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Chapter 4 – Dark Omens

The USS Enterprise E was cruising through space towards the station the Premonition had told them would be attacked by the Borg. Captain Picard was making an entry in his log

"Captain's log stardate 3456.7; we are proceeding to Starbase 312 in heed of the Premonition's warning. All attempts to hail the Starbase have failed. I fear that the Premonition's warning may correct about a Borg attack may be coming true"

Captain Picard finished his log looked to Mr Data "Mr Data status?"

"We have arrived at Starbase 312 Captain" Mr Data responded

"On screen" Picard ordered and saw something that made his heart sink

A graveyard of derelict ships all listing and with plasma leaking from the nacelles, bits of destroyed ships swirling around them.

"Sir there appears to a signal from the Starbase" Data said

"On screen" Captain Picard said relieved that something had survived and the image of the derelicts on the screen was replaced with an image of a standard Federation Starbase and a voice of a rather stressed sounding woman sounded

"Enterprise thank god! We've just been attacked by the Borg! They've assimilated the crews of all the ships in the area; they'll be back for the derelicts soon"

"Base commander this is Captain Picard on the Enterprise, are you and colony intact?" Picard asked

"Yes Captain" she answered

"I want you to prepare as many crews as you can. We will recover any operational ships available and you recrew them"

"Understood Captain" the base answered and closed the communication line

Picard turned to his first officer William Riker "Number one begin preparing away teams"

"Aye sir" Riker answered and went to work

"Mr Data sent course for the nearest derelicts" Picard told his second officer

"Aye sir" Data replied


An hour later they had about 19 ships operational. Volunteers from the both the Starbase and nearby New Denmark Colony crewed the starships and two new Starbases had been put together from pre-existing sections stored at the colonies and the local shipyard was buzzing with engineers putting ships into working order and preparing construction modules to assemble new ones.

Enterprise headed the fleet and prepared them to fight the Borg. TR-116 Bullet rifles were distributed throughout the fleet and stations in case of boarding actions from either side.

Then a report came in from one of the Starbases they'd built as guard stations. Their long range sensors had detected Transwarp signatures approaching and Picard ordered half the fleet to intercept the ships when they reached the guard station while the rest stayed back to defend the base.

A collection of Akira, Excelsior, Nebula and Defiant class starships took formation around the Enterprise moving at high impulse. As they neared the station a small group of Borg spheres and interceptors approached from the other direction leaving the fleets on a collision course.

The Federation hit first, unleashing a barrage of Quantum torpedoes and phasers with Pulse Phasers from the Starbase joining in. They ripped into the Borg ships and the interceptors were quickly overwhelmed exploding into dust which buffered the spheres. Since the conflicts of the past ten years or so the Federation had increased the power of their weapons and the Borg were not prepared for the ferocity of the Federation's attack. The weakened shields of the spheres were no match for the guns of the Federation and soon joined the interceptors as dust.

Then a short time later the second wave of Borg came, this time composed of Borg Assimilators. The heavier shields gave them some protection and photonic missiles rammed into the Federation's shields. And although one Akira was severely damaged losing a nacelle and hull breaches on many decks the fleet soon dealt with them too.

Picard now had the two fleet groups swap places so the damaged ships could be repaired and defence be maintained. Once the fleets were in place the long range sensors picked up warp signatures.

"Sir the warp signatures are Federation" the science officer, a female Vulcan reported and the crew were relieved

But Picard was suspicious "Starfleet could not have responded to our reports yet, go to red alert" his voice stern and crew quickly went to work

On the viewer they saw two Defiant class, 2 Akira class and 1 Nebula class ships approach, but they could see irregular shapes sitting out of them

Picard to his sadness knew what they were "Those are Borg Power Nodes. They must have assimilated those ships. Alert all ships" and the crew went work immediately

The two Defiants arrived first and were greeted in the same way the other Borg ships were greeted, quickly tearing the little warships apart. Then the Akiras appeared next and were disabled by the rapid fire so Picard ordered boarding parties to take control of the ships.

Because the Starfleet officers were using bullet weapons the drones couldn't adapt to them and soon the ships were back in Federation hands and returned to the shipyard for repair. The Nebula was also taken back just after that.

With the base secure Picard ordered Fleet assigned into fleet groups under the most experienced captains.

Fleet group 1 was commanded by Captain Erika Benteen aboard the Nebula class USS Lakota-B; comprised of 2 Nebulas, 3 Akira, 4 Defiant, and 1 Excelsior class.

The second fleet group was commanded by Captain Arthur Rostrum aboard the USS Phoenix, a Nebula class; made up of 2 Nebulas, 4 Akiras, 3 Defiants, and 1 Steamrunner class.

The rest of the combat ships were assigned to base while new ones were assembled and crews trained.

Picard told both his group captains "The Borg must have created a base in this sector we must find and destroy it" the two agreed.

So to that end 3 Venture class scouts were dispatched to find the base using their powerful sensors. Picard also restarted the local mining station to provide a source of Dilithium.

The Ventures soon found the Borg base and withdrew to relay the information. Captain Benteen was selected to carry out the first attack.


Erika Benteen was nervous although she had managed to rise to command again after the fiasco with Admiral Leyton due to her service during the Dominion War she was still nervous of leading a fleet of ships against the Federation's worst enemy, the Borg.

The Lakota-B approached the Borg base leading her squadron from the front. On the bridge Lakota-B Captain Benteen listened to her science officer report

"Sensors report 6 energy cannons and 3 photon missile launchers around the base. There appear to six assimilators, 4 spheres and 5 Interceptors present around the shipyard with an assembler near the turrets" the Bolian man reported

"On Screen" Benteen ordered and the screen showed the formidable barriers of defence

The tension on the bridge could be cut with a knife but like the Starfleet officers they were they did their jobs.

The group of starships descended on the defence line, the torpedo launchers opened up first striking the Starfleet ships hard. But the Federation ships hit back with their own weapons and managed to destroy two of the energy cannons but the USS Oberth, one of the Defiant class loss control of its engines and ploughed right into one of torpedo launchers, destroying not only themselves and the turret but the debris smashed into another energy cannon and shredded it.

Benteen gasped her chair as her ship shook again after another torpedo hit and made her decision

"Order all ships pull back. We need to get out of here"

Her XO nodded and relayed the order and all the ships started to pull back. When they were clear they stopped in a Cerulean Nebula to effect repairs before making a run to the Federation base. Then her sensors alerted her to a Borg Vessel passing by the nebula.

She immediately ordered the crew to battle stations so when they left the nebula they were ready but then she asked

"Can you identify the type of ship?" she asked her science officer

He checked his instruments and found the vessel in his database "It is an assembler Captain"

Benteen could barely contain the smile that threatened to break out on her face "Any escorts?"

"None"

"All ships to intercept, once its shields are down send over boarding parties and capture that ship" Benteen ordered

So the Federation ships like a squadron of attacking bird of prey descended on the lone Borg vessel and hammered its shields, once the shields were down the teams began to board. Cutting the drones down they quickly seized the vessel and the fleet began to return to base.


Their return was greeted with much fanfare when they returned with their prize, a fully equipped Borg Construction Vessel with technical schematics on all Borg Stations and Ships. The head of the newly constructed Science Centre was also ecstatic with the find and Benteen's fleet was given a unit citation and a commendation on all their files.

The Scientist in charge of the Science Centre was most interested in a piece of technology called the Auto Assimilator.

"You see the beam carries a nanoprobe virus that begins to assimilate the crew of a ship or station it encounters" The Head Scientist Oswald Robins explained to Captain Picard

"Is there a way to block it?" Picard asked

"No, it continuously shifts its frequency" Oswald said

Picard was worried, such a weapon could be a major threat but Oswald broke through his thoughts

"But if we alter the virus to reverse the process…"

"Wait are you saying we could return them to normal?" Picard asked

"Yes but we would need to construct some Assimilator ships to deploy it until we can design a starship capable of using it. But with their advanced nano-construction technology that won't take long. The technological advances we could make off of this are unbelievable" Oswald said excitedly

"Make it so" Picard ordered


So using the re-crewed Assembler a Federation Controlled Borg Base was assembled where the Scientists could get to work on technology and a fleet of Starfleet Assimilators was prepared. These engaged the Borg ships and stations using the Anti-Assimilator.

Thousands of people were freed from the Borg including many Starfleet officers and some from species they'd never heard of.

With the Borg neutralised and a full set of Borg technology to study Picard felt that his work was done in this sector.

He turned to Data

"Mr Data open a Channel to the Premonition"

"Yes sir" Data replied and the face of Captain Demming appeared on the screen

"Captain Demming we were able to defeat the Borg assault on Starbase 312." Picard told the younger captain

"Thank you Captain, you may have just given the Federation the chance it needs to survive. I hope it will be enough." Demming said with relieve on his face

"It will have to be." Picard said with a frown

The transmission from Premonition cut off but then a new transmission took its place this time it was Admiral Hawthorne

"Captain, all Federation vessels are now aware of the Borg's invasion. I'm ordering the Enterprise to take Premonition to the Manheim research facility for investigation and repairs once that is complete return to Earth to prepare defences"

With that the Enterprise left to meet with Premonition to take her for repairs