before he could lay in a vector approach, Lieutenant Yuvek saw the one of the Klingon vessels flash red on his console. A Bird-of-Prey, caught in a devastating crossfire from three Herald cruisers simultaneously. The ship's shields didn't just fail - they shattered. Purple antiproton beams converged on the small vessel from multiple angles. The port wing separated first, tumbling away in a spray of molten debris. Then the primary hull split open, atmosphere and crew venting into space as secondary explosions rippled through the engineering section. The warp core breached in a brilliant green fireball, consuming what remained of the ship and scattering wreckage across a kilometer of space.
As the Bird-of-Prey exploded, Pryana prayed that the warriors would find their way to Sto-Vo-Kor. Many of her people, herself included, felt a brotherhood with the fellow warrior culture.
"Avoid the debris, bank up and over, x axis." Taiga ordered. "Fire when in range."
"Firing." Pyrana said. The Tokyo's phasers impacted the Herald Cruiser. It wasn't long before, Pyrana reported. "Ememy's main weapons array is destroyed, Ma'am. Targeting engines."
The destruction of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey registered on his console—one moment a functional warship, the next an expanding cloud of superheated debris and vaporized crew.
He felt nothing at the loss.
Klingons. The word carried weight in his mind, echoes of childhood memories he usually kept buried. The raiding party that had killed his parents. The bodies he and Bretav had hidden beneath until the warriors finally left. Jasad compartmentalized the flicker of satisfaction that had threatened to surface—
Focus. This is not the time.
Yuvek forced himself back to the present, to the tactical situation that required his full attention. He would process his feelings about Klingon casualties later. Or never.
"Links established," Nezuko confirmed. "Real-time coordination of helm and tactical available. Links will cut if risk of interception."
He monitored the tactical data-link feed, noting the coordinated movements of the other Armitage-class vessels. The synchronized attack pattern was efficient—concentrated firepower would overwhelm individual targets more effectively than distributed fire.
"Acknowledged, evasive maneuvers," Lieutenant Yuvek confirmed, his voice level and controlled. The Tokyo banked sharply along the x-axis, rising above the expanding debris field with mathematical precision. He adjusted thrust ratios to compensate for the gravitational interference from the wreckage, maintaining optimal positioning for weapons deployment.
"Debris field clear. Approaching optimal firing range," Lieutenant Yuvek reported, his fingers dancing across the helm interface. "Holding steady bearing two-seven-zero mark seven. Tactical, firing solutions are optimal for the next twelve-point-three seconds before the enemy vessel adjusts position."
The port nacelle on the lead Herald vessel appeared particularly attractive. Without warp drive, the cruiser wouldn't be able to break off and regroup with the remaining Herald formation.
"Targeting Herald cruiser's port nacelle." Pryana reported. "Can't have them regrouping and consolating their forces." The SerNumi added.
Phaser beams shot forth from the Tokyo and impacted with the enemy vessels shields that absorbed the brunt of the attack.
"OPS, I am detecting fluctuations in the Herald vessel's shield harmonics. If you can isolate the frequency variance, Tactical may be able to modulate phaser frequencies for maximum penetration," Lieutenant Yuvek suggested, his tone clinical and precise.
"On it." Nezuko reviewed the available data and found the frequency variance in just a few short seconds. "Sending to Tactical."
The Tokyo unleashed a full assault on the Herald cruiser, its orange phasers striking through their shields and impacting the hull. A volley of Quantum Torpedoes smacked into the cruiser's hull, blasting a huge hole in its side. The Herald cruiser seemed to flicker as if it was losing power before developing a port list and then exploding in a huge ball of fire.
[Starfighters]
Rin tightened her grip on her sticks as she banked the Valkrie around to port, staying in formation with the group she was assigned. Her her pounded in her chest as they approached the next target. The Herald ship ahead of them was already being engaged by the Broadsword which was giving them a decent pounding.
She couldn't help but smile as the order came over her headset. "Fire!"
Rapid orange phaser bolts showered down on the Herald ship. The volley of phaser fire was too much for their shields to take. Rin held her fighter steady as they charged full speed towards the Heralds. She looked down at her tactical screen, the Herald's shields were starting to buckle. Now was their chance to break through and take out the enemy vessel.
"Looks like we're getting another one..." Rin said to herself as she continued holding the trigger down.
Impact after impact struck the Herald ship tearing their hull apart after finally penetrating their shields. "Here we go!" Rin yelled as their squadron flew through the explosion, their shields shimmering from the impact.
"Another one down huh sis..." Len's voice said as he pulled alongside. "Just be careful, we have the numbers, but they have the tech advantage!" he warned her. Rin rolled her eyes and smirked.
[USS Ark Royal]
The ship shook violently as the Herald's bore down on the shields. Maple looked over at Sally and then back at her tactical officer. "Full power to shields! Lets keep our defences high! We don't want to get hit!"
"Yes, Ma'am," the tall, dark-haired Lieutenant manning tactical responded as her hands calmly and confidently danced across the console she had spent the last few months rigorously training in its usage. "Diverting aux power to shields, affirm."
"Maintain power levels to impulse engines," Sally ordered to the Ops and Helm stations. "Keep us moving." Avoiding being hit was as good a tactic as a strong defense, she always said. Hopefully one day her Captain would listen.
Maple looked over at her executive officer, Sally was always known for her speed and manuevers. However she appreciated the help in this situation. As much as Maple liked to focus on defense, they still needed to keep the ship moving in order to win this.
[USS Tokyo]
The Tokyo shook again as they took more of the Heralds fire. Then something strange and unexpected happened. Huge 'holes' in space appeared and all of the Herald ships came to a halt. Their weapons became silent, as one by one they began to slip away through their gateways.
Taiga held up a hand. "Hold your fire. Are they retreating?"
"It appears so, Ma'am." Pryana replied. "But, I suggest we remain vigilant, until we receive more data."
Lieutenant Yuvek's hands remained poised over the helm controls as the Herald vessels suddenly ceased fire. His eyes tracked the purple gateways opening across the battlefield, one after another.
His fingers hovered over the navigation controls, ready to execute evasive maneuvers if this was some kind of trap. They don't retreat. They destroy everything and leave. Why stop now? Jasad thought to himself.
"Something isn't right here..." Taiga said as she leant forward in her chair. It was unusual for the Heralds to simply leave, especially since they had the clear number advantage. "I don't like this at all..."
Then, the surrounding space around them in every vector began to shine purple. Holes in space began to open all around the starbase and the remaining ships. The once black star-lined backdrop of space was turned purple as hundreds, if not thousands of gateways began to open.
Then, slowly huge Herald ships began to slowly emerge from the gateways. These ships were much larger than the cruisers and raiders they had been dealing with. They dwarfed the Federation starships not only in size, but in sheer intimidation factor.
"Captain." Nezuko looked at Taiga with wide eyes as she typed out a report. "Sensors reading five-two-zero-zero ships with more arriving every second."
"We can't hold out against that!" Taiga said. This battle was about to turn into one thing. A full out massacre.
"Jased! Turn the ship about, full speed back to the Starbase! We'll beam up anyone we can grab and then we're getting the hell out of here!" Taiga ordered.
For a moment, Lieutenant Yuvek's hands froze on the controls as the sheer scale of what they were facing overwhelmed even his practiced composure. Thousands of ships. Against their handful of damaged carriers and whatever was left of the defense force. But Captain Taiga's order cut through the paralysis, and his training reasserted itself. His burned hand moved across the helm controls despite the pain.
The Cardassian's voice coming out steadier than he felt. "Aye, ma'am, coming about and heading to beam-out range of the Starbase." The helmsman announced.
Taiga then tapped a few buttons on the arm of her chair. "Aisaka to all ships and fighters. Pull back to the Starbase, grab who you can and then full retreat. We don't stand a chance against the sheer amount of ships coming through those gateways!" she ordered. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she held onto her chair, a sense of urgency now running through her blood.
Lieutenant Yuvek pushed the carrier hard while his mind ran the calculations automatically - numbers he wished he could ignore.
Starbase 234 had estimated complement of 2,000 civilians at any given time, not counting Starfleet personnel. The away team reported thousands gathered on the promenade alone. The Tokyo's transporter capacity, even with enhancers, was, at most, maybe 200 people per cycle. Two cycles if we're incredibly lucky before those dreadnoughts open fire. Four hundred people. Out of thousands.
We're going to leave thousands of people behind to die Jasad thought to himself grimly as he continued to pilot the Carrier back to the Starbase to retrieve what scant bodies they could.
Posting By:
Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake'
Commander Air Group
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Pryana Z'Kan
Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo
Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Ensign Len Kagamine 'Twin 1'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Captain Maple Shipman
Commanding Officer
USS Ark Royal
Commander Sally Saxton
Executive Officer
USS Ark Royal
Lieutenant Hazel Ballard
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Ark Royal
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