I slowly floated above the asteroid, pinging my active sensors every few seconds while scanning for returns.
"Any results?" Commander Janeway asked.
"Nothing useful." I answered. "It's like finding a cloaking needle in a haystack."
Still, this was fun. A hell of a lot of more fun than scanning hydrogen atoms along the border in case the Klingons got up to any funny business.
Come on, they might be sneaky honorable warriors but they are also currently neutral in the conflict despite their semi-alliance with the Federation.
Which made them real bastards, by the way, after everything in the Dominion war.
Maybe it was a good idea to keep a presence here just in case, after all.
"Gold Squadron, anything?" I transmitted to the first fighter squadron which was flying fighter cover while Blue Squadron was scouting ahead.
"Star, this is Oracle. Everything looks clear so far. Any idea what they are up too?" Lieutenant Sarah Hansen answered. "Come on, you have to have heard them plan something."
"Sorry, couldn't cheat even if I wanted to. Everything about the opposing force was planned in a dead room."
Or in other words, Lieutenant Bergson's quarters. He was the leader of the Peregrine Squadron. And apparently he was a sneaky motherfucker.
"I kind of hope they will move soon. This is getting tedious."
I mentally smiled at that. "Which might actually be his tactic. Drag it out until we get tired and relax."
"You don't get tired."
"Which is a problem with his plan."
"Yeah, I'm not su... CONTACT!"
What!? Where!? The fighters were a hell of a lot closer and had an easier time picking up other fighters despite their more limited sensors. I couldn't see anything.
"Okay, break up and engage. They are not getting close to the lady. Remember, stick to your wingmen."
She must have switched to the dual frequency, patching both to me and to her squadron. They should be in sector three which would put them...
I swept my active sensors in that direction and at full power, I just about got some signals back. Without transponders at this range, I could only track the Valkyries reliably because their transmissions.
Those other signals must be the attacking squadron.
But why would they all attack from...
I didn't bother finishing the sentence and instead kicked my impulse drive up to full, swinging around and putting the asteroid between me and the other direction.
As soon as I started to move, I was proven right. Four energy signals spiked in the opposite direction of the attack as three almost completely dead and drifting fighters powered up and went to full power towards me, lighting up on my scanners as their energy levels got high enough to burn through their energy dampening fields.
Shit! Too fucking close!
They disappeared behind the horizon of the large rock as I sent out another signal. "Blue Squadron, this is Star. Return to defend."
"Star, Viper. Returning now. ETA: One Minute." The harsh and rather heavily accented voice of the Russian commander of Blue Squadron sent back. Ironically, his name was Jean Bisset.
I didn't have one minute. Fifteen seconds until those fighters rounded the rock and at this range there would be no way for me to dodge a photon torpedo, simulated or not. I wouldn't even have managed it in the Sabre.
"Oracle, I could need some help here. Ten seconds and they have me dead to rights!"
"Sorry Star, you are on your own. We are engaged."
Crap.
I could barely see those fighters when they were not actively boosting and that was at this close range. Not with this much crap floating around.
So how about we add a bit more crap.
I flicked the phasers from 'laser pointer' to full power and fired a blast into the asteroid as we flew past, rapidly heating it and causing the rock to spew dust and particles into space. If they fired through that, it might blow up in their faces.
Flicking the phasers back I waited five seconds before firing a full salvo of simton torpedoes from my single aft launcher, set in a spread area of effect pattern, maximum simulated yield into the dust and gas cloud.
The four peregine fighters rounded the asteroid and their shields flared when they basically flew into a sandstorm.
Didn't expect that, did you?
A second later the simton warheads bathed the area in simulated antimatter radiation, causing the peregines to start to tumble in space, their thrusters automatically bringing them to a halt relative to the asteroid, dead in space as they were 'destroyed'.
Captain Mason frowned and crossed his arms. "I have noticed that a lot of your tactics involve throwing things at the enemy while running away."
"Whatever works, sir." I answered and frowned slightly. "But that's a good point. I really need to watch that or I'll become predictable."
He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Now, that I doubt will ever happen. Status on the fighter wings?"
I sent out a few quick signals and a couple of seconds I could answer him. "Gold Squadron is mopping up the last of the Warthogs." not the most glamourous nickname for the Peregrines, though they did have a similar role to that old American plane, it was still better than what the Valkyrie pilots called them when none of the Peregrine pilots were around. Fighter pilots are all a bunch of primadonnas. "Blue Squadron is forty seconds out."
"And what have we learned?"
I sighed. "I'm no longer in a Sabre and maneuverable enough to get away from enemy fighters. Keep a fighter screen close or you may be forced to use anti-capital ship weapons as flyswatters."
He raised an eyebrow and glanced at Janeway before he nodded. "I suppose that's accurate enough without a full debriefing. Very well. Send out the all clear signal and recall all fighters for full debriefing in two hours."
"Yes, Sir."
I sent out the signal and raised myself higher above the asteroid, the Peregine fighters I 'killed' moving around for docking permission.
That was way closer than I liked.
There had to be a better way to detect fighters. I mean, cloaking ships were easier to detect with tachyon bursts.
Fighters were just so damn small that as long as they were scattering sensors and dampening emissions... even if I spotted them - which they would need to actively be moving to do - unless they got really damn close, they were too maneuverable for me to hit consistently. Phasers are fast, but they are not hitscan.
But there had to be a better way to do it than using the fighter screen... which did have an easier way to hit other fighters because they could get hell of a lot closer while also being just as hard to hit. They didn't have any easier way actually detecting other fighters though, especially stealthy ones.
At least the Klingons went for size and firepower on their subcraft. Large enough to slap a cloak on. Which was freaky in and of itself, but they were at least easy enough that I should theoretically be able to swat them from the skies if I saw them.
And considering they needed to uncloak to fire... should be easy enough. The romulans learned that lesson the hard way.
As the last fighter got permission to land, something else pulled my attention away from my annoyance over the fact that space fighters were actually a viable thing.
There was a... blip... at the edge of the system on my gravity scanners.
Somebody was running a warpfield out there and it was heading in system at just over warp one. But those power readings... with as much power as they were putting into it, they should have been doing warp two.
If that was the case and I read things right, which considering the distance it was not impossible that I wasn't, their warp geometry was just fucked up.
The hell is that thing?
"Captain." I said, stopping him on his way to his ready room. "I think we have a small situation."
AN// A bucket of thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.