New Beginning Part 15.

Stark looked over the shoulder of Chief Petty Officer Blawer, piloting her runabout and stared at the display in disbelief. The August was gone, the ship that had only recently started feeling as "home" to her gone in one gigantic blast.

"My god... What of the Undine vessel Mr. Blawer?"

Blawer ran a quick scan, which turned up negative.

"Looks like the explosion did the trick Ma'am, no trace of Undine vessels in our vicinity."

"Well... that's one positive thing. Signal all vessels and escape pods to make for the outpost in-formation. And match our speed with the escape pods. And get whoever ended up in charge of those fighters on a line with me, I want them to take up an escort formation and give me a sitrep."

=== SS. Jason Dunham, orbiting Unknown Outpost ===

"Sergeant Mendoza, report!" McClintock asked grimly, ducking to enter the cramped cockpit. He was aboard with Beta Squad and the rest of the Marines who evacuated the August, plus the bulk of Engineering was crammed in here too - therefore the marine transport was at it's emergency capacity.

His TR-119 still slung over his shoulder, he knew we couldn't stay out here much longer - the environmental systems were struggling to re-process oxygen. As the senior officer it was his job - his duty - to make sure these fifty souls got out of here alive.

Mendoza at the helm along with an Ensign... Three of Seven at the opposite seat. He hadn't met her before, she clearly gave off an air of superiority that comes with being a former Borg. McClintock shuddered as he recalled how close he came to assimilation himself on Vega colony. What you could call his heart went out to the poor woman.

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"Just like piloting a Peregrine Sir, only with a bigger ass." Mendoza sniggered, then instantly remembered where he was - not on the Marine deck. With a glare from his friendly co-pilot, he cleared his throat before continuing.

"I'm maintaining a standard orbit around the Unknown Outpost, and the Danube runabout appears to be on an intercept course - with the fighters keeping a defensive stance around us." he also reported.

Mendoza paused before he looked up at his XO.

"LT, I... can't believe she's gone. Right in front of us she just... disappeared, man."

He was clearly in a state of shock, but maintaining composure to do his job, as a Marine. Hell, we all are McClintock thought to himself.

"I know Sergeant, there's no denying that. But the crew is still alive, and it's our job it stays that way." McClintock replied, looking him in the eyes as he spoke.

He nodded, and refocused himself on that thought.

"I don't mean to interrupt your, sadness, gentlemen but I identified an attempted transport to the outpost. It is possible the patterns reformed successfully."

Three of Seven looks at the blank stares from her crewmates and sighs,

"To put it simply, you may see your, friends, again." Nelson yelled out to everyone in his shuttle, "Is everybody alright?!"

The shuttle had hit the shockwave from the August and it blew a few relays causing some minor injuries. Everyone was moving, so no major injuries. Nelson then heard a voice come over his combadge.

=^="This is Commander Stark, does anyone read me?"=^=

=^="This is Lt Nelson. I can read you. We are pretty banged up here and awaiting orders."=^= McClintock replied to the hail from the runabout.

=^="Commander, it's good to hear from you, we've been unable to raise anyone on the outpost. This is the Jason Dunham reporting in with 51 souls aboard, mostly marines and engineering personnel, minimal injuries but we need to get to that station ASAP - we're sitting ducks out here."=^=

"Right, until we can establish contact with the Captain and the rest of the crew whom remained onboard the August, I am in command. We'll be arriving soon, but we have to keep pace with the escape pods. They're pretty vulnerable like this.Keep me posted on any notable events, and analyze the outpost for me please. You can patch your scans directly through to my vessel. I have some enlisted scientist aboard whom could probably make better sense of the data anyhow. Stark out. =^=

=^="Aye Sir!"=^=

Nelson tapped his combadge to turn it off.

"Crewman, please scan the outpost and let's see what is in there." Nelson requested as he sat down in a chair.

"Ensign, please get in formation with the other shuttles so that we can defend the escape pods."

Nelson grabs his phaser rifle and slings it around his neck. "I don't like the look of that outpost.", he thinks to himself.

"L.T., I can't get any good readings from that outpost, but I am at least getting a lot of life signs.", the crewman said as he looked up at LT Nelson.

"Hmmm, very weird. Send what you can to Commander Stark."

=== Jason's Fighter ===

Jason had just woke up his fighter having been a bit to close to the shockwave, checking the status his bird was fine ,aside from being separated from the group hey keyed up his thrusters and impulse engines and his comms gear

=^="Shepard Two to anybody, do you read? Is everyone alright, I am requesting a slot in the defense formation, I repeat this is corporal Jason Trask,do you copy"=^=

=== Unknown Outpost ===

"Captain Greener," came an excited voice from one of the staff, just before the bridge crew went into their meeting with the Outpost administrators.

"I've found them, and communications are opening up."

"What caused the interference?" asked the captain.

"I'm not sure, but we've got a clear picture and relay... and they're not alone."

Caymen and the others rushed to the console.

"What the... open frequencies with the Runabout."

The staffer gave him a queer look.

"The bigger ship that has maroon markings on it," Caymen said shaking his head.

=^= This is Captain Caymen Greener on Kintana Station. Do you copy? =^=

=^=This is Commander Stark. Kintana Station you say? Glad to hear from you again Sir.=^=

=^= Excellent. Glad to hear your voice. But I have news - you have incoming, some other kind of vessel, not Undine. They're coming in fast, so see if you can protect the escape pods and draw the fight towards the station - we might be able to defend fairly well. =^=

=^=We weren't detecting anything.... Could you send me your data through? The escape pods have a very low base velocity, They'll be sitting ducks. But I'll see what I can do.=^=

=^= Godspeed, Commander. We'll do what we can. Greener out. =^=

=== Back in Space ===

"L.T. we have incoming! On our port side, multiple bogies coming in!".

Nelson looks up and sees multiple ships coming their way.

"Crewman, arm the phasers and torpedoes. We will defend these escape pods." Nelson looks around the shuttle to see if there are any engineers aboard. He spots a yellow coat and heads his way.

"Please tell me your an engineer." The crewman nods yes.

"Good, please get our shields back up to 100%. We are going to need them."

Without hesitation, the engineer gets up and starts to get to work. Nelson hits the comm system,

=^="Nelson to McClintock, we have multiple fighters coming our way. I only have limited weaponry and our shields were damaged when the shockwave hit. Let us know where you want us."=^=

With little time to spare McClintock had to jump into the remaining cockpit seat at tactical - there was no one else aboard. As he brought the defensive systems online his hands started unnaturally shaking. Put a rifle in his hand - easy, but he wasn't exactly trained for tactical systems!

=^="McClintock here, aye we see 'em Nelson - we're a bigger target but our shields were also damaged, stick close to us and let the fighters maintain a defensive stance around us. When we bank, you bank the opposite direction so phasers are constantly firing. Keep this comm channel open.=^=

He knew it was too quiet around here.

== Jason's Fighter ==

Jason was still trying the comms when he noticed hostiles showing up on his scopes, he knew they were hostiles because of the fact it was an attack vector scarcely similar to a maneuver he had pulled in training, and the fact he had a hostile weapons lock on his ship. He didn't think, he simply reacted, his training had now taken full control. "

=^= Shepard two to Jason Dunham and any fighters who are hearing this... full defensive screen formation bravo two. SS Jason Dunham, for you that means drop into the center of the formation, you're not in any real condition to fight. Bravo wing, if you hear me, stick on my ass not one gets through!" =^= Jason barked without thinking, knowing full well his superiors were nearby, he was shocked when he noticed the second wing of three peregrines actually following his orders; he was the youngest and lowest ranked, but they were listening to him.

=^="Bravo wing... BREAK AND ENGAGE... NOW!"=^= Jason ordered as he rolled splitting off from the prior arrowhead formation he had around him diving into the fray.

==Sparrow===

This first sign of consciousness Zoteke became aware of was the notion that Ahrund's voice sounded odd, like it was coming from a speaker. The next was the sensation *Tock tock tock tock* like someone was banging on his helmet. Then consciousness exploded back into his mind along with a major head ache.

Through the speakers he could hear his son shouting

"DADDYYYY NO SLEEP NOW!" while he was using the PADD he had to bang against his daddies helmet.

He shot upright in his seat where he'd been slumped since the shockwave of the August's demise had hit the Sparrow at a 90 degree angle.

"Yeah, yeah, i'm back Ahrund.. Daddy's ok." Zoteke told Ahrund.

Shaking the last cobwebs out of his mind, and regretting the shaking instantly, he turned to a systems check and learned that, besides his communication's systems, nothing was seriously damaged. A flick of the wrist and a few keys in the command pad and even the nauseating spin the Sparrow was in leveled out and came to a full stop.

"Home go boom daddy....." a small sad little voice said. "Just like when mommy died" the little voice added, even softer.

"I know honey. But nobody was there when it exploded..." Zoteke told his son, hoping with all his soul he wasn't lying.

"We had to make the bad ship go boom. This was the only way we knew how." He finished.

Meanwhile he was having his scanners try to locate the rest of the survivors from the August. When he found them, they were a long way off, near the unnamed outpost.

"Honey, we're going to the place the others went okay. Are you okay back there?" Zoteke said, in his most joyous voice, as if it was the most exciting thing he'd ever done. It seemed to work.

"We go to frieeeeeeends... yeeey" Ahrund exclaimed. "Daddy punch it!" he added.

The impulse engines of the Sparrow flared brightly and the Sparrow shot forward, racing to join his family.

=== SS Jason Dunham ===

"Ensign Three, take control of our power systems and re-route whatever you can to the shields and weapon systems!"

After hearing the tactical details from Corporal Trask, McClintock next addressed Mendoza at the helm.

"You heard him Sergeant, Defensive Formation Bravo II - keep us in the center, and let's hope we dinnae' tak' too many hits!"

The Staff Sergeant nodded as the transport moved into formation, and soon enough the sensors were bleeping with contacts. Tapping away at his console to the right of Three of Seven, McClintock also tapped for the internal comm system, and told the 'passengers' to buckle up and brace for impact! The alien fighters coming dead ahead, they were visible not only on sensors but just looking out the window. All he could do was provide screening cover for the fighters and hope he did some damage.

McClintock targeted one on the right trying to out-flank us.

"Phasers locked..firing! Direct hit!!"

=== Nelson's Shuttle ===

2LT Nelson listened to McClintock's orders and formed on the Dunham's port flank.

"Crewman stay on this side of the Dunham, I will take tactical and try to lock onto any fighters that try to flank us. Engineer, what is our status on our shields!" The engineer yelled from underneath a console, "L.T., shields are up to 75%, I am working as fast as I can!".

"Fair enough", thought Nelson.

"L.T., The Dunham is locking onto a fighter that is attempting to flank our formation."

Nelson looked at his tactical console and started to vigorously tap on it.

"I see him, they are firing. I got it locked and firing phasers... Direct Hit, their engine is down." Nelson joyously yelled out.

"Sir! Brace for impact!"

The shuttle starts to rock and bounce from incoming phaser fire from another fighter. Consoles start to spark and the lights go off for five seconds and then come back online.

"Report!" Nelson asked as he got from his seat to put out a small fire to his right side.

"Sir, shields are down to 43% and our starboard engine is down. We are pretty much dead in the water."

Nelson sits back down and sighs in frustration. He hits the comm system.

=^=Nelson to McClintock, sir we are pretty much dead in the water here. We will limp back to the pods while we repair. We will take on any fighter that gets through. Good Luck and God Speed! Nelson out.=^=

===Alien Fightercraft===

Kator slammed his fist off his controls, the engines were down thanks to these heretic aliens, but he still had one trick left up his sleeve. He punched in a series of commands into a console, and brought the booster rockets online; engaging them, his craft shot forward with amazing speed as he also brought up the auto-destruct sequence. He may not survive this day, but neither would several of this unknown species aboard their escape pods.

The Dunham and runabout opened fire on the amazingly fast fighter, but Kator managed to shoot the gap between them, crashing headlong into the nearest escape pod as the auto-destruct triggered. Five escape pods were gone in an instant, several lost all power to their engines and lay dead in space.

=== SS Jason Dunham ===

"Dammit!" McClintock slammed his fist down on his blinking console, and blinked again as he surveyed the damage to the escape pods.

How the hell did we get into this? ..Greener. The transport rocked and shook as it took hits from multiple hostiles, and McClintock had set the phasers to fire at will in an attempt to pierce their shields.

"Sir, we've lost.." Mendoza began as his eyes tracked the multiple fiery explosions.

The compartment behind him was deathly silent as they too realized what had occurred, and silently prayed to their Gods.

"I'm aware of what just happened Sergeant, I have eyes myself don't I!? Now just do your job and co-ordinate your attack vectors!" he snapped at the Staff Sergeant.

He also noticed his phasers had brought down another fighter, and flung a photon torpedo at them - exploding only 4km away knocking the transport about even more. Kamakaze that you sonofa..

Three of Seven looks up from her console towards McClintock

"Sir, fore shields failing, suggest we take evasive action."

McClintock mentally facepalmed himself as he continued to target what he could. We can't turn to port, those shields are already at 38%..

"Mendoza, hard to starboard! Keep our shields on the hostiles! Ensign, re-route emergency power to the shields!"

===Sparrow===

As the distance between them and the shuttles and so on from the August dwindled down the Sparrow's sensor grid seemed to gain resolution. As he took in the readings his eyes went wide.

"Dammit! They're fighting" he muttered.

"What Daddy?" Ahrund immediately asked.

"Bad guys are shooting at our friends. Daddy has to help them." Zoteke explained.

To himself he muttered "If only i could get the comm back up".

"Ok, me wewoute the comm through the beckup thingy, okaaaaay?" Ahrund said.

It took a few moments for the words of the almost three year old kid to sink in.

"WHAT? Honey you can do that?" Zoteke asked incredulously.

"Sure" Ahrund said like it was the most natural thing in the world and started tapping away at his little PADD. Not ten seconds later the chatter from the other August's auxiliary vessels screamed into his head.

"AAAAW AAAW!!! FUKKADUK!" shouted Ahrund stabbing at the volume controls until the noise was back at non-painful levels.

"Sowwy" Zoteke heard his kid say.

"Daddy is sooo super-proud of you Ahrund. Good job! Now let Daddy talk to the people and sit back." He told his son proudly. Then he added. "Daddy wil go fight soon, and we will make some very scary moves. People will shoot at Daddy and Ahrund. But you must promise Daddy to be brave and quiet, so daddy can concentrate ok?" he asked.

"Sure ok no problem. Me say nothing. Oh, me make tar.. ge... tting.... targeting thingy of ship better. It now track 10 bad guys. Missiles now fire at other than pjuw phuw bzzzz guns... ok daddy?" his son replied, not a hint of sarcasm, humor, or anything else than 100% pure honesty in his voice.

His eyes even wider, he was shocked to notice the specialist_target_auto.sh command in the Bash terminal window showed him exactly what his son promised. He was about to praise the lad for his geniossity when Ahrund added

"Oh yeah.... me go poopy... me stinky daddy! ... Hihihihi".

Zoteke's nose told him the kid wasn't lying about that either. Upping every air recycler the Sparrow had in the cockpit to max he resigned to actually smelling the shit they were getting into.

=^=This is Squadron commander Madwan, who's in charge and what's the situation? I'm 2 minutes out and coming in hot!.=^= Zoteke spoke in the reopened comm channel.

From behind he heard

"Yeah, we go make bad guys go away now." with a confidence he was jealous of.

Weapon systems readout showing phaser power gradually upping through the scale halting at max and the missile launchers were showing 12 microtorp's ready to go. All systems showed green.

Oh they would pay.... they would pay so dearly now!!!

=^=Shepherd Squadron, status?=^= he ordered on the Squadron frequency.

On his tactical systems the situation looked bad. Small fighter craft were swarming the defensive ring around the field of escape pods and readings indicated casualties already. He also noticed his fighters chaotically chasing away one incoming bogey after another. He had to bite his tongue to keep from ordering the fighters to wing up into two groups, defenders and killers..

But he knew that, as a good commanding officer, he had to give his people time to give a status report as they might have a reason for their actions.

Jason cursed under his breath completely unaware his CO was back online, and fighting

=^=SHEPHERD 3 TIGHTEN UP! Stay on me, we need to reorganize. Five, six move in, and screen the port side of the Dunham, myself and three will focus on anything gunning for the pods. Shepard four, run interference the others will cover you as needed.=^= Jason barked, when he finally heard his squad CO's repeated message

"Thank God." he stated and keyed his comm.

=^=Sir multiple hostiles, they're not from the station; they've got some kind of emergency engines, we disable them and they kamikaze, they're also surprisingly good, almost like they have a copy of our combat tactics.=^= Jason paused as two more pods got shot

"goddammit!"

Making convenient use of a stream of ionized dark matter flowing through the local system to hide behind, Zoteke had used the sensors and the status report to put together a tactic to end the status quo that was developing.

Right now, the aliens swooped in on attack vectors, they got fired upon and intercepted by a fighter upon which they turned and raced back out of range to see if anyone would follow.

Zoteke was satisfied to see no one was stupid enough to do so.

The enemy fighters had the numbers on their side, as well as a speed advantage over the Peregrines. This told Zoteke that, barring the aliens having power generation technology far beyond anything known to the Federation, the enemy fighters were lacking in shield and weapon power.

=^=Madwan to the Shepherds. Reform into Alpha and Beta wings. Alpha form up on my six. Beta, keep a tight defensive triangle around the pods and shuttles. Keep moving, defensive stance Delta Flash, just like we trained two weeks ago. Alpha, we're going to target the next incoming bogey and this time we're going to stick with it. No matter where it goes, we go to. We'll walk into their trap, just not one fighter at a time. We'll combine fire, attack pattern Muscle three, and take them out one by one.=^=

As he the comm channel switched off he ducked out from behind the stream, shooting up from "below" the formation of escape pods and shuttles, through them pulling into a tight arc up and to the left before rolling level and into lead position next to Jason.

=^=Nice job keeping the squad together kid. Now stick tight, follow my lead and make sure you shoot them, not me! We're gonna take it to them kiddo, not waiting for them to bring it to us=^= Zoteke commed Jason.

=^= Just doing my job is all boss, let's nail these fools=^= Jason replied smiling

"Ahrund not do anything daddy" Ahrund replied.

Rolling his eyes Zoteke replied "Sorry son, i wasn't talking to you, i meant Corporal Trask."

Ahrund seemed to consider that for a moment. Then asked

"but Coppewal twask no kid. He be stupi.... me mean He be big people"

"I'll explain later. Now be quiet okay?" Zoteke said smiling as the Sparrow's phased energy weapons snapped an incoming projectile into oblivion. The enemy fighters seemed to hang back for the moment, no doubt wondering what the Sparrow's appearance into the situation meant for their plans. It didn't last long though and t

=^=Beta, take the left ones, they're closer together. Alpha, Stay with target designated Alpha=^= Zoteke ordered meanwhile noticing every fighter was in the right place of the formation as they'd trained.

With Verspaget to the left, and Jason to the right, Zoteke powered off on intercept course for the fighter heading towards them. As that fighter noticed the change in Starfleet's fighter craft and he was facing three instead of one fighter to outmaneuver it's pilot pulled a hard 180 and sped off to his waiting friends.

Bravo rolled,each fighter parting off pulling 180s the other direction and crossing each others noses hitting opposite targets, a modified thatch weave defensive screen as enemies came in they faced either the nose of beta1, or beta2 as they crisscrossed, or weaved one another s ion trails.

Zoteke smiled when he noticed the enemy fighters were now nervously scrambling to get any angle of attack on the three Starfleet fighters chasing their fellow pilot. They hadn't expected three of them together, but thought they could buzz around one at a time like bees stinging and stinging until they'd worn out the shields. Apparently, nobody had thought they'd need a plan B.

The alien vessel broke to the left and over one of his friends and then split turned to form up on its wing but was forced to see the effectiveness of Zoteke's tactic. The targeting systems on the Peregrines and the Sparrow had interlinked and each of the fighter had targeted a different area on the enemy fighter's hull. When they opened fire the phased energy of three sources slammed into the weak shields of the alien fighter which signaled their defeat with a bright flash three seconds later.

The two microtorps Zoteke launched found their target unshielded which resulted in total annihilation of the fighter craft.

As Ahrund had predicted, the Sparrow's tactical systems had already switched to the next logical targets in order, and helpfully showed a little arrow on the hud so Zoteke knew where he had to point the nose of the Sparrow to get that target into his firing arcs.

=^=Madwan to all, combine fire onto one target. Their shields overwhelm easily!=^=

The enemy fighters had reacted to the new found aggression displayed by their enemy by collectively swarming out into a wider perimeter around the pods and fighters and all attack the center of the defensive triangle formed by Beta Wing and the weapons on the shuttles/Dunham.

Zoteke knew this could go badly but had to be confident that concentrated fire from Federation weapons, even shuttle weapons, should be able to take out incoming fighters before it could do more than medium damage to anyone of theirs. Noticing Verspaget and Jason keeping formation with him tight and steady Zoteke turned his Sparrow to the next target, painting it and opening fire.

The other two fighters joined in and seconds later the fighter was nothing more than atoms cooling in the vacume of space. turning down and to the left and then rolling on the ventral axis Zoteke targeted another fighter which practically begged to be shot at, and soon it to went up in a silent explosion in space.

Carefully plotting a course that would bring them back across and under the main disk of Starfleet pods and shuttles but also bring a number of enemy fighters into their weapons ranges Zoteke noticed the number of enemy fighters flashing into bright explosions was increasing rapidly and the range between them and the remaining fighters, numbering only 5 now, increased as well.

=^=Madwan to fleet. It seems they've figured out this isn't working out for them. Alpha wing, orbit the defensive perimeter in defensive stance Beta Sphere Beta. Beta wing, as you were..... lets get these pods and shuttles into the outpost ASAP! Before they change their minds or call for friends!!!=^= he exclaimed into the comm, opened to all.

Three of the fighters were assigned to maintain a defensive screen around the escape pods that had been disabled while the rest of the fighters escorted the rest into the station's tractor beam range.

It had been a tough fight, but in true Starfleet fashion they had persevered.

Now the only question was... what awaited them on this mysterious station? Would the Sparrow's crew be incinerated, mistaking them for Biologically hazardous when the fighter's cockpit opened releasing Aruhnd's poopy fumes into the landing bay?

Be sure to look out for Part 16 to find out

To Be Continued (?)

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@AnonSunamun