One day after the Lexington departed the Supply Base with the four Banshees aboard, it arrived at their drop-off point and was now in an unpowered elliptical orbit out beyond the target system's Oort cloud -- the captain hoped to avoid detection by the enemy by staying well away from his base.
The enemy in this case was a large Jem'Hadar ship repair base in orbit around the outermost planet in the system, a small body of rock and ice that was barely big enough to be called a "planet". It was the perfect place for a secret base though. At over 40 AU from the primary star, solar storms were negligible, gravity was minimal, and best of all, who would ever think of looking here?
The base itself was a massive orbital network of girders and frames and storage areas and habitat modules. It was energy shielded, so no tell-tale signs of its presence leaked out into the interstellar medium to tip off unwelcome seekers.
It was pure chance that a Federation scout ship passed by here a few weeks ago and decided to refuel its deuterium tanks from the system's outer asteroid belt and noticed previously unrecorded activity. It managed to escape and warn Starfleet. Naturally, Starfleet mounted an offensive to wipe out this serious threat.
That's where the Banshees came in. The base was well protected. A single starship like the Lexington would never be able to destroy it, and there simply weren't enough free resources beyond the Briar Patch for a larger operation. The main offensive against the Mullura and the peace mission to the G'Kar homeworld had everything tied up. The Banshees however, were ideally suited for the task. A large orbital facility would be a sitting duck against their combined attack, and they were small and quick enough to evade any resistance.
All these details, and many more, had been inculcated into the brains of Lee, Sam, Max and Jo by hypno-learning as they slept, and now they were completely briefed and ready. The cavernous hangar deck of the Lexington was already open to space, in anticipation of the Banshees' launch. The four craft were maneuvered out the doors into freefall by tractor beams, and once all were in position their fusion drives lit and they were gone.
Carter gave a mental command through her neuro-helmet, and a tight-beam tachyon link snapped on between the planes. She glanced at the tactical display in her HUD, then ordered, "Jo, tighten up. Everyone, line-astern formation until we reach attack range, then break and cover me while I do what I have to do. Refractive shields up, double front."
A chorus of "Ayes," answered her instructions, and the four sleek craft became all-but-invisible to enemy sensors.
Even at 7 gee's acceleration, it was still over a hour's trip inward to their target. Carter put her plane on auto, and checked the "special package" carefully strapped into the seat behind her. It was secure. She spent the rest of the hour going over the plans for the Jem'Hadar station.
It was truly massive. It would take them forever to take it all out, there was just so much of it! Luckily, she was packing a little extra punch for this mission: the small fusion bomb in her back seat! The plan was to have the other three fighters fly cover for her while she planted the bomb. Then they'd get out of there as quickly as they could and watch the fireworks from a safe distance.
It was a foolproof plan. Nothing could go wrong.
The hour was up. The Jem'Hadar base could now be easily seen even without visual enhancement. This far from the system's sun, it glowed dully, lit only by thousands of floodlights.
Carter looked out the sides of her cockpit window. The other Banshees had moved up to a line-abreast formation with Max directly to her right. She gave Max the thumbs-up signal, then banked her plane and took off for the station's power module. The other three craft split up and began strafing, intending to draw attention away from Carter.
All at once, the night sky was ablaze with countless beams of energy. The Banshees weaved and danced around the anti-aircraft barrage from the Jem'Hadar station, all the while delivering their own payloads of destruction. Phaser beams stabbed at targets of opportunity, and quantum volleys blew gaping holes in the sides of storage areas.
By this time, the Jem'Hadar had managed to get several of their attack ships under way. Those swooped down upon the Banshees now, adding their own brilliant violet beams to the lethal fireworks show.
In her steely-calm voice, Max said into her comm pickup, "Sam, Jo, follow me. We have to take out those attack ships before they spot the Commander."
Sam and Jo's fighters arced around from their attack runs on the base and followed Max against the Jem'Hadar battle bugs.
Meanwhile....
Carter slipped her Banshee closer and closer to the mammoth repair depot. She still had her refractive shields up, and was advancing on thrusters only. All around her, death flashed in a steady rain, but none of it was aimed in her direction - her team was providing plenty of distraction to keep the Jem'Hadar gunners busy.
At last, her plane's landing skids gently touched down on the outer hull of the base's power core. Carter activated the magnetic grapples, anchoring her Banshee to the spot. She made sure the air seal was tight on her helmet, then activated the air pumps in the cockpit. Quickly, the air was evacuated, and Carter opened the cockpit canopy. She released her safety harness and floated free.
Attaching the portable nuke to a line on her belt so it wouldn't drift away and getting the cutting phaser from its receptacle, she nudged her suit into motion with its tiny jets and landed in a crouch on the station itself. High above her head, she could see the rest of her team engaging what looked like Jem'Hadar battle bugs, but there was no time for sight-seeing. She pulled her eyes down from the spectacle and set about her work.
Her helmet's faceplate darkened almost to black to protect her eyes from the burn of the phaser as it cut a blazing line across the skin of the station. She made a rough, round hole about three feet across. When her cutting beam finally came around to its starting point, Carter switched it off and secured it back to her belt, then kicked the circular panel to jar it loose. She had to use her suit jets to keep herself from being knocked away after each kick.
On the third kick, the panel snapped loose and drifted inwards into the station interior. Carter looked carefully but there was nothing to see; it was dark inside.
Here goes nothing, she thought grimly. With that, she grabbed the still-warm edges of the hole with both hands and propelled herself inside, trailing the nuke behind her on its line.
Once inside, her eyes adjusted to the gloom, and she could see her surroundings. The place was huge! Spherical in shape and at least half a mile across, the power core was an intricate lattice of magnetic and gravitic fields all focused on the object suspended in the center of the cavern -- the fusion core -- and that's where she had to plant the bomb.
Checking the combat tricorder strapped to her forearm revealed no sign of the enemy inside the sphere, but there was too much radiation to be sure, so Carter drew her phaser before setting out for the sphere's center.
It took several minutes to cross the gaping expanse between the outer shell of the power module and the fusion core housing itself, during which entire time Carter felt exposed as never before. Her eyes darted this way and that imagining they saw all sorts of ravenous monsters ready to rush at her, but always there was nothing there but her overactive imagination.
Finally, her outstretched hand grasped a protruding pipe sticking out the side of the reactor housing, and she pulled herself in the rest of the way. Quickly reeling in the portable nuke that still followed behind her, she activated its magnetic base and attached it to the side of the reactor. A quick twist of the actuator knob, and the small display set in the top of the bomb casing began its twenty-minute countdown.
That was it. All they needed to do now was get out of the way before the twenty minutes was up!
Carter was about to heave off from the central core back toward her makeshift entrance when she was caught in the crossfire of a dozen sun-bright spotlights. Her helmet's automatic glare shield was unable to compensate quickly enough, so the light blinded her.
She didn't need to see however, to know exactly what was happening, because a loud, deep voice blasted through her helmet's comm system, booming in her ears.
"Do not move human! You have been captured by the Jem'Hadar."