Banshee squadron was in position for the main Son'a attack. Hovering above the northern magnetic pole of New Canada, ships in gray mode, they were invisible to enemy sensors. Their tachyon tracking beams were undetectable by the enemy as well, and while they were incapable of returning detailed information like standard sensors would, they had the enemy ships positions pinpointed down to the nearest nanometer.
A smaller blip appeared on the scope from the opposite direction. They all knew it was the Lambda Flier, but Jo radioed via the secure tachyon circuit, [Hark! Who goes there?]
[A friend,] replied a female voice.
[Hey. Listen to that Kim. Garek's got another girl in the cockpit,] ribbed Max.
Carter smiled to herself. A little release of tension before a battle was all right. Otherwise, Kim might start twitching again, but she couldn't let it go too far. She said into her voice pickup, "All right ladies. Maintain radio silence." The quiet wait resumed.
A short fifteen minutes later, the enemy fleet had closed the distance. In her helmet speakers, Carter could hear Max calmly counting down the range to the lead Jem'Hadar ship: "Fifty thousand... forty-niner.... forty-eight...." She glanced from left to right at the operational readouts projected before her eyes in her neuro-helmet's visor display. Everything was a "go". Silently, she ordered her ship's computer to query the others, and all of them too returned green lights. When Max's count reached thirty-five, Carter mentally gave the order, and a tight tachyon blip transmitted it to the other fighters.
As one, the five Banshees bolted from their hiding place, impulse engines burning at 25 gee's acceleration, leaving five glowing ion trails behind them. The lead ship spotted them almost at once, but by then, the Banshees were already upon it. Twin globules of crackling energy blossomed and shot forth from each fighter and splashed across the warship's shields. The Jem'Hadar ships were large and powerful, easily the equal of a Sovereign class starship, but even so the concentrated quantum pulses caused the shields to sputter and crackle and flash out as the shield generators were overloaded. They had never been designed to absorb the energy equivalent of ten quantum torpedoes all impacting on the same spot.
Carter watched her tactical display as the lambda Flier swooped in behind their wing and finished the job with a well-placed shot to the weapons bay. That started a chain reaction of internal explosion that quickly rent the massive vessel asunder.
"Commander, looks like you scored a kill on that one," called Carter over the comm. She fervently hoped all their kills would be that easy.
[I'll mark it as an assist,] Garek replied. [My torps were just the exclamation point.]
Next in line past the destroyed Jem'Hadar along the Banshees' flight vector were the other Jem'Hadar warships. The fighter's quantum cannons were still recharging, so Carter switched over to phasers. She began a low strafing run across the bows of several of the Jem'Hadar, peppering their outer hulls with fire, going for weapons emplacements. As she flashed past them, her HUD provided her with a satisfying rear view of billowing fireballs where her shots had connected with vital systems.
The tactical display in her visor showed the locations of the other Banshees. They had peeled around the formation of Jem'Hadar ships and were dodging return fire from the huge warships. Suddenly, the vessel nearest to Carter pivoted on its z-axis and headed back the way it had come. Seconds later, her helmet speakers crackled to life. It was Captain Wallace: [Banshee and Arizona, the Jem'Hadar are pulling back to the rear. Break off attack, and concentrate fire on the lead Son'a ship.]
Carter acknowledged the order and switched to the standard Banshee tactical channel. "Carter to Banshee wing. Regroup and target the lead Son'a ship."
A chorus of "Aye-ayes" answered her command, and in her visor display she saw the other four fighters converge on her position. The quantum cannons were fully recharged now, so Carter ordered their weapons switched back from phasers to the cannons.
Approaching the lead Son'a vessel in a tight flying wedge, the Banshees once again unleashed their combined firepower. This time the incredible energies in the pulses had devastating effect. Carter's displays showed massive damage to the Son'a vessel, and in her ear she could hear Kim whooping a triumphant war-cry.
There was no time to celebrate however; there were still two Son'a ships fighting, and battle orders were still coming in from the station: [Banshee Two and Four. Break off and attack the fourth Son'a. Pattern Delta.] Immediately, Max and Jo peeled away from the group to comply. [Lambda Flier and Banshee Three, attack Son'a two. Pattern Alpha.] Now Sam wheeled away to join Garek in his attack on the other Son'a ship. [Commander Kelly, Lieutenant Carter, and Banshee Five attack Son'a one. Pattern Delta.] Finally, Carter and Kim paired up and prepared for another run on the Son'a ship they'd been attacking.
The tide of battle was turning in the Federation's favor. Now that the closest enemy ships had been softened up, the Banshees had finally been set free to fight the way they were designed to fight. The tiny fighters buzzed around and harassed the mighty warships, distracting them while the larger Starfleet vessels continued pounding them.
Max's esper ability and Sam's cyber-enhanced reflexes allowed them to be seemingly everywhere at once. Everywhere that is, except where the Son'a were shooting. Jo and Kim were doing their own dance of death around the massive dreadnoughts, and were inflicting plenty of pinpoint damage. Carter could tell that the Son'a ships would fall very soon, so she allowed herself a moment to assess the tactical situation.
"Carter to Nine-Oh-One."
The only answer she got was an earful of static. Swearing silently to herself, she fiddled with the comm unit, trying to get a clear channel. The problem became quickly evident: someone was jamming all the frequencies.
She ordered the computer to give her a broad tactical view. She saw that the Hirogen were taking up an offensive posture, but they also appeared to be shielding a smaller vessel behind their lines. Suspicious, she ordered the visual display to center on that ship at full magnification.
What appeared before her eyes in the visor display was unlike anything she'd seen before. It looked similar to a typical Hirogen hunting ship, but it was smaller. But what really attracted her attention was that it was covered from bow to stern with all sorts of bizarre antennae and other mysterious protrusions. This was undoubtedly the source of the jamming signal.
Focusing her tactical display on the other Banshees, she saw that they were all heavily engaged with the enemy, and with the jamming, she wouldn't have been able to call to them for help anyway. Deciding quickly, she locked the jamming ship into her targeting computer and shot off towards it at maximum acceleration.
The gee's pressed her back into her seat cushions despite the inertial dampers working overtime, but that didn't hinder her from giving her ship the mental commands necessary to prepare it for the coming encounter. As she approached the target, the surrounding Hirogen vessels opened fire, forcing her to change course continually and dodge and jink violently to keep from getting hit.
Her sensors confirmed that the jamming ship had no shields - probably because that would have interfered with all those antennae - that was why it was being shielded by the other Hirogen vessels. One or two solid hits from the quantum cannons would be enough to finish it.
A weapon blast from one of the guardian ships narrowly missed her, but only because she slammed her joystick so hard to the right that her fighter careened out of control. As she spun wildly around, nausea and disorientation threatened to overwhelm her. She had lost her grip on the joystick, and fumbled now to regain it. The neuro-helmet was returning garbled information because of her mental discombobulation, and so was no help either. All the while, the deadly energy beams continued to dance around her, seeking to snuff her out. One hit while her craft was out of control would do it.
Finally, she managed to get her fingers around the flight stick. She began yanking it around, trying to steady her gyrating plane. As the spinning slowed, she was able to think more clearly again, and with the help of the ship's computer, she returned her fighter to normal trim. Some of the adrenaline rush from her emergency subsided and she breathed a sigh of relief.
But that breath was quickly gasped in again the second she looked out her front cockpit canopy. Her desperate struggle to regain control had occupied all her attention, so she hadn't noticed the missile that had been launched at her from one of the Hirogen hunters. She watched in horror as it came straight at her from straight ahead, and there wasn't a single thing she could do now to avoid it. She instinctively threw up her arms to shield her face and braced herself for impact.
Only, the impact never came. She opened her eyes just in time to see Max's Banshee flash past her and fire its phasers at the missile at point blank range. There was a beautiful explosion as the missile was destroyed, robbed of its prize, and Max's Banshee did a victory roll right through the heart of the rapidly dissipating fireball.
[Could you use a hand, boss?] came Max's coldly professional voice over the comm, but Carter could detect Max's customary dry humor beneath it.
"Always," she replied, thankful for the thousandth time that she had Max on her team. Max never failed to be at the right place at the right time. "Follow me in."
[Right behind you,] came back the eager reply.
Together, the two Banshees zig-zagged the remaining distance to the jamming ship and let loose their deadly projectiles. As expected, the jamming ship was completely defenseless, and began breaking apart into pieces almost immediately upon being hit. The other Hirogen vessels began backing away from the stricken ship to avoid taking collateral damage themselves.
Carter's comm crackled back to life with the voice of Captain Wallace trying to raise the Arizona. Mission accomplished, she and Max hurried away from the rest of the Hirogen hunters - alone they were vastly outgunned - and sped to rejoin the three other Banshees, who were still flying support for the starships.