*Gasping for air*
need ... next .... chapter!
Star Crossed Fanfic
Moderator: LadyTevar
Like Legend of Galactic Heroes? Please contribute to http://gineipaedia.com/
Just an idea I had in case anyone was interested....I wrote a sci fi novel while in law school (probably the ONLY productive thing I did in law school) and have been hemming and hawing about trying to get it published. It's set in a universe of my own design with all new characters...you get the idea. If anyone is interested, I can post a few chapters of it some time and see what eveyone thinks about it.
BTW Chapter 10 will be on sometime this week, vague I know but work is not as slow as it was last week and I want to get the giant space battle just right. (oops...did I give something away)
BTW Chapter 10 will be on sometime this week, vague I know but work is not as slow as it was last week and I want to get the giant space battle just right. (oops...did I give something away)
Wherever you go, there you are.
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
You tease! When I saw your name as the last post, I thought that I would be the first to read it!!!! 
By the way, has anyone else heard of the theory that if a person uses more that 3 ! marks in a row, then they are insane?????
By the way, has anyone else heard of the theory that if a person uses more that 3 ! marks in a row, then they are insane?????
Η ζωή, η ζωή εδω τελειώνει!
"Science is one cold-hearted bitch with a 14" strap-on" - Masuka 'Dexter'
"Angela is not the woman you think she is Gabriel, she's done terrible things"
"So have I, and I'm going to do them all to you." - Sylar to Arthur 'Heroes'
WHAT?!?!!!!! THOSE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!!!!!!
Acutal considering the number of people who use more than three ! marks that must mean half the internet are Bleeping crazys
Acutal considering the number of people who use more than three ! marks that must mean half the internet are Bleeping crazys
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe
Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
stravo that is the best fanfiction I have read in a longt time, can't wait to see you finish it, I want to see the SSD crush that borg strategtic cube, a true battle of giants.
"a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic"-Joseph Stalin
"No plan survives contact with the enemy"-Helmuth Von Moltke
"Women prefer stories about one person dying slowly. Men prefer stories of many people dying quickly."-Niles from Frasier.
"No plan survives contact with the enemy"-Helmuth Von Moltke
"Women prefer stories about one person dying slowly. Men prefer stories of many people dying quickly."-Niles from Frasier.
-
Captain Cyran
- Psycho Mini-lop
- Posts: 7037
- Joined: 2002-07-05 11:00pm
- Location: College... w00t?
After much praise (and pestering) here we have: Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Fist of the Empire
“Preparing to exit hyperspace.”
“Concentrate all fire ahead of as soon as we emerge from hyperspace.” Kittaine ordered.
“The last data transmission we received from the probe droid indicated a fleet of at least 1,000 cubes.” Branna stated and looked out at the bridge pits. The men were moving about, doing their duty with the cool calm professionalism of Imperial officers. But he could feel the tension in the air. The men were not happy about this mission. Many felt that they had escaped the Borg just when things were going to get difficult, and now Nemesis was ordering the fleet right into the center of an enormous Borg fleet.
“The fleet will be far larger when we arrive.” Nemesis replied coolly, he had that far away look in his eyes again. Kittaine had grown to count on Nemesis’ intuition in battle more than he cared to admit. But the Sith Lord had not been wrong yet.
“Hyperspace emergence in 10 seconds.”
“All weapons standing by.”
“I would feel better if Tarsi were leading this charge.” Branna whispered to Kittaine. Usually the Adjudicator, Executioner and Inexorable were always in front, in tight formation. This time the Inexorable and Relentless were leading in, the other star destroyers were flanking as per Kittaine’s latest deployment.
“Belladonna and the Relentless will not disappoint.” Kittaine replied.
The blue tunnel that was hyperspace suddenly flashed and disappeared replaced by a sea of Borg cubes. The Imperial fleet jumped out and fired continuously. Borg cubes were vaporizing in their path.
“Launch all bombers and fighter escorts, concentrate all fire forward, I want to clear our path. Have the flankers push out, don’t let them encircle us.” Kittaine ordered calmly, ignoring the awesome number of Borg cubes, various shapes and sizes around them firing.
“Launching.”
“Sir, I’m picking up an enormous energy reading to starboard.” A tactical officer warned.
“Let me see.” Kittaine strode down to the pit and looked. There was an energy spike the likes of which he had not seen before in the last Borg engagement.”
“Prepare the superlaser, Admiral.” Nemesis ordered.
“My Lord?”
“This enemy vessel must be destroyed quickly.” Nemesis replied grimly.
“There it is!” Branna pointed at a massive cube that was hurtling towards them. A bright green flash lashed out and struck the Relentless. The Relentless was covered in bright green thrashing tendrils of plasma. The massive Cube cast a shadow over the stardestroyer, several tractor beams lashed out and pulled the stardestroyer closer.
“Captain Belladonna reports massive energy impacting on all screens, shields are buckling.” The communications officer squinted as if trying to hear something over a loud din. He looked up at Kittaine. “There are reports of boarders appearing all throughout the ship.”
“Damn it all, reveal the iris!” Kittaine snapped.
“Revealing Iris. Main energizers charging to capacity.”
Outside the Emperor’s Will hordes of Tie Bombers were streaking through the cubes, unleashing wave after wave of proton torpedoes. Their Tie escorts exchanged fire with the smaller scout spheres. The torpedoes slammed through the armored hulls of the cubes, blasting gaping holes in the Borg ships.
The Borg responded with fusillades of plasma torpedoes which exploded with devastating effect on the unshielded Imperial fighters. Some of the more daring pilots actually flew through the massive gashes in the enemy cubes, using them as cover from the torpedoes.
The Inexorable moved in close and concentrated its broadsides on the main weapon emplacement on the strategic cube, destroying it in an explosion that would have destroyed an entire cube. As the Inexorable passed by, firing another broadside, the bridge officers noted the holes in the hull quickly covered with new wiring and plating. The strategic cube was regenerating its damage at an alarming rate.
“They’re what?” Branna exclaimed.
“The Borg cube is regenerating according to the Inexorable.”
“Status on the Superlaser?”
“Fully charged and ready to fire.”
“Aim at the Borg cube, dead center.”
“The Relentless?” Branna warned.
Kittaine realized that the stardestroyer was dangerously close to the strategic cube.
“What is the status of her shields?” Kittaine snapped as twelve cubes suddenly flashed by unloading on the forward bow of the Emperor’s Will. They realized what the weapon was. He had very little time.
“Admiral, there is not time for this, the Borg are aware.” Nemesis warned, his voice had a tension that he had not heard before.
“They’re failing, Admiral.” Branna replied darkly.
“Tell Belladonna to divert all power to shields and brace herself.” He turned to the weapons bay. “Fire the super laser now!”
As he turned back to the view port he suddenly realized why Nemesis had been so adamant about firing. The entire Borg fleet was now screaming towards them, all weapons blazing. They were ignoring the rest of his fleet and the Emperor’s Will was under a massive attack.
“Commence Primary Ignition.” His weapons officer announced.
A hundred Borg tactical cubes snapped by and unloaded a barrage of torpedoes and beam weapons, all focused on one point, right at the bridge.
“Bridge deflectors have failed…reestablishing.” Branna reported.
“Too late, it seems we have boarders.” Kittaine hissed as a dozen Borg drones appeared in wispy columns of emerald light.
“Admiral look out!” Branna shouted as one of the half machine monstrosities reached out for Kittaine. Kittaine was roughly shoved out of the way and landed flat on his back. He looked up and heard a snap hiss before he saw the crimson blade flash around and heard a sizzle of electronics and flesh being cut in two.
Kittaine pulled himself up by the railing on the command deck and managed to look up just in time to see the superlaser fire. A green glow suffused the nose of the Emperor’s Will a split second before a solid green bolt of energy lanced forth and touched the strategic cube dead center. There was no pause, no brief flash of a shield effect as he had seen from his other ship’s heavy weapons, the enormous cube simply evaporated into a ring of incandescent fire, a wave of debris and hot gasses carried on the shockwave like flotsam on a tsunami.
He watched the Relentless get caught in the shockwave of debris and get tossed to the side like a toy ship. He fervently willed that the ship not explode and watched with breath held as the Relentless toppled end over end then disappear in a cloud of plasma and got gasses.
He turned around and saw a squad of stormtroopers rush in, weapons at the ready. But it was the sight of Lord Nemesis in action which froze him in place. The Sith lord was moving among the Borg like a panther, his crimson lightsaber humming menacingly the Borg clumsily circled him. One raised an arm with a strange box like attachment at the end. It fired a green ball of plasma at Nemesis.
Nemesis pivoted on his left foot and swung the blade round, deflecting the shot right at another Borg. It stopped suddenly and simply slumped down to the floor. Nemesis continued his move and the blade flashed through the midsection of the Borg that fired. The Borg was cut right in half. Its torso fell to the floor and it looked dumbly up at the legs which were still moving. Nemesis held his hand up in a waiting gesture to the stormtroopers. The Borg advanced.
Nemesis smiled and there was a feral quality to it as he charged and whipped the blade around him as his charge turned into a spin. Four more Borg were summarily decapitated. Two Borg remained. Nemesis came out of his spin and waited, saber in a high guard position.
Kittaine noted Mara Jade for the first time. She had been on the bridge the whole time but as usual she had blended in, keeping out of the spotlight. Now there was a tortured expression on her face. She wanted very badly to be doing the fighting, to protect her Sith Lord charge but Kittaine slowly wondered just what the young woman could protect Nemesis from. He was obviously in no danger and Kittaine wondered if anything could threaten the young Sith Lord.
“Debris field clearing up.” Branna noted, tearing himself from the fight with a valiant effort.
Kittaine nodded to himself and stood fully erect, hating that he had to turn his back on the fight, but he had a fleet to lead.
“Have all Bomber squadrons deploy the seismic charges I ordered loaded. Set for, “ Kittaine glanced down at the navigational display. “124 mark 80, remote detonate, give the Emperor’s Will remote command.” He ordered hoarsely.
“Aye sir.” Branna snapped and nodded to the squadron commander.
The remaining tie bombers suddenly spun round and fired small projectiles away from the Borg fleet. They rocketed into position and remained in a tight formation. The bombers then began to unload the rest of their ordinance into the remaining Borg ships.
“Any sign of the Relentless?” Kittaine quietly asked Branna.
“Still no sign, but there’s an awful lot of debris out there.” Branna replied hopefully.
“Sir, I thought for a moment that I picked up a Federation starship but it was there one moment and gone the next.” A tactical officer reported.
“Are you sure?” Branna asked curiously. He exchanged a glance with Kittaine
“Yes sir.”
“The Romulans assured us that the Federation did not use cloaking technology.” Kittaine answered.
Branna nodded but was troubled by the report nonetheless. He was not one to trust provincial forces, particularly freshly conquered provincials. He briefly wondered if Belladonna and her ship had been lost to the Borg, if so, he swore that the fleet would wreck havoc on these monstrosities.
“I want helm control back, now!” Belladonna shouted over the din of blaster fire. Her XO pressed a blaster pistol into her hand as he moved down control pits on the command deck. She accepted it and promptly holstered it. A stormtrooper stumbled backwards, struck by a Borg plasma weapon. He fell at her feet and stopped moving.
Belladonna did not bother to turn around. She had a ship to get under control. The view port was covered in debris, Borg bodies and emperor knew what else. She was as blind as a bat. A casual look around the command pits revealed a cacophony of warning lights and alarms all going off simultaneously.
“Ship status?” she snapped. Her XO was on the other side of the command deck and he rushed back over after consulting with a few technicians. Behind her she heard the sound of a Borg going down hard as more storm troopers flooded onto the bridge, firing their weapons.
“We still do not have helm control. Borg boarders have scrambled all circuits between here and engineering in their attempts to assimilate the ship. We have lost emergency power in some of the lower decks and the hangar bay reports that a massive piece of debris is lodged in the hangar deck, disrupting the force fields there.”
“What about weapons and shields?”
“Weapons are still functioning, scattered reports indicate that they are still firing. The shield grid is online but little power is getting through the grid. Those damned Borg have scrambled everything on this ship.” Her XO spat.
“Focus on the shields, while they are on standby power more of these things are getting through. Try to raise the fleet and inform them of our status, tell them we need assistance right away. Also, seal all bulkheads between here and engineering, I want to limit the mobility of these boarders and scramble every available trooper even if they are on sleep cycle. We have to keep the boarding parties contained.”
“Last report indicated hundreds were on board.” Her Xo hissed.
“Every man fights for his ship, is that understood.”
“Yes Captain.”
Another Borg was hurtled down into the command pit where a stormtrooper fired two more shots into it to make sure it was dead before rushing to halt a new party that just beamed in.
“And isolate all computer cores, reroute all controls to the bridge on my authority.”
“Yes ma’am!”
She turned back to see three more Borg drones go down to concentrated fire from several storm troopers. One walked over to her.
“Captain, we have them contained below decks but they are concentrating their boarding parties on the bridge and engineering. My men are telling me that there are at least three hundred in the engineering section alone.”
“Suggestions?”
“We flood engineering with Syntex gas.”
“It will kill everyone in engineering.”
“It will kill all the Borg as well, Captain. Otherwise you’re looking at gunfights all throughout the engineering sections and I am not confident we won’t hit anything…explosive.” the stormtrooper commander replied ominously.
She thought for a moment. Hundreds of engineers would be killed. Irreplaceable engineers in this primitive galaxy.
“I want your men to redouble their efforts, pull troopers off details where the Borg are contained behind blast doors and push them out of engineering. If the situation becomes critical then I will reconsider. I want my engineering section cleared, commander.”
“Yes, Captain.” He replied without hesitation and turned to follow her orders. She shook her head slowly. This was not going well at all.
“Pull the Strike wings back further, give those Borg cubes room to maneuver, I want them to take that avenue of escape.” Kittaine ordered. He smiled in spite of the frustration. His fleet was well trained razors. They were cutting into the Borg fleet now, the loss of the strategic cube plus all other Borg vessels in the blast wake seemed to have thrown the Borg into confusion. He had to press his advantage now. The fleet knew this and they were instinctively cutting off all avenues of escape, but that is precisely what Kittaine did not want, and like overeager hunting dogs he had to pull on the leash.
“Sir, the Inexorable is offering to make a flanking maneuver to drive more cubes to the center, requesting bomber support.”
“Have wings 39 and 54 move to support the Inexorable’s attack.” He paused as he looked won at his fleet deployment on a tactical display. “Also have the Bombard and Bellicose slide into the center position, we don’t want this to look too orchestrated.”
“Aye Admiral.”
He turned as he heard a strange sound, an electronic gurgling like a machine was being strangled. Lord Nemesis was holding the last surviving drone up by the neck, its arms had been severed. He was holding it nearly two feet off the ground with one hand and squeezing hard enough that even the Borg’s normally pasty complexion was darkening.
“I know you can see me. I can feel your pitiful Collective looking through your eyes.” Nemesis snarled triumphantly. He jerked the Borg’s face closer to his. Its one good eye focused on him, the other, a strange antennae implant was slowly moving back and forth, no doubt providing the Borg with real time intelligence even now. The bridge had Borg cauterized body parts scattered throughout the command deck, a testament to Lord Nemesis’ prowess.
“See the futility of your actions. We have taken down your mightiest warship with a single blast. There is no possibility of victory. You are outmatched, as machines you must realize this, you must see that there is no chance at victory. You have spent the last millennia making yourselves into the demons of this galaxy. Now we have come to bring order to the chaos. Do you see what I am trying to say?” Nemesis whispered as he squeezed herder. The drones face remained impassive but it was obvious now that it was dying, the organic eye was starting to flutter.
Nemesis pulled it very close and whispered.
“In your case, resistance IS futile.”
The drone’s neck snapped audibly and it slumped in Nemesis’ grip. He stared at it for a moment then tossed it aside in disgust. He strode over to Kittaine.
“Admiral, finish this battle now.” he ordered sternly.
“Of course my lord.” Kittaine bowed his head slightly and turned to Branna. “Tell all wings to begin immediate attack, all weapons, all fighters, drive them.”
“Yes Admiral.”
“Captain Branna! One of our fighter wings has spotted the Relentless. She engaged in combat with several cubes, they report thousands of drones cover her hull and are trying to assimilate her.”
Branna whirled to Kittaine.
“We are going to personally assist her, move us in, tell the rest of the fleet to go forward, push them. When they reach position zero inform me immediately.” Kittaine ordered without waiting for
“Yes Admiral.”
The Emperor’s Will roared forward to assist the wounded Relentless as the rest of the Imperial fleet surged forward, blasting the Borg cubes that stood in their way. The cubes were moving sluggishly, some not firing at all. Swarms of bombers and fighters raced between the giant ships, blasting away at anything that was not Imperial.
Massive thermonuclear explosions rippled along the line of Borg ships. Hundreds were vaporized as the remaining stardestroyers concentrated their heavy turbolaser batteries into one devastating salvo. This was the event that broke the Borg lines. Suddenly sluggish cubes began moving backwards accelerating away from the hungry Imperial fleet. The fleet quickly followed, relentlessly nipping at the Borg fleet, always driving them to the center.
“There she is!” Branna exclaimed and pointed to the Relentless. She was covered in a writhing layer of Borg drones. There were numerous deep gouges in the heavy hull, some parts of the ship were exposed to the vacuum, it looked like a Borg sphere, or a large portion of it was jammed into the hangar bay. The bridge tower was covered in the remains of Borg cubes.
Kittaine shook his head sadly. The ship looked horrible.
“Receiving transmission from the Relentless.”
“Put her through.”
Captain Belladonna appeared on the holotransmitter, she brushed back a stray lock of hair and stood at attention. Behind her a stormtrooper could be seen blasting away.
“Admiral Kittaine, Relentless reporting.”
“Status, Captain?”
“We now have at least 400 Borg intruders on board, stormtrooper regiments are containing the boarders. Our control systems are overloaded, attempts by Borg drones to assimilate any open terminal has rendered much of our computer controls useless. We are attempting to reconfigure the system but it will take time. I have zero visibility and all sensors are out due to the shockwave and radiation from the blast.”
“We are going to clean off your hull now captain. You have thousands of drones on your outer hull attempting to assimilate your ship from the outside. We are also loading two assault transports to board and assist your regiments in repelling boarders.”
“Understood Admiral.”
“Don’t worry, little sister, help is on the way.” Branna added with a smile.
Belladonna started to smile but instead scowled.
“Branna, I’m older than you idiot.” she replied wanly and shut off the channel. Kittaine eyed Branna critically for a moment.
“What am I going to do with you, Captain?” he asked melodramatically, sounding like a bemused father.
Branna shrugged then turned to his command pit personnel.
“Set all turbolaser batteries to flak mode, minimum safe distance from the Relentless, let’s clean those things off her.”
“Aye sir.”
“Admiral, assault transports 1025 and 1138 standing by.”
“Send them in, looks like they’ll have to do things the hard way with the Relentless’ hangar bay out of commission.” Kittaine said with a frown.
“Aye sir.”
“Are you well?” Mara asked Nemesis as she suddenly appeared by his side. He was adjusting his cape and was examining the scattered drones with a mixture of contempt and disgust.
“I’m fine, Mara. Look to cleaning up this mess.” he replied absently. She nodded and snapped her fingers at a stormtrooper who hurried over.
“See that this mess is cleared for Lord Nemesis.”
“Yes, maam.”
She looked back at him but he had walked away from her and was standing on the far end of the command deck away from the others. She had watched him in action and she felt excited watching him cut his way through the Borg, there was a certain joy on her face which she had not seen before. His face had lightened for that brief moment and the storm clouds that always seemed gathered over his head parted revealing just how young he truly was.
“Admiral. Borg fleet now in position zero.”
Kittaine smiled triumphantly and strode over to fire control.
“Activate the charges. Order all fleet ships to stand by.”
The fire control officer nodded and flicked a line of switches that sent a signal that tripped the seismic charges sitting out in sector 124 mark 80, now known as position zero.
The surviving Borg cubes were now in a route, transferring all available power to the engines and preparing to engage transwarp engines. They detected the charges but not the danger.
Not until it was too late.
The charges detonated. There was nothing for a moment. Then a deep bass thrumming that signaled the detonation. Massive waves of explosive energy whipped out in two dimensional planes. The Borg cubes were sheared in half. The waves intersected at certain points, utterly vaporizing anything in their path. The retreating Borg armada happened to be in the center of the explosive waves.
Kittaine watched coldly as the cubes quickly became a field of scattered debris. Nothing was left. The Borg fleet was gone.
“Victory.” Branna breathed.
Kittaine nodded.
“Now, let us save the Relentless so we can be on our way.” Kittaine ordered and continued watching the expanse of dead Borg ships.
“What in the hell?!” Archer exclaimed.
“Scans indicate that the unknown fleet is generating power fields beyond our experience. Weapons discharges in the gigaton range.” Janeway reported, trying to disguise the awe in her voice.
Archer turned his head as the Defiant rocked, the unknown fleet’s weapons began erupting around them in thermonuclear blossoms of explosive energy.
“Did you say gigatons?”
Janeway nodded.
Archer turned around and stared at the screen, watching the kilometer long warships wade without fear into the Borg fleet.
“Engage the cloak, full evasive. We’re sitting in the middle of this fleet, we need to get out of here. It’s going to be ground zero in about a minute!”
“Aye sir!” the helmsman replied and the Defiant began evasive maneuvers.
“Cloak active and functioning within parameters.” Seven added.
“What’s going on out there?” Archer asked as he watched a tactical cube evaporate on the screen. He had just seen more cubes die in the last handful of seconds than he had seen the Federation destroy since their first encounter with the Borg.
“The fleet does not match any known vessel, including ships we encountered in the Delta Quadrant.” Seven replied.
“The strategic cube is moving to engage the enemy fleet…I’m picking up a power spike on the largest ship.” Janeway stared at the screen in disbelief. “That ship is generating a twelfth power energy field.”
“Twelfth power? A thousand starships couldn’t generate that much!” Archer exclaimed.
“It seems that the Borg have realized it as well.” Seven interjected. The Borg fleet suddenly surged around them, racing towards the great flagship in the center of the unknown fleet.
“What’s the status of that unknown weapon?”
“Energy is spiking, they’re locking on the strategic cube.”
“Helm, emergency impulse, get us ou-“
The huge warship suddenly fired a green bolt that touched the strategic cube. It exploded with a tremendous burst of plasma and light. A ring of fire sprung forth and screamed outward at stunning speed. The Defiant plunged downward and was suddenly flipped backwards as the bow front of the shockwave passed overhead, carrying with it a wave of wreckage and debris.
A console exploded behind Archer sending a crewman tumbling to the ground screaming. A deep bass alarm went off down below - a hull breach.
“All power to engines, we need to right ourselves!” Archer shouted over the din of the alarms and the fire suppression system that kicked in. Clouds of thick white vapor poured down on the bridge.
On screen the stars were whipping around madly. The helmsman struggled as best he could, transferring whatever power was available. But the small starship was dragged along like a cork on the sea, tumbling in all directions away from the source of the explosion.
“Engineering, we need more power!” Archer shouted into the com.
“Warp core is fluctuating sir, I believe that the core is reacting to a tear in subspace!” His engineer answered, worry in her voice.
“She’s right! That explosion destroyed all the subspace fields holding the strategic cube together. That action has caused a massive tear in the subspace domains of this immediate vicinity. It’s expanding.”
“The subspace tear is not only affecting our power systems but it seems to have disrupted Borg communications with the Collective, most of the fleet has been severed from the Collective!” Seven shouted as she held on to her counsel while the Defiant continued spinning out of control.
“Right now I’m more interested in us, what if we generate a polaron pulse through the main dish?” Archer suggested.
“Sorry captain, but we just don’t have the power to disrupt the tear. It’s massive and growing. The Borg are trying to escape now, their attempts to open a transwarp conduit is only making matters worse.” Janeway answered.
The ship seemed to tumble end over end and Archer felt nauseous. He slapped the armrests down to his lap and locked them in position. He tried to think of a solution.
“Captain, the warp core is in severe state of flux, we have a buildup of plasma in the starboard power coupling that could blow the entire power conduit system.” His engineer warned.
Archer grit his teeth as the Defiant committed another mad tumble.
“Can we flush the couplings?”
“I’ve been trying sir but we’re moving too fast.”
“We need to control our spin.” Archer spat.
The Defiant lurched backwards and sparks exploded overhead. Another alarm went off, a strange warbling one that he had only heard in simulations. It was a collision alarm.
“What did we hit?” he asked. Thankfully, whatever they did hit had stopped their tumbling.
“Looks like we struck a cube.” Janeway answered trying to make sense of the mad jumble of data fluttering on her screens.
“Visual.”
The screen flashed and Archer watched as the Borg fleet was surgically decimated. Hordes of strange bombers launched wave after wave of small missiles that impacted with incredible energy against the Borg cubes and spheres. The huge warships were surging ahead like a pack of wolves, tearing through any pretense of Borg defense.
“Give me reverse viewer.”
The scene switched to an extreme close-up of the familiar tubes and conduits of the outer hull of a Borg cube.
“Luckily we struck their deflector shields at the right angle, if we had hit it head on we would have been destroyed.” Janeway commented.
“Unfortunately the cube is trying to initiate a transwarp conduit.” Seven warned and looked back sharply at Archer.
“Engineering, we need power to the engines now!” he snapped.
“Impossible sir, power conduits are flushing, if we activate engines now we’ll blow up the ship.”
Archer punched the armrests in frustration.
“Transwarp conduit forming.”
“All hands, brace for impact.” He warned.
A transwarp conduit opened and the Borg cube immediately flashed into the conduit, the Defiant followed close behind, sucked in by the violent subspace eddies of the open conduit. Within the conduit, the Defiant was dragged behind the escaping Borg cube.
Archer held on tightly as the helmsman tried to even them out without engine power.
“Where the hell are we heading?” Archer asked as he tried to pull it together. His ship was powerless and helpless in the grip of a Borg cube. The least he could do was find out where they may die.
“According to my analysis of trajectory and heading…our ultimate destination is Unimatrix 001.” Seven answered coolly.
Archer stared at Seven for a moment then turned to look at Janeway. She frowned softly and shook her head slowly.
Picard watched R-7 as he moved among the other androids on the bridge. He walked casually, taking a quick glance over each crewman’s shoulder. The android crew worked incredibly well, each one focused solely on their job and they worked with the interface as if they were directly jacked into their individual console. There was one daunting drawback to the android crew. The utter silence that hung over the bridge like a tomb. The only sound was an occasional beep or alert from a console.
Picard found himself wishing for Riker’s quiet humor or Deanaa’s soft voice as she consulted him on some point of protocol or crew performance. Instead there was the insufferable silence of android crewmen.
“R-7?”
“Sir?” He quickly walked over to Picard.
“Is it usually this quiet onboard?”
“The engine bafflers are excellent, the deck plating is sound proofed as well to avoid the usual resonance that can build up from the warp core below.” R-7 answered.
Picard blinked.
“I meant that the crew is rather quiet.”
“There is no need to speak, we are all linked by a subspace hypertransmitter, a feature we copied from captured Borg designs.”
Picard nodded.
“Well I need to talk so I guess you’re elected.” Picard replied smiling warmly as he saw the confusion on R-7’s face. How R-7 reminded him of Data when he started out on the Enterprise, it amused him to see those same reactions on R-7’s face.
“Go ahead, R-7. I am anxiously waiting.”
R-7 nodded.
“The Valhalla is currently four light years from the Romulan neutral zone, an optimum range to avoid detection from Romulan subspace sensors. We are at station keeping position in support of the Bunker Hill. Current power rea-“
Picard held up a hand and smiled.
“R-7, I don’t need a status report. I know all of this already. Tell me something new, speak to me about anything that is on your mind.”
R-7 stared at Picard for a long moment.
“I have nothing on my mind. I am currently monitoring communications between the fleet elements.”
Picard frowned slightly. He could not believe that R-7 was nothing more than a automaton. There had to be more to him. He had to believe that to assuage the guilt he felt in his chest as he looked out on the bridge and saw the silent, grim faced Datas working at their stations.
Part of him knew that it was completely irrational to feel that way, but there was no denying that the feeling was still there, sitting in his heart.
“Have you ever had an independent thought, an idea, anything?” Picard pressed gently.
“I believe Captain, that even if I had an independent thought I would not be able to recognize it. I was designed as a platform to aid the shadow fleet in overcoming their manpower shortage. I am designed to work at any station to which I am assigned to the best of my ability.”
“Have any of your brothers had to run a starship?” Picard asked curiously.
“There have been several instances where the captain was injured or killed in action and the only available person to take the position was a Soon series android. We took command as it was the logical thing to do.”
“What were the results?”
“The ships survived and managed to make it back to our lines. We performed adequately.”
“It takes independent thinking to run a starship, particularly in combat.”
R-7 cocked his head slightly. Picard could not help but smile.
“I find that combat is simply a problem that needs to be solved. Utilize the correct equation and you find a solution.”
“Plug in the right strategy and you win the battle, is that it?”
“I thought that is what I said.” R-7 replied innocently.
“Combat is far more complex than that, R-7. It is the most stressful time you can experience as a commander, the men look to you for inspiration and support.”
R-7 looked out at the bridge crew then back at Picard.
“I think it is safe to say that this crew will not be looking to you for those qualities, sir.”
Picard laughed heartily. R-7 looked slightly confused.
“You have a sense of humor after all.” Picard replied with a grin.
R-7 suddenly grew serious.
“Receiving transmission from the Bunker Hill.”
“Picard turned in his seat to face the screen.
“On viewer.”
The view screen activated and Durant sat before Picard, his human first officer glanced over Picard’s shoulder at R-7 in curiosity.
“That’s it Picard, I have the signal I needed.” Durant explaioned.
“You’re sure?”
“The Imperial forces all hyperspaced out of the Romulan home system over an hour ago. They left behind only the Romulan homeguard.”
“Only the Romulan Homeguard? Those are the finest crews and ships in their fleet.”
“That may be so, but we’re better.” Durant replied with a grin.
“Do you even have a plan?”
“Yes I do, R-7 should be receiving a copy of my battle plans and orders of battle. The fleet is gathering for the jump to transwarp. We’ll be hitting Romulan space in seconds, from there it is a straight line to our target.”
“Are we sure about this?”
“Indeed we are. Intel is strong and after the Imperial attack and seizure of Vulcan, the Federation needs all the help it can get. It is obvious that they have seized the Romulan systems as a supply base, so we are going to take advantage of the Imperial strategic blunder and cut their supply base.”
“And we have the ability to do so?”
Durant smiled.
“Trust me, Picard.”
Picard frowned. Too many disasters had been perpetrated in his lifetime with those exact words.
The screen switched off. Picard rubbed his chin and turned slowly to R-7.
“Have you received the plans?”
“Yes.” R-7 replied.
“How does he intend to hold on to the target? We can’t have troops to hold on to anything deep in Romulan space without support. Besides, wouldn’t it violate the very tenets of this fleet? We strike from secrecy, we fly in shadow or whatever nonsense it was that Durant was spouting back at base.”
R-7 looked down at Picard and his answer chilled him.
“I don’t think he intends to hold onto Remus at all, captain.”
Chapter 10: Fist of the Empire
“Preparing to exit hyperspace.”
“Concentrate all fire ahead of as soon as we emerge from hyperspace.” Kittaine ordered.
“The last data transmission we received from the probe droid indicated a fleet of at least 1,000 cubes.” Branna stated and looked out at the bridge pits. The men were moving about, doing their duty with the cool calm professionalism of Imperial officers. But he could feel the tension in the air. The men were not happy about this mission. Many felt that they had escaped the Borg just when things were going to get difficult, and now Nemesis was ordering the fleet right into the center of an enormous Borg fleet.
“The fleet will be far larger when we arrive.” Nemesis replied coolly, he had that far away look in his eyes again. Kittaine had grown to count on Nemesis’ intuition in battle more than he cared to admit. But the Sith Lord had not been wrong yet.
“Hyperspace emergence in 10 seconds.”
“All weapons standing by.”
“I would feel better if Tarsi were leading this charge.” Branna whispered to Kittaine. Usually the Adjudicator, Executioner and Inexorable were always in front, in tight formation. This time the Inexorable and Relentless were leading in, the other star destroyers were flanking as per Kittaine’s latest deployment.
“Belladonna and the Relentless will not disappoint.” Kittaine replied.
The blue tunnel that was hyperspace suddenly flashed and disappeared replaced by a sea of Borg cubes. The Imperial fleet jumped out and fired continuously. Borg cubes were vaporizing in their path.
“Launch all bombers and fighter escorts, concentrate all fire forward, I want to clear our path. Have the flankers push out, don’t let them encircle us.” Kittaine ordered calmly, ignoring the awesome number of Borg cubes, various shapes and sizes around them firing.
“Launching.”
“Sir, I’m picking up an enormous energy reading to starboard.” A tactical officer warned.
“Let me see.” Kittaine strode down to the pit and looked. There was an energy spike the likes of which he had not seen before in the last Borg engagement.”
“Prepare the superlaser, Admiral.” Nemesis ordered.
“My Lord?”
“This enemy vessel must be destroyed quickly.” Nemesis replied grimly.
“There it is!” Branna pointed at a massive cube that was hurtling towards them. A bright green flash lashed out and struck the Relentless. The Relentless was covered in bright green thrashing tendrils of plasma. The massive Cube cast a shadow over the stardestroyer, several tractor beams lashed out and pulled the stardestroyer closer.
“Captain Belladonna reports massive energy impacting on all screens, shields are buckling.” The communications officer squinted as if trying to hear something over a loud din. He looked up at Kittaine. “There are reports of boarders appearing all throughout the ship.”
“Damn it all, reveal the iris!” Kittaine snapped.
“Revealing Iris. Main energizers charging to capacity.”
Outside the Emperor’s Will hordes of Tie Bombers were streaking through the cubes, unleashing wave after wave of proton torpedoes. Their Tie escorts exchanged fire with the smaller scout spheres. The torpedoes slammed through the armored hulls of the cubes, blasting gaping holes in the Borg ships.
The Borg responded with fusillades of plasma torpedoes which exploded with devastating effect on the unshielded Imperial fighters. Some of the more daring pilots actually flew through the massive gashes in the enemy cubes, using them as cover from the torpedoes.
The Inexorable moved in close and concentrated its broadsides on the main weapon emplacement on the strategic cube, destroying it in an explosion that would have destroyed an entire cube. As the Inexorable passed by, firing another broadside, the bridge officers noted the holes in the hull quickly covered with new wiring and plating. The strategic cube was regenerating its damage at an alarming rate.
“They’re what?” Branna exclaimed.
“The Borg cube is regenerating according to the Inexorable.”
“Status on the Superlaser?”
“Fully charged and ready to fire.”
“Aim at the Borg cube, dead center.”
“The Relentless?” Branna warned.
Kittaine realized that the stardestroyer was dangerously close to the strategic cube.
“What is the status of her shields?” Kittaine snapped as twelve cubes suddenly flashed by unloading on the forward bow of the Emperor’s Will. They realized what the weapon was. He had very little time.
“Admiral, there is not time for this, the Borg are aware.” Nemesis warned, his voice had a tension that he had not heard before.
“They’re failing, Admiral.” Branna replied darkly.
“Tell Belladonna to divert all power to shields and brace herself.” He turned to the weapons bay. “Fire the super laser now!”
As he turned back to the view port he suddenly realized why Nemesis had been so adamant about firing. The entire Borg fleet was now screaming towards them, all weapons blazing. They were ignoring the rest of his fleet and the Emperor’s Will was under a massive attack.
“Commence Primary Ignition.” His weapons officer announced.
A hundred Borg tactical cubes snapped by and unloaded a barrage of torpedoes and beam weapons, all focused on one point, right at the bridge.
“Bridge deflectors have failed…reestablishing.” Branna reported.
“Too late, it seems we have boarders.” Kittaine hissed as a dozen Borg drones appeared in wispy columns of emerald light.
“Admiral look out!” Branna shouted as one of the half machine monstrosities reached out for Kittaine. Kittaine was roughly shoved out of the way and landed flat on his back. He looked up and heard a snap hiss before he saw the crimson blade flash around and heard a sizzle of electronics and flesh being cut in two.
Kittaine pulled himself up by the railing on the command deck and managed to look up just in time to see the superlaser fire. A green glow suffused the nose of the Emperor’s Will a split second before a solid green bolt of energy lanced forth and touched the strategic cube dead center. There was no pause, no brief flash of a shield effect as he had seen from his other ship’s heavy weapons, the enormous cube simply evaporated into a ring of incandescent fire, a wave of debris and hot gasses carried on the shockwave like flotsam on a tsunami.
He watched the Relentless get caught in the shockwave of debris and get tossed to the side like a toy ship. He fervently willed that the ship not explode and watched with breath held as the Relentless toppled end over end then disappear in a cloud of plasma and got gasses.
He turned around and saw a squad of stormtroopers rush in, weapons at the ready. But it was the sight of Lord Nemesis in action which froze him in place. The Sith lord was moving among the Borg like a panther, his crimson lightsaber humming menacingly the Borg clumsily circled him. One raised an arm with a strange box like attachment at the end. It fired a green ball of plasma at Nemesis.
Nemesis pivoted on his left foot and swung the blade round, deflecting the shot right at another Borg. It stopped suddenly and simply slumped down to the floor. Nemesis continued his move and the blade flashed through the midsection of the Borg that fired. The Borg was cut right in half. Its torso fell to the floor and it looked dumbly up at the legs which were still moving. Nemesis held his hand up in a waiting gesture to the stormtroopers. The Borg advanced.
Nemesis smiled and there was a feral quality to it as he charged and whipped the blade around him as his charge turned into a spin. Four more Borg were summarily decapitated. Two Borg remained. Nemesis came out of his spin and waited, saber in a high guard position.
Kittaine noted Mara Jade for the first time. She had been on the bridge the whole time but as usual she had blended in, keeping out of the spotlight. Now there was a tortured expression on her face. She wanted very badly to be doing the fighting, to protect her Sith Lord charge but Kittaine slowly wondered just what the young woman could protect Nemesis from. He was obviously in no danger and Kittaine wondered if anything could threaten the young Sith Lord.
“Debris field clearing up.” Branna noted, tearing himself from the fight with a valiant effort.
Kittaine nodded to himself and stood fully erect, hating that he had to turn his back on the fight, but he had a fleet to lead.
“Have all Bomber squadrons deploy the seismic charges I ordered loaded. Set for, “ Kittaine glanced down at the navigational display. “124 mark 80, remote detonate, give the Emperor’s Will remote command.” He ordered hoarsely.
“Aye sir.” Branna snapped and nodded to the squadron commander.
The remaining tie bombers suddenly spun round and fired small projectiles away from the Borg fleet. They rocketed into position and remained in a tight formation. The bombers then began to unload the rest of their ordinance into the remaining Borg ships.
“Any sign of the Relentless?” Kittaine quietly asked Branna.
“Still no sign, but there’s an awful lot of debris out there.” Branna replied hopefully.
“Sir, I thought for a moment that I picked up a Federation starship but it was there one moment and gone the next.” A tactical officer reported.
“Are you sure?” Branna asked curiously. He exchanged a glance with Kittaine
“Yes sir.”
“The Romulans assured us that the Federation did not use cloaking technology.” Kittaine answered.
Branna nodded but was troubled by the report nonetheless. He was not one to trust provincial forces, particularly freshly conquered provincials. He briefly wondered if Belladonna and her ship had been lost to the Borg, if so, he swore that the fleet would wreck havoc on these monstrosities.
“I want helm control back, now!” Belladonna shouted over the din of blaster fire. Her XO pressed a blaster pistol into her hand as he moved down control pits on the command deck. She accepted it and promptly holstered it. A stormtrooper stumbled backwards, struck by a Borg plasma weapon. He fell at her feet and stopped moving.
Belladonna did not bother to turn around. She had a ship to get under control. The view port was covered in debris, Borg bodies and emperor knew what else. She was as blind as a bat. A casual look around the command pits revealed a cacophony of warning lights and alarms all going off simultaneously.
“Ship status?” she snapped. Her XO was on the other side of the command deck and he rushed back over after consulting with a few technicians. Behind her she heard the sound of a Borg going down hard as more storm troopers flooded onto the bridge, firing their weapons.
“We still do not have helm control. Borg boarders have scrambled all circuits between here and engineering in their attempts to assimilate the ship. We have lost emergency power in some of the lower decks and the hangar bay reports that a massive piece of debris is lodged in the hangar deck, disrupting the force fields there.”
“What about weapons and shields?”
“Weapons are still functioning, scattered reports indicate that they are still firing. The shield grid is online but little power is getting through the grid. Those damned Borg have scrambled everything on this ship.” Her XO spat.
“Focus on the shields, while they are on standby power more of these things are getting through. Try to raise the fleet and inform them of our status, tell them we need assistance right away. Also, seal all bulkheads between here and engineering, I want to limit the mobility of these boarders and scramble every available trooper even if they are on sleep cycle. We have to keep the boarding parties contained.”
“Last report indicated hundreds were on board.” Her Xo hissed.
“Every man fights for his ship, is that understood.”
“Yes Captain.”
Another Borg was hurtled down into the command pit where a stormtrooper fired two more shots into it to make sure it was dead before rushing to halt a new party that just beamed in.
“And isolate all computer cores, reroute all controls to the bridge on my authority.”
“Yes ma’am!”
She turned back to see three more Borg drones go down to concentrated fire from several storm troopers. One walked over to her.
“Captain, we have them contained below decks but they are concentrating their boarding parties on the bridge and engineering. My men are telling me that there are at least three hundred in the engineering section alone.”
“Suggestions?”
“We flood engineering with Syntex gas.”
“It will kill everyone in engineering.”
“It will kill all the Borg as well, Captain. Otherwise you’re looking at gunfights all throughout the engineering sections and I am not confident we won’t hit anything…explosive.” the stormtrooper commander replied ominously.
She thought for a moment. Hundreds of engineers would be killed. Irreplaceable engineers in this primitive galaxy.
“I want your men to redouble their efforts, pull troopers off details where the Borg are contained behind blast doors and push them out of engineering. If the situation becomes critical then I will reconsider. I want my engineering section cleared, commander.”
“Yes, Captain.” He replied without hesitation and turned to follow her orders. She shook her head slowly. This was not going well at all.
“Pull the Strike wings back further, give those Borg cubes room to maneuver, I want them to take that avenue of escape.” Kittaine ordered. He smiled in spite of the frustration. His fleet was well trained razors. They were cutting into the Borg fleet now, the loss of the strategic cube plus all other Borg vessels in the blast wake seemed to have thrown the Borg into confusion. He had to press his advantage now. The fleet knew this and they were instinctively cutting off all avenues of escape, but that is precisely what Kittaine did not want, and like overeager hunting dogs he had to pull on the leash.
“Sir, the Inexorable is offering to make a flanking maneuver to drive more cubes to the center, requesting bomber support.”
“Have wings 39 and 54 move to support the Inexorable’s attack.” He paused as he looked won at his fleet deployment on a tactical display. “Also have the Bombard and Bellicose slide into the center position, we don’t want this to look too orchestrated.”
“Aye Admiral.”
He turned as he heard a strange sound, an electronic gurgling like a machine was being strangled. Lord Nemesis was holding the last surviving drone up by the neck, its arms had been severed. He was holding it nearly two feet off the ground with one hand and squeezing hard enough that even the Borg’s normally pasty complexion was darkening.
“I know you can see me. I can feel your pitiful Collective looking through your eyes.” Nemesis snarled triumphantly. He jerked the Borg’s face closer to his. Its one good eye focused on him, the other, a strange antennae implant was slowly moving back and forth, no doubt providing the Borg with real time intelligence even now. The bridge had Borg cauterized body parts scattered throughout the command deck, a testament to Lord Nemesis’ prowess.
“See the futility of your actions. We have taken down your mightiest warship with a single blast. There is no possibility of victory. You are outmatched, as machines you must realize this, you must see that there is no chance at victory. You have spent the last millennia making yourselves into the demons of this galaxy. Now we have come to bring order to the chaos. Do you see what I am trying to say?” Nemesis whispered as he squeezed herder. The drones face remained impassive but it was obvious now that it was dying, the organic eye was starting to flutter.
Nemesis pulled it very close and whispered.
“In your case, resistance IS futile.”
The drone’s neck snapped audibly and it slumped in Nemesis’ grip. He stared at it for a moment then tossed it aside in disgust. He strode over to Kittaine.
“Admiral, finish this battle now.” he ordered sternly.
“Of course my lord.” Kittaine bowed his head slightly and turned to Branna. “Tell all wings to begin immediate attack, all weapons, all fighters, drive them.”
“Yes Admiral.”
“Captain Branna! One of our fighter wings has spotted the Relentless. She engaged in combat with several cubes, they report thousands of drones cover her hull and are trying to assimilate her.”
Branna whirled to Kittaine.
“We are going to personally assist her, move us in, tell the rest of the fleet to go forward, push them. When they reach position zero inform me immediately.” Kittaine ordered without waiting for
“Yes Admiral.”
The Emperor’s Will roared forward to assist the wounded Relentless as the rest of the Imperial fleet surged forward, blasting the Borg cubes that stood in their way. The cubes were moving sluggishly, some not firing at all. Swarms of bombers and fighters raced between the giant ships, blasting away at anything that was not Imperial.
Massive thermonuclear explosions rippled along the line of Borg ships. Hundreds were vaporized as the remaining stardestroyers concentrated their heavy turbolaser batteries into one devastating salvo. This was the event that broke the Borg lines. Suddenly sluggish cubes began moving backwards accelerating away from the hungry Imperial fleet. The fleet quickly followed, relentlessly nipping at the Borg fleet, always driving them to the center.
“There she is!” Branna exclaimed and pointed to the Relentless. She was covered in a writhing layer of Borg drones. There were numerous deep gouges in the heavy hull, some parts of the ship were exposed to the vacuum, it looked like a Borg sphere, or a large portion of it was jammed into the hangar bay. The bridge tower was covered in the remains of Borg cubes.
Kittaine shook his head sadly. The ship looked horrible.
“Receiving transmission from the Relentless.”
“Put her through.”
Captain Belladonna appeared on the holotransmitter, she brushed back a stray lock of hair and stood at attention. Behind her a stormtrooper could be seen blasting away.
“Admiral Kittaine, Relentless reporting.”
“Status, Captain?”
“We now have at least 400 Borg intruders on board, stormtrooper regiments are containing the boarders. Our control systems are overloaded, attempts by Borg drones to assimilate any open terminal has rendered much of our computer controls useless. We are attempting to reconfigure the system but it will take time. I have zero visibility and all sensors are out due to the shockwave and radiation from the blast.”
“We are going to clean off your hull now captain. You have thousands of drones on your outer hull attempting to assimilate your ship from the outside. We are also loading two assault transports to board and assist your regiments in repelling boarders.”
“Understood Admiral.”
“Don’t worry, little sister, help is on the way.” Branna added with a smile.
Belladonna started to smile but instead scowled.
“Branna, I’m older than you idiot.” she replied wanly and shut off the channel. Kittaine eyed Branna critically for a moment.
“What am I going to do with you, Captain?” he asked melodramatically, sounding like a bemused father.
Branna shrugged then turned to his command pit personnel.
“Set all turbolaser batteries to flak mode, minimum safe distance from the Relentless, let’s clean those things off her.”
“Aye sir.”
“Admiral, assault transports 1025 and 1138 standing by.”
“Send them in, looks like they’ll have to do things the hard way with the Relentless’ hangar bay out of commission.” Kittaine said with a frown.
“Aye sir.”
“Are you well?” Mara asked Nemesis as she suddenly appeared by his side. He was adjusting his cape and was examining the scattered drones with a mixture of contempt and disgust.
“I’m fine, Mara. Look to cleaning up this mess.” he replied absently. She nodded and snapped her fingers at a stormtrooper who hurried over.
“See that this mess is cleared for Lord Nemesis.”
“Yes, maam.”
She looked back at him but he had walked away from her and was standing on the far end of the command deck away from the others. She had watched him in action and she felt excited watching him cut his way through the Borg, there was a certain joy on her face which she had not seen before. His face had lightened for that brief moment and the storm clouds that always seemed gathered over his head parted revealing just how young he truly was.
“Admiral. Borg fleet now in position zero.”
Kittaine smiled triumphantly and strode over to fire control.
“Activate the charges. Order all fleet ships to stand by.”
The fire control officer nodded and flicked a line of switches that sent a signal that tripped the seismic charges sitting out in sector 124 mark 80, now known as position zero.
The surviving Borg cubes were now in a route, transferring all available power to the engines and preparing to engage transwarp engines. They detected the charges but not the danger.
Not until it was too late.
The charges detonated. There was nothing for a moment. Then a deep bass thrumming that signaled the detonation. Massive waves of explosive energy whipped out in two dimensional planes. The Borg cubes were sheared in half. The waves intersected at certain points, utterly vaporizing anything in their path. The retreating Borg armada happened to be in the center of the explosive waves.
Kittaine watched coldly as the cubes quickly became a field of scattered debris. Nothing was left. The Borg fleet was gone.
“Victory.” Branna breathed.
Kittaine nodded.
“Now, let us save the Relentless so we can be on our way.” Kittaine ordered and continued watching the expanse of dead Borg ships.
“What in the hell?!” Archer exclaimed.
“Scans indicate that the unknown fleet is generating power fields beyond our experience. Weapons discharges in the gigaton range.” Janeway reported, trying to disguise the awe in her voice.
Archer turned his head as the Defiant rocked, the unknown fleet’s weapons began erupting around them in thermonuclear blossoms of explosive energy.
“Did you say gigatons?”
Janeway nodded.
Archer turned around and stared at the screen, watching the kilometer long warships wade without fear into the Borg fleet.
“Engage the cloak, full evasive. We’re sitting in the middle of this fleet, we need to get out of here. It’s going to be ground zero in about a minute!”
“Aye sir!” the helmsman replied and the Defiant began evasive maneuvers.
“Cloak active and functioning within parameters.” Seven added.
“What’s going on out there?” Archer asked as he watched a tactical cube evaporate on the screen. He had just seen more cubes die in the last handful of seconds than he had seen the Federation destroy since their first encounter with the Borg.
“The fleet does not match any known vessel, including ships we encountered in the Delta Quadrant.” Seven replied.
“The strategic cube is moving to engage the enemy fleet…I’m picking up a power spike on the largest ship.” Janeway stared at the screen in disbelief. “That ship is generating a twelfth power energy field.”
“Twelfth power? A thousand starships couldn’t generate that much!” Archer exclaimed.
“It seems that the Borg have realized it as well.” Seven interjected. The Borg fleet suddenly surged around them, racing towards the great flagship in the center of the unknown fleet.
“What’s the status of that unknown weapon?”
“Energy is spiking, they’re locking on the strategic cube.”
“Helm, emergency impulse, get us ou-“
The huge warship suddenly fired a green bolt that touched the strategic cube. It exploded with a tremendous burst of plasma and light. A ring of fire sprung forth and screamed outward at stunning speed. The Defiant plunged downward and was suddenly flipped backwards as the bow front of the shockwave passed overhead, carrying with it a wave of wreckage and debris.
A console exploded behind Archer sending a crewman tumbling to the ground screaming. A deep bass alarm went off down below - a hull breach.
“All power to engines, we need to right ourselves!” Archer shouted over the din of the alarms and the fire suppression system that kicked in. Clouds of thick white vapor poured down on the bridge.
On screen the stars were whipping around madly. The helmsman struggled as best he could, transferring whatever power was available. But the small starship was dragged along like a cork on the sea, tumbling in all directions away from the source of the explosion.
“Engineering, we need more power!” Archer shouted into the com.
“Warp core is fluctuating sir, I believe that the core is reacting to a tear in subspace!” His engineer answered, worry in her voice.
“She’s right! That explosion destroyed all the subspace fields holding the strategic cube together. That action has caused a massive tear in the subspace domains of this immediate vicinity. It’s expanding.”
“The subspace tear is not only affecting our power systems but it seems to have disrupted Borg communications with the Collective, most of the fleet has been severed from the Collective!” Seven shouted as she held on to her counsel while the Defiant continued spinning out of control.
“Right now I’m more interested in us, what if we generate a polaron pulse through the main dish?” Archer suggested.
“Sorry captain, but we just don’t have the power to disrupt the tear. It’s massive and growing. The Borg are trying to escape now, their attempts to open a transwarp conduit is only making matters worse.” Janeway answered.
The ship seemed to tumble end over end and Archer felt nauseous. He slapped the armrests down to his lap and locked them in position. He tried to think of a solution.
“Captain, the warp core is in severe state of flux, we have a buildup of plasma in the starboard power coupling that could blow the entire power conduit system.” His engineer warned.
Archer grit his teeth as the Defiant committed another mad tumble.
“Can we flush the couplings?”
“I’ve been trying sir but we’re moving too fast.”
“We need to control our spin.” Archer spat.
The Defiant lurched backwards and sparks exploded overhead. Another alarm went off, a strange warbling one that he had only heard in simulations. It was a collision alarm.
“What did we hit?” he asked. Thankfully, whatever they did hit had stopped their tumbling.
“Looks like we struck a cube.” Janeway answered trying to make sense of the mad jumble of data fluttering on her screens.
“Visual.”
The screen flashed and Archer watched as the Borg fleet was surgically decimated. Hordes of strange bombers launched wave after wave of small missiles that impacted with incredible energy against the Borg cubes and spheres. The huge warships were surging ahead like a pack of wolves, tearing through any pretense of Borg defense.
“Give me reverse viewer.”
The scene switched to an extreme close-up of the familiar tubes and conduits of the outer hull of a Borg cube.
“Luckily we struck their deflector shields at the right angle, if we had hit it head on we would have been destroyed.” Janeway commented.
“Unfortunately the cube is trying to initiate a transwarp conduit.” Seven warned and looked back sharply at Archer.
“Engineering, we need power to the engines now!” he snapped.
“Impossible sir, power conduits are flushing, if we activate engines now we’ll blow up the ship.”
Archer punched the armrests in frustration.
“Transwarp conduit forming.”
“All hands, brace for impact.” He warned.
A transwarp conduit opened and the Borg cube immediately flashed into the conduit, the Defiant followed close behind, sucked in by the violent subspace eddies of the open conduit. Within the conduit, the Defiant was dragged behind the escaping Borg cube.
Archer held on tightly as the helmsman tried to even them out without engine power.
“Where the hell are we heading?” Archer asked as he tried to pull it together. His ship was powerless and helpless in the grip of a Borg cube. The least he could do was find out where they may die.
“According to my analysis of trajectory and heading…our ultimate destination is Unimatrix 001.” Seven answered coolly.
Archer stared at Seven for a moment then turned to look at Janeway. She frowned softly and shook her head slowly.
Picard watched R-7 as he moved among the other androids on the bridge. He walked casually, taking a quick glance over each crewman’s shoulder. The android crew worked incredibly well, each one focused solely on their job and they worked with the interface as if they were directly jacked into their individual console. There was one daunting drawback to the android crew. The utter silence that hung over the bridge like a tomb. The only sound was an occasional beep or alert from a console.
Picard found himself wishing for Riker’s quiet humor or Deanaa’s soft voice as she consulted him on some point of protocol or crew performance. Instead there was the insufferable silence of android crewmen.
“R-7?”
“Sir?” He quickly walked over to Picard.
“Is it usually this quiet onboard?”
“The engine bafflers are excellent, the deck plating is sound proofed as well to avoid the usual resonance that can build up from the warp core below.” R-7 answered.
Picard blinked.
“I meant that the crew is rather quiet.”
“There is no need to speak, we are all linked by a subspace hypertransmitter, a feature we copied from captured Borg designs.”
Picard nodded.
“Well I need to talk so I guess you’re elected.” Picard replied smiling warmly as he saw the confusion on R-7’s face. How R-7 reminded him of Data when he started out on the Enterprise, it amused him to see those same reactions on R-7’s face.
“Go ahead, R-7. I am anxiously waiting.”
R-7 nodded.
“The Valhalla is currently four light years from the Romulan neutral zone, an optimum range to avoid detection from Romulan subspace sensors. We are at station keeping position in support of the Bunker Hill. Current power rea-“
Picard held up a hand and smiled.
“R-7, I don’t need a status report. I know all of this already. Tell me something new, speak to me about anything that is on your mind.”
R-7 stared at Picard for a long moment.
“I have nothing on my mind. I am currently monitoring communications between the fleet elements.”
Picard frowned slightly. He could not believe that R-7 was nothing more than a automaton. There had to be more to him. He had to believe that to assuage the guilt he felt in his chest as he looked out on the bridge and saw the silent, grim faced Datas working at their stations.
Part of him knew that it was completely irrational to feel that way, but there was no denying that the feeling was still there, sitting in his heart.
“Have you ever had an independent thought, an idea, anything?” Picard pressed gently.
“I believe Captain, that even if I had an independent thought I would not be able to recognize it. I was designed as a platform to aid the shadow fleet in overcoming their manpower shortage. I am designed to work at any station to which I am assigned to the best of my ability.”
“Have any of your brothers had to run a starship?” Picard asked curiously.
“There have been several instances where the captain was injured or killed in action and the only available person to take the position was a Soon series android. We took command as it was the logical thing to do.”
“What were the results?”
“The ships survived and managed to make it back to our lines. We performed adequately.”
“It takes independent thinking to run a starship, particularly in combat.”
R-7 cocked his head slightly. Picard could not help but smile.
“I find that combat is simply a problem that needs to be solved. Utilize the correct equation and you find a solution.”
“Plug in the right strategy and you win the battle, is that it?”
“I thought that is what I said.” R-7 replied innocently.
“Combat is far more complex than that, R-7. It is the most stressful time you can experience as a commander, the men look to you for inspiration and support.”
R-7 looked out at the bridge crew then back at Picard.
“I think it is safe to say that this crew will not be looking to you for those qualities, sir.”
Picard laughed heartily. R-7 looked slightly confused.
“You have a sense of humor after all.” Picard replied with a grin.
R-7 suddenly grew serious.
“Receiving transmission from the Bunker Hill.”
“Picard turned in his seat to face the screen.
“On viewer.”
The view screen activated and Durant sat before Picard, his human first officer glanced over Picard’s shoulder at R-7 in curiosity.
“That’s it Picard, I have the signal I needed.” Durant explaioned.
“You’re sure?”
“The Imperial forces all hyperspaced out of the Romulan home system over an hour ago. They left behind only the Romulan homeguard.”
“Only the Romulan Homeguard? Those are the finest crews and ships in their fleet.”
“That may be so, but we’re better.” Durant replied with a grin.
“Do you even have a plan?”
“Yes I do, R-7 should be receiving a copy of my battle plans and orders of battle. The fleet is gathering for the jump to transwarp. We’ll be hitting Romulan space in seconds, from there it is a straight line to our target.”
“Are we sure about this?”
“Indeed we are. Intel is strong and after the Imperial attack and seizure of Vulcan, the Federation needs all the help it can get. It is obvious that they have seized the Romulan systems as a supply base, so we are going to take advantage of the Imperial strategic blunder and cut their supply base.”
“And we have the ability to do so?”
Durant smiled.
“Trust me, Picard.”
Picard frowned. Too many disasters had been perpetrated in his lifetime with those exact words.
The screen switched off. Picard rubbed his chin and turned slowly to R-7.
“Have you received the plans?”
“Yes.” R-7 replied.
“How does he intend to hold on to the target? We can’t have troops to hold on to anything deep in Romulan space without support. Besides, wouldn’t it violate the very tenets of this fleet? We strike from secrecy, we fly in shadow or whatever nonsense it was that Durant was spouting back at base.”
R-7 looked down at Picard and his answer chilled him.
“I don’t think he intends to hold onto Remus at all, captain.”
Wherever you go, there you are.
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
Oooohhh Fed's are growing a backbone!
How about the Empire snaps it
How about the Empire snaps it
Η ζωή, η ζωή εδω τελειώνει!
"Science is one cold-hearted bitch with a 14" strap-on" - Masuka 'Dexter'
"Angela is not the woman you think she is Gabriel, she's done terrible things"
"So have I, and I'm going to do them all to you." - Sylar to Arthur 'Heroes'
Oooohhh Fed's are growing a backbone!
How about the Empire snaps it
How about the Empire snaps it
nice battle scenes, I particularly relished that scene of the superlaser ripping the borg supership to shreds, can't wait to see the feds attack the Romulans and only to piss off the already angry imperials even more.
"a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic"-Joseph Stalin
"No plan survives contact with the enemy"-Helmuth Von Moltke
"Women prefer stories about one person dying slowly. Men prefer stories of many people dying quickly."-Niles from Frasier.
"No plan survives contact with the enemy"-Helmuth Von Moltke
"Women prefer stories about one person dying slowly. Men prefer stories of many people dying quickly."-Niles from Frasier.
-
Darth Garden Gnome
- Official SD.Net Lawn Ornament
- Posts: 6029
- Joined: 2002-07-08 02:35am
- Location: Some where near a mailbox
-
Captain Cyran
- Psycho Mini-lop
- Posts: 7037
- Joined: 2002-07-05 11:00pm
- Location: College... w00t?
-
Dark Primus
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1279
- Joined: 2002-07-04 02:48am
Since the Borg can survive in vacuum(sp?) i don't think gas would effect them at allStravo wrote: “Suggestions?”
“We flood engineering with Syntex gas.”
“It will kill everyone in engineering.”
“It will kill all the Borg as well, Captain. Otherwise you’re looking at gunfights all throughout the engineering sections and I am not confident we won’t hit anything…explosive.” the stormtrooper commander replied ominously.
Damn i loved the Borg vs Imps battle.
Can't wait to see the teeth Section 31 might have.
I was thinking along the lines of a virulent nerve gas so the Borg don't actually have to breath it, it would just be directlly absorbed by theri skin and mucous lining. Besides God only knows what kind of nasty gasses the Imps have lying around.Dark Primus wrote:Since the Borg can survive in vacuum(sp?) i don't think gas would effect them at allStravo wrote: “Suggestions?”
“We flood engineering with Syntex gas.”
“It will kill everyone in engineering.”
“It will kill all the Borg as well, Captain. Otherwise you’re looking at gunfights all throughout the engineering sections and I am not confident we won’t hit anything…explosive.” the stormtrooper commander replied ominously.
Damn i loved the Borg vs Imps battle.
Can't wait to see the teeth Section 31 might have.
As for Section 31....let's just say that it will be quite an event.
Wherever you go, there you are.
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
-
Lord_Vader
- Youngling
- Posts: 60
- Joined: 2002-07-28 05:06pm
I loved the battle scene... I especially liked Nemesis fight with the Borg, and his little erm. taunting of the Collective... Question did we see a little of the struggle still going on in Nemesis, the whole the dark cloud lifted from his face when he was fighting the Borg? After all the Borg are one of the few things that can be said to be more evil than the Dark Side, More evil than the empire, perhaps in defeating them? (Not that I nec want Nemy to be good 'again' but a little of the internal conflict might be fun.)
Skelron wrote:I loved the battle scene... I especially liked Nemesis fight with the Borg, and his little erm. taunting of the Collective... Question did we see a little of the struggle still going on in Nemesis, the whole the dark cloud lifted from his face when he was fighting the Borg? After all the Borg are one of the few things that can be said to be more evil than the Dark Side, More evil than the empire, perhaps in defeating them? (Not that I nec want Nemy to be good 'again' but a little of the internal conflict might be fun.)
VERY perceptive....
Wherever you go, there you are.
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2
Ripped Shirt Monkey - BOTMWriter's Guild Cybertron's Finest Justice League
This updated sig brought to you by JME2