Determined Warrior

Richie Kennedy takes on additional responsibilities as he leads his squadron in battle to retake Betazed.

Summary
With the runabout Neosho back in Federation space, Captain Richie Kennedy is ordered to Starbase 375

At the Starbase, he is greeted by hi sister, Anna, who informed him that his ship, USS Baldwin (NCC-2013), was ambushed by the Dominion, requiring a two week layover in spacedock.

Admiral Ross gave Richie his new instructions: he has been promoted to leader of the 10th Squadron of the Fifth Fleet. His first mission as squad commander is to take his squadron on a mission to retake Betazed, while the rest of the Fifth distracts them. Until Baldwin is back in service, he has been assigned to the USS Wildfire (NCC-33467)

Upon arriving on Wildfire he was greeted by his sister again, along with an old friend, Amanda Stacey, who was Richie's acting XO. While they made the rendezvous with the rest of the squadron, Richie told a story on how he mixed up Anna and Amanda at the academy.

Upon arriving in the Betazed system, they found 27 Jem'Hadar ships waiting for them. Although they were outnumbered 3 to 1, Richie commented that he has been through worse.

Aboard the USS Ticonderoga (NCC-62926), main power was gone and the engineering section had lost contact with the Bridge. The senior officer, Shandy Rogers, indicated that they needed to get main power back online or risk being sitting ducks. Advising that it would be a risky proposition, Ensign Alex Wallace volunteered to get the main power online.

Monitoring from Wildfire, Richie notes that the Dominion line has weakened, and gives the order to launch ground troops. He was also concerned about Ticonderoga, which appeared to be a sitting duck.

As main power came back online aboard Ticonderoga, they found that they could not make contact with the bridge. Shandy tried to contact Ensign Wallace to no avail. She had Alex beamed to sickbay. Meanwhile, the Jem'Hadar ships, hoping that they had an easy target, gathered around. Shandy ordered a full torpedo spread, much to Richie's surprise.

After debriefing Admiral Ross and returning to Baldwin, Richie was greeted by Shandy. After hearing Shandy's stories, Richie noted that those in leadership are tested on, but hope they never face. He would help write up an incident report, but also assured her that she made the right choice.

After signing off on the incident report, he called Amanda and Shandy and informed them that he appointed them as Wildfire's CO and XO, respectively.

Background

 * The title of the story is a reference to the USS Cole. "Determined Warrior" is one of Cole' mottos.
 * The situation Shandy was faced with was the exact issue Deanna Troi was faced with in

Links
Determined Warrior Full text of the story, at the USS Baldwin series home.