Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro, Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 1830 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
I write this report from what is left of the captain's office. I have officially assumed command of the Coruscant in Captain Barron's absence, although with some trepidation. I had intended to have a few years under my belt before my first command, but it appears that the Force alters its plans for no man. The unknown enemy ship we engaged caused significant damage before we managed to limp away. Full reports are still coming in with more detailed reports due at the staff meeting I have scheduled in a few hours. I must say that I am extremely proud of my crew and their exemplary performance in the face of the enemy and the discipline and bravery they have shown in fending off boarding forces.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how those . . . things got aboard my ship. They simply appeared on the bridge and virtually every deck on the ship without warning just after that strange energy surge. No landing craft, no shuttles, no conventional method of transport. I've heard such technologies theorized but even the greatest minds in the Empire say that we're still decades or even centuries away from developing them. And then there were the creatures themselves.
I don't know what else to call them but creatures. They are humanoid in appearance but appeared to consist of multiple species. I saw humans, two Sullustans, and even a Rodian. They were pale-skinned and their faces were cold, dead, like walking corpses with no life force or soul. Their bodies were covered in some sort of armor and implants that had replaced one eye on each of them, at least one arm, and most of their body parts. They came aboard just after the initial assault. There was an odd whining noise and then they just materialized out of thin air on every deck in every section. We fought them as well as we could. No one on the bridge was armed aside from myself and my Wookie dagger. I slashed the first one I saw and watched him go down into the pit, then stabbed the one that came after me with her arms stretched toward me in some sort of sick embrace. I felt the blade hang on the metal armor and then cut into the flesh beneath. Her one organic eye went dark and her body went limp, all but falling on me as she went down. I was tossing her aside when I saw a tall one with ridges on his forehead grapple with the captain. He put up a good fight, but the thing got a hand on his throat and he went down clutching at his neck. I could have sworn that I saw some sort of tubules extend from the drone's hand as it made contact.
The captain, the comms officer, a dozen others, all down within seconds. The things were unbelievably strong. I saw one of them grappling with seven crewmen and still take down four of them. The Stormtroopers came on the bridge a minute after the initial boarding and dropping six or seven of them in the first volley. The rest of the drones, if such they were, appeared to have some kind of shield around their bodies. At least it appeared so as the troopers' blaster bolts passed through the shield and tore into their bodies. A second after the shields appeared to fail, they were gone. That same whining sound, a shimmering web of green energy around each of them, and then they and all their dead and wounded were gone as quickly as they had appeared.
Damage reports are still coming in from my chief engineer and the repair staff, but one of the few reports that are already on my desk are the casualty reports. Our entire contingent of TIE fighters destroyed, our captain and several members of the staff wounded, and a hundred and eighteen dead with two hundred more wounded. Three hundred of my crew dead, wounded, or, or whatever has happened to the captain and the others. Medical has reported that it matches no known infection or biological agent, but the victims are completely comatose. They just stare up at the ceiling or writhe in their beds while their veins darken under their skin. No treatment has appeared to be effective against the condition but the ship's surgeons are not giving up hope.
We have set course for the Akkadian Belt and the starbase there in hopes of acquiring supplies, reinforcements, and repairs. The base there is a smaller one, nowhere near the size of those at Eadu or the Core worlds, but they have a decent repair yard. According to the last reports I saw there were three squadrons of TIE fighters and two Venator-class cruisers posted there after a series of Rebel raids in the vicinity. I've ordered the Comms officer to request their assistance and to contact the Admiralty for additional reinforcements, but our systems were damaged in the attack and we are having trouble repairing them. Our engines are operating on less than two-thirds efficiency, but we are making good time. I've ordered the crew to remain at general quarters for the time being and for all repairs to be given top priority. I just hope that it's enough.
Security Transcript: Staff Meeting
Ward Room, ISD Coruscant
Date: CLASSIFIED
Commander Jarro: Gentlemen, this meeting is called to order. I'll keep this short and simple, men, I want a full damage report and situational report. Give me statuses on all systems and the general lay of the land here. As we say in the infantry, I want an honest, no-shit assessment.
Tactical Officer: Weapons are mostly operational. Chargers are optimal and we still have 90% of our payload. Shields are a different story. One generator is completely destroyed and the other has sustained severe damage. Shields are at 38% when fully charged. If we get into another engagement we won't have them for long.
Operations Officer: Several systems are down and repairs are currently underway. Long-range scanners are down, long-range communications are inoperative, and that pulse they hit us with has been playing havoc with our power systems. We have reports of blackouts and power fluctuations all over the ship and we've lost a significant portion of our backup databanks.
Commander Jarro: How significant?
Operations Officer: During the raid, the drones managed to access our backup servers and download most of the information they contained. We estimate that they got away with just over 3,000TB of assorted data.
Commander Jarro: Three thousand terabytes? How is that possible? They couldn't have been jacked in for more than a few minutes.
Operations Officer: I don't know, sir. Nothing in our fleet has anything approaching that kind of computing power.
Commander Jarro: What did they get?
Operations Officer: That's the interesting part, sir. They took only general information. Lists of species and related data, ship designs, languages, stellar cartography charts, the language database, and millions of other assorted files. There didn't seem to be any kind of intent at all.
Tactical Officer: Unless the information itself was the target. Sir, I have a theory, if I may.
Commander Jarro: Go ahead, lieutenant. We're all ears.
Tactical Officer: Sir, I don't think this species, these Borg, are even from this galaxy. We have no data on them, their ships, or their technology anywhere in our records, records that go back centuries. I think they were trying to learn as much as we could about us from the data they took from those servers. That's why they just took everything and didn't go after specific intel.
Commander Jarro: I think you may be on to something there. Keep me posted and we'll see what develops. Chief, where are we on propulsion?
Chief Engineer: Engine Three is a total loss, sir. She took a direct hit and was nearly obliterated. Engine Two was barely touched and Engine One was hit hard. We're doing what we can, sir, but I'm afraid it isn't going to be much.
Commander Jarro: What would it take to get our engines back up to peak efficiency? I need to know that we can outrun those bastards.
Chief Engineer: Five hundred men and three weeks in a shipyard and I could do that for you, but as of now we are simply, for lack of a better work, [REDACTED].
Commander Jarro: Solid copy, Chief. Give me the best you can. Colonel, how are your Stormtroopers?
Colonel Tanon: Ready to kick ass, Commander. We lost brothers to those cyborgs and we're ready to get some back. You just point us at 'em and we'll take them down.
Commander Jarro: Copy that, colonel. Gentlemen, make no mistake that we are now engaged in what could very well be the start of a full scale war. This attack was unprovoked and it was vicious, clearly not the work of a peaceful species. Right now we are the only ship in the AO that can perform any kind of operations against these Borg, but as soon as we can contact the Admiralty we will have reinforcements on the way. We are heading for the base in the Akkadian system as we speak, where I hope to find additional ships and possible repairs. We will continue to operate on full battle alert for the time being. If there is anything, and I mean anything that any of you need to carry out your repairs, you have the green light to procure it by whatever means necessary. This meeting is adjourned.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro, Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 0230 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
Captain Barron is dead. At approximately 0145 hours the chief medical officer contacted me about the captain and the other crewmen who had been wounded in the attack, calling me to the Infirmary immediately. I responded right away and found a platoon of Stormtroopers and security personnel waiting for me. They had sealed off the Infirmary and were about to storm the section. A sergeant handed me a pistol and I went in with the first breachers, and I'll never forget what I saw when I went through those doors.
Captain Barron and the others were all on their feet, shambling around at first and then locked onto us as we came over the threshold. Their faces and bodies were covered in some kind of mechanical implants and tech that no one has ever seen before (which is getting to be a common theme around here) and they had the same cold, dead look in their eyes that I had seen in the faces of those Borg on the bridge. They were already dead. We put them out of their misery. We will commit them to the stars tomorrow with full military honors as soon as the chief medical officer conducts a series of autopsies to find out what happened to them. This brings our total casualty count to 275 dead. May the Force be with them.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro, Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 0900 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
We have reached the Akkadian Belt after two days at lightspeed. Normally it would have taken a day or so, but with our damaged engines we have had to make do. Repairs have gone well and we have restored power to our long-range scanners and have partially repaired our long range communications systems. We can now receive and monitor transmissions from a range of roughly ten light-years, but are still unable to send messages of our own. Our reports to the Admiralty will have to wait.
Repairs have been coming along slowly but steadily. The Chief has managed to repair our secondary shield generators and partially repaired our primary generators, as well as some of the damage thatw as done to Engine One. Our structural damage is another story. Several of those Borg torpedoes cut straight through the ship, transecting the hull and leaving holes big enough for a hover tank to pass through. The breaches have been sealed and repairs are underway, but it will be a long time before the Coruscant is her old self again. We have contacted the base at Akkadia and they have repair crews awaiting our arrival at their tiny shipyard. It isn't much, just a basic repair yard for minor battle damage and the occasional small maintenance fix, but it's the best we can do. I also managed to contact the commander of Squadron 84, which was recently stationed at the Akkadian base, and I have briefed them on the situation in its entirety. They have four Venator-class cruisers, one Decatur-class battleship, and seven full wings of TIE fighters as well as a wing of the new Interceptor fighters that are coming out of the Empire's shipyards. Not that fighters are going to be of much use against the Cube, as we've started calling it, but every little bit helps.
The crew have taken the loss of Captain Barron and the others hard. Morale is at a low, to say the least, but the men have shown great resilience and perseverance in the face of the circumstances. They have all gone about their duties with the same discipline that I have come to expect of them. They have fought through the fear and the trepidation of the situation and have performed admirably.
As for the Cube itself, we have heard nothing. Our last contact in hyperspace must have left them heavily damaged or crippled at the very least, but there was no debris and no signs of the vessel's destruction. They're still out there and still pose a danger to our fleet and our colonies, assuming that they were in fact operating alone as we have suspected. If there are more of those ships somewhere around, perhaps even an entire fleet . . . . I don't even want to think about that. A fleet of those Cubes would decimate our forces in this region and put our entire Navy in jeopardy.
One welcome report of possible good news, of a sort; one of the Stormtroopers in the Detention Block called me yesterday with what he claims to be a report of potentially great importance. With the repairs and the chaos left from the battle at Saccaris, I haven't had a chance to review his findings until now. His commander briefed him for me and collected a data disc that the young sergeant assures us has a recording of the incident in question. I saw the disc on my desk when I sat down for a quick cup of tea and a moment of rest. It's a standard security disk recording from the monitoring system in the Detention Block that records the goings-in in the individual cells. Each cell has its own monitor. The code on it immediately caught my attention: Level B, Cell 278. Captain Regis' cell.
According to the sergeant, the events of the disc show an episode of Captain Regis' that happened at the same time as the battle back at Saccaris. He was posted in the Detention Block on guard duty and stood to when he heard the call to general quarters, but just after the battle began he heard screams coming from the captain's cell. He claims that his first thought was that the good captain was about to attempt some sort of escape or other kind of "mischief", but the screaming only grew louder and crazier as the time went on. It got to the point that he became concerned for the prisoner, especially after the intruder alert sounded, and after the fights in the corridor outside the Block he went into the cell to confirm the prisoner's wellbeing and found him writhing on the floor, screaming in apparent agony and babbling incoherently as he held his head and all but tore out his own hair as he screamed. When I asked him about the babblings, he said that he couldn't tell me much. The captain grabbed his blaster from him and almost used it, on himself, but the blaster clicked when he pulled the trigger with it against his head. Lucy break for us that the new E-11s have a tricky safety. I still prefer the old models, myself.
I haven't viewed the disc yet, but having read the trooper's report I have to admit that I am intrigued. Captain Regis has been admitted to the Infirmary and is receiving treatment, but the medical staff has been swamped ever since the battle. Probably not the best care, him being a Rebel, but I've ordered that he be treated as the officer he is. I think I'll give the disc a view once I've finished this log and this cup of tea. If nothing else, it'll give me an excuse to sit still for a few minutes.
Automatic Security Transcript: Detention Block-Level B, Cell 278
Time: 1535 hours – 1538 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
Captain Regis: What's going on? Guard, what's going on?! I hear the general quarters bell. Damn it, I have a right to know what's going- AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! What is that noise?! Guard! Guard! AAAAHHH!
JR113: Knock it off, Rebel scum! We've got bigger problems than you right now.
Captain Regis: GET THEM OUT! Get them out, please! Make them stop, MAKE THEM STOP!
JR 113: Enough, you sack of Rebel shit! Don't make me come in there and tune your ass up!
Captain Regis: AAAAHHH, make them stop! Make the voices stop! Get them out of my head, please! Make it stop, MAKE IT STOP!
JR113: That's it, I've had it with you. Let's see how you like this. [security code entered, JR113-864/421: ACCEPTED] Shut the hell up or I'm gonna – what in the Force?!
Captain Regis: Please, please, make the voices stop! The voices in the dark! The voices in the dark! Please make the voices stop!
JR113: Get back, scum! Get back or I'll put your ass down! Hey, get off me!
Captain Regis: Make it stop! Get them out of my head! No, no, no, no, no, no! Make this work, please, son, make it stop!
[security alert, weapon engaged; weapons fire, Cell 278; prisoner stunned, life signs: NORMAL]
JR113: JR113 to Infirmary, I need medical to the Detention Block, Level B, Cell 278.
Infirmary: We don't have time for your Rebel scum right now, trooper. We have priority casualties on the way, including the captain. Remain at your post.
Captain's Log:
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 0915 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
I have viewed the security footage from Captain Regis' detention cell and it is . . . disturbing, to say the least. I've seen men in pain before and I remember once on Klaren when the Rebels tried to use some kind of sonic weapon on us while we were closing in on one of their bases and most of my squad instantly fell to their knees screaming until we could get our helmets off. Open air made the noise a little more bearable and the comms in the helmets only served to amplify the blast. That was hard, but it was nothing like this. Whatever Captain Regis was going through, it was genuine agony. The poor man was grabbing at his head with both hands and all but tearing out his own hair. It was as if he was literally trying to claw out the "voices" from inside his own skull.
I have contacted the chief medical officer and have ordered a full medical workup for Captain Regis as well as a full psychological evaluation. He appeared to be in excellent mental health when last I saw him, but the interrogations we've been giving him have been known to have detrimental effects on the subject's mind. I've seen men go mad from the effects of those interrogations before, but I don't think that's what this is. I told the doctor to have a full report for me by the end of the day, preferably within a few hours. He's a very efficient officer and I expect the report promptly. It can't be a coincidence that this little episode happened just as the battle commenced and the Borg sent us that cryptic message.
As a matter of fact, I've been thinking more and more about that message. Clearly it was hostile, talking about our culture adapting to service theirs and how we would be "assimilated", whatever that means, but the most striking part of it was the sound of the voice that spoke to us. Or, rather, the voices. That deep, droning voice has been haunting my thoughts and my dreams since the incident. I've never heard anything like it. It was almost like there were hundreds, even thousands of voices that were all speaking in perfect unison. How many crewmen would have to be speaking to make a sound like that? How many voices talking at once? Voices . . . voices in the dark. Regis and his first officer both talked about voices in the dark, and the first officer was talking about that strange signal from the Saccaris Cluster. I'll order a renewed analysis of that signal. It could be of more importance than we thought.
Chief Medical Officer's Report
Lt. Commander/Dr. Tano Sabeer
Time: 1430 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
I have finished my examination of the Rebel captain, Regis, and have found no significant damage either physically or mentally. Brain scans came back completely normal and there is no evidence that there has been any mental defects or physical trauma to the brain. The only outward injuries I have found are scrapes and abrasions to the scalp and temples, two torn fingernails that I assume were torn away when the Rebel idiot tried to tear off his own scalp, and a minor burn on the lower torso resulting from a standard-issue E-11 blaster rifle set to the stun setting. I have applied antibiotics and have regenerated the damaged tissue as best I can. They should heal completely within a day or two.
The patient is in excellent health and remarkable physical condition for his age, has highly developed muscle tone, shows signs of good nutrition until a few weeks ago, and aside from the obvious injuries inflicted during interrogation there appear to be two large scars which I postulate were inflicted in battle between five and seven years ago. The patient exhibits good cardiovascular health and shows no signs of disease or infection aside from mild malnutrition and dehydration as a result of interrogation and confinement. Internal scans reveal no internal injuries or foreign bodies aside from two auditory implants installed by a competent surgeon of the former Galactic Republic at the approximate age of four. Implants are in good condition and are operating at normal capacity.
I certify that the patient is healthy and sound and is fit to return to his cell.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 1020 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
Dr. Sabeer has delivered his repot and has briefed me on Captain Regis' condition, and frankly his findings are a bit strange. I saw the disc myself and watched him have his episode in the cell, so to hear the doctor say that he found nothing wrong with him is just a tad odd. Sabeer reassured me that he conducted a thorough examination and that he could find no injury or defect. The one anomalous thing that he did find were the two implants that were attached to Regis' eardrums. I asked him about them and he informed me that such implants are not uncommon and in fact were standard practice thirty or more years ago in children that were born with or had developed hearing conditions through disease or injury. More modern models are currently in use in such cases, but the overall design hasn't changed much in about a hundred years.
When asked if the implants themselves could have caused the captain's breakdown, the doctor almost became defensive. He says that hundreds of millions of those implants have been given to generations of people of several species and that there hasn't been a significant problem with them in the last sixty years. The design was perfected after a few decades and became a standard practice in the medical industry. They operated on the same principle as a mobile comm unit, picking up the extrasensory sounds, vibrations, and signals that the ear does naturally and translates them into signals that can be read and interpreted by the brain. The early models had some issues with picking up primitive radio waves and the occasional hyperspace signals between ships and space stations, but those problems were ancient history and were long since solved. He left in something of a fit, so I didn't press the issue.
Repair crews have been dispatched from the Akkadian base and repairs are underway. Work is going slowly, but the yard here is poorly equipped to work on these new Star Destroyers and the damage we suffered was severe, but it is coming along steadily. Squadron 84 has been arrayed in a defensive formation and more ships are being called in, including the Geonosis and two other Star Destroyers as well as four more battle groups. The Admiralty has been appraised of our situation via Akkadia's hyperspace transponder and they have sent one of their "top men" to reinforce us and to take command of our fleet. He has been directed to come aboard the Geonosis and rendezvous with us within a day or two.
We have still had no contact with the Borg ship. Scout ships and fighter squadrons have been deployed to the general area where we lost contact with them, but so far they have found nothing. The other commanders are happy to hear that, most of them believing that the Cube must have either been crippled or destroyed, but I refuse to believe that. I saw how much damage they could take and the extent of their technology. If we haven't found wreckage or a debris field yet, then that ship is still out there. The Admiralty has ordered us to remain in place and await reinforcements before going after the Cube, even though I have adamantly insisted that we need to go out in force and find them as soon as possible. I remember in the infantry we were taught that you never let the enemy get set, you press the attack and don't give them time to dig in or lick their wounds. I remember several times when we dogged Wookie or Seperatist forces until we ourselves were all but exhausted and still carried the day. Letting the Borg just sit out there repairing their ship and free to raid and destroy other colonies is nothing short of lunacy.
I have ordered regular tactical drills to be carried out during our downtime, as well as informing the crew that my order that all personnel be armed is still in effect. It's against regulations for anyone but the Stormtrooper contingent and standard security to be armed aboard ship, but after our little skirmish with the Borg drones on the bridge and elsewhere on the ship, I'm not about to take any chances. The Stormtroopers have doubled their training exercises and have deployed squads on all decks and in all major sections, including the bridge, and Colonel Tanon himself has handed out the best armament in the armory to a select group of his best men. We were all curious as to how and why our blasters were able to pierce the shields of the drones while the ship's weapons had little to no effect until we were in close and he has taken it upon himself to investigate the matter. I've never seen anyone more knowledgeable or more well acquainted personally with the Empire's arsenal. If anyone can find the answer, it's him.
Colonel Tanon SR-4425
Commanding Officer, 427th Stormtrooper Regiment, ISD Coruscant Detachment
Subject: Weapons Report, send to Commander Daren Jarro
Date: CLASSIFIED
I cannot be sure, but I believe that I have solved the question of how and why the bolts from our E-11s were able to penetrate the shields of those Borg drones. I've taken my personal weapon apart and put the damn thing back together at least a thousand times, examined every piece like I never have before, and read every scrap of literature, schematics, and technical data that I can find from the archives and the database, and I think I've finally got it. Sir, do you remember the droidekas that the Trade Federation and the Seperatists used to throw at us back in the day? I'm told that you were one of the first human volunteers to fight beside the Clones and that you served in the Geonosis and Kashyyk campaigns afterward, so I know that you had a couple scrapes with them. Anyway, remember those shields that they used to have? The thought came to me as I was reading the original schematics of the E-11 and the requirements that the government put forward before the original trials. I never knew this, but one of the main requests that the Defense Ministry had in mind was that, "the weapon be able to pierce, defeat, or otherwise circumvent personal and portable shield grids and devices currently in use, i.e. – Trade Federation/Separatist personal defense systems".
So that got me to thinking about how those shields were designed. The droideka shields were intended to block or deflect solid bolts of concentrated energy. They covered a wide range of intensities and power settings, but they were always meant to stop pure energy. That's why the E-11 uses a random power setting that confused the droids' shield generators and onboard defensive computer. No two shots ever have the same power setting or intensity. The shots are powerful enough to pierce most armor, including ours, but it's the rotating modulation that helps it to defeat most shield grids. The newer ones are more sophisticated and compensate for this, but those have been designed as a countermeasure after years of combat against the E-11. These Borg have never faced us before, so they wouldn't know about it.
I've ordered my men to amp up the wattage on their weapons and to secure and carry all necessary tools and supplies needed to maintain and improve their weapons at peak efficiency. It'll cost us a little ammo capacity and a slight change in accuracy, but at close quarters a man doesn't have to be a goddamn sniper. We'll go from five hundred shots to about four fifty or so, so not a huge loss in that department. I've also ordered our engineers and armorers to modify all weapons onboard to a similar modulation wherever applicable. I've also taken after your own example and had the armories opened up and the old knives broken out and issued to the troops. If it comes down to it, they may come in handy.
On a personal note, sir, I would just like to add that you earned a whole lot of respect from the boys for the way you took down those drones on the bridge and in the Infirmary. You showed some balls up there taking those bastards on with just a knife. All the boys are happy to have you on this ship and we're proud to have you as our commander. You just point us at the enemy next time they come at us and we'll take down as many as they send. We lost some damn good men in that fight, men who were my friends and who I had trained and fought beside. We're ready to get some of our own back.
Chief Medical Officer's Log
Lt. Commander/Dr. Tano Sabeer
Time: 1637 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
I have completed my post-mortem autopsies on the late Captain Barron and the other crewmen who were affected by the strange condition following the Borg attack. I have delivered my report to Commander Jarro and have completed the arrangements for the funerals in the morning. The remains of our crewmen are to be committed to the vacuum of space in a mass ceremony. It would be more fitting and proper to inter them one at a time, but the sheer number of casualties forbids us from doing so in a timely fashion. A sad fact of war, I'm afraid.
I was amazed to find that what I at first mistook for an infection or a pathogen of some kind resulting from contact with the aliens was, in fact, a flood of microscopic machines in the bloodstream that were actually changing – dare I say it, transforming – the tissues of the body into exact replicas of the Borg themselves. I have spoken to several crewmen who were in close proximity to those who were wounded in action and one thing is universal in all reports: all of those afflicted had some kind of tubules injected into their necks, torsos, or extremities by the drones they grappled with. I suspect that these tubules are a delivery system for these nanoprobes and that they are some sort of weapon for the "assimilation" that the Borg spoke of in the initial contact. My studies suggest that the probes were indeed "assimilating" the bodies of the fallen. In addition to altering the makeup and cellular structure of the tissues they attack, the little devils had also begun to construct several implants and assorted other interesting machinery within the body itself that appears upon close examination to be tailor-made for each individual victim. All of these strange machines deactivated and self-destructed upon forced removal, suggesting a kind of symbiotic relationship between the technological and the biological components.
I have consulted with the ship's engineers and the science personnel in the labs, and none of them can make heads or tails of this technology. All of them agree that whoever designed or manufactured them are centuries ahead of us in terms of technical advancement and are of a very nefarious nature. These probes were painstakingly designed to do the job of destroying and assimilating the infected tissues, a design that must have taken years, even decades to perfect to this level of sophistication. I'm reminded of my post-graduate work in Psychological Studies and I have to say that the picture I have of this species is especially dark. Our galaxy has its share of dangerous and aggressive races, the Wookies being one shining example, but none of them of them are on the same level as these Borg.
I am no psychologist, but as I study the technology and the methods of these people, if such they are, I cannot help but be drawn into the mindset behind their design and application. This is a species that has little or no sense of morality, mercy, or compassion. These devices were designed with pure efficiency in mind. Nowhere is there a single measure in place to spare the victim the pain of the transformation. The same goes for the delivery system. The tubules cut through the skin and subcutaneous tissue, injecting the nanoprobes directly into the bloodstream and then ripping out again before retracting into the drone's arm. I'm unsure of the method used to accomplish this, but the cuts I found were made by at least a hundred microscopic blades that all acted in unison. The incisions themselves were relatively painless, but the insertion and extraction would have been very unpleasant. The nanoprobes operate under the same principle, building their implants and little devices in the body with no thought to the victim. This is the kind of brutal efficiency that I've come to expect from a robotic mind. Never have I seen it in an organic, sentient species.
Also, based on the reports of the crewmen I've spoken to, the beings themselves were terribly efficient. They came at the men with no regard to themselves whatsoever, just walking into the bolts of the Stormtroopers as if they were operating in a trance. Not even droids will fight in such a way. In any robotic being, even the combat models, there is still a sense of self-preservation that is written into their programming to ensure ideal combat efficiency. These drones had no such sense of preservation at all. They completely ignored the loss of their comrades as well, and from what the bridge officers have told me they also ignored the damage to their vessel. The vessel itself showed no outward indications of a command center, an engineering section, an infirmary, or any kind of barracks or lodging of any kind. Even their ships appear to be designed with plain, pure efficiency in mind. But how would they support their crew with such a design? How would they communicate, how would they feed and house their crew members? And the creatures did not appear to verbally communicate while aboard ship despite having remarkable coordination. It's almost as if they had a . . . . by the Force!
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro, Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 0945 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
One of the saddest duties of a commanding officer is burying the dead. I have only been in command of the Coruscant for a week or so and already I am sending my dead into space. We buried Captain Barron first, giving him full military honors and a proper accordance of rank, followed by a mass ceremony for the rest of our fallen with likewise military honors. They were all good men, good officers and crew who died in the line of duty just as much as if they had died fighting the Rebellion or any other enemy. I delivered their eulogy for them, many of them men that I had sat and talked and drank with several times in the enlisted men's mess or the officer's club, men that I had shared meals and long conversations with. I didn't know most of them personally, but the few that I did know were good friends and good men. Thankfully the ceremony was brief and went off without a hitch and all of us were able to quickly return to duty.
We have just received a transmission from the Geonosis that they are entering the Akkadian system and that we should prepare for new orders. The transmission was short and to the point, almost rushed. I got the feeling that the comms officer had someone breathing down his neck making him cut the message short. Normally sister ships exchange pleasantries when they meet and ask for updates and reports on the other ship's situations. This time it was a short snap that was barely five seconds long. I have my bridge crew at the ready and the ship is as presentable as we can make her, but I'll be the first to admit that the Coruscant is still in rough shape. No matter to us that crew her. She may be hurt and haggard, but she's still ours and she's still in one piece. She'll go a few more rounds and get her licks in before anyone takes her down.
I have received and examined the reports of Dr. Sabeer and Colonel Tanon, and both of their suggestions were taken under consideration and put into effect. Dr. Sabeer had a rather unique hypothesis about the Borg's ability to coordinate so easily and so fluidly. He theorizes that they operate on some kind of collective consciousness, a single hive mind similar to that of an automated manufacturing system or the older models of tactical and labor droids used on the more industrialized planets of the galaxy. None of them ever have an individual thought, never a moment when they aren't plugged into the hive. Every drone's thoughts, actions, and movements are governed by the hive, every trace of individuality erased and any semblance of what they once were destroyed forever. He had one idea about how they were controlled as well; a transceiver embedded somewhere in the brain that received instructions from the main hive in the form of a hyperspace signal similar to the one that we intercepted.
With that in mind, the good doctor has agreed to run another set of tests on Captain Regis and his auditory implants. The signals that we intercepted were unlike any that we had ever seen before and likely operate on a completely different range of channels than what we use, which brings forth the possibility of Regis' implants indeed picking up the signals used by the Borg to coordinate their activities. It's possible that he was picking up the very signals that the Borg themselves hear in their own heads. With so many minds bound together as one, I can see why he went into a fit.
The Geonosis has entered our operating area and we have been ordered to stand to and prepare for our new orders from their new commander, Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin. I've heard of him before. He's supposed to be a real hardass. This should be good.
Automated Security Transcript – Coruscant Bridge:
Comms Officer: Captain, the Geonosis is hailing us. The admiral wishes to speak to you, sir.
Commander Jarro: Patch him through, ensign. I'll take it at your station.
Comms Officer: Aye, sir. Receiving now.
Admiral Tarkin: Who is this? I requested to speak with Captain Barron.
Commander Jarro: Admiral, sir, I am Commander Daren Jarro, acting commanding officer of the Coruscant. I'm sad to say that Captain Barron was wounded in our initial contact with the Borg and later passed away as a result of his wounds. We buried him this morning.
Admiral Tarkin: Jarro? Oh, yes, the infantry officer. I was told that you had been given a post on the Coruscant, although I can't imagine why. Field commanders are an incompetent bunch even in their own field, let alone on a ship of the line. It's no surprise that your vessel is in such an abysmal state. No Navy officer would be caught dead with his ship is such a state. I expect a full report of your experiences with these . . . Borg. Laymen's terms will do, if that is all that you can manage.
Commander Jarro: Yes, sir. We were dispatched from Alderaan three months ago to investigate a strange transmission emanating from the Saccaris Cluster, reaching the system approximately four days ago. We went from one to the other of the colonies that once occupied the system, but found nothing. All of the colonies were gone, destroyed by some unknown means. Upon investigation of the final colony, we encountered an unknown cubical vessel. We hailed the vessel and received no response. We assumed a tactical stance and they engaged us, destroying our secondary shield generators, one engine, as well as one of our primary shield generators. We suffered severe damage and took heavy casualties before we were able to get away.
Admiral Tarkin: Get away? Am I to understand that you fled from a single ship? We designed the Star Destroyer to defeat an entire Rebel squadron. I find it hard to believe that a single ship could cause such damage to your vessel. I have seen many examples of inept leadership, but this may be the greatest example of utter ineptitude that I have ever seen. I've examined the preliminary reports, and I am greatly disappointed. Over three hundred dead, including your captain, your entire fighter contingent destroyed, and you very nearly lost your ship.
Commander Jarro: Sir, the Borg have a technology that we cannot hope to match. They knocked out our shields with a single blast of some kind of pulse, then they transported aboard out of thin air. I know it sounds strange, but hundreds of them just materialized out of nowhere and we were very nearly overrun in min-
Admiral Tarkin: Enough of your absurdities, commander! Ignorance and excuses have no place on the bridge of a ship of the line! Expect a formal report to be filed upon completion of our mission. If you escape courts-martial then you will be back in the mud with the other riffraff within the year!
Commander Jarro: In the meantime, sir, the crew and staff of the Coruscant stand ready to assist in any way we can. My men have been working diligently to develop countermeasures to the Borg threat and I believe that we have a few –
Admiral Tarkin: The Borg "threat" is no longer any concern of yours, commander. I have assumed command of the fleet and we will be moving out to engage and destroy these upstart Borg, or whatever they are, and investigate the true fate of the Saccaris colonies once they have been destroyed. Your orders are to proceed to the Geonosis shipyards for full repairs and the replacement of your crew and staff by a crew more suited to a ship of this status. I expect you to depart within the next few hours. Tarkin out.
Comms Officer: Transmission has been terminated, sir.
Tactical Officer: Did he just order us out of the fight, sir?
Commander Jarro: I'm afraid he did, lieutenant. He wants to claim all the glory for himself and the Emperor while making us the scapegoat for the loss of Saccaris. Well, you heard the man. Prepare the ship for departure. Recall all repair crews back to Akkadian base and prepare the engines for lightspeed as soon as possible. I expect to be ready for the journey in two hours, at most. If anyone should need me, I'll be in my office. Carry on.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 1015 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
The condescending son of a bitch! Admiral Tarkin has always been a hardass and I've heard more than a few stories about his disdain for field officers, but I had never believed that it would come across as outright hatred. Every word that he said to me was absolutely dripping with disdain. It was hard to keep my composure while he was dressing me down about my "incompetent leadership", even harder when he talked about my crew as if they were bumbling idiots. No other crew could have performed more admirably under the circumstances. Tarkin is a shining example of the new breed of Imperial officers. By virtue of their academy education and the simple fact that they were of the Empire and their enemies weren't, they were automatically better than anyone else. I would like to see him take command of such a situation and come out as well as we did. It's true that the Coruscant and her sister ships were designed to be a battle group unto themselves, able to take on several older model warships with relative ease, but the Borg simply outmatched us.
I've served under men like Tarkin before. I've seen what happens when their arrogance translates over to battlefield tactics. They think that the simple fact that they are Imperial trained makes them an invincible commander who can do no wrong, and when they go into battle with that attitude they make foolish mistakes and get men killed. They may win battles, but when you lose so many of your own men that the victory was barely worth winning then even a great victory can be a hollow victory. I remember a dozen battles during the Kashyyk campaign when we were sent into the teeth of enemy defenses and were chewed to pieces. I nearly died several times following foolish orders made by foolish officers completely convinced of their own superiority. Those were the infantry officers. Fleet officers are even worse. They are the men entrusted to command the most powerful warships in the galaxy – how could they be anything but the best?
The crew won't like this anymore than I do, but I know them too well to think that they will do anything but what they are told. These men have been through the ringer and came out on top. They are a credit to the Imperial Navy, each and every one of them. I've given the order to prepare the ship for departure. Repair crews have been recalled to the base, the engines have been brought up to about 70% efficiency, and our shield grid has been reinforced to nearly 60% strength. Supplies have been taken aboard and our systems are operating at acceptable levels. We are still short-staffed, but we can still manage.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 0800 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
All repair crews have been recalled, supplies have been taken in, and all systems are operating at acceptable levels. I have given the order to return to Geonosis shipyard, admittedly with a heavy heart and a more than bruised ego. Admiral Tarkin announced just a few moments ago that the fleet will be moving out within the hour in search of the Cube. Scout ships have been deployed and they have reported back sings that the ship may be nearby. Tarkin is obviously confident in his chances of victory. I again tried to explain the capabilities of the Borg and their vessel, but he remains convinced that the Borg ship is no match for even one of the Star Destroyers in the fleet, let alone one paired with five other cruisers and so many fighter squadrons. Nothing short of the entire Rebel fleet would be able to stand against a battle group of that size. Nothing in this galaxy, at least. I tried my best to explain the situation, but he had the same condescending tone that he had last night when talking to someone who was "just a field officer". He barely even acknowledges my rank. He listened to the first few syllables and then dismissed it all out of hand. I'm worried about the potential results of this action, but the crews of these ships are all experienced men and all have been battle tested. I'm sure it will all work out in the end.
The crew is understandably in low spirits. The loss of our comrades has left us all with a desire for revenge on their killers. I wouldn't mind getting back into the fray and striking a blow or two against the Borg ship myself, but the powers that be have decided that we will be of better use elsewhere. I have a feeling that we will all be reassigned once we reach Geonosis. The Empire dislikes defeat and loathes inept officers, and if Tarkin has his way then they will likely receive reports that I was inefficient in every way possible, as well as my crew. Nothing could be further from the truth. My crew are an example of Imperial personnel. They performed better than any other crew possibly could have under such circumstances.
I have given the order to engage the engines and to set our course for the Geonosis system. Our travel time should be around four days, perhaps five or six at our current operating status. Engines are still being repaired, but they are still at less than seventy percent. My chief engineer continues to reassure me that with a week or two in a shipyard and a good repair crew, the ship will be in top shape in no time.
On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge the efficiency of the Akkadian crews and their expertise. They performed admirably and were all excellent at their jobs. The commanding officer was cordial and professional, the exact opposite of the admiral, and I have no doubt that he is an excellent officer in his own right. I wouldn't mind working with him and his men again in the future.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 1622 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
I didn't expect results this soon. It has been a little over six hours since we left Akkadia and we just received a transmission from Tarkin's fleet. They have spotted the Borg ship on their screens and are giving chase. The ship was spotted in the Cunar system, a section of space largely unpopulated aside from a few automated mining pods and a single unmanned recon base that has been in operation since the Clone Wars. It has been largely out of use since the end of the Wars, and having it go offline would not have been noticed for weeks. The base was destroyed by the Borg and the mining pods were nowhere to be found, but reports indicate that the power signature found in the system was identical to that of the Cube. The fleet has altered course and are in pursuit. Engagement seems imminent, but the ship itself is still out of sight.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 1702 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
Another report has come in from Admiral Tarkin's fleet. Another settlement has been found in ruins, this time in the Boudiccan system. Again, it was an isolated settlement that has been out of use and out of view for years. The place was a home for a few dozen families of farmers and a single mine that produces iron and copper. Less than two hundred residents, no defenses at all, and a supply ship that comes in once a month. The automated recon base would be missed before they would. The fleet did not stop in the system but are continuing their pursuit.
Captain's Log
Commander Daren Jarro – Acting Commanding Officer
Time: 2018 hours
Date: CLASSIFIED
Another transmission from the fleet. They've engaged the Borg.