Zane pursed his lips as had been looking over multiple holo-projected displays before him to keep an eye on the incoming enemy fire and it had been quite taxing. A couple of the displays were views of the rear where the enemy ships were, to keep an eye on the port-aft and starboard-aft sections of the ship as well as keep an eye on when they plan to fire. Most of the time he could see within a matter of seconds of an energy building where their emitters or launchers were located, which gave him time to switch over to a different phaser array to anticipate. Other displays were the rear sensor and targeting array to detect and lock onto an incoming torpedo.

For a while now, he had been keeping up with the enemy’s torpedoes and shot them down with dorsal and ventral arrays on the nacelle pylons, he locked onto the incoming torpedoes and the system would automatically shoot them down in time. But then the enemy began to change tactics, firing more torpedoes at once, alternating their firing sequence, practically keeping Zane on his toes. They were good and so he was forced to manually take over locking on and firing the arrays to keep up. He had to, while he couldn’t stop their beam weapons from hitting the shields, their torpedoes packed more of a punch and their nullifying effect bled through the shields which collapsed the ship’s warp field and forced them out of warp.

“Captain! One of the smaller ships is pushing forward, trying to overtake us.” Said Akira Rowe.

Zane had seen it and he was already preparing for it by selecting the main dorsal phaser array. Linked to the forward phaser capacitor, he cranked up the energy flow to that very array to a hundred and twenty percent.

“Zane?” Commander Graves addressed him to make sure he heard the Lieutenant.

“Already on it!” Zane replied as he locked onto the small Hirogen vessel, and pressed and held down the fire command. Charged and ready, the array lanced out a beam towards the vessel which made contact with its shields and the beam continued with no interruption.

Curiosity overcoming her, Ward pulled up a display to monitor the array which Zane was using on the Hirogen vessel and saw what he was doing. Ward looked at him, “Lieutenant, you’re going to burn out the array!”

“Forgive me, Commander, but I know what I am doing. Just a few more seconds!” Zane’s eyes monitored the integrity of the array, integrity of the enemy vessel’s shields, and darting back and forth to the rearview displays to ensure that he wasn’t slacking on defending the ship. He did switch back to auto-fire mode to the rear phaser arrays but he wanted to be certain nothing got through. And then he saw it, the enemy vessel’s shields had lost the fight to sustain the continuous assault from the beam and failed. The beam then made contact with the hull and worked its way through, hitting vitals. Systems, plasma junctions, all that which had caused secondary explosions that cascaded to its warp core, which overloaded and destroyed the vessel completely. The second Zane saw the beam had done enough damage, he released the button and the beam was disengaged.

Ward sighed annoyingly. “Great. The forward capacitor is completely drained. It will take several minutes for it to recharge.”

“Then I will just have to keep them on our backside.” Said Tagg as he coaxed more speed out of the impulse engines.

Maxwell turned in his seat to look at Zane. “Have the aft torpedo launchers reloaded yet?”

Zane nodded his head. “Aye, Captain. They have.”

“Then let’s try again, but alternate it,” Maxwell ordered.

Zane smirked, “Aye, sir.” He then brought up the torpedo launcher display and selected the aft launchers. First, he set each one to fire a second after the other, to try and overwhelm the enemy. Then he adjusted how many torpedoes in each launcher will fire. He also adjusted yields, expecting the first few torpedoes to be shot down first from each salvo, not wanting them to explode and have any of those torpedoes cause too much damage to their own shields from being detonated too close to the ship. Once he was certain he got them set up exactly as needed, he targeted three of the remaining small vessels in front of the two larger ones. “Ready on your command, sir.”

Maxwell stared at the enemy on the main viewer and paused for just a split second before he spat out the command. “Fire!”

Zane pressed the button and the computer took over with the programmed sequence. They watched as at first four torpedoes, then eight, and then twelve left their respective launchers and divided up toward their targets. As Zane had anticipated, some were destroyed by enemy beam weapons but the rest made contact with their shields and those that did have a much higher yield. “Reading massive damage to their forward shields.”

Rowe shook her head. “The smaller ships are falling back and the two Venatic’s are pushing forward!” Just after she finished that sentence, the ship was bombarded by a salvo of beam and pulse weapons from the two larger vessels.

Ward held onto her console with one hand, while she tried her best to enter commands with the other hand. “Trying to compensate but the aft shields are taking a beating!”

“Captain, we need to get out of here.” Said Graves.

“I agree, Number One.” Maxwell tapped the button that linked the comms from the bridge to main engineering. “Beck, I need a status report on warp drive.”

“Dottie and her exocomp team are still trying to recalibrate the warp field against those weapons of theirs. We can only give you warp in short bursts.” Beck’s voice came over the intercom.

Akira turned in her seat to look at Maxwell and Graves. “There is a system not too far from here. If we can get warp five in a short burst, as Mr. Beck stated, we will make it right outside the edge of the system.”

“What’s so good about this system?” Ward asked.

Akira turned slightly more to look at Ward. “For one, the system has an ice asteroid belt along the edge, which we will have to cross to enter the system. We could go up and over or under, but there are smaller asteroids in the belt that we can use in our favor.”

Maxwell leaned forward in his seat, the idea becoming very interesting to him. “What do you have in mind, Lieutenant?”

Akira smiled slightly. “I can modify the tractor beam to act as a repulsor beam. I can use one tractor beam to grab and line up some of those rocks then as I turn off that beam to release it, I will use another to push it at higher velocity towards the enemy. If timed correctly, which I will, we can potentially damage some of those ships severely, if not destroy them.”

“You hear that, Chief?” Graves asked as he looked up at the ceiling as spoke directly to Beck.

“Loud and clear, Commander. We will get the warp engines ready for the brief jump,” said Beck.

Maxwell pushed himself out of his chair just so he could turn around and look at Zane. “Bates. How many torpedoes have reloaded into the launchers?”

“Two of the launchers have two, the third has one. Why?” Zane asked.

“I want you to maximize their yield but I want them to act as mines and perhaps modified to blind their sensors, just for a brief,” Maxwell suggested.

Zane smiled and immediately began to work on adjusting the settings on the torpedoes in the launchers. “Doing that now.”

“Launch them on my mark, Zane. Tagg, after all torpedoes have been ejected, warp us to that system.” Maxwell ordered after he had turned towards Tagg.

“Aye, sir.” Tagg and Zane said in unison.

“We’re ready!” said Beck.

“Mark!” Maxwell ordered.

Zane pressed the ejection button and all five torpedoes were ejected from their launchers. “Ejected!”

“Engaging warp!” said Tagg and the second after the torpedoes had detonated in front of the enemy, the ship had jumped to warp, only to drop out seconds after.

“Lieutenant Rowe, change our view if you would please.” Said Graves.

Akira entered a couple of commands and the main view screen blinked to load up the forward feed. From there, they saw the system right before them, along with a belt of ice asteroids that grew closer by the second.

“Not too fast, Mr. Tagg. Ease us into the field,” said Maxwell.

“How are the shields?” Graves asked after he stood up to look at Ward.

“I’ve had to redirect shield strength from other areas towards the aft to compensate for the damage intake we were receiving from those Venatics.” Ward said followed by a sigh. “I got aft shields at ninety percent, port and starboard at fifty, and forward at thirty. I don’t want to take too much from them without making them any weaker.”

Zane let out a heavy sigh of relief before he chipped in. “But at least the aft shield generator wasn’t overloaded from the barrage we were sustaining. All generators have already begun to recharge, it will just take some time.”

Akira’s face nearly whited out. “I don’t know if we’re going to have it. Five ships just dropped out of warp, bearing one-eight-eight, mark one-eight-zero.” Then her console chirped a warning notification as Tagg eased the ship into the asteroid belt. “Damnit! Two more contacts coming out from behind a large asteroid, bearing two-eight-five, mark one-six-seven!”

Zane cursed under his breath. “They’re also Hirogen!”

Maxwell and Graves sat back down into their seats, Maxwell leaning forward in his. “Alright Tagg, push the engines a little more but keep an eye out for those larger rocks, if you would please. Scratch the paint and it’s coming out of your paycheck.”

Tagg bared his teeth with a hefty grunt, “Aye, sir!”

Graves looked at Rowe. “We need that trick of yours, Lieutenant.”

“On it!” Akira stated as she had already found a couple of candidates to lock a tractor beam onto. She adjusted the settings to pull the ice rocks in but not too close. Then she adjusted their location so their paths would meet up with the enemy vessels. She had to do this with split seconds of accuracy and timing, as she didn’t want the enemy to realize what she was doing. As soon as she released the ice rocks, she used the aft tractor beam, modified as it were, to repulse and propel the two ice rocks at greater speeds toward the enemy. However, one ship was able to foresee the attack and moved out of the way just in time, but the other failed to anticipate it in time. As it tried to move out of the way, the ice rock slammed into its aft-ventral side which knocked it off its course, sending it towards a much larger ice asteroid with which it collided into. Such collision at the speed it was moving, was more than enough to destroy the ship.

Maxwell smiled. “Good work, Lieutenant. Now we just need to fool the rest.”

Akira shook her head. “I don’t think we will. They adjusted their course so that they are flying above the belt.”

“Surely that will tell them to back off,” said Graves as he looked at Maxwell.

“You’d think, Number One,” Maxwell replied, and then the ship shook underneath them. “Report!”

“They’re firing at the ice asteroids ahead of us, destroying them and creating smaller chunks,” Akira answered and then on the main viewer, they witnessed several torpedoes contacting a much larger asteroid ahead that broke off into smaller chunks. Yet these chunks were still large enough to cause quite a bit of damage if they were to hit one of them.

“Get us out of here, Mr. Tagg!” Maxwell ordered.

While that was happening, Graves had pulled up the system chart to see if he could get an idea of his own. “Mr. Tagg! Bring us further into the system. There is only one planet in the system, likely due to having a neutron star as a primary that’s sucking the life out of the secondary, the white dwarf. But lucky us, that planet is a gas giant!”

“What do you have in mind, Number One?” Maxwell asked.

Graves looked at him and grinned. “Just trust me. Punch it, Tagg!”

“Punching it!” Tagg replied as he pulled the ship out of the field and increased to full impulse towards the gas giant.

Graves then pushed himself out of his chair and stepped closer to the helm and ops stations. “Start slowing us down and ease us into the upper atmosphere.”

Tagg turned his head to look at Graves with concern on his face. “This ship isn’t an Intrepid or a Defiant.”

Graves nodded his head. “Trust me on this, Lieutenant.”

Tagg bared his teeth with a grunt of worry, but he turned back to his controls and complied by reducing speed as they approached the gas giant and began to ease them into the upper atmosphere.

“Commander?” Maxwell asked.

Graves turned but didn’t look at the Captain. “Power down weapons and divert the remaining power to the shields. Commander Ward, have our shield bubble hugging the ship as much as you can.” Graves turned to look at Rowe. “Lieutenant, I want you to rig us for silent running but keep the shields up and give Mr. Tagg all he needs to keep the ship from being pulled in further into the gas giant.”

Akira nodded her head. “Aye, sir.” She replied as she worked on cutting power to various systems throughout the ship.

Graves then turned to look at the comms officer. “Ship wide, please.” With a quick acknowledgment, Graves spoke up towards the ceiling. “Attention all hands. We are rigging for silent running. Power throughout the ship will be reduced as minimum as possible, excluding vital systems needed for our current situation. Standby for further instructions.”

“If we’re going to be hiding from the Hirogen in here, shouldn’t we cut power to the shields and pump power to the structural integrity field?” Ward asked.

“We could, but as long as Akira can lower our energy emissions as much as possible, we should be fine. We are going to need those shields, in case they do find us and launch an attack.” Graves replied.

Ward shook her head, “But with the shields hugging the ship, any attack will simply bleed through and cause hull damage.”

“With the shields reinforced with extra available power, they should be able to reduce the bleed through.” Graves replied and then looked at Maxwell. “It’s a risky shot but if we need to, we can relocate inside this gas giant and shut the shields down to try and reduce our energy emission even further.”

Akira spoke up. “I would recommend that right now, sir. Even with all the systems shut down, excluding the ones mentioned, we’re still producing quite a bit. I’m certain that they’ll detect us.”

Graves smiled. “That’s where the second part of my plan comes in. You still got one of the tractor beams set to repulse?”

Akira nodded her head. “Yes, sir. I do.”

Graves then turned to look at Zane. “I want the main dorsal array on standby. They might detect us but they won’t know our exact location, they’re going to send a ship or two to investigate. If we can trick them and get behind them…”

Zane’s eyes lit up. “Then we can disable their engines.”

Akira got in on it as quickly as he did. “And I can use the tractor beam to shove them further down in the atmosphere.”

Graves smiled. “Which will be too much for their structural integrity field, and they’ll be crushed like a tin can.”

Akira returned to check on her displays and noticed two signatures closing in. “Well, it looks like we are going to get our chance to try this. Two are coming in right now.”

Graves looked at Zane. “Launch a probe, throw its energy signature through the roof, and make it look like us, quickly!”

Zane entered several commands and then he fired a probe modified to what Commander Graves requested. As it moved further away, the two signatures on Akira’s sensor display adjusted to follow. The two signatures were two of the small Hirogen vessels that had just entered the atmosphere and dropped down right in front of the Sovereign as they began to investigate the probe. When they realized the large energy signature in front was just a probe and began to redirect their attention to the energy signature behind them, which was the Sovereign, it was too late.

Zane powered up the main dorsal array, targeted their engines, and fired. Several beams lanced out and contacted the ships with small explosions emitting from where their engines were. Then the forward tractor beam grabbed them and pulled them towards the Sovereign but also below the ship. Once they were in place on their ventral side, the forward tractor beam disengaged and the central beam activated just to repel them deeper into the gas giant. With no impulse engines to climb out of the increasing gravity pull and pressure, they were crushed instantly.

Akira adjusted the ship’s sensor strength and located the rest of the Hirogen pack. “I think they noticed what happened to their two ships. They’re not sending in any more of their vessels.”

“That leaves them with what. Four?” Ward asked.

Zane nodded his head, “Yup. Two small ones and those two Venatics.” Then Zane’s terminal began chirping a warning from the proximity sensors. “Incoming!” But the warning was too late and the ship rocked hard from several impacts.

“They’re firing blindly at us!” Akira reported as she witnessed a few torpedoes pass in front of the main viewer.

“Not blindly enough, the dorsal shields took a heavy hit. They’re down to forty percent.” Ward reported.

Maxwell pushed himself up from his seat and placed his hand on Graves’ shoulder, an indication that he was taking over. “I have about had enough of this. Time to see just how desperate they are in wanting this ship as a prize. Bring us out of silent running, and set a course to pass directly in between the binary stars.”

Graves stopped himself from taking his seat again to return to Maxwell’s side. “Now I know my idea was a bit much but your idea is borderline insane!”

Maxwell looked at Graves. “I know what this ship can do. She’s been through hell and back, she will hold.” Maxwell stared into Graves eyes and Graves knew not to question. Maxwell was there when the Sovereign participated in the Dominion War, regardless of how brief it may have been compared to when it began and when the Sovereign had joined the fight. Maxwell was there when the Sovereign made continuous trips to try and save as many of the Romulan people as they could before they were ordered to stop. Maxwell was there when the Sovereign answered the call for help, only to be infected by some computer virus that came from the Protostar and suffered severe damage. Maxwell was there when the Sovereign answered the call to join the fight in the Archanis Sector against the Hunters of D’Ghor, where the ship had sustained damage, although hardly compared to the damage that the Sovereign had dealt to the enemy.

Maxwell looked at Tagg. “Take us out, on a course between the stars, full impulse.” He then turned towards the comms officer. “Open a channel to the Hirogen pack.”

“Keep firing torpedoes! We will draw her out, or we will destroy her and send her remains to the depths of this gas giant!” The Alpha shouted at his crew.

“Reading a full power signature below! They’re…coming out!”

The Alpha laughed. “Yes~! That’s it!” And then the large holographic display showed the Sovereign rushing out of the atmosphere, trailing gas right behind it as it flew toward the binary stars. “Intercept! Maximum speed!”

“But, they’re going between the binary stars. The sheer force will tear us apart!”

The Alpha growled. “Then we will meet them on the other side. Adjust our course!”

“Receiving a transmission. It’s from the prey!”

“Hirogen hunters! I am Captain Henry Maxwell of the USS Sovereign that you have been hunting. I am going to say this only once. You will never have this ship or its crew. Even if it means flying between a white star and a neutron star that’s feeding off of it. If it destroys this ship, so be it. If it doesn’t. I guarantee you, I have been going easy on you from the beginning. If you do not back off now, I will launch the full arsenal at my disposal and you will not survive. So, I recommend that you take what ships you have left and run. Run back home and tell them how you failed to capture a Sovereign-class ship.”

The Alpha growled in frustration and annoyance. “Tell the pack to intercept that ship and disable its engines, now!”

“But-”

The Alpha drew his pistol and fired a shot directly at his helmsman’s head. Then he proceeded to take over the controls of his ship. “I will not let my prize get away!”

Ward shook her head. “Whatever it is you said, it got their attention.”

“Funny. None of them are backing down. They really follow their Alpha blindly, or stupidly,” said Zane.

“Or they follow out of fear,” said Graves.

“Either way, we got a problem. I want all power diverted to the structural integrity field! Take it from life support if you have to.” Maxwell then looked at Graves. “This is going to get rough.”

“You said it.” Graves replied.

“Oh Grand Nagus, don’t let me die on this ship by my crazy Captain!” Tagg spoke out loud to himself.

“You’re better off praying to me, Lieutenant,” said Maxwell as he went to Tagg’s side to look at the plotted course. Maxwell made some adjustments and then patted Tagg’s shoulder. “Stay on it and do not deviate.”

At first, there was a small, yet growing, vibration beneath their feet. Then the deck began to shake, only to grow more violently as closer they got to the center between the two stars.

“Engineering to Bridge. What the hell is going on up there?” Beck’s voice came over the intercom.

“Not right now, Chief,” said Maxwell.

“Captain is flying us right in between the two stars,” said Graves, who smirked with a shrug at Maxwell when he got a look.

“Are you mad?!” Asked Beck.

“Just keep an eye on the structural integrity field! Manually adjust it if you have to but keep it from collapsing! Bridge out,” said Maxwell who gave Graves one more look followed by a smirk then returned his gaze back to the main viewer.

“They’re still following us!” Akira reported and then clapped her hands. “The two smaller ships lost integrity and were destroyed! The Venatics are struggling but holding.”

“We just crossed the halfway point!” Tagg shouted. “I don’t think we’re going to make it though!”

Maxwell pursed his lips. “Bridge to Engineering. I need more speed!”

“Oi, first ya want more power to the structural integrity field. Now you want more speed,” said Beck.

“Just give me what you got, Beck. Take it from anything and everything!” Maxwell ordered.

“Aye, that I will have to. You got it, Captain,” said Beck.

Tagg grinned. “We’re picking up speed! We’re going to make it!”

Maxwell smirked, “And you had your doubts.”

Graves raised his brows. “I sure did.” Everyone looked at him and he threw up his arms a little bit. “What? I’m allowed to say these things, now that we’re coming out of it.”

“How about our two Venatics?” Maxwell asked.

“Their structural integrity fields are holding but they’ve sustained damage,” Akira reported.

Maxwell nodded. “Tagg, as soon as we reach a safe distance from the two stars, reduce speed and bring us around. Zane. All power to weapons, have the main forward launcher loaded with quantum torpedoes, maximum yield.”

“Aye, sir.” Both Tagg and Zane said in unison, again.

In mere moments, the Sovereign had drawn away far enough from the two stars that she began to slow down before she began to make a full one-eighty-degree turn where they now faced the two Venatics that were just reaching the safe point. Though, with the Sovereign now facing them, instead of fleeing from them, the two Venatics slowed to a halt where they now were in a standoff.

Maxwell folded his arms over his chest with a heavy exhale. “Hail them.” He ordered and after about a minute, the view screen flickered to show the interior of one of the Venatic ships. “I suspect that you are the Alpha.”

“I am. And you must be Captain Henry Maxwell.”

“That I am. I have one final proposition for you.” Maxwell began but was interrupted before he could continue.

“I don’t want it.”

Maxwell shook his head. “I insist. You cease this hunt of my ship and crew, and I will let you and the remainder of your hunting pack live. There will be no glory in this hunt, only death.”

“We are not as bad as you think we are, Captain.”

Maxwell smirked. “I hate to disagree with you there, but your ships have sustained more damage passing through the binary stars than mine did. And from the looks of it from here,” Maxwell peaked at Akira’s station but didn’t really see anything useful. “Your shields are barely holding, on both ships. I told you that if you do not cease this hunt, I will unleash the full arsenal at my disposal. Scan my ship, you will see that to be true.”

They watched as the Alpha worked the console before them before they returned their gaze back to Maxwell’s. “What are your terms?”

Maxwell lowered his arms to his side, easing a sigh of relief without exposing himself. “Simple. Leave us alone, and tell everyone else that if they so much as try to hunt another Starfleet vessel, we will come back and we will make sure you and the rest of your packs regret it.”

“I will order the hunt on your ship to end, but I cannot guarantee that other packs will do the same as I do not command them,” said the Alpha.

“It will have to do. Sovereign out.” With that cue, the transmission was cut and the main view screen blinked back to the two Venatics before them. Maxwell let out one more sigh of relief. “All right. Mr. Tagg, take us back to our original course. Get us the hell out of here.”

“With pleasure, Captain,” Tagg acknowledged.

“Engineering to Bridge.” Beck’s voice came over the intercom once more.

“Go ahead, Chief.” Graves answered as he and Maxwell returned to their seats.

“I will be maintaining structural integrity above maximum but Dottie and her exocomp team have detected stress fractures on the frame all over the ship,” said Beck. “They stated that they can repair those fractures but I cannot recommend going more than warp five.”

Tagg and Akira turned in their seats to look at Maxwell, Graves, and Ward, who she had eventually returned to her seat as well. “There’s no way we will make it to the colony in time at warp five,” said Tagg.

“I agree, Captain. I hate to say it but I’m afraid we will fail in our attempt to stop the Orions,” said Akira.

“Dottie and her team believe it will take twenty-four hours to make the repairs, by then we can punch up the speed to maximum. It’ll be hard on the engines, but we should be able to make it by then,” said Beck.

Akira turned in her seat to make the calculations at her station before she turned back to face the Command Staff. “That will work.”

Maxwell sighed. “I hate being delayed but we don’t have much of a choice. Proceed back on course at warp five, Mr. Tagg.”

Tagg nodded his head. “Aye, sir.” He acknowledged as he turned in his seat and laid the course. As soon as they were at the edge of the system, passed the ice asteroid belt, the ship jumped to warp.

“The worst thing that could happen to slow us down, would be the Devore,” said Graves.

“I sincerely hope that you did not just jinx us, Commander,” said Zane.

Maxwell looked at Graves. “Same here, otherwise you’ll be buying the entire crew a round when we get back to Starbase 86.”

Graves laughed, “Come on. What are the odds?”