| Author | Message | ||
     Rear Admiral Todd Marshall |
"Anyone else feel like they need a hug?" Admiral Todd Marshall's voice over the communications system might have sounded slightly serious to those on other vessels, but those of the bridge crew of USS Vanguard could see the small quirk of a smile dancing across the man's lips. There was a sublte chirp over the bridge speakers as the communications officer switched the active channel over to the reinforcement group's command receivers. Marshall, starting to openenly grin now, leaned forward in his chair and grasped the armrests, "Okay boys and girls, let's light'em up!" The USS Gryphon and USS Odyseey banked together and gracefully dived to port in a manouever that to an observer would look cannily similar to those atmospheric craft made when changing course on-target. Vanguard followed right behind them, nestling itself behind and between the two false-matter shielding equipped vessels. It was a wise move, as while the three vessels bore in on their chosen target, a pair of Pfhor primary weapons opened up and struck each of the two lead ships, lighting their false matter shields up like refracting crystal. In response, there was first a spark, then a growing series of energy discharges across Vanguard's deflector mount. The discharges quickly accelerated, and just when the power surges appeared to reach their peak...they stopped. Marshall didn't know if the Pfhor knew what 'relief' was, but he was hoping that the crew of the vessel that the three Starfleet vessels were bearing down on was feeling it right now. It would make the next seconds that much more satisfying. Vanguard's heavy phaser lance erupted, sending a white-hot stream of pure destruction slicing through the void and towards its target. A Pfhor strike craft, turning inwards to intercept the approaching Starfleet vessels happened to swing into the beam as it tore by, and after a brief flare as it entered the beam, emerged on the other side as a chunk of molten slag, slowly tumbling away. The Starfleet trio's inteded target was a Pfhor destroyer, slightly damaged by the battle with the Apori; she had superficial armour damage, and her aft primary weapons were disabled. She also happened to be facing away from the approaching trio. The behemoth vainly attempted to bring its forward primary weapons, or at the very least, its broadside of secondary weapons, to bear on the new threat. It didn't get much of a chance. The blast from Vanguard's lance slammed into the engine assembly on the back of the foward pod, nestled beneath the Hunter and Hound barracks. The armour over the assembly held at first, spreading the intense fire over its surface and attempting to dissipate the concentrated energy across the entire ship, or at the very least, deflect it back out into space. But after ten seconds direct fire, the armour flash ignited, sending vapourized chunks of biometallic alloys rocketing away from the target's hull in a violent puff of vapour and fire. As the lance began to chew its way into the engine assembly, Odyssey and Gryphon opened up. Phaser fire tore into the area around the engine assembly, breaking off the damaged pieces of armour and adding to the damage the behemoth was now sustaining. The tactical torpedo launchers on Odyssey and Vanguard flashed rapidly, adding strings of quantum torpedoes to the increasingly larger volume of fire now being taken by the Pfhor destroyer. Gryphon's torpedo launchers roared, peppering the aft end of the ship and tearing apart the strike craft vainly attempting to escape the large aft docking bay. As the trio of ships roared in dangerously close to the target, Vanguard's lance cut off. There was a series of secondary explosions across the engine assembly before a large blast belched a gout of flame and debris out into space, almost tearing off the upper barracks pod. Odyssey, Vanguard, and Gryphon pulled up and away from the explosion, but as they did, the two torpedo launchers on Odyssey's belly, underneath the deflector, pulsed once each, sending a pair of false matter torpedoes slamming into the spine of the massive Pfhor spacecraft. A moment passed, the trio of ships peppering the target with secondary phaser fire as they flew over top of it. Breaths aboard all three ships were held as Vanguard accelerated and passed narrowly between Odyssey and Gryphon to get the two ships between it and the target in case it was able to return fire. But the change in position was unecessary, as the dorsal surface of the Pfhor's primary hull cracked open and split like magma forcing its way to the surface of a planet. Fire belched from cracks, and after a series of secondary explosions, the ship broke in two with a bright detonation. There was an un-admiral like "Yahoo" over the communications channel as the trio continued to bank away from the main body of the Pfhor assault force to pick the next target. But the sentiment was echoed across all three ships as their crews cheered their first kill of a Pfhor warship. |