Bridge, Tholian Dreadnought Guardian

      Arrax watched the tactical situation closely. The gunboats and fighters were closing in on the Seltorian fleet. Only a few Seltorian fighters had made a reappearance. If it was up to him, the rest of the fighters would not get the opportunity. The moment is here. Now is the time to add our forces to the attack.
      "Helm, point us directly at the area control ship. Increase speed to warp two point five. Weapons, keep disruptors at standard power until we get close, and keep them firing at the escort cruiser on the way in. We've got to keep them off balance. As soon as we get close enough, overload the disruptors, and fire at my command. "
      "Seizing the moment, Commodore?" The question came from his old friend.
      "Yes, Xitrin, it is time to finish this."

Bridge, ACS Wind of Ordained Retribution

      Flight Admiral Sand among the Stars sat paralyzed. The Tholian dreadnought had abandoned the circular battle and was headed straight at them, following in the wake of the gunboats. He dismissed the fighters as insignificant, but the ships and the gunboats were something altogether different. They are truly insane! While it was true that his fighters would have killed them if they stayed at range, Sand among the Stars knew his ships would surely destroy them if they come closer. All that will be different is how many Seltorians they will take with them. That must be what they are trying to do.
      He checked the range and the Tholian's speed. It would not be long before they were locked in close-range combat with the dreadnought. His resolve hardened. The destruction of that ship will be marked as the beginning of the end for the Holdfast. We make our stand here.

Gunboat Leader, Tholian Flotilla

      They were just out of disruptor range when the three escorts and the carrier began to turn toward them. Firnx had been concentrating so hard on the approach that he did not initially understand why they were making his attack run easier. A quick glance at the tactical screen showed why. The Guardian and its two surviving escorts were following him, along with the five attack fighters. The Seltorians had chosen to meet them head-on.
      They crossed into disruptor range, then into overloaded disruptor range. He pulled the throttles back to enable the gunner to fully overload the gunboat's twin disruptors. They wouldn't have many firing opportunities like the one they had coming up.
      He turned around to check the gunner's targeting screen. The image of the Seltorian carrier was more than slightly blurry, the computer's way of showing that their lock-on was being degraded by enemy electronic countermeasures.
      He spun back around, bobbing slightly. The degradation was to be expected. The orders he had given their scout earlier were still in effect. Only when they reached the point of attack would the scout shift its efforts into counter-jamming. Even then, it was unlikely that they would be able to completely negate the advantage in power that the carrier had over their scout, but it would have to do.
      They closed steadily. He knew it was his imagination, but it seemed like they were getting impossibly close to the enemy ships. He checked the range and saw that if they got any closer, they would run the risk of feedback damage from the disruptors. As if on cue, the image of the Seltorian carrier cleared slightly as the scout boat put all of the power it could spare into cutting through the jamming noise that the Seltorian ship was putting out.
      "Weapons Officer, fire when ready!"
      "Yes, Lieutenant." He heard the officer select the controls for unrestricted fire. That let the gunners at the phaser and disruptor control stations know that they were free to fire.
      At that precise instance, it looked like every phaser that could bear from the four enemy ships opened up on them. They must have been waiting for the scout to shift its power into counter-jamming, Firnx thought. The phasers pounded into their front shield, then through it. The gunboat rocked hard and he felt himself slammed upward.
      Two disruptors and two phasers leapt out from their gunboat. Both disruptors, perhaps because of the enemy jamming, missed cleanly. The two phasers barely sliced across one corner of the carrier's rear shield before the mounts disappeared in a molten cloud of metal.
      He did not have time to be disappointed. All he heard was a series of small explosions as the ship's computer sensed the imminent destruction of their craft and blasted them free of it in a survival pod. The force of acceleration pressed him so hard against his web harness that he lost consciousness.
      He came to a few seconds later. He laboriously released himself from the web harness, and pushed himself away from the wall. He could barely move around, but was able to reach the navigator and check his condition. The Tholian was hurt badly, but would live if he received advanced medical treatment shortly. He found the medikit, and did what he could to soothe the navigator, stabilizing his condition to wait for real doctors.
      The other two members of the cockpit crew were still unconscious from the brutal force of the acceleration, but they would live. He checked out view ports to see if any others had escaped the destruction of the gunboat leader.
      There were three more pods floating nearby, all of them with markings indicating that they were from his boat. The pods were equipped with small reaction jets that would allow them to move enough to dock to each other. They could live for a few days in the resulting configuration until the power ran out. Even as he watched, one of the pods began to slowly move toward him. He looked around and spotted the controls to his pod. He floated over and tried them experimentally, but they seemed to be damaged. With a shrug, he gave up and floated back to the view port, trying to keep up with what was going on outside.
      He made out the wreckage of another gunboat nearby. It looked like the number three boat had been tagged pretty hard also, but it hadn't been totally wrecked. It might even be salvageable, but they were in no position to help each other.
      The pod was spinning slightly. The Seltorian formation came into view. The carrier staggered on, burning from a dozen holes in its hull, but the core structure was still intact. The amount of jamming it had been emitting must have been incredible to allow it to survive the hammer blows that the gunboat flotilla had inflicted upon it.
It wouldn't get far. Even now the DNS was closing fast. It was getting ravaged by the combined fire of four ships, but it would be in position soon to crush the Seltorian carrier. He pressed himself tighter to the window. After all, it's not every day you get to see an area control ship die. He found himself flushing orange in excitement.
      The excitement was replaced with frustration and he almost screamed as his view port was covered by the other survival pod moving to dock with him. Disappointed, he floated back. There was nothing else he could do but wait. Wait and hope that Tholian forces would be able to rescue them after the battle.

Hangar Bay, Seltorian ACS Wind of Ordained Retribution

      The work was almost finished on the Zerhaks and the Z-YCs. The deck crews were struggling mightily to finish the loadouts and to get the fighters back into action.
      The ship trembled under Oceans of the Moon's feet. He looked around in alarm. Another tremble, and then the deck seemed to jump up and hit him in the face. Woozily, he tried to push himself back up on his forelegs, but to no avail. He slowly slid back down to the deck and looked around.
Battle debris was strewn from one end of the hangar to another. The deck crews were still working, despite the hammer blows that were beginning to rain down upon the ship. Two fighters were even now being lined up to face the hangar bay doors. At any moment, those two fighters would begin to trundle single file to the launch position.
      Ashamed at his weakness, he struggled up again. This time, he managed to get to his feet and stagger over to the side of an administrative shuttle. He sat down in its open door, staring around him at the barely controlled chaos of the hangar bay. Despite the damage they were taking, everything still seemed to be working.
      And then the side of the ship blew out.

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