Countryman leaned back against his command chair. The last week had been pleasantly peaceful for once. The fleet was running low on expendable munitions to the point that they had implemented torpedo conservation measures. Captains were under orders to conserve their torpedoes whenever possible. As for fuel, they had burned through over half their reserves in repeated engagements over the last few months. Thankfully they still had enough fuel in the tanks for what they were planning. The Collective did not consider an intergalactic jump to be possible, but his calculations showed that Refuge ships were capable of making such a jump. It would take a significant amount of power, and drain the capacitors to below minimal levels. However, they could open a hyperwarp conduit of that range.

The Collective, however, could not. Leaving the galaxy therefore would allow them to go somewhere that they could not be followed. Not for centuries anyway. The Collective did not have the power capacity or generation to generate the needed conduit. However, The Refuge did.

In his mind, he double-checked their inventory. He wanted to be sure that they had the supplies they would need. The journey between galaxies was no small undertaking. Not only did it take a massive amount of energy just to make the jump, but the trip would take several months. They were talking about over a year in deep hyperspace with no chance of resupply. Not something to be considered lightly, but a year in hyperspace did not seem too bad. They had spent fifty before.

“Sir, we have reached the designated coordinates.”

“Any sign of Cylovan activity?”

“No, sir.”

“Good. Let’s hope it stays that way.” he really did, their battle-scarred fleet didn’t need another attack from the Cylovans.

His officers concurred. Countryman surveyed their viewscreens. Beyond the walls of the ship was a nebula. One they hoped would shield them from the sensors of the Cylovan fleet. Even if it did not, it would give them an advantage. Cylovan shields would be weakened within this nebula. The high electrostatic energy of this plasma nebula also made the whole jumping galaxy things possible. Without it, their current energy reserves would be insufficient to make the jump. It cut the fuel costs they expected to expend by half.

“Contact Richards in engineering...” he began. As he listed out the initial orders for the jump. Their jump coordinates had already been preselected. It was an unnamed star system on the outer edges of an uncharted dwarf galaxy. The estimated travel time was going to be about fourteen months. At least it will be a peaceful fourteen months. Even if the Cylovans did attack, and followed them through the conduit, neither the Refuge nor the Cylovans would be able to fire on the other. Weapons did not function in the conduit. Well, torpedoes would, but that would be ill-advised. An explosion could destabilize the conduit, destroying everything in the conduit. Kinetic weapons would be prefered for combat inside a hyperwarp conduit, but that still remained risky. They couldn’t afford to risk something proving volatile, and detonating on impact. It could destabilize the conduit, and likely destroy both fleets. Unless the Cylovans proved suicidal, no conflict would happen for fourteen months, and he knew from experience that they tended not to be suicidal. They would freely expend fighter craft, but they tended to be more protective of their capital ships.

Cylovan Patrol Cruiser 117 Lightyears from the Enterprise:

The cruiser was on a regular patrol near the galactic rim. Normally this sector would have been lightly patrolled as it was so far from any known alien colony. In recent years that had changed due to species 11257, and their tendency to strike deep into Cylovan territory. The Collective had lost a number of important colonies to orbital glassing until they ramped up the patrols. Even with them, they occasionally lost a valuable colony, shipyard, or other facility. As even with patrols they could not always detect a strike force belonging to 11257. The stealth fields employed by species 11257 were very effective at rendering their ships invisible to long-range sensors. The Collective had devised a method of penetrating the screen, but it was unreliable. As 11257 had already adapted their screens to account for it. As such detection had become a constant war of adaptation, and reaction. Thankfully the collective wasn’t prone to the organic emotion of frustration.

At the moment, the ship was cycling the sensors in the latest attempt to penetrate 11257’s latest adaptation. Suddenly, an energy signature appeared on long-range sensors. Beyond the normal detection range of the ship’s sensors. The spike was absolutely massive and propagating through hyperspace. It was a hyperwarp signature, but the energy levels were more than a thousand times what was required to open a conduit.

The collective quickly analyzed the signature. It belonged to species 11257. The signature originated in grid 997-42, near the galactic edge. Inside an electrostatic plasma nebula. An anomaly most, including the Collective, would rightly avoid. The highly charged plasma would drain shields, and destroy unshielded ships in short order. The Collective was not surprised 11257 would enter it, however. They had no reason to avoid it. If anything, the Nebula was a natural fuel source to them. Their armor would not be drained by the intensely violent nebula. If anything it would be strengthened by it. Because of that, it wasn’t all that unusual for species 11257 to frequent regions of space anyone else would consider inhospitable.

The Collective considered its response for a moment. It could ignore the signature, but that didn’t seem wise. The last time it had ignored a hyperwarp signature from 11257 it had lost an entire star system. 11257 had somehow used a hyperwarp conduit to destabilize a star causing it to generate a massive hyperspatial shock pulse. Destroying every planet, ship, and starbase in the system. Only thing left intact by the pulse was the star itself, and any ship that managed to jump out before the pulse hit. It lost four colonies, a major shipyard, and nearly a thousand capital ships that day. That was nine years ago, and it had not allowed them to repeat that. Not unaccosted anyway. They had managed to repeat the performance again, three times eight years ago, and twice five years ago. Perhaps they were once again trying to do it, but this time they were using the nebula in some way to enhance their range? In any case, their ability to do this did make it highly likely that they were responsible for a certain incident that happened over 40 years ago. There was of course the possibility that 11257 was attempting a long-range jump, but the energy levels seemed way too high for that. In fact they were so high, the Collective was surprised. 11257 did not have the power generation to get these levels, and even factoring in the nebula the energy was insufficient for the observed data. Then again, 11257 had somehow surpassed it in hyperwarp technology. It knew they stole the knowledge from it, but much of what they did with it was beyond the Collective’s understanding.

Orders were sent. All available fleets were immediately redirected to those coordinates. They could not be allowed to destroy another system. Too many worlds had already been glassed, too many shipyards razed. As it was, the Collective had taken so much damage in this conflict that it would be centuries before it could recover. It knew it had finally worn its opponent down. However, they had already inflicted so much damage that it barely had the resources to keep fighting them.

The jump was proceeding to schedule when suddenly Misaki looked up from the operations console, “Sir! Long range sensors have picked up multiple incoming Cylovan vessels from every vector.”

Countryman sighed. He wanted to say that this was unexpected but it wasn’t. Clearly, it was too much to ask for the nebula to shield them from Cylovan sensors. Not with the level of energy they were actively working with. “Battlestations! Alert all ships to defend the Enterprise.”

Greyman interjected, “Sir, I must point out that our defensive systems will be diminished...”

He cut him off. “I know!”

They really would be diminished alright. Unless they transferred power away from the hyperwarp drive, but at this point in time they really couldn’t do that. The entirety of main power was currently devoted to the drive, which only left him auxiliary power to work with. In normal operating conditions that was more than acceptable, but for a battle it left them vulnerable. He already knew which defensive systems he wanted to prioritize. The beam weapons and torpedoes would be the only weapon systems they would need. The other weapons could be left unpowered. That would give him more power to focus into the hull plating, and beam shields.

They did not have long before the Cylovans arrived. By then he had already positioned his ships in a defensive sphere around the Enterprise. He placed the Empire class carriers towards the center of that sphere so that they could better provide support where needed. The seven remaining of the older Kingdom class were placed into two mobile response squadrons along with most of his remaining active destroyers. Kirk’s Bastion was the flag of the rear guard where Countryman expected the Cylovan attack to be thickest, she had the majority of the remaining Heavy cruisers under her command.

The rest of the active heavy cruisers were positioned to respond to other angles of attack. The Enterprise wasn’t the only ship they needed to protect, just the most important. He had a number of badly damaged ships positioned near the Enterprise. Ships that would not hold up long in battle. They might be able to do some damage, but it was best if they were kept in the center with the Enterprise, alongside the industrial ships.

The Cylovan attack came swiftly, several cruisers and dreadnoughts dropped out of warp at close range. Almost immediately they opened fire on any target in range. Within seconds space was lit up as blue and green energy was exchanged between the two forces. It was a brilliant display of firepower.

At first, the Refuge formation held, not giving an inch. They managed to destroy several Cylovan ships without losing any of their own. This was more due to the very aggressive attack strategy the Cylovans were employing more than anything else. Dropping out of warp so close to the fleet gave them a chance to fire quickly, but it also cost them. As for a brief moment they were vulnerable. It didn’t help that the Nebula itself gave the defenders an advantage. Serving to both weaken Cylovan shields, and to strengthen Refuge armor.

Soon enough however the nebula was full of Cylovan ships. Their fighters quickly outnumbered refuge fighter craft nearly a hundred to one. As thirty Cylovan dreadnoughts and their escorts engaged the beleaguered force.

Kirk’s ship shuddered under a hit from the nearby dreadnought. She gave the order to return fire. Vibrant purple beams slammed into the dreadnought and carved into the hull. The nebula was working its magic on disrupting the Cylovan shields. Allowing more energy from her overcharged cannons to tear into the hull. It’s size, and the thick armor the vessel sported, helped it absorb the impact, unfortunately.

Her officers shouted up reports about general ship status. Nothing to worry about though. Hull plating was holding, weapons were optimal, and the task group was in pretty good shape. Mostly.

“Sir. One of the dreadnoughts got past us. It’s heading straight for the Enterprise.”

“Ignore it. Focus on the ones still here. Let the Kingdom’s task force take care of it.” Left unsaid was the part about how that was what they were there for. They weren’t going to stop every ship. As it is, a large number of fighters had already slipped past their line, and they were dog fighting closer to the Enterprise already.

Her officers nodded. Moments later, they fired again on the dreadnought they had fired on moments before.

As the battle raged more ships eventually slipped by, especially as Refuge ships were damaged and forced to regroup at a secondary line.

The ship shuddered under the impact of a barrage from two dreadnoughts.

“Hull plating failing captain!”

He knew that. On screen he watched one of his fellow carriers go up. An energy beam lacerated one of her lateral fighter bays. Something exploded, and the entire ship soon followed. They had responded to the fighting going badly in this section, and then two new damned dreadnoughts arrived.

The captain gave the order. “Abandon ship.”

The officers worriedly repeated it before rushing to the escape pods. There were still a few escorting destroyers available to pick them up. He did not follow. He knew his ship, she was going down, but she still had some fight in her. He manned the tactical. Manually diverting what energy was left to keep the plating barely alive. Then he targeted the closer of the attacking dreadnoughts and returned fire.

Vibrant blue beams slammed into its hull, one after another. Each one penetrated the shields and carved into its armor. He must have gotten lucky and hit something vital, as there was an explosion that ripped the giant vessel open like an egg being cracked. Drawing their attention. More ships opened fire on his dying carrier. Buying vital time for the rest of the ships to fall back and regroup. The captain proved to be the only casualty when the SFS Kingdom finally went down ten minutes later.

Countryman stared at his screens. The battle didn’t seem to be going well. His ships had just fallen back a second time condensing the sphere further. Enemy ships were already entering weapons range of the Enterprise, but they were almost there. Conduit stability had reached eighty percent a few more minutes and they would be able to make the jump.

The ship shuddered as a beam raked over the hull,

Kaori reported, “Hull plating is holding, no damage.”

That was assuming they could keep the Enterprise intact long enough to finish stabilizing their intergalactic conduit.

He gave the order to return fire on the ship that fired at them. It was a dreadnought. Vibrant blue energy lanced through the nebula. The energetic phased particles punched through its shields, and tore deep into its hull. The beam did not destroy the ship, but a section of the dreadnought’s shields failed as power was lost to several sections of shield emitters. Instantly exposing the hull to the dangers of an electrostatic nebula. The hull quickly began to corrode, her armor unable to withstand it the way Refuge armor could. Several nearby destroyers took advantage of the failing shield to unleash their payloads into the dreadnought. The ship exploded under the combined onslaught of several ships. It was a minor victory in the scheme of things, but it bought them more time. Time they needed considering the ships they had already lost.

The ship shuddered under an impact. An officer called out a hull breach, and Countryman smiled as he saw the conduit stability. They could make the jump now, and it was just in time too. His hull plating was starting to fail, and they had taken several hull breaches. The Bastion was nearby taking the brunt of it, but he didn’t think Kirk’s ship could keep them off the Enterprise much longer.

They had done it. The fleet had taken its licks, but they had managed to destroy enough ships to buy the time they needed. He gave the order, “All ships prepare to jump.”

Ahead of him several destroyers, the most damaged of their class entered the conduit first followed by a few sidelined cruisers. Then the Enterprise made the jump.

Kirk sighed with relief as she saw the Enterprise enter the conduit. The whirling blue portal that would lead them to safety. She glanced at her displays. Hull plating was holding forty one percent. It should be enough. She gave the order.

“Reposition the taskforce, we are to hold the final line. Buy the fleet time to jump.”

In good spirits the crew responded. She didn’t blame them. Seeing the Enterprise escape had been good for morale. She had been worried for a moment, but she knew they were going to pull through now.

Not long after, the Bastion was the last ship through. Successfully keeping the remaining Cylovans from the fleet as they made the jump safely. In fourteen months they would be in another galaxy, safe from the Cylovans. The Cylovans, however, followed them through the conduit minutes later. Eight dreadnoughts and their escorts.