Within the Storm, Part 2

"Captain, Rebecca will focus on defending the Voyager, but you need to stay within the nebula, and we'll need your help in damaging the Krawon's shields. I'll coordinate between you and her to open a window for you to fire," Katye explained to Janeway.

"Alright, Mister Tuvok!" Janeway agreed.

Katye summoned out her exo-suit and said, "Link my headset to the correct channel."

"Done; be careful out there," Raven said, standing behind Operations since L'Naan had replaced her at the Conn station.

"You too," Katye replied before she vanished from the Bridge.

"Get us as close as you can to the Krawon. I want to try to get an accurate scan of the ship," Raven said.

"Alright," L'Naan agreed.

The Fae Dragon was cloaked and out of the direct course of the Vidiians, as they chased the Voyager. L'Naan piloted the ship towards the giant ship, which was made easy by the fact that it was at the 'back' of the formation. There were a number of Vidiian ships that were not focusing on attacking, and were rather trying to get ahead of the Voyager to box them in. Their goal was clear, but a silver, misty bubble prevented them from slowing down the Voyager.

The first volley of V-1 torpedoes was launched, and one of the two hit its mark. The Vidiians tried to take advantage of the hole, but Rebecca closed it before any missiles could make it through. A moment later, another window opened up and the Voyager fired another two V-1 torpedoes, both of which hit their desired target, but it was not enough to take down their shields alone. Katye used her Lotus Bloom spell and the mana beam hit the Krawon, finally breaking the shields.

"We need to go, now!" Echo said firmly with Nyka laying across her shoulders.

"Give me another thirty seconds," Raven replied, looking over the map of the Vidiian ship that Fae generated from her scans. "Fae, lock in these coordinates and beam us onto their ship!"

An alarm sounded as soon as they appeared on the ship, but Raven had picked an empty corridor that was not too far from where she guessed the Bridge was located. Nyka jumped off of Echo and shifted into her larger form, ready to fight, while Raven drew a pair of custom phasers which were designed for rapid fire. Since Sulan had been the one who created L'Naan, Echo had come across him when they rescued her, so she could track him with ease.

"I've got his trail," Echo said, her left eye now an icy blue, then drew her own phaser.

Raven nodded her head and followed behind her, with Nyka bringing up the rear. It did not take long for the first security team to intercept them. Both Raven and Echo enhanced their speed to dodge the first blasts of their weapons while firing back as Nyka rushed towards them, her coat shimmering with an illusion that made shooting at her accurately, difficult. They took down most of them with their phasers while Nyka froze the last two with a blast of Ice mana.

They took off running when the last of the Vidiians were down, since there was only so long that Rebecca could last, defending the Voyager as she was. Based off of their simulations, she could only keep it up for five minutes in an all-out attack before the drain on her Soul Power would knock her out. If they could not capture Sulan and General Wudan before then, there would be little chance that the Voyager could make it out of this situation.

Raven and Echo had to dispose of another security team before Echo stopped in front of a door. Raven tapped her ring and a small, silver orb appeared in her hand. She charged it with her mana, causing a number of maroon runes to appear on it, then nodded to Echo. Echo opened the door and Raven threw in her grenade before they pressed themselves on either side of the opening.

When it hit the ground, it released a flash of bright light and a disorienting, shrill screech that continued to sound for a full minute. The pair rushed into the room and started shooting while Nyka rushed straight at Sulan. She froze him, and the others around him, as Raven and Echo took everyone else down with their phasers. Once everyone was stunned or locked in place, Raven headed over to a console and activated her 'Eye of Analyzation', then started hacking into their system.

"Sulan, why don't you point out General Wudan, and the four of us can have a chat?" Echo remarked as she walked up to one of the Vidiians and placed a hand on his shoulder, draining the Ice mana out of his body.

"You can't win," Sulan said.

"Really? My friend is hacking into your system right now, telling your ships to stand down. Once we get the Voyager away from here, you'll have no way of containing us. If you want your lives and this ship to remain intact, I recommend that you do as I say," Echo replied.

"He is Wudan," he sighed, motioning towards another man.

"Good," Echo retorted and stepped over to the man that he pointed out.

When Echo turned her back, Sulan reached for something on his belt, but Nyka lunged forward and bit down on his forearm, yanking him to the ground, as he yelled out in pain. She did not bother to look back at him since she knew Nyka would not allow him to draw any type of weapon. This time, before draining the Ice mana out of Wudan's body, she searched him for weapons and pulled off two phasers that were attached to his belt.

"Alright, I've got the other ships to stand down while we negotiate," Raven said.

"Impossible! You would need my command codes," Wudan snapped.

"Wudan-862-Tagen," Raven quoted as she walked over to them, causing a dumbfounded look on Wudan's face.

"You have no idea of the hornet's nest that you've kicked by coming after us. If not for Pedira proving that your entire race is not completely irredeemable, we would have attacked Vidiia Prime when that traitor first contacted you. Even now, it's still a possibility if you don't accept our terms, but don't worry, we'll kill you first so that you won't have to live with the guilt of the deaths that your greed caused," Echo threatened.

"What is it that you want?" Wudan asked.

"Let's start with an easy question; how were you tracking the Voyager? And I do know the answer already so don't test our patience," Raven remarked.

"Tolam switched out the locket Danara wears with a fake that has a transmitter which the Voyager's sensors should not have been able to pick up," Wudan answered with a sigh.

"Good choice," Raven retorted.

"All we want from you, is to stop chasing the Voyager and us. Pedira and Danara will be welcome to stay onboard and work on a cure for the phage, but if we are attacked by anymore Vidiian ships, that offer will be revoked. You personally, Wudan, will hail all of your ships and have them stand down while the Voyager leaves the nebula. Once they are far enough away, we'll return to our ship and leave without causing your fleet anymore damage, so long as everyone does as they are told," Echo explained.

"And if I refuse?" Wudan asked.

"Then I'll use this ship to attack..."

Before Raven could finish her threat, two security teams rushed into the room, but she just called out her exo-suit and activated the shield which covered both her and Echo as the Vidiians opened fire. Nyka flicked two of her tails at Sulan and Wudan, freezing them in place, while Raven and Echo turned around to face the intruders with smirks on both of their faces. Before the shield deactivated, both of them activated their Shadow Skin and Void Walk spells, vanishing from the Vidiians point of view. They reappeared in the corridor behind the security teams and started shooting. It only took the pair a minute to take down the teams, and then they calmly walked back into the room while Wudan and Sulan watched on with bitterness.

"As I was saying, I'll use this ship to attack your other ships, until it's compromised, then beam us back to our own ship and do the same thing over and over, until your fleet is destroyed. Voyager may be lost in the exchange, but everyone that you wanted to claim will escape and your people will be without the trademark ship that keeps the victims of your harvests at bay," Raven finished with a dark glint in her eyes.

Echo drained the Ice mana from Wudan yet again and gave him a hard stare. He had no choice, realizing that his soldiers had no chance against these two women, so he could only suck up his pride and agree. His career would be ruined if he returned with this defeat, but without the Krawon, his people would quickly find themselves overrun by crimes that they had committed as a people. Doom himself or his race; that was the choice that he was making with this decision.

"Fine, I agree to your demands," Wudan replied.

Raven smiled and walked over to a console. She typed in a few commands and opened a channel between all of the Vidiian ships, the Voyager, and throughout the internal comm system of the Krawon. General Wudan announced to everyone that the Voyager was allowed to leave, while they were to stand down and remain in place. Raven called her helmet back out and contacted Katye to tell her the tracking method that the Vidiians used, so that she could pass on the information to the Voyager. Rebecca escorted the Voyager to the edge of the nebula with no trouble then flew back to the Vidiian convoy. While things were calm, Katye transported herself onto the Krawon alongside Raven and Echo.

"You aren't watching Becca?" Raven asked.

Before Katye could reply, the whole ship rocked as the dragon settled itself on the hull of the Krawon.

"She's taken a few hits, but she shouldn't lose control as long as everyone plays by the rules," Katye replied. "Did you two have any difficulties?"

"A bit of resistance, but nothing that we couldn't handle," Echo replied.

"Good, and Danara?"

"Just a pawn to deliver the tracker to Voyager from what I can tell. They knew in her condition she could not last more than two weeks before her life was in danger, so they let her escape in a region where they predicted the Voyager to be," Raven replied, making Sulan and Wudan give a dark expression.

"Get whatever evidence that you can; Janeway and Danara will want to see it," Katye said to Raven who nodded and returned to the console. Katye walked over to the two Vidiians and said with a threatening smile, "I hope that this has shown you that there are things in this universe that you don't understand and underestimating your opponents can cost you dearly. This time it is your prestige and reputation, but next time, it could be a lot worse. It was just four of us that were responsible for stopping your armada, so imagine what would happen if all of your neighbors, that you've been harvesting organs from for centuries, decide to band together and get revenge for all of those you've killed; the phage would be the least of your people's problems then."

"I understand," Wudan replied with his jaw clenched.

"Good. Now, feel free to tend to your wounded, but any more attacks against us will be returned with lethal force," Katye said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My body ached and exhaustion was gnawing at my mind, but I was stubbornly holding on. I had taken over a dozen hits while I protected the Voyager, despite the entire confrontation only taking three minutes. Once Katye signaled me that Raven and Echo had succeeded, I retracted my Chaos Storm to minimize the drain on my Soul Power which I used to keep it from growing out of control. My mana reserves were actually close to full since the clouds could return nearly as much mana as I could use while inside the nebula, but only time could replenish my Soul Power.

After escorting the Voyager out of the nebula, I returned to the Krawon and rested on the hull, constantly watching the different ships. No one made any moves during the hours that I laid on the ship, much to my surprise. My biggest fight after that was just the battle to stay awake. I could only wonder what threats Katye and Echo had used to keep the Vidiians in line, but we would see later whether they had taken the warning to heart, or not, when the gun was no longer pointed at their heads.

Fifteen hours later, Katye sent me a message telling me that it was time to go. I gave the ships one last glare before I jumped off the Krawon and shifted into the Yin Realm, to hide where the Fae Dragon was. As soon as I was back onboard our ship, I let the darkness finally claim my mind with a light smile on my face.