Times Like These (Part 5)

Posted on Sun Jan 25th, 2026 @ 7:49am by Captain Maho Takahashi & Lieutenant Commander Chrirhc Chihc & Commander Ichika Misono & Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Edited on on Sun Jan 25th, 2026 @ 7:52am

2,396 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Breen
Location: USS Myogi - Conference Room, Deck 1
Timeline: After 'Times Like These (Part 4)'

Previously, on Star Trek: Myogi:

"Right, so!" Chisato continued, quickly snapping back on topic. "Since our intel on the target is pretty much non-existent, we're basically going to have to speculate on the basis of what we do have:"

She tapped a few keys on her PADD and brought up a partial holomap of the Khourani System, roughly the location of where the armory was alleged to have been located.

And now, the continuation:

"Based on elevated protomatter readings, we believe the Iconians are building the weapon in approximately this location," Chisato explained, indicating to a red dot that was flashing on the map. "Since we're not sure if they're utilizing transport inhibitors, an infiltration/sabotage team is out of the question, so this is going to have to be an external assault- most likely, an orbital bombardment."

“Do we have any speculation on static defenses?” Jane asked. A secret weapons facility probably had some ability to defend itself, but whether that threat was mostly from ships or fixed emplacements affected their assault strategy. Both required mobility, but in different ways.

"The data stream we recovered from the future has identified the presence of at least a half-dozen Cardassian Orbital Weapons platforms strategically positioned along the outer perimeter," Chisato went on to elaborate. "How exactly these platforms came into Iconian possession is up for debate, but we believe they're either being loaned or forcefully appropriated from the Breen, whom themselves acquired the technology from the Cardassians in light of the Dominion War. Regardless, we know that those platforms are present and very likely active.

"Wait a moment." Kurumi said holding up a hand. "First of all, why would the Iconians use Cardassian Weapons Platforms? Their technology is far more advanced and deadly..." Kurumi stated. "And second, are we one hundred per cent sure that The Breen are even allied with the Iconians. The latest reports that I've seen is that the Iconians have invaded every government that we know of in both the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. They don't seem like they are interested in alliances or politics, just conquest."

Chisato shrugged. "Like I said, we're not entirely clear how these platforms wound up in Iconian hands- only that they're using them. For all we know, they may be leftovers from an old Breen installation that was overrun by Iconian forces, and they're just using the infrastructure that's already in place."

"Whatever way they came about, it's something we'll need to get past." Maho declared. "Though, when we do, we'll also need to know what awaits us on the inside, Commander."

"Theres no way we're getting past those platforms," Kurumi stated. "If they are the same desugn as the ones seen in The Dominion War, they'll likely be powered remotely, armed to the teeth and have extrenely strong shielding. We lost entire fleets to them. We need to find a way to shut them down without actual engagement." She paused. "If we try and take them out with our weapons, we'll be reduced to confetti in a matter of minutes."

“I’m certainly not a weapons expert by any means,” Bree offered, “but would it be possible to introduce some sort of virus into the weapons system? If sending in a team is impossible and a frontal assault seems doomed to fail, do we have other means of deception at our disposal?“

"Fortunately, our future selves have got us covered," Chisato smirked. "before they were eventually driven from the Khourani System, they had the insight to back up the orbital defense codes, which can temporarily jam the pre-firing sequence; this ought to give us a 20-second first-strike advantage, which is going to be a pretty tight window to take all of them out, but based on the calculations we've run, there's at least a 70% chance that our fighters will be able to successfully pull it off before the Iconians regain control of the systems."

“If they don’t finish the job, then we’ll need backups,” Jane observed. “I read that the original way they took these out was to trick the platforms into targeting their command and control station. Presuming they ironed out that weakness, we could probably still position ourselves directly between two of them and trick them into firing unguided weapons. We dodge the fire and they’d shoot eat other down. It would be tight, but I can do it. That is, if Mia, Alisha, and all the other pilots aren’t able to take them all out first.”

"Even if we do," Maho replied, pressing the issue of what lay beyond the platforms. "We must also be prepared for the battle to continue past the platforms: If there is an Iconian presence ready to turn us into confetti the second we get past, then there's no point in even trying in the first place."

"Unfortunately, given the nature of what it is that they're building, Intel anticipates a very high likelihood of that the facility will be heavily guarded," Chisato speculated. "On the bright side, however, the data that our future selves have managed to recover- coupled with an additional set of data that yours truly managed to extract from an Iconian Raider last month- should help to give us a better idea of what exactly we'll be going up against."

The projection switched to display an image of an Iconian Raider- a long, sleek, comet-like profile with a gem-like deflector and spike-like protrusions tapering off towards the back of the craft.

"We'll start with the raider, as that's the craft that we have the most information regarding," Chisato began. "Now, the name that the Iconians use for this particular class of ship does not have an equivalent in the universal language, so for lack of a better term, we'll refer to them by its raw phonic pronunciation, "Baltim."

"What's a Baltim?" Ichika inquired.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Chisato shrugged. "It could have any one number of meanings to the Iconians, from a prominent figure in their history to some kind of tool or animal- there's just too many factors for us to consider, so for now we'll just have to leave it up for conjecture.

"What we do need to bear in mind about Baltims, however, is that they're fast, they're ungodly agile, and are most often seen being applied by the Heralds in hit-and-run attacks. So far, Intel has identified at least 24 starships that have been lost to Baltim ambushes alone, including at least one Galaxy, so that alone should give you a fair idea of just potent these things are.

"Now, the reason we believe these ships to be so effective in their hit-and-run tactics is two-fold; heavy armor plating concentrated around the bow does appear to play a heavy part, but they also appear to utilize a special, short-warp generator that allows them to near-instantaneously warp approximately 3 kilometers behind their target and carry the momentum that they've already built up to propel themselves headlong into the enemy craft.

"Of course, ramming isn't their only modus operandi, as they have also been observed to be packing high-yield transphasic torpedoes, fore and aft antiproton beam arrays, and a suppression barrage that effectively nerfs its target for a good 20, 25 seconds."

Jane nodded and made a mental note. Concentrated bow plating and reliance on momentum. Dodge to permit Kurumi to hit their aft?

"I may have an idea to either reduce or eliminate the suppression effect." Ami mused as she ran through the power systems of the Myogi in her head. It was like capillary veins to a starship and if... "I'll put some thoughts to it and run a few simulations, but we may be able to get away with it.

The projection next showed a tall, star-shaped craft- shorter in overall length than the Baltim before it, but with the characteristic spikes now splayed almost perpendicular to the main body, rather than perpendicular with it.

"We'll next move on to their cruisers, which seem to make up the backbone of the Iconian Fleet," Chisato continued. "Once again, the name in which the Iconians use to categorize this particular class of ship appears to have no known equivalent in the Universal Language, so for want of a better term, we'll be referring to them by their closest phonetic equivalent- that being "Quas".

"From what Intel can discern, these function in a similar vein to flight deck carriers, putting them on par with, say, the likes of the Armitage-Class. Basic armament, from what we've observed, comprises of two forward beam arrays, a single aft beam array, and transphasic torpedoes covering both their front and rear flanks. They have also been seen utilizing a point-blank, area-of-effect pulse emission that can temporarily disable anything in its immediate vicinity before abruptly detonating, so engaging these things up close is pretty strongly discouraged.

"Like the Baltims, they also use some kind of gateway generator, but rather than using it to teleport, this seems to rapidly replenish the shields of any vessel within a 3-kilometer radius; unfortunately, we don't seem to have all that much data on this specific phenomenon, as so far its only been observed once, and even then by a ship that was eventually destroyed with a loss of over 90% of its crew."

The projection switched again, this time displaying a colossal, jagged mass of sharp lines and quarhorne-shaped protrusions- a ship that appeared to command fear through presence alone.

"Last but certainly not least, we've got what we believe to be their equivalent of a battleship, which we'll refer to as a "Vonph," Chisato continued. "While far slower than their Quas and Vonph contemporaries- often taking up the rear of formations in which they're present- these seem to be used primarily as capital ships in fleet actions, as well as defending installations within contested space- which, unfortunately, means that we're very likely to encounter at least one of these things guarding the installation that we're trying to hit. Basic armaments comprise of two fore, two aft beam arrays, fore and aft transphasic torpedo launchers, tractor beams, and ion cloud emitters that impede both movement and damage resistance.

"Like the Baltims and Quases, the Vonphs also utilize a specialized gateway generator, which allegedly draws energy from a solar flare and concentrates it directly at a target. Try picturing taking an entire solar flare head-on, and you've basically got an idea of what we're dealing with."

Jane raised her hand. “For any of these ship classes, has there been a strategy observed to have worked, aside from ‘avoid getting hit and keep piling on the fire’? Some weakness we can exploit or technique we can repeat?”

"As Commander Nishikigi stated, the Baltims have an almost unnatural agility to them." Chrirhc replied. "So far, it's been observed that only our fighters are capable of coming close to matching their agility. The only problem is that the Baltim can easily cut down small, auxiliary craft. I've heard an overhaul to the Valkyrie fighters is in the works so that they can better take punishment from a Baltim, but I've not heard anything in regards to a similar upgrade being developed for the Razors. So, that being said, any Razor pilot that deploys against a Baltim does so at their own risk."

“I don’t exactly like the sound of that,” Jane said, thinking of her fiancée and one of her best friends potentially being out there in extra-vulnerable fighter craft.

"Bearing that in mind, perhaps it may behoove the Fleet Yards to loan us a couple of Valkyries updated to the latest firmware?" Chisato remarked. "Granted, the Myogi will probably only have room for two, maybe three or four if we ditch a couple of the runabouts, but we're going to need at least a day or two to install the cloaking devices, so there's nothing saying you can't swap out your auxiliary compliment in the meantime."

"We could have the yard store the Ahiru, Kame, and Godzilla to make room for extra Valkyries." Maho said. "We'd have to train Lieutenants Reno and Amaro on the Valkyrie systems and potentially recruit a couple more pilots."

Maho turned to Jane.

"That is, of course, provided that Lieutenant Sinclair is alright with us temporarily jettisoning a few shuttles for this mission." She said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jane said, nodding, smiling, happy that Alisha and Mia were getting updated fighters. “We’ll need to adjust the evacuation plan to account for the lower capacity, but that’s manageable. I’ll work with Ops and get it done.”

"I can see about adding more rations and supplies inside escape pods to accommodate higher capacities." Maho said. "Is there anything else we need to know about this assignment? Because otherwise, our next topic relates to how long it's going to take before we can get started."

"Based on what has already been discussed, I'd estimate that it will take forty-eight hours to get the cloaking device installed, as well as getting the extra fighter craft on board." Chrirhc estimated turning to Ami. "Provided that Miss Rori finds that timetable acceptable?"

"Forty-eight hours? I suppose I can sleep when I'm dead, or at least take a nap or two when the really boring part starts." Ami nodded, "Could be that I can get it installed a bit faster, I'll just need to make sure that it's integrated into our systems properly and that we won't have any power bleed or emissions leakage."

"Then forty eight hours, it is." Maho declared. "I want everything to be shipshape by then. This mission is of critical importance to the Khitomer Alliance, and the less time we give the Iconians to dig in, the better. Dismissed"

A mission post by

Captain Maho Takahashi
Commanding Officer
USS Myogi

Commander Ichika Misono
Executive Officer
USS Myogi

Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Myogi

Lieutenant Commander Chrirhc Chihc
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Myogi

Lieutenant Commander Brennyn Scott
Chief Counselor
USS Myogi

Lieutenant Kael Ryo
Chief Medical Officer
USS Myogi

Lieutenant Ami Rori
Chief Engineer
USS Myogi

Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Myogi

Guest Starring

Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Mission Advisor
Guest Star
USS Myogi

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