Topic: Battle at the Grave of Thoughts

[Temy]

Note: In 2385, the Romulans would experiment the Feds' methods on themselves. That would explain an human Riov placed at the command of a Norexan-class ship.

Watch officer’s log, stardate 62660.10. We were able to capture another system and the Kzinti feels that we are increasingly becoming a thorn on their side. However, the other Romulans that are taking part in this conflict are based out of Simpson’s Planet. They are to destroy the Kzinti ships that are coming out of the sector, just as we are. We now own three sectors of space that were formerly Kzinti. Homer Simpson has contacted me for information pertaining to the Romulan strategy concerning the Kzinti.

Vox’ula: We are being hailed.

Taev: On screen.

Fikrohn: The Kzinti has taken prisoners. One of your spies, a Romulan Tal Shiar agent, has reported that the location where they were being taken was a re-education camp. After several attempts at subspace triangulation, we have ascertained the location of the prisoner camp: an area nicknamed the Grave of Thoughts. The only problem is, the Grave of Thoughts itself is a heavily armed Kzinti starbase. We will depart Starbase 47 at 1100 hours. This is Count Fikrohn of the Iron Fang County and I approve this message.

This was a transmission to all ships in range on a Lyran hailing frequency that the Kzinti don’t know that it exists… yet. Brianna, still flying a cargo cutter to supply not the starbase, but the Lyran fleet massed at Starbase 47 for the assault, has hailed the Bouteina. In so doing, it awakened Annika.

Brianna: Let us speak of what we think of the assault on the Grave of Thoughts. As this ship will remain docked at Starbase 47…

Lyran transporter operator: Let’s crush these Kzinti scum!

Lyran engineer: We will deal a major blow to the Kzinti if we capture or destroy this starbase.

Brianna: Beam me up! We know that they are going to need a lot of ships and some freelance adventurers even assembled their own fleet.

Annika: It seems that the Count’s plan to attack the Grave of Thoughts will not involve all ships at once. If need be, they can call upon a reserve fleet that will be stationed elsewhere.

Everyone in the system that had access to sensor screens that could detect warp jumps has detected a large number of ships entering the vicinity of Starbase 47, including the Count’s flagship, a Cave Lion-class battleship. They all gathered at Starbase 47 but the Count hailed some ships first. On the bridge of the Lyran battleship, everything is ready, even the large iCarpet on the flag bridge, so that the Count himself could address the county’s admiralty as well as a set of ships.

Fikrohn: All ships in Battlegroups 1 and 2 are to attack the starbase on the first wave; the second wave will be comprised of Battlegroups 3 and…

Lyran flag pilot: We are being hailed, milord.

Fikrohn: On screen.

Annika: Our intelligence reports that there is another fleet made out of freelance adventurers and Kzinti pirates are assembling a fleet to raid the Grave of Thoughts.

Neleras: With subspace triangulation, we ascertained the location of the fleet of freelancers being in the QU-1760 system.

Fikrohn: Battlegroups 1, 2 and 3 are to attack the starbase on the first wave; Battlegroup 4 will form up with the Kzinti pirates in the QU-1760 system. When the attack begins, all ships arm the ESG capacitors to maximum power. Stay alert for enemy missiles, for the enemy starbase is equipped with 75 missile launchers, all of which can launch Type-IV missiles.

Lyran spy: We do not expect the enemy to come out with more than a wing of ships to defend the starbase.

Fikrohn: Oh and if we could save the prisoners in the starbase during the assault. Battlegroup 1 and 2, flank the starbase in the horizontal plane, battlegroup 3, send your ESG Global Operations wings to the starbase’s topside, everyone else to the underside. Today is the day where the Grave of Thoughts will be eliminated! For the advancement of Iron Fang!

Pfrizzek: Let’s crush the Kzinti and their starbase of doom!

Flag pilot: Today, we will avenge our past!

Fikrohn: Move out!

The crew in the Bouteina knows that it is the calm before the storm, the eye of the storm itself. They’d like at least to know who they are fighting with. So far, they only saw the Lyrans in battle against the Borg. They have a rough idea as to how to defeat Kzintis in ship-to-ship combat themselves, as well as how they could use the Expanding Sphere Generator to destroy the missiles as they were about to impact. But they don’t quite know how Lyrans fight starbases or Kzintis defend theirs.

Annika: Set course for QU-1760 and follow Battlegroup 4.

Larugo: Engaging warp!

Taev: From whatever sources the Malachorians have about the Iron Fang clan, they say that this clan fell out of favor at the Lyran court after the treason of their leader, Duke Varashar. He betrayed the Lyrans by supplying information to the Kzintis in the 2200s.

Vaebn: Hence all the references to avenging their past in their communications.

Brianna: Malachor V was, for about forty years, the capital world of the Iron Fang clan. Although, in my early days, I was a superb cheater, I was a cheater that had some memory, unlike some cheaters who can’t seem to do much otherwise.

Thus so many chartered cheaters like herself usually go in domains where the long-term effects of cheating can be overlooked. But the Malachorians found that it was easier to rank the bad cheaters rather than the good cheaters. Even when the catching rate is about 1 for 60, those who are caught, even once, are stigmatized by others in Malachorian society and banned from applying for cheating charters (if they were caught outside of a CC application) or had to re-apply the next year.

Ulduar: The Riov have some things in common with you. You are both famous for one or two things within a closed community. I look at you and I know that Malachorians hold cheating in a high esteem. But outside of the Malachor system, you, Brianna, have no more respect than they would any other ordinary Lyran citizen.

Annika: The same thing for me regarding ballet: I don’t know if any Romulan could do better than me, but among the Tal Prai’ex, no one else can. That Romulan could be in the Tal Shiar, the Tal Diann or not even in the Romulan Guard, but outside of the Tal Prai’ex very few people would actually know that I am a ballerina in the first place.

Brianna: It has taken two generations for other Lyrans to even look at this disgraced clan; even at the onset of the Four Powers War, serving for the Iron Fang was seen as a stigma.

Stella: They hold a 200-year-old vendetta against the Kzinti Patriarchy. Destroying the Grave of Thoughts will surely bring them back in the fold.

Larugo: We have arrived at the QU-1760 system.

An entire fleet was massed in the QU-1760 system. Fifty Lyran ships, among which was a Gir Lion-class dreadnought, serving as the flagship of Battlegroup 4. And a wing of dreadnoughts. There is also a wing of ESG Global Operations cruisers and Pink Panther-class (heavy?) destroyers. Also, among other ships, there were the USS Medvedev, a Kirov-class cruiser, built on an Excelsior-class hull, ships that resembled the Constitution-class refit, among other things. And ships that were similar in performance and size to the Luna-class, but with different nacelles, older Pac-Man dreadnoughts.

Pac-Man captain: The Grave of Thoughts is a major threat to us.

At the same time, the commander of a wing of Tiger-class cruisers contacts the flagship of the Kzinti pirates, from the bridge of a Wildcat-class battlecruiser. This is the transcript of the communications between the two, as intercepted by the Tal Shiar:

Lyran commodore: Don’t worry, Kzinti, we are on your side. We will loot Kzinti shipping.

Ural-Hrag: We are branded as traitors to Kzin. We will get back at Kzin.

Kzinti spy: We have obtained information on who commands the Grave of Thoughts: Khral-Riit. He is an admiral who commands with an iron fist but with no imagination whatsoever. Also, he is one of the princes that can lay claim on the throne.

Lyran commodore: As we assault the starbase, loot all supplies you can from them.

Ural-Hrag: Understood.

Other ships massed in the QU-1760 system, over the planetless star, are Hydran Lancer-class destroyers, with the HMS Pocahontas as the flagship of the group. Because the Lyrans lacked evacuation capabilities, they had to call on the Hydrans to make sure they could evacuate everyone. Also, with them, are two ships that looked like Mirak carriers and a dreadnought. But it is challenging to Hydrans as they were tasked with evacuating oxygen-breathers and they were methane-breathers. And also a wing of Romulan espionage ships, as well as one of the few D’Vorx-class ships that were simply flying batteries with a special weapon that could pierce the defenses of the starbase.

 Vox’ula: We are being hailed.

Annika: On screen.

Fikrohn (with intense static): … heavy losses… come… ssist… destroy…lis… post. Also… red alert!

Annika: To all Romulan ships, this is Riov Hansen and I assume control of the fleet.

Mauler captain: You’d better lead us to victory; if we are defeated and still alive, you know what the Tal Shiar will do to you.

Annika: Set course for the Grave of Thoughts.

From the moment the garbled hail came through the channels of everyone in the QU-1760 system, several hours into the battle, Sub-Admiral Murano and his Hydran ships depart first, making sure that multi-vector assault mode was activated, then followed by the masses of ships that departed the QU-1760 system. They had about 100 ships in total to reinforce the Lyran fleet assaulting the Grave of Thoughts.

Neleras: There has been a mention to “listening post” in the garbled transmissions. Since the starbase’s communications array has been destroyed, they use the listening post to ask for reinforcements.

Annika: Mauler, fly at a low speed, save your power to fire a shot at the starbase.

After shooting its two missiles, the USS Medvedev was hit by no less than sixteen disruptor shots, severely damaging its shields. However, the Mauler captain knew that firing a Mauler was most effective at Since the Mauler’s firing arc was very narrow, it had to concentrate whatever shields it had on its forward arc. As it was flying towards the Grave of Thoughts, the immense batteries made its evacuation capacity reduced to about 800 people, making its transporter operators ready to beam up every Vulcan or Romulan they could if their gambit succeeded and the shields of the Grave of Thoughts were pierced. On an audio-only frequency…

Murano: More Kzinti ships are approaching; we can’t take any chances.

Pfrizzek: That’s the thirtieth Kzinti ship coming through here. Romulans, destroy the listening post.

Annika: Roger, will do.

As the listening post looms dead ahead, the Bouteina fires a pair of photon torpedoes at what looks like a shrunk Federation Starbase 74 to a size so small that the diameter of the starbase is about 40 m. Going for the junction between the saucer section and the cylindrical section, it destroyed the listening post.

Fikrohn: This time around, it should prevent Kzinti reinforcements from coming.

The Grave of Thoughts itself. It looks like a headless Kzin spider (with six legs rather than eight, as on Earth spiders) upside down, with a central mast emanating out of the belly. The communications array being down, the Kzinti are effectively cut off from any reinforcements from any other fronts. As the Mauler shot its mega-weapon, the starbase’s shields are draining and a few well-placed hellbore shots could bring the starbase’s shields down.

Murano: Begin the evacuation of the Grave of Thoughts!

However, the USS Medvedev is the victim of Kzinti ramming. A Kzinti frigate whose missile complement is exhausted, and artillery disabled by Pac-Man fire, begins ramming a ship that is thirteen times larger in volume. The Bouteina, though, concentrates its fire towards a face of the starbase and went in at a range that was quite close: 300 km. The pulse disruptors mounted on the WYN starships were able to partially penetrate the shields and, as such, could damage disruptor hardpoints, as the Kzinti has exhausted its missiles.

Vox’ula: We’d better fall back for an attack run.

Annika: Reverse!

As Larugo hits the reverse gear, from 82 km/s forward, they fly at 82 km/s in reverse. The other flight controllers, Relm, Zama, and Brianna, get into their shuttles so they can shoot at Kzinti missiles more efficiently. With Zama at their head, they form one squadron ready to destroy Kzinti ships. Relm fires her disruptors at the shields of a lightly damaged Kzinti destroyer, while she waits for the plasma torpedo to load.

Zama: Where are the other Romulans?

Brianna: They are evacuating the starbase.

However, the mauler suffers from the same weaknesses as the big disruptor mounted on the Bouteina, who fired at another leg of the Grave of Thoughts: it is very slow to load and takes up a lot of energy to fire. The ship is also turning away quite sharply while receiving some disruptor hits as well. The three pieces of the HMS Petunia are busy attacking the with fighters that are engaged against the starbase, shooting hellbore rounds at it. With only eight rounds per fighter, each individual fighter could only cause so much damage.

Brianna: Firing plasma torpedo #1!

Zama: Fire!

The plasma torpedoes hit the at locations close one another. At the same time, one of the Hydran fighters is shot down and crashes on the hull of a Kzinti heavy battlecruiser, damaging the hull to the point of revealing the warp core. Relm fires the plasma torpedo onto the warp core, destroying the circuit breakers and damaging some of the assembly around the circuit breakers. As the Romulan fighters fly past the battlecruiser, the Pac-Man dreadnought shoots a pair of photon torpedoes: one who rips the hull apart and the second explodes near the warp core, effectively destroying the ship.

Zama: Now… for the starbase’s weapons arrays.

Taev: Zama, aim for the enemy cruiser off your backs.

Zama: There is a Pac-Man carrier exploding off our tails, sir! (He turns to the shuttles’ channels) Evasive maneuvers!

They see a Lion-class dreadnought firing at the starbase, swerving to avoid the wreckage the ESG Global Operations cruiser caused by being destroyed in orbit around the starbase. Luckily, the Bouteina sustained no damage from explosions of ships, either allied or enemy. However, the crew suspects that some of the top commanders will make their escape through the shuttlebay. They do not want to take any chances and to be beamed by their own ships so they would use the shuttles to escape instead. To avoid the pulse disruptors fired from the starbase, the Bouteina performs an Immelmann. One of the bolts hit the aft shields.

Vaebn: Aft shields are at 50%.

Annika: Aim for the shuttlebay! We will cut their escape here!

Vox’ula: Aft photon torpedoes fired.

The photon torpedoes impact a location who, instead of disabling the shuttlebay, makes the floor under the shuttles collapse, and the wrecked Kzinti shuttles make their slow fall towards more gun emplacements, at which the Hydran fighters keep firing at. Meanwhile, one of the Lancer-class destroyers explode, bringing another Hydran fighter to its destruction. A large chunk of the wreckage collides with a police cutter, severely damaging it. Which prompted the police cutter to arm its ESG to inflict as much damage to the starbase as it could, by ramming at the base of the starbase and opening a larger hole through the use of its ESG.

Relm: This is Tiamat, starting attack run.

Brianna: Copy, Tiamat.

Zama: Stay on course and fire at the disruptor turrets!

A Pink Panther-class destroyer opens fire at the third leg of the starbase as it beams the prisoners onboard. With a downed top shield, its task was made easier and it begins beaming prisoners. But the starbase begins shooting… probes! Antimatter-loaded probes. Probes being probes, they are straight-shooting and the Kzinti assume that there are too many ships to miss anything with one. Unfortunately, one of these hit the Bouteina’s underside just as it would a Type-IV missile.

Annika: We have taken a hit!

Rovas: Ventral shields down.

Vaebn: Begin the beaming of the prisoners!

M’Rex: Aye, sir.

Since the underside shield is down, the transporter crews assume the evacuation procedures. To aid them in the process, there is the underside artillery as well as the three shuttles flying in a wedge formation rather close one another. These “fighters” are firing away at the disruptor hardpoints.

Relm: Pull up!

Brianna: Slowing down…

Zama: Fire at the attitude thruster!

But one of the Lyran ships fired a photon torpedo at the attitude thruster casing, leaving only rubble and another turret visible, at which all three fighters fire when a Kzinti runabout brings the Tiamat’s shields down. At the same time, the prisoners see that one of the shuttles is getting hit by the runabout’s missile. They have fired at another disruptor hardpoint, this time a big dual pulse disruptor, pushing the gunners back.

Prisoner 1: I see that one of our own fighters is getting badly damaged by the Kzinti runabout.

Annika: Fire at the Kzinti runabouts! They are escaping with the jailors!

Vox’ula: Targets locked.

Taev: Fire at will!

Zama: Copy, bridge. (He turns the communicators to the other pilots) Aim for the power conduit!

Relm fires her plasma torpedo at the power conduit left open by the destroyed disruptor hardpoint while the Kzinti runabouts have fired their weapons, missiles and disruptors as well, at the Bouteina’s underside, taking out the tractor beam as well as two disruptor hardpoints. But they continue to beam in prisoners.

Ulduar: Computer, how many prisoners did we take?

Computer: 1,734.

Ulduar: Transporter crews, take in as many prisoners as you can! The shield hole is about to close!

Annika: The fighter crews have to return as well.

Taev: Looks like we took out the power conduit and we left an entire section of the starbase out of power. Their disruptors won’t bother us again.

But the Bouteina does a loop, amid millions of tons of both Kzinti and allied wreckage. Since the rest of the wreckage was at a low speed, about 20 m/s, they couldn’t do much of a dent into the Bouteina’s armor. The Mauler fires another shot, bringing down the shields of another segment of the starbase. Well, before shooting at the starbase again, it has shot at several Kzinti ships called in to reinforce their positions. One of the disruptors, at the reduced power rate, has hit one of the impulse engines of Brianna’s fighter, prompting all three shuttles to return. Because Zama has exhausted his plasma torpedoes to destroy weapon hardpoints.

Fikrohn: You Romulans may not have realized it, but even if we destroyed the listening post that allowed the Kzinti to call in more reinforcements, it took time for them to come.

Annika: Milord, how many more ships are headed to this sector?

Fikrohn: Three more only, sir.

Taev: There is only three ships left, a wing of dreadnoughts.

Thirty ships come out to face the wing of Kzinti dreadnoughts that still remain in space, leaving about twenty ships to face the enemy. Many ships have left battle so they could go to repair facilities, and others still to take prisoners away, to safety. These Lyrans definitely don’t act like Klingons in regard to battle; some of the Lyrans are still busy disabling the weapons systems of the starbase. As Zama returns to the shuttle bay, alongside his wingmen, he sees many prisoners behind the shuttlebay access doors.

Rovas: Stand by, pilots, so we can repair and rearm your shuttles.

Relm: The starbase is badly damaged.

Brianna: That should give me a taste of what I would do if I was to remain in the Lyran Starfleet for the years to come.

The Lyran Starfleet is known to promote people based on favoritism. Well, not always favoritism but sometimes, it does. After the three pieces of the HMS Petunia were back together as one, each with its large load of prisoners, they were able to load 19,700 prisoners. The Hydrans recalled all of its fighters and they fired one last hellbore shot, damaging the starbase even further.

Annika: Scan the starbase for life forms!

Taev: Life form scans negative.