The sleek intrepid vessel swept past the Akira class to the constant stress of its crew. Janeway look wearily at the massive cube shaped vessel, like some massive angry deity. "Damage report, Trizx," She asks and then braces herself for the answer, glancing over at her Betazoid security and tactical officer. The woman was a few inches smaller than her coming up to her chin, with unusually broad shoulders and small hands, and a head full of curly red hair. Her skin was an almost amber pale color and freckled.

The tactical officer informs her, "Their armor is starting to buckle from micro fissures. Repeated strike could open a whole in the armor."

"Tricobalt torpedoes are design to penetrate armor. What would happen if the round penetrated in unarmored spot?" Janeway rolls her tongue in her mouth as she tries to figure out her next move. Then she looks toward Chaoktai for encouragement. The man offered very little, but managing a weak nod. His normally handsome features appeared sickly in the bright lights of the bridge.

She could sense his fear, his certainty that this was going to be their last fight. With Chaoktai's reluctance to speak, Trizx offers her own assessment of Janeway's plan, "More than likely it would penetrate all the way to the core of the vessel. The inside pressure would increase dramatically from the explosion. It would create multiple ruptures throughout the vessels. The Borg would prevent such a cataclysmic increase in pressure by venting atmosphere. But regardless of what actions they take, it would slow them down considerably." Janeway gave Trizx a stern look, just shut up and do it.

The Betazoids console shows separate holographic displays along with a much older view screen on the console itself, similar to main view screen on the bridge. She studies the constant bombardment from every angle. The Borg was hiding their weak spot from the heaviest of fire. "Tom, get us away from the fire and get behind them." The pilot new better to argue with her and currently was preoccupied by not being friendly fired by a stray shot. On main view screen the Borg ship was becoming more and more distant and then suddenly they swerved around it, ending up behind it. Their ship was facing the Borg's weak spot. Two white streaks launch from the intrepid's undercarriage and crashed into the fissure in the Borg's armor and disappeared inside. The Borg cube came to a complete halt and remained lifeless as a corpse.

Janeway looked down at the floor and sighed to herself, before sitting down. "It's not dead, is it?"

Her tactical officer says wearily with a voice trembling from exhaustion, "No. The fleet is redoubling their efforts, all defensive actions have ceased." There was a massive explosion from the cube's right side. "Quantum torpedo have penetrated their armor. I'm reading a massive power-loss throughout the super structure. The vessel is intact but non-operable. I think the damage is beyond even the Borg's ability to repair."

Janeway shot up from her seat, quite suddenly, full of purpose. "It means they probably lost power to the emergency bulkhead doors as well. Fire Tricobalt torpedoes into several of their weak spots, maximize damage."

The viewscreen showed no change in the cube, the damage inside went unseen by eyes, but the sensors showed something different. The entire inside was destroyed leaving a husk.

Kesthryn Zelnaga was their Ba'ku communication offer, a thin blond hair woman with a round face, small round nose, thick bridge, and forward facing nostrils, strong cheekbones that were lightly flushed. The Ba'ku most notable feature was the complete lack of ears, instead having a boney crest surrounding the auricular opening. "Federation had issued a stand down order." Janeway nodded towards Trizx who brought the weapons offline. Then she looked at Chaoktai who seems to be praying, he said nothing during the last final moments of the battle.

(-)

"You remember when the federation didn't have so many enemies." Chaoktai says turning to look at her, with a glass of whiskey in his hand. His face had become emaciated, seen most prominently around his cheekbones. "Thirty years ago I think everything was good. Then twenty years ago, the Shizin Romulan dynasty rose to power and it's has been downhill ever since."

"We use to be explorers, have a purpose." Janeway's voice was strained from exhaustion. "Now we spend our days fighting for survival."

He hands over his drink, "Now we drink to get out of bed in the morning." She swigs the entire thing in one gulp and continues speaking.

"Look how far we have fallen. In ten short years currency has been reinstated, poverty and crime are now prevalent in our society. We've been force to subjugate societies becoming nothing more than another Cardassian union. Ten years ago these tales of dangers of repeating the past were used to frighten children. Now it's the new norm."

"The days of rainbows and ice cream are over. Now it's an age of total war." Chaoktai says in a dead pan tone completely dry of humor. She sighs to herself. She wishes the conversation could take a turn for the cheerful, but it was impossible.

(-)

Janeway finally caught up with Kesthrynin in the hall. She had been unusually quiet about their next mission. "I know you have problem with our mission, but you still have to follow orders."

"You call these orders? I should blindly help you annex another world, just like mine?" Janeway backhands her across the face.

"The Andorians may have been one of our loyal supporters since the federation was first founded, but there can be no excuse and no leniency for traitors. The Andorians provide vast amount of both manpower and weapon manufacturing. If they leave, they doom not only themselves but us as well. If the Klingon remnant doesn't swallow their pathetic planet whole, the Borg or Gorn will. What we need is yet another selfish planet assimilated by the Borg. You were given leniency because you swore fidelity to the federation, but at the end of the day, you're a slave. You will serve us or you will serve the Borg, least with us there is a choice. You're all so weak, to not make a choice to benefit us all."

She knew how the federation usually treated its traitors and prisoners in general, was enough to subdue dissidence. She tapped on her com badge, "Bridge, redirect signal to Trizx." It was already working, the Ba'ku defiant face turned weak. There was a quick motion, too fast and unexpected for her to react, the woman lunges for the phaser on her hip and nearly misses it. The woman now had a phaser drawn on her, but she doesn't even flinch. She didn't care if the young Ba'ku fires, she wasn't going to waste an opportunity to mock her attempt to escape. "Surrounded on all sides and trapped, you were born a slave and you'll die a slave."

"I will not die as a slave."

They both heard the turbolift down the hall open and turn to look at it. Kesthrynin fired in that direction before running off. Ten minutes later Janeway was informed that Kesthrynin gallant last stand ended with a phaser blast to the chest.

(-)