On The Assault - Part 11 - The Tide Turns

Posted on Tue Aug 4th, 2026 @ 9:28am by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Captain Yuri Nakamura & Captain Minori Kushieda & Commander Thomas Johnson & Lieutenant Commander Talia Johnson & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Zachary Addams & Lieutenant JG Connor Carey & Ensign Grace MacKenzie 'Sabre'
Edited on on Tue Aug 4th, 2026 @ 9:30am

3,056 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Various
Timeline: March 18th, 2397

[USS Graf Zepplin]

Captain Forger turned from the tactical display, jaw tight. "Any word from ze fighters? Ze ones still flying — what are zey doing out zere?"

The tactical officer cycled through the fighter frequencies, head down. A moment passed before she straightened. "Captain, I'm picking up a transmission between Sabre and Snowflake. One of the fighters has made it inside the station through the Akagi's breach. She's found what appears to be the power source for the beam weapon." She looked up. "She's requesting every available fighter to target her IFF beacon with torpedoes. Time on target strike."

Captain Forger stared at her for a moment. "Verdammt," he muttered under his breath again.

"Captain," the tactical officer continued, "from our current position there's little we can do to support the strike directly. The angle is wrong and we risk hitting the fighters." She pulled up the display. "However — Herald vessels are moving to intercept the fighter wing before they can fire. If we move to intercept them, we can keep the fighters clear long enough to get their torpedoes in."

He looked at the display, then back at the viewer. "Do it. Get us between ze Herald ships and ze fighter wing. Tactical, target anyzing zat moves toward zose fighters." He straightened in his chair. "Ze least we can do is make sure zey get zeir shot."

[USS Tokyo Bridge]

The doors that led to the rest of deck one were being forced open, after a few seconds four medical officers rushed through. They were being led by a young ensign with short blonde hair. She moved over towards Thomas and already had her tricorder out. "Commander Johnson. Ensign Kamikita from medical." She said as she began a scan of his injuries. "My medical team lost contact with sickbay. So we thought it was best to come up here and help where we can sir," she explained to him.

She threw down her medical kit on the adjacent seat where Taiga would usually be sitting. She then grabbed a hypospray and loaded it. Without even asking, she injected Thomas. "That's for the pain." she explained.

Pausing, "Thanks." Thomas turned the Staff Sergeant. "Sergeant. We need sickbay, take your men, and figure out what's going on. If any one of your guys knows anything about weapons, assist with trying to get the weapons array back online. We ain't out of this fight yet." He stood fully. Then back fully onto the captains seat. "If we have to, that starbase will get a second ship smashing into it. But this is going to be one battle, we won't be losing."

The Staff Sergeant straightened at Commander Thomas' order, already running through his available personnel. "Sir."

He tapped his combadge. =/\= "Alpha to Bravo — Calder, status on Sickbay."

Petty Officer Calder's voice came back immediately. "Sickbay's secure, Sergeant. Heralds on this deck have been cleared. Doors are sealed from the inside — medical staff are alive and responding. We're standing guard."

"Good. Hold that position." The Staff Sergeant said as he switched channels. "Alpha to Engineering team — anyone down there with weapons systems training?" A beat of silence, then a younger voice responded. "Private First Class Dern, Sergeant. I cross-trained in tactical systems before security. I can work a weapons array." The PFC responded.

"Get with the Chief Engineer and his team down there — weapons systems, priority one. Whatever they need from you, you give it to them."

"Aye, Sergeant." PFC Dern replied.

The Staff Sergeant looked back toward Commander Thomas. "Commander — Sickbay is secure, sealed from inside but medical staff are confirmed alive. Engineering is holding." He paused. "I've got a man with weapons training working with your Engineering team right now on getting your arrays back online. We'll get your teeth back, sir."

"Good to know." Thomas replied as he quickly shifted his thoughts to more personalized ones, Talia, their kid. What if. He shifted his mind elsewhere again. "Status... what systems do we have. Anyone."

"Engineering reports that main power will be restored shortly Commander. However due to the damage we took, they're expecting ongoing power problems." The officer over at Operations reported. He looked down at his console as he tapped away, diverting emergency power and ensuring that the structural integrity field stayed active.

Meanwhile Ensign Kamikita had made her way over to the helm console. She was nlw currently running her tricorder over Lieutenanr Yuvek. "I would normally suggest getting you to sickbay Lieutenant, but that's not an option right now," she told him calmly. "I'll give you a pain relief, until we can get you sorted out properly, this is the best I can do."

She loaded her hypospray again and pressed it against the Cardassians neck. "I'm also giving you a mild stimulant. It should help..." she explained as she quickly reloaded the hypo and pressed it once again to his neck.

Lieutenant Yuvek held still for the injections, his eyes staying on the helm console readouts the entire time. The pain had been sitting somewhere behind his focus since he'd hauled himself off the deck — he'd been aware of it without letting it matter. The hypospray took the edge off in a way that made him realize how much edge there had been.

"Appreciated, Ensign," he said simply. The stimulant hit a few seconds later, and he felt his concentration sharpen back to something closer to normal. His hands moved across the helm with more certainty than they had since the impact.

He ran a quiet assessment of what the ship had left under him — not much, but more than nothing. He pulled up the best approximation of their position and heading he could manage on the damaged display.

[Counsellor’s Office]

In her office Talia came out from her hiding place, under normal circumstances she’d be on the bridge, but she was not only on maternity leave she was also presently the only protection for her newborn son. Heading out anywhere was a risk she couldn’t afford to take. She had to hope that the transporters were still online and her idea of destination was an unauthodox one. “Johnson to bridge, if transporters are still up 2 to beam to the ready room.”

[USS Tokyo - Bridge]

Upon hearing Talias voice Thomas perked up, she was safe, turning to the console next to him. "Transporters were one of the systems still online amazingly. Though interior. Nothing would be beamed off the ship. "Beaming you there now Commander." Thomas replied as he imputed the controls. At least now he knew where she was with their infant.

As she and her son materialised in the ready room Talia breathed a sigh of relief, funnily enough young Wyatt hadn’t even noticed the change and was fast asleep in his mother’s arms. Not wanting to risk lying him down on the sofa incase he rolled off she pulled the cushion off the sofa and placed it under the desk before gently lying Wyatt down on it making sure he was safe and comfortable. “Sleep my little one, I’ll be right outside the door.” She paused wondering whether to leave him before getting up and heading for the door. She’d only be outside the door and nothing was going to get past her, she’d defend Wyatt with her life. Walking out onto the bridge she waited for the doors to swish closed before she stood right outside watching events on the bridge.

The sound of low humming filled the room. The lights on the bridge began to glow, getting brighter and brighter. Consoles around the room spluttered back into life and the viewscreen once again showed the battle outside. Starfighters were zooming around, along with the other carrier ships. The blackness of space was littered with orange phaser fire from the Federation side, and purple bursts from the Iconian side.

"We have main power online Commander." Operations reported. "Phasers and torpedoes will be back to full operational status in three minutes." The officer manning Ops smiled. He let out a long sigh of relief.

"Very good." Thomas replied, the shape the Tokyo was currently in. He was surprised by everything being fixed. Well not structurally. "Lt the moment we have weapons back. Fire everything we have, at that station. Communicate with the other ships, if main communications come back up. Focus on one area. Watching the station, he glanced at the station. Most damage is right there. Firing everything we have at a much higher yield... should be critical to the station."

"Aye sir." Connor replied calmly. "If we make it."

"Captain, we're receiving a hail from the Broadsword..." The Operations Officer called out.

"On screen"

The image of Captain Yuri Nakamura appeared on the Tokyo's viewscreen. It shook slightly and a shower of sparks rained down behind her for a brief second as her ship took a hit from the Herald weapons. "Commander. The Armitage is disabled, we've dispatched teams to assist them. However, the breach in the Starbase's hull is regenerating, and fast."

The image shook again, one of the consoles behind her exploded outwards. She was thrown forwards slightly as debris and shrapnel cleared over her head. However the poor officer who was next to it hit the deck. She briefly looked back, and then returned to face Thomas. "I hate to say this, but I don't think we can do this. If your landing troops can't get the job done. I say we pull everyone back and retreat. This is turning into a battle we can't win, we've already taken far too many losses."

Thomas paused. The Armitage was disabled. "Captain.... get everyone off the Armitage, the ships disabled, but it can still assist us." He sat back down. "The Akagi was able to damage the station significantly. Let's throw another ship into the station. We are taking the station out one way or another."

"Are you serious?!" Yuri blurted out. "Thats a downright stupid idea! I said the ship was disabled, not destroyed! Plus we can't just throw away good starships like that!" she yelled at him. The image shook again as it received another hit from the Herald weapons. "Plus, we can't even beam her crew off. We'd have to lower shields, and that puts my ship and crew at risk."

She crossed her arms and scowled at Thomas. "How about we come up with an idea that doesn't cause so much collateral damage?"

Loid's voice cut into the channel before Thomas could respond.

"Commander Johnson, zis is Forger." His tone was calm but carried no room for argument. "I am in agreement with Captain Nakamura. Ze Akagi hit zat station at full warp and ze breach is already regenerating. Ze math does not improve with anozer ship. We lose ze carrier, we lose ze crew, and we still have ze same station in front of us."

He leaned forward. "Ze Tokyo is barely holding together. Ze Armitage is disabled. Ze Broadsword is taking hits. We are not in a position to sustain zis." A short pause. "Ze fighters may still be our only remaining option and even zat is not guaranteed. But deliberately sacrificing anozer carrier when ze Akagi's sacrifice did not produce a decisive result — zat is not something I can support, Commander."

"Well I'm not for it either." Thomas replied, as he looked around. "But we need this win. If that means we sacrifice another ship." He looked over to Talia who he just noticed was outside the ready room watching. "I haven't received any word from the away teams. Or the marines I sent over.

The screen moved side slightly, and after some static the image of Captain Kushieda appeared. The bridge behind her looked a mess. A huge section of the roof had come down behind her. Consoles were burnt out and injured crew were rushing around in the background.

As well as the clear damage, she had blood running down from a head injury. Her hair was scuffed and messy and her uniform was visibly dirty and torn in places. "Hey! I'm not dead yet!" She interrupted. "We've lost a nacelle and we're currently disabled, but this ship is far from being salvageable." she told them all.

"Commander Johnson, I'm not sacrificing the Armitage for no good cause." A frown appeared on her face. "Not when I still have crew on board and we still have hope with your marine force. We're working on getting our engines back online, just keep those Heralds focused on something else and we'll be back in action soon."

"Captain..." Minori looked off to one side at the source of the voice.

"Got to go. Speak soon." She said before her channel cut off.

Even though the screen was gone, he turned to face the crew on the bridge. "Did I once say that it was an option I wanted."

[Inside The Iconian Station, By The Big Beam Weapon]

There was a cacaphony of firing reports by the fighters as Grace boosted her signal, followed by a familiar young voice that she recognized as her wingmate and she watched her screen as time seemed to slow. From the distance they were at, the torpedoes would take about four seconds to arrive, except for... "Oh shit." Grace said to herself as she saw one pair of torpedoes that would arrive a full second and a half AFTER the others.

She slewed her fighter away from the Heralds and started pounding pulse phaser rounds into the wall that separated the room she was in to the outside. One hand remained on the throttle because she'd have about a quarter second to react once...

Grace activated her attitude thrusters and slammed herself into the wall as the first torpedoes finished off the wall between her and the outside and simultaneously pushed her throttle to the maximum and tore through the final shreds and passed the blinding light a hundred-fifty-eight torpedoes that remained after tearing their way to her. They didn't have the maneuverability to turn to chase her, though they tried. Sixty-three wasted their explosions on the floor and ceiling and walls of the power room, the other ninety-five tore through the shielding of the weapon's power source and into the machinery.

She pulled back on her stick as the roiling explosion behind her reached out as if it wanted to take Grace with it in it's death throes. Purple flame caressed her engines as the entire beam weapon emplacement disintegrated from the inside and Grace accelerated hard when the last two torpedoes, the two launched by her wingmate Starburst, finally caught up to her and exploded.

[USS Tokyo Main Engineering]

The ship had full power, damage was contained and they were finally getting ahead of the surge. That's when the alert on the Master Situations Monitor went off, and Zach's head snapped up. One of the Starfighters had disappeared from the screen. He checked which one, and his override slammed home, but the pit in his stomach remained.

[USS Graf Zeppelin Bridge]

Loid had been watching the tactical display, the Graf's forward arrays still blazing at the Herald vessels pressing toward the fighter wing, when the explosion registered on every screen simultaneously.

Not the slow regenerating ripple they'd seen before. Something from inside — a detonation that tore outward through the breach, purple flame blooming across the starbase's hull in a way that no external weapons fire had managed to produce.

The bridge went silent for half a second.

"Was zur Hölle—" (what the hell?) Commander Helmuth, the Executive Officer, started.

"Ze fighters," Loid said quietly, leaning forward. "Ze fighters did it." His eyes moved immediately to the sensor readout.

"Tactical — I need to know who made it out of zat breach. Scan for fighter signatures immediately." He didn't wait for the answer before turning back to the helm. "Soval, hold our position between ze Herald vessels and ze fighter wing."

He tapped his comm unit, opening the fleet channel. =/\= "Forger to all vessels — ze fighters have destroyed ze beam weapon from ze inside. We are still covering zeir withdrawal. Someone tell me ze status of ze station." He said.

[USS Ark Royal]

"Their main beam weapon has been destroyed Maple." Sally said clenching a fist in celebration.

A smile spread across Maple's face. "Finally. Now, lets really give them everything we have." She said. She pushed herself out of her chair and studied the viewscreen for a few seconds. Then she turned to tactical. "Target absolutely everything we have at that breach. Give it no time to regenerate. Empty the torpedo magazines if you have to!"

"Initiating broadside protocols," the Chief Security Officer announced as her hands danced expertly across her console. "Photon Torpedoes away... Quantum Torpedoes away... Tri-cobalt torpedoes away... all phasers primed, locking on target, and... firing!"

The Ark Royal banked, and unleashed a flurry of phaser and torpedo fire upon the station. Every phaser bank and torpedo tube lit up like a firework display in the nights sky as the entire of the ships arsenal was brought to bear with relentless energy and precision. The phasers slamming into the hull of the starbase, quickly followed by a mixture of torpedoes. The sheer assault upon the structure was enough to open breaches due to the amount of firepower concentrated upon several key locations.

As breaches opened, small figures flew out into space as Heralds once protected by their impenetrable fortress were now exposed to the deadly dark vacuum.

Posting by:

Commander Thomas Johnson
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Commander Talia Johnson
Chief Counsellor
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant JG Connor Carey
Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo

Ensign Grace MacKenzie 'Sabre'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Zachary Addams
Chief Engineer
USS Tokyo

Captain Minori Kushieda
Commanding Officer
USS Armitage

Captain Yuri Nakamura
Commanding Officer
USS Broadsword

Captain Loid Forger
Commanding Officer
USS Graf Zepplin
(Played by Lt Jased Yuvek)

Captain Maple Shipman
Commanding Officer
USS Ark Royal
(Played by Captain Taiga Aisaka)

Ensign Komari Kamikati
Medical Officer
USS Tokyo
(Played by Captain Taiga Aisaka)

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