The Battle of Kalla was the name of a incident that took place in the Kalla system in 2380 in which the USS Cerritos, under the command of Captain Carol Freeman, was attacked by a Pakled clumpship commanded by Jackabog. (LD: "No Small Parts")
Prelude[]
In 2380, the USS Solvang under Captain Dayton was on a star survey mission in the Kalla system. It was suddenly attacked and weakened by a Pakled Clumpship. The Solvang attempted to escape but the clumpship was able to use its mining arm to latch onto one of the Solvang's warp nacelles. When the Solvang went to warp, it was destroyed with all hands. (LD: "No Small Parts")
The Battle[]
Having received a partial distress call, the Cerritos investigated the Solvang's last known location, but ended up dropping out of warp right into the Solvang's debris field. They witnessed a grappling arm latching onto an intact portion of the Solvang's saucer section and pull it onto the Clumpship's hull. The clumpship fired its weapons at the Cerritos and jammed its communications. The Cerritos was then trapped in its tractor beam and a grappling arm clamped down on the port nacelle. Freeman, knowing that the grappling arms were the reason the Solvang was destroyed, told her First Officer Jack Ransom not to go to warp and instead to power down the engines. This action saved the Cerritos when the nacelle was torn from the ship.
Despite the damage, Chief Engineer Andy Billups was able to restore auxiliary power. The clumpship's commander, Jackabog, told Freeman that he would salvage the Cerritos to add to ship. Freeman tried to negotiate with Jackabog, but he refused and continued sending his ship's grappling arms to salvage the Cerritos. The Cerritos was brought closer to the clumpship, where the Pakleds used phaser slicing beams. Freeman asked several of her junior officers, such as her own daughter, Ensign Beckett Mariner to take command and come up with an unorthodox solution. Ensign Brad Boimler told Mariner and Freeman that since the Pakleds' ship had integrated parts from multiple cultures, they would need a universal system to have them work together. Mariner asked Ensign Sam Rutherford to create a virus that would disable the Pakleds.
Rutherford was able to use his Badgey hologram to create three viruses to disable the Pakleds' ship. However, he would have to upload the chosen virus manually, aboard their ship. As the Pakleds beamed slowly aboard, the Cerritos' senior staff and junior officers attempted to make their way to the armory. They were intercepted and fought off the boarders with contraband weapons Mariner had kept stored on board, however, Captain Freeman was wounded. Security Chief Shaxs was able to get the captain to sickbay. The Cerritos' crew tried to convince Ensign Peanut Hamperto deliver the virus, but she refused, then went AWOL by beaming herself into space.
Shaxs carried Rutherford to a shuttle and boarded the Pakleds'. Rutherford was able to plant the virus. Unfortunately, Badgey, due to Rutherford snapping his neck during their previous interaction, decided to wait for the Pakleds to kill Rutherford, then changed his mind and initiated the self-destruct sequence. However, Shaxs was able to pull Rutherford's implant out of his head. Shaxs was able to get him aboard the shuttle, but had to stay behind to cover him. Jackobog's ship was destroyed with Lieutenant Shaxs aboard. Three more clumpships arrived to finish Jackobog's job.
the USS Titan came to the aid of the Cerritos
However, the USS Titan under Captain William T. Riker arrived and were able to force the remaining Pakled clumpships to retreat. The Cerritos was towed away by the Titan and then returned to Douglas Station. There, the Cerritos was externally rebuilt and repaired to original specifications. The crew also had a memorial service for Shaxs. Ensign D'Vana Tendi helped Rutherford in his recuperation and recovering his memories. For her part in saving the Cerritos, Freeman offered to help her daughter in her side missions. (LD: "No Small Parts")
Aftermath[]
Boimler was briefly promoted to Lieutenant junior grade and was stationed aboard the Titan. However, he returned to the Cerritos three months later following a transporter duplication. (LD: "No Small Parts", "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption", "Kayshon, His Eyes Open")
Sometime after these events, Shaxs was revived and resumed his position as Freeman's Security chief. Captain Freeman's actions impressed some important people that could promote her to a capital ship. (LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", "Strange Energies")
In 2381, Freeman attempted to enter the Command Conference afterparty on Starbase 25, mentioning her actions at the Battle of Kalla as a reason she should be let in. The bouncer, however, still refused her entry. (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers")
Later that year, Peanut Hamper transmitted a distress call from the isolated planet of Areolus that was received by the Cerritos, discovering Drookmani scavengers destroying an Areore village for their ancient technology. However, it was revealed that the exocomp had engineered the attack in order to appear heroic and have Starfleet likely accept her back into the service, solely just so she could leave Areolus without being sent to a penal colony for abandoning her post. After the scavengers were defeated, Freeman refused to let Peanut Hamper on board the Cerritos, but after she threatened to summon the Borg to the planet, Freeman ended up taking her into custody in order to stop her. The former ensign was later incarcerated in the Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage at the Daystrom Institute. (LD: "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption")
Some time after Peanut Hamper was arrested, Rutherford discovered that he had coded the Texas-class artificial intelligence prior to his cybernetic reconstruction and realized that Badgey was a fork of this AI, prompting him to rush to Captain Freeman's ready room to warn her of the threat as she was contacting Vice Admiral Les Buenamigo over the USS Aledo's violation of the Prime Directive. There, he informed her that the class' AI was "the same one that killed Shaxs" and, based on his experience with Badgey, fruitlessly warned Buenamigo not to grant the Aledo full autonomy. Shortly after the subsequent battle with the Texas-class vessels, Drookmani scavengers salvaged Rutherford's old implant, with Badgey still within its storage, from the wreckage at Kalla. (LD: "The Stars At Night", "A Few Badgeys More")