Battle of OL-272

The **Battle of OL-272**, also known as **Operation: Hallowed Sabre**, was the last military engagement of the Iconian War in The Outback, the most decisive engagement, and the most controversial engagement. Its greatest controversy stems from the artificial and intentional destruction of the OL-272 star by inducing a supernova with a Trilithium weapon. This supernova resulted in the destruction of over 95% of the Herald armada located within the Outback, effectively ending the Iconian Empire's campaign in the region. Due to their less powerful warp drives on account of their reliance on Iconian Gateways, the Herald were held back until the Supernova arrived at their staging area, while the Federation's faster warp drives allowed them to escape.

# Background

Although The 26th Fleet had a few victories against the Iconians during the Outback campaign, it was obvious to fleet command that they were outnumbered 20 to 1, and could not win by even favorable attrition. Attempts to gather reinforcements from allied forces came up negligible, as the priority campaign was the home front. The 26th Fleet was left to operate as a delaying force for other operations which would hopefully end the war. Unfortunately, this left the Outback as expendable, which Admiral Corris Sprint found unacceptable.

In the preceding weeks, several discussions were held between Admiral Sprint and his staff to discuss ways of successfully defending the Outback. Options were few and unfeasible as skirmishes persisted. Although gaining favorable results, territory continued to be rapidly lost to L'Val's Herald. Meanwhile, L'Val herself identified the primary threat to her campaign as the 26th Fleet itself, and began gathering her forces for an attack with the intent of destroying Starbase 381 *"Praetorian"* itself. With the gateway capability of the OB-200 Dyson Sphere limited, L'Val opted to gather her fleet in force at a staging area from which it would move in overwhelming force. She selected OL-272 as her staging area.

The USS *Silverfin* detected the build up on reconnaissance in the area, who continued to monitor under cloak. On the third planet of the OL-272 system was a small colony of approximately 1200 people founded by an indigenous civilization in the Outback. Whether L'Val was unaware of the colony at first or simply unconcerned is unknown, but shortly into the buildup, a Herald raid began on the colony. A distress call from the colony was responded to by the USS *Ramillies*, starting a brief combat with Herald forces. The *Ramillies* was successful in evacuating the colony with minimal loss of life, though the colony itself was destroyed by orbital bombardment.

There were conflicting conclusions as to the Herald objective for this buildup, but to Captain Amalei Neraea their objective did not matter, as she proposed an attack on their staging area to stop the attack before it could begin and end the Herald threat in the Outback.

## Neraea's Plan

Captain Neraea had originally come up with this plan in order to even the odds against the Iconians, but found no way in which it could be decisive until the Herald fleet gathered in one location near a star. Using a Herald *Quas*-class cruiser captured from an earlier operation, she intended to infiltrate the system and approach the star, then fire a weapon which would induce a supernova and destroy the star and, with the assistance of a delaying action performed by the rest of the fleet, ensure that the armada could not escape before the shockwave destroyed them.

After some study, the weapon of choice became trilithium, from which a theoretical weapon could be developed based on the similar research conducted by the USS *Destiny* in developing the Triple-Alpha Lance and the accounts of the USS *Enterprise-D* during the Viridian crisis many years before. Lab tests and simulations proved successful, and Neraea felt comfortable proposing the plan. She noted that what they were doing violated more than one interstellar treaty and warfare convention, mostly involving trilithium weapons research and the development and use of weapons of stellar destruction, but this was ignored.

The next element came from the captured Herald cruiser, which required substantial modification to enable proper operation with a limited crew. A neural interface link had to be developed in order to sufficiently run the ship in a believable manner.

Finally, the Herald needed to be kept occupied, as the supernova would be detectable immediately, and would take several minutes to reach the Herald staging area. A fleet action would occur simultaneously, utilizing the newest Gateway jamming technology and gravion pulses to keep the Herald from escaping either by gateway or by warp drive. It was well documented that Herald warp drives were advanced and significantly smaller, but at the cost of performance, as their doctrine relied on the use of gateways. Their warp drives took two to three times longer to activate than it did for Starfleet's, in addition to them being more susceptible to a graviton pulse and nearby gravity wells, such as the planet OL-272 2 which the Herald fleet still orbited after the orbital bombardment. The fleet would only have to keep Herald in place until the shockwave was approximately 30 seconds out, then they could escape at warp while the Herald fleet would be unable to go to warp in time.

Captain Neraea called it Operation: Hallowed Sabre. After hearing the proposal, Admiral Corris Sprint approved the mission.

## Preparation

The ability to control a Herald ship required substantial and invasive surgery to install neural implants. Few officers were physically or mentally capable of this. When Captain Neraea herself was found to be suitable, she volunteered immediately without consultation of her commanding officers. Her logic was ultimately accepted, in part because the operation had already been completed by *Praetorian* medical staff. Only a few tests were performed before the mission was scheduled to begin, only enough to establish feasibility and demonstrate sufficient control to perform the requirements of the mission. Combat ability was declared optional, and secondary to the ability to deliver the payload to target. For the rest of the mission profile, all battleworthy ships of the 26th Fleet were evacuated of all non-essential personnel.

# Prelude

Allied ships rendezvoused just outside of the heliopause of OL-272 on Stardate 93320.51. Herald forces are known to have observed the 26th Fleet approach for at least a lightyear, but made no motion to change formation, remaining in close orbit and continuing preparations for their next offensive. The Iconian leader at OL-272, L'Val, was unconcerned for the relatively small fleet of ships and surmised a desperate attempt to disrupt Herald operations. The fleet, nonetheless, drew their attention, leaving Neraea's *Quas*-cruiser, manned by only a skeleton crew consisting mainly of security and medical personnel, to approach the system without sufficient scrutiny to reveal their intent.

Admiral Corris Sprint assumed command of the fleet from the bridge of the USS *Columbia* and left the fleet divided into three previously established battlegroups, Destiny, Barclay, and Ramillies, he himself taking Ramillies and changing callsign to Battlegroup Columbia. At the predetermined time, Sprint ordered the charge while Neraea executed a turn toward the OL-272 star.

# Battle

On Admiral Sprint's order, the 26th fleet rushed head long into L'Val's prepared counters. Several squadrons of frigates and a few cruisers quickly engaged to disrupt the charge and enable a quick rout, but the frigates were quickly overpowered by carpet bombing tactics, as ammunition discipline was not considered a factor. The Herald forces changed tactics, instead taking target acquisition data from their frigates and having the capital ships in closer orbit fire a combined spread of over five thousand torpedoes at moderate range. The 26th Fleet became creative with their means of defense, changing to line astern formation and using overloaded deflector pulses, phaser lances, and tricobalt torpedoes to avoid being destroyed.

The 26th Fleet had now closed to a standoff firing distance with the bulk of the Herald fleet in low orbit as planned, with the 26th Fleet holding a higher orbit, deflector dishes now in range to saturate the area with gateway jamming. Despite the successes, however, nearly a quarter of the fleet had been heavily damaged, crippled, or destroyed, and the Herald fleet still outnumbered and outgunned the Federation in the system by approximately twenty to one. This was significant as all ships needed warp drive in order to escape from the planned supernova. Further complicating matters, Neraea's cover was compromised at this stage of the battle, and Herald scans of her ship revealed the presence of the Trilithium weapon.

Neraea's ship was quickly marked as a priority target, and had a large number of Herald ships diverted to intercept and destroy her. Her ship was crippled shortly after firing the weapon, virtually ensuring their fate as a suicide mission. Unwilling to accept this, Admiral Sprint had Battlegroup Columbia initiate a power-assisted slingshot around planet OL-272 2 on a course to intercept Neraea's ship, leaving Battlegroups Destiny and Barclay to hold the line. While en route the Trilithium weapon reached the OL-272 primary star and began to inhibit its nuclear fusion. The star was rapidly beginning to collapse.

## OL-272 Supernova

The detection of the star's imminent collapse and the determination of its effects led to a state of chaos at OL-272 2. The Iconian fleet now realized what was happening and quickly began to try to escape the supernova, wildly charging at the 26th Fleet lines, which had by now begun to collapse. The supernova had caused an equal amount of chaos within the Federation's own ranks, and Battlegroup Barclay had all but withdrawn completely to perform search and rescue and establish tractor beams on surviving ships which had lost warp power.

Only Battlegroup Destiny remained to keep the battle lines secured. Captain T'Molina, commanding Battlegroup Destiny, ordered a turn to starboard to effectively cross the T and cut off the Herald retreat with weapons fire and a chain of graviton pulses to keep the Herald warp drives from establishing a subspace field. Federation ships were evacuated one after the other. Battlegroup Columbia successfully destroyed the attacking ships and rescued the surviving crew of Neraea's ship before it was destroyed, and immediately after warped out of the system. Amalei Neraea was successfully removed from the cruiser, but the process left her comatose. Battlegroup Destiny was the last to evacuate, and suffered the most significant casualties, with several ships going missing, including Battlegroup Destiny's flagship, the USS *Destiny* when the supernova shockwave reached OL-272 2.

Planet OL-272 2 was completely destroyed by the supernova event with the vast majority of L'Val's fleet still in orbit, including L'Val's own flagship. Using a considerable amount of her own life energy, L'Val managed to save herself by spontaneously opening a Gateway to a nearby area of safety, by happenstance appearing on the bridge of the USS *Columbia*. Too weak to fight, L'Val submitted herself to whatever fate the Federation decreed. Admiral Sprint drew a phaser and spent several moments in consideration and discussion before ultimately taking L'Val into custody as a prisoner of war.

# Aftermath

The Iconian War ended approximately twenty-four hours after the battle's conclusion with a truce, though the result of this battle is believed to have played some minor part. L'Val's fleet was being mustered to join the main attack fleet at Sol at the Battle At Midnight. Although her fleet comprised only a fraction of the ships which were to be present, the missing ship and the confusion surrounding the capture of L'Val are believed to have caused delays in the Iconian attack on Earth, potentially reducing casualties and better enabling the events which led to the ceasefire between the Iconian Empire and the Alliance. Had the war continued, the loss of all but a handful of L'Val's ships would have been a significant blow to the Iconian Empire and had, for the time being, secured the Outback for the Alliance, but reinforcements from the rest of the Empire would, or could, have been very swift, and it is unlikely that the Iconian Empire would have fallen for similarly destructive traps in the future.

The use of trilithium weapons was a source of controversy for a time, but ultimately found praise in Starfleet Command. It is a widely held belief that the times called for such measures, the successful execution of which was to be commended. At the recommendation of the Commander, Starfleet, President Okeg awarded Amalei Neraea with the Medal of Honor for her plan and her voluntary sacrifice. Neraea herself eventually recovered from her coma to continue service within Starfleet.

The 26th Fleet itself lost nearly a third of its ships and 2,298 officers. Battlegroup Destiny took the worst, with its combat effectiveness almost entirely eliminated, and only two ships left remotely mission capable. The USS *Destiny*, then the flagship of Task Force Avalon, went missing but was later found an abandoned wreck in the OB-200 Dyson Sphere, where she had managed to escape by stealing into one of the few Iconian Gateways which had managed to form. The few surviving crew were primarily found on the sphere's surface. Captain T'Molina remained missing until a prisoner exchange returned her for the release of L'Val.

Operation Hallowed Sabre continued to have effects on the 26th Fleet for months after. Captain Neraea was now seen as a war hero by many, while Captain T'Molina's recorded objections to Operation Hallowed Sabre left some within Starfleet Command dissatisfied. Operation Hallowed Sabre was reviewed as a part of a series of inquiries over many events of the Iconian War. The review of this operation, as well as the failure to keep the OB-200 Dyson Sphere out of enemy hands, resulted in a shuffle of command. Captain T'Molina was relieved of command of Task Force Avalon, while Captain Neraea was promoted to Rear Admiral and nominated as the new commanding officer of Task Force Avalon, which she assumed command of with the new year. Corris Sprint, having accepted much of the negative responsibility and citing personal reasons, accepted a voluntary reduction to the rank of Captain, with Kenzi Alenis promoted to fill his former position.