I've got the next chapter done, finally! I had a reasonable excuse for not working on this for a week though- I was at my church's summer camp. Had an incredible lot of fun, and played way too much Halo 2.
Actually, this chapter didn't require that much editing (it's the next one that's going to need massive re-write.)
The space in front of the federation fleet seemed to tear. Suddenly, a gigantic Borg cubeship appeared. It loomed over the assembled fleet, easily two hundred times their combined size. The hull appeared to be cobbled together from parts of several hundred starships, as well as the remains of many other things. Jill thought she could see part of an old-fashioned skyscraper, now fused to the ship's hull. She wondered what people, on some forgotten world, had lived and worked there before the Borg had come, destroying everything in their path with their relentless quest to expand.
Suddenly, the Declaration's speakers announced "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
"Yea, sure." Jill stated. "Fire all weapons."
Fire erupted from the Declaration's phaser arrays, cutting into the Borg shields. All around them, the fleet opened fire. The Pittsburg spat torpedo after torpedo toward the Borg ship, unleashing a furry that could have destroyed an entire planet.
A tiny shimmer appeared just above the Borg shields as the starship Defiant, the federation's most advanced battleship, dropped its cloaking device to launch torpedoes.
But none of it came to any effect. The cubeship's shields stood undaunted by the incredible furry of the federation fleet. Even the massive tricobalt detonations, capable of vaporizing a small moon by themselves, were ineffective against the ship's powerful shields.
Suddenly, it lashed out, striking the Carolina with a tractor beam. The giant Galaxy-class starship was dragged helplessly toward the Borg cube. A Miranda-class ship- tough, reliable smaller craft that had been used for over eighty years- dived bravely into the beam. Instantly, the aged ship melted, its hull disintegrating into droplets of floating metal.
"Fire tricobalts." Jill ordered, looking at the screen in shock. "Helm, get us in closer."
The Declaration jumped forward, its forward launchers spitting out two of the most dangerous weapons the Federation had ever invented. But they never hit. A cutting beam lashed out, striking them as they flew. They crashed out of subspace, drifting and unguided.
The Declaration cut behind one of the massive new Ankina-class starships, then sprang forward. It skidded along, barely above the cube's shields, its phasers doing massive damage to the impenetrable Borg defenses.
Behind them, the Ankina exploded silently, victim of a cutting beam.
"Captain, their shields have been drained less than half a percent!" The operations officer reported. "We've lost the Temeraire and the Ankina, two more ships are heavily damaged. The Carolina is withdrawing."
"Fire torpedoes!" Jill ordered. "Prepare to launch escape pods one through eight."
"Aye." R'eth said, keying up the controls on her monitor.
Suddenly, a Borg cutting beam lashed out. It struck the port phaser array, cutting clear through it and into the hull below. The phaser beam faltered, and the power surged backwards into the power grid. EPS feeds blew out, causing explosions all over the ship. On the bridge, control panels exploded, showering everyone in sparks.
"Damage report!" Jill barked.
"Hull breach on deck three. Automatic forcefields have sealed it off." The operations officer noted.
"Weapons?" Jill asked. There was no response.
"Weapons-" Jill asked again, turning around to look at the weapons console. She suddenly stopped when she saw the weapons officer was lying on the floor, badly injured.
Dan jumped the railing and rushed to the fallen officer. He bent down for a second, then looked up and shook his head. From his expression, Jill knew that the officer was already dead.
"I'm sorry." Dan stated.
"Get the tactical console. Maintain fire." Jill ordered with a note of sadness in her voice. Dan got to his feet, but his next words were no consolation.
"All weapons systems are offline." He stated.
"Great." Jill stated. "That's just glorious. Ops, launch those escape pods."
"Captain, the shuttle-bay is reporting in. The feedback surge melted the controls for the launch catapults. There's no chance of launching until repairs are made." R'eth stated.
The Declaration twisted violently, suddenly coming to a complete stop as a brilliant blue-green beam snapped out from the cubeship, dragging the hapless frigate in toward certain doom against the Borg shields.
"What's happening?" Jill snapped.
"I think the Borg just locked a tractor beam on our port nacelle." The science officer reported.
"Can we disrupt it?"
"It's a multi-phase graviton vacuum -I don't think we can."
"You know," Dan said, looking up from his console, "Where I come from, we have these strange lizards. When a bird grabs their tail, it falls off, and the lizard gets away."
"You mean…?" Jill asked, pondering the idea a moment. "Engineering, close off the plasma feeds to the port nacelle."
"Captain, the Pittsburg and its escorts are breaking out of their position and heading our direction." someone reported.
"Communications, tell them to back off!" Jill said as the ship shuddered again.
"We just lost our subspace radio!" the communications officer reported.
"Two more hull breaches on deck five! The entire section is depressurizing!"
The starship Pittsburg barreled forward, its launchers suddenly ceasing to fire. A single phaser lanced from the primary array, pounding the Borg shields brutally, trying to drive through into the tractor beam emitters holding the Meridian. The entire power output of the destroyer's massive antimatter engines was channeled into the single, lethal line of phase energy connecting it to the cube.
But the Borg shields held fast. A beam lashed out from the cube, shearing one of the larger ship's warp nacelles away. It floundered, bleeding plasma.
"Captain! The Pittsburg just lost main power!" someone reported
"Bridge to Engineering. Mr. Jethro, We're about to jettison our port nacelle." Jill said.
"Captain, I'm not getting any-"
" You have three seconds to rig the tractor beams for a doppelganger drive. Bridge out!"
"Alright. Computer, nacelle jettison authorized, Authorization: Woodard gamma twelve." Jill said. Her eyes were glued to the viewscreen.
Another beam lashed out from the Borg ship, striking one of the Pittsburgh's escorts. It caught the smaller ship in its engineering hull, searing through shields, hull and warp reactor. The ship seemed to hang in space, then vanished as an explosion claimed it.
"Authorization of Ship's Operations Officer required." The computer stated.
"Authorization: Wane, delta, seven, twelve." The operations officer stated. "Firing separation charges."
"Helm! Warp speed!" Jill barked.
Subspace around the Declaration stretched as the stardrive activated, pulling futility against the Borg beam. Explosions rippled across the surface of the hull, tearing the port nacelle from the ship. The Declaration sprang away, leaving the single nacelle tumbling toward the cubeship.
Even as they sprang away, another beam lanced out from the cubeship. It touched the Pittsburgh's torpedo launcher, and three hundred torpedoes went off inside the ship's hull. Huge sections of the ship were ripped away. The two launchers above the bridge exploded with the furry of a small sun, tearing the back off the primary hull.
Jill stared at the screen in shock.
"Captain, the Pittsburg just-"
The torpedo launcher under the Pittsburgh's engineering hull exploded, tearing the navigational deflector to shreds and flinging the pieces across space. The forward part of the saucer, no longer connected, drifted away from the burning engineering hull. But still it persisted, a stubborn ship unwilling to die.
Them another beam lanced out, touching the underside of the engineering hull. The beam tore through the side of the warp core, and the great fires that once fueled the Pittsburg now claimed the ship.
I know that was a bit of a short chapter, but it was the only good stopping point for quite a distance.
The next few sections are going to require a lot of re-writing before they are ready to upload. Reviews will help shorten the process, so Review! Review! Review!
(By the way, I set my controls up so you don't need an account here to review.)