Ferengi D'Kora Class 'Latinum Lobe' - Minutes from Katra Station
"They're back in weapons range," Malro declared from the Flight Control console. It was no small irony that a tribal warrior was now frantically piloting a state-of-the-art Ferengi trade vessel. When he'd been a child, the Hupyrians involved in a war over the Ferengi invaders. Now, he was in service to a Ferengi, trained in systems that once seemed magical, and doing his utmost to save a Ferengi's life. The Universe clearly had a sense of irony. "We will not reach the station in time."
As though to punctuate the assertion, the ship shook violently. The air, which had begun to clear of smoke, now thickened again as the air handlers went back offline. There was no one left to repair it. Having a highly automated ship was quite convenient until someone started breaking things.
"We could get to the yacht, make a run for it," Daimon Nalg suggested, but there was no energy in the suggestion. He felt like a deflating balloon, becoming a small, wrinkled shell of his former self.
"I would rather die here," Malro said. "We have a disruptor bank still online. Let me turn and fire on them. I want to die fighting."
Nalg sagged in his seat. Die fighting? Could there be any greater failure for a Ferengi Daimon? "I guess I owe you that much. Good bye, my friend."
Malro glanced back at his Master. Friend? Was that what they'd become?
Was that possible?
Malro dropped the ship out of warp, the warp core mere seconds from overloading in a fiery blast. He didn't let the power core rest, however. Instead, he shunted all of its power into the forward disruptor bank as he brought the ship about.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On the Starstalker, as it closed to short sensor range, the pursuing ship could finally be made out with fair clarity.
A Ferengi Nandi Class, well-armed. Highly advanced.
But while the Starstalker's sensors were finally able to resolve the vessel... the Ferengi stealth-cruiser had not sensed the Starfleet hunter.
In moments, one Ferengi ship would destroy the other... unless something was done.
<USS Aquila - Bridge>"
They're dropping out of warp" came the report at Ops, a small secondary window appearing on the foward viewscreen's upper right, showing a secondary visual feed. This was closely followed by Tactical. "
I'm detecting weapons powering up; the lead vessel is coming about."
Encrypted sensor telemetry from the USS
Starstalker streamed to the Aquila's own systems, and all was revealed. Two Ferengi vessels - one seemingly a
D'Kora-class Marauder, and the other.... something new. Something...dangerous. And yet with clear design similarities of the Alliance. All still frustratingly out of range of the Firechain Defence Grid, a sphere consisting of dozens of weapon platforms - or rather 'communication buoys with limited self-defence capabilities' - which supplemented the close range tactical firepower of the station and its immediate environment.
Century's back straightened, and his fists clenched. The
Starstalker was small. Silent. But that in itself was an acknowledged downside to the otherwise expansive advantages the ship possessed; in a close-quarters engagement, especially when not central to action, its very
integral stealth technology was unable to be easily deactivated or discarded as one would a traditional cloaking device. Getting caught in accidental crossfire by two sides that were likely not to have detected its presence was a risk that was simply unwarranted to merely observe all the way back here. Murselas was a gifted pilot, but a series of 250 isoton proximity detonations was going to ruin anyone's day.
Saxon wasted no time. Professional courtesy had demanded he keep his counsel as the
Aquila oversaw support to the station, preferring the team already assigned to continue their work without interference, but in a Tactical situation, he was the ranking officer and that same courtesy transferring to him. "
Red alert, shields up. Notify Katra Operations of the situation and to divert evacuation efforts to auxiliary craft and facilities, and inform all traffic to immediately move from our warp field proximity. Helm, plot for maximum warp pulse interception into weapons range... On my mark."
"
Aye sir! Plotted. Intercept will take 1 minute 17 seconds".
It was a moderately risky strategy, certainly given the traffic in the local area and being intra-system, but also due to cold force-and-release strain on the engines; yet of all the ships that had been under
Katra's umbrella, this
Constellation-class was best suited for such short-range FTL hops. Saxon had read it was something to do with the quad-nacelle configuration, but the specifications didn't interest him; only that it worked.
Perhaps for just this one moment, he was grateful for the
Aquila's presence and not the USS
Healy that was still laid up for repairs at New Bajor. Although the
Luna-class USS
Amalthea, on patrol somewhere in the Quadrant, wouldn't have gone amiss...
Enough time had passed for objects to get clear. "
Mark!"
The
Aquila disappeared from the orbit of
Katra in a true blink of an eye, and streaked towards the two soon-to-be combatants - and the diminutive USS
Starstalker.
What, and who, remained when they got there was, of course, another matter entirely.
