On The Assault - Part 10 - The Cost of Six Minutes
Posted on Tue Aug 4th, 2026 @ 9:27am by Captain Minori Kushieda & Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Commander Thomas Johnson & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Zachary Addams & Lieutenant JG Connor Carey & Lieutenant JG Pryana Z'Kan & Lieutenant JG Anzhelina Walker "Seraphina" & Ensign Grace MacKenzie 'Sabre'
Edited on on Tue Aug 4th, 2026 @ 9:29am
2,670 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Various
Timeline: March 18th, 2397
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
The fight was brief, the shielding around the bridge set up only allowed the few Heralds in, that was taken care of already. He had just enough power to strengthen the power to them. "Sir, we have got more boarding all over the ship, internal communications are reading Heralds and starfleet beaming over... ship to ship communications are offline." Connor replied checking a few systems that were operational. "Shields down to 10 percent we lost a chunk of our left side."
Thomas knelt on the floor, feeling that metallic taste and feeling several gaps in his mouth. "Understood, communicate with anyone you can, get our shields and coms back up."
Lieutenant Yuvek kept one hand braced against the helm console, still fighting the slight list in the ship's attitude as he pulled up what remained of his navigational display. The bridge was a wreck around him, there were bodies on the deck that no one had time to move yet.
He noticed movement beside him and turned to find one of the Graf Zeppelin QRF members posting up at the secondary station to his right, rifle held low but ready, eyes on the turbolift.
"You fly this thing?" the crewman asked, nodding toward the helm.
"When it let's me," Lieutenant Yuvek replied flatly, turning back to his console.
Ten percent shields. Hull breaches port side. Heralds still beaming aboard. Jasad ran the numbers quietly, not liking any of them. The ship was holding together through stubbornness more than structural integrity at this point.
He glanced toward the center of the bridge where the QRF sergeant had moved to Commander Thomas, his voice low and direct. "Commander, what's your ship's status, sir. We need to know what we're working with if we're going to hold this position. What do you need from my team?" He asked. Until the Tokyo could get comms back up, his team was unable to report back to the Graf Zeppelin. For the time being, this ship was where his team was staying.
Spitting more blood onto the floor, reaching into his mouth, and pulling more teeth out. The hit to the console was a hard one, his jaw, just noticing was unable to close all the way. Hes felt injuries to his face before, but this was substantially more than those times. "I need your team to do as they always do. keep them off my ship. Off my bridge at the very least."
[USS Tokyo Auxiliary Control - Deck 8]
Chief Morgan Krell and four other crewmen were pinned down by Heralds.
A Herald raised it staff to cut down a young Bajor Crewman, when a javelin-like weapon came flying from the corridor, passing the point passing though its back and out its chest.
The staff fell from its hand and its body slumped to the floor.
Another Herald turned to face a new potential attacker, only for Pryana to pounce on it stabbing the curved blades of her twin N'Zhara into its chest, just below the shoulders, and 'riding' them to the deck, coating it and herself in a layer of the alien's vital bodily fluids.
Making her way over to her fellow crewmembers, she asked. "Chief are you or your people injured?"
"We are unhurt, thanks to you, Ma'am." Morgan replied.
[USS Armitage]
The Armitage banked hard to port after unloading a full volley of torpedoes into the breach caused by the Akagi's unfortunate destruction. Her ventral phaser strips swept orange beams of energy across the hull as she skimmed over at close range. As the ship pulled up, her aft torpedo launches unleashed another barrage into the breach.
"Bring us back around, let's hit them with another sweep." Minori ordered as the ship banked again.
The viewscreen showed the huge gaping hole now in the side of the starbase, yet it seemed to be regenerating. "Analysis?" Minori asked her attention turning to her science officer.
The Andorian woman tapped away at her controls. "We've taken damage to the main sensor array, so I can't give you a full analysis. However it seems that the damage caused by the Akagi is regenerating. However, I am not sure how. Unlike The Borg, the Iconians don't use nano-probes to regenerate their technology."
"How long until the breach is fully repaired?" Minori asked.
The Andorian woman pondered for a brief moment, the entire bridge hung in pure silence awaiting her answer. "Honestly Captain. I can't give you an estimate right now. At least not an accurate estimate. But, from the regeneration rate we're observing. I'd say no more than six minutes until its fully repaired..."
Minori slammed her fist down on the arm of her chair. "Six minutes..." she exclaimed in frustration. "Its like those on the Akagi died for nothing!"
"Not true..." her exec replied as he placed a calm hand on her arm. "They bought us six minutes. We can still do this."
She took a long breath in, held it for a brief moment and then exhaled. She looked back at her exec and gave him a little nod. He smiled back at her, then turned his face forward. "Let's ensure we use those six minutes!" he said.
"Aye sir. We'll be in firing range in six seconds..." the officer at tactical reported.
The Armitage banked hard, coming around again to face their enemy. The viewscreen showed the Starbase coming up fast. Then another object was coming closer. Minori's eyes immediately caught it. It was the USS Tokyo. She had taken a huge breach to her port side, her engines were dark and the lights from her viewports were flickering. She was drifting off angle.
'I hope they're alright... I know she's not on board right now... But I still hope her crew survive this...' Minori thought to herself as the Armitage swooshed past the Tokyo continuing its run towards the starbase.
"Iconian Beam Weapon is charging again." The tactical officer called out. Once again the huge emitters began to arc and fizzle again before a huge purple beam erupted into space. Heading directly at the Armitage.
"Hard to port!" Minori called out.
The Armitage swung hard to port, however it wasn't enough. The beam struck the ships Starboard nacelle. The Armitage seemed to pause in space for a moment. The starboard nacelle flickered and sparked before a plasma explosion ripped through the coils, blasting the nacelle clean off.
The explosion from the nacelle caused the Armitage to spin from its aft, spinning in space from the sheer momentum. The lights on the ship flickered as the ship began to spin out of control.
[USS Graf Zeppelin]
Captain Forger watched the Armitage's nacelle detonate on the main viewer, the ship spinning away from its attack vector trailing plasma and debris.
"Verdammt." It came out quiet, involuntary.
He was already leaning forward. "Tactical — target ze breach in ze starbase hull, same approach vector as ze Armitage, but I want us coming in at a steeper angle. If zat beam is tracking forward targets, I want us presenting ze narrowest profile possible on ze way in." He turned to Helmuth. "Get a signal to ze Armitage — anyone still conscious over zere needs to know we are covering zeir withdrawal."
"Mr. Soval," he said to his Helm Officer, voice dropping to something measured and deliberate, "bring us in fast. Not reckless — fast. Ze moment we finish our firing run, you pull us out before zat weapon can cycle and track onto us. Ze Armitage held still a half second too long. We will not make ze same mistake."
"Shields to maximum forward concentration. Tactical — fire when ready!" Captain Forger's eyes stayed fixed on the breach growing larger on the viewer.
The Graf Zeppelin's forward arrays cut loose simultaneously, orange phaser beams driving hard into the breach, quantum torpedoes following in tight sequence, punching deeper into the exposed interior than anything had managed before. The deck shuddered under the sustained volley.
"Mr. Soval — break off, bring us around."
The nose pitched up hard, Helm pulling them clear of the starbase's defensive arc in a clean climbing turn before leveling out at a safe distance.
[Starfighters]
Grace's fighter was well away from the beam as she'd escorted the Marine shuttle to their point, but had then broken away from the rest of the group as she ducked in and around the friendly fire to recon the impact point where Akagi had torn the hull apart. Her eyes spotted something and she took a closer look, triggering her pulse phasers to clear away some of the wreckage and her eyes lit up, "Snowflake, I may have something here. I'm going to work my way into the station, see if there's something in there I can blow up."
"Its too risky Sabre." Snowflake responded. "My sensors are reading its hull is regenerating. If you're caught inside..."
"Sorry, I can't hear you, Snowflake." Grace made her voice very soft, "You're breaking up, I can-" She keyed off her comm as she used attitude thrusters to sidle into the wreckage and began to slowly maneuver through the deck area that she'd found. "Computer, map this path, we'll need to find our way out again." There was a bleep of confirmation and she pivoted to the right, then the left. It took her nearly a full minute and a half and having to backtrack out of some dead ends before the deck opened up in front of her and her eyes opened wide.
Sitting directly in front of her, in front of God and Country was a glowing device and her scanners told her it was only building up quickly. "Jackpot!" She crowed and switched to torpedoes. The blood-red number of Zero flashed in front of her and she cursed to herself. She was in the heart of the station, right where the capacitor that powered that God-awful beam was sitting and she only had phasers! She switched back and fired a long burst into the device, but it was shielded and they did nothing. She pivoted around for a look and jetted forward to where she saw the twinkle of stars and part of the asteroid field. A doorway, six to eight meters wide and a horrible target. But she could help with that bit.
She flicked her comm unit back on and routed her IFF beacon into her comm system to boost the power, "Snowflake, Sabre. I'm inside the station and I have the mother of all targets right here, but not enough power to take it out. I'm punching my IFF beacon up to max and I need you to do something."
"Get out of there! That hull will regenerate in a few minutes!" Snowflake shouted down the comm.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine... I think. I need as many fighters as possible to target my beacon with torpedoes." She sidled her fighter so that she was able to see out the hole, not something she could fly OUT of, but if she positioned herself just so, the torpedoes could get in. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw some movement and there were Heralds that were approaching her, their weapons opening fire and bouncing off her shields. "A time-on-target, if you could, quickly?" The sound of her pulse phasers came over the comm as she slewed her fighter to start shooting at the Heralds, each of her pulse phaser shots taking one out.
Snowflake bit her lip. If Sabre had found the power source or some sort of link to their main beam weapon, taking it now was their only option. She checked her instruments and let out a long exasperated sigh. "Snowflake to all Starfighters. Sabre has located what we believe is the power source to the Herald beam weapon. Lock onto her IFF beacon with your torpedoes. On Sabre's mark, fire."
She pushed a button on her comm controls. "All yours Sabre..." she said.
"5 by 5, Snowflake, Seraphina on my way." Anzhelina replied as she moved into range of the target.
Grace knew that her own time here was running out while more and more Heralds kept coming at her, their staff weapon discharges currently being stopped by her shields. She waited ten seconds, continuing to stymie their attempts, but her shield levels were going down even so, "All available fighters: Fire."
"Roger that," Shizuru replied as she banked hard brining the nose of her fighter to bear upon the selected target. Her thumb hesitated over the button that would launch her torpedoes. She took a deep breath in, closed her eyes for a second before her pushing her thumb down, unleashing the relentless assault of torpedoes.
[USS Tokyo - Main Engineering]
"Repair crews to decks seven and twelve," Zach said. He watched the space traffic on one screen and power systems on another, typing commands into a third console as he worked. "All teams focus on restoring main power conduits until complete."
Zach was extremely anxious, but neither his face nor his voice betrayed any of the emotion being suppressed within him. He had teams flying all over the ship and his own repair team was working on the warp core with all due speed. He'd have been extremely proud if he could feel it.
An alarm went off and he turned and ran towards the warp core. "Don't bring power online yet!" he shouted at one of the people working on one of the MARC consoles. "We don't have containment stabilized!"
"I'm sorry, Sir, it looked like we were ready," he said.
Zach looked at the readings and frowned. The ensign wasn't wrong. By all accounts, the MARC should be ready to be powered up. "Alexis, we need to do a complete diagnostic of the Warp Core systems!" he shouted. "Grab PO Chang and Ensign Barkas and let's start checking systems! We have a short somewhere!"
"Chang, third level, use the console up there to test the local feed loops, look for a loop in the system. There's nothing from down here, but I haven't seen a readings change in a while, we might have a data link breakage." Alexis snapped at the skinny young Petty Officer before casually grabbing the back of the uniform of the Ensign that started to dart past her after the petty officer, "Not so fast, Barkas, I need you to stay right here, sir, and keep your eyes on this panel." She deftly spun him towards where she herself was standing, stepping out of the way as she placed him in the position.
As she moved, she gestured to three different sets of readings, two of them fluctuating wildly while the third didn't effectively change at all, "Once this one starts to change, sir, let us know if they're high or low and to what degree. I'm going to the second level to check the antimatter feeds from closer in. Also, run a brief diagnostic on the communications links, we need to know where in the ship isn't responding." Her voice was a calm in the storm and she patted him on the shoulder before seeming to casually stroll off, but in reality she was hustling to the ladder upwards.
Posting by:
Commander Thomas Johnson
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Zachary Addams
Chief Engineer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Pryana Z'Kan
Security Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Connor Carey
Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake'
Commander Air Group
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Anzhelina Walker "Seraphina"
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Ensign Grace MacKenzie 'Sabre'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Captain Minori Kushieda
Commanding Officer
USS Armitage
Captain Loid Forger
Commanding Officer
USS Graf Zepplin
(Played by Lt Jased Yuvek)
USS Graf Zepplin Crew
(Played by Lt Jased Yuvek)
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